Just a quick note today to let you know that we've renamed our website! You will still be able to get to the site through www.NaplesPainRelief.com but from this point forward it will be www.NaplesNaturalHealth.com
Please send your friends to our site for valuable information and to download any of the subjects writen about on this blog. Hope to see you in the office soon! Email jennifer for a quick appointment jennifer@naplespainrelief.com or if you're interested in finding out more about the work I do and would like a consultation with me, she will arrange for that as well.
Since it IS so HOT outside here in South Florida, I picked up a few tips I thought I'd share for keeping cool AND keeping the electric bill cool also!
http://www.360financialliteracy.org/Financial+Topics/Personal+Finance/Articles/Financial+Basics/Summer+Saving+Tips.htm
Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Mid-Back Pain
MID-BACK PAIN DUE TO ANTERIOR THORACIC VERTEBRA
Taken From a Health Talk Given by Dr. Hillis
The patient with this problem comes in with severely acute pain in the mid-back area and very often the pain is so severe that it radiates out to the front, to the sternum, to the breast bone area. It can pierce through like a knife going through from the back to the front and it can be extremely distressing and alarming. The pain is so severe that the patient feels like something is horribly wrong and indeed, this patient is in so much pain that this is not a good situation. Thankfully there are ordinarily solutions for this problem and when we are able to determine that the cause is anterior or Thoracic vertebrae, we are able to offer great hope for relief. This is a condition where there has been a “buckling” of the mid-back, or the mid-thoracic spine, where the vertebra and ribs have buckled forward, the vertebra especially. The ribs are often “left behind” and “separate” from their usual abutment or smooth connection to the vertebrae.
This condition commonly affects people who work with arms overhead, such as a hairstylist, mechanics, certain housekeeping chores may bring this on, typists, therapists, construction workers. I have probably seen it most often and most severe amongst weight lifters who are doing bench pressing. When they are pressing heavy weight with their arms and shoulders, the spine buckles behind them, buckling the mid-back area forward. This buckling the spine causes the vertebrae to displace and when they do, they lose their juxtaposition, or natural positional relationship with the ribs that should be smoothly attached to the sides of the vertebra. These ribs that are attached to the vertebra are highly innervated because the rib cage protects our vital organs. By the primitive wisdom of the body, we have “alarm systems” that go off when something affects that area and so these rib heads, where they attach to the vertebra in the mid back, are very sensitive, and when they are displaced or pushed out of place, they will give off a tremendous amount of pain. The good note about this is that although the pain is quite debilitating and alarming, when properly treated, there is usually predictable relief by an effective chiropractic approach releasing that vertebra in just the right direction. This can be done in a pain-free manner greatly relieving the condition when performed by a chiropractor skilled in the appropriate method.
I would like to talk a little bit about some of the complications on these cases. Often mechanical issues will bring them on. Of course, it can come about suddenly from the impact of a rear-end car accident or some other trauma like that. It could be brought on by an assault, or a wrestling match, or when somebody has buckled back in surfing or in ways where somebody is thrown backwards and buckles their spine back, and may cause this problem to erupt. Sometimes these are known as “hyperextension injuries” to the thoracic spine.
There is a whole other area of concern sometimes in these cases. Actually the condition can be brought on and/or perpetuated by problems involving digestion, involving tension in and about the diaphragm, involving stress handling issues that settle in at the upper digestive region of the body and the diaphragm that anchors into and is innervated from the mid thoracic spine. In fact, it is considered quite classic for stomach problems, ulcers and other types of stomach distresses to be the direct cause of such flooding of nerve impulses into the mid-back area at specific vertebrae. Such as to “suck them forward” and pull them anterior or forward out of place, and this has to do with the abnormal nerve activity from the irritated stomach or upper digestive organs blasting through to the spine to relay up to the brain to tell the brain what is going on. In patients who have this type of tension or digestive distress, cramping of the diaphragm, tightening of the diaphragm, stress related or related digestive distress, reflux disorder that is uncontrolled – all of this can flood nerve impulses into that mid-back area. If these digestive conditions are not worked with and controlled, then the mid-thoracic area, which may well be greatly relieved by getting treatment, will constantly be recurring. So the need to do something effective about the causation of the problem cannot be underscored enough. So when there is a chronic recurring problem, these are some of the areas I look to the most. There are both soft tissue manipulations for the diaphragm and the digestive organs as well as nutritional approaches and changes in lifestyle and habits that can lead to improvement. The effective chiropractor will work with you on these complications and help you get out of pain and stay out of pain. This is part and parcel of the type of care that we offer at our office at Naples Pain Relief Center and I would like to welcome you to get more information on this topic at www.NaplesNaturalHealth.com
Taken From a Health Talk Given by Dr. Hillis
The patient with this problem comes in with severely acute pain in the mid-back area and very often the pain is so severe that it radiates out to the front, to the sternum, to the breast bone area. It can pierce through like a knife going through from the back to the front and it can be extremely distressing and alarming. The pain is so severe that the patient feels like something is horribly wrong and indeed, this patient is in so much pain that this is not a good situation. Thankfully there are ordinarily solutions for this problem and when we are able to determine that the cause is anterior or Thoracic vertebrae, we are able to offer great hope for relief. This is a condition where there has been a “buckling” of the mid-back, or the mid-thoracic spine, where the vertebra and ribs have buckled forward, the vertebra especially. The ribs are often “left behind” and “separate” from their usual abutment or smooth connection to the vertebrae.
This condition commonly affects people who work with arms overhead, such as a hairstylist, mechanics, certain housekeeping chores may bring this on, typists, therapists, construction workers. I have probably seen it most often and most severe amongst weight lifters who are doing bench pressing. When they are pressing heavy weight with their arms and shoulders, the spine buckles behind them, buckling the mid-back area forward. This buckling the spine causes the vertebrae to displace and when they do, they lose their juxtaposition, or natural positional relationship with the ribs that should be smoothly attached to the sides of the vertebra. These ribs that are attached to the vertebra are highly innervated because the rib cage protects our vital organs. By the primitive wisdom of the body, we have “alarm systems” that go off when something affects that area and so these rib heads, where they attach to the vertebra in the mid back, are very sensitive, and when they are displaced or pushed out of place, they will give off a tremendous amount of pain. The good note about this is that although the pain is quite debilitating and alarming, when properly treated, there is usually predictable relief by an effective chiropractic approach releasing that vertebra in just the right direction. This can be done in a pain-free manner greatly relieving the condition when performed by a chiropractor skilled in the appropriate method.
I would like to talk a little bit about some of the complications on these cases. Often mechanical issues will bring them on. Of course, it can come about suddenly from the impact of a rear-end car accident or some other trauma like that. It could be brought on by an assault, or a wrestling match, or when somebody has buckled back in surfing or in ways where somebody is thrown backwards and buckles their spine back, and may cause this problem to erupt. Sometimes these are known as “hyperextension injuries” to the thoracic spine.
There is a whole other area of concern sometimes in these cases. Actually the condition can be brought on and/or perpetuated by problems involving digestion, involving tension in and about the diaphragm, involving stress handling issues that settle in at the upper digestive region of the body and the diaphragm that anchors into and is innervated from the mid thoracic spine. In fact, it is considered quite classic for stomach problems, ulcers and other types of stomach distresses to be the direct cause of such flooding of nerve impulses into the mid-back area at specific vertebrae. Such as to “suck them forward” and pull them anterior or forward out of place, and this has to do with the abnormal nerve activity from the irritated stomach or upper digestive organs blasting through to the spine to relay up to the brain to tell the brain what is going on. In patients who have this type of tension or digestive distress, cramping of the diaphragm, tightening of the diaphragm, stress related or related digestive distress, reflux disorder that is uncontrolled – all of this can flood nerve impulses into that mid-back area. If these digestive conditions are not worked with and controlled, then the mid-thoracic area, which may well be greatly relieved by getting treatment, will constantly be recurring. So the need to do something effective about the causation of the problem cannot be underscored enough. So when there is a chronic recurring problem, these are some of the areas I look to the most. There are both soft tissue manipulations for the diaphragm and the digestive organs as well as nutritional approaches and changes in lifestyle and habits that can lead to improvement. The effective chiropractor will work with you on these complications and help you get out of pain and stay out of pain. This is part and parcel of the type of care that we offer at our office at Naples Pain Relief Center and I would like to welcome you to get more information on this topic at www.NaplesNaturalHealth.com
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Problems Common to Runners & Joggers
Interview of Dr. Hillis by Kitt Walsh of A Way With Words
Thousands of Americans join the ranks of runners and joggers everyday. While this is one of the most convenient and least expensive forms of exercise available, running is not without its problems. An uneven surface, a random stone, an unseen puddle, or even a formerly sedentary lifestyle prior to this new enthusiasm, can al present hazards to a runner’s health.
“There may have been a slight trauma or injury to the lower extremities which never surfaced until the person started running,” says Dr. Daniel P. Hillis, a Chiropractic Physician trained in the treatment of just such injuries. “But once detected, many of these conditions can be successfully treated, without medication or surgery.”
One of the most common and often overlooked injuries which affect runners is Talus Alignment, which causes pain around the ankle area and may lead to a tightening of the font muscles of the leg, commonly known as “shin splints.” This condition is caused by overuse by a newcomer or by a veteran trying to push the envelope and gain those extra seconds. When the talus (the center bone between the leg and ankle) gets out of alignment, the muscles of the leg spasm in an attempt to stabilize the ankle. The spasms cause the pain. A chiropractic physician observes the deviation (The talus shifts inward or outward), performs Kinesiology testing and/or “motion palpation” – the art of examining structures in motion. The doctor can either then gently adjust the talus back into the correct position or, if the injury is too severe, use a mechanical adjusting instrument called an Activator, which puts out a one-pound recoil force to help realign the bone. Also diagnosed and treated in the same way is another common injury: Calcanus Deviation or heel displacement. The gently thrusting needed to realign the heel is usually never uncomfortable.
Tibial Tortional Misalignment or a twisting of the tibia (the large, weight-bearing bone between the knee and the ankle) occurs when the tibia is torqued to one side or the other. A chiropractic physician can diagnose this problem by taking the patient outside and asking them to walk, observing their gait and posture, and by Kinesiological stress tests. This condition is corrected by mobilization, a gently, repetitive twisting of the tibia until it assumes the correct position. This problem is usually resolved quickly.
Forward Hip Displacement is usually caused by overstretching the quadriceps, usually while warming up for a run. When a runner grasps their ankle and pulls it behind the back in an attempt to stretch the quads, they can inadvertently displace the hip bone a millimeter or more from its natural position in the socket. Simple but exact adjustive thrusts by the chiropractic physician exerting 3 - 8 pounds of pressure is usually all that’s necessary to realign, although sometimes a myofascial technique called spindle-cell work is necessary to help loosen muscles.
Two other common problems encountered by runners are Foot Pronation or collapsed arches and Foot Supination, where the muscles at the bottom of the foot shrivel and tighten, creating flattened or excessive arches. There are many techniques your chiropractor can use to correct these conditions and, in more chronic cases, orthotics inserts in your shoes frequently helps.
“The good news is that most people will be back in action quickly,” says Dr. Hillis. “The key is to speed up the healing process by paying attention to what your body is telling you and getting help for the problem before it becomes chronic and harder to treat.”
Dr. Hillis also recommends a new spin on the old admonition “See your doctor before beginning any exercise program.”
“I recommend getting a Runner’s Profile examination done before undertaking an exercise program involving running,” he says, citing an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Such an examination would also benefit the serious amateur and professional runner seeking performance enhancement. Walkers with problems may benefit from this profile also.
“People will study sporting equipment catalogues, subscribe to runner’s magazines and spend hundreds of dollars on their shoes,” Hillis says, “when what they really should be paying attention to is the structural alignment of their feet.”
Thousands of Americans join the ranks of runners and joggers everyday. While this is one of the most convenient and least expensive forms of exercise available, running is not without its problems. An uneven surface, a random stone, an unseen puddle, or even a formerly sedentary lifestyle prior to this new enthusiasm, can al present hazards to a runner’s health.
“There may have been a slight trauma or injury to the lower extremities which never surfaced until the person started running,” says Dr. Daniel P. Hillis, a Chiropractic Physician trained in the treatment of just such injuries. “But once detected, many of these conditions can be successfully treated, without medication or surgery.”
One of the most common and often overlooked injuries which affect runners is Talus Alignment, which causes pain around the ankle area and may lead to a tightening of the font muscles of the leg, commonly known as “shin splints.” This condition is caused by overuse by a newcomer or by a veteran trying to push the envelope and gain those extra seconds. When the talus (the center bone between the leg and ankle) gets out of alignment, the muscles of the leg spasm in an attempt to stabilize the ankle. The spasms cause the pain. A chiropractic physician observes the deviation (The talus shifts inward or outward), performs Kinesiology testing and/or “motion palpation” – the art of examining structures in motion. The doctor can either then gently adjust the talus back into the correct position or, if the injury is too severe, use a mechanical adjusting instrument called an Activator, which puts out a one-pound recoil force to help realign the bone. Also diagnosed and treated in the same way is another common injury: Calcanus Deviation or heel displacement. The gently thrusting needed to realign the heel is usually never uncomfortable.
Tibial Tortional Misalignment or a twisting of the tibia (the large, weight-bearing bone between the knee and the ankle) occurs when the tibia is torqued to one side or the other. A chiropractic physician can diagnose this problem by taking the patient outside and asking them to walk, observing their gait and posture, and by Kinesiological stress tests. This condition is corrected by mobilization, a gently, repetitive twisting of the tibia until it assumes the correct position. This problem is usually resolved quickly.
Forward Hip Displacement is usually caused by overstretching the quadriceps, usually while warming up for a run. When a runner grasps their ankle and pulls it behind the back in an attempt to stretch the quads, they can inadvertently displace the hip bone a millimeter or more from its natural position in the socket. Simple but exact adjustive thrusts by the chiropractic physician exerting 3 - 8 pounds of pressure is usually all that’s necessary to realign, although sometimes a myofascial technique called spindle-cell work is necessary to help loosen muscles.
Two other common problems encountered by runners are Foot Pronation or collapsed arches and Foot Supination, where the muscles at the bottom of the foot shrivel and tighten, creating flattened or excessive arches. There are many techniques your chiropractor can use to correct these conditions and, in more chronic cases, orthotics inserts in your shoes frequently helps.
“The good news is that most people will be back in action quickly,” says Dr. Hillis. “The key is to speed up the healing process by paying attention to what your body is telling you and getting help for the problem before it becomes chronic and harder to treat.”
Dr. Hillis also recommends a new spin on the old admonition “See your doctor before beginning any exercise program.”
“I recommend getting a Runner’s Profile examination done before undertaking an exercise program involving running,” he says, citing an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Such an examination would also benefit the serious amateur and professional runner seeking performance enhancement. Walkers with problems may benefit from this profile also.
“People will study sporting equipment catalogues, subscribe to runner’s magazines and spend hundreds of dollars on their shoes,” Hillis says, “when what they really should be paying attention to is the structural alignment of their feet.”
Friday, June 12, 2009
More Practical Dietary Considerations
I have been practicing alternative health care over the last twenty-five plus years and I want to talk about some practical additional points beyond basic diet and just help the individual along who is trying to figure out what to eat and to comment on a variety of additional food items for consideration. There is no single recommendation here that is correct for everybody. These are general considerations for you to evaluate to see if it fits right for your diet and for you to discuss with your individual healthcare practitioner, myself, or some other person that you are working with. So we just wanted to cover a list of do’s, and don’ts and suggestions and possibilities for you to consider.
I will start out with the elimination list. It seems that there is a very strong growing movement urging the elimination of two major food groups from our diet that really should be taken into serious consideration. The list is just growing on some of the dangers in these foods and first, let me just warn you that some of these foods are considered sacred and of course, the first sacred cow is cow’s milk products. I will just generalize and say that probably most things you ever heard about dairy came from the American Dairy Council or from speakers who were somehow influenced by the research that was paid for by this industry, or directly paid for or affiliated with the dairy council, the dairy industry, or who receives stipends or support in one way or another from them. The frequency of disorders being aggravated, affected and caused by dairy products is increasing. I urge you to go on the internet and look up the literature in this area. The next sacred item is wheat! The two most important things that a person who is struggling with a chronic health problem could do for themselves may be elimination of wheat and dairy in the context of a healthy diet. The body of literature in the field of neurology as well as gastroenterology is growing rapidly with papers in mainstream journals around the world citing the damage done by certain grains, especially wheat, rye and corn. And this is again something about which there is an abundance of literature on the internet. I urge you to go there if you have any question about it but the elimination of dairy and wheat which could be a major step forward in someones overall health program.
Of further concern, we have refined carbohydrates, refined sugars, and junk food that everybody knows about in terms of the problems with excessive sweets. Pastas, remember, are wheat. Cakes are wheat and have to be considered as such. Most commercial breads are wheat. So these are foods that are very sacred to a lot of people, but nevertheless when eliminated can begin turning the health situation around. Of course, I shouldn’t need to mention candies in general and foods that you feel addicted to as foods that likely need to be eliminated. If you feel that this is the favorite kind of food that you like and that you could just not do without it, if you have what we refer to as a “craving” for a food, it may be the very thing that is undermining your health. That is a topic of a separate talk, the area of “allergic addiction” in food allergies. If you feel you are addicted to a food or if you don’t feel you are addicted to it and you don’t crave it because you actually have it every day, so there is no craving because you just have it constantly, then this may be a problem to you. The bowl of ice cream every night, the chocolate that you have to have every single day or several times a day, this can be the pattern of consumption that is the red flag to knowing that this is really something that may well be behind your problem and there are ways to followup on that to find out the extent to which is a food is truly damaging. But this is just a preliminary head-ups for you about what to look for in discovering your hidden allergic additions in your diet.
Many soy substitute products can be of concern; just calling that to your attention. The last thing I want to bring up is soy sauce and the reason I bring that up is that the first ingredient on virtually every bottle of soy sauce, would you believe, is wheat. If you are sensitive to wheat or wheat is a problem for you and you are using soy sauce, not even thinking that soy sauce would have wheat in it, you now know.
Switching topics now, I would like to talk about suggestions for desserts and condiments. There is a general rule of thumb in traditional macrobiotic circles that dairy should be reserved for use as a condiment or occasional dessert. And so under that category, one might consider something like yogurts for occasional consumption. Under that same heading would go certain custards and perhaps, on a rare occasion, imported cheeses, goat cheese rarely, sheep cheese rarely may be tolerated by some on an occasional basis. And keep in mind that we have Rice Dream and other substitutes that you can think about for use as desserts if cows products are a problem and you are looking for alternatives.
Moving along, I am just going to talk about sweeteners for a moment. I will talk about the use of occasional honey as a sweetener and in cooking and that this may be acceptable. On the other hand, I get concerned when I hear people talking about the benefits of honey and I see that they are consuming it at a pace that is rather rapid and going through jars of honey on an ongoing basis with the notion that they are feeding their health, when really it appears to be that this feeding the sweet tooth by using honey to satisfy unhandled blood sugar handling problems or as a way of stimulating the system. So honey used appropriately is acceptable, and it can also be abused. We have Stevia sweetener available now. It is a new product in the commercial marketplace, I believe another called Truvia and is available as packets and to my knowledge I am not aware of any downside to it unless you happen to have an individual sensitivity to it, it may be a very acceptable alternative to other sweeteners such as cane sugar packets and certainly we want to avoid aspartame and Splenda which have their own inherent problems. Again I urge you that if you are consuming these, that if you have been fooled by the sucralose name and thinking that it is a relatively benign product or if you don’t know much about aspartame, you want to go on the internet and look at some of the literature explaining why these may be so bad for you. I would certainly consider Stevia your sweetener of preference if you must have one. Again, the stevia sweetener I think is one of the best and easiest choices right now.
On a totally different topic, I would like to point out that for those of us who are not necessarily the most organically and naturally pure, but want to eat a healthy diet, the use of certain sauces that we usually would use on meat, can be used with certain vegetables and other places in cooking that you may appreciate. Actually if you read the label of Worcestershire sauce and A-1 Steak Sauce, you would be surprised at how clean the label really is in terms of the ingredients. So these are something if you want to move away from a purist point of view, could be part of a relatively clean diet to dress up the food.
Moving on, I just want to talk about mushrooms briefly. It can be a fabulously wonderful food, stimulating and protective to the immune system but there is some warning for those who may be sensitive to yeast or individually to mushroom itself. If these are not issues and you are sure of that, then we encourage you to use mushrooms. Use mushrooms that you are highly confident are suitable for eating. In other words, don’t go out and pick your own mushrooms unless you are truly an expert in the field. Of those that are available in the supermarkets and health food stores, you might want to consider looking at the ones that are not so anatomically perfect and symmetrical as some of the others and often these are richer in nutrients.
Again, another area I would like to talk about is that of having an iodine source. It is well established that there are “goiter belts” around the world. These are areas that medical science has defined as areas that are just endemically relatively deficient in iodine and many regions of the United States are that way. The more land-locked an area is, the more that will tend to be an issue, and an interesting caution on this is for those who are trying to eat healthier and perhaps are using sea salt is that most sea salt may not contain adequate iodine or sufficient iodine at all to provide an adequate daily source. In many areas of the world, sea vegetables like kelp and other seaweeds are used on a daily basis in the cooking process and, of course, this does not happen in much of the western world. So some sort of regular iodine source needs to be kept in mind especially in our world where we use so many chloride cleaning products and fluoride additives to toothpaste and in dental procedures and these chlorides and fluorides can actually, in a electro-chemical way, “beat out” iodine in its proper place in our thyroids and so having adequate iodine around to give it a chance to get in and fulfill its role in our health is very important. The use of kelp powder or other seaweed products on a regular basis can help in that area.
Going on to another topic, I would just like to mention something about butter and that is that butter is obviously from cows, it is a dairy product, however, the inherent difficulties with dairy products, in my experience and understanding, is generally associated with either the proteins or the carbohydrates of the dairy and not necessarily the fat. So the possibility of using a certain amount of butter remains open and reasonably plausible for some people and it can certainly be superior to other butter substitutes. The recent caution, however, that I became aware of and had not thought of previously, is that it is the fat layers of our body and it is fat in general in cows that is going to harbor most of the pesticides and other fat soluble poisons that will permeate and absorb into the fat and avoid the areas of the anatomical physiology that could be, if you will, washed out by water flow or fluid flow as opposed to being retained in fat layers. So when using butter, one really should go out of their way to pay the extra money to buy the organic butter so that you are assured that the butter is not coming laced with things that you wouldn’t want to see hidden biochemically as toxins. Use organic butter, if you are going to use some butter.
The last topic I would like to bring up is the use of kudzu or sometimes kuzu, you will see it labeled arrowroot commercially. This is the root of a plant and it is often used in processed cooking as a thickener. It is used in unprocessed cooking in the natural kitchen as a thickening agent also. It also can be made up as a tea for cleansing. It has adsorbant properties to it meaning that its surface area has an affinity for binding to other substances around it, much like activated charcoal does and it can be used as soothing tea for the intestinal tract and for a thickening when that is required in a distressed intestinal tract. You would mix a teaspoon of this in hot water and add a little sea salt to taste and drink it as you would a thick soup or tea. It can be a cleansing kind of beverage and also used for thickening in routine cooking and has some detoxification effect in that manner also.
With that, I have come to the end of my nutritional tidbits that I would like to give you for today and I hope this helps you think more about your diet with some of the additional choices you have and that it provides some thoughts that are not too limiting, and yet keep you within reasonable parameters to stay healthy.
I will start out with the elimination list. It seems that there is a very strong growing movement urging the elimination of two major food groups from our diet that really should be taken into serious consideration. The list is just growing on some of the dangers in these foods and first, let me just warn you that some of these foods are considered sacred and of course, the first sacred cow is cow’s milk products. I will just generalize and say that probably most things you ever heard about dairy came from the American Dairy Council or from speakers who were somehow influenced by the research that was paid for by this industry, or directly paid for or affiliated with the dairy council, the dairy industry, or who receives stipends or support in one way or another from them. The frequency of disorders being aggravated, affected and caused by dairy products is increasing. I urge you to go on the internet and look up the literature in this area. The next sacred item is wheat! The two most important things that a person who is struggling with a chronic health problem could do for themselves may be elimination of wheat and dairy in the context of a healthy diet. The body of literature in the field of neurology as well as gastroenterology is growing rapidly with papers in mainstream journals around the world citing the damage done by certain grains, especially wheat, rye and corn. And this is again something about which there is an abundance of literature on the internet. I urge you to go there if you have any question about it but the elimination of dairy and wheat which could be a major step forward in someones overall health program.
Of further concern, we have refined carbohydrates, refined sugars, and junk food that everybody knows about in terms of the problems with excessive sweets. Pastas, remember, are wheat. Cakes are wheat and have to be considered as such. Most commercial breads are wheat. So these are foods that are very sacred to a lot of people, but nevertheless when eliminated can begin turning the health situation around. Of course, I shouldn’t need to mention candies in general and foods that you feel addicted to as foods that likely need to be eliminated. If you feel that this is the favorite kind of food that you like and that you could just not do without it, if you have what we refer to as a “craving” for a food, it may be the very thing that is undermining your health. That is a topic of a separate talk, the area of “allergic addiction” in food allergies. If you feel you are addicted to a food or if you don’t feel you are addicted to it and you don’t crave it because you actually have it every day, so there is no craving because you just have it constantly, then this may be a problem to you. The bowl of ice cream every night, the chocolate that you have to have every single day or several times a day, this can be the pattern of consumption that is the red flag to knowing that this is really something that may well be behind your problem and there are ways to followup on that to find out the extent to which is a food is truly damaging. But this is just a preliminary head-ups for you about what to look for in discovering your hidden allergic additions in your diet.
Many soy substitute products can be of concern; just calling that to your attention. The last thing I want to bring up is soy sauce and the reason I bring that up is that the first ingredient on virtually every bottle of soy sauce, would you believe, is wheat. If you are sensitive to wheat or wheat is a problem for you and you are using soy sauce, not even thinking that soy sauce would have wheat in it, you now know.
Switching topics now, I would like to talk about suggestions for desserts and condiments. There is a general rule of thumb in traditional macrobiotic circles that dairy should be reserved for use as a condiment or occasional dessert. And so under that category, one might consider something like yogurts for occasional consumption. Under that same heading would go certain custards and perhaps, on a rare occasion, imported cheeses, goat cheese rarely, sheep cheese rarely may be tolerated by some on an occasional basis. And keep in mind that we have Rice Dream and other substitutes that you can think about for use as desserts if cows products are a problem and you are looking for alternatives.
Moving along, I am just going to talk about sweeteners for a moment. I will talk about the use of occasional honey as a sweetener and in cooking and that this may be acceptable. On the other hand, I get concerned when I hear people talking about the benefits of honey and I see that they are consuming it at a pace that is rather rapid and going through jars of honey on an ongoing basis with the notion that they are feeding their health, when really it appears to be that this feeding the sweet tooth by using honey to satisfy unhandled blood sugar handling problems or as a way of stimulating the system. So honey used appropriately is acceptable, and it can also be abused. We have Stevia sweetener available now. It is a new product in the commercial marketplace, I believe another called Truvia and is available as packets and to my knowledge I am not aware of any downside to it unless you happen to have an individual sensitivity to it, it may be a very acceptable alternative to other sweeteners such as cane sugar packets and certainly we want to avoid aspartame and Splenda which have their own inherent problems. Again I urge you that if you are consuming these, that if you have been fooled by the sucralose name and thinking that it is a relatively benign product or if you don’t know much about aspartame, you want to go on the internet and look at some of the literature explaining why these may be so bad for you. I would certainly consider Stevia your sweetener of preference if you must have one. Again, the stevia sweetener I think is one of the best and easiest choices right now.
On a totally different topic, I would like to point out that for those of us who are not necessarily the most organically and naturally pure, but want to eat a healthy diet, the use of certain sauces that we usually would use on meat, can be used with certain vegetables and other places in cooking that you may appreciate. Actually if you read the label of Worcestershire sauce and A-1 Steak Sauce, you would be surprised at how clean the label really is in terms of the ingredients. So these are something if you want to move away from a purist point of view, could be part of a relatively clean diet to dress up the food.
Moving on, I just want to talk about mushrooms briefly. It can be a fabulously wonderful food, stimulating and protective to the immune system but there is some warning for those who may be sensitive to yeast or individually to mushroom itself. If these are not issues and you are sure of that, then we encourage you to use mushrooms. Use mushrooms that you are highly confident are suitable for eating. In other words, don’t go out and pick your own mushrooms unless you are truly an expert in the field. Of those that are available in the supermarkets and health food stores, you might want to consider looking at the ones that are not so anatomically perfect and symmetrical as some of the others and often these are richer in nutrients.
Again, another area I would like to talk about is that of having an iodine source. It is well established that there are “goiter belts” around the world. These are areas that medical science has defined as areas that are just endemically relatively deficient in iodine and many regions of the United States are that way. The more land-locked an area is, the more that will tend to be an issue, and an interesting caution on this is for those who are trying to eat healthier and perhaps are using sea salt is that most sea salt may not contain adequate iodine or sufficient iodine at all to provide an adequate daily source. In many areas of the world, sea vegetables like kelp and other seaweeds are used on a daily basis in the cooking process and, of course, this does not happen in much of the western world. So some sort of regular iodine source needs to be kept in mind especially in our world where we use so many chloride cleaning products and fluoride additives to toothpaste and in dental procedures and these chlorides and fluorides can actually, in a electro-chemical way, “beat out” iodine in its proper place in our thyroids and so having adequate iodine around to give it a chance to get in and fulfill its role in our health is very important. The use of kelp powder or other seaweed products on a regular basis can help in that area.
Going on to another topic, I would just like to mention something about butter and that is that butter is obviously from cows, it is a dairy product, however, the inherent difficulties with dairy products, in my experience and understanding, is generally associated with either the proteins or the carbohydrates of the dairy and not necessarily the fat. So the possibility of using a certain amount of butter remains open and reasonably plausible for some people and it can certainly be superior to other butter substitutes. The recent caution, however, that I became aware of and had not thought of previously, is that it is the fat layers of our body and it is fat in general in cows that is going to harbor most of the pesticides and other fat soluble poisons that will permeate and absorb into the fat and avoid the areas of the anatomical physiology that could be, if you will, washed out by water flow or fluid flow as opposed to being retained in fat layers. So when using butter, one really should go out of their way to pay the extra money to buy the organic butter so that you are assured that the butter is not coming laced with things that you wouldn’t want to see hidden biochemically as toxins. Use organic butter, if you are going to use some butter.
The last topic I would like to bring up is the use of kudzu or sometimes kuzu, you will see it labeled arrowroot commercially. This is the root of a plant and it is often used in processed cooking as a thickener. It is used in unprocessed cooking in the natural kitchen as a thickening agent also. It also can be made up as a tea for cleansing. It has adsorbant properties to it meaning that its surface area has an affinity for binding to other substances around it, much like activated charcoal does and it can be used as soothing tea for the intestinal tract and for a thickening when that is required in a distressed intestinal tract. You would mix a teaspoon of this in hot water and add a little sea salt to taste and drink it as you would a thick soup or tea. It can be a cleansing kind of beverage and also used for thickening in routine cooking and has some detoxification effect in that manner also.
With that, I have come to the end of my nutritional tidbits that I would like to give you for today and I hope this helps you think more about your diet with some of the additional choices you have and that it provides some thoughts that are not too limiting, and yet keep you within reasonable parameters to stay healthy.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Serious, Chronic & Persistent HEADACHES?
Serious, Chronic & Persistent HEADACHES?
A checklist for some of the most difficult cases! Have you had these evaluated?
1. VSA (Viscero-Somatic Reflex Nerve Analysis) – What’s that? A functional nerve exam to determine which nerves from which organs are sending overwhelming distress signals causing headache pain. (Neurologists are not trained to do this, only functional health care doctors do this, i.e., SOT or Applied Kinesiology trained doctors.)
2. 4-Point Cortisol Exam with AM & PM DHEA evaluation (a hormonal stress test)
3. Inflammation Indices – How much hidden inflammation are you carrying – blood test exams.
4. Neurotransmitter Testing – actual measurement of your serotonin, adrenalin, norepinephrine, dopamine, GABA and others. Improving neurotransmitter balance with proper amino acid therapy can be an important part of headache therapy – a must in migraines and chronic pain syndromes.
5. Blood Sugar Handling Stress Evaluation with blood tests including fasting insulin and triglyceride interpretation.
6. Craniofacial and TMJ Balance – a must screening for many headache sufferers.
A checklist for some of the most difficult cases! Have you had these evaluated?
1. VSA (Viscero-Somatic Reflex Nerve Analysis) – What’s that? A functional nerve exam to determine which nerves from which organs are sending overwhelming distress signals causing headache pain. (Neurologists are not trained to do this, only functional health care doctors do this, i.e., SOT or Applied Kinesiology trained doctors.)
2. 4-Point Cortisol Exam with AM & PM DHEA evaluation (a hormonal stress test)
3. Inflammation Indices – How much hidden inflammation are you carrying – blood test exams.
4. Neurotransmitter Testing – actual measurement of your serotonin, adrenalin, norepinephrine, dopamine, GABA and others. Improving neurotransmitter balance with proper amino acid therapy can be an important part of headache therapy – a must in migraines and chronic pain syndromes.
5. Blood Sugar Handling Stress Evaluation with blood tests including fasting insulin and triglyceride interpretation.
6. Craniofacial and TMJ Balance – a must screening for many headache sufferers.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
What Diet is Best for You?
It's Tuesday! Hard to believe it's already the 2nd day of June! Hope it's a great day for you.
Today I want to talk about diets and which diet is best for you. I am going to start right out by saying that generally our position is that diets don’t work and that there is no real diet that is the right one for you and so that is our talk for today. Thank you for listening, have a good day. Actually, we do want to talk about it a little bit more than that. :)
There have been many diets out over the years from the vegetarian based, the Ornish type diets to the Dr. Atkins diet and each of these and many diets out there have good benefits to them but, as to which one is really the right one for a given individual, it is hard to say. There is controversy around each one of these diets more than there is agreement and there is enough information out there, I think, on the critiques and criticism of each and every one of these and the downsides and the upsides of each of these diets discussed in popular books and on the internet, so we will not repeat that information here. So that all having been said, one does need to adapt a healthy diet for their life. What is a person to do when they do not know all that much about eating and they would really like to do it right if somebody would only tell them what to eat. In trying to help individuals like this, I guess we give in a little bit and doctors like myself and I, who think in the arena of what is called functional health care or functional medicine, would agree that probably the one diet, if you want to call it a diet, that we can feel comfortable putting out there for people to take a look at is the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet goes something like this. It is salads with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, with a lot of vegetables, green vegetables and salads and salmon and fish and vegetables, and salad and salmon and more salmon and then some more salmon. So, I think you get the idea. This diet may also include such items as spinach, olives, extra-virgin first cold pressed olive oil, and sea salt and these types of preparations. The research seems to bear out that people eating this type of diet do well with their health. There seems to be a prevalence of thriving health in these areas where this type of diet is eaten and if one wanted to give a model to somebody on how to eat, we might ask you to model after that. Again, some really need more guidance. Some, likely based on personality types, will demand a more specific dietary guideline.
And so we don’t encounter this that often, but if this is the case, I will give approval to the blood type diets and that is something that you can look in to. One of the books is called “Eat Right For Your Blood Type” and it will help you decide whether you are more of a natural vegetarian or a carnivore or omnivore, according to your blood type and you can pick up the books on this and read about it on your own and if that is the course you would like to follow, the majority of colleagues that I have met in the functional medicine world seem to agree that this is pretty reliable information and this would be something that you could feel comfortable following.
In moving on from there, some of the other highlights that I would like to emphasize is getting live food into your diet, especially of fruits and uncooked vegetables. In the area of fruits, we want to call your attention to the glycemic index and ask you to pick fruits from the 50% down level in glycemic index. Glycemic index has to do with the concentration or sugar load in that food and how rapidly the sugar is released into your system from the food and so items like berries, apples, pears, melons, grapes, citrus or a whole pomegranate, blueberries are often considered as more ideal fruits as per the glycemic index. Vegetables and salads should be emphasized heavily. Vegetables, uncooked, as many as possible and likely steamed for the others. Fish can be a valuable part of your diet. You might want to go on the internet and google “fish and mercury levels” and get a listing of which fish are safest and we would like to encourage you to be attentive to this one specific piece of information on salmon. You want to purchase the “wild” “Alaskan” or “Coho”, these are code words that food authorities have only allowed to be used in the case of truly wild salmon which have a healthier physiology and healthier distribution of natural fats in their body that are good for you.
Another very important area of emphasis is grains. We want to emphasize a very strong case for the elimination of wheat from most people’s diet. This is just a rapidly growing area of information. There is specific laboratory testing which can be done to see if this is even more of a serious consideration for you than just a hypothetical consideration. In general, the grains we would steer you toward, unless you are specifically sensitive to them, are buckwheat, flax, barley, oats, quinoa, and that would be about it.
We would like to encourage you in the area of nuts and seeds. Walnuts and almonds are particularly beneficial with high levels of healthy fats and other protective nutrients. Almonds, pecans, peanuts and sunflower seeds can also be considered and walnuts of course would be types of nut that are a good option.
In the area of meats, this an individual matter and probably needs to be worked out with a nutritional practitioner for the individual, but obviously you would want to avoid excessive beef intake, if not avoid beef altogether, and the other remaining choices are usually turkey, chicken, eggs, venison and duck, when prepared properly. You can chose from those and depending on your particular body type, whether you are a high inflammatory type or a low inflammatory type, you may want to eliminate these meats altogether for a period of time of lesser or greater duration.
The other area of concern is oils. The two to think most carefully about are olive oils, extra virgin, first cold pressed and extra virgin coconut oil can also be used as a wonderful cooking vehicle if you like the taste. It is somewhat “coconutty” in taste of course, but not as much as you would think. Regarding spices, you want to keep anti-inflammatory spices in the diet such as tumeric and ginger when appropriate and the use of sea salt and kelp powder could be very wonderful addition to your flavoring in your cooking. Salad dressings might be the extra virgin first cold pressed olive oils primarily and we would encourage you to read labels very carefully.
Lastly, just a reminder, that white potatoes are extremely high on the glycemic index and is something that many of you may want to avoid.
All of this above having been stated, if you have been tested for food allergies or sensitivities, of course, that would prevail and you would need to eliminate those foods.
Of course, there are many other problems that we could get into and we could discuss diet for hours. You can reach us for more information at telephone number 239-597-3929 and on the internet at www.NaplesPainRelief.com
Today I want to talk about diets and which diet is best for you. I am going to start right out by saying that generally our position is that diets don’t work and that there is no real diet that is the right one for you and so that is our talk for today. Thank you for listening, have a good day. Actually, we do want to talk about it a little bit more than that. :)
There have been many diets out over the years from the vegetarian based, the Ornish type diets to the Dr. Atkins diet and each of these and many diets out there have good benefits to them but, as to which one is really the right one for a given individual, it is hard to say. There is controversy around each one of these diets more than there is agreement and there is enough information out there, I think, on the critiques and criticism of each and every one of these and the downsides and the upsides of each of these diets discussed in popular books and on the internet, so we will not repeat that information here. So that all having been said, one does need to adapt a healthy diet for their life. What is a person to do when they do not know all that much about eating and they would really like to do it right if somebody would only tell them what to eat. In trying to help individuals like this, I guess we give in a little bit and doctors like myself and I, who think in the arena of what is called functional health care or functional medicine, would agree that probably the one diet, if you want to call it a diet, that we can feel comfortable putting out there for people to take a look at is the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet goes something like this. It is salads with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, with a lot of vegetables, green vegetables and salads and salmon and fish and vegetables, and salad and salmon and more salmon and then some more salmon. So, I think you get the idea. This diet may also include such items as spinach, olives, extra-virgin first cold pressed olive oil, and sea salt and these types of preparations. The research seems to bear out that people eating this type of diet do well with their health. There seems to be a prevalence of thriving health in these areas where this type of diet is eaten and if one wanted to give a model to somebody on how to eat, we might ask you to model after that. Again, some really need more guidance. Some, likely based on personality types, will demand a more specific dietary guideline.
And so we don’t encounter this that often, but if this is the case, I will give approval to the blood type diets and that is something that you can look in to. One of the books is called “Eat Right For Your Blood Type” and it will help you decide whether you are more of a natural vegetarian or a carnivore or omnivore, according to your blood type and you can pick up the books on this and read about it on your own and if that is the course you would like to follow, the majority of colleagues that I have met in the functional medicine world seem to agree that this is pretty reliable information and this would be something that you could feel comfortable following.
In moving on from there, some of the other highlights that I would like to emphasize is getting live food into your diet, especially of fruits and uncooked vegetables. In the area of fruits, we want to call your attention to the glycemic index and ask you to pick fruits from the 50% down level in glycemic index. Glycemic index has to do with the concentration or sugar load in that food and how rapidly the sugar is released into your system from the food and so items like berries, apples, pears, melons, grapes, citrus or a whole pomegranate, blueberries are often considered as more ideal fruits as per the glycemic index. Vegetables and salads should be emphasized heavily. Vegetables, uncooked, as many as possible and likely steamed for the others. Fish can be a valuable part of your diet. You might want to go on the internet and google “fish and mercury levels” and get a listing of which fish are safest and we would like to encourage you to be attentive to this one specific piece of information on salmon. You want to purchase the “wild” “Alaskan” or “Coho”, these are code words that food authorities have only allowed to be used in the case of truly wild salmon which have a healthier physiology and healthier distribution of natural fats in their body that are good for you.
Another very important area of emphasis is grains. We want to emphasize a very strong case for the elimination of wheat from most people’s diet. This is just a rapidly growing area of information. There is specific laboratory testing which can be done to see if this is even more of a serious consideration for you than just a hypothetical consideration. In general, the grains we would steer you toward, unless you are specifically sensitive to them, are buckwheat, flax, barley, oats, quinoa, and that would be about it.
We would like to encourage you in the area of nuts and seeds. Walnuts and almonds are particularly beneficial with high levels of healthy fats and other protective nutrients. Almonds, pecans, peanuts and sunflower seeds can also be considered and walnuts of course would be types of nut that are a good option.
In the area of meats, this an individual matter and probably needs to be worked out with a nutritional practitioner for the individual, but obviously you would want to avoid excessive beef intake, if not avoid beef altogether, and the other remaining choices are usually turkey, chicken, eggs, venison and duck, when prepared properly. You can chose from those and depending on your particular body type, whether you are a high inflammatory type or a low inflammatory type, you may want to eliminate these meats altogether for a period of time of lesser or greater duration.
The other area of concern is oils. The two to think most carefully about are olive oils, extra virgin, first cold pressed and extra virgin coconut oil can also be used as a wonderful cooking vehicle if you like the taste. It is somewhat “coconutty” in taste of course, but not as much as you would think. Regarding spices, you want to keep anti-inflammatory spices in the diet such as tumeric and ginger when appropriate and the use of sea salt and kelp powder could be very wonderful addition to your flavoring in your cooking. Salad dressings might be the extra virgin first cold pressed olive oils primarily and we would encourage you to read labels very carefully.
Lastly, just a reminder, that white potatoes are extremely high on the glycemic index and is something that many of you may want to avoid.
All of this above having been stated, if you have been tested for food allergies or sensitivities, of course, that would prevail and you would need to eliminate those foods.
Of course, there are many other problems that we could get into and we could discuss diet for hours. You can reach us for more information at telephone number 239-597-3929 and on the internet at www.NaplesPainRelief.com
Monday, June 1, 2009
Food Sensitivity Testing
Good Morning!
As you may know, I've practicing alternative health care over the last twenty-five plus years and we do a lot of functional health care testing in our office to help people get well from chronic conditions that they have been suffering from. In a variety of conditions, we will rely on information from food sensitivity and food allergy testing as part of our protocol for helping these individuals get well. These difficulties with food sensitivities can be found in the most obvious situations such as reflux disorders, digestive disorders, colitis and irritable bowel as well as in other less obvious situations where people may have hidden allergies that they are really not aware of, and these may be undermining their immune system and their energy levels such as in adrenal fatigue syndromes and in other chronic health problems where people are worn down over a long period of time and progress to more degenerative processes that spiral-down their health.
There are three major ways of looking at food allergy outside of skin testing that I would like to address. Many people familiar with skin testing where many items are tested at once and this is a valid form of allergy testing and, in my opinion, should be reserved for those who have medically threatening conditions related to allergic responses where they may be at risk for anaphylaxis or closing up of the throat and disorders leading to compromise of the kidney and other grave medical conditions. Those are the kinds of patients that belong with a medical allergist. On the other hand, the vast majority of people with sensitivities and food allergies that are hidden from their awareness would likely be best served from the evaluation by a simple blood test, where your blood is drawn in the usual fashion and then reacted with, let’s say, a hundred different foods, to see whether or not certain reactions occur to the blood indicating that there is a problem with that food. So, in the area of food antibody testing, there is the classic IgE antibody assessment and the blood will be reacted with a number of foods and the laboratory will measure whether or not your blood has developed an antibody to the particular food substance and then measure how severe the antibody response is. The IgE food allergy assessment and IgE assessments in general, such as for other environmental elements like molds and trees, etc., that type of allergic response is more of an immediate response. Sometimes we call it an atopic response. An example would be the classic strawberry and hives reaction where you eat strawberries and some minutes later, you notice that you are developing hives. So these are the types of allergies that very often people would be well aware of and indeed, some authorities state that when somebody has an IgE allergy, that they are generally always aware of it. My experience has been different. There are actually many people who do have IgE allergies to foods and other inhalants and environmentals that are not aware of it, and so that is an important point to keep this in mind.
We do have testing for what we called “hidden allergies” and that would be IgG food allergies where a different type of antibody is produced by the food and this type of response can take anywhere from 72 hours up to a whole week to develop and so the impact on the body is delayed by the timing of the reaction in such a way that it is very hard to track. One cannot usually tell that the sweet potatoes that they were allergic to, that they had at dinner four days ago, is what is impacting their health and perhaps dragging down their energy levels at this point in time. So the finding of hidden food allergies can be a gold mine of value to the person who is suffering chronic health disorders in enabling them to get a hold of a list of foods that is pulling down their health quotient that they did not even know about, and that with that list, they are then equipped to eliminate those foods and avoid that “drag” on their physiology and help open up a new avenue towards healing and improved health.
The third area of food testing that I would like to talk about is leukocyte sensitivity testing and that is where we react your blood samples with the various foods that we are testing and we look to see what happens with the white blood cells. The white blood cells, the leukocytes swell in size, and they are rated as to a level of sensitivity; if they burst open they are considered severe reactions and these are rated for you. This is another form of testing in which we can detect foods that are offensive to your system, actually damaging your white blood cells which would signal alarm reactions in your body as it does in any form of allergic insult. This alarm mechanism is then distressing to the rest of your system and your body has to deal with this. If you are compromised in one area and you are fighting this hidden allergy at the same time, you are left with less reserve. Solving food sensitivities and food allergies can follow a process to recovery in a variety of chronic health conditions especially fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic digestive problems, and often chronic headaches. There are many conditions in which this can be a very valuable tool.
If you would like to know more about these testing instruments and how to get tested, you can contact me, Dr. Dan Hillis, Chiropractic Physician in Naples, Florida, at 239-597-3929 or on the web at www.NaplesPainRelief.com
As you may know, I've practicing alternative health care over the last twenty-five plus years and we do a lot of functional health care testing in our office to help people get well from chronic conditions that they have been suffering from. In a variety of conditions, we will rely on information from food sensitivity and food allergy testing as part of our protocol for helping these individuals get well. These difficulties with food sensitivities can be found in the most obvious situations such as reflux disorders, digestive disorders, colitis and irritable bowel as well as in other less obvious situations where people may have hidden allergies that they are really not aware of, and these may be undermining their immune system and their energy levels such as in adrenal fatigue syndromes and in other chronic health problems where people are worn down over a long period of time and progress to more degenerative processes that spiral-down their health.
There are three major ways of looking at food allergy outside of skin testing that I would like to address. Many people familiar with skin testing where many items are tested at once and this is a valid form of allergy testing and, in my opinion, should be reserved for those who have medically threatening conditions related to allergic responses where they may be at risk for anaphylaxis or closing up of the throat and disorders leading to compromise of the kidney and other grave medical conditions. Those are the kinds of patients that belong with a medical allergist. On the other hand, the vast majority of people with sensitivities and food allergies that are hidden from their awareness would likely be best served from the evaluation by a simple blood test, where your blood is drawn in the usual fashion and then reacted with, let’s say, a hundred different foods, to see whether or not certain reactions occur to the blood indicating that there is a problem with that food. So, in the area of food antibody testing, there is the classic IgE antibody assessment and the blood will be reacted with a number of foods and the laboratory will measure whether or not your blood has developed an antibody to the particular food substance and then measure how severe the antibody response is. The IgE food allergy assessment and IgE assessments in general, such as for other environmental elements like molds and trees, etc., that type of allergic response is more of an immediate response. Sometimes we call it an atopic response. An example would be the classic strawberry and hives reaction where you eat strawberries and some minutes later, you notice that you are developing hives. So these are the types of allergies that very often people would be well aware of and indeed, some authorities state that when somebody has an IgE allergy, that they are generally always aware of it. My experience has been different. There are actually many people who do have IgE allergies to foods and other inhalants and environmentals that are not aware of it, and so that is an important point to keep this in mind.
We do have testing for what we called “hidden allergies” and that would be IgG food allergies where a different type of antibody is produced by the food and this type of response can take anywhere from 72 hours up to a whole week to develop and so the impact on the body is delayed by the timing of the reaction in such a way that it is very hard to track. One cannot usually tell that the sweet potatoes that they were allergic to, that they had at dinner four days ago, is what is impacting their health and perhaps dragging down their energy levels at this point in time. So the finding of hidden food allergies can be a gold mine of value to the person who is suffering chronic health disorders in enabling them to get a hold of a list of foods that is pulling down their health quotient that they did not even know about, and that with that list, they are then equipped to eliminate those foods and avoid that “drag” on their physiology and help open up a new avenue towards healing and improved health.
The third area of food testing that I would like to talk about is leukocyte sensitivity testing and that is where we react your blood samples with the various foods that we are testing and we look to see what happens with the white blood cells. The white blood cells, the leukocytes swell in size, and they are rated as to a level of sensitivity; if they burst open they are considered severe reactions and these are rated for you. This is another form of testing in which we can detect foods that are offensive to your system, actually damaging your white blood cells which would signal alarm reactions in your body as it does in any form of allergic insult. This alarm mechanism is then distressing to the rest of your system and your body has to deal with this. If you are compromised in one area and you are fighting this hidden allergy at the same time, you are left with less reserve. Solving food sensitivities and food allergies can follow a process to recovery in a variety of chronic health conditions especially fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic digestive problems, and often chronic headaches. There are many conditions in which this can be a very valuable tool.
If you would like to know more about these testing instruments and how to get tested, you can contact me, Dr. Dan Hillis, Chiropractic Physician in Naples, Florida, at 239-597-3929 or on the web at www.NaplesPainRelief.com
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