Repairing the Breach

by Vaughn Cook, OMD

February 21, 2012 in From the Bloggers

When it comes to health, what you see is not always what you get, that’s why we continue to build technology that provides us different views or a different perspective of the body.

For thousands of years the energy aspect of human anatomy has been a component to health and healing, but aside from a small number of shaman or Zen priests, it wasn’t directly observed.

With the discovery of electricity and instruments that measure electricity, new ideas about bioenergy emerged. One of the early pioneers in this pursuit was a medical doctor from Germany named Reinhold Voll. Voll designed a surprisingly effective diagnostic and treatment technique called EAV (Electroacupuncture According to Voll). This technique used, what is essentially an ohm meter, to measure the electrical characteristics of the skin at acupuncture points.

Your body, like a battery, collects, stores, and discharges energy. Acupuncture points are ‘hard-wired’ to different organs or parts of the body, and the electrical activity measured at an acupuncture point is a direct reflection of the health of its associated hard-wired destination. By measuring the electrical characteristics of individual acupuncture points, Voll was able to observe the battery responses of specific organs and see the body in new and useful ways.

Another early pioneer in energy was a Swedish MD named Bjorn Nordenstrom, who discovered that the body is a closed circuit electrical system. When the circuit is breached, for example when you get a cut, it’s the electrical response that directs the immune reaction and tissue repair.

Circuit breaches usually happen in ways more subtle than a cut; physical and emotional trauma are examples. Repairing any breach is usually more successful when the healing strategy is holistic.

Energetically, there are interconnections throughout the body that are not visibly obvious and are not well understood by most health practitioners. These interconnections provide redundancy that is necessary to keep us healthy, but when a breach occurs at any location, these same connections allow a ripple effect which can obscure the underlying cause and make diagnosis more difficult.

For example, chemicals, emotions, organs, pathogens, allergens, structure and even financial circumstance (of your patient) are all part of the circuit. They’re all part of life’s continuum. If a breach occurs anywhere on that continuum you will see ripples throughout the system. Clinical strategies that intervene simultaneously at multiple insertion points are more likely to succeed because they’re less reliant on ‘hitting the nail on the head’, and they are more supportive to the entire body.

Nutrition, energetic therapy, emotional support, lifestyle changes, and structural correction all have individual value, but when used in combination you substantially increase the likelihood of a positive clinical outcome.

Creating a Solid Structure with Nutritional Basics

by Bob DeMaria, DC, DABCO, FASBE, NHD

February 14, 2012 in From the Bloggers

Any structure requires a solid “footer”, which is a measured amount of concrete or other solid material strategically placed in the ground to support the building above. It has been said that an experienced builder can accurately tell you the size of the formation to be built by looking at the supporting structure. Just like a building structure, the human body requires basic nutrients to serve as a “footer” and allow you to perform optimally. A skilled health care practitioner can tell you a lot by looking at a patient; large pores on the face suggest a zinc need, possibly caused from too much gluten.

I have discovered over time that there are nutrients commonly deficient in the general public. We live in a very stressful society which creates an acidic environment and tends to cannibalize minerals; I would recommend Multi-Mins™ (three to six a day). I also encourage a green food because we have synthetic estrogens in nearly every layer of our environment; food, water, lawn applications, cosmetics and common household items. Green food, like NitroGreens^®, should be a part of the nutritional basics to help manage the estrogen excess and synergistically neutralize the acid state.

I also encourage a CBC with a differential to help determine the iron levels and potential digestive deficiencies, which requires HydroZyme™ and/or B12-2000™ Lozenges. It is wise to request a chem screen profile which can provide a road map for your protocols, like high cholesterol that could be from a subpar thyroid, an altered chloride or carbon dioxide level which may suggest pH challenges. You always want to make sure your clients are on a multiple product, such as Bio-Multi Plus™ (two to three a day), which is one of the best products out there. I always have patients fill out a diet journal and some type of survey form to have a basis for my recommendations. We have been using the ZYTO Technology along with other assessments to create a plan. Also, Biotics Research Corporation has taken the thinking out of your recommendations by creating the Bio-Anabolic Pack™ with 5 important supplements per pack and I encourage all of my patients to start with this product.

Fibromyalgia: Current Understandings & Integrative Nutritional Approaches

by Alex Vasquez, BS, DC, ND, DO

January 30, 2012 in From the Bloggers

Introduction
Fibromyalgia XE “Fibromyalgia” is commonly described as an idiopathic syndrome principally characterized by widespread body pain and numerous myofascial tender points at specific locations. The condition is most common in women 20 to 50 years old and often presents with associated complaints of fatigue, headaches, subjective numbness, altered sleep patterns, and gastrointestinal disturbances. Fibromyalgia in children and adolescents presents similarly to fibromyalgia in adults except for the comparatively higher prevalence of sleep disturbance and the finding of fewer tender points.¹

Until recently, fibromyalgia was considered a diagnosis of exclusion after infection, autoimmunity, or other primary causes were ruled out by clinical and laboratory assessment. However, current criteria base the diagnosis on positive findings of chronic, widespread musculoskeletal pain in characteristic locations; these criteria will be described below. Fibromyalgia shares several clinical and demographic features with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); the reason for these overlaps is not generally understood by most clinicians and researchers but will be made plain here.

The prevailing medical view, expressed by clinicians and the authors of widely cited articles, is that fibromyalgia is idiopathic with strong neuropsychogenic influences and that, since the underlying causes of the condition have not been identified, the best therapeutic approach is symptom suppression via perpetual pharmacotherapy with adjunctive use of psychotherapy and limited exercise.^{2, 3, 4} The term syndrome connotes that a cluster of symptoms is of a nonorganic, psychogenic, or idiopathic nature, whereas disease validates the organic and pathophysiological nature of an illness. This author advocates the use of disease rather than syndrome when describing fibromyalgia in appreciation of the real, organic, biochemical, and histopathological findings which clearly indicate that fibromyalgia is a specific disease entity and not simply a psychogenic or enigmatic cluster of symptoms. If fibromyalgia is a real, organic clinical entity (as will be documented here), then the appropriate designation is fibromyalgia disease XE “fibromyalgia disease” (FMD) rather than fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), as previously and commonly used in the biomedical literature. For consistency and clarity within this section, the general term “fibromyalgia” (FM) will be used.

Clinical Presentation
Fibromyalgia is common, affecting approximately 2% of the U.S. population, and 10% of affected patients have severe symptoms resulting in partial or total disability. Affected patients report chronic aches, pains, and stiffness, with a proclivity for localization near the neck, shoulders, low back, and hips. Pain and fatigue are typically exacerbated following physical exertion or psychological stress. Associated manifestations include fatigue, sleep disorders (including insomnia, unrestful sleep, and objective abnormalities such as an increase in stage 1 sleep, a reduction in delta sleep, and alpha-delta sleep anomaly), subjective numbness, headaches, and IBS-like gastrointestinal disturbances. Clinical findings shared between fibromyalgia and IBS include abdominal pain and discomfort, changed frequency of stool including diarrhea and/or constipation, abdominal bloating and distention, dyspepsia, heartburn, headaches (including migraine), fatigue, myalgias, restless leg syndrome, anxiety, and depression. The high prevalence (>50%) of migraine-type headaches in fibromyalgia patients suggests an underlying pathogenesis shared between cephalgia (ceph=head, algia=pain) and widespread myalgia (myo=muscle, algia=pain), namely impaired mitochondrial function.⁵ Cognitive symptoms such as “brain fog” and difficulty with memory and word retrieval, as well as environmental intolerance and multiple chemical sensitivity, are seen in both fibromyalgia and CFS⁶; again, this overlap of shared symptoms suggests a common etiopathogenesis. Routine physical examination and laboratory findings are generally normal, with the exception of fibromyalgia tender points (described and diagramed below).

Diagnosis
Clinical findings: Per guidelines published in 1990 by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), a diagnosis of fibromyalgia can be made in a patient with inexplicable, widespread myofascial pain of at least 3 months’ duration; inexplicable denotes normalcy of routine laboratory and physical examination findings and failure to find an alternate explanation or diagnosis, while widespread denotes bilateral pain above and below the waist not attributable to trauma or rheumatic disease and with pain at 11 of 18 classic tender points (see illustration in video excerpted from book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5sAZvPD3E8 ). Fibromyalgia tender points are assessed bilaterally at 9 paired sites: (sub)occiput, low cervical spine, trapezius, supraspinatus, second rib (anterior, near costosternal junction), lateral epicondyle, gluteal region, greater trochanter, and medial fat pad of the knees. Tender points are provoked by the clinician’s application of approximately 9 pounds of fingertip pressure, which is sufficient to cause blanching of the clinician’s nail bed. The tender points of fibromyalgia are distinguished from myofascial trigger points (MFTP, described by Travell⁷) and strain-counterstrain tender points (described in the osteopathic literature by Jones⁸). In contrast to MFTP, which are located toward the center of the muscle fiber and which refer pain and show spontaneous electrocontractile activity⁹, tender points of fibromyalgia are located near the tendinous insertions of muscle to bone and cause local pain only, without pain referral or contractile activity.

In 2010, new preliminary ACR guidelines for the diagnosis and assessment of fibromyalgia¹⁰ were significantly changed from the 1990 guidelines. Very curiously, the authors state that one of their objectives was to create criteria that “do not require a tender point examination”; at first, this seems odd and clinically inconsistent considering that the tender point examination u takes only about 60 seconds to perform, v is noninvasive, w was previously the standard by which the diagnosis was made, and x is reasonable and responsible—physical examination of patients with pain is a reasonable standard of care. Perhaps even more curious is the fact that development of these new guidelines was sponsored by Lilly Research Laboratories, which is the “research and development” department of Eli Lilly and Company, one of the world’s largest drug companies and the manufacturer of duloxetine (Cymbalta®) which is one of the only FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of fibromyalgia.¹¹ Among patients labeled with fibromyalgia, the new criteria increase the percentage of patients diagnosable by criteria from 75% to 88%; whether the motivation to expand the patient population diagnosed with fibromyalgia is altruistic or financially motivated is subject to debate. The authors of the new guidelines note several “important problems” with the 1990 ACR criteria, such as “Patients who improved or whose symptoms and tender points decreased could fail to satisfy the ACR 1990 classification definition” and “there was little variation in symptoms among fibromyalgia patients.” Clinicians should note that these so-called “problems” are not problems at all because patients who improve and thus no longer meet diagnostic criteria should not be considered to have an active disease/diagnosis, and that high-quality clinical criteria should indeed result in the specific definition of clinical disorder and thus in a well-defined cohort of patients; correcting these “problems” results in patients being diagnosed for longer periods of time (longer-term patients-customers) and also results in more patients being diagnosed with fibromyalgia (more patients-customers).

The new criteria rely on a summation of two tallies—widespread pain index (WPI) and symptom severity (SS)—with the diagnosis being supported by either “WPI >7 and SS >5” or “WPI 3–6 and SS >9”. Pain must have been consistent for at least three months and must not be attributable to another cause. A graphic excerpt of the new diagnostic criteria is provided here http://optimalhealthresearch.com/fibromyalgia_criteria_update_2010.html

This week’s webinar will focus on the biochemical abnormalities in and nutritional treatments for Fibromyalgia. Please join us for a lively discussion and insights into the treatment of this common and perplexing condition. Click here to register for 12 pm to 1 pm CST

¹Siegel DM, Janeway D, Baum J. Fibromyalgia syndrome in children and adolescents: clinical features at presentation and status at follow-up. Pediatrics. 1998;101(3 Pt 1):377-82
²Chakrabarty S, Zoorob R. Fibromyalgia. Am Fam Physician. 2007 Jul 15;76(2):247-54
³Tierney ML. McPhee SJ, Papadakis MA (eds). Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment 2006, 45th Edition. New York: Lange Medical Books, pages 820-821
⁴Simms RW. Nonarticular soft tissue disorders. In Andreoli TE, Carpenter CCJ, Griggs RC, and Benjamin IJ (eds). Cecil Essentials of Medicine. Seventh Edition. Philadelphia; Saunders Elsevier, 2007: 851-2
⁵Pieczenik SR, Neustadt J. Mitochondrial dysfunction and molecular pathways of disease. Exp Mol Pathol. 2007 Aug;83(1):84-92
⁶Brown MM, Jason LA. Functioning in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome: increased impairment with co-occurring multiple chemical sensitivity and fibromyalgia. Dyn Med. 2007 May 31;6:6 http://www.dynamic-med.com/content/6/1/6
⁷Simons DG, Travell JG, Simons LS. Travell & Simons’ Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction. The Trigger Point Manual. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1999
⁸Jones L, Kusunose R, Goering E. Jones Strain-Counterstrain. Carlsbad, Jones Strain Counterstrain Incorporated, 1995. [ISBN 0964513544]
⁹ Hubbard DR, Berkoff GM. Myofascial trigger points show spontaneous needle EMG activity. Spine. 1993 Oct 1;18(13):1803-7
¹⁰Wolfe F, Clauw DJ, Fitzcharles M-A, et al. The American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia and measurement of symptom severity. Arthritis Care Res. 2010;62(5):600-10 http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/classification/fibromyalgia/2010_Preliminary_Diagnostic_Criteria.pdf
¹¹ http://www.lilly.com/research/Pages/research.aspx and http://newsroom.lilly.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?releaseid=316740 Accessed January 2012.

The Importance of Vitamin D

by Bob DeMaria, DC, DABCO, FASBE, NHD

January 23, 2012 in From the Bloggers

Vitamin D is one of the four fat soluble vitamins stored in the liver; A, D, E and K. The liver is critically important for the metabolism and storage of Vitamin D. Toxic environments can create a challenge for the movement and utilization of all the fat soluble vitamins needed for optimal health. I utilize and encourage a consistent protocol of liver support to receive the total benefit of all the fat soluble vitamins and one of the reasons I also see excellent results using the liquid products from Biotics Research Corporation – the sublingual application increases the assimilation of Vitamin D.

Vitamin D, very simply put, is created naturally by sunshine converting the cholesterol in your skin to Vitamin D. Vitamin D physiologically works by drawing calcium from the intestines and transports it to the blood stream. The real impact of D is due in part to this calcium movement. Calcium glues cells together and when deficient, there is an increase potential for cell membranes to be penetrated by viruses and other foreign invaders. I know when D is low, calcium can be low, and you may notice cold sores.

Vitamin D is very vital and commonly deficient in patients with high blood pressure, bronchitis, MS, chronic infections, bone challenges and a plethora of chronic illnesses. I have tested and found individuals with dark skin tend to have subpar vitamin D levels; I like to see the number be at 40, rarely are patients with pigmented skin above 20. I also have seen bronchitis disappear when the D level was raised from 6 to normal levels. Blood pressure challenges caused by lack of calcium will respond to D supplementation. Calcium relaxes smooth muscles in blood vessels with proper supplementation. Vitamin D helps preserve proper cell life by promoting a process called apoptosis; limited cell life. I generally recommend at least 2000 to 4000 IU of D during the winter months from November until May – depending of course on the test results. I will have my child patients take at least one drop a day during the winter. It is wise to have your patients tested for their D3 levels.