I challenge anyone and everyone to take acid!! Hydrochloric acid, that is- read on for more information than you ever thought existed about this amazing stomach acid.

I often find myself going through phases of using one particular form of treatment on many of the patients who come through the door. This is not because I consider my patients my own, personal guinea pigs. It is because I often rediscover a simple foundation of health that can get overlooked amid the swarm of new and exciting treatment options, and when I rediscover these things I recommit myself to educating patients – and myself- about them.

For the past year I have given out hundreds of capsules of Betaine HCl, or hydrochloric acid. HCl is the root of our digestive systems, produced even when we anticipate or smell food on its way, and is responsible for the ensuing production of many other digestive enzymes and activities. It is stomach acid, and it generally has the reputation of being something that causes burning or irritation, and must be stopped. Many of the antacid medications that we consume- Pepsid, Tums, Zantac, etc- are prescribed because of symptoms of burning and indigestion. Unfortunately the reality is that “heartburn” and “indigestion” symptoms can just as often be the cause of an UNDERPRODUCTION of stomach acid, and we are collectively experiencing an incredible reduction in nutrient absorption because of this false assumption.

It is also very common that someone with no symptoms whatsoever is underproducing stomach acid. Or that someone with very common digestive symptoms such as gas, bloating, constipation or diarrhea is similarly affected. For any and all of these people- with the exception of someone with diagnosed ulcer disease- I challenge you to take acid!

What does HCl Do?

The purpose of stomach acid is to begin the process of breaking down nutrients for absorption. In particular, protein, iron, calcium and Vitamin B12 require the products of acid-producing cells to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Without it, you can eat as much of these items as you want and you will never experience their benefits in your body.

The contents of the stomach are always acidic, and it has a protective lining so that this vital organ is not damaged or eroded from excessive acid production. When food is anticipated, when chewing begins, when muscular contractions from swallowing begin to move food towards the stomach, it will begin to manufacture even more stomach acid.

The esophagus is a tunnel between your mouth and your stomach, and there is a sphincter- a muscular seal of sorts- between the bottom end of the esophagus and the beginning of the stomach. The purpose of this sphincter is to protect the lining of the esophagus from the acidic contents of the stomach once the process of breaking down food has begun. It opens with swallowing to allow food to enter, but if it is working properly it is generally closed once the stomach is full.

What is Heartburn?

The sphincter between the esophagus and stomach closes IN RESPONSE TO ENOUGH ACID IN THE STOMACH. Given what we learned above, if there is not enough acid produced we eat but food simply mixes with what little acid is always present in the stomach and as the stomach fills up, its contents reflux up into the esophagus. The esophagus and stomach do not have a protective lining like the stomach, so when acid makes contact we experience discomfort.

How do I find out if I make enough HCl?

There are only two ways to truly answer this question. One is a lab test that can be relatively expensive, and involves swallowing either a radiotransmitter or a capsule on the end of a string to test the actual contents of the stomach. The easier route is to take HCl in capsule form, and do an easy and harmless experiment to see how deficient you might be in stomach acid production.

I recommend one capsule of Thorne Research Betaine HCl at the beginning of a meal. Eat the meal, and observe. If this dosage is repeated for a few meals and nothing happens, increase to two capsules. Etc. Repeat until a sensation of burning is experienced, and then you know you have surpassed the needed amount by one capsule. The number of capsules tolerated indicated the level of insufficiency of acid production.

If you take one capsule and experience a burning sensation then congratulations you make enough acid!! (The only people who should not perform this experiment are those with active ulcer disease.)

I will happily give a free sample of HCl to anyone who wishes to try this experiment.

So why are so many people given acid-blocking medications?

This is literally a million-dollar question. Though I believe pharmaceutical medications truly have a time and place for use, this class of medications has been over-marketed and over-prescribed with detrimental effects. They are inexpensive and easy to take, and the reality is that anyone with acidic symptoms will get relief from these meds. Even UNDERproducers will experience less reflux by reducing acid production even further, but this will not address the root cause of their symptoms, and will in fact cause more problems.

As with everything else, it is easier to prescribe one pill per day than to take the time to understand what it truly happening in the digestive system. However, if you are currently on one of these medications you still require stomach acid to break down your food! For some of my patients who report that they cannot tolerate discontinuing their medications, I prescribe HCl with meals while we are working on a gut-healing protocol . Only once the esophagus is sufficiently healed do I EVER encourage patients to discontinue acid-blockers. Please consult your physician before attempting this or you will be very, very uncomfortable and angry with me.

Why don’t we make enough acid???

We rush. We are stressed. We are tired and we VERY occasionally make bad decisions.

Your digestive system is designed to work optimally in a relaxed state. So before you spend money on HCl capsules or acid-blockers, take the time to contemplate your meals. Appreciate where your food comes from. Sit down to eat- and not at your desk. At a real table, with real people. CHEW YOUR FOOD. Chewing is one of the first triggers for your very own acid production. And take some nice deep breaths between bites. All of these things will put your body in a parasympathetic or relaxed state. Above all, ENJOY what you eat. Whether it is ice cream or kale, I hope you are getting lots of pleasure from the choices you are making. And making lots of acid so your body gets the most out of what you put in your mouth.

By Julia Lucas
(Reposted here completely without permission)
Tracey Nichols performs SOMA Therapy here at the clinic and is posting this article to share some important information regarding the role of connective tissue in injury, healing and healthy body mechanics… read on!

As featured in the June 2011 issue of Running Times Magazine

You’ve got this injury you just can’t shake. You take time off. You ice and stretch and do all the right things but you’re still limping home. You spend too much time trying to articulate your particular brand of hurt to those loved ones who still put up with you. You follow referrals to physical therapists and massage therapists and you’d go to an aromatherapist if it’d help you run again, but nothing does. You diagnose yourself on WebMD: You’re a structurally flawed human being for whom recovery is impossible.

DON’T GIVE UP YET

The answer may be right under your fingertips. About 2mm under your fingertips, to be precise. Under your skin, encasing your body and webbing its way through your insides like spider webs, is fascia. Fascia is made up primarily of densely packed collagen fibers that create a full body system of sheets, chords and bags that wrap, divide and permeate every one of your muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organs. Every bit of you is encased in it. You’re protected by fascia, connected by fascia and kept in taut human shape by fascia.

Why didn’t anyone mention fascia earlier? Because not many people know that much about it. Fascia’s messy stuff. It’s hard to study. It’s so expansive and intertwined it resists the medical standard of being cut up and named for textbook illustrations. Besides that, its function is tricky, more subtle than that of the other systems. For the majority of medical history it’s been assumed that bones were our frame, muscles the motor, and fascia just packaging.

In fact, the convention in med-school dissections has been to remove as much of the fascia as possible in order to see what was underneath, the important stuff. That framed Illustration hanging in your doctor’s office of the red-muscled, wide-eyed human body is a body with its fascia cut away; it’s not what you look like inside, but it’s a lot neater and easier to study and it’s the way doctors have long been taught to look at you. Until recently, that is.

In 2007 the first international Fascia Research Congress, held at Harvard Medical School, brought about a new demand for attention to the fascial system. Since then fascia has been repeatedly referred to as the “Cinderella Story” of the anatomy world, speaking both to its intrigue and the geekiness of those who study it. While you may not share the medical and bodywork communities’ excitement over mechanotransduction and the contractile properties of myofibroblasts, think of it this way: Fascia is a major player in every movement you make and every injury you’ve ever had, but until five years ago nobody paid it any attention. And now they’re making up for lost time.

FASCIA FUNDAMENTALS

What exactly does it do? It wraps around each of your individual internal parts, keeping them separate and allowing them to slide easily with your movements. It’s strong, slippery and wet. It creates a sheath around each muscle; because it’s stiffer, it resists over-stretching and acts like an anatomical emergency break. It connects your organs to your ribs to your muscles and all your bones to each other. It structures your insides in a feat of engineering, balancing stressors and counter-stressors to create a mobile, flexible and resilient body unit. It generally keeps you from being a big, bone-filled blob.

“Fascia is the missing element in the movement/stability equation,” says Tom Myers, author of the acclaimed book Anatomy Trains. Myers was among the first medical professionals to challenge the field’s ignorance of fascia in the human body. He has long argued for a more holistic treatment, with a focus on the fascia as an unappreciated overseer. “While every anatomy lists around 600 separate muscles, it is more accurate to say that there is one muscle poured into six hundred pockets of the fascial webbing. The ‘illusion’ of separate muscles is created by the anatomist’s scalpel, dividing tissues along the planes of fascia. This reductive process should not blind us to the reality of the unifying whole.”

BUT, THAT’S THE OLD NEWS

What rocked the medical community’s world was this: Fascia isn’t just plastic wrap. Fascia can contract and feel and impact the way you move. It’s our richest sense organ, it possess the ability to contract independently of the muscles it surrounds and it responds to stress without your conscious command. That’s a big deal. It means that fascia is impacting your movements, for better or worse. It means that this stuff massage therapists and physical therapists and orthopedists have right at their fingertips is the missing variable, the one they’ve been looking for.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?

Grab hold of the collar of your shirt and give it a little tug. Your whole shirt responds, right? Your collar pulls into the back of your neck. The tail of your shirt inches up the small of your back. Your sleeves move up your forearms. Then it falls back into place. That’s a bit like fascia. It fits like a giant, body-hugging T-shirt over your whole body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes and crisscrossing back and forth and through and back again. You can’t move just one piece of it, and you can’t make a move without bringing it along.

Now, pull the collar of your shirt again, only this time, hold onto it for eight hours. That’s about the time you spend leaning forward over a desk or computer or steering wheel, right? Now, pull it 2,500 times. That’s about how many steps you’d take on a half-hour run. Your shirt probably isn’t looking too good at this point.

Fortunately, your fascia is tougher than your shirt is, and it has infinitely more self-healing properties. In its healthy state it’s smooth and supple and slides easily, allowing you to move and stretch to your full length in any direction, always returning back to its normal state. Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that your fascia maintains its optimal flexibility, shape or texture. Lack of activity will cement the once-supple fibers into place. Chronic stress causes the fibers to thicken in an attempt to protect the underlying muscle. Poor posture and lack of flexibility and repetitive movements pull the fascia into ingrained patterns. Adhesions form within the stuck and damaged fibers like snags in a sweater, and once they’ve formed they’re hard to get rid of.

And, remember, it’s everywhere. This webbing is so continuous that If your doctor’s office were to add a poster of your true human anatomy, including its fascia, fascia is all you’d see. Thick and white in places like your IT band and plantar fascia, less than 1mm and nearly transparent on your eyelids. And within all that fascia you have adhesions and areas of rigidity. You likely have lots of them.

But, this isn’t bad news. Every bit of the damage you’ve caused your fascia is reversible, and every one of the problems it’s caused you were avoidable. You take care of your muscles with stretching and foam rolling and massage. You take care of your bones with diet and restraint. You never knew that you needed to take care of your fascia, but now you do. You may just shake that nagging injury after all.

How to Care for Your Fascia

MOVE IT OR LOSE IT: Sticky adhesions form between fascial surfaces that aren’t regularly moved, and over time these adhesions get strong enough to inhibit range of motion. Take a few minutes first thing in the morning to roll around in bed and really stretch out, head to toe, just like a cat after a nap.

STAY LUBRICATED: Just like every other tissue in your body, your fascia is made of water. It works better, moves better and feels better when it’s wet. So, drink!

STRETCH YOUR MUSCLES: When your muscles are chronically tight the surrounding fascia tightens along with them. Over time the fascia becomes rigid, compressing the muscles and the nerves.

STRETCH YOUR FASCIA: Once your fascia has tightened up, it doesn’t want to let go. Because the fascia can withstand up to 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, you’re not going to force your way through, so stretch gently. Fascia also works in slower cycles than muscles do, both contracting and stretching more slowly. To stretch the fascia, hold gentle stretches for three to five minutes, relaxing into a hold.

RELAX! If you spend all day tense and tight at a desk, ice baths may not be the best thing for you. Fifteen to 20 minutes in a warm Epsom salt bath can coax tight fascia to loosen up, releasing your muscles from their stranglehold. Make sure to follow it up with 10 minutes of light activity to keep blood from pooling in your muscles.

USE A FOAM ROLLER: Like stretching, using a foam roller on your fascia is different than on your muscles. Be gentle and slow in your movements, and when you find an area of tension hold sustained pressure for three to five minutes. You may practice self-massage with the same rules.

RESPECT YOUR BODY: If you’re attempting to run through an injury, or returning from one with a limp, beware: Your fascia will respond to your new mechanics and, eventually, even after your injury is gone, you may maintain that same movement pattern. That’s a recipe for an injury cycle. It’s better to take some extra time than to set yourself up for long-term trouble.

SEE A FASCIAL SPECIALIST: If you have a nagging injury, or just don’t feel right lately, see if your area has a fascial or myofascial therapy specialist. There are different philosophies and methods, ranging from Rolfing, which is very aggressive, to fascial unwinding, which is very gentle. Some methods are similar to massage, while others concentrate on long assisted stretches. Talk to the therapist to see what you need and want. Some osteopaths, chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists are beginning to embrace fascial therapies, so ask around.

SEE A MOVEMENT EDUCATION THERAPIST: The Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method are the two best known of this sort of therapy, long embraced by dancers and gymnasts. They use verbal cues, light touch and simple exercises to lessen unconscious destructive movement patterns that may be irritating your fascia.
Copyright © 2011 Running Times Magazine – All Rights Reserved.

Don’t forget: SOMA bodywork can be a tremendous help when it comes to correcting body mechanics and optimizing health.

We all know that weight can be lost- and many of us have experienced this personally. There is a time period in which our bodies respond eagerly to either an increase in caloric expenditure with vigorous exercise or a decrease in caloric intake. But research shows us that regardless of starting weight, our bodies adapt to our most common weight level and will resist the process of losing weight, particularly as we get older. A review of 16 studies observing weight-loss programs of varying styles all showed significant weight loss, but by five years from the onset of the programs close to 100% of the weight lost was regained. This review included some of the most popular weight-loss programs including the Atkins Diet, South Beach, etc.

The implication of this review is that there is a counter-regulatory process that is triggered by weight loss of more than five to ten pounds. This is why it is difficult for us to maintain weight loss over a long period of time. We experience this as both a desire to eat more than our limited caloric intake (which I think is appropriate, and will discuss later) and an inability to drop inches and pounds despite increased caloric expenditure.

This is an experience shared by many of my menopausal patients, who suddenly find it extremely challenging to maintain the weight that they have been comfortable with for years. Many men and women in their forties and fifties suddenly find themselves gaining weight- particularly abdominal weight- despite no change in exercise or diet. It feels sometimes that no amount of caloric restriction or increased exercise is enough- the weight just keeps coming.

Metabolism and Digestive Health

There are multiple factors that can contribute to this frustrating phenomenon and which often stem from the changing levels of female sex hormones related to menopause. There is new research demonstrating that the human body’s ability to lose weight is tightly correlated with the release of a variety of hormones within the digestive system. This is an area about which I am only beginning to learn, and I will keep you posted as time goes on. What we do know currently is that maintaining a healthy digestive environment is essential for all of these hormonal factors. A healthy probiotic regimen can be the best basic gut support, and it is imperative that we address low enzyme and HCl production (which decrease with age), food allergies, and other possible inflammatory agents in the gut.

Hormone Supplementation

It is a mistake in my opinion to simply supplement with Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and expect the metabolism to right itself. There is an incredibly complex cascade of events that can result from hormonal changes that must be addressed in addition to estrogen and progesterone. One of the reasons why I think so many women are placed on HRT immediately by their physicians is that this is the simplest way to address a very complex problem. The downside of this is that of course, most of these women still end up on prescribed thyroid hormones, sleep aids, etc- and STILL GAIN WEIGHT. There are serious negative ramifications to taking extra hormones as well, which most people are now familiar with. I do prescribe these hormones in their bio-identical forms, but I do so only to treat symptoms that I feel cannot be managed with less risky methods, and I try to be as conservative as possible.

Adrenal Gland Function and Stress
One of the often overlooked and very common triggering factors for women going through hormonal changes is adrenal stress and fatigue. The irony of the timing of menopause is that I find a large percentage of my patients happen to have children in their teens and twenties- times when parenting can in fact be the MOST stressful and demanding, though the expectation is that as our children grow older they need us less. In addition to life-stressors, many women experience hot flashes that disrupt sleep and cause additional adrenal fatigue. It is next to impossible to lose weight while you are losing sleep!

The changing levels of female hormones for some women can trigger anxiety and depression, which also demand extra work from our stress hormones. All together, these issues must be addressed and the adrenal glands must be supported through this physiologically stressful time. Signs of Adrenal Fatigue may include:

• difficulty sleeping- delayed sleep onset or frequent waking
• fatigue during the day despite an inability to sleep at night
• abdominal weight gain despite caloric deficit
• low blood pressure

Thyroid Function
Hormonal changes in any stage of life can also cause the thyroid gland to over or under-produce thyroid hormones. The thyroid is the root of metabolism, and it is very often disturbed by the decrease in estrogen production during menopause (just as many women experience thyroid symptoms during pregnancy). It is also very sensitive to changes in stress hormone production, so while it is often necessary to address these issues with the use of thyroid hormones, most will find that they are prescribed a higher and higher and higher dose of thyroid hormone if the underlying adrenal issues are not addressed.

DHEA and Testosterone
Other hormones are involved in menopausal weight gain in addition to estrogen and progesterone. DHEA and Testosterone can be major players in the metabolism changes that occur during these years, and it is essential that they are both assessed and addressed if necessary. DHEA is also intimately involved in healthy adrenal function and can be depleted when we demand more work from those glands.

Magic Pills?
Other tricks? If a weight-loss regimen or supplement sounds to good to be true, chances are it is too good to be true. There are very few researched materials that actually help the body lose weight and maintain weight loss without causing permanent damage to a healthy metabolism (as daily caloric restriction will). Some promising substances that show very moderate improvement FOR WOMEN WHO ARE ALREADY EXERCISING REGULARLY AND MAINTAINING A HEALTHY DIET (I hope you noticed my capitals!!!) are Resveratrol, Green Tea extract and a variety of other nutrients that improve insulin sensitivity.

The bottom line is that we do not understand the majority of WHY women tend to gain weight during menopause, and I still do not feel that we have a healthy perspective in American society on menopause in general. Why do we struggle so with this transition while women in other countries seem to sail easily through it? The biggest concern that I have in general with my menopausal patients is that I see a vicious cycle of continuing to reduce caloric intake as low as 1200 calories per day while still exercising 3-5 times per week, which can cause permanent and irreversible damage to a woman’s healthy metabolism. Be sure to address all of the above factors with your physician and allow yourself to look forward to the possibility that you might enjoy this next stage of your hormonal life more than any other before it!

Seasonal Allergy Prevention. Treating the Adrenals

Allergies (seasonal or other) are a result of an over-stimulated immune system. When exposed to an allergen, we tax our immune system, causing inflammation and manifesting as allergy symptoms. To control allergies we can either treat the symptoms or the cause. Antihistamines, for example, treat the symptoms, tamping down the production of the inflammatory by-product histamine.  But the inflammation persists.

To treat the cause and reduce inflammation we support the adrenal glands.  The adrenal glands produce a lot of different kinds of hormones, and cortisol is the most important with respect to inflammation. Cortisol is our natural anti-inflammatory, and the adrenals produce a lot of it, especially in times of stress.  Over long periods of stress, lack of sleep, lack of proper nutrition, too much caffeine consumption and many other stressors our adrenals get “tired” and produce less cortisol. This decreased cortisol can lead to more inflammation and an increased allergenic response.

Treating the Adrenal Glands

There are a plethora of things you can do to help strengthen or tonify your adrenal glands. A couple of simple things you can do:

• Sleep: Getting quality sleep allows for your glands to recover.
• Less Caffeine: Caffeine pushes the adrenal gland to over-production and depletion
• Decrease stress levels: the less stress, the less work the adrenals have to do.

Other adjunctives:

• B Vitamins
• Essential Fatty Acids i.e. fish oils 
• Glandular supplements
• Herbs: Ashwagandha, Rhodiola, Licorice, Ginseng, Eleuthrococcus

Consult your physician

We would be happy to help answer your questions and formulate a custom plan right for you on allergies, adrenal support or other areas to help optimize your life.

Dr Eric Semsak

-Your guide to optimal health

Featured Supplements

Basic B Complex by Thorne

EPA – DHA 720 by Metagenics

Adrenal Support by Vital Nutrients

Phytisone by Thorne

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to be sick all winter long, and some seem to sail through cold and flu season as though it were summer? This topic has been on my mind ever since I had my son a year ago, and I recently heard an interesting piece on NPR addressing this very topic (see link below). Before my son arrived, I saw many of my friends with children in daycare suffer through cold after cold after cold, and wondered what it was they were doing wrong. I figured that given all of the great supportive measures I know that my path through the first years of daycare would be relatively painless. This year has been the most humbling of my entire life. My son has been in part-time daycare since he was three months old, and he has had a runny nose practically nonstop! (Not to mention croup, RSV, and a number of other wonderful ailments that appear to be a rite-of-passage for some of us). It truly made me wonder: what makes some fall ill while others do not?

In this article, Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic cites a number of reasons why some of us are sick more frequently than others. He says the reason lies in a combination of genetics and exposure. Some people are genetically programmed to not respond with inflammation after exposure to many viruses, thus these people have fewer colds during the year. We still have not been able to identify the genetic code that enables this stronger immunity, but Dr. Poland says his team is very interested in finding out. He also mentioned that exposure makes a difference. Surfaces that people with viral infections touch are the most common site for passing viral particles from one person to the next, even moreso than the sharing of respiratory droplets. While the “three foot rule” is still an important one to observe when sharing space with people who are sick, it seems that even more important is being aware of hand-washing and avoiding touching your face after you have touched potentially contaminated surfaces.

There are, of course, other mitigating factors which need to be mentioned. My husband and I had been lucky until December that we had not contracted all of the colds and viruses that my son brought home with him from daycare. My suspicion is that the stress of moving the practice, travelling to the east coast, and losing sleep while my son had croup all suppressed our immune systems, and we finally both became ill in January. (And I must admit that my very strong affinity for sweets even further suppressed my immunity!) So while we may not be able to control our genetic inheritance or our exposure to viral particles, there are many things we can do to stimulate our immune systems and prevent infection that don’t cost us money. The following practices can be observed in an effort to prevent frequent infection:

• wash hands frequently
  • Allow your kids to get dirty and exposed, but if they have been around other kids who are sick, it helps to wash hands before they get a chance to stick fingers up noses, in mouths, etc.
• avoid excessive sweets
  • We know that sugar suppresses our immune system’s ability to mount a strong reaction and protect us from viruses and bacteria. Just as sugar feeds our bodies, it will also feed invaders, so keep it to a minimum.
• get enough sleep
  • As much as you have control over this, allow yourself a minimum of 6-8 hours of restorative sleep per night.
• eat fresh fruits and vegetables
  • Yes, your grandmother was right. Eating lots of brightly-colored fruits and veggies ensures that you are getting a broad variety of vitamins and minerals to support a healthy immune system.
• pay attention to your stress level
  • again, we might not always have control over this, but if you know that your family passes colds around all winter long, perhaps consider minimizing exposure to factors that you know create extra stress in your household such as too many extra-curricular activities or excessive travel

The upside of frequent colds and flus in your house may be this: exposure eventually breeds immunity, and once you are immune to a particular virus you should be immune for life. I do remember that for the first few years of clinical practice feeling like I was sick all of the time. I was exposed to so many more people every day than I had been previously, much as a teacher might be during the first few years of teaching. My sister-in-law recently told me that it seemed to her we were sick all the time. She and her husband very rarely get sick, and that has been true as long as I have known them. But she knew me when I was doing my first clinical work, and it feels like for the past few years I have been sick less and less often. I am sure that for the next few years of my son’s life I will be exposed to many more viruses, and will fall ill with some, but my hope is that with some good supportive measures and a little luck, we all might eventually become sick less and less often. And here’s to hoping that my son inherits the solid genetic immunity of my in-laws!

to listen to or read the article on NPR go to http://www.npr.org/2011/02/07/133500558/why-some-people-evade-colds-and-others-dont

We have all heard the arguments for and against Vaccinations as playing a major role in the onset of austistic behavior in many children. Recently the author of this original theory has been aggressively discredited, and I honestly do not know what to believe. What I do know is that I rely most on the parents of autistic children to explain a timeline for their children’s behavior patterns. I support the theory that Autism, like many other emotional and behavioral conditions, requires both a genetic predisposition AND an environmental trigger to manifest itself. What remains open to debate then is what those triggers and exact genetic identities are.

I recently picked up a copy of The Alternative Medicine Review (http://www.thorne.com/practitioners/alternative_medicine_review.jsp) and read a review article by Peter Good that offered a very interesting theory as to that trigger, and it is based on a 2008 Study by Schultz et al. Many parents treat the common side effects of vaccinations with pain or fever-reducing tools, most commonly now Acetaminophen. Prior to 1980, families were more likely to use Aspirin for common cold and flu symptoms, but due to a public health campaign warning of the risks of aspirin and Reye’s Syndrome, acetaminophen became the drug of choice kept in many medicine cabinets.

This 2008 study demonstrates that children given acetaminophen after MMR vaccine administration were more likely to become autistic than children given alternative pain relievers. We have long suspected that it is the MMR vaccine itself that triggers these symptoms in Autistic children, but overlooked the fact that many parents are advised to administer acetaminophen to their children for treatment of pain after vaccination. While it has been demonstrated that children with autism are more likely to have adverse reactions to the MMR vaccination, what we have not examined prior to this study is the possibility that the actual onset of autistic symptoms may be triggered buy an inability to process ingredients in acetaminophen. Good sites many studies demonstrating that children with autism have an impaired ability to process certain toxins, in particular substances that require sulfate metabolism. Because the processing and detoxification of acetaminophen requires this type of reaction, Schulz et al propose that children given a high dose of acetaminophen after vaccinations may be exposed to accumulations of substances that can then become toxic to the brain and nervous system.

One other very interesting aspect of this study demonstrates that with each significant event in the use of acetaminophen in the last thirty years (for example, a news story in which a commonly-used acetaminophen brand was laced with cyanide), there seems to be a significant drop in the cases of autism reported. The theory behind this association is that a concern about the safety of the product leads fewer parents to administer acetaminophen to their genetically-predisposed-to-autism children, and therefore fewer children are triggered to show autistic behaviors.

Please excuse my blatent and illegal paraphrasing above, in an effort to share this information…. please read the original article in it’s entirety if you are interested in this topic. The article appeared in the journal “Autism” in 2008 with the title “Acetaminophen use, MMR vaccination, and autistic disorder:the results of a parent survey.”

see the following article
http://news.health.com/2010/08/13/tylenol-asthma/

The practice of Naturopathic Medicine relies on the use of natural materials for health and healing. Many of our vitamins, herbs and supplements have been in use for years, some for hundreds of years. In the mainstream medical world, research is required for a pharmaceutical medication to be approved by the FDA. Naturopaths rarely have the support of this type of research in choosing which products to use, so we often rely on our own experiences -and the experiences of those who practiced before us- when we choose our treatment methods.

However there is now a growing body of research looking at the efficacy of many naturally-derived materials in the treatment of a broad variety of conditions. Incorporating research outcomes into the way we practice is called “evidence-based medicine.” Though this research has barely begun to scratch the surface of all the tools that we use as naturopaths, it is fascinating to see a body of information begin to develop. It is even more fascinating to see how these studies are portrayed in the mainstream media. More often than not, research studies make news when they do NOT support the use of a particular supplement, rather than when they do. I have often heard medical experts on the news conclude that a particular substance is not effective because of the results of one single study. More often than not, it is a substance that I use frequently and with very positive results in my practice. A perfect example of this is the use of glucosamine in the treatment of joint issues including arthritis.

So this leads me to wonder: do we need research to prove that our treatments are effective? How important is it that Naturopathic Medicine is “evidence-based”?

I can only answer this question for myself and possibly on behalf of my patients, who might benefit from the choices that I make as a physician. It is important to remember that many of the research-backed medications that have been on the market in heavy use by physicians have turned out to have extremely dangerous side effects. These side-effects were sometimes omitted from the study results published as a requirement for FDA approval, and subsequently caused the medications to be pulled from pharmacy shelves. Technically the approved use of these medications, some of which caused death, was “evidence-based.”

Research includes human error, and when I read the studies that support the use of a particular substance, it is often not difficult to see how the conclusions of the study have been somewhat biased. All research is not corrupt, but it is very important to not rely on one study to draw a conclusion. I get excited when I see a study published that supports the use of a material that I already am using in my practice with success, because it encourages me and provides me with some evidence to share with my patients. But I must confess that if a study is published that “disproves” the efficacy of something that I know to work in treatment, I don’t have a problem putting it aside and waiting for more studies to be performed. I realize that this might sound biased, but the knowledge of the Naturopaths who practiced for years before me is more applicable to my choice of treatment than any research published. I look forward to seeing the results from studies being performed today, but I will wait a few years before I definitively change my practice habits until I feel certain that the results are truly representative of the efficacy of a product.