Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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Life Expectancy Dogma

Life Expectancy Dogma

I had posted this info graphic on my Facebook page the other day from the Immunity Education Group.  It has been shared and liked and commented on by many people.  As I read the comments, I was waiting for the one commenter, usually male, that claims to be ‘science’ based.  Without a hiccup, it happened.  A gentleman named Troy filled the role.

Life expectancy dogma

Funny that…your level of understanding of life expectancy in relation to the implementation of vaccines is the biggest piece of BS logic based on dogma.  But it’s not your fault, your spoon fed, ‘science’ based, information comes from the media sources that are funded by the very companies that make the vaccines.  Of course they want you to believe that vaccines saved the world from dismal death rates.

Average Life Expectancy

Average life expectancy is just that, an average.  If 1 person lives until 80 years old and another person dies at 2 years old, then the average life expectancy rate is 41 years old.  It doesn’t mean that everyone had a midlife crisis as they approached their 18th birthday.

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Those Lab Values Suck

I had a woman contact me the other day.  She is 7-8 months pregnant and on her third pregnancy.  The first two have been fantastic and the kids have rockstar health.  This third pregnancy, she has been feeling more fatigued than the other two.  She was just attributing it to being a stay-at-home mom with two other toddlers and the physical and emotional load from chasing them all day.

At her last pre-natal appointment, the baby had a minor heart arrhythmia.  After having two pregnancies with no worries at all, this raised her concern a bit.  Truthfully she was freaked out.  At her previous appointment, some routine lab work was done.  With the increased fatigue and now a fetal heart arrhythmia with the baby, I said, “get me those labs.”  She said, “Why, my provider said everything looked fine.”  I said, “Those lab values suck.”

Those Lab Values Suck

Your labs suckWhen you look at the image, you will see all the different analytes measured.  On the right side, you will see the reference ranges.  I can’t stress enough that these values lump 95% of the population into the ‘normal and healthy’ category.  With 70-80% of healthcare claims are for chronic illness, there’s no feasible possibility or probability that 95% of the population is ‘normal and healthy.’

In the middle of the image, you will see the ‘out of range’ values.  For this woman, there were 3 values ‘out of range.’  Glucose, albumin, and immature granulocytes.  Her provider said that low albumin is often seen in pregnancy and is not a big concern.  I beg to differ.  Yes, low albumin is often seen in pregnancy but shouldn’t be swept under the rug.  Albumin is the main constituent protein in the blood.  It serves to transport hormones, vitamins, minerals,fatty acids, enzymes, amino acids, and drugs.

Yes, it may be low in pregnancy but that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.  For that one value, think of the implications for mom and baby.  If there isn’t enough carriers for all the building blocks for the baby to develop as well as to provide mom the essentials for survival, is it a wonder mom is overly fatigued and baby has an arrhythmia?  I digress.

If we are going to use labs as a tool to assess prevention, then we have to analyze it in a range that is preventative. Click To Tweet

On the image, you will also see some hand writing.  That’s my assessment for your viewing pleasure.  When I do a lab analysis, I import the values into a spreadsheet for easy tracking and meticulously write a report on all the intricacies of everything.  To make my point here, I wrote on the actual labs.  You will see I have flagged 15 values.

The point isn’t to freak mom out anymore than she is but to uncover hidden dysfunctions that get labeled as ‘normal,’ that would explain why she is fatigued as well as the baby having an arrhythmia.

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Fat and Fabulous or Inflamed and Ignorant

Fat and Fabulous

I was giving a presentation to a group of other doctors and students and in the mental health field last week. One attendee interrupted me when I was talking about insulin resistance.

She was probably 100 pounds overweight but told a story that she has already lost about 30 pounds, had decreased her thyroid med dose by 1/3, and even had regression of ovarian cysts. These were fantastic changes and I praised her.  She said she was fat and fabulous.

But the part that made her over step her boundaries was her statement that I shouldn’t lump all fat people as unhealthy and that all skinny people are healthy.  After all, she was fat (her words not mine) and she is healthy.

First of all, I didn’t; those words never spewed from my mouth nor will they ever. What I was discussing was how certain areas of the body have more or less affinity to store energy (insulin resistance), hence why people gain weight in the butt, gut, and thighs.  It’s an area that is a lot less resistant to insulin than the liver or muscles.  It’s an easy area to store excess energy.

Then she went on to say how healthy she was and that all her labs came out looking good, etc. I didn’t have time to get into why both of those statements are false in front of the group, so I thought I would tackle it here.  She wasn’t looking for my help, just looking to be heard in a crowd.

In my mind, I don’t look at fat as fat. I look at fat as an outward expression of inflammation. You can be fat and fabulous but don’t let that blind you to being inflamed and ignorant.

The fact that she said her labs look good is a huge red flag in my book, especially when she says that other conditions are present, like hypothyroid.  Those ‘normal’ ranges on blood work lump 95% of the population as ‘normal’ and fabulous. When I read them, I tighten and interpret those values in a much more narrow spectrum.  It ends up being more predictive and preventative in nature.

Secondly, the standard lab work is the epitome of lazy healthcare. I doubt that she was tested for anything of value, especially anything that would be measuring levels of inflammation.  If your doctor is only running a TSH to assess thyroid, your cholesterol levels to assess heart disease, or blood glucose to check diabetes, it’s time to go elsewhere.

With that said…

Inflammation

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Think Before You Go Pink

Since October and Pink are in full swing, let’s take a look at the mammogram effectiveness and think before you go pink.

One of the rally points behind all the pink hoopla is that mammograms save lives…or do they? The Cochrane Collaboration did a systematic review of 7 very large studies already performed looking at rates of breast cancer and death for those that got mammograms and those that did not.

This review included over 500,000 women from the US, UK, Canada, and Sweden. The conclusion was pretty evident…there was no change in death rates between those that had regular mammograms and those that did not.

What I found interesting was one of the studies done by the University of Copenhagen and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (essentially their version of the US’s NIH). They looked at deaths due to breast cancer between the years of 1997-2006. For those in the age category of 35-55, there was a 5% decrease in deaths dBreast Cancer Awareness. ue to breast cancer that got regular mammograms. For the age group 55-74, there was a 1% decrease in deaths.

That’s pretty compelling evidence that mammograms save lives…until you look at the women that did NOT get mammogram screenings. In the age group of 35-55, there was a 6% decrease in deaths and a 2% decrease in deaths in the older age group.

If less people die in the group that did not get mammograms, you can have 2 conclusions. 1. Mammograms don’t save lives. 2. Mammograms actually kill 1% of the population.  Science isn’t just about the results reported, it’s about the conclusions reported.

What's worse that heading in the wrong direction? Heading in the wrong direction...ENTHUSIASTICALLY! Click To Tweet

Why are mammograms so highly relied upon by the medical community?  It’s because they operate in a reactive model.  You might think, ‘No, you’re wrong.  Mammograms are used to early detect and prevent cancer.’  My point exactly.

Mammograms can’t prevent breast cancer.  Only you can do that.  Early detection is not prevention either.  If there’s something detected, that means you already have it.  It wasn’t prevented.  If you get a negative scan, you get told to ‘continue doing what you’re doing.’  So you do what you have always done and then a couple years later, oops, cancer is spotted.

“We don’t know how this happened.  You had clear scans prior to this.  It must be genetic.  Did your mom have breast cancer?  You must have the BRACA gene.”  Fear based care is then dictated from uncertainty, reactive care.  And we start painting anything and everything pink in the name of women’s health.

 What drives cancer?  Inflammation, insulin resistance, immune system imbalances, hormone imbalances, autonomic imbalances, deficiencies, and toxicities.  Your routine mammogram won’t pick up on any of those; only possibly detect something after you already have it.

Yes, women going through cancer need support but all this pink washing does nothing but feed a system that’s already broken and statistically is a waste of a lot of time and money.  What’s worse that heading in the wrong direction?  Heading in the wrong direction…ENTHUSIASTICALLY!  Think before you go pink.

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Morning Routine

When making recommendations for people, I often get asked, “what do YOU do?” I love this because I think it separates those doctors that lead by prescription pad versus the ones that lead by example.  I feel a tipping point approaching that healthcare consumers, you, are going to be looking more and more for a doctor that practices what they preach.  You aren’t looking for perfection but a leader by example.  Limited are the days of doctors that are overweight, smokers, and perpetually sweating while saying that they need to eat better, stress less, and make sure you get your flu shot.

With my daily routines, I feel the morning is the most important time of day.  In the Evangelical Christian world, tithing is a common practice.  The premise is that we are only on earth temporarily and everything we have is borrowed.  We start this life with nothing and we end this life with nothing.  Our duty is to be a good steward of what we have (financially, relationships, and our physical bodies).  As a good steward, we recognize that we don’t own anything and therefore as an act of faith and gratitude, give 10% of our resources back to God.  Classically, this is the offering plate in church.

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I’ve Tried Everything

When speaking in public, I often have a few people hang around after the talk to ask about their specific health ailments.  One phrase I hear in common is, “I’ve tried everything.”  I often defer to, “have you tried chiropractic?”  Their response is either, “I used to go after a car accident,” or “you think that would help?”

Yes, I do think it would help.  That’s not just because I’m a chiropractor.  On September 11, 2001, the day I started chiropractic college, I had never been adjusted.  Like these people at my workshops, I too never associated chiropractic with anything other a treatment for neck and back pain.  The more I researched, I chose to go to chiropractic college because as a profession, the principles and philosophy were the closest match to how I wanted to help change people’s lives.  It had the scope that allowed me to gear my clinic towards lifestyle interventions.

What left the biggest impact on my life was how my own personal health changed as a result of being a chiropractic patient.  I struggled with eczema through college so bad that if I opened my hand, it would crack and often times bleed.  Even with cleaning up my diet, the more stressed I got, the more the eczema would flare.

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The Natural Trap

It’s natural (no pun intended) for people seeking help at my clinic to want a natural solution to their problems.  More often than not, they have started that journey on their own with a trip to the local health food store.  After obtaining their health history form and past medical records, I comb through everything before we even sit down to meet.  Something I see in common is that their supplement list isn’t for the purposes of adding nutrients that they aren’t getting through food but instead a ‘natural’ pharmacy looking to treat their symptoms.

The Natural Trap

Big surprise, it’s not working.  That’s why they are coming to see me.  I will say I’m a fan of supplements but not treating symptoms with supplements.

They are taking red yeast rice to lower cholesterol, calcium to build bone density, 5-HTP and tryptophan to regulate depression, and fish oil for pain and inflammation.

What’s wrong with this picture?

What’s wrong is that the patient and most likely the health food store advisor are basing their decisions on faulty premises.  You are trying to replicate the same mechanism with something natural that mimics what the pharmaceutical intervention does.  You assume the pharmaceutical intervention actually works.

You assume things like high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease and that depression is an imbalance of serotonin.

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Do Daddies Get Sick?

LESSONS LEARNED WHILE ON VACATION

• I’m either not that important, have no friends, or am a great delegator.  Where we were staying, I had ZERO cell phone reception.  Running a business, this can be a little stressful but decided to let it go.  When we got to the airport for our return trip, I turned the phone on.  I had 1 text message.  It was from my cell phone carrier reminding me of my upcoming bill due date. Whatever the reason for the lack of incoming messages, it all worked out great.

LESSON LEARNED:

Turn off your cell phone for extended periods of time when you’re with the people that you love and care about the most.   You’re not really missing anything.  I had everyone and everything at arms length.  It added confirmation that despite it being 2015, I still don’t need a smart phone, but maybe a better cell phone carrier…in case of emergencies.

Lifestyle Medicine

 

• I enjoyed some stand up paddle boarding in the ocean.  Usually I can pick up new activities fairly easy but I was getting frustrated with how much I was falling into the water standing on this barge.  I realized I was looking at my feet and the tip of the board.  I changed my gaze to the horizon and where I want to paddle to and it become easy.  I may or may not have pissed off some local fisherman casting off the pier.  I even had one offer to “come down there and help me out.”

LESSON LEARNED:

In life, look where you want to go.  In all honesty, I’ve heard this message before from leadership and personal development type books many times.  It took some kinesthetic learning to have it finally sink in (no pun intended).  You keep focusing on where you are, you’re going to stay where you are.  Sure you may make a little progress but until you fix your focus on where you want to go, you’ll be fighting a lot harder change your situation.

OTHER LESSON LEARNED: 

Fisherman are pretty mean.  Make sure you stay 300 feet away from them.

 

• I was preparing some lunch for the kids and my 3 year old asks me a question.  He asks, ‘Do daddies get sick?’  I said sometimes they do but I do my best to stay as healthy so I can take care of you.  His response was, “it’s OK if you get sick, mommy can just take care of you.”  I told him I would rather be strong and healthy so I can help mommy out.

LESSON LEARNED:

More is caught than taught and to my kids, healthy is normal.  If you’re a parent, you want nothing more than to see your kids healthy and happy.  And as a parent, you’ll do almost anything to achieve that.  At what expense?

Are you putting your own health and well being in jeopardy to make sure your kids have the best?  This doesn’t work in the long run.  At age 36, I wish I had a father that was well.  He was the epitome of being a servant leader. The problem is that his servant leadership turned into slave leadership and ignored his own health.  Now he has full blown Alzheimer’s and all those people that he served for decades want nothing to do with him because it’s ‘awkward’ to be around him.  Parents…start putting yourself first.  The first step might be shutting off the phone.

 

• I spent a lot of time either in the ocean or in a pool.  The only time I wore shoes was to workout in the morning and a shirt was 50/50.  After a workout, we headed to the water.

LESSON LEARNED:

Formal showers are optional when at the beach.  I only showered once during the week for a family photo and once before returning to civilization.  I don’t think I was stinky but if you enter a stinky room and can’t spot the stinky kid, it’s probably you.

Those that celebrate look forward to getting back to what allowed them to leave. Those that vacate dread getting back to what makes them want to leave. Click To Tweet

• By day 5, I was getting a little ancy to get back into the swing of regularly scheduled life.  I love what I do and hope that shines through with my clients.  Combing through lab reports, extensive health histories, Insight scans, adjusting giggling kids, and piecing all those together is really fun for me.  I had fun celebrating with family but don’t like to vacate my normal life for long periods of time.

LESSON LEARNED:

I don’t like the term ‘vacation’ and I feel bad for those that dread leaving vacation or dread Mondays in general.  Work at creating a life you enjoy and you don’t have to vacate.  You can go celebrate.  Take a ‘holiday’ and get refreshed to come back to what you love doing.  Those that celebrate look forward to getting back to what allowed them to leave.  Those that vacate dread getting back to what makes them want to leave.  Are you one that longs for vacation or one that celebrates?

What lessons have you learned while taking time away from your normal life?

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Weight Loss like Vuarnet France

The topic that I have fielded the most questions and conversations about over the past few weeks has been regarding weight loss.  Maybe because I’m skinny (I like to call it lean).  Maybe because I used to be the fat kid (or ‘husky’ as I was told when I was younger).  I heard the word husky so much I thought it was a brand of clothing.  When we would go school shopping, we would always look for the ‘husky’ jeans.  When school would start up and everyone was checking out each other’s school digs, I would brag that I wore ‘huskies.’  In my mind it was as popular as Bugle Boy, Vuarnet France, and Jams.

Just like the brands of the 80s are out of business, so is the 80’s ideal weight equation of calories in + calories out = ability to wear acid washed tight-rolled jeans.

Calorie expenditure minus calorie intake is good in theory for weight loss but in today’s world of massive toxicities, inflammatory lifestyles, and emotional roller coasters, it just doesn’t work anymore.  Maybe it never did.  The past 40 years, the nation has gone low fat, no fat, light calorie, and no calorie and for the first time in history of the US, the number of obese people outnumber the overweight.

Let’s get past the dumbed down, calorie counting, weight loss formula and take a look at some areas of your weight loss journey that aren’t addressed.

You Are Exercising Too Much

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My Crystal Clear Stance on Vaccines – Revised 2015

The Truth About Vaccines

Preface

I originally wrote a post in 2012 called 'My CRYSTAL Clear Stance on Vaccines (Which Aren't Immunizations)' at my old blog at www.DrKurtPerkins.com.  You've most likely been re-directed from that link to this site or from Health Impact News.  

I wrote the original post with the intent of saving time answering questions from parents on what I do with vaccines concerning my kids.  It was written, not as advice for what they should do, but why I am choosing to not vaccinate my kids.  I write this as a dad first and wanting to do what we feel is best for them.  

VaccinesIt blew up.  That post receives thousands of hits per day.  I have received comments of encouragement and gratitude for sticking my neck out and I have received comments wishing my kids would die from every 'vaccine-preventable' illness to 'teach me a lesson.'  The past 3 years have been a whirl wind.  

It's 2015 and times are changing fast.  Hesitantly due to all the back lash, I have decided to update this now in response to California passing mandatory vaccine laws.  Being in Colorado, I know these same mandates are coming down the pipe line, it's just a matter of time  What's ironic is that we're taught in schools to think independently and be problem solvers.  The reality is that now 'they', the government, will take away education to those that don't conform to their ideals and dogma.  

Is this ironic or just incongruent?  In any scenario, these mandates aren't going to do anything but drive more division and shouting between what the state requires and what parents think is best for their kids.  Those parents that have made a conscious and educated choice to not vaccinate are not going to stick needles in their kid's arms just so their kid can go to public school.

Is this the new segregation?  The vaccine topic gets as heated as race, religion, and politics.  

I don't care if you vaccinate... 

Let me continue to be crystal clear.  I honestly don't care if you vaccinate or not.  Your vaccinated child is not going to affect my non-vaccinated child.  My non-vaccinated child is not going to affect your vaccinated child, right?  If the vaccine works, you have nothing to worry about.  

I'm not recommending you do vaccinate.  I'm not recommending you don't vaccinate.  I'm recommending you take the emotion out of the decision and take action that you are comfortable doing.  The following are my decisions based on what I am doing as a dad, not as a provider.  My role as a dad takes much priority over my role as a doctor (even though many don't think I'm a 'real' doctor due to the designated initials after my name).  The irony is that when you want someone with the correct initials but have a differing opinion, you think they are a quack too.  

Be honest, you just want to back someone that you agree with, regardless of their training.   

As a parent, let's be honest, none of us are going to sacrifice what we think is best for our kids for 'the greater good.'  Even those that want mandated vaccines to 'protect' their child that cannot receive a vaccine for whatever reason aren't pushing for the greater good argument to protect those that can't get vaccines.  They are pushing for the greater good to protect their own child, which happens to be in the 'can't get vaccines' crowd.  Non-vaccinators choose their route to protect their own kid just like those parents that choose needles.  

We get heated with vaccines because we want what's best for our own kids.  If someone else is doing something different than how we would do it, it's taken as a slap in the face as not being a good parent.  If I don't want my kid eating cake at a birthday party, some other parent is going to take that as me being better and them being a bad parent for allowing their child to eat it.  Get over yourself.  Your friends choosing to vaccinate or not shouldn't cause you to get so emotional about the issue.  

Other families kids come second.  I'm going to choose my kid's welfare over your kid 100x out of 100. 

What I care about is that free-market healthcare decisions are slowly turning into state run mandates.  I firmly believe that a parent has the right to make healthcare decisions for their kids.  It's not just with vaccines.  The parent should have the right to do chemo or not with their child.  A parent should have a right to decide if their kids get chiropractic care or not.  A parent should choose whether or not to feed their kid twinkies or not.  

As a healthcare provider, mind you one that does not have the right to administer vaccines, these mandates set a precedent that your healthcare decisions are no longer between you and your doctor.  That decision now has a 3rd and potentially a 4th party involved in your decision.  One party is the insurance company, if you choose to use it.  The other party is the local government regulations.  If a doctor contracts with an insurance company, his/her recommendations are clouded by what the insurance contract allows.  

This vaccine mandate has set a precedent that your health choices are no longer between you and your doctor.  This will either drive people away from the doctor, knowing they are not getting unbiased advice.  Or this will drive doctors away from the practice, knowing they can't practice the science, art, and philosophy of their craft.  I don't know any doctor that got into their specialty to be told what to do.  

Physicians in California will now no longer be allowed to fairly and honestly explain the pros and cons of various vaccines to families. With the state legislature making medical decisions for families by threatening to exclude children from school, the physician-patient relationship becomes irrelevant. Dr. Paul Thomas MD

I know the intent behind these mandates is to try and limit perceived harm to the child, even with the best intentioned of parents.  The problem is that these mandates won't increase health outcomes.  These mandates are based on dogma and faulty interpretation of data that created vaccines as the savior of the free world.  

We already have real world examples.  Mississippi has the highest vaccine rate, lowest measles rates, yet the HIGHEST infant mortality rate in the US.  West Virginia also has strict vaccine mandates like Mississippi and their infant mortality rate is astronomical compared to California, whom now has just as strict guidelines.  

Infant Mortality rate

 

I'm not saying the vaccine causes the high infant mortality rate nor am I anti-vaccine.  I'm pro-health.  Shouldn't our proof of healthcare mandates be measured in health outcomes, not just the 'most vaccinated?'  Are we using science and outcomes to make these mandates or dogma?  If the the most vaccinated equals the healthiest, then I'm all for vaccines and vaccine mandates.  But this isn't the case.  Instead, as a dad, I play risk analysis with healthcare interventions with the ultimate measuring stick being 'healthy kids.'

 

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