Take Back Control Of Your Health
The challenges that we have all faced on so many fronts in the last two years are testimony to the fact that the better the condition we are in, the better we are able to cope with what life throws at us. This includes both spiritual and physical health.
With the rapidly changing environment, it may be that the health tools we have taken for granted for years, may no longer be available at some point in the future. We are seeing natural health products that have been used safely for years, suddenly disappearing off the shelves and no longer available. In this case, we need to rely more on our own health knowledge and resources (and perhaps from things we can grow in our gardens). That is why it is imperative that we take control of our own health and not fall back on the ‘experts’ to ‘manage’ our health for us. It doesn’t take a degree in Functional Medicine to learn some life-saving basics - just curiosity, a desire to be responsible for one’s own health, and an ability to read and look up new words in a dictionary!
It helps to have a framework of the underlying triggers of modern illness so you know what you need to do to overcome these. Broadly speaking, these are as follows:
Hidden infections/ Chronic Immune Suppression
We all carry an infectious load in our bodies as a result of contact with many types of microbes in our lifetime. These can include Epstein Barr Virus (glandular fever), Coxsackievirus (a member of the Polio virus family), Step infection (which can trigger many illnesses), Lyme infection, Coronaviruses (flu), parasites, fungi etc. If our immune systems keep these in check and they remain ‘dormant’ in our bodies, we feel fine. If our body condition changes with the wrong foods, too many toxins and too much stress, too little sleep, our immune systems become compromised and infections can reactivate and bloom. We then start to feel sick and fatigued.
The private lab tests you can do to check immune function and infections are some of the most useful tests you can ever do. They may even save your life. Finding out if your immune system has lost half of its protective ‘soldiers’ because of it is battling chronic common infections (Coxsackievirus, Epstein Barr Virus, Lyme disease, Strep, parasites, mould, fungi etc.) enables you to do something about it and improve the situation. Infections are some of the biggest causes of fatigue, aches and pains, anxiety and low mood. Doing nothing allows things to get worse; taking action sets you out on the road to recovery.
Compartmentalised Toxins
We live in a world of increasing toxicity, pollution and radiation. This has a profound effect on our wellbeing and health, so much so that we cannot hope to live comfortably on Planet Earth without making detoxification a regular part of our lifestyle. Toxins like glyphosate, mercury (from dental fillings and the environment), aluminium, food poisons (trans fats, refined sugars, chemicals) end up lodged in the various tissues of our body - in our brain, liver, kidneys, gut etc.
Lab tests for toxicity include mercury and other heavy metals, glyphosate, environmental poisons, mould biotoxins and chemicals. When you know what the toxins are, you can do something to reduce the levels in your body. There are many types of detoxification regimes. Prior to doing these, however, it is vital to support and open the channels of detoxification i.e. liver, bowel, kidneys, and lymphatic system. I like gentle detoxification strategies which can be incorporated into daily routines. These should be pulsed to give our bodies a rest from time to time. Detoxification is a marathon, rather than a sprint. It takes five minutes to put a toxic mercury filling into a mouth, but a lifetime to get it out of your tissues. Other more specialised detoxification tools include liver/gallbladder flush and the structured supervised sauna programme that many of you have heard me talk about.
Overshooting Immune Reactions
In the last few decades, there has been an explosion of autoimmune disease. This is when the immune system gets tricked into attacking the tissues of its own body by some trigger or triggers. These could be toxins or infections or foods. Some autoimmune conditions include Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, PANS/PANDAS and Lupus. A branch of the immune system called Th-17 cells is involved in this over zealous reaction. In this case, indiscriminate ‘immune boosting’ can make symptoms a lot worse. The name of the game is a fine tight rope walk of quietening down the overactive parts of the immune system and waking up the underactive parts (NK cells and Th1 cells) to overcome infectious triggers in order to reduce the amount and severity of flares. There are other kinds of conditions where the immune response is too robust i.e. Mast cell activation and mould biotoxin illness where genetically susceptible people who have been exposed to water damaged buildings and resulting mould can get multiple inflammatory symptoms known as biotoxin illness or CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome).
Doing the lab tests to identify if your immune system is attacking your own tissues is vital to help stop the damage, as your immune cells have a memory and your biology will respond to the triggers as sure as night follows day. Some tests are specific to certain conditions like the Cunningham Panel for PANS/PANDAS, or thyroid autoantibodies but some are more general, such as Antinuclear Antibodies. There are also some very specific tests for mould biotoxin illness which can identify conditions like CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) or MARCONs sinus infection (an antibiotic resistant deep seated sinus infection related to mould exposures).
Interference Fields
Any part of the body that has been traumatised or has become ill can become an interference field. This means an area that can cause disturbance elsewhere in the body. For example, a gallbladder scar can trigger chronic hip pain, chronically infected/traumatised tonsils can affect the knee joint and other systems, pelvic scars can trigger arthritis, sinus infections can trigger neck pain, root canal treated teeth can trigger symptoms almost anywhere in the body. The four front teeth of the upper and lower jaw are related to the urogenital system. Problems with these teeth are frequently responsible for pelvic pain, bladder problems, chronic kidney disease and even cancers in the pelvic organs. German physician, Dr Dietrich Klinghardt has spent a lifetime studying the effects of interference fields in the body. In his estimation, 30-45% of all illness or pain is caused by an interference field or a linked series of such fields. In his opinion, dental factors like unhealed extraction sites, root-canaled, devitalised or impacted teeth can account for between 50% and 80% of all interference fields.
In the UK there is a network of Biological dentists affiliated to the IAOMT (International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology). These are dentists who know that the mouth affects the whole body and are trained to deal with hidden jawbone infections and toxins. This is very different from the average ‘drill, fill and bill” that many of us have been used to for most of our lives, no matter how kind or lovely our dentists have been. Diagnostics for interference fields include specialised dental imaging (3 D Cone Beam CT scan, panoramic scan, Cavitau ultrasound), other x-ray imaging and thermography) and thorough examination by ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and other consultants as well as Autonomic Response Testing - the in-house muscle testing developed by Dr Klinghardt. Addressing dental and tonsil interference fields can be some of the most valuable things you can do for your health.
Metabolic/Structural Changes
The oral cavity and the structures related to it (nerves, muscles etc.) affect the functioning of the whole body. Mechanical dental stresses like missing back teeth, malocclusion (poor bite), alterations in height of teeth, jaw joint instability (TMJ issues), produce a pattern of far reaching effects on both physical and mental health. The dental distress resulting from a poor bite, neuromuscular imbalance (due to missing back teeth, ill fitting dentures etc.) and craniomandibular disorders (from jaw joint instability) greatly differs from many other stressors affecting the human body, in that it is a constant, unrelenting stress, always affecting the individual until the dentist intervenes. That is why dental pioneer Dr Aelred Fonda, author of the seminal book The Dental Physician, said that dentists should be neurologists of the highest order. Other structural misalignments relate to the cranial bones, spine and the rest of the skeleton. Correcting these is important to keep the flows of the body in balance - nutrients into cells and toxins out.
I refer patients to Biological dentists for oral structural issues, and to osteopaths and chiropractors to sort out wider skeletal structural issues. I am qualified in cranio-sacral therapy myself but offer this service to existing nutritional patients only as I have found that without the correct nutritional support, cranio-sacral gains do not last.
Genetic Predispositions
Genetics can play an important role in the predisposition of illness. For example, the medical literature states that the major trigger for Ulcerative Colitis is infection plus genetic predisposition. It is important to take a thorough family history when seeing a patient for the first time so I can see if there are any genetic weak links that might help explain why someone is suffering from a certain complaint. For example, dental pioneer and nutritionist Dr Weston A. Price took thorough case histories for his dental patients. He discovered that his sickest patients had family histories of heart disease and rheumatism which predisposed them to poor immune defence from streptococcal and other infections. He advised these patients to have all infected teeth removed to lighten the burden on their immune systems. Most patients (and there were hundreds of documented cases) then made remarkable recoveries from their debilitating illnesses. The good news about rogue or ‘bad’ genes is that they can be switched off. The genetic switch is nutrition. Just because you have a family history of heart disease or glaucoma etc., does not mean that you will inevitably get the same disease if you do the right things. The science of how environment influences your genes is called ‘epigenetics.’
Genetic tests are available and you only need to do them once in your lifetime! They show genetic potential however, not actuality! Genetic tests are not my first port of call as I want to know what is actually happening right now, but tests like the 23andme test or Genetic Genie can be useful as backup tests to show your body’s weakest links. For instance, the HLA gene testing for mould sensitivity can be useful in helping an individual take appropriate environmental precautions to avoid mould biotoxins for the rest of his life.
Spiritual Factors/Unhealthy Behaviours
We now enter the field of the Mind and Human Spirit. It has been observed that those who acknowledge themselves as immortal spiritual beings fare much better in times of crisis than those who regard themselves as lumps of meat. Knowing that the Mind is different from the Brain can be significant in controlling thoughts and emotions and refusing to be ruled by fear. While the Brain is a lump of fat and neurons, the Mind is composed of mental image pictures which we take every twenty-fifth of a second. This means that the Mind holds a record of our entire time track to which we can refer back for information. As the Mind is senior to the Body, painful past experiences, some of which may be occluded from memory, can trigger unwanted physical sensations and thoughts and even unhealthy behaviours like excessive smoking and drinking and the failure to look after oneself properly. We call this psychosomatic illness.
As your thoughts are senior to your body, regaining control over this area of your life can not only help you to feel better, but improve your physical wellbeing too. There are many tools to do this - specialist counselling to overcome past painful experiences, avoiding toxic personalities which, as the old poem goes, are ‘vexations to the spirit,’ taking a walk in Nature or by the sea, helping someone else to take your attention off your own problems, communication to people whose company we enjoy. All these valid therapies help improve mood and can make the difference between being too apathetic to bother about one’s health or equipping oneself with the best tools for survival.
If you would like help with any of the above or if you feel you have slipped away from optimum health, please email the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com or ring on 07836 552936.