Colorado Springs Functional Medicine

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When Going Gluten Free Doesn’t Solve Your Problem

You’ve Tried Gluten-Free But Are Still Suffering

As much as we want to villainize gluten and blame all our issues on this pesky protein, there are many underlying issues that contribute to your health woes that set the stage for gluten’s potential damaging effects.  These poor health effects can impact far more than just your belly.  Gluten intolerance can affect the thyroid, brain, pancreas, hormones, joints, and pretty much any function in the body.

In your intestines, your inner tube, there are tiny gaps called tight junctions.  These tight junctions have a role of keeping a balance of water, nutrients, and electrolytes within the gut tube and surrounding blood circulation.  These tight junctions also regulate the trafficking of environmental antigens across these tiny channels.  An antigen is something potentially attacked by your immune system.  Antigens could be bacteria and virus but also chemicals, pollens, pet dander, etc.

A tiny little protein, called Zonulin, is the main signaling component to regulate the opening and closing of these tight junctions.  The body doesn’t make or do stupid stuff.  Zonulin is essential for you to digest and absorb nutrients.  The delicate balance is that when nutrients are present, the gates can open.  When a bacteria is present, the gates should close.  If a bacteria or virus has gotten this far, it has already by passed other defenses like your skin, your respiratory system, and is now coming down the gut associated lymph tissue pipe line.

Your gut is lined with a mucous membrane that has a role of defending you without you knowing.  This gut lining favors an anti-inflammatory environment. Imagine if you felt EVERY little attack against EVERY little antigen that our bodies face every day.  We would never get any sleep, you would never make it to work, and our bodies would be so drained, that this would be the instant end to professional sports as we know it.

Your body isn’t stupid.  It knows exactly what to do when we provide it with what it requires and avoid what is harmful.  Your symptoms is just your body’s way of telling you there is a problem and buying you enough time to create a solution.

Z-Z-Z-Zonulin.

The problem with tight junctions is that 2 of the most powerful zonulin stimulating substances are gluten and small intestine containing bacteria.  You may know the later as SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth).

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It’s Not Genetic

I’ve had a number of discussions with clients as well as attendees of recent workshops about whether their illness is genetic.  According to Dr. Russell Jaffe MD, PhD, CCN, FASCP, FACN, FAMLI, FRSM, only 8% of illness is genetic.  I know what YOUR doctor said but I’m going to take Dr. Jaffe’s word for it.  He’s WAY smarter than me and WAY smarter than your doctor.

Could you be one of those minority 8% of people with a truly genetic ailment?  Sure, but 92% of time, you’re not.  You’re not that special.  Neither am I.  Just because your doctor can’t figure out what’s wrong with you or has said, “There’s nothing more we can do” doesn’t mean you are part of the 8% and that you have an incurable ailment.

What it means is that your doctor doesn’t have the right tools, thought patterns, or small enough ego to look outside of a diagnostic manual provided by the pharmaceutical industry.

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After the Baby is Born

My wife just delivered our third son.  The oldest was born in the hospital and the other two were born at home.  With my views and practices on health outcomes, I get a lot of questions about what we do during and after pregnancy with our kids.

After the Baby is BornWhat is of interest is that as a parent, and if you’re one too, all you want is your child to be healthy and happy.  The point of interest is that so many people have different ways of trying to achieve those outcomes, especially the healthy part.  Here’s the basic journey we took with our 3 boys.  As of yet, none have had an ear infection.  None have taken an antibiotic.  None has ever been given a fever reducer.  None, except for our oldest, has ever seen a traditional doctor.  The oldest went to two ‘well baby’ visits when we were fresh into the parenting thing.

We quickly realized that the sole purpose of the well visits was to give vaccines and since we were denying them, we were pretty confident in weighing and measuring our own children if we were really curious.  If there was a problem we were concerned about, we wouldn’t hesitate to got to a traditional doc but that hasn’t been the case as of yet.  I’m sure as they age, we’ll probably have a couple ER visits in our future.

After the Baby is Born

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Everything in Moderation?

I think I’ve found the term that sets me off just as fast as when someone says, ‘I’m busy.’

The equally annoying phrase is, ‘Everything in moderation.’

Let’s make this short, simple and to the point.  Moderation is the fastest road to mediocrity and an early grave.  I dare you to live your life by this mantra and see where you end up.

#Moderation is the fastest road to mediocrity and an early grave. Click To Tweet

Do you moderately beat your dog?  Do you moderately smoke crack?  Do you moderately cheat on your wife?  Do you moderately shoot your rifle into crowds of people?  Do you moderately pay your mortgage?

You think those are extreme examples?  What does eating things in moderation look like?  What does exercising in moderation feel like?  What does being moderately grateful do for your mood?

When I hear people say, ‘I’m busy,’ it send a red flag up my spine to the actual meaning of ‘foolishly active.’  When people say, ‘everything in moderation,’ all I hear is justification after justification.  Just be honest with yourself and those around you.  If you aren’t going to do something, it’s ok to say, ‘no.’  Stop justifying that behavior that you have no intention of fulfilling.

When people do get to the point that their pain is greater than their pleasure, it’s amazing how that person won’t justify their moderations anymore.  I’ve yet to meet someone that I admire and strive to be that got to their level of living through moderation.

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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?