Green Health Spot

How Ozone Heals Joint Pain

Knee Joint Ozone Therapy

I just cringe when I hear about the statistics of joint replacement surgeries. So many people are wanting more movement and freedom from pain and think that only joint replacement or surgery can get them back to their old active lives. This can be very far from the truth.  Joint replacement or back surgeries can have long term recovery concerns with a lot of down time and worsened pain in the meantime, often taking a year or more to recover from the surgery effects. In my work with regenerative medicine, I can tell you that there is much that can be done before you slide down the slippery slope toward a joint replacement or back surgery from degeneration. Ozone may be one of the solutions to your pain and discomfort. In my practice, ozone and prolozone, an injection of vitamins and antiinflammatory homeopathic remedies coupled with the ozone gas can help your body's own natural healing process to repair injury and regenerate torn or worn tissue.  Often I will couple ozone injections into a joint before or after a platelet rich plasma injection to stimulate new tissue formation or strengthing.  

So imagine the power of significantly increasing the repair time of a torn meniscus or ligament by the use of ozone/prolozone injections with or without the use of platelet rich plasma.  Something that can take months to repair on its own, if ever, can be accelerated to a few weeks, allowing for you to get back into action without the recovery time from surgery. Cartilage integrity and degeneration can also be improved in the case of arthritis and inflammation from stress or injury. Ozone, is an unstable 3 oxygen atom containing molecule that easily donates the extra oxygen atom to the surrounding tissue for oxygenation and healing of the cell.  This lays a much more powerful foundation for strengthening and healing of the surrounding tissue. Injuries heal faster, especially in the cases of torn soft tissue like menisci and ligaments that have low blood supplies to the area. 

If you have a torn meniscus or ligament in your knee, or degenerating disc in your back, consider prolozone and ozone injections to repair the area to circumvent or stave off surgery and joint replacement.  Meniscal surgeries in the knees for torn meniscus sets up a scenario for future knee replacement possibilities because of the tissue that is removed and the resulting effect it has on your gait and joint function.  Fast forward 20 years and your surgeon is recommending replacement. You can help yourself anywhere along the way by getting ozone, prolozone or platelet injections to repair and rebuild an area that is being constantly stressed. 

In this case, a little consideration of regenerative medicine can just save you many months or years of pain and discomfort. 

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Tendon Healing Accelerated by Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy

Platelet Rich Plasma therapy is one of the hottest topics for tissue repair in medicine today.  Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is often used for alleviating osteoarthritis, repairing torn ligaments and injured tendons as well as innovative therapies like improving nerve and blood circulation for erectile dysfunction or repairing wrinkles in the skin and bone regrowth.  Platelets are amazing cell-like particles that circulate around in your blood repairing various aspects of damage to your body. 

Research and scientific innovation has helped doctors isolate platelets and concentrate them out of your blood so that they can be injected into the area of injury or degeneration which allows for accelerated repair.  In a recent study published last month, French researchers have found that ultrasound guided placement of PRP into a tendon that is injured or partially torn significantly accelerates the healing of the tendon.  Many runners and athletes have been plagued by tendonitis or other tendon injuries which keep them from acheiving their competitive goals and often leading to surgery and recovery.  Platelet rich plasma injections are non-surgical repair alternatives for people with mild to moderate arthritis and partially torn or strained ligaments and tendons. 

The human body has an incredible ability to heal itself, sometimes a little help from modern science and medicine accelerates the process. In our office we've found excellent pain reduction for knee pain, ligament strains, meniscus tears, lower back pain, cartilage damage and tendonitis.  You should expect to feel a reduction of pain about 3 weeks after the procedure, continuing to improve for 6 or more weeks after.  My personal knee arthritis improvements have extended well into 6 months post injection.  For arthritis and areas that are high use regions such as hips and knees, you'll find that a booster in 12-18 months really helps to reduce further degeneration.  For active tendonitis, considering ProloZone which is an oxygen/ozone therapy to rehabilitate the tissue environment can be really helpful for pain relief and further accelerating repair before or after the Platelet injection. 

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Why YOU Should Consider Natural Hormone Replacement

What if I told you that there is something you can do to improve your sex life, help you lose weight, reduce your total cholesterol, increase your HDL, reduce your risk for chronic illnesses such as cancers, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and Alzheimers would you be interested? How about if it also improves your memory, sleep, skin tone, the appearance of wrinkles and helps your body recover from injury more quickly? How would you feel now? Pretty exciting isn't it? There is a good body of research that supports the use of natural or bioidentical estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, testosterone, DHEA and or growth hormone to help you achieve the mind and body of your late 20's. Why aren't more people doing it? Well, they are but you haven't heard about it until now. 

The first question I get after suggesting natural HRT to my patients is the question, "Isn't that dangerous?" The short answer is "no", not if we use natural hormones and not synthetics, something chemically identical to your body's own hormones. Yes, the synthetics are dangerous, lead to an increased risk of cancer and stroke. The Women's Health Initiative tried this and with the use of synthetic estrogens much older women developed a marked increase in stroke risk. Low testosterone in men has been clearly shown to increase their risk of heart disease. Low growth hormone in men is related to and increased risk of prostate cancer. High serum testosterone predicted a reduced 5-year risk of cardiovascular disease in elderly men. 

According to the Journal Menopause Management in March 2008 estrogen therapy safely and effectively reduces total mortality and coronary heart disease in recently menopausal women. Estrogen therapy reduces coronary calcium artery.  Estrogen replacement therapy is associated with improvement of cognitive deficits and reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. In April 1995, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that estrogen replacement was associated with substantial decreases in risk of fatal colon cancer. These results were consistent with several published studies suggesting a protective role of exogenous estrogens in the development of colorectal cancer.  Natural progesterone therapy was related to a lowered risk of breast cancer than synthetic progestins. According to The Journal of Gender-Specific Medicine: JGSM: the Official Journal of the Partnership for Women's Health at Columbia in October 2000, estrogen as a possible preventive agent for Alzheimer’s disease is an issue of overwhelming importance when the public health impact is considered.

I could go on and on with research findings but suffice it to say if you are over 40, whether male or female you should consider having your sex hormones checked along with your thyroid, adrenal and growth hormones and get them adjusted to help you maintain an optimun quality of life. Maintaining your hormones at an optimum level will allow you to attain a lifestyle full of vigor and vitality well into your 80's.  Don't wait too long since the research indicates that the protection from these hormones are only present when you start them close to menopause or andropause in men. For more information, read on.

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The Fountain of Youth May Be Within You

The Fountain of Youth May Be Within You

What if I told you that your own cells might be the source of reversing aging effects on your skin like acne scars, deep wrinkles, crow's feet, hyperpigmentation, fine lines, and sun damage?  PRP or Platelet rich plasma, or platelets taken from your own blood, concentrated using specialized medical equipment can be reinjected into your skin, wrinkles and scars that can transform it into the magically smooth and even skin of your youth. 

You might be like me, someone who spends a lot of time and money on anti-aging products and services that are mediocre at best. My esthetician who does a variety of facials on me tells me my skin is looking better but honestly the results are mediocre at best, according to my critical and unforgiving mirror. Up until now we either had to have the genes that keeps us looking younger than our years or be willing to endure expensive cosmetic surgeries or procedures that make you look "worked on".  Fast forward to the 21st century and I'm discovering that the face lift and fillers may be oh so 20th century passe. Want to know the ultimate secret in skin repair and rejuvenation?

A procedure fashionably called the Vampire face-lift aka PRP face lift is something that can be done at your doctor's office with minimal pain and very little recovery time to induce your skin to produce more collagen and elastin to tighten up fine wrinkles and fade dark spots. Moreover, it can repair acne scars, pits, deep wrinkles and uneven skin appearance. PRP face lift is a medical procedure that can get results similar to a surgical face lift but without surgery.  This procedure combines the use of something called the DermaPen which painlessly uses microneedling to quickly pierce the skin over the area of concern such as face, neck, decolletage, back of hands etc. Platelet rich plasma is painted onto the skin and let to seep into the treatment area.  The plate rich plasma or PRP, derived from your own blood is specially processed to extract the platelets but removing out the proinflammatory white blood cells, red blood cells and plasma. The platelets stimulate growth hormone production and accelerates collagen formation and remodeling of the texture and surface of the skin. 

In a treatment or two if you have deep scars or wrinkles, you will be amazed at the renewed vitality of your skin. Crow's feet fade, the marionette lines around your mouth start to disappear and the deep grooves in your forehead can recede.  This treatment is terrific for neck lines and wrinkles and on the upper chest that is often prone to aging signs far ahead of the face.

After the treatment your face or area of treatment will be red and feel irritable like a light sunburn for a day or so. Full effects of the PRP and skin remodeling will take 3 months. Many of the improvements will be noticeable in about 3 weeks.  If your skin needs a lot of support due to deep acne scars or wrinkles, this treatment can be repeated in 4-6 weeks. Numbing cream is used to assist in comfort during the procedure but in people with just fine lines, this is not necessary. The upside of the PRP facial or vampire facial is that there is little risk of post procedural hyperpigmentation which is a significant risk in people with darker skin. The procedure can also help is some cases of vitiligo. 

If you're interested, come to our office for a treatment and watch the hands of time turn back as you regain that youthful smooth skin we remember from our 20's. Also, find out about the use of PRP platelet rich plasma for rebuilding cartilage, torn ligaments and tendons or acceleration of post surgical recovery.

More about DermaPen:

 

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PRP-Platelet Rich Plasma for Pain Treatments

You may have been hearing about the use of PRP or Platelet Rich Plasma for acceleration of the repair of ligaments, tendons and joints after injury or surgery. PRP is uses your own body's repair cells to accelerate the natural repair process of an injured body part.  This is different from steroid injections that help with pain but ultimately degenerate the area that was injured because it stops the inflammatory process which brings growth hormones and repairing cells to the area that was injured.

Most people don't know what PRP is or why it's so great so I thought I would try and explain it to you. Platelets are part of your blood, most people don't know that their blood is made of many different components such as red blood cells, white blood cells and yes, platelets. Platelets are cells that repair injured areas and helps in blood clotting and tissue remodeling. Some ingenius researcher figured out that harvesting platelets and putting them where tissue is damaged can significantly accelerate the healing process in an area. This in many cases can eliminate the need for surgery to repair a partially torn tendon, ligament, cartilage or joint.

A PRP injection is often used with Prolotherapy techniques to place the platelets in the desired area of repair.  Say you have a knee with degenerating cartilage which gives you pain during your day.  If you came to me, and wanted to try PRP for your knee what would happen? First we would take blood from you by using some special needles and tubes so that we can get blood from you without disturbing the platelets. You see, platelets are very susceptible to activation and what we want is to get your platelets to activate but not until we get the platelets to their new home in your knee. After drawing blood, you sit back for about 20 minutes while your platelets get separated out from the rest of your red and white blood cells.  White blood cells cause inflammation and sometimes inhibit the work of the platelets. Platelets stimulate the production of growth hormones in the area where they are activated, this is why this is so useful for getting your cartilage to regrow or ligament to knit.  Platelets are powerful stuff in healing the body.

After your platelets are harvested and separated from the rest of your red blood cells, we would simply inject them into your knee (or elbow, wrist or ankle etc.) where we want them.  If you have a ligament problem, they would be injected where the ligaments are at the bone attachment.  If it was a meniscus problem, it would be injected into your meniscal area. If it were the cartilage, the joint would be injected.  You should be on your way in about 10 minutes after injection.

Pain during the injection is minimal as the area of injection is treated with a local anesthetic.  Afterwards, since there is little inflammation caused by white or red blood cells, you should feel only slight soreness or tenderness for a day or two.  After I had my knee treated with PRP I had no problem walking afterwards and little issue in the days after. My knee was fine to run on in about 3-4 days but bike riding was fine in 2 days after treatment. Maximum effect of PRP injections, since your platelets are there to rebuild the ligament, tendon, or cartilage, will be seen and felt in about 4-6 weeks. Repeat injections for severely degenerated areas can be done in 1 month.

After PRP injections, like after Prolotherapy injections, many people will find that their pain has gone and over time their cartilage is repaired.  If you catch your knees, shoulders in the early stages of degeneration and sometimes in the later stages as well (but it can take more injections), much surgery is avoided and no longer necessary. 

Next time I'll talk about PRP and the use of it in connection with scar repair, wrinkle repair and in treating stretch marks.

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Cervical Dysplasia: A Reminder

It's been a few years since I've sent out a plea for all women of child bearing age to reconsider doing a Leep procedure or colposcopy if you're diagnosed with cervical dysplasia.  They are NOT necessary, nor good for your cervix.  Sure, you can stop the dysplasia but what about the integrity of your cervix? If you are thinking of having children in the future, then you should remember that these procedures can affect the integrity of your cervix and uterus.  This is no small problem. 

Just a few small changes to your lifestyle and about 3 months of herbal treatment will eliminate the HPV that you have that caused the cervical dysplasia and put you at risk of cancer.  My suggestion is not to wait and see but to make active changes in your life now so that this does not become a bigger problem in the future.  Obviously choose your sexual partners carefully. Eat lots of dark leafy greens and take a folic acid supplement.  Keep your immune system healthy by avoiding sugar and junk food and if you've been diagnosed with cervical dysplasia, go see your naturopathic doctor for treatment.  Herbal treatment for cervical dysplasia is painless, and extremely effective.  I've been practicing 13 years now and there is no end to the astonished women who get back normal PAP results after our treatment for cervical dysplasia and low level cervical cancer. 

Pass it on, tell all your friends! And read more here about how to avoid surgery when you have been diagnosed with cervical dysplasia. 

IV Magnesium for Migraine Headaches

Nutritional IV therapies are becoming increasingly important for those suffering from very chronic conditions that have underlying causes from nutritional deficiencies.  It has been found that there is a set of people who are prone to migraines and stress headaches that are due to chronic mineral and vitamin deficiencies.  Migraine headaches with or without auras are difficult to control and sometimes feels like they last way longer than they should.  Many common medications designed for migraine treatments do not sufficiently address the pain or allow you to recover quickly enough.  Some important things to consider if you suffer from migraine headaches:

Diet: Food sensitivities are often a major contributing factor of mineral imbalace or inflammation in the body.  If you are sufferering from repeated migraines, get tested for food sensitivities.  Often you will find your answers in changing your diet and allowing your body to have a rest from too many pro-inflammatory foods.  Some people benefit from stopping gluten containing foods or dairy or nightshades.  However, I've found that most people suffering from repeated headaches have food sensitivities much farther reaching than a simple food or two. 

Past trauma: History of head injury or whip lash and the invisible scar tissue that may build up from past trauma under the skin can lead to chronic restrictive injuries that aggravate the nerves and lead to constant inflammation and pain flare-ups when you least expect them.  There are common nerve bundle points that can be treated using neuroprolotherapy or biopuncture that can help relieve these traumatic injuries. 

Hormonal imbalance: Women with hormonal imbalances often get migraines before their periods.  Usually this is due to blood sugar imbalances, adrenal hormone imbalances and female hormone imbalances.  Get your hormones checked and then balanced in order to fix the common PMS related migraines.

Having considered all the angles for causes of migraines and you find yourself still dealing with the effects of a horrendous migraine? Come into our office for a Migraine Stopper IV consisting of magnesium and b-vitamin infusion which often can get you back on your feet quicker and with fewer side effects than ever before.

New Discoveries in Fixing Frozen Shoulder Syndrome

Frozen shoulder syndrome is a big problem for a lot of people and today I wanted to talk about the success I've been having restoring mobility and eliminating pain through the use of Neural Prolotherapy.  Those of you suffering from frozen shoulder know all about the pain and restriction of motion.  Historically, we have thought that movement was restricted due to joint capsule inflammation but with the work I've done with Neural Prolotherapy I'm really starting to doubt this hypothesis.  Neural Prolotherapy or NPT addresses the superficial nerves that innervate the muscles and treat the chronic constrictive injuries to these nerves overlying the muscles in the area of pain.  Specifically, these nerve fibers are known as C-fibers which affect the sensation of pain, itch, touch and mechanoreceptors in joints and muscles.  At the end of C-fibers are receptor called TRPV1 which produces the sensation of pain.  The process of NPT dissolves the TRPV1 messages and stops the pain cascade, including the inflammatory response.  In NPT a sugar solution, either dextrose or mannitol is injected into the areas where the nerve endings have a lot of TRPV1 receptors.  You would feel the pain as a dull, aching or deep pain, sometimes sharp or hot feeling and sometimes the area is boggy or swollen.  This pain, aching and inflammation limits your shoulder movement and sometimes the movement of your head and neck as well. NPT and the dilute sugar solution completely restores motion and eliminates the pain from the TRPV1 receptors. Addressing the C-fibers of the nerves using NPT is a simple and mostly painless procedure that takes about 20-45 minutes depending on the level of restriction and area that needs to be treated.

Results: Amazing, is not really overstating the effects of NPT on frozen shoulders.  Range of motion is usually restored to normal during the treatment and most leave the office without pain.  Pain can return after a few days and follow-up treatments will be able to reduce the pain score to 0-1 out of 10.  Range of motion is usally maintained regardless of pain score.  There are no side effects of NPT, unlike the limitation of cortisone injections.  Unlike cortisone injections, there is not an increase in risk of injury to the area or impact on your adrenal glands. The injections are made with a very thin, very short needle and the sugar solution is placed just under the skin where the superficial nerves run.

If you are suffering from limited range of motion due to a shoulder injury, no matter how long ago the injury was sustained or if disks in your neck are affecting the nerves, NPT can usually restore full motion and eliminate pain.  Many people experience long lasting relief after 1-3 treatments and over time will occasionally want a "touch-up". So before you think of getting a cortisone shot or consider shoulder surgery, find a doctor that does Neural Prolotherapy.

Healthy Butter...Why all butter is not created equal

Butter for the last 30 years has gotten a bad reputation. It causes heart disease, increase cholesterol and basically clogs your arteries.  Why is this, you ask? Isn't butter something that has been eaten for centuries? Well, I'm here to tell you that not all butter is created equal and there IS butter that is healthier and better for you than margarine and conventional butter found at your supermarket.  Butter made from the milk of grass fed cows (though difficult to find) is such a butter.  High in omega 3 fatty acids, this delicious and nutritious butter is higher in natural antioxidants that are fat soluble such as vitamin A, E and D.  I had to search far and wide for this type of butter, you would think that living in California, the heart of agriculture for the country, it would be easy to find organic, grass fed butter.  Not so.  But thank God for the internet, grass fed butter can be found at one of my favorite sites, Tropical Traditions.

In addition to awesome coconut oil and flour, Tropical Traditions is selling grass fed butter from cows raised in small Iowa farms by Mennonite and Amish farmers.  A test that I recommend for those who are interested, is to compare traditionally grown and grass fed butters.  I call this the finger test.  Put a little of each type of butter on your finger tips, mash it around and then try and rinse it off with warm water (about 98 degrees, body temp).  You will be surprised to find out that the grass fed butter easily washes off with water and the traditionally grown (even organically grown but not grass fed) butter will require soap to get off your fingers.  So you wonder which one is better for your arteries? It's pretty obvious.  This same test goes for ground beef, traditionally grown versus grass fed beef.  So not all dairy or red meat is bad for you, it just has to do with how the cows are grown and fed. On the natural diet of grass, beef is probably healthier for you than fish (since fish commonly is high in mercury) and farmed fish is horribly unhealthy.  Back to the old adage, we are what we eat, this applies to all animal products, cows and fish alike. 

Thanks for reading, I have no financial relationship to Tropical Traditions, I just love their stuff. 

Vaccine Detox for Autism Spectrum Disorders

I've been treating autistic children for over a decade now and it's definitely a slow and arduous process fraught with limitations coupled with excitement and success.  Recently, I came across a fascinating treatment concept that has made stunning changes in my autistic patients.  Children I started treating who had no speech, eye contact and constant behavioral disconnect were "awoken" by vaccination detoxification faster than anything I've seen previously in my work.  The impact of vaccines on children leading to autism is a difficult connection to make in the best of circumstances.  So much so that scientific research has declared that the MMR vaccine has no clear relationship to the development of autism despite many parents making such claims.  However, I've been treating autistic children for long enough, before most pediatricians even knew how to diagnose the condition that I know that there is an impact of vaccinations on children who are susceptible to autism.  Maybe not the first vaccine but the second, fifth or 20th vaccine can turn some happy, normally developing children into the vacant, frustrated and out of touch children that we call autistic. 

In my practice, especially in the past year or so, I've noticed more parents complaining of their children "regressing" or retreating from normal speech development to loss of words shortly (usually within a month or so) after a series of injections. I attribute this to some HMO's using "super shots" or combination vaccines to minimize the number of shots needed to give their young patients. Although this sounds like a good idea from a dollar public health perspective, these super shots are especially hard on a young, vulnerable developing nervous system.  The exciting thing, however is that the late Dr. Tinus Smits, MD developed an incredible vaccine detoxification program. 

Dr. Smits named his detox program "CEASE Therapy" CEASE, an acronym for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression.  My experience with CEASE therapy is that the use of homeopathic remedies made from the very vaccines that contributed to the development of the autistic symptoms can be energetically detoxified from the body.  These remedies made from the vaccines are incredible indeed.  As soon as I read about the idea, I incorporated the theory into my practice and the results were nothing short of exciting.  Children started speaking and babbling almost from the first few doses of the remedies.  They became calmer, more focused and their eye contact returned almost immediately.  The progress of the treatments are steady and can take a number of months but the initial impact of reducing the negative impact on the nervous system in these children was incredible. 

The negative aspects of this treatment is that the detox process can be pretty intense and the parents and caretakers need to be prepared to deal with the detox symptoms.  I give the parents  many instructions on how to promote detoxification in their child but no matter what, the vaccines, as they are detoxified are very obviously impacting the child's brain and nervous system.  Common side effects include the possibility of very erratic behavior, melt downs, affected sleep, fever, return of stims etc.  Detox symptoms last from half a day to a week but once it's passed the sun returns and the child open up to a whole new awareness.  In some cases the detox process is short and mild but many are disconcerting to watch.  The vaccine detox as well as detoxification for antibiotics and medications that the child was given prior to the onset of autism symptoms is a necessary and incredibly eye opening step toward the recovery of your child.  Your doctor who does CEASE therapy on your child, no matter the age, will also consider the mother's health history as well often giving homeopathic remedies of the medications that the mom had taken during or just prior to pregnancy as often these drugs enter the developing child leading to a contributing factor of autism. 

I recommend doing CEASE therapy on all autistic children or adults, and children or adults with ADD and ADHD or other neurological problems.  The results are nothing short of stunning with little or no limitation on age.  For more information on how I treat autism spectrum disorders, Click here. Good luck.

Sciatic Pain, New Treatment for A Lasting Problem

Chronic pain is an awful thing and sciatic pain is one of the worst.  The sciatic nerve is made up of a few nerve bundles that originates in your lower back, travels down through your pelvis, into your buttocks and down your legs into your feet.  There are many branches off the sciatic nerve but most of the symptoms goes from your butt down the back of your leg, into your knee and finally into the sole of your foot.  Your symptoms can vary but pain, tingling, weakness or burning sensations down your legs are the signs of sciatic nerve impingement or damage.  Last time we spoke about Neural Prolotherapy and how NPT can help in nerve pain.  NPT is especially good at relieving sciatica because of it's surprising ability to dissolve the pain peptides built up in and around the nerves as well as helping to relieve the continuous inflammation and signaling down the length of the nerve.  NPT uses a dilute dextrose solution to help with the dissolution of the pain chemicals.  The dilute dextrose is injected subcutaneously with a fine needle around the painful points and down the distribution of the nerve and its branches. Once the pain cycle is broken, movement and flexibility is improved and pain is eliminated.  Patients leave the office pain free without anesthetics or toxic medications.  Follow-up varies, I've treated people with chronic pain with NPT who can go months without a follow-up treatment or occasionally people will need to return if and when the pain returns.  After a treatment you will be able to bend and move freely, and sleep better without the nagging and gnawing pain disturbing you. 

Sciatica is usually a result of an impinged nerve, muscle spasming, a slipped disk in your back or rarely a tumor.  Make sure your doctor checks out the possible causes of sciatica, if you are older and your sciatica keeps returning, making sure a more serious cause can be eliminated is important.  Regardless, Neuroprolotherapy is a valuable, effective and surprisingly fast treatment for chronic pain of all kinds but sciatica in particular responds quickly and easily to this treatment. 

Neural Prolotherapy--A Miraculous Cure for Pain

I believe in miracles, always have. But sometimes it's tough when I see so much pain and suffering in my day to day practice to continue to believe in these miracles that sometimes seem elusive.  In my practice treating pain has just been part of what I do.  Almost everyone has pain and there are many things one can do to change diet and take supplements to reduce inflammation and pain.  However, there are few treatment modalities that I've come across that are so absolutely stunningly wonderful for pain treatment. 

Neural Prolotherapy or the Lyftogt Technique is one such miraculous treatment.  I first came across the concept of NPT a few months ago and ultimately the doctors who have been doing this innovative new technique the longest can claim about 4 years of experience.  It's a new concept and stunningly simple in implementation and far reaching in it's impact. Years of chronic pain will melt away almost immediately.  NPT uses a weak dextrose solution in sterile water to address a pain neuropeptide called TRPV1 which triggers the release of other pain and inflammatory peptides that lead to what we all experience as pain. 

Neural Prolotherapy addresses the peripheral nerves, these are nerves close to the surface of the skin that are often an overlooked cause of pain. A thin injection needle is used to deliver the 5% dextrose in sterile water along the course of the superficial nerves leading to complete freedom of pain in that area immediately after injection.  NPT relies on identifying and injecting areas known as CCI's or Chronic Constriction Injuries that are affecting the nerve's health and stimulation of pain.  The treatment procedure is complete when the patient is completely pain free.  The simplicity of the technique and the immediacy of the relief makes some people suspect to how long such a seemingly simple technique can last. Across the board, when the superficial nerves are being treated, the pain goes away immediately when the correct nerve is addressed.  How long the effects last depends on the underlying tissue and nerve constrictions and how quickly the constrictions can be repaired by the dextrose.  On average it takes 6 treatments for a cure.

One 57 year old man that I had treated 3 weeks ago with the NPT technique has had his 30+ year old mid-thoracic pain be completely eradicated in minutes without any return yet of discomfort. He had disc degeneration issues that caused the back pain but the neural  prolotherapy relieved the pain and allowed for completely normal activity immediately. 

Before and after range of motion improvements are evident immediately.  From frozen shoulders, sciatica, lower back pain, achilles tendonosis, to carpal tunnel and stiff necks, NPT is an exciting and extremely viable treatment for acute and chronic pain relief without the use of medications or cortisone injections. As more and more doctors are trained in the technique of Neural Prolotherapy we will all see how quickly pain management steers away from addictive and ineffective drug or surgical approaches to simple and curative treatments that address the underlying cause of the pain. For more information or a treatment, read more here.

What do Sex Hormones, Pesticides & Flame Retardants Have in Common?

Well, nothing except that they can all be found in your tap water.  Water is the simplest, and purest thing you can put into your body.  Our bodies can survive over a month without food but only 3 days or so without water. It is the basic necessity to keep all your organs functioning well.  It helps your kidneys do their filtering work more efficiently and it is, for those of us living in a modern society, a given.  We rarely think about our water, it’s plentiful and found easily but more and more we need to wonder how safe our tap water truly is.  Random testing by the Environmental Protection Agency has shown much of our tap water to be contaminated with heavy metals like lead and chromium, chemicals like pesticides and fungicides and pharmaceutical drugs like sex hormones, antibiotics, pain medications etc.  Are you shocked? I certainly am. Where do all these things come from?

To answer this question we really need to find our where our tap water comes from.  In the San Francisco Bay Area where I live my water comes from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir about 200 miles away from my home in Silicon Valley.  The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a beautiful place near Yosemite and the reservoir is one of 9 which supply water to the San Francisco Area.  The water comes to us unfiltered but treated for bacteria using chloramine and fluoride is added before it arrives at my home.  So, how do all the pharmaceuticals and chemicals get into the water?

Runoff from local farming and contamination of groundwater eventually contaminates our precious drinking water source.  Whatever we dump into our toilets are treated at sewage treatment centers and released almost unchanged into our oceans and waterways.  So the birth control pills, the antibiotics, the cholesterol lowering drugs all part of human excreta are flushed down the toilet and eventually return to us in our water and in our food.  Because our water travels long distances and come to our home pipes with little or no filtration, it is easy to see how we might be at risk for contamination and side effects from medications even if we don’t take the medication for therapeutic reasons.  Caffeine, pain killers, toxic chemotherapy agents, sex hormones all have small and subtle effects on our bodies.  Many scientists feel the very low concentration of these medications will do little to harm our bodies in the long run.  However, my opinion differs from these scientists because I know how susceptible our bodies are to the subtlest of influences over a long time of exposure. 

Evidence of the drugs and chemicals in our drinking water affecting our smallest creatures are observed in our ecosystem.  It has been shown that low levels of exposure to our drinking water has lead to sex changes in tiny minnows, specifically, the male fat headed minnow which in the presence of female sex hormones found in our water turn female.  Sewage sludge has been added to some of our cow feed and their manure are used to fertilize our fruits and vegetables, leading to hormonal activity in our meats and vegetables.  One of the most frightening things to consider (as if sex-changing minnows aren’t enough) is the low level antibiotics in drinking water leading to possible antibiotic resistance in bacteria found increasing throughout the world.  In India last year there were at least 3 incidences of complete antibiotic resistant bacteria found.  This means that there were NO antibiotics that were able to treat the bacterial infection that these people had.  Breeding of this bacteria and the increasing possibility of new strains that were antibiotic resistant are of considerable concern for everyone. 

Recently the City of Chicago and the EPA had discovered that current testing methods of water were inadequate to get the full picture of lead and chromium contamination in tap water.  It was found that over half of the homes tested had unacceptably high levels of lead.  There is absolutely no safe level of lead in our water.  The EPA establishes a low level acceptable for tap water but many homes are much higher because of old piping and lead solder for copper piping.  Even low to moderate levels of lead exposure will affect IQs in children and put adults at risk for heart attacks and strokes.  Lead is very important test that I do on patients with high blood pressure because contamination is quite common. 

So, what to do about your water?  If at all possible testing your water with a reputable water test company is a first step.  Know what is in your water and then choose to improve it. What's in your tap water? Also read What to do about the drugs in your water.  The EPA has some interesting resources about how to properly dispose of your prescription or over the counter medications. Hint: it does not involve a toilet.

Inflammation...Your Worst Enemy (and What to do About it)

On your road to optimal health, you will encounter a major hurdle whose name is Inflammation.  Inflammation has been known to play a role in heart attacks, cancers, arthritis, allergies etc.  But you might not know that it also plays a role in diabetes, ADD/ADHD, OCD, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, autism, tendonitis, obesity, auto-immune disorders, migraines etc.  In general, inflammation is a reaction where your immune system participates in trying to maintain balance in your body in the presence of injury, poor diet, toxic exposure, viral or bacterial infections, parasites and other things we all do to our bodies on a daily or yearly basis.  If you are having trouble losing weight and are considering having your stomach stapled so you are relegated to a Dixie cup sized portion of food.  Or if you are battling repeated injuries that don't seem to heal, or have memory loss take heed now.  Managing the inflammation in your body will go a long way to helping you lose excess weight, help your brain perform optimally and your body be painfree.  Inflammation is the major reason why statin drugs used for lower cholesterol don't actually increase life span or significantly affect risk of heart attacks or stroke.  Inflammation is kind of a nebulous term that can be used to characterize almost anything related to health. The most important thing that you need to know regarding inflammation is that your for sure have it and how to reduce it's negative effects.  Local inflammation in response to an injury or activity is temporary and normal.  However, chronic inflammation is a huge challenge given the toxic and fast-food world in which we live. 

It is chronic inflammation that I am going to help you start to manage.  Let's answer the two major questions that you might be asking.  First, do I have it? The answer is almost always yes.  Chronic inflammation is silent and in the long run deadly.  If you have any chronic disease such as asthma, allergies, eczema, migraines, arthritis, thyroid dysfunction, hormonal imbalances, ADD/ADHD, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, trouble losing weight, acne, chronic infections, yeast infections, parasites, Irritable bowel syndrome etc. You can for sure check that box for chronic inflammation.

The second question is what to do about chronic inflammation.  I'll give you my top five recommendations that I give to my patients. 

1. Diet: Know your food sensitivities and allergies and AVOID all of them.  I've spoken about food sensitivities before and there is much that you can do to keep your diet from adding too much to the chronic inflammation problem. If you have one of the above listed problems or have been diagnosed with a chronic illness find out what your food sensitivities are and avoid them or get treated for them so they do not continue to produce inflammation in your system.
2. Toxicity: Air pollution, water and food contamination all contribute to chemicals that your body needs to eliminate or seqester.  Know what your heavy metal load is, a heavy metal urine test is imperative for this, a blood test in insufficient to identify stored heavy metals. Eat organic, especially the fruits and vegetables that are most toxic.  Use a reverse osmosis filter on your water or buy bottled water that has been reverse osmosis'ed.  Be careful what you put on your skin and use the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety database to check toxicity for common household products.
3. Supplements: My 3 musts do supplements are a high quality probiotic remembering that not all probiotics are created equal, a CLEAN fish oil high in EPA and DHA, my favorite is Super EFA from Genestra and finally Mito Life from Mitogenx. 
4. Biopuncture: For those with moderate to severe chronic inflammation going on, Biopuncture to the local area and systemic approaches to inflammation are extremely helpful.  Biopuncture is the use of ultra low dose injections of herbs and minerals to assist the body in modulation of inflammation.  I can't overstate the efficacy of this therapy to improve the overall status of inflammation in the body. 
5. NAET Acupressure treatments: To modulate inflammation, allergies, balance organs and enhance absorption of nutrients. This technique seems quite unbelievable in it's simplicity but suffice it to say, that I've used this technique for years to successfully assist in detoxification and support the body's health.

If you need more tips on how to modulate inflammation and to bring your chronic inflammation levels down, give our office a call and schedule an appointment for further testing and treatments. In the meantime, stay healthy during the winter months.

Winter is Coming, are you Prepared?

It seems quite early in the season for me to be seeing so much contageous illness. The weather is still intermittenly warm in the Bay Area and although we have gotten some uncharacteristically early rain the weather in between the rain is still ranging from between the mid 70's to mid 80's. 

That having been said, I'm getting  a lot of reports of my patients getting sick early this season with upper respiratory infections, pneumonias and the common cold.  Up at UC Berkeley there has been a Mumps outbreak which is quite unusual, as many as 44 college students up there have contracted the painful and debilitating virus.  I remember when I caught the mumps when I was a kid and to this day, I can't think of any infection that was as painful and miserable as having the mumps. 

Since there was so much cause for concern locally for infections of viruses and bacteria I thought I would take the time to review some good ideas to keep you healthy for the winter...or at the very least to minimize the time you are sick.  Here are my major pointers:

1) Wash your hands and avoid contact with people who are sick.  I can't emphasize enough the importance of hand washing with warm water and soap in the prevention of infections. I'm not a huge fan of regular use of antibacterial hand wipes because I think they breed antibiotic resistance but if you are in contact with someone sick, it is a very good idea.

2) Minimize sugar intake (and alcohol).  Avoid eating sweets, drinking juice and alcohol when you feel you are fighting something and for sure when you are sick.  Desserts, fruit juices (including orange juice) and alcohol lower your resistance and are food for the bacteria and viruses allowing them to overtake your system and pretty soon you have a major cold or infection.

3) Vaccine alternatives, many people catch the flu from vaccinations so in my office we do vaccine alternatives.  I use NAET treatments, an effective acupressure treatment that helps strengthen your system to a particular virus or bacteria.  I use the NAET treatments instead of flu vaccines every year and by doing this my patients who have had the NAET treatments for flu fare better and almost never get the flu. This also works for Mumps, Measles, Chickenpox, herpes, shingles etc. The treatment is painless and needle free.

4) Follow my cold flu protocol.  Amended for this upcoming year, to strengthen your immunity to fight off what your immune system is facing. The cold/flu protocol was initially written when the H1N1 Swine flu reared it's ugly head a couple of years ago.  I've sinced perfected the protocol and if you follow it you will feel much better quickly or prevent the cold/flu altogether.  This works regardless of swine flu, influenza, bacterial or viral infections.  For prevention of stomach bugs and stomach flues stay tunes for the stomach flu prevention protocol recently developed due to the recent prevanence of Listeriosis infections in canteloupes this September.

Obviously get rest and don't exercise if you are coming down with something and minimize contact with places that are breeding grounds for infections if you can help it.  Stay healthy this season and call my office if you get sick and need extra help fighting it.    

Chronic Fatigue and Environmental Toxicity

Need more energy? I treat chronic fatigue on a daily basis and it's easy to miss the most important cause of chronic fatigue and that is environmental toxicity.  Toxicity and its relationship to chronic fatigue is a complex subject but essential to understand that there is a very real relationship between fatigue and chronic environmental exposure. Toxicity can be associated with our day to day exposure and there are many factors that affect people who have chronic toxic overload. These factors include toxic exposure in work, hobbies, and home. 

Common sources of work exposure include chemicals, solvents, printer toner, computer circuitry, manufacturing and agricultural.  In the typical office environment, stress, new carpeting, new paint, office furniture, building materials, reduced ventilation and offices that lack windows that open to the outside all contribute to toxic accumulation in the body. In the home, renovations, mold, toxic cleaning agents, lead paint, carpeting, water contamination, pesticide or herbicide usage, pets that have flea and tick treatments, skin care products, hair care products, hair coloring products, asbestos, chemical sprays or air fresheners are all sources of toxicity in the home.  Hobbies are often a place where people are exposed to toxins without realizing the detriment to their health. This includes oil painting or painting of any kind with cadmium containing colors, automotive work, especially brake work, stained glass, smoking, golfing (due to pesticides), target shooting, camping and the use of bug spray, gardening and herbicides and non-organic pesticides all contribute to our day to day load of chemical accumulation in the body.

As long as our bodies are not overly stressed and with a good genetic gene pool we generally can do well to detoxify our bodies and recover from our toxic exposures easily and without much difficulty. The problem with chronic fatigue is that our cells and the mitochondria within them are being over run with toxins which then suppress the cells and their power supply, the mitochondria to do their normal activity. With the mitrochondrial function suppressed many people feel lethargic, fatigued and often find themselves gaining weight. They end up developing thyroid problems, adrenal problems and are diagnosed with anxiety or depression. People then are prone to catching infections and  have difficulty fighting off viruses and bacterial problems. They can be prone to developing yeast infections and allergies all which further indicate that their systems are unable to deal with the toxic load.  People who live in agricultural areas or who have toxic water supplies coupled with stressful lives are all susceptible to chronic fatigue.  Sometimes the chronic fatigue is insidious and difficult to pinpoint exactly when one develops the fatigue and sometimes it is a result of an infection or injury or working too many long hours that takes it’s toll on one’s body.  Regardless of cause, the resolution starts with becoming aware of chemical toxins in your food, water and environments of work, play and home.  Improving ventilation, eliminating as many toxic foods and chemicals out of your life is the first step toward health. I like the environmental working group’s website call the cosmetics database, originally started to help us identify toxins in our skin and hair care products but has expanded to most home care products including detergents, soaps, sunscreen etc.  Check our your product’s toxicity level at the Cosmetics Database.

The second step in recovering from fatigue is to help reduce your body’s load of toxins.  There are many ways to do this but the most useful is utilizing a detox protocol that I use in my work with Mitogenx as their Chief Science Officer. This protocol is safe and effective for adults of all ages and health conditions with little to no side effects.  The products were designed by Dr. Walter Crinnion who is an expert in treating environmental illnesses.  The protocol is as follows:

• MitoLife at one ounce twice daily to improve mitochondrial function, reduce allergies and improve immune system response.
• Amino ICG: 1 scoop twice daily to improve glutathione production to assist your body in detoxification and anti-oxidants to reduce the effects of the toxins.
• Freedom Formula: 2 capsules, 3 times daily: for reducing the production of stress hormones and improving regenerative sleep.  Stress hormones affect the pH of our body’s tissues making it much more difficult for us to detoxify in the presence of stress hormones.
• Clear and Restore: 4 capsules at bedtime with 8 ounces of water. Especially important if you are constipated or irregular but very important if you have toxic overload in helping the body bind and eliminate fat soluble toxins that the liver is excreting.
• Extra credit: Primary Toxin Shield: 2, capsules, 3 times daily A terrific multiple vitamin with extra detox support in a form that your digestive system can easily absorb and utilize.  Great for day to day support and as a part of a comprehensive plan for detoxification.
• Extra credit: R-defense: An extra boost of anti-oxidants to assist the body in its repairing process. 1, 3 times daily is optimal, especially if you are dealing with a serious chronic illness or need extra support in dealing with toxins.

As we all become more aware of the toxicity that we are battling on a day to day basis, it’s no wonder that many of us are dealing with chronic fatigue and the effects of life’s toxicity weighing us down. For those with chronic fatigue, this gentle detox process should be continued for 3-6 months.  In my practice, I usually combine a process called cellular drainage to enhance the detox process and test people for heavy metal toxicity which needs to be dealt with separately with a version of the above treatment plan.  If you want to get started on a detox protocol of your own, give my office a call, I find that many of us can get back into our routines now adjusted for toxic exposure so that we can live a full and vibrant life without the burden of fatigue.

A New Look At Natural Pain Management

I have been so excited lately about running across a new pain management approach pioneered by some innovative European doctors from Belgium and Germany as a natural way of healing pain. Not only do these remedies address symptomatic pain but it also helps to stimulate the body's own healing process by helping support detoxification pathways and healing damaged tissue.  Biopuncture combines the use of naturally derived homeopathic remedies with acupressure points to manage pain and reverse inflammation. This can work for a diverse group of problems originating from acute & chronic pain due to injuries or repetitive stress for issues ranging from tennis elbow, peripheral neuropathy, and migraines to degenerative issues like disc compression in the back. Injections can be placed in local areas of injury or inflammation or in acupressure points associated with the area of interest. 

Recently, Dr. Oz did a show on biopuncture and interviewed some doctors on the subject. I've included the videos here.  If you are experiencing pain and are interested in the treatments, give our office a call and set up an appointment soon.  We are in Palo Alto or Walnut Creek at 650-327-2053.

This new treatment combines homeopathic remedies with the principles of acupuncture. Some say it can cure any type of pain, but is it safe? Hear from...

Part 2 of Dr. Oz' video

Stop Migraines in Their Tracks

The pain from migraines can be horrendous and so little in conventional medicine addresses the underlying cause of migraines. I've treated migraines for years and am surprised that millions of migraine sufferers haven't sought alternative care for migraine resolution. There are many triggers for migraines such as hormones, PMS, foods like chocolate, MSG and aspartame.  Often migraine sufferers start to find that their world gets smaller and smaller as the number of foods that trigger their migraines grows. So the journey to find relief from the pain and backlash of a migraine brings us to addressing some of the underlying causes of migraines. Today, I'll share with you how I treat migraines and how migraine sufferers should know that the pain they are experiencing is unnecessary once the underlying causes are addressed and the body if brought back into balance.

Migraine relief is found in 3 distinct goals:

1) Appropriate Diet

2) Detoxifying the body

3) Reducing Inflammation.

The diet is relatively easy to figure out since we run a comprehensive and extremely accurate food sensitivity test that identifies the foods that the migraine sufferer needs to avoid. Usually avoidance starts with a 2 week strict adherance to the dietary plan coupled with NAET allergy elimation treatments so that some food favorites can be added back to the diet without triggering more inflammation or headaches.  How long you will be off a particular food or group of foods depends on how well a NAET treatment can desensitize you from the food. It usually takes anywhere from 1-4 treatments per food but generally 1-2 can do it. NAET is an easy and painless acupressure technique that rebalanced your body while being exposed to an allergen and after a 25 hour avoidance of the food that you were treated for, most of the time returning to the food will result in an allergy-free experience. In some cases it may take more than one treatment but generally speaking this is quite an amazing technique.

Detoxification is done through the use of homeopathic remedies and antioxidants to assist the body in getting rid of chemicals, excess hormones and other toxins that need to be eliminated and strengthening the avenues of elimination so that in the future toxicity doesn't build up in the body again. This focus is generally on the liver, kidneys and colon with particular care to ensure that the digestive system is functioning well.

Finally, Inflammation needs to be addressed simultaneously for which I use a combination of electromyopulse treatments to repair spasming tissue, biopuncture injections with homeopathic remedies that brings down both local and systemic inflammation and auriculotherapy, a set of acupressure points applied to the ear used for reflexology and healing varying body areas of inflammation. Muscle spasms eventually will be a thing of the past as well as the neck tightness associated with the tension found in migraine sufferers.

Once all 3 of these plates are up and spinning the migraine sufferer is usually free of pain on a daily basis with fewer and fewer flare-ups decreasing in frequency, intensity and duration.  Hope these guidelines help you better understand how migraines should be a thing of your past.

What is Your Baseline Radiation Exposure

Since we've been more concerned about radiation exposure from the nuclear danger in Japan, I've found an interesting tool for you to calculate your baseline radiation exposure on a yearly basis. The EPA has put together a little quiz for us to take to get an understanding on how much radiation we get from our environment, medical testing and flying. The higher your home elevation level is, the greater the day to day radiation exposure can be.  Use this interesting calculator to estimate your baseline radiation exposure and to learn of common sources of avoidable radiation. I find it particularly interesting that medical procedures is a large part of possible radiation exposures. Don't forget the x-rays you get from your dentist, to be included in your radiation assessment. Many dentists are very liberal with x-rays.  After you find out your baseline radiation exposure, mine is 341 mrem, mostly from transcontinental flights, estimate what your risk is given the average radiation that you get on a year to year basis. The average American will get a dose of approximately 620 mrems on a yearly basis. Would love to hear what your thoughts are on your results.

Radiation Toxicity: What You Need to Do (and Not Do)

In the wake of the Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and resulting nuclear reactor explosions many of us, especially in California (aka earthquake country) are wondering about how to protect ourselves from any future radiation exposure. Our exposure can come by way of Japan's nuclear problem and its fallout brought to us via the jetstream and winds.  The biggest concern that you need to be aware of is the possible risk of cancers, especially thyroid cancer from nuclear fall-out. So far, the risk to Americans and Canadians is very little since the nuclear reactors have mostly been contained by the heroic nuclear experts in Japan.  However, in the interest of emergency preparedness I thought I would address the use of Potassium Iodide tablets and why it would help protect your thyroid from cancer.

Many of us know that iodine is the main mineral that is used by the thyoid to integrate into the formation of thyroid hormone. The lower your iodine levels are in your body, the more likely that your body will absorb and utilize radioactive iodine from nuclear fall-out.  The use of iodized salt has helped minimize the formation of goiters or enlarged thyroid as a result of low iodine levels historically but this alone is not sufficient to protect your body from absorbing radioactive iodine. 

Enter potassium iodide or its scientific abbreviation KI.  Potassium iodide has long since been given as a preventative measure for protecting people from thyroid cancer after nuclear accidents. It's usefulness has been especially noted after the Chernobyl nuclear accident where the risk of thyroid cancer has become an epidemic since the 1986 disaster.  In adjacent Poland where KI emergency therapy was instituted there seems to have been no increase in thyroid cancer incidence.  Potassium Iodide has an immediate protective effect for people who are at risk for inhaling radioactive iodine. Too, it is helpful in the longer term during exposure from foods that have had radioactive iodine and strontium contamination. Dr. David Brenner of the Center for Radiological research at Columbia University believes that had people exposed to Chernobyl's fall-out been told to stop consuming dairy products, this would have significantly reduced the incidence of thyroid cancers and leukemia caused by radiation exposure they are now experiencing.  Dr. Brenner explains that KI prevents the thyroid from absorbing the toxic radioactive iodine but that in the long run 98% of radiation exposure is from the settling of radioactive particles onto the food our food sources consume. Our exposure to radioactive iodine is mostly indirect primarily due to consumption of dairy products which are derived from radioactively contaminated grass and is concentrated in the milk of cows and other milk producing animals. Also fruits and vegetables sourced near a nuclear accident location is also important to avoid due to radioactive contamination.

The American Thyroid Association recommends taking KI 6-12 hours prior to radioactive exposure at a full dose of 130 mg per adult and 65 mg for children between ages 3 and 18 and 32 mg for children between ages 1 and 3.  In truth, the FDA has published a statement saying that children as young as 1 month can be given the full adult dose of 130 mg.  Absolute precision in dosing of KI is not necessary except for the very young (under 1 month of age). The risk for thyroid cancer decreases significantly over age 40 and supplementation of KI is not necessitated. 

You may have already read my article on fibrocystic breast disease and how it is related to low iodine levels common in the US.  Now, in the wake of a possible nuclear disaster, iodine levels are again in the forefront of the news. If you need iodine capsules or are interested in whether or not your body is low in iodine, give my office a call to order. I suggest that you get your iodine levels higher to both prevent risk of radiation related problems and to improve your health and thyroid function.

Check your news channels for potential radiation exposure for your area and take your iodine tablets if your area is at risk for high radiation levels. Take your doses of iodine/iodide about 24-48 hours before fallout arrives to your area. Remember, that kids are much more susceptible than adults over 40.