Weight Loss Experiment 4

Does this happen to you!??  Whenever you resolve to improve your life, especially through “being better” and doing what you know you “should be” doing…you break down.  I do.  

This is about how my commitments go…as soon as I start, something tries to interrupt.  After resolving to a new plan (in the past), I have had my back go out, I have injured my shoulder, and/or  I have gotten sick…some sort of disruption that I swear is my unconscious revolting against the change. 

No big disruption this time…but there was no big commitments.  (Maybe there is something to this small commitment thing!)  

I have been distracted, though, by a smaller disruption (to match the smaller commitment, I suppose).  After breakfast a couple weeks ago, I started having some stomach cramping.  It was bad enough that I had to lie down for a while after I ate…and again after dinner.  

The possibilities include food poisoning (which is eating infected food), or other infections.  It could be gall bladder or appendix, but the symptoms didn’t match up.  It could be an inflammatory bowel disease, but I think I would have seen that coming on.  

So I started with a general anti-microbial called Golden Thread…something I test for any type of infection…parasites, yeast, bacteria…it’s one of my favorites.  A few months ago, prior to committing to anything, I had an episode of bloating…no cramping…but my belly was huge.  (I actually took pictures it was so big…see below).  It took several days, but was totally resolved (see the after picture).  

This time it didn’t work quite as well.  As I have mentioned, life is an experiment, and so is treating health problems.  For our patients, I have a system of evaluation that is designed to maximize probability of success, but there is no such thing as a sure thing.  And this wasn’t my sure thing.  

Now, two weeks later, I have added a Goldenseal and Barberry mix, then Curcumin (Turmeric), then Rosemary, and then started having multiple green drinks, with spinach and kale (chlorophyll is really healing for the intestinal lining), and then some cabbage soup (cabbage is great for healing the stomach).  

So far the disruption is improved some, but still clearly there.  I am bloated… and I am scheduled to take an after picture in a couple days!  

What I do know is that this problem can and will be handled naturally.  There’s a lab in Georgia called Metametrix, who does stool analysis (very detailed), and if an infection shows up, they culture it in the lab, and then dump various botanicals into the culture and note what kills it.  Pretty cool.  If the bloating lasts too long, or creates enough suffering,  I would do that test.  First, I’ll do a more thorough diagnostic evaluation using kinesiology.  It’s really not too bad now…just a bloated tummy threatening to ruin my after picture. 

 

As far as the weight loss experiment…the disruption wasn’t enough to throw me off my commitment, even if I had to double up on exercise one day to catch up for another.  Seriously, this may be genius to set your commitment so low, that you cannot fail!  

I may take a couple extra days to take the picture, hoping to de-bloat.  The scales and little body fat measures say I am a complete failure.  I originally said I would shoot for a decrease in body fat of 5%, and I have been down almost 2%, but then back up…and down…and up.  I don’t know if that is reflecting whatever bug I am fighting off…or inflammation…or failure of the experiment!?   

Well it can’t be a failure, because I maintained all the variables…plenty of indulgence, greens, protein, and a little bit of exercise…plus my supplement regimen.  A scientist wouldn’t call an experiment a failure…it is always just learning…and in order to learn, you have to maintain variables consistently, for a long enough time to observe statistically significant results.  

If you don’t maintain variables and time, you learn nothing, or even worse…you THINK you learned something!  

In any event, I will report the final numbers and pictures in a couple days.  

Deeper messages by Dr. Stone

Remember the SNL bit…Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handy?  Just to remind you…

Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself. Basically, it's made up of two separate words — "mank" and "ind." What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why, so is mankind.

If you ever reach total enlightenment while you’re drinking a beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.

I believe in making the world safe for our children – but not our children’s children, because I don’t think children should be having sex.

                Deep Thoughts-By Jack Handy

Ok, that’s fairly random, and just for fun…but I do have a point here.  

THINKING DIFFERENTLY…yeah…that’s my point.  

If I am having a problem, and I have plenty…I try to attend to it by thinking differently.  Many times, this requires the help of someone to do the thinking (assessment) for me.  When I was struggling with mold allergies, I was completely stuck in trying to think outside my own box and figure out what was going on.  Only when I asked someone else to look at the situation (with a unique way of thinking and processing the situation), was I able to break the pattern.  

I will never stop asking for help outside myself, but I have made some discoveries that sure make my life easier.  

For instance…my shoulder has been bothering me all day…a really sharp pain when I bring it out to the side.  It was “grabbing” and “pinching” when I was driving if I brought my left arm up to rest on the window, or if I reached up to the top of the steering wheel.  I brag about my low tolerance of pain…so it may have been a 2 for the tough guys…but it was a 7 for me (rating pain 0-10).  It had my attention. 

A common thought process would be a rotator cuff problem…or I slept on my arm funny (I hear this explanation all the time and still don’t know what the heck it means!)…or bursitis…tendonitis…maybe even a pinched nerve.  

A common action would be to take a –itis pill…-itises are inflammation, so advil or aspirin.  (I wonder who taught us that association!?)  If it lasts a week or month (depending on your pain tolerance), call the orthopedist, because it is a joint problem, or maybe a sports doctor, or a chiropractor.  If the joint specialists can’t fix your joint problem… “well, I am 40 something…I guess this is how 40 feels.  I’ll just drive with my right hand.” 

But I think differently…and one of those different thoughts is that symptoms are messages.  From eastern medicine associations, I know that shoulder pain is often immune stress.  And I know that association well, because I had an autoimmune disease at age 1, allergies most of my life…and curiously, my shoulders always hurt.  

And I DO differently…so when all the kids were in bed, I sat down and checked in.  

One of the major…and I mean biggest…stressors of the immune system is adrenaline.  Most people think of infections, allergens, even toxins…but fix adrenaline (if it’s a problem) and most of your immune problems fade away.  

As I checked in…I found a weakness of the infraspinatus muscle.  This is one of the rotator cuff muscles, and  it is also associated with the thymus gland.  When I tested adrenaline over the thymus reflex point, a strong muscle I was testing weakened.  When I held a supplement called AdrenalCalm, which is a constant in our “medicine” cabinet, the muscle strengthened.  

Now whether you understand muscle testing or not, here is the result…  I massaged the AdrenalCalm behind my knees, tapped a point for the adrenals, rubbed the thymus reflex…and the PAIN WAS GONE.  I can fling my arm up to the side, pain free.  

How is that for instant gratification…compared to Advil…orthopedist…chiropractor…massage therapist…and finally… admitting I’m old!?  

But, I’m not done!!  Are you kidding me…I just had a 7 out of 10 pain message.  It said I was stressed out.  It said I was suppressing my immune system.  Is a dose of AdrenalCalm and tapping ENOUGH?  Heck no…I have to soothe that stress response into optimal balance.  With a quick look at my stressors…I had doubled up on caffeine the last two days.  I almost always drink coffee, but I had a Monster energy drink the last 2 days on top of my coffee.  

I’m not recommending Monster energy drinks for health…I do it for pleasure and understand the consequence.  In fact, I almost always pour the drink over ice, and squirt a shot of Passion Flower in to “pay off the indulgence.”  Regulation had reported to me that I was still in debt…with the shoulder pain.  Thank you regulation for the warning…I don’t want to get into the allergy bit again!  

So…I may lay off the Monster drinks (I don’t do it too often more because of the splenda than the caffeine)…and I will definitely stay on the AdrenalCalm for awhile.  (Which you should have in your medicine cabinet too!)  And keep checking in on the infraspinatus weakness, which is a “sign” that I missed until the pain directed me to look.  I bet if I would have looked closely in the mirror, my shoulder would have looked slightly drooped and the hand would have been turned inward…long before the pain began.  

I don’t perseverate or agonize over my health (clearly…since I was busted drinking poisonous energy drinks for a “buzz!”)…I trust that Regulation will give me a message (like the shoulder pain), and if I know how to listen…and respond…Regulation won’t have to kick my butt to get my attention.  

Now…Deeper Messages by Dr. Stone…

If your hands get numb and some orthopedist names it Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, a “bad” condition that needs scalpel discipline, perhaps you should love your pancreas, because this is an insulin problem.  (An extra dose of fish oils and protein every couple hours is a good start for insulin problems)

If your knee aches, and your orthopedist says a shaving and cleaning are required, perhaps you should be kind to your adrenals, because this is a cortisol problem.  (AdrenaCalm works on cortisol and adrenaline) 

If your low back “goes out,” consider inflammation or infection of the colon…especially if you have some bloating.  I have a product called Inf-Fighter in our medicine cabinet that is a good go to for tummy infections.  

Also, always consider your lifestyle.  Just a quick look at what I was doing revealed I wasn’t being very care-ful.  Don’t be perfect, but note where you are not “caring for” Regulation.  If you are like me, these little (or big) messages are there to adjust lifestyle as well as respond to the imbalance created with the lifestyle choices.  

  

These Deeper Messages will save you from feeling old (or coming to the conclusion that you ARE old)…suffering for great lengths of time…and wasting tons of cash on docs and therapists who will only consider your problem based on their specialty.  And I bet the knife doctors will find a “need” for surgery… and the pharmaceutical doctors will have a med for you…that’s the old, “if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail” process.  

I…I will simply ask what regulation wants…and provide it (or recommend it).  Sometimes the need is an adjustment…or muscle work…or nutritional/herbal…and once I did find a need for surgical repair in one of my patients.  Most often, I find the associations I describe above…plus a little body work to heal the physical damage of being “out of balance.”

The George Costanza Law of Health Recovery

Do you remember when George, in a desperate attempt to end his suffering, decided to do everything opposite of what he thought he “should do?”

The “punch line” went something like this…speaking to a woman at the café counter, “Hi, my name is George, I’m 40, out of work, and live with my parents.”  It was something like that…and the approach worked.  

My point…not a bad idea to consider…if nothing you know “should be” working…is working…consider ANYTHING.  And in George’s case, the complete opposite was a great insight. 

I see struggling health seekers stuck in a similar quandary…creating “stories” and likelihoods from their struggle.  In George’s experience, he was sure that if he was wealthy…if he had hair…if he specifically was an architect…or an importer/exporter…he would have a successful relationship and/or feel good about himself.  

In some of my patient’s experience, they are sure (hopeful) that if they eat well enough, avoid the “right/wrong” things…they will have a successful health recovery.   And, yet they don’t.  

I can think of several people who just wanted a doctor to finally diagnose (and treat) their candida or yeast overgrowth…others needed to know what their food allergy was…many people tell me they need an adjustment, even though they have had several hundred adjustments and the pain returns!

As an unbiased reporter…every one of them was…as they say…barking up the wrong tree.  (for those who let me check their trees...there have been some who wouldn’t give up the idea!)  

Now, just so this doesn’t seem critical…or superior in some way…it was the same with me a couple years ago.  Maybe even worse…I knew too much, so I didn’t just do a candida or food elimination diet…I had hundreds of protocols to attempt before I finally said… “Doc, show me the way.”  (and I drove 5 hours one way to my doctor).  

The crazy thing was…I felt better after the first visit.  It was crazy that I allowed myself to struggle for so long when I knew of someone who could end my struggle.  (If you haven’t heard me complain before, I had over a year of sinus infections and congestion).   

I still had many bad days after that, but week by week I improved.  

One lesson I learned the value of diversity.  The “golden key” that my doc found was something not in my list of possible keys (supplements I had for testing).  For me, my magical earth remedy was a plant called Cats claw, along with a huge dose of buckwheat leaf juice.  

But the biggest lesson in all of that was ignorance…I suffered many months attempting to know what I “should do,” and every intuition was wrong.  Heck, it wasn’t intuition…intuition is more like listening inwardly to true genius…I was trying to think my way through it, with the most ignorant part of my brain…conscious thought.  

Looking back to when I was younger and so much smarter…after graduation, I knew how important it was to eat raw veggies…and later knew (I read research that said so!) that I should drink green tea.  And, in both instances, I kept doing so despite intestinal distress, bloating and gas.  Even earlier, during grad school, I believed it true that diet Mt. Dew would improve my health and concentration, despite the fact that I often fell asleep during class!  

Clear enough??…I am an idiot!  But, I’m not stupid enough to not learn from my experiences, and currently I learn from that internal genius as much as possible.  And in following that guidance, and accepting that my thinking brain is ignorant, I am enjoying the best physical health and energy of my life.  

Care to join me in the club of ignorance?!  Listen… instead of knowing…

You’ll be glad you did! 

You Think You Have It Bad!?

With all the options to struggle in this world, I think this might be one of the most miserable.  Imagine an allergy to happiness.  You have a wonderful day, and the result is something like the flu.  You receive an award from work and your body feels sick.  I wish this were just a joke, but there is such a condition!

 

Your body’s immune system can make antibodies to serotonin, which most people have heard of from drugs like Prozac.  Serotonin is like an internal birthday party.  It is the feel good, happy chemical in our brain. 

If your body mounts an attack against serotonin, every happy moment is followed by inflammation.  What a kick in the pants that is!!

Researchers have found a “high prevalence of Serotonin antibodies” in patients with fibromyalgia. 

Think about this for yourself.  Do you feel awful when trying to accomplish something?  That could be serotonin antibodies.  If you have a good day…are you consistently punished with a bad day?  That could be serotonin antibodies.

I have a patient you have heard about…she shared something very interesting with us in this POST!

Yes, she is doing much better, but she is still on a very restricted diet to maintain her improvement.  And I mean strict…she can eat any protein, about 3 veggies, and most nuts and seeds.  Any fruit and she starts losing hair…any bread and the hair falls out…anything off this crazy diet, and she gets a kick in the pants.

 

If you look at the diet, you might assume she is sugar sensitive.  And she gets a serious butt whoopin’ if she were crazy enough to actually eat sugar.  But many things happen when we eat carbs…in fact, the reason for sugar addictions and some cravings is the surge of serotonin from sweets.  Most people love the feelings they get with sweet treats.  Serotonin feels incredible (the birthday party feeling!)… unless your immune system attacks your happiness like a bad virus!  

This is actually a new revelation for me.  I just put this piece of the puzzle together recently.  And in doing so, we are responding to the reaction by soothing her immune system. (which can only be done with natural medicine.)  As wonderful as the hair staying in her head has been (along with better energy, mood, etc.), she has since reported that she was able to eat half an apple without a reaction!  

I have a new appreciation for the struggle this person has endured.  Allergic to happy!?!  Trying to explain her extreme diet to friends and family!  She felt the reactions…and nobody understood.  Now, she has validated her experience even more…she’s not crazy, and she can tell you why!  

What a wonderful and interesting passion I have chosen!  

Yours in Health,

Dr. Todd Stone

PS.  We are extending our special invitation to experience our process through March…at 45 for the initial exam (normally 195), and 85 for our full system lab testing (normally 170)!  Learn why you feel lousy, and create a plan to feel incredible again…using safe, natural methods, and scientific lab testing to guide the process.  Call right away to reserve your slot!  

PSS.  For the science minded folks…and for those who just wonder “how the heck can your body become allergic to happy?” …Autoimmune conditions have increased 500% in the past 20 years (and this is diagnosed, so the number is probably much higher).  There are growing numbers of stressors to our immune system, including stress, but more so our overuse of antibiotics resulting in damaged immune systems and super-bugs, chemical manufacturing and genetic modification of our foods…plastics…chemicals for pests of many sorts (herbicides, pesticides), chemicals in our water supply, added purposely and incidentally, chemicals in our hair and skin products…you get the idea. 

In our “allergic to happy” patient, she had lived with an intestinal infection for who knows how long.  She thought she had figured out her troubles when she realized she had yeast problems.  By the time she saw me, she had resolved the yeast problem (no yeast on testing but significantly high antibodies to yeast, so she was right, and successful, but the damage had been done).  Throw all that into the mix of a toxic environment which we are all challenged with…and you have the recipe for allergic to happy…or allergic to energy (thyroid antibodies)…or all the other allergic to myself diseases…MS, Fibromyalgia, Crohns/Ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, pernicious and hemolytic anemia, Parkinsons, type 1 diabetes, ITP, etc., etc. 

There are a growing number of names of suffering labeled as autoimmune, but not a single advancement in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.  Chemicals (pharmaceuticals) simply cannot treat this kind of condition as they are part of the problem.  But rest assured, we do have answers…there is research validation…there are case studies, including many of my own patients…of overcoming this destructive and frustrating process!  

I'll Give You Something to Cry About!!

This classic parenting comment is called invalidation.  “Your sadness or upset is not appropriate,” it says to the little one.  Meanwhile, the child feels certain their upset is very real, and very important!  

What does this have to do with you and your health?  I see it every day.  Grown adults being told their symptoms are not real...that there is “nothing wrong.”  

Your doctor is “Dad.”  You are the child…Dad reports that your upsets (symptoms) are not valid.  “Look at this test… I can prove your symptoms are not real.  You are supposed to be feeling just fine.”  

It has the same authoritarian feel too!  Does it feel like two adults talking about solving a problem?  No!  There is one “superior being” invalidating another person’s experience.  Meanwhile, you are certain your symptoms are very real, and very important!  

Here’s the good news…you are an adult.  You can choose a different “Dad.”  Maybe you choose someone who is not a dad at all, but an equal human who will get involved in solving a problem with you and for you. 

Not to make light of the pain of your experience, but I find it hilarious that people come to me after “experts” find nothing wrong with them…and I easily find sooo many things wrong with them.  So many things that are easily measured and evaluated.  But not measured if you are evaluating “by the book.”  (What insurance protocols allow)  

Maybe ridiculous is a better word than hilarious!  

How about an actual example…I had a patient recently suffering with IBS symptoms, chronic headaches, and severe fatigue.  Full medical work up (15 years worth!) revealed nothing wrong.  Let’s look at the list of measurable and verifiable “wrongs” we came up with…

Thyroid problems…they never checked because she was an “IBS” patient and not a thyroid patient.  And it was the basic thyroid problem that they would have picked up on, but GI specialists don’t check for endocrine problems.  It would take another 3 month wait to another specialist to check that box on a lab test.  

Intestinal parasites.  Yes, the GI specialist missed checking for intestinal parasites in a GI patient.  Hmmm?

Very low cortisol production from the adrenal glands.  Cortisol is one of the stress hormones, but it functions in healthy people to balance blood sugar (chronic fatigue and headaches??), and has a powerful effect on regulating Intestinal motility (yes, that’s moving the bowels).  

High adrenaline.  Think about the adrenaline rush of a close call or “almost” accident.  If you had to go to the bathroom prior to the close call, it either goes away altogether (constipation) or you soil yourself right there in the car (urgency).  That is IBS by definition!!  

Those were the biggies.  And there were several more imbalances we noted.  I got a kick out of her reaction to the parasites…she was relieved, almost excited, almost happy!!  Was she thrilled to have a parasite?  No…she was thrilled to finally, after 15 years (next stop was the psychiatrist…seriously), BE VALIDATED!  It was real…it was important.  She could PROVE it!  

If you have a symptom…and I mean ONE little symptom…that is your body trying to tell you something…something important!  DO NOT let anybody tell you it is nonsense.  If someone tells you there is nothing wrong, and you CLEARLY feel something wrong…there IS something wrong, and you need someone who will listen to that message(symptom)…listen to you…be willing to dig deeper and ask MORE questions and test MORE systems and organs!

IF you ever want to feel validated!  And…if you ever want to put this health problem behind you!