Omicron: How to Stay Safe

I’ve spent this morning talking to patients who are sick with Covid symptoms.

Let’s talk about how to help you to weather this latest storm. The correct response is to do all the things we know to protect ourselves and others.

My recommendations to stay safe while continuing to live your life:

Visit my Covid Resource Page for diet, lifestyle and supplement recommendations to deal with Covid better!

ONE: Minimum Protection = Two out of three of the following. All three would be my choice if possible.

• Masks (KN95 or N95 only, see below for more information)
• Testing (At-home or PCR tests, depending on your exposure)
• Vaccination including booster (Vaccination only won’t work, see below for more information)

TWO: Avoiding infectious environments.

Inside:

• Large buildings: (Big box stores, groceries) have so much circulating air with the high ceilings that they are safer. Visit only when necessary, go on off-hours with fewer people, stay away from others in the store (come back to crowded aisles later). Stay far away from unmasked people in the store. If the store begins to fill up and you feel uncomfortable, abandon your cart and just get out.
• Restaurants: Omicron is far too infectious for patios to be safe. Use restaurants that will bring your food out to your car to avoid going inside. Remember that restaurants have many unmasked people in the building and are not an environment you want to be in, even for a minute or two.
• Company of Friends & Family: This is where many new infections are happening. The risk of spreading Omicron to another household member is three times higher than with Delta. Even with testing, visiting may not be safe. If you do visit: Everyone must test just before the visit, and outside the house. Everyone should still wear masks indoors, though you could eat outside with testing. Multiple day visits require a new test every day.

Outside:

• Parks, crowds, etc.: Preliminary studies are showing that Omicron is about twice as contagious as Delta. Omicron is close to measles as an infectious virus. Being close to an infected person, even outdoors, can get you sick. Wear a mask and stay away from crowds.
• Restaurant patios: If you are traveling, you should eat in your hotel room, a car, bench, or picnic table far from anyone else.

THREE: Keep your immune system strong.

• Wash your hands for 20 seconds and use sanitizer (a lot). It’s time to refill those hand sanitizers in your car and your bag.
• Increase your hours of sleep if needed to boost your immune system.
• Take immune-boosting supplements every day.
• Stop eating refined sugar (cake, candy, cookies, ice cream, soda, beer, wine, sweet tea).

Details You Should Know to Stay Safe:

Wear only KN95 or N95 masks: Cloth masks offer no protection against Omicron, and surgical masks only help a little. KN95 masks seal against your face and filter 95% of particles, including viruses. They aren’t perfect protection but are the best available. Mask effectiveness studies here. Available on Amazon.

Vaccinations: Two shot vaccinations are ineffective against Omicron. You need to have the booster shot as well. Even then, you rely on staying in safe environments and wearing a mask as your primary defense. Your vaccination won’t stop you from getting infected; its job is to keep you from becoming seriously ill and going to the hospital.

Monoclonal Antibody Treatments: One of the most effective tools against severe illness with Covid has been monoclonal antibody treatments. This treatment should be done very early in the disease process to prevent the infection from becoming more serious. It’s been discovered that of the three monoclonal antibody treatments available, only one works with Omicron. This working treatment is so scarce that many doctors and hospitals are already out of it. If you are not vaccinated, you are “performing without a net” at this point.

Testing: At-home tests are very accurate if they show a positive result. So if you get a positive test, isolate and assume you have Covid until you can get a more accurate PCR test back. BUT, at-home tests are 30% to 40% less sensitive than PCR tests and may show false negative early in an infection before symptoms start. At-home tests are much better than no tests, but use them as part of a larger strategy (masks, outdoors, etc.).

New Quarantine Rules: As of December 27, the CDC has issued new rules for those exposed and infected with Covid. Research has shown that Covid is most infectious 2 days prior and 3 days after symptoms start. Read the new rules here.

We Will Prevail

The New York Times has a great article from last Thursday, “Omicron and Holiday Travel: How to Strategize.” I think the authors did an admirable job of describing our current situation and reasonable responses to it.

Covid is a coronavirus, like the common cold. It’s almost certain that the cold was also a pandemic long ago. At that time, bodies and the virus adapted to the point that we could live with each other. Experts believe that we are moving through this process now.

Meanwhile, we must adapt to the changing virus, stay safe and protect others.

Patient Story:

Holiday & Winter Depression

A bit of research turned up that the holiday season can be difficult for people who have depression and other mental health problems.

Feeling lonely, financial stress, disruption in regular schedules and activities can cause stress for many people. Overeating sugar and junk food, drinking too much alcohol, and worrying about the pandemic are additional stressors.

Physical Health Problems Cause Many Mental Health Problems

The mental health industry (and likely your doctor) is entirely focused on “chemical imbalance” and “brain function” as causes for mental health problems. It’s a very rare doctor who will look for underlying physiological health problems before prescribing antidepressant drugs or talk therapy.

As a doctor, I talk to many people about depression and anxiety. Very few are even aware of a connection between their hormones, blood sugar, digestive system, and psychological state. Because these physical issues are among the most common cause of mental problems, it’s frustrating to see that millions are put on dangerous, addictive antidepressant drugs without any attempt at even checking to see if there’s an underlying health problem.

Mental stresses (such as holiday stress) can be more of a trigger than the cause of anxiety and depression. Typical mental health treatments such as medications or talk therapy mainly work as symptom relievers (at best).

As with any symptom treatment, if nothing is done about the cause of the problem, you must continue to treat the symptom indefinitely. Antidepressant drugs have serious physical and mental side effects. As reported by many of my patients, one of the worst is having little to no feelings about anything. Sure, the depression is less, but there’s no joy or interest either. Patients say their emotions are like cardboard cutouts, and they no longer fully experience their lives.

Another severe downside to antidepressants is that many are addictive and can be difficult or impossible to stop.

Talk Therapy?

Many of my patients have reported that talk therapy has helped them to better control their depression and anxiety.

Anything that helps is great unless that help hides a solution to the whole problem. Someone suffering from anxiety and depression might continue talk therapy for many years to keep their symptoms under control. If they had handled the underlying health conditions that caused their problems in the first place, they would no longer need the therapy and would be much better mentally and physically.

Take Away

Medicine is designed for the most part to treat health problems (symptoms) rather than look for underlying causes. If a doctor sees evidence of holiday depression, then a prescription for an antidepressant drug may seem like the correct treatment. The doctor won’t even think of addressing hormones, blood sugar or digestion, because medicine has virtually no treatments for any of these.

To summarize: If you feel depressed over the holidays and would like to feel better, you have these choices. Seems to me that the first one would be highly preferable!

A: Get evaluated and tested to find the underlying physical cause of your problem and get this resolved.  You may have holiday stress in the future, but you’ll deal with it much better and not have any lasting effects once January comes around.

B: Get on a possibly addictive drug with serious side effects that may prevent you from enjoying your life. Then, have to stay on this medication or go back on it whenever something in your life makes you sad and depressed.

C: Tough it out and try to act like nothing is wrong.

Please Share!

If you know someone with the “holiday blues,” please send them a link to this post. I’ve found that this information is unknown, and most people are convinced that something is wrong with their brain if they feel anxious or depressed.

Here’s a bright ray of truth and hope for the holiday season!

Patient Story:

DO NOT DRINK OUR WATER!

When you come to my clinic, PLEASE don’t drink the tap water.

Our tap water contains ten toxins in potentially unsafe levels, including nine carcinogens. (You can check out the water quality in your zip code HERE)

How to Have Safe, Healthy Water to Drink

1: Don’t drink tap water. Why not? Put your zip code into this search and see exactly.

2: Filter water that you cook with or drink. On a budget? You can use a carbon filter on your tap or a filtered water pitcher. Carbon filters (including those on filter pitchers) reduce many common contaminants such as lead, and the disinfectants used to treat tap water. Better (FAR better) is a reverse osmosis filter that gets most contaminants out.

3: Carry and store water in safe containers. Use stainless steel and (shatterproof) glass containers. Plastic can break down and release chemicals into the water.

4: Don’t trust bottled waters. Many “spring waters” are processed tap water, no matter what the label says.

An Ideal, Yet Practical Water Solution

In a typical residence, two water contamination problems need solutions:

Showerhead Carbon Filter

1: Drinking and cooking water needs to be as clean as possible but still contain natural minerals and electrolytes.

The best cost-effective solution is a reverse osmosis water filter. These filters look a bit like a rocket engine, with bottles and tubes in all directions. However, they are inexpensive ($250 – $700), not particularly hard to install (DIY or a simple handyman job), and fit under your kitchen sink. A bar tap on your sink dispenses the clean water for cooking and drinking. You can pick one up at Home Depot.

Strangely, DISTILLED WATER is not a healthy choice. See the article below, “Potential Risks of Distilled Water” for more information.

2: Water for bathing and handwashing needs to contain safe chlorine levels.

Chlorine is a necessary evil for tap water. Like water in your swimming pool, dangerous bacteria and fungus will grow in non-chlorinated water. The CDC says that four parts per million is the limit of chlorine in tap water. Because the danger of too little chlorine is much worse than too much, city water systems can err on the high side.

How to know if there is too much chlorine in your tap water?

• Tap water smells like a swimming pool. If your tap water really smells, it may have too much chlorine.
• Dry, itchy skin. If this is worse after a shower or bath, you should test your chlorine levels.

You can get a simple strip test for your tap water for $12 HERE (Amazon)

The best fix for chlorine is to get 95% of it out of your water. You do this with one of two solutions:

1: Showerhead filter. It screws onto your showerhead, costs $50, and lasts for years. This eliminates the hot chlorinated water you are soaking in and the chlorinated steam you are breathing.

2: Whole House Filter. This is a cartridge that is mounted (usually) where your water line comes into your house. It takes a handyman or plumber to install it ($200-ish), costs as little as $200, and lasts at least a year. Replacement cartridges cost $30 and can be installed (by you) in a few minutes. This cleans up all the water going into your house, usually including the water you use outside on your lawn.

Are You at Wits’ End With a Health Problem?

I may be able to help you.

Would you please take five minutes to fill out a health assessment survey and send it to me? I’ll review your information, then have my assistant call you for any additional information. Then, I’ll let you know if your case might be a good fit for my clinic. This assessment is complimentary, with no strings attached. Either I can help you–or point you in the right direction to get help.

Don’t give up! You can recover your health if you persist.

Potential Risks of Distilled Water

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., DACBN, MS, CFMP

While distilled water is the purest type, it’s not necessarily the healthiest.

The distillation process is very effective at removing potentially harmful contaminants, but it also removes the natural minerals and electrolytes found in water.

If you drink distilled water, be aware that it may have some drawbacks. The lack of minerals could prove problematic if you aren’t getting them from another dietary source. In addition, the water might cause intestinal discomfort.

Along with unwanted impurities, beneficial minerals like calcium and magnesium are also left behind as the steam rises during the distillation process.

Distillation typically removes around 99.9% of all minerals found in tap water.

The lack of naturally occurring minerals in distilled water, such as sodium, chloride, and potassium, can negatively affect health. These minerals are known as electrolytes.

Therefore, your body is forced to give electrolytes to the mineral and nutrient-free water. With this, your electrolyte level will slowly decrease and eventually cause electrolyte imbalance in your body. 

To sum up, if you drink distilled water consistently, you are putting your health at risk. It has insufficient minerals and nutrients that can protect your body against diseases and illnesses. Second, it can potentially lead to certain health problems such as bone deformities, digestive tract disorders, and even blood-related sickness.

I believe the best source of drinking water is spring water.

Of course, I expect some debate about my opinion but spring water from a reliable source has proven to have many health benefits.

Here are some valuable benefits:

• Balancing the pH of your body
• Natural source of necessary minerals

How to choose a good spring water brand?

The points to remember when choosing a water company are as follows:

• Determine how long they are in the business
• The source of water
• Does the water pass purification and tests
• Is there a water test report available (especially on their website)
• Does the bottle have the label of the brand?

Compliments from Functional Medicine University

Roundup and Heart Disease

If you have a house with a yard, you probably know about Roundup.

The stuff is truly miraculous! Spray it on just about anything, and the unwanted plant shrivels up, dies, and doesn’t come back. It seems like nothing else comes close to being as effective.

Roundup and other products made with its active ingredient glyphosate are wildly popular commercially. Roundup is how power companies keep their transmission line rights of way clear. It’s why railroad tracks aren’t overgrown with weeds.

Growing crops is where Roundup is used the most. On farms, Roundup is used in combination with special genetically modified plants. Here is how this works: The farmer plants the special GMO seeds. Then, as the plants (and weeds) grow in his fields, he sprays the whole field with Roundup. The weeds all die, and the crop is unaffected (well, it doesn’t die anyway).

Trouble in Herbicide Paradise

Roundup was first sold in 1973 and is now THE MOST WIDELY USED HERBICIDE and is used in most countries.

So, what could go wrong? Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) can enter your body by direct skin absorption, eating treated foods, or drinking contaminated water. The WHO (World Health Organization) classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen in humans in 2015. Studies have shown that glyphosate disrupts the bacteria in your gut, creating a decrease in ratio to harmful bacteria because the bad guys have resistance to Roundup.

A growing number of studies find that glyphosate can mess up your heart’s electrical system, leading to life-threatening arrhythmias.

Can I Ride Just One More Time??

Like a little kid on a merry-go-round, governments around the world KNOW they must ban glyphosate but want just a little more time before they finally act.

The US (currently using 1.8 million tons of glyphosate annually) has over 150 cities with local bans. However, the EPA still sticks to its declaration that “glyphosate is unlikely to be a human carcinogen.” So don’t look for any widespread relief soon.

Austria banned glyphosate in 2019. Germany is phasing it out by 2023. Nineteen countries are either regulating, banning, or in the process of doing this currently.

Protect Yourself

The GMO crops currently grown using Roundup are soy, corn, canola, alfalfa, cotton, and sorghum. Horrifyingly, wheat is under development.

Here’s what to do:

1. Avoid eating GMO versions of these crops. (Eat only organic versions)
2. Avoid eating meat from animals that were fed these crops. (Eat only organic versions)
3. Avoid eating dairy products from cows fed with these crops. (Eat only organic versions)
4. Don’t use Roundup or other glyphosate-based herbicides on your lawn. If you have a lawn service, make them show you an ingredient list of anything they spray.
5. Show this article to all your neighbors and see if you can get them to stop using Roundup as well.
6. Avoid walking near powerlines or railway rights of way or other areas that appear treated with weed killers.
7. Treat farmland for what it has become: dangerous. You don’t want exposure to the things they spray, and often you don’t want to eat the food they grow.

Recovering from Anxiety & Depression Without Drugs

Anxiety and depression can mess up your life.

Mental health problems are not understood at all. Research hasn’t gotten to first base on any of them. Treatment is limited to controlling symptoms, and often the treatment is worse than the disease.

Origins of Anxiety & Depression

Over the past 27 years, I’ve had upwards of 6,000 patients suffering from anxiety and depression along with their other symptoms. At some point in their treatment with us, almost all of them have either improved dramatically or expressed that they no longer had the problem.

This sounds very promising (and it is), however I’ve never directly treated a patient for anxiety or depression.

I have become convinced that many mental disorders could be a result of physical health conditions. When the patient recovers physically, they also improve their mental problems.

There is a lot of science behind this. It’s well known that hormone and blood sugar problems can cause even severe forms of anxiety and depression. Specifically, thyroid problems often cause anxiety, mental lethargy and physical fatigue. Sex hormone problems can cause depression and bi-polar symptoms. Blood sugar problems can cause extreme irritability, anxiety and irrational behavior.

Despite the research evidence, medical treatment for mental conditions is always for the specific symptom, not for the underlying cause. A case in point is the DSM, the manual listing all accepted mental diseases and used to diagnose mental illness. The “diseases” in the DSM are all statements of symptoms, not possible causes.

When Depression Is Normal

Many patients have told me that they believed their depression was caused by a chemical imbalance in their brain.

However, no research has yet linked mental illness to brain chemistry (look it up… “belief” “suggest” “may result” “tend to” “strongly linked” but no actual science).

Depressed patients commonly have chronic illness, are often in constant pain, have no energy, can’t sleep, and have been told by multiple doctors that they should “learn to live with” their physical condition because there is no treatment for it.

So, I have asked the person, “Do you feel that you have much hope of achieving any of your goals in life, given your physical health problems?”

The patient thinks, and tells me that no, they’ve given up. I then have asked, “What emotional condition do you think would be normal for a person in your situation?” The patient will often start to laugh, and tell me, “Depression would be completely normal, I think!” They no longer worry about the chemical brain imbalances after this, either.

I agree, because I’ve observed that once a person recovers their physical health—they have energy, don’t hurt, sleep well, digest well—that they aren’t depressed anymore!

Mental Illness Medical Non-Solutions

In my experience (which is considerable), mental illness is often linked to or caused by physical health conditions. These health conditions are always chronic, and typically have no medical treatment.

Medicine treats symptoms, and chronic illness can only be addressed by helping the body regain its ability to heal itself. This is something that conventional medicine is not equipped to do.

So rather than find and improve the cause of mental illness and give the patient back their lives, medicine treats it as a symptom, the same as they do any other heath problem.

The result? Over 100 million cases of mental illness, many of which could be resolved completely, but instead will be drugged into some level of stupor for years, until their bodies become unresponsive to the drugs used.

It’s ugly.

I’m just so happy to be able to show the way out to so many of my patients who work hard to help their own bodies heal, both physically and mentally.