1. Tuesday July 7th, 2009
Indigestion or Putrification?

If you are like many Americans, you have burping, bloating after you eat a meal and then experience pain or burning later in the stomach or esophagus. Most reach for the antacids to give them relief because they have been taught that too much acid creates the problem. Too much acid is a common understanding for people who regularly expericence heart burn symptoms. There are however, some in the holistic area of healthcare that offer another possible explanation.

A lack of stomach acid or hypochlorydia can give the same symptoms or feelings as too much acid. If you eat something that is not digested then the food will sit and ferment. Just like the fermentation process, it will produce gas which has to go somewhere and sometimes it's up.

If you experience gas and bloating following a meal, consider taking a digestive enzyme with meals. If you have more pain following taking the enzyme then you may be one that really does have too much acid. However, if you experience less symptoms you may consider using enzymes with every meal.

Most who take digestive enzymes and see relief will also comment on how much more energy they have and that their bowel movements are more regular.

This can easily be accounted for; the stomach is breaking the food down better so that more nutrients are absorbed from the food. Secondly, better digestion leads to less constipation and less toxins hanging around in the body. Those are two good reasons to feel better about taking digestive enzymes. Till nex time... Dr. Alvey

2. July 14, 2009

Aluminum in your coffee?

I recently did a presentation on detox about a week ago and one of the several things I studied were the effects of aluminum on our body. Aluminum is a funny thing- not funny ha ha but funny how it ends up in the craziest places. We know that aluminum is a natural occurring metal in our environment. But did you know that aluminum was in your table salt, non-dairy creamer, antacids, baking powder and antiperspirants? I know what you're thinking, 'yeah, but there is so little in those things that it probably won't matter.' Well, maybe or maybe not.

I have a patient with Type 2 diabetes. He also has heart problems. His story begins with roller coaster sugar levels. His wife finds him one day not in his right mind because the sugar is so off. His heart is not acting right, his breathing is no good because of pneumonia. He is in big trouble. Life support is discussed but his wife insists on trying everything else first. He slowly begins to recover from the pneumonia but they can't do anything with the heart except coumadin for now because his blood sugar will not stabilize. One minute it's extremely low and then it soars. In spite of watching every little morsel he puts in his mouth and using the insulin exactly the way they were taught, they cannot stabilize his sugar. The fear has set in now because they don't know 'what' is driving the sugar levels one way or the other.

I have treated this family on and off for years and his wife is in the office for treatment for a car accident and she mentions the story to me. She said, " in the morning he will eat what he is suppose to and he puts just a little coffee creamer in his coffee and his sugar just spikes. We have had people look at it and they say there's nothing in there that should effect his sugar." I tell her that I just finished the presentation on detox and I know that non-dairy creamer has aluminum in it. I told her to tell him not to use it for a week and just see what happens. It didn't take a week to find out. Ever since he has stopped using non-dairy creamer his sugar has been level. His family doctor and heart doctors are thrilled to see his blood sugar stable as they could do nothing for his heart problems until it did. The doctors were in awe that it was something as simple as coffee creamer keeping him so unstable. I am convinced now more than ever that a little may be too much in certain situations. I hope we can all identify early enough how little is too much. .. Would you like aluminum, I mean cream in your coffee? Till next time... Dr. Alvey.

3. August 4th, 2009 "The Need for Zinc"

I recently attended a small pilot seminar on nutrition Saturday and the presenter began to talk about how important zinc is to our health. There was an older gentleman chiropractor that began to add in to all the benefits of zinc. This gentleman added so much detail that we all began to laugh a little about how much he did know about zinc. One of the other doctors finally spouted, "every one of his patients gets tested for a zinc deficiency in his office, we call him 'zinc man'."

Needless to say the presenting doctor knew at this point there would have to be little convincing that zinc was vital to health. It got me to thinking, does the average person (interested in nutrition) know the importance of zinc?

Zinc in itself is needed for over 100 enzymatic actions. That may not sound like a lot but it takes enzymes for just about any process your body goes through. For example, to detox, you need enzymes to break the poisons down, to digest your food - you need enzymes to break down the food. Enzymes also utilize the foods ingested by the body to construct new muscle tissue, nerve cells, bone, skin and glandular tissue. Glands are included in the endocrine system including thyroid, adrenals and therefore all the sex hormones. There are so many uses for enzymes in our body you couldn't name them all.

While the body manufactures a supply of enzymes, we also need to obtain enzymes from food. However, with our over processed diets and lack of raw food our bodies are not capable of producing many of the enzymes we should have to keep things working right. So if we don't have the enzymes to start off with and we have a zinc deficiency to boot, it's not difficult to see how the body could get into some trouble. Therefore, the need for more unprocessed food and clear out any vitamin or mineral deficiencies are a vital step toward good health.

So some early signs of a zinc deficiency;

Loss of taste or smell, thin and peeling fingernails with white spots. Other possible signs include acne, fatigue, hair loss, high cholesterol, impaired night vision, low immune function, propensity to diabetes, slow wound healing.

We can also do a simple functional test that includes swishing some liquid zinc around in your mouth for 1 minute. It should taste bad, but if it just taste like water you are deficient in zinc.

Zinc is found in several foods such as egg yolks, fish, kelp, lima beans, meats, mushrooms, pecans and sardines. Does this list look like foods you eat alot of? Nope probably not me either. Good idea to check your zinc. Till next time... Dr. Alvey

4. August 18, 2009

"Adrenal Fatigue is in your Gut?"

Ok, so many of you have attended my lecture or have watched the adrenal fatigue presentation on line. You may have been really working hard on eating on time, cutting out the sugar, taking all the supplements for your adrenals and really spending some time on taking care of yourself. Way to Go! I am sure you are feeling better! In effort of always looking for root cause and not just treating symptoms, I want you to consider your adrenal fatigue may be in your gut.

In the lecture, there was a long list of possible stressors that drained the adrenals. Most of those looked familiar like stress at work, financial stress, lack of exercise and lack of whole food, etc. One of the stressors that you probably didn't think much about were the words 'gluten sensitive' or gluten intolerant.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. (So almost any bread, pasta and breaded foods contain it.) Gluten is also found in many processed foods like salad dressings and many of the mixed spices. (Just start reading labels- you'll be amazed!) It can have far reaching negative effects on your health that you may not know about it till the damage is done.

Gluten sensitivity puts direct stress on the adrenals. This stress comes from the inflammatory response created in the digestive tract of a gluten sensitive person. Many times the 'gluten sensitive' person has no outward signs of the inflammation and destruction going on in the gut. One of their main symptoms may just be fatigue or even fibromyalgia type symptoms.

Since the body has to hormonally 'cool off' the inflammation in the gut caused by gluten. Soon the body is depleted of any extra building blocks for normal hormone production. This phase is called pregnenolone steal. You have probably heard the catch phrase "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

When there's not enough blocks to go around the body makes a decision to keep you alive by protecting your gut or make hormones. Your own innate intelligence is smart enough to know that your entire immune system is in your gut and if it goes everything goes. So the body uses the materials to put out the fire and sacrifices the hormone department.

As part of the endocrine system, the adrenals are required to keep pumping out cortisol (remember cortisol is anti-inflammatory) for these constant fires until they are like exhausted race horses and can't give do anything more. (Adrenal Exhaustion) Some may complain of only fatigue at this point and may not even know about adrenal fatigue much less that gluten may be creating all the stress.

Some studies suspect 40% of the population is at least gluten sensitive and go undiagnosed. The next time you feel like maybe there's something more to your fatigue, consider gluten as a stess on your adrenals, it may turn out not to be your spouse!

Till next time... Dr. Alvey

September 22, 2009

5. Why Ergonomics Matter...

Ergonomics is a funny word to many when they first hear it in our office. I can tell you that the meaning becomes very clear after the first visit or two.

I usually explain how that it doesn't make sense to adjust an area 50 times if you are not going to remove the stress from it so that the adjustments can hold. It seems that when the pain becomes more chronic does the idea of changing your work station to fit you and your activities seem to be a heck of an idea.

Some of the most common complaints are neck pain and numbing and tingling in the arms or hands for those working at computers. But those that have to sit for hours at a time in a car or other workstations will often times complain of pain between the shoulder blades or lower back pain.

When our patients start a rehab program in our office we start out on day one with a list of things "not to do". I truly believe after 12 years of practice that people need to be taught 'how' to take care of themselves a little more so that we can reduce the number of unnecessary pain prescriptions, injections, surgeries and disabilities.

How can we line people up for invasive procedures when we haven't taken the time to clean up every day postures or activities that keep a constant grind on the spine and will not allow it to heal? What happened to using just a little common sense in a situation first before heading off into taking vicodan for the next year. And unfortunately that does happen.

Recently I had a new patient that was pregnant and in terrible pain. She had excruciating pain in her back and pain going into both legs. She was miserable. Most doctors working with these patients would usually say that it's normal, the baby sits on the nerves they say. I talked to her about all the ergonomic stuff and she seemed to be pretty well on top of the normal stuff. She was adjusted two more times and because she was not progressing, we sat down for another conversation on ergonomics to see if there was anything that was missed initially. We talked specifically on the subject of the type of bed she slept on every night.

She slept on a very thick memory foam mattress. With her ligaments beginning to soften to prepare for birth, memory foam and softening ligaments would not make a great match. We had her sleep on a different bed to see what kind of change it would make. It couldn't be that simple? It was just that simple. She nor her husband could believe the difference it made in her back pain. She was back to work and doing all the other things at home she needed to do. I often times wonder how many drugs would have been prescribed for this pregnant young mother, if we hadn't talked about some simple stuff. I bet if you were to ask her, ergonomics does matter...

Till next time.. Dr. Alvey

6. October 24, 2009