Integrative Health Blog

Melatonin’s benefits for a wide array of medical conditions are well substantiated:  treatment of insomnia, support of circadian rhythm, hormone balancing, reproductive health, cognition, mood, blood sugar regulation, bone metabolism, antioxidant protection and lowering of blood pressure are some of its studied benefits. 

Of note is that melatonin does not easily cross the blood brain barrier, so its benefits for sleep may be more related to its effects on other organs, especially since many organs in the body have far more melatonin receptors than the brain has.  This article will focus on the use of melatonin as a possible preventative and as an adjunctive therapy for cancer.

Possible Role of Melatonin and Cancer

Cold and virus season can come on fast! The average cold lasts 2 weeks and can leave you feeling grouchy, tired and can sometimes turn into pneumonia or bronchitis, especially if your health is compromised in any way. Consider having these natural items on hand in case symptoms strike or if you are traveling and need an extra boost to the immune system.

Homeopathic remedies are especially helpful if taken at the first sign of a cold and may even help speed recovery. The suggested supplement dosages here are for adults, but always check with your physician first.

1)  Vitamin A is needed for the proper functioning of the eyes, skin, immune system and many other functions in the body. Vitamin A supplementation with 25000 units/day for 3 days is the adult dosage.

2)  Zinc is a mineral that can be effective for shortening the duration of colds, especially when taken at the first sign of illness. It is helpful for the boosting the immune system, fighting infection and wound healing. Optizinc suggested dosage 20 mg. - 4 a day until symptoms improve.

A famous best-seller, The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, by psychologist Judith Rich Harris, has been circulating for 20 years.  Based on amassed studies, parental influences on children matter a lot less than peer group influences, and they both matter less than genetic factors.  Parents are advised to not blame themselves if their children don’t become Rhodes scholars, because controlling peer group influences is difficult and controlling genetic expression is impossible.  Until the last few years, parents were expected to do the best they can to control the friends that their children hang out with, and hope that their children’s genes will line up well enough to someday produce a productive, happy member of society.

Power to Change the Things We Can

The human body speaks a “foreign” sensory language.  It would be nice if it could speak English, and say, “That pasta you ate last night is fermenting a lot of fungus, and I’ve told you before about your auto-brewery problems, so take extra probiotics today, and eat very lightly, and please, no carbohydrates.”  Instead of speaking English, the body speaks with sensory symptoms such as gas, bloating, discomfort, fatigue and loose stools.

Like translating Russian into English, as a functional medicine physician I serve as an interpreter, so that my patients can begin to listen to their body’s messages.  Later, as they learn the language, they can listen to their own "body-speak."

What Symptoms Can Mean

Symptoms are attempts to communicate and an attempt to heal and make things better, regardless of how unpleasant symptoms are.  We have been indoctrinated to believe that symptoms are diseases, that they should be medicated with something to anesthetize (numb) or control them.  Sometimes symptoms can be so severe that they actually pose a health risk, such as severe diarrhea which can cause dehydration.  Most of the time, symptoms are not life-threatening and it helps to pay attention to what your body is trying to say and do. Diarrhea, cough, urgency on urination and a runny nose are attempts of the body to rid itself of toxins.  Blindly medicating such symptoms frustrates your body’s attempts to rid you of toxins and infections and to heal.  

Food sensitivity is often a major risk factor for systemic inflammation immune stress and it can distract your immune system from more important tasks such as destroying cancer cells,  parasites, fungus, viruses and invasive fungus. As part of a functional medicine work-up, a simple, inexpensive test panel for food sensitivities can determine certain foods to eliminate for a while which can eliminate some inflammation and immune stress, and which can lower your overall stress levels.

Regardless of the problem that you are seeking care for, at some level your immune system is involved, and the immune system does better if it is not distracted or damaged by food sensitivities. For instance, you may have mild food sensitivities which may not be that important for your overall health, but if they distract your immune system in its fight against Lyme or cancer, or you are dealing with serious asthma or an autoimmune disorder, even mild sensitivities can be important. Food sensitivity recovery is a relatively simple process but giving up one’s favorite foods can be difficult. We have health coaches and support to help you make better food replacement choices.

The Immune System and Leaky Gut 

President Donald Trump[1] has just proclaimed September 2017 as the National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.  One can’t fault any concerned American for bemoaning our #1 national epidemic that continues to escalate with no solution in sight.  In true Trumpesque form, the issue is being met head on and brazenly confronted, a welcomed call to action. 

Deaths from drug abuse kill more Americans by far than any other disorder, with tobacco alone killing nearly a half million Americans per year and underlying much of the death and disability of the classical #1 and #2 killers, heart disease and cancer.  Deaths from opioid abuse alone, heavily fueled by the prescription pad, now tally more than the deaths from auto accidents and gunshot wounds combined. 

Why can’t addictions be solved like many other medical problems; find the cause, address them, and be done with it?

Osteoporosis is a common disease that affects bone health. Osteoporosis and low bone density affect about half of all adults age 50 and over, and places them at greater risk for broken bones from minor falls.

However, most older Americans who suffer bone breaks are not tested or treated for osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis: Functional Medicine Testing for a Baseline on Your Bones

If you are slender in body build, have a family history of osteoporosis, are over 65 or have suffered unexplained bone fractures, you should have a DEXA scan.  If that test suggests significant loss of bone density, 3 additional diagnostic tests are commonly recommended by functional medicine practitioners: seriel blood progesterone [1] levels, serial urine N-Telopeptide Cross-links (NTx)[2] and seriel Hormonal Health[3]. 

A human being’s genetic blueprint is housed in our 23 chromosomes which is where the name of the genetic test “23andMe” gets its name.

Each of our 23 chromosomes has an average of about 1000 genes, and each gene has an average of about 100 quirky substitutions, which are sometimes referred to as mutations or polymorphisms.

These millions of quirky substitutions partly explains why we are all so delightfully unique in the way we look, think, act and feel about life’s challenges. Most of these mutations or polymorphisms are not considered to be detrimental, but a handful could be important under certain circumstances and cause serious diseases and other health problems, which is why it is important to know about them.

These important genetic polymorphisms are also:

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”

—Winston Churchill.

It’s all over the news. Deaths due to opioids and painkillers are rising dramatically and are now exceeding the mortality rates of auto accidents and gunshot wounds combined. The new healthcare budget may pump 45 billion dollars into opioid abuse treatment, intended to treat opioid abuse with the latest, more expensive, and perhaps equally addictive  prescribed opioids. This is tantamount to trying to extinguish a kerosene fire with gasoline. Morbidity and mortality rates will continue to worsen for opioid addiction, because certain basic, scientific truths about restoring the brain’s natural opioids are being ignored in society and even in mainstream healthcare.

Historically, when educational, prevention and treatment efforts are initiated to address various diseases, the morbidity and mortality associated with the targeted diseases declines. When mosquitos were found to be the vector in the cause of malaria, reputed historically to have killed more human beings than all other diseases in the history of humanity combined, the incidence of malaria dropped dramatically. Tuberculosis may have killed as many as 1 billion people in the 1800s, and its incidence has fallen dramatically with the advent of antibiotics. You probably don’t know anyone who has suffered from polio, as this vaccine has all but eradicated this disease.

History of Opioid Treatment

The human genome was mapped only 13 years ago, and already it is changing healthcare.

Genetic testing can identify common, important and modifiable quirky genes called SNPs, or single nucleotide polymorphisms, which create vulnerabilities to many kinds of allergic, infectious, immune, toxic, nutritional and psycho-emotional stress.  Autonomic fight or flight stress is usually blamed on vocational, economic and interpersonal factors- but actually it has a lot more to do with unseen physiological, biochemical toxicity and genetic variables.

Depending on your health interests, several panels of genetic tests are available at National Integrated Health Associates (NIHA) in the on-site lab, and can be ordered by your practitioner. Most tests are non-invasive, involving only a mouth swab, and may be covered by insurance.