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paullassiterca · 5 years

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How to Optimize Your Recovery After a Stroke

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Bob Dennis, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer by profession, is also the author of “Stroke of Luck: Master Neuroplasticity for Recovery and Growth After Stroke,” and its much-shortened version, “Stroke of Luck: NOW! Fast and Free Exercises to Immediately Begin Mastering Neuroplasticity Following a Stroke,” an excellent reference book that everyone should have in their medical library.

Why do I recommend you get a copy of Bob’s book now? Because it is highly likely you or someone you know or love will have a stroke, and you simply don’t want to wait for this book to ship to you as you will need access to it immediately if you are to minimize the damage done from the stroke.

Stroke is a massively pervasive problem in the U.S., with an estimated 795,000 strokes occurring each year.1 It’s the fifth leading cause of death, killing an estimated 142,000 annually. It’s also a leading cause of long-term disability in the U.S.2 Strokes are also becoming more prevalent in younger people.3 An estimated 10 percent of all strokes occur in people under the age of 50.4

The impetus behind the book was Dennis’ personal experience. He’s suffered two strokes so far, the last one in July 2018, at the age of 54, and made a magnificent recovery using the techniques he lays out in his book.

A recent example that has ignited renewed interest in prevention is the sudden death of 52-year-old actor, Luke Perry, from a massive stroke. Unfortunately, if it doesn’t kill you, you may suffer with severe disabilities for the remainder of your life, which is why Dennis’ book is so important.

He compiled this book as a resource to help stroke victims improve their chances of making as full a recovery as possible, and his own story is evidence that it’s possible. He recounts his experience:

“I woke up one morning in early July of 2018 and realized I’d had a stroke while I was in bed. I could barely talk, but I was able to get myself to a doctor. Of course, they loaded me immediately onto an ambulance and took me to a hospital. I was really aware of what was going on and what was happening. I paid very close attention to what they were asking me to do and what they were telling me.

The standard of care now … is that when you have a stroke, within three hours, they can give you thrombolytics — chemicals … to break up a thrombus or a clot … It … saves and preserves brain tissue without permanent death of the neurons. I was outside the three-hour thrombolytic window, so that was not an option.”

Conventional Medicine Falls Short on Stroke Recovery

For clarification, within that three-hour window, they have to determine which type of stroke you had, as giving thrombolytics to someone who has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke would be lethal (since a vein has ruptured and it’s already bleeding inside the brain).

Hence, one of the first things that must be done is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether your stroke is due to a blood clot (ischemic stroke) or a rupture (hemorrhagic stroke). According to the American Stroke Association, 87 percent of strokes are ischemic; the remainder are hemorrhagic.5

“Fortunately for me, most of my colleagues are neurophysiologists. On the very first day, my wife was able to ask them what I should be doing to get the best possible recovery. I got a lot of real expert opinions on it from my colleagues … I kept asking the mainstream physicians, ‘What should I be doing to improve my recovery?’

They kept saying, 'Well, take your meds, which are statins … and baby aspirin. Consider trying a Mediterranean diet.’ The last thing they said was, 'Well, you should go to physical therapy (PT) too.’ Now, I spoke to everybody who was at the hospital — a Level 1 neurotrauma stroke center — and that was the sum total of all of their advice.

I was thinking to myself, 'Seriously, come on. This happens to 800,000 Americans a year? I know there are things you can do after stroke, where’s the good advice?’ It wasn’t forthcoming … Of course, I knew a lot more because I’m a biomedical engineer. I knew a lot more than they were telling me. I got kind of a little angry about the fact that they don’t give good advice.

They basically give you the advice, 'Just lie there and wait,’ which, in my opinion, is the worst thing you can do. Once you know it’s not hemorrhagic, you should be doing things to promote your neuroplasticity. That’s what I did. I just started doing what I knew was right …

If I couldn’t do something, I did it over and over and over again until I could do it. I recovered from the point where I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk. By the end of the first day, I was pretty much ambulatory. I could communicate with people … [in] … one day.

I’m no genius. I’m just a regular guy, but that is neuroplasticity right there happening. You can make the most of it … Right after your brain is injured, you have this brief window of immense neuroplasticity and you need to take advantage of it. I got kind of ticked off by this whole system.

I was like, 'You know what? Somebody needs to start telling people [that] as soon as you have a stroke, make sure you start doing things, especially the things they’ve asked you to do when they’re assessing you. Because those things are safe. They’re effective. They zero in on your problem, and you can do them without any special equipment.

One of the ones they asked me to do was talk like a baby — 'Da, da, da, da, da. Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma’ — which I couldn’t do. But you can sit on a gurney and you can go, 'Da, da, da, da, da,’ until you can do it, right? I list all of [these strategies] in the book, because I think that they’re a really good place to start.”

Stroke Preparedness

Dennis wanted to make sure this information is available to anyone who needs it, and at a moment’s notice, so the book is primarily designed to be an e-book, and is available for free on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. “Also, as an e-book, you can have it the day you need it, which is the day you have a stroke,” he says. “You don’t have to wait for it to be delivered.”

You don’t even need to buy the book to get the most important advice and recommendations from it. You can simply click on the preview and read the summary, placed before the table of contents. My recommendation would be to get the book and review it now, before you or someone you love has a stroke, so you’re already familiar with the material.

Dennis’ experience is a powerful demonstration of how you can rapidly regain functionality by taking full advantage of your brain’s capacity to rewire itself, a process called neuroplasticity. Basically, the brain training Dennis describes allows your brain to develop alternate pathways to bypass the damaged neurons, and the sooner you do it after the damage has been incurred, the more effective it will be.

“In the full-length version of the book, which is about 600 pages in hard copy, I talk about the mechanism of neuroplasticity at great length … It turns out neuroplasticity is something that happens every time you learn something.

You can take different kinds of supplements, drugs and just food substances, which are thought of as nootropics. Sometimes they explicitly say, 'This promotes neuroplasticity.’ If you put in the term, neuroplasticity, just as a Google search term, there are all kinds of blogs on it.

I downloaded and I show a few of these blogs. They’re all very similar. They all amount to the following: Do novel things. Keep moving. Keep learning. Keep trying things. Keep challenging yourself. You don’t have to have a stroke to have neuroplasticity, right? It just naturally happens when your brain is working and learning new things.”

Helpful Lifestyle Interventions to Aid With Stroke

In addition to brain training exercises, Dennis also implemented a number of powerful lifestyle interventions that aided his healing. Among them, intermittent fasting, which he says radically changed his life and played an important role in his recovery. Since he started intermittent fasting after his stroke last year, he’s lost 52 pounds.

“The book is mostly about attitude and exercises for your mind and body, because your musculoskeletal system does interact with your body. But I do spend some time talking about how different things, like supplements and different technologies … can be helpful. But I’m not an expert in those, and I don’t think I’m really plowing new ground there. I just mention them …

Now, I don’t think anybody should wait to have a stroke before doing intermittent fasting … In fact, if I could wind the clock back to when I was a kid, there would be one change that I would make in my life — I would stop eating all the time. I would intermittently fast … Once you start eating once a day and you eat well, you’re just not hungry the rest of the time.”

Stroke of Luck

The title of the book, “Stroke of Luck,” refers to the concept of being an inverse paranoid, or pronoia, where you presume that when bad things happen, something good can come out of it. In Dennis’ case, that’s exactly what happened. By taking advantage of neuroplasticity, and training extra hard due to his stroke, he ended up not only recovering back to his prestroke state but actually improved beyond that.

His sense of balance improved, and he became ambidextrous. He was also able to eliminate his chronic back pain. As a biomedical engineer, Dennis invented one of the best pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) devices on the market (which I personally use every day) called ICES model M1.

One of the reasons behind its development was his desire to create something to help with his own back pain issues. Remarkably, the stroke ended up being part of the answer. He tells the story:

“They had me on opioids, so I developed the PEMF device. It actually worked really well for my lower back pain, general aches and pains, injuries and stuff like that. But then about four or five years ago, I started developing complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in my pelvis and legs, which means I was just in pain all the time.

It was probably centrally mediated, which means it was probably something in my brain, because the PEMF was not helping. CRPS is a terrible condition. It’s got, on average, the highest pain scale rating of any condition. There’s virtually no treatment for it …

I threw every scrap of knowledge that I had at it and wasn’t getting better. And then when I had the stroke and came out of it the next morning, the pain was gone … It’s known that certain types of pain are because your brain is mis-wired …

If one [brain] region is damaged, you can vicariate, which means that a different area of the brain can take over that function and adopt it. A lot of people do not know this … There’s a lot about the brain that we just don’t understand. But we do understand that under the right conditions, it can rewire itself …

If you’re exercising enough areas in your brain, you get a total brain response of neuroplasticity. It is known, for example, that one area with one lesion of a stroke in your brain will actually cause neuroplasticity throughout the brain.

If you are actively encouraging neuroplasticity enough in different places in your brain, the rising tide lifts all boats. A lot of things just get better, because your brain is in the zone. It’s in the mode to rewire itself, and it does …

As far as the pain is concerned, it just vanished [after the stroke]. I woke up and it was gone … I wanted a full recovery of my brain, but I did not want the pain back. I didn’t want all of the circuits to vicariate. I only wanted the good ones to vicariate.

I think I’ve been about 90 percent successful because I had a little tiny bit of the pain return, but now I’m able to exercise and make that go away … In the book, I tried to make it a resource, but I boiled it down to, 'What does the brain really do? What do we really know? If you want to exercise this kind of sensory input … motor activity or mental activity, you can do these kinds of exercises.’”

Time Is of the Essence

It’s well worth reiterating that when you’re dealing with a stroke, first, you need very rapid medical treatment. You only have a three-hour window within which medication can be administered to dissolve the clot and prevent further damage. But you also need to start your recovery program as quickly as possible — that same day, or as soon as you’re coherent enough to begin. The same applies to PT.

Dennis was told he’d have to wait three weeks for a PT appointment, which he realized was far too long. So, he developed his own PT program. “If I had just done what was prescribed and advised, I don’t think my recovery would have been very good. I certainly could not have given this interview,” he says.

As a result, by the time he saw his physical therapist, he was already able to perform 80 or 90 percent of the exercises prescribed. Dennis also emphasizes the need to get the most out of your prescribed PT. Many simply drop out and stop going after a couple of sessions, thinking that once they know the exercises, they can just do them at home.

“PT is only as good as what you bring to it,” he says. “When I went to PT, I had a huge list of questions. I said, 'Can you measure this? Can you measure that?’ They put me on every machine they had. I started getting numbers, so I knew I was doing something right. I was getting better at the sensory organization testing.

Then a few weeks later, I did it again. They said, 'Whoa. You’re improving way better than anybody in the history of doing this.’ In fact, one of the physical therapists said, 'Your scores are higher than mine’ … Because I was exercising …

[PT is] the best part of the medical system you definitely want to engage if you have a stroke. Get the best physical therapist that you can and the best occupational therapist and the best speech therapist. I had all three …

[My] fast recovery was because of what I brought to the treatment. If you just do what they’re asking you to do, I think most people will have a pretty poor recovery. I’m going to make a statement now. I will stand by this. Most people can and should expect a much, much better recovery than the medical system would expect or report if they simply do as much as they can, but also do [what] they cannot do and keep exercising it, and keep doing new things.”

More Information

In my view, “Stroke of Luck” should be required reading for all primary care clinicians, because they really need to understand this information — and provide it as a resource to their stroke patients, as it contains such a valuable variety of recommendations consolidated all in one place.

“What I wanted to do was collect every resource related to exercise, lifestyle, attitude and choices,” Dennis says. “There’s nothing in there that I didn’t try. I didn’t just list a bunch of junk. Even the really strange things, I’ve tried them. If it seemed to me to be stupid and hokey, it’s not in the book.”

The full-length hard copy version of the book, “Stroke of Luck: Master Neuroplasticity for Recovery and Growth After Stroke,” is just over 600 pages and retails for $84.59 (the minimum price allowed by the publisher for that book in hard copy). It’s also available as an e-book for less than $8.

The shortened version, “Stroke of Luck: NOW! Fast and Free Exercises to Immediately Begin Mastering Neuroplasticity Following a Stroke — Right Now!” is only 100 pages long. It’s available in paperback for less than $20, and as an e-book for less than $6 (or free with Kindle Unlimited).

Also, remember you can get the key points in the summary completely free without download simply by opening up the Amazon preview. The shorter version contains the information Dennis believes is imperative to know on the day of your stroke. “I boiled all these things down to the essential points of which exercises you should be thinking about, safety points you should be keeping in mind,” he says. “That’s it.”

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/31/neuroplasticity-stroke-rehabilitation.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/183834715286

0 notes

jerrytackettca · 5 years

Text

How to Optimize Your Recovery After a Stroke

Bob Dennis, Ph.D., a biomedical engineer by profession, is also the author of "Stroke of Luck: Master Neuroplasticity for Recovery and Growth After Stroke," and its much-shortened version, "Stroke of Luck: NOW! Fast and Free Exercises to Immediately Begin Mastering Neuroplasticity Following a Stroke," an excellent reference book that everyone should have in their medical library.

Why do I recommend you get a copy of Bob's book now? Because it is highly likely you or someone you know or love will have a stroke, and you simply don't want to wait for this book to ship to you as you will need access to it immediately if you are to minimize the damage done from the stroke.

Stroke is a massively pervasive problem in the U.S., with an estimated 795,000 strokes occurring each year.1 It's the fifth leading cause of death, killing an estimated 142,000 annually. It's also a leading cause of long-term disability in the U.S.2 Strokes are also becoming more prevalent in younger people.3 An estimated 10 percent of all strokes occur in people under the age of 50.4

The impetus behind the book was Dennis' personal experience. He's suffered two strokes so far, the last one in July 2018, at the age of 54, and made a magnificent recovery using the techniques he lays out in his book.

A recent example that has ignited renewed interest in prevention is the sudden death of 52-year-old actor, Luke Perry, from a massive stroke. Unfortunately, if it doesn't kill you, you may suffer with severe disabilities for the remainder of your life, which is why Dennis' book is so important.

He compiled this book as a resource to help stroke victims improve their chances of making as full a recovery as possible, and his own story is evidence that it's possible. He recounts his experience:

"I woke up one morning in early July of 2018 and realized I'd had a stroke while I was in bed. I could barely talk, but I was able to get myself to a doctor. Of course, they loaded me immediately onto an ambulance and took me to a hospital. I was really aware of what was going on and what was happening. I paid very close attention to what they were asking me to do and what they were telling me.

Conventional Medicine Falls Short on Stroke Recovery

"Fortunately for me, most of my colleagues are neurophysiologists. On the very first day, my wife was able to ask them what I should be doing to get the best possible recovery. I got a lot of real expert opinions on it from my colleagues … I kept asking the mainstream physicians, 'What should I be doing to improve my recovery?'

They kept saying, 'Well, take your meds, which are statins … and baby aspirin. Consider trying a Mediterranean diet.' The last thing they said was, 'Well, you should go to physical therapy (PT) too.' Now, I spoke to everybody who was at the hospital — a Level 1 neurotrauma stroke center — and that was the sum total of all of their advice.

I was thinking to myself, 'Seriously, come on. This happens to 800,000 Americans a year? I know there are things you can do after stroke, where's the good advice?' It wasn't forthcoming … Of course, I knew a lot more because I'm a biomedical engineer. I knew a lot more than they were telling me. I got kind of a little angry about the fact that they don't give good advice.

They basically give you the advice, 'Just lie there and wait,' which, in my opinion, is the worst thing you can do. Once you know it's not hemorrhagic, you should be doing things to promote your neuroplasticity. That's what I did. I just started doing what I knew was right …

If I couldn't do something, I did it over and over and over again until I could do it. I recovered from the point where I couldn't stand, I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk. By the end of the first day, I was pretty much ambulatory. I could communicate with people … [in] … one day.

I'm no genius. I'm just a regular guy, but that is neuroplasticity right there happening. You can make the most of it … Right after your brain is injured, you have this brief window of immense neuroplasticity and you need to take advantage of it. I got kind of ticked off by this whole system.

I was like, 'You know what? Somebody needs to start telling people [that] as soon as you have a stroke, make sure you start doing things, especially the things they've asked you to do when they're assessing you. Because those things are safe. They're effective. They zero in on your problem, and you can do them without any special equipment.

One of the ones they asked me to do was talk like a baby — 'Da, da, da, da, da. Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma' — which I couldn't do. But you can sit on a gurney and you can go, 'Da, da, da, da, da,' until you can do it, right? I list all of [these strategies] in the book, because I think that they're a really good place to start."

Stroke Preparedness

Dennis wanted to make sure this information is available to anyone who needs it, and at a moment's notice, so the book is primarily designed to be an e-book, and is available for free on Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. "Also, as an e-book, you can have it the day you need it, which is the day you have a stroke," he says. "You don't have to wait for it to be delivered."

You don't even need to buy the book to get the most important advice and recommendations from it. You can simply click on the preview and read the summary, placed before the table of contents. My recommendation would be to get the book and review it now, before you or someone you love has a stroke, so you're already familiar with the material.

Dennis' experience is a powerful demonstration of how you can rapidly regain functionality by taking full advantage of your brain's capacity to rewire itself, a process called neuroplasticity. Basically, the brain training Dennis describes allows your brain to develop alternate pathways to bypass the damaged neurons, and the sooner you do it after the damage has been incurred, the more effective it will be.

"In the full-length version of the book, which is about 600 pages in hard copy, I talk about the mechanism of neuroplasticity at great length … It turns out neuroplasticity is something that happens every time you learn something.

You can take different kinds of supplements, drugs and just food substances, which are thought of as nootropics. Sometimes they explicitly say, 'This promotes neuroplasticity.' If you put in the term, neuroplasticity, just as a Google search term, there are all kinds of blogs on it.

I downloaded and I show a few of these blogs. They're all very similar. They all amount to the following: Do novel things. Keep moving. Keep learning. Keep trying things. Keep challenging yourself. You don't have to have a stroke to have neuroplasticity, right? It just naturally happens when your brain is working and learning new things."

Helpful Lifestyle Interventions to Aid With Stroke

"The book is mostly about attitude and exercises for your mind and body, because your musculoskeletal system does interact with your body. But I do spend some time talking about how different things, like supplements and different technologies … can be helpful. But I'm not an expert in those, and I don't think I'm really plowing new ground there. I just mention them …

Now, I don't think anybody should wait to have a stroke before doing intermittent fasting … In fact, if I could wind the clock back to when I was a kid, there would be one change that I would make in my life — I would stop eating all the time. I would intermittently fast … Once you start eating once a day and you eat well, you're just not hungry the rest of the time."

Stroke of Luck

The title of the book, "Stroke of Luck," refers to the concept of being an inverse paranoid, or pronoia, where you presume that when bad things happen, something good can come out of it. In Dennis' case, that's exactly what happened. By taking advantage of neuroplasticity, and training extra hard due to his stroke, he ended up not only recovering back to his prestroke state but actually improved beyond that.

One of the reasons behind its development was his desire to create something to help with his own back pain issues. Remarkably, the stroke ended up being part of the answer. He tells the story:

"They had me on opioids, so I developed the PEMF device. It actually worked really well for my lower back pain, general aches and pains, injuries and stuff like that. But then about four or five years ago, I started developing complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in my pelvis and legs, which means I was just in pain all the time.

It was probably centrally mediated, which means it was probably something in my brain, because the PEMF was not helping. CRPS is a terrible condition. It's got, on average, the highest pain scale rating of any condition. There's virtually no treatment for it ...

I threw every scrap of knowledge that I had at it and wasn't getting better. And then when I had the stroke and came out of it the next morning, the pain was gone ... It's known that certain types of pain are because your brain is mis-wired …

If one [brain] region is damaged, you can vicariate, which means that a different area of the brain can take over that function and adopt it. A lot of people do not know this … There's a lot about the brain that we just don't understand. But we do understand that under the right conditions, it can rewire itself ...

If you're exercising enough areas in your brain, you get a total brain response of neuroplasticity. It is known, for example, that one area with one lesion of a stroke in your brain will actually cause neuroplasticity throughout the brain.

As far as the pain is concerned, it just vanished [after the stroke]. I woke up and it was gone … I wanted a full recovery of my brain, but I did not want the pain back. I didn't want all of the circuits to vicariate. I only wanted the good ones to vicariate.

I think I've been about 90 percent successful because I had a little tiny bit of the pain return, but now I'm able to exercise and make that go away … In the book, I tried to make it a resource, but I boiled it down to, 'What does the brain really do? What do we really know? If you want to exercise this kind of sensory input … motor activity or mental activity, you can do these kinds of exercises.'"

Time Is of the Essence

It's well worth reiterating that when you're dealing with a stroke, first, you need very rapid medical treatment. You only have a three-hour window within which medication can be administered to dissolve the clot and prevent further damage. But you also need to start your recovery program as quickly as possible — that same day, or as soon as you're coherent enough to begin. The same applies to PT.

Dennis was told he'd have to wait three weeks for a PT appointment, which he realized was far too long. So, he developed his own PT program. "If I had just done what was prescribed and advised, I don't think my recovery would have been very good. I certainly could not have given this interview," he says.

"PT is only as good as what you bring to it," he says. "When I went to PT, I had a huge list of questions. I said, 'Can you measure this? Can you measure that?' They put me on every machine they had. I started getting numbers, so I knew I was doing something right. I was getting better at the sensory organization testing.

Then a few weeks later, I did it again. They said, 'Whoa. You're improving way better than anybody in the history of doing this.' In fact, one of the physical therapists said, 'Your scores are higher than mine' … Because I was exercising …

[My] fast recovery was because of what I brought to the treatment. If you just do what they're asking you to do, I think most people will have a pretty poor recovery. I'm going to make a statement now. I will stand by this. Most people can and should expect a much, much better recovery than the medical system would expect or report if they simply do as much as they can, but also do [what] they cannot do and keep exercising it, and keep doing new things."

More Information

In my view, "Stroke of Luck" should be required reading for all primary care clinicians, because they really need to understand this information — and provide it as a resource to their stroke patients, as it contains such a valuable variety of recommendations consolidated all in one place.

"What I wanted to do was collect every resource related to exercise, lifestyle, attitude and choices," Dennis says. "There's nothing in there that I didn't try. I didn't just list a bunch of junk. Even the really strange things, I've tried them. If it seemed to me to be stupid and hokey, it's not in the book."

The full-length hard copy version of the book, "Stroke of Luck: Master Neuroplasticity for Recovery and Growth After Stroke," is just over 600 pages and retails for $84.59 (the minimum price allowed by the publisher for that book in hard copy). It's also available as an e-book for less than $8.

The shortened version, "Stroke of Luck: NOW! Fast and Free Exercises to Immediately Begin Mastering Neuroplasticity Following a Stroke — Right Now!" is only 100 pages long. It's available in paperback for less than $20, and as an e-book for less than $6 (or free with Kindle Unlimited).

Also, remember you can get the key points in the summary completely free without download simply by opening up the Amazon preview. The shorter version contains the information Dennis believes is imperative to know on the day of your stroke. "I boiled all these things down to the essential points of which exercises you should be thinking about, safety points you should be keeping in mind," he says. "That's it."

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/31/neuroplasticity-stroke-rehabilitation.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/how-to-optimize-your-recovery-after-a-stroke

0 notes

itstoughstartingover · 6 years

Text

Finding purpose

1/3/19

What do you do when you feel a lack of purpose in life? That you spend your days going through the motions, tired of hating the person you see in the mirror so much of the time? Constantly feeling restricted, sad, hopeless, worthless, knowing that no amount of talking about it or seeking external validation will fix it? That’s where I’ve been finding myself so often for months now. Sure I have moments when things feel good and I feel good, but I seem to return to this going through the motions feeling over and over again, not knowing why. I work so hard at the gym, pump my body full of supplements, restrict my eating, and feel like it’s not changing anything. I change my habits and behavior and feel like it doesn’t matter. I feel more estranged from my mother than I have in years because she doesn’t agree with my decision to stay with Brent, which he says is my fault for running to her. Maybe it is, but I didn’t create those concerns in my head. He is domineering and has very specific boundaries set. I can live within them; I needed a change in my lifestyle. I enjoy being home and having a quieter life. I don’t miss the people who are gone from my life. I really don’t miss the drama. I’m learning to appreciate the quiet.

I feel like I can’t trust anyone with anything anymore, not even Brent. When he’s having a rough day, he’s impossible to deal with. When he’s attuned to me, he’s the most amazing boyfriend I’ve ever had. He’s an amazing man and I love him, but he’s so much to take it’s hard to not have doubts cross my mind from time to time. It’s not that I want anyone else; for once in my life I don’t. I just wonder if I’m up for this life with him since I don’t feel like I have a say in it. He follows his plans and if I don’t follow along exactly as he wants, I have to be “put back in line.” He says he loves me, but what kind of love is that? It’s not that I can’t handle his demons; when he’s honest with me I can handle anything he tells me. It’s when he has his tirades without seeming to care that his words can hurt. I’m less sensitive than I was to it before because I know when he’s like that it’s not personal and he’s dealing with stuff. Not only that, it’s just how he communicates. It’s just hard that there was so much I was told I had to change, then when I said it was too much and I wanted out, he said no. True, I still loved him. I always love him. I’m just not used to it being hard to love someone.

I don’t want to let my guard down anymore. It never seems to be worth it. I slip up, make mistakes, get hurt. Is that part of why I’ve been feeling this way? I don’t feel as lonely as I did when I first made these changes a couple of months ago, but the lack of purpose and the hopeless and worthless feelings are still there. I’m always battling myself, and I’m losing. I work hard and strive to do better and nothing changes. I can change where I live, who I date, where I work out, but these feelings follow me everywhere. Again, I have moments of confidence and happiness, but it feels like hopeless and worthless have been my baseline for a long time. The body hatred, constant comparisons, never being good enough, constant exhaustion... they’re how I’ve lived my entire adult life.

Now with the anniversary of my Dad and my birthday coming up, I see it’s been 10 years, I’m turning 34, and what do I have to show for it? A divorce, no kids, more psych meds, and a newfound lack of trust everywhere I turn. Ongoing grief with the looming question of how different my life could have looked if my father were still here. I don’t ruminate on that, but it’s hard not to wonder from time to time. Just like it’s hard to not think about scrapping this life and going to Seattle to start over, but I know these feelings will follow me there, too. I miss the mountains, the quiet and beauty in the natural surroundings, and being close to family.

Theater gave me a sense of family, but each time a show ended, so did that feeling. I don’t miss that lifestyle - late nights in rehearsal, late shows taking up weekends, lack of sleep to the point I fell asleep back stage. I don’t want to pretend anymore. I am worried I’ll miss it, and soon. I like making friends who I work out with. It’s nice to have that camaraderie, people to motivate me with common goals, and they’re consistent. They don’t end when a class or a workout or a race ends.

I can digress in a million directions, but it doesn’t really hit the core of why I feel this way. It’s not because I miss theater because I felt this way doing shows. The worst I can remember it was at the beginning of Canterbury, but it’s been there waxing and waning in intensity for years. Is it all body-image related? No, but I know that’s a lot of it. I also know that’s because the body image goes back to feeling unworthy of love if I’m not perfect, so if I’m unhappy with my body I’m unhappy with myself. I can’t let go without punishing myself in some form or another. I’ve been this way for most of my life; I don’t know how to get away from it. Is that why I lack purpose? Because I’ve spent my life seeking this personal ideal that I’ll never reach and always put that first? I’m sure it hasn’t helped. I don’t know how to let go, but I do know I don’t want to feel this way anymore.

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artsoccupychi · 6 years

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Before You Give Your Child Antibiotics, Antacids, or ADD Meds: What a Holistic Pediatrician Wants You To Know

This is an excerpt from an interview I did with holistic pediatrician Elisa Song, MD, for the Toxic Home Transformation Summit.

You can also access the other segments of this interview, which include: *Poop, Porn, and Vaping: Awkward Conversations You Must Have With Your Teens *Your Child’s Toxic Burden *Is Your Baby’s Bedding Toxic?

Here, Dr. Song talks about antibiotics, antacids, ADD meds, and other drugs commonly prescribed to children.

Robyn: Okay. I want to do a rapid fire response about some of the controversial issues in pediatrics. I’m looking for the 60-second version on each topic, sharing what you as a holistic pediatrician would say that’s different than a standard pediatrician.

I’m looking for whether there any links between the toxicity in our environment, food, or whatever. Just say what comes to your mind first when I say these words.

Let’s start with breastfeeding. Does a breastfed baby have a better chance at having healthy detoxification pathways? Is there any kind of link there?

Elisa: What I tell parents is that during the time of infancy, the gut and the immune system are changing and developing rapidly. Breastfeeding and the mode of delivery, like a C section or vaginal birthing, have so much influence on a baby’s developing gut microbiome.

We need your baby to have the best optimal gut microbiome possible. That will give them the best chance of detoxifying and clearing toxins and having healthy immune and brain responses.

Breastfeeding has so many different benefits. It has probiotics, lactoferrin that helps support healthy bacteria, glutamine that supports the small intestinal lining, and HMOs (human milk oligosaccharide) that support the growth of healthy bacteria and keep away the unhealthy bacteria in the intestines.

Breast milk also helps that gut mature, because all babies have intestinal permeability–which is a “leaky gut” that matures at about six months of age. Breast milk supports the baby’s gut, brain, and immune system. Even a little breastfeeding is better than nothing.

Robyn: I was told to wean my first baby after six months, and I regretted it so deeply. I feel like I caused his major autoimmune disease and failure to thrive at 15 months. I think the fact that I weaned him on to formula probably had a lot to do with that.

I didn’t know better, and so I am certainly not shaming any moms who make different choices. Some women can’t breastfeed. If you can’t breastfeed, what’s the next best alternative for feeding an infant?

Elisa: The next best alternative would be an organic formula. I don’t recommend going immediately to soy, but there are organic cow’s milk formulas that have more whey in them. Whey is the protein in milk that’s less allergenic and irritating.

More and more formulas are actually adding in benefits from breast milk like DHA and omega 3 essential fatty acids. These are naturally found at high quantities in milk and support the development of the IQ, brain, eyesight, and all of that.

Some formulas also add probiotics and prebiotics, and some add in HMOs. There are studies showing that formulas that have added human milk oligosaccharides can the shape the microbiome composition in a way similar to breastfeeding.1 With this evidence, we can take steps to try to make formula as much like breast milk as possible.

Robyn: Which brands do you recommend?

Elisa: I typically recommend European formulas like HiPP. You can find it in the states. There’s also an organic goat milk formula by Holle. None of them is perfect, but we match as much as possible.

If you find an organic formula that’s working great for your child, you can add probiotics to it, if your baby isn’t breast fed. Even if you do breastfeed, try to get in those good bacteria, because there are so many forces that can interfere with your baby developing a healthy microbiome. You could add fish oil or cod liver oil to the formula as well.

You can find homemade formula recipes online, and if you decide to go that route, please find a nutrition consultant or a doctor who can make sure you’re including the right ingredients to nourish your baby’s brain and body.

No matter what, try not to look back at your decisions with guilt. Of course, as parents, you feel guilty about things that happened in the past, but that guilt leads to stress–and stress is as much of a toxin as anything we put in our bodies.

Getting rid of that emotional stress can be challenging, but it’s key to staying healthy and preventing illness.

Robyn: Yes. Learning how to be a person who lets go of small hurts and forgives easily is one of the very best things you can do for your health–along with all these ideas to decrease exposure to chemical toxins.

Let’s talk about the toxicity of antibiotics and the long term effects of antibiotics on children. I decided not to give my children antibiotics and to try other treatments instead.

To support a patient like me, what would you say works?

Elisa: I do want to talk about antibiotics and antacids, because we have this epidemic of babies being put on Zantac and antacid medications for reflux. I want to discuss how we can naturally support a baby’s gut when they’re colicky and spitting up instead of relying on these types of drugs.

A study just came out in April of this year that looked at almost 800,000 babies who were given antacids or antibiotics within their first six months of life and then tracked them over the next four years.2

Allergic diseases like anaphylactic reactions, asthma, allergies, environmental food allergies, and hives were all hugely increased for many of these kids. At least 50% developed one or more allergic diseases in that timeframe.

The researchers speculate that it’s because antacids disrupt the developing infant’s gut microbiome, and that informs the immune system and the brain development.

There’s a time and a place for everything, but it’s important to work with a practitioner who reserves some treatment until it’s really necessary. For example, you can try probiotics, fermented foods, bone broth, and glutamine before jumping straight to antacids or antibiotics.

When we have what I call natural medicine’s tool kit, we can get our kids through a good number of infections without needing antibiotics.

Grab my FREE wallet card for the 7 most powerful NATURAL immune-booster and viral-killer supplements!

Ear infection is a perfect example. In over 15 years of practice, I can count the number of times where I’ve needed to use antibiotics for an ear infection on the fingers of both hands!

Robyn: I read a study in PubMed 20 years ago that shows that over 80% of the time, ear infections aren’t caused by bacteria, they’re caused by viruses. Antibiotics don’t work on viruses, so you expose your child to those negative impacts for no reason. Is that still the case?

Elisa: I would say it’s probably close to 50-50, but even if it’s bacterial, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need antibiotics.

What I try to do with Healthy Kids, Happy Kids is point out the research from my perspective as a board certified pediatrician. I show parents the research on some of the harms of conventional treatments and on the benefits and the effectiveness of natural treatments. Sharing that research is more effective that telling them to do this or that.

I teach kids, parents, and grandparents how to use evidenced-based diet and lifestyle changes, herbs, homeopathic medicines, essential oils, and acupressure points to get kids over the most common illnesses.

This helps them to get sick less frequently and prevents the issues involved with prescribing antibiotics, like superbugs. Those are scary from a public health standpoint, and if we have superbugs, we need to know how to treat them naturally.

Robyn: Yes. We talked about superbugs 20 years ago and now they are happening. RISA acquired at hospitals is killing people.

I’m so excited that there are holistic pediatricians that parents can go to for help now. There’s more support and empowerment for parents who want to ask questions and do things differently.

My first pediatrician made fun of my natural remedies, but the last one I sought out even supported my alternatives to dealing with ear infections, and even wart removal–and explained to a couple of my children why the natural remedy I wanted to try first, worked, and encouraged them to do it!

This was very helpful to me, and empowering. She, my last pediatrician, was a mother of 6 young children herself. She supported me in not following the vaccine schedule, and I was successful 100 percent of the time, with her and with the previous pediatricians who got angry with me and so I had to fly under the radar, in those cases–at avoiding antibiotics.

Elisa: Absolutely. I want to tell parents that if you ever feel pressured to do something and you’re getting that “gut feeling,” you have every right to stop. Tell your doctor you want to think about it or discuss it and make a decision without being pressured or bullied. If they don’t understand, they aren’t the right doctor for you.

You should never leave an appointment feeling like a deer in headlights or feeling like you were run over by a truck. Leave your appointments feeling like you had a great conversation, know what to expect, and feel empowered to make good decisions for your child.

Robyn: I appreciate that empowerment for parents because we are ultimately in charge. Tell me your thoughts on the ADD and Ritalin and Adderall epidemic.

Elisa: I see parents who want to try to avoid Ritalin or get kids off of Ritalin. A lot of practitioners and patients are still looking for that one magic bullet, and there just isn’t one.

We can talk about the issues that lead up to ADD, but once your kids are having attention and behavioral issues, you have to look at your child from the whole child perspective, including looking at the gut, brain, and immune system and detoxification.

Giving your child Ritalin won’t suddenly change your child into a well-behaved kid who focuses on his work and has positive self-esteem and great friendships.

Work on their gut first. Get rid of all the food dyes, preservatives, and additives, and get them on a whole foods diet, and/or supplement with a whole foods-based multivitamin. You will help your kid so much, and even if they need Ritalin, they’ll need so much less.

Ritalin has a lot of side effects. All stimulant medications can cause tics and appetite suppression or affect weight and growth. Over the long-term, this is not necessarily going to be the answer. If you start a kid at seven years of age on Ritalin, where does it end? Adults don’t just grow out of ADHD and ADD.

Take that root cause approach and make sure they’re getting everything that they’re missing–like omega 3 essential fatty acids, Vitamin D, Zinc, magnesium, and all those great nutrients. Kids who have sensory, behavioral, and attention issues are highly sensitive to artificial colors, preservatives, flavors, and sweeteners. Get that out of their diets, because that literally is poison to some of our kids’ brains.

For kids with sensory issues, if you look at your kid’s gut and their diet and remove the toxins, your kid will be so much healthier and will thrive and be pleasant. You’ll love being with your kid, and you’ll love who you are as a parent because you won’t have to nag them to get their homework or chores done.

Get my free wallet card: How To Spot Neurotoxins On Food Labels

Your kid will thrive, and you’ll improve your relationship. It sounds simple, but it’s not a quick fix. It’s not necessarily an easy road, but it is so worth it.

Robyn: That was a brilliant and helpful message to end on. Thank you so much for what you’re doing for so many families. So many small children will be healthier as a result of your work. Tell us where everyone can find you online.

Elisa: Thank you. The best place to find me is on my blog, HealthyKidsHappyKids.com, where I post articles and share research, evidence, and information on how to treat different conditions naturally. You can also check out my Facebook page at Dr. Elisa Song MD.

I try to post the latest research that I find, but one of the best places for new parents exploring this integrative approach to find a community is the Thriving Child Community Facebook group.

It’s growing, and we have thousands of parents around the world who are all committed to helping our kids thrive naturally. There are practitioners, parents, grandparents, teachers, and even a therapist. It’s a fantastic community, so that’s where I would start as a parent looking for community and support.

Robyn: Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Dr. Elisa Song is a holistic pediatrician in Belmont, CA, and can be found at Whole Family Wellness. She runs the Thriving Child Summit and teaches thousands of parents and children how to regain their health when facing autism, ADD, anxiety, chemical sensitivities, food allergies, and more at HealthyKidsHappyKids.com.

— Robyn Openshaw, MSW, is a single mom of four salad-eating, adulting kids.

She has a FREE video masterclass you can sign up for here, to learn how she got herself, and her kids, off the Standard American Diet, to lose 70 pounds and ditch 21 diagnosed diseases.

Disclosure: This post may contain Affiliate links that help support the GSG mission without costing you extra. I recommend only companies and products that I use myself.

Resources

1. Lars Bode; Human milk oligosaccharides: Every baby needs a sugar mama, Glycobiology, Volume 22, Issue 9, 1 September 2012, Pages 1147–1162, https://doi.org/10.1093/glycob/cws074

2 Mitre E, Susi A, Kropp LE, Schwartz DJ, Gorman GH, Nylund CM. Association Between Use of Acid-Suppressive Medications and Antibiotics During Infancy and Allergic Diseases in Early Childhood. JAMA Pediatr. Published online April 02, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0315

[Read More ...] https://greensmoothiegirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/shutterstock_1157309038-300x200.jpg https://greensmoothiegirl.com/antibiotic-antacids-add-meds/

#infrared saunas #healthy

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sherristockman · 7 years

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The Concussion Repair Manual: A Practical Guide to Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Dr. Dan Engle, board-certified in adult psychology and neurology, and who completed psychiatric fellowships in child, adolescent and forensic psychiatry, has written an indispensable guide to recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), “The Concussion Repair Manual: A Practical Guide to Recovering From Traumatic Brain Injuries.” TBI is incredibly pervasive. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of people have had some form of TBI. Military personnel and athletes such as football players and boxers tend to be at particularly high risk, but TBI can happen to anyone, for a range of reasons. Engle has had personal experience with it, which is what motivated him to pursue this discipline of medicine and write a book about it. “I went to college to play soccer … Boxers … who get slugged in the face — that’s about 20 pounds of pressure to their brain. Soccer players, if you go in for a full volley or a full header, take 70 pounds of pressure to the brain … I had a series of concussions that led up to me choosing medical school,” he says. “Two weeks before medical school, I broke my neck. That was a big entry point in a recalibration of my direction … I started [medical school] in a Halo Device, where they screw it into your skull and you’re walking around fixated. For the first three months of med school, I was in this Halo. It was the first thing that finally slowed me down. It helped me self-reflect. It helped me realize that I was driving at a level of intensity in my life that I didn’t really enjoy. I ended up having much more fun in med school and residency than I did in high school and college, just because I wasn’t so intense with everything. It oriented me from ER and surgical medicine into neurology and psychiatry. [My focus] was … the neuroreparative aspects of brain injury and spinal cord injury, as well as the more humanistic side of understanding people, the stories of what make us who we are and the mindset of healing, and how very [important] that is to recovery.” TBIs Are Incredibly Pervasive, Yet Many Fail to Get Proper Rehabilitation A common myth is that unless you’ve suffered complete loss of consciousness, you didn’t have a concussion or significant head injury, but this simply isn’t true, Engle says. Generally speaking, a concussion is a mild TBI, and will score higher on assessment using the Glasgow Coma Scale (a scoring system that grades your level of consciousness after a TBI). More severe TBIs that are moderate or severe will respectively score lower. An estimated 4 million to 6 million people are on disability due to chronic severe conditions resulting from their TBI, but many more have undocumented TBIs — be it from a car accident, slip and fall incident or simply hitting your head on a cabinet. Most of these injuries are mild and heal on their own, but even mild TBI can have lingering effects that can become chronic unless you address them. “Most people, if they just hit their head on the door or cabinet, it’s not going to be enough to have a significant neurological sequela moving forward, but sometimes, it will. Oftentimes, the thing that happens in the home that will have negative long-term impacts is a fall. If you slip on a rug or slip going down the stairs, there’s a significant momentum that jostles the brain inside the skull to what’s called a coup contrecoup injury, or back-and-forth kind of injury. That’s going to be noticeable,” he says. Telltale Signs of TBI Oftentimes the injury doesn’t seem severe enough to have caused TBI, which is why telltale signs are often overlooked — things like poor concentration, mood changes or changes in your ability to focus and follow through on mental tasks. Word recall may also suffer. Emotional dysregulation, irritability, foggy thinking and sleep problems are also common effects. Whenever you experience an injury to your head, regardless of how severe it appears to be, pay careful attention to any psychological changes that might occur over the coming week or two. Signs such as those just mentioned are indications that your nervous system is on high alert due to an inflammatory cascade, which presents itself as psychological and cognitive downstream effects. “The old adage, ‘Go home and rest. It’ll be OK,’ has some merit,” Engle says. “But when I had my concussions — the last of which was after I broke my neck … — I knew something was off because I had problems with attention, focus, concentration, memory, sleep, kind of like the classic post-concussive syndrome … This was 20 years ago. We didn’t really have appreciable technologies and therapeutics to heal it. I put myself in the lab. It was not fine for me that things were going to continue to be subpar. I wanted to try everything out … The things that worked for me or had worked significantly for friends, family and clients are the things that I ended up putting in the manual … Some people will experience hypersomnolence, particularly in the acute concussion phase, because the system needs to go into a quiet mode, convalesce and rest … So, get into a low stimulation environment. Being away from electronic stimulation, stressful work, stressful engagements at home; being able to really bring the energy home or rest the nervous system [is important].” TBI Assessment There are now novel and portable infrared imaging techniques that can help assess TBI damage, such as whether there’s active or acute bleeding inside the skull. In professional football, they now have neurodiagnostics and a neurologic exam that will allow the doctor to assess whether the player is fit to return to the field. “We’ve seen variable efficacy of that in the National Football League just this last year. Those protocols are getting more specific and refined all the time. But suffice it to say, it’s important, as soon as somebody has a significant injury, to be able to get evaluated, whether it’s by a professional on the sideline, in the emergency department or somebody who’s trained in concussion care management, to assess what their level of safety is, and what their level of potential risk should they have another impact,” Engle says. Adults injured at home will be able to self-reflect and notice psychological and neurological changes, but what about children? It’s important for parents to know how to assess their child’s neurological state, and be observant enough to notice changes in behavior. “Because kids are rambunctious … if there is a significant injury and there’s a change in function within the next few days to few weeks, then that means further workup and more assessment is needed,” Engle says. If your child plays soccer or football, Engle recommends having a “really clear conversation with the coach about what their stylistic tackling profiles look like. Are they asking them to lead with their head? Is there a clear discussion about the importance of brain health and the necessity for recuperation after a concussion? Do the players themselves know what the long-term potential downstream effects are? All of those things.” Long-Term Effects of Accumulative TBIs Long-term, chronic traumatic encephalopathy — low-grade accumulation of concussions over time — accelerates the process of dementia, raising your risk for neurological dysfunction and disease later in life. Many football players and boxers start showing these signs in their 30s and 40s. If you are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s by having one or two ApoE4 alleles and suffer a TBI, your risk of Alzheimer’s increases at least tenfold. “And, if you look at dietary issues and chronic inflammatory issues, for example [eating a] high-sugar diet, not fasting and these sorts of things, and then you stack on lifestyle mismanagement or not being optimized for brain performance, then you’re going to accelerate that process even further,” Engle warns. Engle discusses a number of prevention strategies in his book, including nutritional components that optimize brain function and help repair neurological function in case of injury. Among the most important are the animal-based omega-3 fats docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). According to Engle, the department of surgery at Oregon Health and Science University now even advocates use of omega-3 supplements presurgery, because outcomes are better. Another potent anti-inflammatory is curcumin. Both of these are also valuable for the prevention of dementia. The Benefits of Floatation Therapy Engle is a strong proponent of floatation therapy, noting “flotation therapy is on the front line of many different recovery and regenerative medicine protocols, because it has the opportunity to reset so many different systems.” “When somebody drops into a float tank experience or a sensory deprivation experience, it’s essentially the first time since they were conceived that they’re without environmental stimuli … [Y]ou’re floating in about a foot of water. [The tank] is about the size of a king-size bed. There’s about 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of Epsom salts [in it]. It’s very buoyant, kind of like the Dead Sea. There’s no gravity; there’s no appropriate [sensory] reception. There’s no skin temperature differentiation, because the water is the same temperature as the skin, not core temperature. It’s hard to tell where you end and the rest of the universe begins. There’s no sight and there’s no sound. Everything is offline, so to speak. Eighty percent of what the brain is consistently bringing in is environmental stimuli. Now, there’s more energy toward the recuperative mechanisms. It’s both a brain technology and a consciousness technology, because … [the] flotation tank [experience] is like meditation on steroids. If somebody’s using [for] recuperative and regenerative [purposes], they may well find more peace in their lives outside of the tank as well … because it starts to reset the neuroendocrine system. Cortisol levels normalize. Global inflammatory markers normalize. Blood pressure normalizes. The relationship between the brain and the endocrine or the hormonal systems starts to optimize …” Engle recommends doing a series of eight to 10 floating sessions within a three to four-week period. By the end of that series, you should notice significant improvement in your symptoms. You may also find yourself more at ease in general, sensing a better “flow” in your life. For maintenance, do one or two sessions per month. If you have the space, the Zen Float Company1 sells float tanks made for home use. Other Treatment Aids Other helpful interventions include: Hyperbaric oxygen By saturating your tissues with oxygen, the oxygen is able to get into all of the neuroreparative mechanisms in your entire neurologic system from head to toe. It accelerates all wound repair processes, be it in peripheral vasculature or in central vasculature, around the nervous system, brain and spinal cord. An alternative for home use would be Exercising with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT). It’s not as effective as hyperbaric oxygen treatment for neurological recovery because you’re not saturating the tissues with oxygen, just your blood, but you can still benefit if you have a low partial pressure of oxygen (low oxygen in your blood). Low-light laser therapy (LLLT), also known as photobiomodulation, which can be done using either lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). “There are a lot of different studies that show light is beneficial,” Engle says. “When we’re talking about neurologic recovery or building adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, driving mitochondrial function, there are certain wavelengths that seem to be optimal for that. Most of the wavelengths for neurologic recovery are going to be in the near-infrared (810 to 830 nanometers) and far-infrared spectrum. There are some handheld devices that can be used.” Red light in the 660 nanometer frequency is also beneficial, and many technologies will combine red with near- and far-infrared. Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF) Engle explains, “If we’re optimizing voltage and frequency into the cell, then there are going to be energy thresholds below which disease happens, and above which optimized function happens. PEMF tends to raise the voltage and the energy in the cell, in the system globally, to improve physiologic function … I use a combination of both low-voltage systems and high-voltage systems. There’s a low-voltage system called a Bio Electromagnetic Energy Regulation (BEMER). There’s a high-voltage system called the Pulse. I found benefits in both … There’s also a subset of pulsed frequencies called transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is more based in magnetic impulse to the brain.” Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) TDCS provides a more global stimulation, so while some patients experience good results, others do not, due to lack of specificity. According to Engle, if it’s going to work, you’ll notice results quickly. If no benefit is noticed in the first few sessions, move on to some other therapy. Electroencephalography (EEG) and neurofeedback are similar technologies of varying complexity. “You go into master your ability in real time to see where your brainwave patterns are firing, and then to lock into the necessary thought modalities and internal states to be able to consistently access an alpha state,” Engle explains. Alpha states are indicative of calmness and centeredness. “If I can access that and find that place within myself, then I’m starting to generate my own sense of personal empowerment.” The Evoke system is an easy one to use. It involves watching a movie for 20 to 30 minutes. Your focused attention will keep the movie playing. When your attention drifts, it slows down and loses volume. Cannabidiol (CBD) oil “CBD is up there with fish oil for neuroreparative support,” Engle says. “Cannabis has two primary therapeutic components; one is tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) and one is CBD. THC has a psychoactive component. CBD has a neuro-reparative component. There seems to be an upregulation effect or an enhanced effect if there’s a little bit of THC with CBD. The CBD to THC ratio will be like 20-to-1. We’ve consistently seen benefit in the neurologic system, whether it was stroke recovery, concussion recovery or seizure and epilepsy support … There seems to be this neurologic repair effect. The CBD receptors are globally affiliated with neurologic function throughout the entire brain. When we’re engaging and stimulating those receptors, we see the neurochemical cascade toward repair, regardless of the input, but particularly with concussion. That’s why during the acute phase, if somebody has an injury that is significant, I say, first and foremost, do [these] things: 1) Lifestyle management. Get quiet. Float if you can. 2) Take fish oil, take CBD, vitamin D and melatonin, particularly if there are issues with sleep. Boost the antioxidants.” CBD may actually be a really potent stimulator of nuclear factor-like 2 (Nrf2) pathway, which stimulates the hermetic production of antioxidants in your body. More Information If you have TBI or you know someone who does, be sure to pick up a copy of “The Concussion Repair Manual.” You’ll need it. There are far more details in the book than we have time or space to discuss in this interview. It’s an amazing resource. Engle spent the last 20 years doing the research for you, so you now have it all in one convenient place. In addition, if you’ve had a concussion or TBI, Engle has put together a free Concussion Repair Checklist to help you recover. It covers exactly what you need to know, along with the Top 10 foods for supporting your brain health. You can download it free of charge at ConcussionRepairChecklist.com. “I wanted to write it as a fairly available user’s manual for the person going through the experience,” he says. “There are a lot of different methodologies, a buffet of options. The encouragement is to get clear on what tools are available tools in your immediate environment that you can try, and then stay consistent with that methodology while tracking your symptom over a 30-day period. If there was improvement, great, then continue. If there was improvement but you think there could be more improvement, then you may need to up the intensity or the frequency. We didn’t even talk about ketogenic diet. It might be going even more keto, going even lower carb, or doing that in a more intense way, stacked with flotation and low-level laser therapy. Find a hyperbaric oxygen tank and do that regularly. Pick the top two or three methods that you want to try. Stay with that over a period of time, be diligent, get support and make sure you’re tracking your top symptoms from the concussion or the neurologic injury — sleep, irritability, focus, concentration and so on. I put a part in the book as a workbook to make it easy to track [symptoms] on a daily basis. Even more important than that, I think, is staying diligent and knowing deeply that everything is possible to heal. The brain is super plastic. We know that being consistently engaged in optimized modes of thinking, optimized modes of inspiration and empowerment, affect people’s healing. It’s as much of a mindset as it is a neuroanatomy and a neurochemical thing.”

#VitalityPath

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denisalvney · 7 years

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RHR: A New Model of Care for Chronic Disease

In this episode we discuss:

Schweig and the California Center for Functional Medicine (CCFM)

Shortcomings of the episodic model of care

Changing how care is delivered

The collaborative care model

Technology advancements in collaborative care

Giving clients more resources and access to more professionals

Hiring a health coach and registered nutritionist

Group treatments and reducing the feeling of isolation

The Berkeley Fire Department pilot wellness program

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Hey, everyone. Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. This week, I'm excited to welcome back Dr. Sunjya Schweig. He is my co-director at the California Center for Functional Medicine. And in this episode, we're going to talk all about a new model of care, specifically for treating chronic disease. Now, in my book, Unconventional Medicine, I mentioned that conventional medicine is fantastic at dealing with acute trauma, emergency care-type of situations but really lousy when it comes to addressing chronic disease. So the obvious question is, what is the best model for treating chronic disease? And I outlined that in my book Unconventional Medicine. But I wanted to ask Dr. Schweig to come on the show to talk a little bit more about how we are implementing that at the California Center for Functional Medicine, so you can get a better idea of what it actually looks like in practice. I'm really excited to have him back on, and I hope you enjoy this episode. Chris: Sunjya, it's a pleasure to have you back on the show. Sunjya: Yeah thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m excited for today’s topic. Chris: So, you have been on the show before, and I think some people have met you that way, but there are probably several listeners that haven't. So, why don't we start with your background, how you got into medicine, and then how you transitioned to functional medicine.

Dr. Schweig and the California Center for Functional Medicine (CCFM)

Sunjya: Yeah, so I grew up here in Northern California and had a very alternative upbringing. Lots of focus on alternative medicine as our main option for care in the family as well as diet; vegetarian and pluses or minuses on that, but also organic, really conscious thinking in terms of how my parents were putting everything together. And as I made my way up through high school and into college, I pretty much knew in high school that I wanted to go into medicine, and, however, I also knew, especially towards the end of my college years at Berkeley that I didn’t want to practice mainstream medicine. And I did some work at UC Berkeley learning about medical anthropology and religious studies and was very passionate about trying to understand other people’s explanatory models. Sort of what did they think was happening to them and why and transitioned and did some work abroad in Ecuador expanding on that, but then also starting to interview and work with some of the indigenous people on some of the folk medicine or herbal medicines that they were using. And so I made my way through, up through med school after that at UC Irvine and then my residency at the UCSF Santa Rosa Program, and the same thing. Basically, I knew that I wanted to do medicine, I love science, I think science is amazing in many regards and I’m passionate about it. And at the same time, I kept plotting my course and making sure, and also hoping, there’s a little bit of risk there, but hoping that I came through the other side and could integrate everything into alternative, functional, complementary medicine practice. And my plan came to fruition. I would do whatever coursework and electives during my studies, but then immediately after I graduated from residency, I started a Functional Medicine practice with a friend and colleague, Brian Bouch, who was always a mentor for me from even before I started. So it was nice to be able to jump in with him. Chris: And so you were practicing Functional Medicine in that clinic, and I imagine that was going well for the most part, but what led you to transition from that situation? Sunjya: Yeah, so I think with any career trajectory, there’s different phases and that served me really well for a number of years. I was there for about seven or eight years. And it took a little while for me to get launched and got my feet under me. And then I started working more intensively with patients with chronic infections after my wife was diagnosed.

People don't struggle to change because they don't know what to do; they struggle because they don't know how to do it. Collaborative care can help.

Chris: Mm-hmm. Sunjya: And that’s sort of like a pretty serious training ground for this type of medicine because of how complex the patients are and you really have to use any and all avenues that are available. And so that’s happened, I got more busy, started doing more lecturing and teaching. And it was around that time that I found you. We met and started kind of talking, and we had also moved. So geography was part of it. We had moved from Sonoma County down to the East Bay where my wife and I had met at Berkeley. So came back down here and the idea of commuting back up to Sonoma County for work was not a long-lasting solution. So things evolved from there and that’s kind of the birthplace of CCFM really—the pinnacle conversations that you and I had.

Shortcomings of the episodic model of care

Chris: Right, yeah. So I remember that quite well, because ... And we met down on Fourth Street, in a restaurant there, and we had a kind of similar experience and a shared vision, I think. We had both been practicing Functional Medicine, me on my own and you in a group practice but kind of in a solo fashion, it seemed like, for the most part. And we both had had some successes, we were ... The Functional Medicine model is really powerful and patients were getting better. And at the same time, we both also were aware of some things that were missing. I know that one of the first things that we connected on was the shortcomings of the episodic model of care for people who are suffering from really complex chronic illness. And I know you like to say this, we both do, that many of our patients are not sick enough to be in the hospital, but they're too sick for just seeing a doctor or practitioner once every three months for a half hour. That really didn't cut it for a lot of our patients. And yet that was the model that we were employing and that we were familiar with because I think that's just how it was done. Granted, we had longer appointment times than in the conventional model with eight- to 10-minute visits, we were seeing patients for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or even an hour in follow-up, so that was very different. But even that, every three months just wasn't enough. Sunjya: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, the fact is that as a clinic ourselves, and I think Functional Medicine doctors in general tend to acquire and collect the people who really haven’t been served by the system. They were still sick despite seeing 10 or 15 doctors, and our friend and colleague, Mark Hyman, I love his phrase, but he says that the people who see the holistic doctor are the people with the “whole list” of medical problems. Chris: [chuckle] Yeah, exactly. Sunjya: Right? So, yeah, so, you’re absolutely right, and then that was one of the real key factors that you and I started discussing from the outset, which is that this, even though we think and we hope and we get some feedback to the point that we’re helping people frequently, it’s certainly not an optimal system. And when we have patients that have this huge long list of symptoms, and I spend the first 15 or 20 minutes of the appointment just saying, “Okay how’s your headache? And how’s your knee pain?” Chris: Right, right. Sunjya: “How’s your brain working? And what happened when I gave you that supplement for your GI tract?” Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: And that’s just not a great use of anybody’s time or resources, especially given where we’re at this point in time with the ability to leverage technology.

Changing how care is delivered

Chris: Yeah, and it's interesting to me because I think that that episodic care model is just like a carry-over from the conventional approach. And we’re kind of in this process of reinventing all different aspects of how care is delivered. Functional Medicine is really a paradigm shift, shifting from suppressing symptoms with drugs to addressing the underlying cause of the problem. But I think along with that, what we realized is, it's not just the medical paradigm that needs to shift, it's how care is delivered. And it felt a little bit to me early on like we had adopted this new paradigm, but the model that we were using for delivering the care was still kind of based in the old way. And there is a disconnect there. Just as an example, if we recognize that diet, lifestyle, and behavior change are really at the core of addressing complex chronic illness, which I know we both agree on, how do you really successfully support patients in making those kinds of changes if you're just seeing them once every six months? That's a total disconnect. We know that behavior change, it’s not just about information, it's not just about telling people what to do. You can't just hand someone a list of 42 recommendations and expect them to go and be successful with 100 percent of them. There need to be frequent touch points and check-ins and support that are offered over the next several weeks or months that they are going to be implementing those things. When we had lunch that first time and we’re chatting about this, we both ... I was really excited, I remember feeling really excited because I was like, yes! This is right. This is exactly the way it should be and it can ... there is nothing stopping it from being this way. Sunjya: Yeah, absolutely. I remember that lunch well. I remember other sessions that we had. For example, I remember I parked myself at the, I think the library at UC Berkeley. At one point I was working on a lecture that I was going to give at the Eye Labs conference, and you and I had gotten involved with a Google Doc, just kind of batting ideas back and forth. And it was just an exciting moment. I just felt like it’s the start of this new era. and I remember that document. We were, we’re still in the process of implementing it, but that document largely focused around this idea of building in these extra layers of support. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: So we’re doing this exciting thing in Functional Medicine. We’re offering this care to people that we always were striving to get to the root cause of what’s happening. But you’re right that we’re still working within the mainstream system. And sure, we might have longer visits to offer people, but still, and we might catch on more lifestyle pieces, like, hey, I think you should meditate. I think you should focus on this diet and you should be doing this kind of exercise. Or this kind of psychospiritual work. But to tell the patient that okay, that’s a step in the right direction, but to tell them that without giving them the fabric and this sort of community network of support around that work, we’re not in any way approaching the efficacy that we could have. Chris: Absolutely. As you know, Sunjya, I've been kind of a behavior change geek. And when I was researching for the practitioner training program, and even more now with the upcoming health coach training program, and when you look at the research on behavior change, it's just so clear that, as I said, information is not enough. People don't struggle to change because they don't know what to do, they struggle because they don't know how to do it. [chuckle] Sunjya: Yeah. Chris: And I would even extend that and say they don't have the support they need to do it. Sunjya: Absolutely.

The collaborative care model

Chris: It's not because people are lazy or unmotivated or ambivalent, even although those can be factors in some cases, but they're really the minority. It's more just not knowing how to actually change. That's like a huge cornerstone of this collaborative care model, that I wrote about in Unconventional Medicine and that we're really trying to implement it at CCFM. And it hasn't been perfect, but I think we've made some strides. First two years ... The first year really was about, for me, building out the capacity to serve more patients, because I think we both had the same situation when we started, where we had really full practices. I think my waitlist was like a year or a year and a half at that time, and it was painful not to be able to help people who needed help. Sunjya: Yeah. Chris: Because I'd been in that situation myself as a patient, and to have to turn people away and to not even really have many other practitioners to refer them to was painful. So I hired Dr. Amy Nett who was working earlier on in her career as a radiologist at Stanford and had seen the limitations of that model, was tired of doing scans of obese eight-year-olds. Sunjya: Tragic. Chris: Tragic with markers for type 2 diabetes at eight years old and just figured, hey, this is probably not the best way that I could help them. If I can get involved earlier and prevent this from happening in the first place, I'm gonna have much bigger impact. And so she joined us ... Gosh, two-and-a-half years ago I think, now. Sunjya: Yeah, that’s about right. Chris: And it's been amazing to have her on staff, and she's now treated hundreds if not thousands of patients, just is ... amazing to have her expertise with radiology as well. We sometimes now rely on that with a NeuroQuant, and other things that we've expanded into. And then I think ... Did you hire Ramzi before I hired Tracey? Or is that right around the same time? Sunjya: Yeah, a little bit before. Ramzi joined us, I first met him in the summer a year and a half ago, then he joined us last fall. Yeah, so Ramzi’s another really interesting case. And we’re seeing this a lot and I love how you approach it in your book Unconventional Medicine you were just talking about, and it’s sort of a truism in Functional Medicine that so frequently doctors within the mainstream system are aware that their hands are tied, but they don’t know what to do about it and they’re becoming increasingly frustrated and burnt out. And Ramzi’s a great case in point. Here’s this really smart, passionate … he’s just a great, great person working in mainstream infectious disease, and he’s basically realizing that he is joined with these incredibly sick people. He’s frequently recovering them from either death or severe, severe illness using his infectious disease skills, antibiotics, infection control, etc. But he’s not really moving the needle in terms of helping people really get better. And so he on his own had been very passionate about Functional Medicine, was working his way through the Institute for Functional Medicine training programs. And when I met him it was like another one of those ah-ha! moments. We talk about in our clinic that we want to work with the best of the best, and you and I, I think, have really developed our intuition in terms of getting a sense of, is this person an A player? Are they going to be a great addition? And as soon as I met Ramzi, I was like pinching myself. It was like, oh my goodness, this guy is amazing and just would love for him to join our practice. So that’s been a great transition on our end and again I think we, like Amy with her radiology knowledge, we’re really leaning on Ramzi for his infectious disease knowledge as well. And so many of the patients that we treat with these multi-system illnesses, so much of the time there’s some kind of infection in the background that’s triggering them. So, yeah, he’s been a wonderful addition to the team as well. Chris: Yeah. And that's been amazing for me, just this team approach to care that we have. If I have a patient with a tick-borne illness or a complex chronic infection, for example, one patient comes to mind who was working in the Peace Corps down in South America and came back with a very mysterious illness and nobody could figure it out. And even though I have my own experience with mysterious illness that I acquired while traveling abroad, that's not my particular area of expertise. But of course, Ramzi used to work for the WHO and has worked in Africa and South America and does have expertise in this area. And so it was amazing to be able to get ideas about what kind of testing to run. He has friends at the CDC that he was able to contact and get advice on a pretty unusual ... I think it ended up being a gallbladder fluke or a liver fluke. And just to have that expertise that I can rely on is amazing. And we're constantly going back and forth. I'm asking you questions about the finer points of Lyme, and you're asking me about advanced lipidology and cardiology, and we ask Amy about her opinion on radiology scans. And it's just ... for me as a practitioner, that's certainly a gratifying experience because it keeps me on my toes, I get to continue learning, and I get to offer a much better range of care to my patients.

Technology advancements in collaborative care

Sunjya: Yeah. The patients really appreciate it and the thing that’s so fun for me also is how we’re leveraging the technology for this. And so as some people might know, I’m not sure, I think most of our patients know about the community at large, we are a distributed clinic. And we have our five practitioners spread out across from Palo Alto to Berkeley to Marin to Sacramento. So we’re not face to face with each other all of the time and so we’re using technology like Slack for example––a great communications system. And so we’re basically in there, we all have our Slack channels open, and so if I send out a question to one of you guys, almost always the answer comes back super quickly and we get the information that we need, sort of what we call in medicine like a curb-side, where you ask a question and get an answer from another colleague or a specialist. And then same with our staff, right? So our staff who are all working from home, we have over 10 people now mostly in California but spread out across the U.S., and we have a channel on Slack called “urgent patient needs.” And so if I’m running late or the patient’s not there in the office, or I need a lab result, I put that in there and usually within one or two minutes one of the staff picks it up, answers the question, pulls the lab in, and calls the patient, whatever needs to happen. And so I remember at my old clinic, I used to have to get up, open the door, walk out to the front desk and say, “Hey, this lab’s not in the chart. Can you please call the lab?” and go back in the room and then maybe hopefully by the end of the visit, we’d get a hold of the lab. Chris: Oh, right, because they have to open the file drawer and then thumb through all the files to find the file, and then the file is not there [chuckle]. Sunjya: Or call. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: The lab. I get this whole … Chris: And then yeah, and then the lab has to fax it over and you're like, "Wait, are we in 1985 here? What's going on?" [chuckle] Sunjya: Somebody would be standing by the fax machine pulling the paper off of the fax. Chris: Yeah, it's so bizarre that medicine in some ways is very far ahead technologically, but in other ways, it's totally in the dark ages. Sunjya: Absolutely. Chris: Wow. Sunjya: Yeah. Chris: Yeah. So I haven't even had a chance to tell you this, but we had... Tracey and I ... We'll talk ... come back to Tracey in a second, but we had a patient last week who came to see us who lives in Dallas, and he's an investor. And he's really interested in investing in Functional Medicine and healthcare in general. He's passionate about this. He sees this as the future of medicine and he wants to ... In his own way, because that's his background in finance. He doesn't wanna become a doctor [chuckle] or enter into it that way, but he wants to use his skill and expertise and resources to support the movement. So he's really interested in investing in Functional Medicine models. And he paid us such an amazing compliment, which he said it was the most incredible experience he's ever had From the beginning, when he signed up as a new patient to when he was sitting in our office, the best experience he'd had with any company that he'd worked with, not just in medicine or healthcare. And he said he actually saved the emails that we send as part of our new patient onboarding sequence because he wants to figure out a way to kind of rubber-stamp that and roll that out in other ways. So I just wanted to let you know that because I haven't even had a chance to tell you. It's pretty great feedback because that's something that you and I have worked a lot on, and you've been really passionate about how to use technology to create ... to automate things that can be automated, so there's more time for the things that should never be automated, the actual interaction with patients. Sunjya: Yeah, I mean, that’s the promise of technology and it’s an incredible time right now in healthcare. And especially in the Bay Area. As you know, and you mentioned I’m super passionate about this, and I got to conferences whenever I can. Health 2.0, I was over at JP Morgan week and went to a Google investor meeting, and there’s a ton of movement and it’s so, it’s so exciting right now. And the same discussion is happening in the community at large. Which part of this is relevant? Which part of this adds to the medical patient experience? Which parts can be automated and which parts need to be done by humans? And some people get kind of nervous and negative about a thing. For example, radiology: there’s going to be a takeover of artificial intelligence and machine learning and the radiologist will be extinct in a number of years. And I don’t see that at all. I see what could happen instead would be that care could improve, ability to diagnose things could improve, the ability to track and visualize data could improve, and then the people, the radiologist and the doctors who are in short supply, and you touch on this in your book a lot. It’s like the crisis that we’re in, especially in primary care and certain specialties, we just can’t keep up with what’s out there in the land of chronic illness especially. And so technology on our end, what we’re really looking at is, and again, I think that the way we talk about it is, let’s make our practice both high tech and high touch at the same time, right? So let’s bring in the technology, let’s develop a really robust symptom-tracking dashboard that brings in all of the wearable data and all the symptoms that are happening to people, and where we can play with the data and visualize it and have this communication with the data back and forth between the doctor and the patient so that care can happen more in real time. As opposed to this episodic care model. So let’s do all of that, but let’s mesh it and let’s add in a nurse practitioner like Tracey, or a dietician and health coach like Danielle. And let’s have it be high touch at the same time so that we can simultaneously be working on and facilitating behavior change with people where the episodic care with the doctor is not going to do it. Chris: Absolutely. Sunjya: So those things meshing together, I think, are what you and I are really transitioning to now. And you talk about in your book as the next phase and the promise of further helping Functional Medicine and its movement really deal with chronic illness. Chris: Absolutely, and I just want to point out for the listeners, we're not necessarily talking about AI and blockchain and some of the more revolutionary technologies that in years or decades could really fundamentally transform how, with blockchain, for example, information is stored. We all probably eventually will have our health records on the blockchain and who knows what that will look like. And then AI, like you're saying, Sunjya, will totally transform diagnosis and even treatment, and will give doctors and practitioners a much better tool set. But I think there are a couple lower-tech examples that are just illustrative of what we're talking about here. So this new patient onboarding process that I was just talking about. We send out a bunch of emails. And I actually recorded a bunch of videos with myself talking to new patients, just telling them about the clinic, about what to expect, how they should prepare for their appointments, how they ... tips for doing the lab tests, which can be really tricky and complicated. And the idea behind this is that these things are the same for all patients, right? So we recognize that administrative staff was having the same conversation over and over again with every patient and answering the same questions, and so why not use technology to create an email autoresponder and videos and FAQ documents that can be delivered to patients and give them the information they need in a much more efficient way without relying on staff time. And those are all very low-tech methodologies that are readily available now, don't require any new understanding or technological development. And along the same lines, we have now, I think, hundreds of handouts that we give to patients. The way I think about it is, if I'm having the same conversation over and over again or I'm repeating myself, that's an opportunity to create a handout or a video or a course or an e-book or something like that, because that kind of information, there's not a real benefit in delivering that in a one-on-one session. And that time that is spent telling somebody about the low-FODMAP diet, for example, could be much better spent just connecting with the patient and asking them more questions about their experience, having time to talk to them about whether they're sticking with their stress management program, or getting enough sleep, or the things that do actually have to be done one on one. So it's about, as we said, using these technologies to ... in an appropriate way and in a way that actually increases the time for the one-on-one interaction that can't be and shouldn't ever be automated.

Giving clients more resources and access to more professionals

Sunjya: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that really dives into, you’ve done such a great job in your ADAPT training program also looking at learning theory. I’m thinking about how do people absorb information. Chris: Right. Sunjya: We know it’s been, there’s tons of studies on it if you look in Pub Med on what happens in a doctor’s visit and what information does a patient absorb. And particularly in situations where there’s something negative or scary, where the patient gets this piece of news, like, they shut off. Chris: Right. Sunjya: They go into … Chris: Fight or flight. Sunjya: Reptilian brain, fight or flight, amygdala activation. Chris: Yeah, yeah. Sunjya: And I think that’s where they don’t hear anything you say after that. Chris: Right, right. Sunjya: So we certainly dive in and tell people, walk them through what’s happening. But from the onboarding sequence all the way through the whole care model, the more information that we can give to people in different formats, the richer the experience becomes. And then like we’ve been talking about augmenting that with that live person, that hand holding, that warm touch. And I think that again it’s just, it’s certainly not perfect. We’re still working our way through some kinks, but it’s certainly the way of the future. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: It’s really an exciting time. Chris: Yeah, yeah. So, let's come back to this, where sort of CCFM is the case study for this larger model that we're both so passionate about, as it should be. I would be concerned if we weren't doing what we envision at our own clinic. So the first step that I ... There was the urgent priority for me was being able to serve more patients because that was the biggest thorn in my side at that time. And so we hired Amy and you hired Ramzi, so then we went from two clinicians to four clinicians, which was a big leap and essentially doubling our capacity to serve more patients, which was awesome. But then, we both were still at the point where we hadn't ... we realized we still hadn't executed on that vision of the collaborative model, where we had more support in between appointments. When I first started with Amy, she was helping, she was also seeing some of my established patients, and she still is. And so there was ... they could, my patients could not only see me for follow ups, they could also see Amy. So there was... That was a step in that direction. But we still didn't have a health coach on staff and we still didn't have another practitioner, a nurse practitioner, or a physician assistant that could help provide another layer of support for patients. And so, that's when I hired Tracey, Tracey O'Shea, who is IFM-certified nurse practitioner. And I realize that you and I, I think we might often assume that everybody knows what a nurse practitioner, physician assistant is or all these different designations, but I don't think that's the case so I'm gonna explain. Nurse practitioner is a ... in California, is a fully autonomous practitioner with a scope of practice that's very close to that of an MD or a DO. So they can prescribe medication, they can do lab testing, but they also have more training in, I think what we could just call patient support. Because they function in that role assisting doctors, but also working side by side, and they could have their own practice too. And they can work fully autonomously in California. And that differs from state to state. But here in California, they have a lot of autonomy. And Tracey was working at a pain clinic in Sacramento and was already, saw the limitations. There's a common theme here, right? Saw the limitations of treating pain from a conventional perspective and was taking IFM courses and becoming certified and then just not feeling like she was able to grow as a Functional Medicine practitioner at the clinic that she was working at. And so she applied to come work with us and I've been incredibly happy to have her. It's amazing, the support that we have now where she is with me in my case review appointments with new patients and they get a chance to meet with her and connect with her. She's doing the initial consults, which are the first 30-minute phone or video visits where we collect information about the patient, what their needs and concerns are, and then order the lab tests, so she gets to know them there. And then, once we get them started on a treatment protocol, I ask them to check in with Tracey every couple of weeks while they're on the protocol. Just brief check-ins because, as you and I both know, these protocols are complex and they have a lot of moving parts. They can be challenging in some cases and cause symptoms related to the protocol. People often have a lot of questions. And before, what was happening was a patient would have difficulty and they might not even ask a question or they didn't have the support between appointments and now I'd see them three months later and I would say, “What happened with the protocol?” And they would say, "Oh, I had a reaction to a supplement and so I just stopped." [laughter] And I'd be like, "What? No, wait! You should have called or contacted us. We just lost three months that we could have been doing something there." And now that doesn't happen because the patient checks in with Tracey. If they're having any kind of reaction, she'll adjust the protocol accordingly. It's just a much better way of providing that support between appointments. She's accessible. She's got more open spots in her calendar. Patients can often get appointments within a day or two. I finally feel like with that, we take a big step forward to this collaborative practice model. Sunjya: Yeah, and the other nice thing about it, that you and I are both passionate about, is number one, how can we help more people? But number two, how can we make this care more accessible and affordable to more people? Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: And it’s clear that a lot of people can’t afford the visits; however, when you bring in additional practitioners, nurse practitioners, coaches, PAs, etc., what we’re able to do is to charge a little bit less for those appointments. Have them be a little bit shorter, have them be check-in appointments, and it really leverages the time of ourselves and of the doctor, the head clinician, to be able to focus more on the higher-level problems and not be doing the busy work that’s really not a good use of our time and the patient’s money. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: So that’s an exciting shift also.

Hiring a health coach and registered nutritionist

Chris: Right. And so along those same lines, we also took another step forward toward with this vision in hiring a health coach who's also a registered dietitian and nutritionist. And this is Danielle Cook. And I'm excited about this. Of course, as many people know, I'm a big believer in health coaching, and I think it's gonna play a critical role in the future of not only Functional Medicine but medicine in general. And in fact, even very conventional organizations like the CDC and National Board of Medical Examiners have come out and said, “We need health coaching.” [chuckle] We realize now that the cause of chronic disease is environmental, not genetic. And therefore, changing diet, behavior, and lifestyles is really kind of the most important step we can take to prevent chronic disease, and there will never be enough doctors to do that. There aren't now and there just won't be. And even if there were enough doctors, they're not really the right people to do that. That's not how they're trained and they need to be focusing on the things that only they can do, that a health coach can't do, like order labs and interpret them and prescribe treatment and do procedures and colonoscopies and endoscopies and remove cancerous tumors and all the doctor stuff. We need that and we'll always need that, but health coaches can really fill the gap where patients need that support because again, it's not that they don't know what to do, it's they don't know how to change, and they don't have the support they need. And so Danielle has joined us recently and I'm really excited about the role that she's able to play. Sunjya: Yeah, Danielle has been an excellent addition. Also very, very excited to have her on board. And it’s also teaching us some interesting things about what we want this to look like. Danielle has a really deep experience. She was actually functioning in large part as a provider previously where she was the director of integrative medicine at a clinic down in the Santa Cruz area, South Bay area. But so she came in, in some degree with this sort of mindset of solving problems, etc. And we’ve been working together and kind of talking through with her as she’s been doing more training on sort of what does it take to facilitate behavior change in people. So that’s another update point that you brought to our attention that we’ve all been talking about is that it’s very complex of why do people end up in chronic health issues and in a state of chronic illness. And certainly a lot of it is lifestyle and diet and exercise and infections, etc. But a lot of it is in part, there’s some psychological loading that happens and it could be that they had adverse childhood events. What was their ACE Score? It’s a big predictor for chronic illness and autoimmune illness. And so really we need this sort of fabric and this network of people and coaches to really dive in and help people, again make that incremental change. Hold them accountable, understand what’s their motivation, what would get them to take the next step, what would get them to stick with a plan. And we have, one of my favorite things about my job is that we get really, really smart and really, really motivated patients. And I learn a ton from my patients. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: They bring information that I hadn’t been aware of and they teach me, I teach them, there’s this collaboration. But almost always they need that hand holding and they have this sort of broad understanding of the information, but they still need the nuts and bolts. Both the calling the shots from the doctor’s side of what do I do for my protocol, but also, hey, help me make this change, help me implement it well, help me find out my barriers, etc. So I’m having a lot of fun. I’ve been working with Danielle. So one of our models for this is a company called Iora and Iora has really built this model where the coach is the point person and the coach is in every visit with the doctor. And the doctor is sort of like the spice on top, but the coach is really the main meal, the fabric of that system. And that’s one insight that you’ve been really pushing us in that you wrote about in your book also. So very, very excited about that piece. Chris: Yeah, me too. The flipside of ... We have super-intelligent, educated patients, many of whom are nutritionists [chuckle] or dietitians and practitioners in their own right. And on the other hand, I think as our practice has grown and expanded, we've also ... We have more patients who are not experts necessarily. And they're just people working in other professions. They haven't gone down the rabbit hole of reading all the health blogs and listening to the podcasts and attending the summits and all of that. And then in the appointment, if I prescribe an autoimmune protocol diet and heart rate variability monitoring and other forms of stress ... And a sort of high-intensity, the strength training program ... I'm just making stuff up here, but that's a lot of new stuff all at once and that's totally overwhelming for some people. And in the past, even though my initial visits are long, an hour, hour and 15 minutes, and we have longer follow-ups, that's not enough time to go over all the labs, to talk about those results and what they mean, then to prescribe a treatment protocol based on those results, and still have time to go into a lot of detail on the particulars of the autoimmune protocol or a ketogenic diet if I'm talking about that and some of the lifestyle modification. It's impossible. We'd be there for three hours. And even then, it would be just too overwhelming. And now I can say, "Hey, if you need support for this, we have a fantastic health coach on staff who's also a registered dietitian. She can help customize your diet plan for you and give you support on the lifestyle piece." And that's just so... It makes me feel so much better. I'm not leaving the patient in a lurch. And I know that they are gonna be able to get the support that they need. That's been our focus so far, but very recently we also, I think, both of us realized that there's no reason that Danielle shouldn't be available to people who aren't already patients. Because as you said, it can be expensive to work with a Functional Medicine provider and some people don't necessarily need that. They just need some support. They have some minor symptoms and they need some support dialing in their diet and lifestyle. So we just started offering sessions with Danielle, for people who aren't already patients at CCFM. So I'm excited about how that will unfold too. Sunjya: Yeah, I’m very curious about that to see how that’s taken up. Because I think again, there’s a huge need out there. And as you’re moving into training more health coaches in your next iteration of your training program, it’s going to be a good case study for us to see how that works.

Group treatments and reducing the feeling of isolation

Chris: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit more about our future vision because we're not done yet. [chuckle] We've definitely made some progress, but you and I are always looking toward the future and how we can continue to improve things. One thing I'm excited about is classes and groups. I'm excited about them for a few different reasons. Number one, doing a group for example, for patients with autoimmune disease or patients suffering from chronic Lyme, can make care much more accessible. Just because the group dynamic is more affordable for people and it's a fantastic way to deliver information and support that doesn't have to be one on one. So if you have common diet recommendations or lifestyle recommendations or behavior modification recommendations that tend to be consistent across a particular group of patients like autoimmunity or weight loss or chronic infection, then those can be delivered in a group just as well as they can be in a one-on-one session and certainly, much more efficiently from a cost perspective. And then the other thing is just reducing the sense of isolation that people who have chronic illness often feel. And when they have a chance to get together either in person or virtually in a kind of like a Zoom video conference with other people that are dealing with similar challenges, that can really make them feel less alone. Sunjya: Yeah, and what’s exciting for me there also is that I envision leveraging the expert patient. So if we identify patients who have come through a protocol successfully and who are well-resourced and who like to educate and reach back out, if you put those people in the mix as well, then what you get is just sort of, rather than it being top down, the information, you get this sort of really rich kind of cross-pollination and people helping each other. And the expert patient feels really good helping the other people. Chris: Yeah. Sunjya: The new folks feel hopeful because they see an example of somebody who has kind of made it through to the other side of what they’re experiencing. So it’s really win-win in a lot of ways. And building that kind of community around this care is something that doesn’t really exist right now in a lot of ways. There’s Facebook groups. Unfortunately a lot of the support groups out there, especially with Lyme disease and a lot of chronic illness, they tend to be really scary places. They tend to be, the loudest voices are the sickest people because they’re still searching. And the people who got better are like, hey, I’m done. I want out. I’m not going to necessarily be in that chapter for a support group. So really building that structure and that support is a win for both sides. Chris: Yeah. Another thing I know you, in particular, been really excited and passionate about is how we can continue to evolve the technology so that we can chart the progress of patients over time graphically, have their lab values displayed in a chart-like format so that both patients and practitioners can quickly take a look and see what kind of progress they've made over the course of their treatment protocol, and just continuing to leverage technology in ways that actually enhance the patient care experience is something we're both, I think, looking forward to. Sunjya: Absolutely and it comes out of being point on our end, which is just that we generated a ton of data, it’s hard to kind of see the patterns, and in addition we’re missing a lot of data. If we can get patients reliably tracking their symptoms over time, if we can bring in their wearable data, we can understand what their movement patterns are like, what their sleep patterns are like, what their heart rate variability is like from a parasympathetic–sympathetic nervous system balance point. Correlate that with their lab studies with what they’re eating, track their diets, etc., and also have them filling out standardized questionnaires like the SF-36 or pain scale, or the severity scale. So we have the potential there to generate a huge amount of data, which probably is going to be overwhelming, and it can be a little bit too much to look at. But I think the promise there is to start to make that more significant and statistically significant, and over time dial it down. Boil it down into a few different metrics that can serve as a dashboard, sort of like a warning light on the dashboard if you will. And we have so much data out there that’s not being correlated, not being collected in a structured way to where we can use it. And there’s a lot of people who are really, really smart in the States who are seeing a similar vision. And so, again, I see that as our future. It’s similar to your investor patient. I had a meeting a couple weeks ago with a group, a local group who are struggling with some of these health issues in their own family, but they are in the financial sector and they’ve built this computerized dashboard to track their financial metrics in an incredibly robust and insightful way. And they’re saying basically, hey let us know what you need and we’re happy to adapt our model and bring in all the health variables and see what kind of insights we can build. Chris: That's so cool. Sunjya: Yeah, super exciting.

The Berkeley Fire Department pilot wellness program

Chris: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about our pilot program with the Berkeley Fire Department. I think it's a way of kind of bringing this all together and showing what this model could look like, at least in terms of scaling it up to bring this approach more into the mainstream. Sunjya: Yeah, this has been a super-fun project. To their credit, they contacted us, which is so fun. We got a call last summer from one of their officers, Amore Langmo, who has his personal story. He’s benefited in large part from adopting a Paleo ancestral diet and changing his movement patterns, and his health really shifted in a lot of positive ways. So he knew about all this and he knew about some of the work that Robb Wolf has done over in Nevada working with first responders, police, and fire departments. So he reached out to us and said, “Hey, we are bringing in this class of new recruits. There are going to be 10 people, and we want you to build a wellness program for them.” So we went through the process of submitting proposals and fine-tuning those and when that was accepted, the program started in October. And again, credit to the department. Really impressive group of people. The training chief, David Sprague, and the recruit training officers totally on board with this. And basically we built out several different modules—the first one focusing on nutrition and then on stress management and on healthy sleep, and gratitude and happiness, resilience, etc. So we basically delivered these modules over one month at a time. There were check-ins with the health coaches. We layered in robust technology solutions. We had my friend at Iora, the wearable ring company, donated their products. We had our friend Yaron Hadad of Nutrino bring in his technology for tracking diet, we had them wearing continuous glucose monitors to track their blood sugar, we did fitness interventions, we did lab studies, baseline and follow-up on a subset of those people. And so we generated this huge amount of data which was really, really exciting. We’re still working through putting that all together, wrapping our final module next month to do wrap-up and data presentation. But already the feedback that we got, and these recruits are in their 20s and 30s, relatively, you would think, young, healthy men. This group is all men. Sometimes they do have women in those classes. And we found some really interesting things under the hood that were sort of smoldering fires either on lab studies or on sleep patterns, or on heart rate variability tracking. And the work that these guys are doing is so, so important. We know that more than ever. And at the same time they have a very stressful job with the shift work, etc. So it was very, very exciting to look at that and just see that we’re identifying some things here that nobody would’ve found, nobody would’ve known about. Chris: Yeah, yeah. Sunjya: And we’re intervening in a systematic way. We’re offering them opportunities for change, and they’re noticing the difference. They’re saying, wow yeah. I noticed I feel better and I feel stronger, I want to eat cleaner, and I noticed that my total sleep time or deep sleep is a certain marker, then I feel more alert and more ready to go, etc. So very, very, very fun. Chris: Yeah. Yeah, that's so exciting. I'm so jazzed about this project and what it can mean for other opportunities in the future. Not only for our clinic, but for other Functional Medicine clinics. It's a great way to reach out in your community and provide a service and also attract new patients. This is really a ... It's just exciting to see, you and I, Sunjya, for so long have been kicking this around in our head, and so it's really exciting just to see it manifesting in the real world. Sunjya: Absolutely, absolutely. Chris: Yeah, all right, so thanks for listening, everybody. Before we finish up, I do want to let you know that we are accepting new patients at CCFM. I know, for a lot of you folks who've been following me for a long time, you've seen some of the drama with the ... my practice would open up and then it would fill up within a few hours and there would be a year waitlist and it was crazy. And I ... Frankly, I hated that. [chuckle] It was really stressful. Sunjya: Yeah, it’s stressful for everybody. Chris: It was really unpleasant to have to turn people away. And yeah, it was stressful for the staff and it was stressful for everybody who was interested in coming to see me as a new patient. And so, I realized that I had never sort of announced that it's not like that anymore. [chuckle] We're so busy focusing on expanding the capacity, I don't think that I had ever really let anybody know that we now do have a much greater capacity. And because now we have, instead of just two practitioners, we have five and ... including a nurse practitioner, and then we have a health coach, and we have a big administrative staff to support that. We're now able to accept many more patients. And I still get emails like, "I know you're not taking new patients, but ..." And I'm like, "Wait, I actually am taking new patients [chuckle] for the first time in a long time." I am, Amy, Dr. Nett is, Dr. Asfour, Ramzi Asfour is taking new patients. Danielle is seeing clients now for health coaching, even if they're not new patients. Tracey's not yet accepting new patients on her own but she will be very soon. Sunjya, I know you've been pretty full lately. Where do you stand on that? Sunjya: Yeah, you and I have had some conversations on this. I think a really important point that we’re trying to build with the way we’re structuring our clinic is that we’re really trying to make it so that the people we surround ourselves with, the practitioners who we bring in and train, are really high level, very, very smart, very motivated people. And we’re trying to build this really tight-knit fabric within our clinic so that patients can feel like if they want to see either you or me as their primary focus, which is understandable given our experience, that they could be as well served by seeing one of our other practitioners. Because, in fact, we’re directly involved with that care, we’re supervising that care, there’s constant conversations and cross-pollination that’s happening. So on my end I’m working to adopt the similar model to what you are, so I can bring in more patients myself. But really that’s going to look like a community model where we have the practitioners, we have Ramzi, we have Tracey, we have Danielle and all of us are working together to provide that optimal level of care so that we can get more people the care they need. So it’s really one thing we’re passionate about. Chris: Absolutely, absolutely. And this sort of team approach to care really is the future of medicine. We're seeing it not just at our clinic, but at many others, because it's much ... it's actually a better model for patients. It's a better model for practitioners because we get the full support of the team. I get to rely on Ramzi's expertise on infectious disease and yours as well, Sunjya, and Amy's expertise in radiology, and Tracey's expertise in pain management, and Danielle's expertise in nutrition and health coaching. It's just phenomenal. I feel it's kind of like getting to see five practitioners instead of one, [chuckle] at this point, which is really amazing. So if you are struggling with a chronic illness and you just haven't been able to find help and you're stuck and you can use some additional support, this ... we're here for you at CCF Med. That's ccfmed.com for more information and to apply if you want to come be a patient at the clinic. We work with people all over the United States. We do require an in-person visit for that first visit to just to establish the relationship. But after that first visit, we can work remotely via phone and video conference in most cases. So keep us in mind if you need that kind of support or if a friend or family member does. And thanks, everybody, for listening. I hope this was helpful. I hope you're as inspired about this future model for treating chronic disease as we are. And thanks for listening. Continue to send in your questions at chriskresser.com/podcastquestion. And Sunjya, thanks again for being here. Sunjya: Yeah, it was very fun. I really appreciate the opportunity. Chris: Great. RHR: A New Model of Care for Chronic Disease published first on https://chriskresser.com

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