Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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Top 5 Health Tips To Keep You Out Of Your Doctor’s Office

I hate tips and lists but I’m not like everyone, or even close to the majority.  But I’ve had many questions and conversations about what I do personally to create and maintain health expression.  Hopefully this helps you in your journey.

Top 5 Health Tips To Keep You Out of Your Doctor’s Office

Read…a lot.

Reading isn’t just about information but also affirmation.  It’s not a question that I ask my clients but maybe I should.  “What was the last book you read or listened to?”  If the answer is romance novels, then we just need to add in some reading pertaining to their health challenges.  If they haven’t read a book since high school, that’s a problem.

If that resonates with you, then you’re destined to fail since you’re looking for someone else to solve the problem when you already possess the solution to 98% of your health issues.  The only long term, viable solution to you getting well is your personal efforts, on a consistent basis, for an extended period of time.  Picking up a book or listening to an audiobook about a health topic is the least expensive, yet most life changing thing you can possibly do to turn around your situation.

The clients that get the best results are the ones that say, “Hey, Dr. Kurt, have you read this book yet?”

Love Yourself.

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No Symptom Is Stupid – Video

Symptoms are just your body’s attempt at buying you time to escape what is potentially going to cause you great harm. The symptom isn’t stupid. Let’s take a look at many common diagnoses and put them in context of your body doing something intelligent so we can work towards supporting your challenges opposed to suppressing your symptoms.

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Double Diabetes

A few weeks back I had posted a picture of the infamous Unicorn Frappuccino.  It was an image that equated the sugar load of the beverage with eating 3 Snicker’s bars.  I made the comment ‘that if you’re as excited about this drink, then you should be as excited about diabetes.’

What ensued was a firestorm that I could have never predicted.  I was getting hammered for perpetuating the notion that sugar causes diabetes and the shaming police were flicking on sirens and showing their lights all over the place.  I was being accused of perpetuation a stigma, disease shaming, and diet shaming.

Functional Medicine Colorado SpringsAnd it wasn’t coming from anyone with type 2 diabetes but those moms and loved ones of people with type 1 diabetes.  The momma bears were in full force and after I let the dust settle, I understand why.  They are constantly having to explain and defend that their child’s condition isn’t from bad parenting nor chronic, reckless, lifestyle decisions.

Raising 3 boys with my wife, I know a mom will blame herself for anything that isn’t favorable, even if it’s out of her control.  But where my point was being missed was that even though something isn’t your fault, it’s still your responsibility.  And even if your child has type 1 diabetes, that child will have better outcomes by avoiding the things that contribute to type 2 diabetes…specifically a high sugar diet.

Regardless of the presentation of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, there’s a common theme, the regulation and utilization of insulin.  One doesn’t produce insulin, the other, the cells don’t listen to insulin well.

In either scenario, the less need for insulin, the better the outcomes.  If you consume the unicorn, regardless of endogenous insulin production or exogenous insulin injection, the high sugar load calls for a higher insulin need.

What I want to make clear is that even with type 1 diabetes, this doesn’t mean someone cannot develop type 2 diabetes simultaneously.  Insulin is essential to the body for many reasons.  But too much insulin becomes annoying to the cells, and the cells can start to ignore the signal, no matter if you’re type 1.

This means that for a type 1 diabetic, not only can you provide better health outcomes by limiting foods that require a high insulin response (grains, legumes, juices, sugar, etc), you can save some money by not needed as much insulin to combat those high glycemic foods.

I know for those moms with a type 1 diabetic kid, you want to provide what you can since they have started life with some extra challenges.  But I challenge the notion that even though the type 1 diabetes was not your fault, that creating a low glycemic diet with time restricted eating will benefit the ups and downs of sugar spikes and insulin needs.  So yes, that does mean limiting grains, juices, and everything that is the Standard American Diet.  Yes, that probably does mean trying the total opposite nutrition advice of your dietician, pediatrician, and USDA sponsored eating plan.

But I also know that I get discredited because I don’t have the right initials after my name or the specialty after my name.  But here’s someone that does.  Take a look at his lectures, his documentary, his book, and take that information in the context of the insulin demand, not if insulin is coming from internal administration or from injection administration.

And to the woman/women that automatically assume I’m trying to sell something with my anti-sugar message, the only thing I’m trying to sell is creating a life culture of creating more health and needing less healthcare.  It’s no surprise that healthcare is expensive.  86% off our healthcare costs are from chronic illness.  If we want to have better health outcomes, then we have to stop arguing over who is going to pay for healthcare and instead ask what are we paying for?  I said this with Obama, I will say this with Trump.  I didn’t say no healthcare and I didn’t say perfect health.  But if you haven’t realized it yet, the more we grant access of emergency interventions to treat chronic illness, the worst outcomes we have.

If the outcome is to create health then we have to question the health practices that have been drilled into our heads that have left us with ever increasing chronic illness.  Not sure where to start?  You know how to find me.

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Arthritis: The 3 ‘I’s’ of Abnormal Joints and Bones Your Rheumatologist Fails to Mention

Arthritis can be debilitating.  In fact, arthritis and rheumatoid conditions are the leading cause of disability among US adults for the past 15 years.  So when your doctor is assessing your spine and joints and makes mention of ‘normal degenerative changes,’ that should be a clue to find another doctor.

There’s nothing normal about arthritis and join degeneration.  For your body to be in an active destruction of a joint, especially when not trauma induced, there’s a whole mess of ‘not normal’ going on.

The major problem with traditional healthcare is that they see the arthritic changes and resultant pain as the problem.  I would argue they are the effect of many other processes in your body giving you a repeated fighting chance of survival and a breaking point happens.  But for 98% of us, it’s not random chance and we’re not part of the unlucky club.

There are 3 ‘I’s’ that your primary or rheumatologist fail to address when assessing and treating arthritis.  Actually, they talk a lot about one of them, but their solutions actually cause more imbalance and worsen the condition long term.

Intestinal Permeability:

Your rheumatologist may compartmentalize your gut as just a function of digestion.  And if that’s the case, find a new doctor.  The point being is that your gut is one of your first line of defenses in your immune expression.  This is mediated through an expression of one of your immunoglobulins, SIgA (Secretor IgA).

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Obesity: A Sign of Extreme Intelligence but a Monster Ego

This post is for all those fatties out there. You know who I’m talking about…fatty, fatty, fat, fat.  Yeah, I called you fat, look at me I’m skinny.  Never stopped me from getting…slapped in the face.  Before you turn this off or post negative comments, hear me out for 3 seconds.

Being fat is a sign of extreme, high-level intelligence. Yes, that’s right.  When you are assessing that booty and belly shake in the mirror, don’t think disgusting. Think Einstein, Hawking, or even Dwight K. Schrute.

Being fat is a sign of extreme, high-level intelligence. Click To Tweet

Your body NEVER does stupid stuff. It always gives you the absolute best chance of surviving the next 30 seconds, even if it’s at the expense of your next 30 years.

Why would the body take excess energy substrate and convert it to fat?  Because it’s the preferred fuel for your brain and body to operate.  Animals that go into hibernation are living off their fat stores.  Humans don’t hibernate but there is (or was) a great possibility that we would go without food for a lengthy time.

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Why I Recommend CrossFit to My Clients: The 5 UnExpected Benefits That Will Change Your Life

I admit it, I consider myself a CrossFit junkie…or maybe I’m just a giant poser.  I drank the Kool-Aid about 3 1/2 years ago and haven’t stopped.  Before I go to bed each night, I prepare my gym bag, my workout clothes, fill up my water bottle, gather the supplements I take in the morning, and look for the workout that I will be attempting the next morning.

Functional Medicine Colorado SpringsOver the past 3 1/2 years, I have noticed drastic changes in my strength, endurance, body composition, and the ability to run flat out for 1/2 a mile before my hands start shaking whenever my dog escapes the house. With 3 boys, ages 5 and under, the front door to my house routinely gets left open.

My internal dialogue has changed considerably as well.  It went from, “I’m not doing that,” to “I don’t think I can do that,” to “I don’t want to do that but I’ll try.”  That’s the moment you know you’re hooked.

But it’s not for these fitness reasons that I encourage my clients and my kids as they get older, to step into a CrossFit box.  Here are 5 unexpected benefits I have learned and experienced in my 3 1/2 year journey that encourage me to recommend this routine to almost all my clients.

Forced to Focus

CrossFit is defined as ‘constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity.’  What does this mean?  It means you can’t multi task while working out.  There’s one objective in front of you and until you complete that task, you don’t get to move on.  There’s no breath for chit chat while the workout is happening, there’s no time to check your phone during the WOD, and there’s no possible way your ear buds are going to stay in place.

A huge problem I see with chronic health problems and the road blocks faced, is that the person hasn’t been focused.  During a CrossFit workout, you always have at least one coach keeping an eye on you, you have other members in the class tracking your progress and encouraging you, and you have a set rep scheme or time frame that you need to complete the routine.  You are forced to focus.

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Full Body Fix Radio: Pain, Inflammation, and Auto-Immune

Functional Medicine Colorado Springs

 

I was recently interviewed on Dr. Scott Mills’ podcast, The Full Body Fix.  You can subscribe to it on iTunes or click the image above for show notes.  We dive into the topic of when your aches and pains are more than just aches and pain and where to look when traditional body work isn’t fixing the problem.  Enjoy.

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Low Sodium Diets for Heart Health: Why Your Doctor and Dietician is Missing the Mark

If you are being treated for high blood pressure, I’m sure you’ve been told to watch your sodium intake.  The traditional medical theory is that since you consume too much sodium, your body is so defective that it doesn’t know what to do with it, so it holds onto the sodium.  And if you’re holding onto too much sodium, you will then unfortunately hold onto fluid.  And if you are holding onto fluid, this makes your heart work harder, thus raising blood pressure.  And if you don’t get that lowered, you’re going to die…like yesterday.

This all sounds good and logical…except that it isn’t.  Well not exactly.  Yes, sodium retention will create fluid retention whichFunctional Medicine Colorado Springs can create blood pressure elevation.  But your body has too many checks and balances to just let sodium hang around from dietary intake.

The part that contradicts the notion that you need a low sodium diet is that your body never does stupid stuff.  If your body is holding onto sodium to raise blood pressure, then there’s a very important reason.  And that reason is because you are attempting to escape something that is potentially or perceived as dangerous (whether you are aware of it or not).

Sodium is a major player in the communication signals from the adrenals to the kidneys.  If you’re in danger, those signals will create the retention of sodium so that there’s an end game expression of an increase in blood pressure. If you cannot get your blood pressure elevated to pump blood filled with all the nutrients and hormones necessary to engage muscle and nervous system activity to escape the danger, you’re done…like yesterday.

The general population experiences daily dangers from sitting too much, adverse childhood experiences that are unresolved, the Standard America Diet (not just salt intake), and staying employed at a job that is hated to earn money to impress people that aren’t liked, to buy stuff that isn’t even wanted.  Just because you don’t have an immediate deadline doesn’t mean you aren’t stressed.

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This Is Your Brain on Inflammation: ADHD, Autism, Depression, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s.

If you were a child of the 80s and 90s like myself, you will remember this commercial.  “This is your brain.  This is drugs.  This is your brain on drugs.  Any questions?”

With the ever rising incidences and diagnoses for ADHD, Autism, Depression, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s and nothing to resolve them in the medical world, I think we can change the 80s drug slogan to make it more applicable for today.  After all, the more we ‘early diagnose and manage/treat’ a condition, the more disability associated with that condition rises.  The best case scenario your doctor provides is to ‘manage’ the symptoms.

But here’s the reality.  Symptoms aren’t stupid.  Your body never does anything stupid.  Symptoms are nothing more than your attempts at buying time to escape what is potentially dangerous or harmful.  That potential danger could be something you ate, a lack of movement, a poor relationship, or chemical influence.  One of those symptoms is inflammation, regardless of the condition or disease process.

“This is your brain.  This is inflammation.  This is your brain on inflammation.  Any questions?”

If there’s a commonality of brain inflammation to all these mental/emotional conditions, then how does the brain get inflamed?  Don’t think of inflammation as an isolated event.  Inflammation is a byproduct of an immune response due to trauma.  And again, don’t look at trauma as just an event.  Trauma is a persistent pattern of dysfunction.  It could be physical,  chemical, or emotional/social/spiritual.

Our immune system (inflammation) gets activated for 2 main reasons.

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Heart Disease: Why We Should Rename Heart Disease to ‘Overloaded Liver Syndrome.’

This is more of a ‘random thoughts’ post.  It’s not lengthy, but hopefully one to get you thinking a bit differently about heart disease and a way to improve your risk assessment, if not for you, for a loved one.

Why do we call heart disFunctional Medicine Colorado Springsease, ‘heart disease?’ We don’t call a car accident, ‘excessive tire tracking.’ Imagine if we did treat a car accident like we do heart disease. Yes, there is an immediate need at the scene to make sure everyone is safe and traffic doesn’t get too backed up but then an investigation happens looking at the series of events that lead to ‘excessive tire tracking.’

There could be texting, speed, substance abuse, deer, or a faulty traffic light.  But policy isn’t made regarding the effect of the accident, the presence of tire tracks.  Policy is made to reduce the root causes of the accident.

With heart disease, the standard of care is to label the scene of the accident, call that the cause, and design national campaigns and policy regarding that finding.  You have high blood pressure. You have clogged arteries. You have thick blood.  You should be screened.

Yet, we ignore the tell tale signs that a heart event is on the horizon.  We know things like inflammation and insulin resistance are major risk factors affecting the heart.  But those are rarely quantified until after the heart event has hit.

Our healthcare system lacks the investigation.  And the more we try and boost heart health and early detection of heart problems, the more heart disease rises.  This happens for every diagnosis.  Cancer is an effect.  Diabetes is an effect.  Arthritis is an effect.  Yes, the current health expression may need immediate attention but that treatment doesn’t ever work to create health.  So I’m proposing we change the name of heart disease to something like ‘liver overload syndrome.’

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