How To Get Healthy — Without Just Masking the Symptoms
We all get sick. We all have aches and pains. It’s just a fact of life. Some of us are affected more than others and to a greater degree than others. But what does it all mean? How to “get healthy and stay healthy”? Why do some people seemingly never get sick? And why do some people recover faster than others?
If the answers were simple, the book would already be written, so to speak (and if you check the “health” aisle of your local bookstore, you’ll see plenty of attempts already). But the bottom line is this: when you get sick, or get a headache, or your back hurts — or any other number of aches, pains, and illnesses — it’s your body trying to tell you of a deeper underlying problem. For the most part, the people who get well faster and stay well longer are the people who are able to treat the underlying problem rather than treat the ache or pain.
Let me explain: when your back hurts, what do you do? If you’re like most people, you reach into the medicine cabinet and grab a Tylenol or Advil. Maybe you do some yoga to stretch it out. Maybe you get a massage. Maybe the pain goes away for a few days, and then it comes back. Why? The massage should have taken care of it, right? Maybe, but all of those things, in their most basic form, are treating to symptom — the back ache — rather than the true problem. What if your back hurts because of a kidney problem? What if the massage works, but the back pain comes back a few days later… what do you do? Get another massage? Go to the chiropractor again? Again, you’re continuing to treat the symptom rather than the cause.
Let me illustrate my point with a story. I have a friend and patient (he has given me permission to tell his story) who had many of the same problems we all experience. He’s tall and thin and he was having chronic back pain. It would typically arise early in the morning, hours after he fell asleep, and would be so acute it would wake him up in severe pain. For a while, he was able to get up and stretch and it would go away. Then that didn’t work so well, so he started taking Tylenol PM before bed to help. That worked for a while, but the pain kept intensifying. Next he started stretching before bed. Again, it helped for a while, but it didn’t solve the root problem.
When he first came to see me he was determined to find the cause of the pain and fix that, knowing that the symptom (the pain) would go away if he could fix the root problem.
The first thing we talked about was his diet. He wasn’t drinking enough water, which made his muscles more prone to cramping up and eventually knotting. He consumed too much caffeine, which was putting undue stress on his kidneys. His back was substantially out of alignment. All of these things were contributing factors, so we started there. He increased his water intake and changed his diet. We did a kidney detox and got his spine in alignment. The pain lessened, but it didn’t go away.
We looked at posture. He works at a computer all day and his posture wasn’t helping. He made adjustments at his office to start fixing his posture. But that didn’t solve the root cause, either.
We did massage, we added supplements to his diet, we added core muscle workouts to improve core strength, we adjusted sleep posture…. and while everything helped, nothing cured the problem. Then came the epiphany. While waling down the hallway it was pointed out that the toe on his right foot was slightly pointed out. On closer examination, he was slightly rolling on the outside of his foot. That was it… it all made sense. He had surgery on his right ankle ten years ago. Because the ankle never healed 100%, he changed the way he walked to prevent any instance of pain. By rolling his foot he was opening up his pelvis slightly, which was putting stress on his back. Over 15 years the stress continued to build until it all started to release each night while he was sleeping.
Now, with slight adjustments to the way he walks, coupled with deep massage and structural adjustments, we are starting to undo the pressure that he has built up over 15 years, and slowly he is feeling better.
He lived in pain for almost a year, trying to mask the symptoms, before choosing to attack the problem instead of the symptom. It has taken another year to find and attack the problem properly. And now he’s on the road to recovery and soon won’t need regular adjustments or massages anymore. He is retraining his body to walk properly and is strengthening his core muscles. and he’s more limber now than he has been in years.
The back pain was a symptom. It was his body’s way of saying there was a problem. You see, when your child has a problem, she can tell you. When you car has a problem, the dash light comes on. When your body has a problem, the only way it can tell you there’s a problem is to make you sick or show you through pain (or exhaustion, or emotional swings, or…..). That’s how your body tells you there’s something wrong and that you need to fix it. The people who get healthy fast and stay healthy longer are the people that are making adjustments in their lifestyle to fix the problem, rather than mask the cause.
When you have a cold, you’re told to drink orange juice and eat chicken soup, etc. You know that TheraFlu won’t fix the problem (although it will stop that runny nose so you can go to work). That’s because those OTC drugs attack the symptom (in this case, the runny nose and cough),while the orange juice and chicken soup help the body attack the problem — in this case the virus.
So the next time you get sick or get an ache or pain, take it as a sign that your body is trying to tell you something. Look for the root cause. Your body — and your health — will thank you for it!
Mercury and Vaccines — What to Watch For…
Fish. Thermometers. Thermostats. Batteries…. They can all contain toxic levels of mercury and all are available world-wide. But perhaps the most common is the one that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends on a regular basis — and something that has been saving lives for decades: Vaccines.
The danger of mercury levels in common vaccines have been debated for decades. The primary target? Thimerosal.
In the 1930s, pharmaceutical companies introduced thimerosal — which contains mercury as a primary ingredient — as a preservative for vaccines (preservatives are required by the FDA for use in multi-dose vaccines to prevent bacterial contamination of biological products). Thimerosal has been used in more than 30 U.S. licensed vaccines since the 1930s to help prevent microbial growth during storage and use. It is also used in the manufacturing process for some vaccines.
Thimerosal is about 50 percent ethylmercury, whereas methylmercury is the predominant form of organic mercury in the environment. Many childhood vaccines contain between 12.5 to 25 micrograms of mercury. Through the eighties, it was in flu vaccine and various diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis vaccines. In the late eighties and early nineties, as hepatitis B and Hib vaccines were added to the immunization schedule, there were now more vaccines in the childhood immunization schedule that contained thimerosal.
Dr. Jay Liebermann,
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, University of California, Irvinehttp://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/min-feb07.pdf
Organic mercury is a well-known neurotoxin that can accumulate in the body’s soft tissue, such as the brain, and has been linked to problems such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, and much more. Children and fetuses are especially susceptible. By using a preservative that contains 50% mercury in vaccines, children immunized with a thimerosal-preserved vaccine are receiving a neurotoxin directly through the blood stream.
(Methylmercury is considered the most dangerous form of organic mercury. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, another form of organic mercury. While ethylmercury is thought to be less toxic than methylmercury, studies have been inconclusive and, as such, regulations and warnings have been applied equally to both ethyl and methylmercury. More specifically, any and all organic forms of mercury have been deemed a neurotoxin dangerous to children and fetuses, ad well as many adults.)
As reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during their Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices February 21-22, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia “A goal of the 1997 FDA Modernization Act was to compile a list of drugs and foods that contained intentionally introduced mercury compounds and provide a quantitative analysis. The FDA concluded that infants who received thimerosal-containing vaccines at several visits could exceed the total mercury exposure recommended by Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.”(http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/min-feb07.pdf, Page 22)
In 1999, as a precautionary measure to maintain the public’s trust in immunization, the AAP/FDA U.S. Public Health Service issued a joint statement urging manufacturers to remove thimerosal from vaccines as soon as possible.
“Thimerosal as a preservative was removed from most childhood vaccines by 2001 and the last lots of thimerosal preservative-containing vaccines expired in January 2003. It is still being discussed only because of ongoing litigation in both state courts and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Thimerosal is still contained in some of the flu vaccines routinely given to children since 2004. There are also vaccines that contain trace, often unmeasurable, levels of thimerosal.” (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/min-feb07.pdf, Page 23)
While thimersosal — and, hence, mercury — is indeed being phased out in most vaccines, plenty of vaccines still contain the preservative, particularly multi-dose vaccines (as preservatives for multi-does vaccines are still mandated by the FDA). So how do you know if a vaccine is mercury-free and safe for children? Unfortunately, most doctors and vaccination clinics don’t have that information readily available and unless you specifically ask for a certain vaccine, you most often will not be provided a choice. Thankfully, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has made identification of mercury-containing vaccines an easier task.
On September 18, 2009, The Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published an updated list of Thimerosal Content in Some US Licensed Vaccines that you can view online at http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm (they also have a PDF version you can download and print available at the same link).
While the list is not all-inclusive, it does provide updated information on mercury levels in many of the most popular and common vaccines (including the thimerosal and mercury levels in the N1H1 vaccines). A quick glance at the chart will indeed reveal that most single-dose vaccines are thimerosal-free while many multi-dose vaccines still contain the mercury-enriched preservative.
The CDC, the AAP, the FDA, and many other government and health organizations have widely acknowledged that organic mercury is a neurotoxin that can be incredibly dangerous to the human body — especially to children and developing fetuses. Why then, are high doses of mercury still allowed in such products as vaccines and mercury amalgam dental fillings? While the most common arguments are centered around the relatively low levels of mercury in the products (which should be irrelevant because mercury, as a “heavy metal,” cannot be processed by the human body and, therefore, accumulates in the soft tissue over time. Chronic or occasional exposure to even trace amounts of organic mercury can accumulate to lethal levels over time), what is the motivation behind allowing ANY level of known neurotoxins to remain on the market for human consumption?
The answers to those questions lie mostly in the political and financial realm. Unfortunately, until we begin to value health over politics and vitality over money, the debate will continue to rage at the expense of our health and the health of the world’s youth.
Update: Despite the risks (and regulations) associated with thimerosal and mercury in vaccines, Washington State has issued a 6-month suspension on safety limits of the preservative used in the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. For more details, please read our article “Washington State Suspends Safe Levels of Mercury in H1N1 Vaccine.”
For more great information about the dangers (or safety) of vaccines containing thimerosal, check out this article by NaturalNews.com: http://www.naturalnews.com/011764.html. Despite it’s relative age (written in 2005) it’s loaded with great research and a ton of great information. A “must-read” article if you have questions regarding thimerosal and mercury in vaccines.
(The preceding article is meant to provide information about thimerosal in vaccines. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advise or to replace the advice of a qualified physician. Please consult your physician with any concerns or questions you have in regards to thimerosal and mercury in vaccines and which vaccines might be right for you and your loved ones.)
References
United States Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, “Vaccines, Blood & Biologics: Thimerosal in Vaccines”; http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Institute for Vaccine Safety, “Thimerosal Content in Some US Licensed Vaccines”; http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm
Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, February 21-22, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia; “THIMEROSAL: REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE” (Pages 21-26), Dr. Jay Liebermann, Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist, University of California, Irvine; http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/min-feb07.pdf
This article was used with permission from The Center for Natural Dentistry || San Diego’s Holistic Dentist — http://naturaldentistry.us
Is Your Bite Causing Health Problems?
This podcast was done by a colleage and friend of mine, Dr. Marvin Pantangco, DDS. Dr. Marvin runs a holistic dental practice in Encinitas, California, near Sport Spa Health.
This episode of Dangers in Dentistry — airing on KPRZ in San Diego on Friday, January 29 at 7:00 PM and Sunday, January 31 at 3:30 PM — explains how the way your bite aligns can have an adverse affect on your health and your overall well-being.
I hope you enjoy the podcast… it’s loaded with great information on how the structure of something as seemingly minute as your bite can have a major impact on your health. Enjoy!
Click the following link to play the audio:
Ingestion of and cooking with OILS!
When cooking with oils, there are a few things you should know…
For low to medium low heat, use olive oil. For medium to medium high heat, you can use avocado oil. For high heat, you will want to use coconut oil because it’s chemical structure is stronger and won’t break down and become rancid.
When something becomes rancid, the chemical structure of the oil is altered and the nutritional value is lost, leaving it a toxic chemical that, when ingested, will begin to break down the body at a cellular level.
Oils should be ingested by putting them cold pressed, on foods such as; salads, grains, vegetables, chicken, etc. These cold-pressed oils are high in Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and have benefits ranging from increasing blood flow, better digestion, joint movement, decreasing inflammation, better cognitive function (increased memory), etc.
Anyone with these symptoms should start ingesting about one to two tablespoons of cold-pressed oil per day.
High Fructose Corn Syrup and the commercial you see on TV
The commercial tells you that there is nothing wrong with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). It tells you that it is made from natural corn and that it is healthy for you. IT IS NOT!
What they don’t tell you is that most corn in the United States is processed and genetically modified (GMO) and void of any nutritional value. On top of that, if the corn was actually able to be grown on organic soil, the soil itself is either not actually organic until 7 years after they have converted it from non-organic, and/or the soil is void of nutrients due to lack of enrichment to begin with.
High Fructose Corn Syrup is high in processed sugar and also has mercury in it to help stabilize the chemical compound. If you know anything about mercury, it is the most toxic, non-radiated element on the planet and can cause many health problems from MS to other neurological degenerative diseases. Mercury can also be found in vaccinations and specific fish (tuna having the highest amounts of mercury).
We, as Americans, ingest on average, 150 pounds of processed sugar a year. This type of consumption can lead to an increase in diabetes and other neurological conditions not to mention weight gain and obesity in our younger generations.
So, the next time you go to the grocery store to shop for food, you may want to check the back label and see if it has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. If it does, you may want to put it back on the shelf and find a healthier alternative.