Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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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

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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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Childhood and AutoImmune Expression: How Your Current Immune Overload Could Stem From Childhood Trauma

A trend that I have noticed on my intake forms from new clients over the past 4-6 months is that there are 2 questions answered that breaks my heart.  Both are yes/no questions.

Question #1:  Did you feel safe growing up?

Question #2:  Have you ever been abused?

I can say more often than not, I have seen more ‘Noes’ when asked if they felt safe growing up and I have seen more ‘Yeses’ when asked if they have ever been abused.  And a common ailment in those answers are autoimmune conditions.  Is there a direct correlation?  I wouldn’t rule it out but that’s just based on my observation.

Functional medicine Colorado SpringsI’ve had conversations about this with colleagues as well as I’ve talked about these similarities in my workshops.  But what I didn’t know, is that my speculation has already been quantified.

I was recently introduced to the ACE study.  I hadn’t heard of it but as it was described, I had to go find it.  The ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Experiences) was conducted between 1995-1997 and eligible for follow up through 2005.  ACEs included childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; witnessing domestic violence; growing up with household substance abuse, mental illness, parental divorce, and/or an incarcerated household member.

In an autoimmune analysis based on those results, the outcome was hospitalizations for any of 21 selected autoimmune diseases and 4 immunopathology groupings.  64% reported at least one ACE.  First hospitalizations for any autoimmune disease increased with increasing number of ACEs.  Compared with persons with no ACEs, persons with >or=2 ACEs were at a 100% increased risk for rheumatic diseases.

MIND. BLOWN.

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You Don’t Have Adrenal Fatigue | Stop Making Your Identity a Catch Phrase

For those that aren’t familiar with the adrenal glands, they have huge function in your health expression.  Every second of your day, your nervous system has to organize and coordinate your life experiences:  What you eat, how you think, how you move, wind changes, social influences, spiritual experiences, and congruency in purpose and practices.

With every single item, within microseconds, your nervous system has to decide if these particular influences will cause you harm or cause you happiness.  More often than not, your nervous system will be cautious and engage functions that shift you into immediate survival and protection. The first set of organs that your nervous system talks to are your adrenals.

Functional medicine Colorado SpringsThere are two major hormone groups (but many more) that the adrenals release to help you adapt when life throws curve balls at you.  One group is the catecholamines (adrenaline, epinephrine, norepinephrine, etc) that primarily work on functions of heart rate, blood pressure, muscle contraction, and triggering your brain for reaction over reason.  The other class is cortisol that primarily works to get your body to release stored energy (sugar) to give you instant fuel to escape a potential danger.

The longer someone is in the this state of protection, the more the body creates a default setting into that expression.  And the longer than is expressed, the more apt you favor catabolism (tissue destruction).  This sounds bad but no reaction or symptom is stupid.  These expressions are creating pathways for you to buy time to escape what is potentially life threatening. The more this reaction is repeated, the harder it is to keep up with the demands.  It’s like if you sprinted instead of walked to do everything.  You’re going to get tired.

Tired ≠ Fatigue

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Two Truths and A Lie | Why What You Believe Determines Your Health

If there’s one thing I have learned from both working with clients for 12 years and trying this thing called parenting is that beliefs dictate behavior. If someone believes they can do something, they will at least attempt it.  If they don’t believe they can do something, they won’t attempt it.  Their belief dictates whether something is true or not.  If they feel something is true, there is subsequent action.  If they feel something is a lie, there is subsequent action in the opposite direction.

With that said, your belief regarding health will have a massive determining factor on your action steps, which will result in the promotion or negation of health expression.  I will present you with 3 statements.  Your belief in their trueness factor will be a good indication as to which path you choose in creating health.  And if you’re not satisfied with your health expression, then maybe you have to challenge some beliefs you hold regarding health.

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Pregnancy Gainz | Why You Shouldn’t Avoid Exercise During Pregnancy

During the first trimester visit, many medical practitioners will tell pregnant women not to lift more than 15 lbs until 6 weeks after the birth of their baby (maybe). I truly believe these practitioners are doing what they think is best, but unfortunately, they are missing the mark for the vast majority of women under their care.

The positive intention here is that there are a handful of women who should not be lifting more than 15 lbs due to an impeding medical condition. I also believe there are a handful of women who do not have sound movement patterns and lifting more than 15 lbs resulted in a preventable injury (prevention being the right coaching not necessarily the lifting itself). So, to reach the widest audience with medical advice, practitioners speak to the lowest common denominator and continue to recommend not lifting more than 15 lbs during pregnancy.

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