Toxicity, Deficiency and You!

Today, more than ever, the human body is inundated with harmful toxins from countless sources.  Environmental pollutants, pesticide-treated foods, and a whole host of other such contaminants create a situation in which the body must struggle to remain healthy.  Sustained exposure to such stresses weakens the body’s resistance and, finally, all sorts of health problems result.  In this process, toxins lodge in the body’s tissues and organs and, eventually, disease manifests.  

In reality, this overload from toxicity is just one of the two conditions that rob us of good health.  The other is deficiency –deficiency of some element necessary to the well-working of the body. Let’s explore the meaning of these two words.  

Toxicity manifests when too much of something is present within the body.  Deficiency occurs when too little of something exists.   Typically, this something can be too much or too little of things like nutrition/biochemistry, exercise, and/or negative thoughts and feelings.  Of course, too much of a ‘good thing' can also be a problem.  For example, if you stay up late every night and get little sleep before your work day begins, you will eventually experience a general fatigue that will affect you health.

The fact is this - everyone, at one time or another, experiences some illness that suggests that their system is imbalanced either by toxicity or by deficiency. We can improve our odds at averting these occurrences by creating a self-care maintenance health program that fosters a ‘whole’ or holistic balance in the bio-chemical, structural and emotional systems of our body.  Good health is basically the balance between these three sides of the health triad.  

Over the years, I have suggested to my patients that a periodic detoxification program is a great way to re-establish and maintain this good health balance. Now, detoxification doesn’t mean some rigorous and depleting process that leaves you starved and exhausted!  In fact, I use a method that is much easier than that!  Let me explain a little about it.

In general, I advise a specific line of homeopathic remedies from Apex Energetics that include both detoxification AND drainage substances.   The reason for this combined approach is that it provides the most effective and gentlest means by which the body and its’ organs can relieve themselves of the impurities.  

Detoxification means dis-lodging the toxin from its hold over the cells in the tissues and organs.  Yet, it is best for the patient if the body releases the toxins easily and without stress.  For this to happen, the body must provide a good drainage system for the elimination process.  Without it, many folks experience difficulty in the detoxing phase and become ill.

This illness is called a ‘healing crisis’.  Basically, this occurs when the body releases too many toxins at one time.  In other words, the body’s routes of elimination cannot process the toxins fast enough.  (The body’s routes of elimination are a combination of organs and organ systems and collectively dubbed the seven routes of elimination. They are the liver, lungs, lymphatic system, kidneys, skin, blood and bowel or colon.)  Consequently, it has to manifest sickness – flu symptoms, fever and the like – in order to process the toxins out of the body.  This definitely doing it the hard way!

 So, the solution to preempting this discomfort is to add what we call adequate drainage to the detoxification process.   Drainage therapy is used to open up the elimination routes so that they can adequately remove the dislodged toxins from the body just as fast as they are being released during the detoxification process.   In this way, the body is not overwhelmed and there is not the necessity for a healing crisis. With the Apex Energetics remedies, gentle drainage of multiple organs can occur at the same time.  Ingredients and potencies are selected for their deliberate gentle actions.  

Usually, it is a good idea to begin drainage therapy just prior to beginning the detox – say one or two weeks before.  In this way, the body prepares itself for the cleansing and will respond without stress.  However, some folks only implement drainage therapy simultaneously with the detoxification process.  I work with my patients to determine which of these protocols works best.  Of course, I monitor their progress as the detoxification regime continues.

If you think that you would benefit from a gentle detoxification and drainage therapy, then please call my office for a free 30 minute consultation and we can discuss this protocol as it relates to your condition.  You can reach me at the Center for Holistic Health, (510) 652-2302.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

Are Supplements Necessary?

In the mountains of Tibert, eastern Pakistan, Russian Georgia, certain regions of Turkey and in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes are five well-known human cultures whose peoples routinely live to their maximum genetic potential of 120 or older.

These cultures have some interesting similarities.  Their populations live at remote elevations ranging from 8,500 to 14,000 feet, far removed from the pollution of heavily industrialized cities.  Their water source for drinking and irrigation  comes from glaciers and runs down over pulverized rock.  This water is so highly mineralized that it's opaque and whitish as milk.  It is also true that  these indigenous cultures use only natural fertilizer for growing their crops. 

If we all could maintain a low-stress, pollution-free, nutrient-rich lifestyle like those remote mountainous peoples, we probably wouldn't need  nutritional supplements.   Unfortunately, for most twenty-first century folks, life is not so simple.  In our hurried lifestyle, we fail to eat properly.  We live in environments in which  our food and air are often polluted.  And the stresses of modern life undercut our body's ability to fight disease.

Some of us try to compensate by turning to organically grown foods.  But what we don't realize is that our earth is becoming anemic.

"Those who now advocate eating natural foods as the only source of vitamins and minerals live in a dream world of yesterday, " says Joel D. Wallach, M.D., and Ma Lan, M.D., authors of the book Rare Earths:  Forbidden Cures.  "It really doesn't matter how well you balance your meals, you still run the risk of malnutrition if you try to get all your vitamins and minerals exclusively from the foods that you eat."

Why is that?
Mineral-rich soil has millions of micro-organisms living in it.  Their primary function is to decompose anything that falls on the land, and to break down mineral deposits into plant food.  If we grew plants in this kind of topsoil, we could be a lot healthier!  But, in many parts of the industrialized world, especially in our own United States, the topsoil that formerly contained a rich supply of micro-organisms and trace minerals - nutrients which found their way into our diet - has long been exhausted.  To remedy this, the topsoil has been loaded up with artificial chemical fertilizers.  As a result, our foods no longer contain the dozens of micro-nutrients that are so essential to a healthy body.  So, unless you're living in one of those five high altitude, pristine, mountainous environments, you're still going to need  to take vitamins and mineral supplements.

To be properly assimilated, the macro-nutrients that we consume - carbohydrates, proteins, fats, water and fiber - need to be combined with micro-nutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals.  In fact, there's not a single organic function in the human body that does not require the aid of a trace mineral or vitamin to facilitate it's process.

If your food does not give you all the vitamins and minerals you need, can you correct this situation by simply dropping by the local retail shop and loading up on vitamin and mineral supplements?  It's not that easy!

Not All Supplements Are the Same!
How much of a the supplemental vitamin or mineral you assimilate is determined by several factors.  First, there's the delivery system.

• Until the 1950's, the only supplements we had were composed of inorganic minerals like calcium carbonate and zinc carbonate.  The problem is that the body is capable of absorbing about only 10% of a mineral in its inorganic form.
• Then, chelated minerals were introduced in which the minerals were biologically attached to an organic substance.  Because our bodies accept a chelate more effectively than they do an inorganic form of the mineral, the mineral can be absorbed in ranges up to 50%.
• Finally, in the 90's, colloidal minerals were introduced.  That is where the micro-nutrient particles have been made so small that up to 90% can be absorbed by the cells.

Thus, the form of supplement that you take is critical in determining how effectively your body is benefiting from it.

You also have to consider whether you are taking a micro-nutrient in its natural state.  Why?   Vitamins and minerals in their natural state are absorbed into the body far more effectively than anything distilled in a laboratory.  For example, your body will more readily absorb vitamin C when it is combined with other naturally occurring compounds such as bioflavonoids.  This form of vitamin C is described on the bottle as "C Complex".  However, most people take vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid and as such are only getting the anti-oxidant protective part of the natural, living, vitamin C complex.  Ascorbic acid is 2% of the whole, natural vitamin C complex by weight!

What are the other factors that enable the vitamin to go into biochemical operation?  They are enzymes, co-enzymes, trace elements, activators, and other unknown factors that enable the vitamin to go into biochemical operation.  Some of these vitamin C factors are called bioflavonoids, "P", "K", and "J" factors.  Vitamins are living complexes.  So people who are taking only ascorbic acid (which is the FDA name for vitamin C) are not absorbing anywhere near as much of the vitamin C as they think that they are.

The quality of supplements can also vary tremendously between one retail source and the next.  Most of the supplements you see in the usual retail store utlets are created chemically in test tubes, and some companies do a better job of doing that than others.

What Supplements Do We Need?
For certain, we all need to take a healthy supply of anti-oxidants -vitamin C, A, E, selenium, grape seed extract, and so on - to neutralize the pollution from the environment that slows down or stops enzyme activity in the body which leads us to disease or dysfunction.  We also need a good selection of natural extracted vitamins and minerals.

Your micro-nutrient deficiencies can be evaluated in various ways, such as with hair analysis and certain blood tests.  However, a more cost effective approach is to have me detect these deficiencies by using advanced applied kinesiological techniques.  I can also use the same process to test the supplements that you are now using to see if they are having a beneficial effect.  You might be surprised at what you discover.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

What is Healthy Exercise?

Are You Exercising in a Healthy Way?

Ask a hundred people, “Does exercise promote good health?” and almost everybody will tell, “Of course!”  Mostly, they’re right.  Exercise is healthy.  It’s what allows your lymphatic system to move waste products out of your body. 

But some people exercise incorrectly.  They’ll sing the virtues of raising the heart rate, and then they’ll work themselves to death in aerobics classes and gyms.  Instead of promoting endurance, fitness, and health, they end of doing just the opposite. 

What leads them down the wrong path is a belief that the faster and more intensely they exercise, the better.  They never learn the difference between aerobic (fat burning) and anaerobic (sugar burning) exercise, and how one can inadvertently evolve into the other.  In fact, lack of proper information about exercise has helped to foster the largest non-microbial epidemic in the U.S.  It’s called ADS, which stands for aerobic deficiency syndrome.

The Spread of Misinformation

During the 1980’s, fitness maven Covert Bailey promoted an early formula for the ideal heart rate which would, if not exceeded, give you optimal aerobic benefit.  (Aerobic is defined as improving the body’s oxygen consumption.)  The popularized formula he used was 220 minus your age times 65-85 percent, depending on your state of health.

But in the early 1990’s, Bailey discovered that the optimal heartbeat rates he published were too high for almost half the population.  At those rates, bodies burn sugar as a source of fuel, instead of fat.  The revised formula is now 180 minus your age, plus or minus points for good health.  

The problem was, few people paid attention to the revised formula, and consequently, the old numbers are still widely accepted as the standard.  These numbers can lead to unhealth.  Let’s see why this is so. 

Burn Fat or Burn Sugar?

The body has two sources of fuel:  fat and sugar.  Fat is the body’s preferred source, because (1) it doesn’t take away sugar needed for the brain, and (2) because it does not create waste products that remain in the body.  Oxygen is drawn into the body through the lungs and is combined with the carbon in fat.  When you burn fat, the waste products –carbon dioxide and water vapor-are expelled through the lungs.  It is a very efficient, clean burning process.  There are virtually no residue or waste products left behind.

But if you enter into strenuous physical activity such as lifting weights or when you run too long and too hard, your heart and lungs can no longer deliver enough oxygen to the muscles, and the muscles stop burning fat as fuel and start burning sugar.  This switchover takes place because sugar can be turned into fuel without additional oxygen.  Once this happens, your exercise has switched over from being aerobic to being anaerobic. 

Anaerobic exercise gives you energy at a price.  When sugar is burned, it creates lactic acid which must be excreted through your liver and kidneys.  It is a very dirty burning process.  If too much lactic acid is created, the buildup creates stress and leads to cramps, headaches, lethargy and fatigue.

Thus, doing aerobics too intensely or spending too much time in the weight room without sufficient aerobic exercise to balance it can be unhealthy because you’re creating more toxins than your lymphatic system (which moves out waste) can keep up with. 

Develop A Sound Aerobic Base

Here are several things you can do to make sure you don’t suffer from ADS:

1.      Keep yourself aerobically fit. This calls for exercising aerobically at least three times a week for a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes, making sure that you do to overtax your body so that it starts burning sugar and storing fat.  You can determine your ideal aerobic heartbeat using the correct formula of 180 minus your age, plus or minus minor adjustments depending on your health.  The most accurate way to monitor performance is with a heartbeat monitor, the kind you wear on your wrist and that gives you on-the-fly reading.  M-F Athletic Company at 888-556-7464 can give you advice on the make and model that best fits your needs.

 2.   If you work out at a gym, maintain a ratio of three minutes of aerobic exercise (treadmill, bicycle, stair machine, etc.) to one minute of anaerobic exercise (weight lifting).

     

 3.    If you want to know if your workout is truly aerobic, monitor your heartbeat immediately after you stop exercising.  For the exercise to have been aerobic, your heartbeat should drop at least 30 beats per minute in the first 60 seconds after you’ve stopped the workout.

         

       4.   Reduce stress wherever you can, since the body’s fight-or-flight response is totally anaerobic (sugar burning).

          5.     Finally, eat balanced meals that give you the right proportions of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.  Consider taking carnitine supplements if necessary.  Carnitine is a biochemical that is derived from food as well as synthesized by the liver and kidney.  It’s needed to transport fat to the portion of the cell where it is converted into energy.  If you have too little carnitine in your body, you’ll find that even with aerobic exercise, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of those fatty thighs and unwanted middle.  Thus, if you want to lose fat, you want to make sure you’re getting enough carnitine by eating sufficient quantities of cottage cheese, seafood, meats, soy products, lentils, and chick peas.  Carnitine is also available in supplement form.  

Live Smarter and Live Longer

For being such a technologically advance nation, we aren’t very smart when it come to our own health.  Do you know that a recent studies show that the typical person spends his or her last 12 years of life suffering from a severe aerobic deficit because of curtailed physical activity?  This undoubtedly shortens the average life span. 

Aerobic exercise is not a cure-all, but it can often work wonders.  Mental and physical fatigue, depression, low blood sugar, and high cholesterol can be partly or completely remedied by a planned aerobic training program.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

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Notes from Dr. G

Every year at this time, the medical community begin touting the benefits of the latest flu shot.  Yet, before you go and get inoculated, you might want to investigate some facts.

Countless studies show that there are many folks who react to flu shots and other vaccination in a negative way and that this reaction can actually weaken the immune system rather than strengthen and protect it.

All vaccines produce antibodies.  Actually,  they produce circulating immune complexes called CICs.  Your immune system ends up attacking these CICs.  When it does, it deflects its energy from it’s more important job -  protecting you from more harmful viruses and bacteria.  Like fighting a war on two fronts, your body is similarly splitting its resources in an attempt to defend you.  In  other words, your immune system is trying to protect you from the vaccine by creating an allergic reaction to it.  If another virus or bacteria comes along, there are fewer lymphocytes left to kill it.

In his book , The Case Against Immunization, Dr. Richard Moskowitz notes that immunizations can lead to certain types of chronic diseases.

“Far from providing a genuine immunity…,” say Moskowitz, “vaccines may act by actually interfering with or suppressing the immune response.”  Moskowitz indicates that the rise in auto immune diseases is an automatic result of injecting live virus and foreign antigens into children.  As a result, the body can no longer tell the difference between good and bad cells and starts attacking itself, producing such auto immune responses as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue immunity deficiency syndrome, and other degenerative diseases.  In fact, there is almost a one-to-one statistical correlation between the incidents of vaccinations and auto immune diseases in this country!

I have personally treated many people who have gotten severe cases of the flu after they have taken a flu shot.  In my many years as a Chiropractic physician, I have concluded that it is better to boost one’s cell-mediated immunity through  natural methods than to  rely totally on the anti bodies in any flu vaccine.

Of course, the decision to take or not to take a flu shot is an individual decision - an informed decision.  No matter your choice, if you experience flu like symptoms or contact the flu, please call me at the Center for Holistic Health (510) 652-2302 and I can do a kinesiological flu treatment protocol on you that , in most cases, will have you back on your feet within 48 hours.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~

Buidling a Strong Immune System III

Here is more of the wonderful 8 Step Self-Care Program that is specifically designed for enhancing your body's immune system. Continued from last week's blog:

 3.  Avoid junk food and too many carbohydrates.  A poor digestive system with too much processed food and not enough healthy protein, roughage, and fruits and vegetables is a big cause of a weakened immune system.  Here is why.

When you eat  a meal that is too high in concentrated carbs -  starches and processed flour -  your blood sugar level rises.  Your body then produces insulin to bring down the sugar level. However,  in 50 % of all people, the blood sugar level drops too far below normal.  Consequently, the body releases cortisone, which is a hormone, to bring the blood sugar back to an acceptable level.

The problem in this cause and effect reaction is that cortisone suppresses your immune system.  It encourages the wrong type of bacteria to grow in your gut.  This bacteria produces organic acids that weaken the wall of the gut, allowing impurities to pass through.  This condition is known as ‘leaky gut’.  Eventually, it will provoke an ‘overwhelm’ in the immune system making it difficult for the system to function properly.   The way to prevent leaky gut is to follow a healthy diet that works for your body type.

4.  Use immune-enhancing herbs.  If you feel a cold coming on, there are natural immune-enhancing stimulants that help build up your immune cells.  These include such herbs as Echinacea, garlic, golden seal root, chamomile, and the Chinese herb astragulus.

5.  Get assistance from holistic health practitioners.  Such practices as applied kinesiology, chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, and massage are all very helpful in getting and keeping the body in balance.

6.  Find time to relax.  Research has shown that chronic tension reduces the effectiveness of your immune system.  So don’t be a workaholic!  Take time to have fun.  Enjoy yourself.  Laughter and a happy heart are the best natural medicines that there are.

7.  Take in emotional support.  Countless studies have shown a strong link between negative emotions and lowered immunity, so it’s important to build a support network of people who care about you.

8.  Find meaning and purpose in your life.  When people become bord or when they develop a lack of purpose, they have a hard time fighting off disease.  Consequently, if life is tiresome and unchallenging, it makes good sense to take matters in hand, rather than remaining at the effect of circumstances.

Eating and exercising right and keeping a good attitude may sound like obvious and uninspired advice, but they are as correct today in the 21st century as they were in the 10th century.   Don’t discount the old wisdom.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~

Building a Strong Immune System II

At the Center for Holistic Health, I make sure that your cell-mediated immune system is working properly.  I do this by way of a nutritional check-up.  In other words, I test to see if your diet is stimulating any inappropriate antibody (allergic) reactions which might be putting your immune system at risk.

Additionally, I use specialized reflex muscle testing to see if your body has an allergic reaction to any of its own immune cells.  If it does, there are ways to re-program your body so it will stop suppressing your immune system.

I can also help to enhance your immunity by assisting it in cleaning up your digestive system.  Through drainage therapy, nutritional supplements, kinesiological therapeutics, and a good body-type specific nutritional diet, I can help ensure that good digestion takes place in your body and that there are no ailments such as leaky gut.  (I’ll explain more about leaky gut in the next segment.)  Of course, these are just a few of the techniques that can help one maintain an optimum cell-mediated immune system, which is the body’s preferred response.

Here is a wonderful 8 Step Self-Care Program that is specifically designed for enhancing your body’s immune system.

1.  Follow a regular exercise plan.  To have a healthy immune system, waste products must constantly be moved out of your cells through the lymphatic system.  The most effective way to circulate lymphatic fluid is through aerobic exercise.  In this type of exertion, the energy is clean burning and moves the toxins and impurities out of the body without creating additional impurities.

2.  Consume enough antioxidants.   Anti-oxidants work to neutralize pollution and other impurities so that your cell-mediated immunity doesn’t have to work so hard.  Look for foods and supplements that contain an ample supply of vitamins A, C, E, carotinoids, selenium, zinc, cysteine (an amino acid), and glutathione.

Well, these just the first few steps in the 8 Step Self-Care Program.   I’ll have more for you in my next blog segment.  In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302. We can talk about the ways in which I can help you to boost your immune system.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~

Building a Strong Immune System 1

In my last blogs, I explained carbohydrate feasting and its role in suppressing the immune system and in creating a myriad of other health problems, i.e., fatigue and blood sugar imbalances. In this current report, I want to explore how to build a healthy and strong immune system. This is an especially timely topic as we are entering the annual flu season. In the next two blogs, look for a special 8-Step Self-Care Program that details helpful tips on how to improve and maintain a health immune system.

All of us want to stay healthy. Yet, most of us don’t understand how to maintain our health and to avoid illness. The immune system is your body’s way of defending itself against invasion by foreign substances produced by the body such as cancer cells.

When a foreign substance (virus, bacteria, etc.) enters your body, one of two types of immune reactions takes place (sometimes both reactions happen). The preferred reaction is called cell-mediated immunity in which T cells are released into your blood supply. T cells are made in your bone marrow and mature in your thymus gland. These T cell are scavengers that circulate throughout the body and destroy the invaders. They do so by directly attacking and digesting the foreign material.

The other kind of immune reaction is called B cell or antibody-mediated immunity. B cells are made in the bone marrow and create antibodies (specialized proteins) that attach themselves to the invading substances. In this way, the bad cells are flagged so that your body’s scavenger cells can identify and destroy them. The attachment of antibodies to invading substances creates a new combination called a circulating immune complex. In this situation, the antibodies simply serve as markers.

The problem with antibody-mediated immunity is that the foreign substances that have been so marked (circulating immune complexes) can travel through the blood and lymphatic system and bind to organs and other tissues such as bone, cartilage, liver, muscle, eye and brain. When the scavenger cells attack the foreign bodies, they can sometimes destroy the healthy tissue to which the foreign substances have attached themselves. This is the basis of auto-immune diseases and reactions to vaccines.

For this reason, cell-mediated immunity is always the preferred response. You want the bad cells to be destroyed by an immediate and direct process, rather than a slower and more indirect one. In this latter case, the bad cells undergo a two step elimination process. First, they are marked by antibodies and then and only then are they destroyed.

I'll have more for you in my next segment. In the meantime, if you feel that you would like to chat with me about your health, then please give me a call at (510) 652-2302. We can talk about the ways in which I can help you regain your energy and stamina.

Dr. Larry Gertler, M.Ed. D.C., is a nationally known holistic chiropractor and teacher. He is available for in-office visits and telephone consultations (for California residents only). For more information, please call (510) 652-2302 or visit his website at www.drgertler.org.

If you've enjoyed this article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!  You can do so by using the white envelope icon that is below this Blog~