In May, my youngest son, David completed his college degree in Construction Management after spending 4 years at WKU in Bowling Green. Looking back, his freshman year started off a little rough with a very unexpected event. The first week into the semester, I got a phone call on a Thursday evening. David's roommate called to say that David was injured. Just as my mind was going wild with possible injuries, David got on the phone to explain. Hearing his voice was enough to calm me down. He had gotten rather enthusiastic while attending the first home football game. In a relay race during half-time, he dove in and won the relay, got the free t-shirt, and came away with a broken clavicle (collarbone). That "free" t-shirt was a costly souvenir from his first home football game!
David made his way to the urgent care center that evening where they put his left arm in a sling and suggested he follow up for an x-ray. A week later, when we sat with an orthopedic surgeon looking at his x-ray, it was clear that no amount of organic spinach, raw almonds, or pasture-raised eggs was going to put that bone back together! The clavicle was splintered into a few pieces with one side of the bone being significantly lower than the other. When you looked at David wearing the sling, you could definitely see that his shoulder was drooping on his left side. Without surgery, his clavicle would heal but it would not line itself back up properly and David would always have to compensate for that injury. At the age of 19, that wasn't the path we wanted to choose. So, the middle of September, he had surgery to repair the clavicle with a titanium plate and 6 screws. I was then and still am today very thankful for the restoration the surgeon and medical team provided that day. David's injury was a one time event, that left untreated, would have been a life-long hindrance for him. In our country, we are incredibly blessed to have hospitals and medical staff that are well prepared to handle acute injuries and illnesses.
David's need for medical treatment had nothing to do with his lifestyle choices. His experience was a one-time occurence that required a one-time medical fix. In the last 50 years or more, hospitals and doctors' offices are no longer places we go just for acute illnesses, injuries, or routine check-ups. We've become a society that regularly seeks medical care for chronic illness. The majority of these chronic illnesses are due to poor lifestyle choices.....particularly poor food and drink choices. Today, doctors are trained to prescribe pharmaceutical medication to manage symptoms instead of working with a patient to uncover the underlying reason for the symptoms. There are two groups of people that are not profitable to our current medical system: healthy people and dead people. Our current medical system is set up for "symptom care" so people have to regularly see a doctor to get the pharmaceutical prescriptions to manage their chronic illness. We now have "symptom care" instead of "health care". Symptoms are simply the body's way of communicating that it's struggling. Many times the symptom shows up in a different place or in a different way than where the actual underlying issue is located. Just as a baby cries when he or she needs something, our bodies are "crying" in an effort to communicate underlying problems. My body "cried" for decades trying to communicate about several of my underlying health issues. The only help I offered was bandages! That's the only help my medical doctor prescribed for me. Now, I know better and I pray that your eyes will also be opened to a new way of addressing your health challenges.
When we only treat the unwanted symptom, we're covering the symptom with a "bandage" but the underlying problem is still there. Let's go into the kitchen for an example. If I have a bag of onions and a few onions on the bottom of the bag are rotting, the smell should signal that something very stinky needs to be addressed in my kitchen. I can put a "bandage" on that situation by putting some great quality pure essential oils in my diffuser or spraying some homemade air freshener but the rotten onions are still in that bag stinking. When the diffuser no longer can cover the stink then it might be time to open a window, a door, or bake something in an attempt to cover the stink.....but the stink is still there! Until I investigate and uncover the underlying reason for the stink and get those rotten onions out of my kitchen, I've got a rotten mess that's only going to get harder to clean up the longer I ignore the underlying problem.
In early 2014 after Alan's brain tumor diagnosis, we significantly changed what we were eating and drinking. When Alan passed away in June 2015, I didn't know a tenth of what I know today about the power of food to heal, the importance of nutrition, and where to find nutrient dense foods. It was in November 2015, that God brought a Naturopathic Doctor, Dr. Peter Swanz (www.drswanz.com) into my life. Dr. Swanz presented a free seminar about boosting the immune system at Seeds & Greens (a local health food store). Following that seminar, I got his contact information so I could book an appointment because I was confident that he could help me uncover the underlying reasons for my health challenges. He told me that an initial appointment would be at least 2 hours long. Leading up to that experience, I had NEVER met with a doctor for 2 hours.....probably because I never had a doctor that was trained to understand how the various systems in the body work together, how all 4 pillars of health are connected and equally important, and how to address the underlying causes of my symptoms.
The following questions were on a brochure that explained Naturopathic Medicine. These questions were intended to be a self examination to determine whether including a Naturopathic Physician on my health team would be the right choice. I answered "Yes" to ALL of these questions before my first consultation with Dr. Swanz! You might read through this list and honestly answer each question. Just answering "Yes" to one or two of these questions might be evidence that you are also searching for total health in all four pillars: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional. Honestly answering "Yes" is just the beginning of a new lifestyle!
Do you want to have more energy and vitality in your life?
Do you prefer to address the underlying causes of your health concerns?
Are you interested in fitness and nutrition as key components to your long-term health goals?
Do you prefer to invest in being healthy rather than paying for pharmaceutical drugs that only address the symptoms of disease?
Are you concerned about the adverse effects from taking pharmaceutical drugs?
When evaluating your health, do you consider more than just the physical aspects of your person, including also mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing?
Do you want to be the captain of your health team, making informed choices for yourself and your family?
Would you rather pay the local farmer for real food than pay the pharmacist for synthetic drugs?
Dr. Swanz explained that my seasonal allergies had an underlying cause: chronic inflammation. Dealing with seasonal allergies leads many people to believe that they have a problem within the sinus cavity itself. That might be true for some but in my case, the seasonal allergies were a result of chronic inflammation. Based on the Standard American Diet that the majority of the population currently eats (and I ate until January 2014), I would guess that most seasonal allergy sufferers are really struggling with an inflammation issue.....and one of the ways it presents itself is seasonal allergies.
When I added: good quality fish oil (see blogs titled, "He fed them fish! & Time for an Oil Change!), grass fed and finished meats, great oils (not hydrogenated oils like canola & vegetable oil), and local raw honey while significantly reducing refined sugars and simple carbohydrates, my seasonal allergies were resolved. Why? Because I gave my body the omega 3s and great quality fats it was longing for and desperately needed while at the same time, I removed a lot of the inflammatory foods like steady doses of refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. This allowed my body to respond predictably. When we feed the body what it's longing for and remove the "junk" from our diet, the body does what it's beautifully created to do: It heals itself!
If you read my blog, "Breathe and Heal!" that was posted on March 23, 2019, then you know that I struggled with anxiety for more than two years. Dr. Swanz helped me navigate through that time of anxiety. During our first meeting, he reviewed my diet and he had no suggested changes in that area. He also knew that: I exercised regularly, had support from family and friends, and had regular places where I volunteered. Regular exercise & a strong support network are also important pieces of total wellness. He did have a number of suggestions regarding the anxiety including the following: a homeopathic remedy, grief support (GriefShare), books to read, videos to watch, a supplement to assist my body in healing the gut lining, and a stress relief spray. If I needed additional short term help for the anxiety from a pharmaceutical medicine, he would gladly prescribe a medicine for me. I didn't end up asking for the prescription but as a Naturopathic Doctor, he has many modalities available to suggest to patients. Each one of his suggestions was intended to help me move toward total healing, not to cover up my anxiety with a long term "bandage". His suggestions were intended to steadily point me toward healing in all four pillars of health. Today, anxiety is another condition that's on my growing list of healed conditions!
If you've struggled long enough with symptoms that just don't make sense or you're tired of covering your symptoms with "bandages", maybe you'd like to learn more about Naturopathic Medicine and the possible help you could receive from exposing what's underlying. You can check out these websites: Naturopathic.org or drswanz.com. In previous blog posts, I've mentioned Dr. Mark Hyman. He's the Head of Strategy and Innovation of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and his weekly podcast is: The Doctor's Farmacy. To learn more about Functional Medicine or to locate a Functional doctor near you, please check out: IFM.org.
In previous blog posts, I haven't disclosed what my "oldest" health challenge was. It wasn't until I first met with Dr. Swanz that I came to understand that I had an autoimmune condition: psoriasis. When he told me that, I was shocked and didn't understand what an autoimmune condition really meant to my overall health. Dr. Swanz explained, increased intestinal permeability which is now often referred to as "leaky gut" is primarily an absorption problem - too many substances are allowed to pass from the intestinal lining into the bloodstream. In her booklet titled, Leaky Gut Syndrome by Elizabeth Lipski, she states, "A healthy intestinal lining allows only properly digested fats, proteins and starches to pass through so they can be assimilated. When the intestinal lining is damaged, the junctions loosen allowing substances to pass through into the bloodstream." It's then that the immune system signals that there's an "invader" and goes on attack. Unfortunately, the immune system attacks the "invaders" but it also attacks the body in its genetic "weak spot". In my case, that was the skin. From that first meeting, Dr. Swanz's main focus has been my gut health and achieving a healthy balance within the gut and with all four pillars of health. Today, I more fully understand that "leaky gut" was an underlying contributor to the anxiety. The anxiety was a symptom of both the emotional grief and the poor physical condition of my gut. When I addressed both contributors, the healing was possible. Today, I'm confident that so many people that struggle with anxiety and depression have "leaky gut" as an underlying, unrecognized, major reason.
It was in the late 1980s that I first went to my medical doctor looking for a diagnosis. At that time, I had a thick scaly patch on my scalp. He diagnosed me with psoriasis at that time and told me it was a neurological or stress issue but he gave me no indication that food or medications had caused the psoriasis or had any affect on this condition. Later, the psoriasis appeared on a number of different areas including my knee caps and my elbows. From the 1980s until my eyes were opened and I was more fully informed, my coping strategy was a variety of "bandages" including: a very toxic tar shampoo and an alcohol based prescription medicine that I put on my scalp topically. At some point probably about 15 years ago, I did stop using the prescription medicine because it burned so badly when I put it on. Psoriasis and I were like "old friends" because we'd been together for at least 35 years.....which was more than half my lifetime!
In May 2019, I started taking a supplement and doing hydrotherapy to more fully concentrate on healing the gut lining. I was continuing to use coconut oil topically for any skin ailment because coconut oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and antimicrobial. At that same time, I began keeping a "healing log" so I could track changes with my health. In July 2019, I began to see the first improvements and by last September, I had several positive changes. This past April, I returned to Dr. Swanz for a follow-up appointment. He suggested that I begin daily oil pulling to assist my body with candida overgrowth. At the end of April, I decided to begin oil pulling for 20 minutes each morning followed by a minute or two of gargling with hydrogen peroxide. Oil pulling has been around for over 2,000 years and is well recognized in Ayurvedic medicine in India. Swishing coconut oil in the mouth and then spitting it out into a cup or garbage can doesn't "cure" anything but oil pulling simply gives your body a helping hand so your immune system can work more effectively on healing your body. You can google oil pulling or check out this excellent book about oil pulling, its history, dental care, and the importance of a whole foods diet: Oil Pulling Therapy by Dr. Bruce Fife. On page 31 in his book, Dr. Fife explains, "Unlike a wound on your arm, that can be washed and bandaged to keep out germs, the mouth is continually bathed in a microbial soup (saliva), filled with bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. It's like wrapping the wound on your arm with a dirty rag that has been soaked in sewage. The likelihood of an infection is high. So, likewise, is the risk of infection from a lesion in the mouth." (His description is rather gross but true because the mouth is constantly wet, warm, and fairly dark so it's the perfect place for bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites to flourish.)
Thought to ponder......Have you EVER brushed your teeth or flossed and then had bleeding? If so, that means your body was then opened to any bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites that were swimming around in the saliva. I know that I've had many, many times when my gums bled especially while flossing. Along with my improved diet, I'm now committed to oil pulling every day for 20 minutes for as far into the future as I can imagine. Oil pulling might be one of the least expensive, most time effective, and beneficial assistance you could offer your body. It is a bit "odd" the first few times but now I can do all kinds of household chores while swishing coconut oil around in my mouth. You just can't talk to anybody or answer your phone! It's been fascinating to watch as God continues to use something so basic as coconut oil to restore balance in my body.
If you have a garden or have visited a Farmers Market in the last week or two, you know it's cucumber season. Below you'll find my recipe for Pickled Cucumbers & Onions. When my CSA (community supported agriculture) order was delivered to my front porch recently, it contained the cucumbers, red onions, and garlic to make this recipe. This cucumber & onion combination is tasty on sliced tomatoes or any other vegetable. It has the added benefit of being fermented so your gut will get some live probiotics and the onions are a prebiotic food that feeds the probiotics. That's a winning combination for gut health!
