Integrated Functional Medicine 

Dr. Dave attended a cutting-edge seminar focused on one of the most critical issues clinicians face today: the proper analysis and management of hormonal imbalances in the majority of patients with chronic disease. This class focused on the following:

1) Understanding the complex interactions of hormone metabolism

2) Correct laboratory test selection and interpretation

3) Effective nutritional management of hormonal imbalances using the latest scientific research

4) Effective education and support of endocrine patients essential in maximizing benefits of any therapy regimen

Attendees emerged with knowledge far beyond the typical basic treatment protocols for high or low test results. Clinical principles were fully supported by simple to complex cases to establish a practical real-world teaching experience to advance clinical skills rapidly. Supportive material such as fully referenced and detailed course related case reviews were available to comprehensively support the protocols we use at Wellness Alternatives.

This course taught the doctor practical, easily applied assessment and clinical management methods allowing accurate "prioritization" of complex complaints and effective treatments.

Practical insights and materials for patient education rounded out the course to fulfill its goal of fully supporting busy clinicians. Key issues of cost containment, patient compliance, staff and patient education were integrated throughout the course content.

There was a special session on identifying outdated concepts and principles regarding endocrine function and nutritional management.

Special discussion on use of "natural" substances for endocrine support:

The latest scientific discoveries about limitations and hazards of "natural" progesterone creams. Dr. Dave learned how these can suppress your body's natural progesterone synthesis and down regulate progesterone receptor sites.

This class covered why some commonly used herbs in creams are completely ineffective when delivered in this form and developed an understanding of how key endocrine-related herbs become activated only in the milieu of the gastrointestinal tract.

Another topic was why certain common thyroid supplements can actually suppress thyroid function and there was discussion on the latest scientific research on this important topic.

Dr. Dave learned how to get the most out of supplements and creams and when to use other forms of delivery to optimize clinical results to improve your health.

Total up your scores and see what has happened to you this past year. It is a good indicator of your stress level and can be used as an indicator of inflammation and a predictor of stress related problems.

• 0-149 fairly low stress, but a 30% chance of diseases related to stress and inflammation
• 50-199 gives you a 50% chance of stress related diseases, and inflammation is present
• >300 implies that you have had a stressful year and there is a 80% chance that you will evidence a sickness and ill health

Our Children will be the first generation to be sicker and live shorter than their parents.

This is one of the most profound and disturbing statements I have heard referenced in the medical field in the past few years. Unfortunately, it is true.

Why? What do children need?

Clean air, clean water, exercise, real foods and love.

Love is not enough. Our children are going to have diseases of inflammation in their teens, 20s and 30s. They will die of these complex disease states and their treatments. Our fears of "what will kill us" will be where our next generation lives.

We are raising children in a world with unresolved stressors. We cannot continue to feed our children corn syrup, sugar, preservatives, additives, soy, table salt, artificial sweeteners, processed foods, trans fats and medications. We have a responsibility to limit our children's exposure to these substances. 

Ask yourself: 

• How clean is your water? Do you have a home purification system? Why not?
• Is the air clean? Is it free of chemicals and pollutants?
• Does the food we provide for our children have a history of walking, flying, growing or swimming? We would not feed our dog McDonalds, why is it ok to feed it to our children? We need to wake up. Eat REAL food.
• Do we teach our children how to deal with stress? How to breathe? How to fight or flee? (see our article in this newsletter on stress)
• Does loving your children include protection, making hard choices, education, and action?
• How much fiber does my child get in a day? The average child ingests less than 8 grams a day. Minimally give enough grams of fiber to equal their age in years plus 5 each day.
• How much exercise does my child get? They need 15 hours of physical exercise a week.  Really? REALLY!!

Are you or someone you know taking a high cholesterol medication? Can a medication actually cause you to loose your memory?

Thousands of people are taking prescription medication to control their high cholesterol levels, not realizing that a side effect of Statin drugs such as Lipitor ®, Zocor ®, Vytorin®, Crestor ® etc., can be disguised as a "stroke" or the beginning of Alzheimer's. Transient Global Amnesia or TGA is what people are commonly diagnosed with when they go to the hospital after a day-long episode of random memory loss, with no linkage to a stroke. Usually, all memory comes back slowly the same day, or the next, and the person resumes all normal activity with no explanation of why it happened to them. What causes these attacks? Let's examine how a Statin drug works:

The drug prevents the brain from creating its own cholesterol needed for neurotransmitters to communicate throughout the body. The brain can not retrieve the cholesterol created in the body because the cells are too big to cross the blood, brain barrier into the brain.

When the brain doesn't have cholesterol, it starves, and memory loss occurs! See diagram to left.

Statins are helpful to reduce cholesterol numbers because it reduces the cholesterol serum in the body, which appears to be "fixing the problem." In all actuality, inflammation, not 'high cholesterol' is the cause of atherosclerosis, or the build-up of plaque in an artery (Graveline 2006).  Unbelievably, many physicians are ill-informed of the mechanics of statin drugs and their side effects and are unaware of the link to TGA.

Wellness Alternatives focuses on reducing inflammation in the body to correct the initial problem of why a person needs a prescription medication. Why treat a symptom when one can address the root problem?

Statin alternatives consist of omega-3, CoQ10, Vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid. If you are currently on a statin drug and wish to discontinue use, schedule an appointment with us to determine the safest pathway to improve your health. Do not discontinue your medication without consultation from a medical provider.

Your health is your choice, not someone else's.

Reference: Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol  Graveline, Duane, MD  November 2006.

For more information on go to High Cholesterol

STRESS  AND  THE  SOLUTION:   RETRAINING  THE  BRAIN  FOR  HEALTH  AND  HAPPINESS

We all know that stress is a part of everyday life.  Unfortunately, many Americans tend to cope with stress in all the wrong ways.  A November survey by the advocacy group Mental Health America found that we frequently deal with chronic stress by watching television, skipping exercise and forgoing healthy foods, which actually adds greater stress to the body.  Insurance claims for stress, depression and job burnout are now the U.S.'s fastest growing disability category.

So what are we to do?  We know that life will continue to happen and that stress is not going to go away.    The answer lies with going to the root of the problem:  focusing on the feeling brain or limbic system, which is the clearinghouse of all the stresses from our mind, body, and external world and what is responsible for how we process and react to stressful situations.  We need to learn to comfort from within instead of looking for safety and comfort with unhealthy external solutions.

Every moment of the day, stress from the mind, the body and the external world pours into the feeling brain and when the sum total of that stress is more than we have the nurturing and limit skills to process, it triggers the stress response.  In that state of stress, we're in survival mode.  There is a cascade of stress hormones and draining of neurotransmitters.  This leaves us feeling discouraged, depressed, anxious, hostile or numb, having repetitive thoughts but no feelings.

When we're in stress mode, the pleasure pathways in the brain can't access natural pleasures so we reach for anything to bring us pleasure.  When we reach for those sources of comfort, we aren't wrong or bad.  We're just in chronic stress and there are chemical changes that trigger us to want those external solutions-that cookie, cigarette, drink, or object-as if our life depended on them.

Using external solutions such as overworking, people pleasing, thinking too much, drinking, eating and/or spending too much blocks our capacity to enjoy natural pleasures:  exercise, nature, music, sleep, art, and giving back.  The more we reach for external solutions the more we become neurologically primed to reach for them again.

At some point, the pleasure pathways in our brains are hijacked by external solutions and we forget how great we could feel.  Our neural networks trigger us to repeat the patterns of the past.  If we force ourselves to quit using a particular external solution, the brain quickly adapts to substitute another excess.

The Solution Method (which involves no drugs, devices, or surgery; was developed at one of the nation's top medical schools; and named one of the top ten medical advances of the year by Health Magazine) works by retraining the neural networks in the brain to ease stress and access pleasure.  It involves learning how to use simple skills that are based on self-nurturing and effective limit setting, skills that most of us missed in childhood and which give us the optimal software for processing the stress of daily life.

This is not just stress management because much of the stress that we experience is due to the effects of the past.  The neural networks of unhealed hurts from past losses and the unconscious unreasonable expectations that fuel them sensitize us to current stress so that even small stresses trigger the stress response.  That is why most of us are stuck on chronic stress.

For optimal results, we need to offload stress from our current lifestyle.  In Solution Training, you attend to lifestyle and healthcare issues and Wellness Alternatives can help you naturally correct any health imbalances you may have.  Solution Training may then be the answer to helping you deal with stress both past and present.

The goal of the training is to rewire your brain to the point that you stay at an increased level of well-being spontaneously more of the time and when stresses arise you bounce back more rapidly and move through life's stresses rather than getting stuck in them.

We know the risks associated with living with chronic stress and research is showing that stress affects us in dangerous and unhealthy ways that we may not even be aware of.  Take the next step and learn how the Solution Method can help you have more health and happiness in your life.  Contact Wellness Alternatives today!

New Intern at Wellness Alternatives

"With a little motivation, you can achieve anything - you set your own limits."

tuna en papillote

Coat the tuna steaks with the chopped rosemary. Transfer each steak onto parchment. Scatter capers on top, then pour the wine over. Season well with salt and pepper, then drizzle with EVOO. Loosely but securely close the parchment around the tuna - it should be loose enough to fill with steam as it cooks, but not let the juices escape during cooking. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Dr. Dave uses a clay plant base on the grill to give it extra flavor.