Caring and Health Care

Caring and Health Care

“My doctor does not listen to me.”

This is the most common complaint I hear about our healthcare system.

Not listening is often a symptom of a larger problem: not caring.

If you’ve ever been treated impersonally in a healthcare setting, without adequate respect, not had your questions answered, or made to feel as if you shouldn’t have asked them, you have experienced a lack of caring.

You may have experienced a failure to diagnose or treat your problem correctly because no one cared enough to make sure it was done right.

Doctor not listening
Doctor not listening

Subscribe Now! Get More Health Info

Cutting-Edge Health Information in your Inbox

Subscribe Now

Unsubscribe at any time

TO CLOSE, TAP OR CLICK ANYWHERE OUTSIDE THIS BOX

Cutting-Edge Health Information in your Inbox

Subscribe Now

Unsubscribe at any time

TO CLOSE, TAP OR CLICK ANYWHERE OUTSIDE THIS BOX

Caring is critical to improving illness and disability

Caring: to have or show respect or concern for. To pay attention. Displaying kindness and concern for others.

A person who is caring is kind. The word “kind” comes from the word “kin.” You are kind because the object of your kindness is “kin,” as family to you.

Many people have given up on expecting caring or kindness from their healthcare professionals.

I believe that if it were possible to remake health care around the concept of “caring,” this would solve many of its problems.

A Person Cares Most About Their Purpose

I think that a healthcare professional who treats you without enough care does so because their purpose has been altered to something OTHER than to help patients regain their health.

Your purpose is, by definition, what you care the most about. This is at the very heart of caring. If your doctor’s purpose is to create financial stability for his family, that’s what he will care about. His corporate management may have the purpose of keeping the board/shareholders happy by increasing profits.

The purposes of the professional and his management can become something other than helping patients, which means that there is little to no caring for those patients.

Therefore, despite their natural empathy and desire to help, many healthcare providers can act as if they care very little about providing patients with effective, caring, and affordable healthcare.

The corporate healthcare system has hijacked their purpose.

You Can Determine a Person’s Purpose by Observing What They Produce

This is a great tip: Don’t listen to what they say. Don’t watch what they do. Instead, examine what they PRODUCE. This will give you a clue as to their purpose and tell you what they care (or don’t care) about.

Our current healthcare system has produced a society where more than half the population is sick from chronic disease. (Link is to CDC website) Their PRODUCT is millions of sick people who spend large sums of money on drugs and surgeries that don’t result in any less illness.

So, based on what they are producing, you can determine what they care most about.

Happy, Healthy Woman
Happy, Healthy Woman

How Healthcare Should Be Done

Caring in healthcare is NOT some nice add-on to make the patient happier. It’s critical to getting any successful results.

In my clinic, the goal is to help patients recover their health for the rest of their lives.

The only way any progress with chronic disease can be made is to combine effective evaluation and treatment with improved lifestyles.

To be effective, I must have excellent communication with my patients. Otherwise, they can’t do their program effectively, and I won’t know exactly what is occurring with them as they heal.

The only way to be in good communication with anyone is to really care about them and like them!  How well do you communicate with someone you don’t like? Not so good, correct?

Good communication, and therefore effective treatment is a direct result of liking and caring.

Patients often need help with parts of their treatment program. The best help a practitioner can give is to be on their patient’s team! A combination of the patient desiring to recover their health and their practitioner caring about them and excited about their success can overcome most barriers to healing.

Our sad medical system suffers from short visits and overworked doctors who can come off as not caring. They often aren’t in good communication with their patients, leading to many devastating medical errors.

Caring
Caring

Success Based on Caring

By any measure, my patients are outrageously successful in recovering their health. These patients are my product, from which you can decide what my purpose might be.

  • An astounding portion of my patients reverse their declining health conditions and start improving within a few weeks of starting a program.
  • Many have their doctors take them off prescription medications because they don’t need them anymore.
  • Many are declared no longer diagnosed with one disease or another.
  • Many have resumed the lives they want to live, lives that had been curtailed or stopped by their health.
  • Many are still healthy after 5, 10, 15, and 20 years from when they were first my patients.

These patients all got excellent results because their bodies were able to heal. My caring about the patient and the patient caring about their health and their treatment program facilitated this healing.

Sure, technical knowledge and great tools are critical components, but caring is the most important part of any successful treatment program.

Food Misconceptions

Reading this post will likely improve your health

“I eat what I like.”

That pretty much sums up the most common reason for food choices I’ve heard.

For 25 years I’ve been successfully helping people change their health by educating them about food. From this experience, I can say that if you read this post, you’ll likely make some change in your food choices that will positively impact your health.

Food Misconceptions

MISCONCEPTION: Food is fuel, like gas in your car. You can fill up on almost anything edible, it doesn’t matter.

TRUTH: Look in the mirror for a second. Pinch your cheek. How old is that tissue you’re pinching? Would you believe it’s less than three months old? Cells don’t live very long and are constantly being replaced. That face you’re looking at in the mirror is almost brand-new (if it has wrinkles and looks old, it’s because bodies are designed to change appearance and function as they age. But the tissue it’s made of is being continuously regenerated).

If all those millions of cells are being replaced every hour in your body, where does the raw material come from to make them? The parts that make up your cells are overwhelmingly made from the cellular material from the food you eat. Sure, the body uses food for energy as well, but what you’re seeing in that mirror is the food you’ve eaten in the last few months, transformed into YOU.

MISCONCEPTION: The definition of FOOD is “what you eat.”

TRUTH: Food is the living (fresh or preserved) tissue of plants and animals. Your body can’t make healthy cells from old, damaged or over-processed plant and animal tissue. It certainly can’t create cell parts from artificial flavors and sweeteners, preservatives and refined sugar.

Two simple rules you could follow to improve your health:

  1. Don’t eat things that aren’t food. (Didn’t your mom used to tell you this when you tried to eat mud pies?)
  2. Don’t eat things that CONTAIN things that aren’t food.

This is a simple test: Is diet soda food? Is (popular brand) pasta sauce food? (Read the label, what are all those unpronounceable chemicals at the end of the ingredient list? They sure aren’t food!)

But there’s a problem: This test is too simple. The truth of this is too obvious.

People freak out.

Patients call me from the grocery store in an actual panic, “There’s no food in here!” The problem is that they’re RIGHT. I tell them that I can don my pith helmet and take them on a safari through the grocery store jungle looking for the elusive FOOD. Lighten it up a bit. But it is grim.

Happily, with a bit of training and help I’ve never had a patient who couldn’t master how to shop. They’re able to eat almost everything they normally would, just with a bit of change here and there to shop for FOOD instead of, well, something else (what DO you call “non-food sold as food”?)

There’s Much More to Know About Food

At my clinic, I teach all my patients some specific dietary tweaks to dramatically improve their immune system. If you’re trying to recover from a health problem (or just need to recover from the flu) these diet tweaks can make all the difference.

A basic fact about food and diet: people don’t need to eat the same foods! For example, if you are having a very hard time being able to deal with stress, you likely have some issues with your adrenal glands and should be careful to eat regularly, as being hungry stresses the adrenals. If you have high cholesterol, you can probably dramatically lower it by reducing sugar and refined carbs from your diet.

At my clinic, I test patients to find out what organs and systems are under stress and help them to adjust their diets based on this testing. How logical is this? Yet, when was the last time you had your doctor tell you anything but “diet,” or “eat less fat.”

Here’s some help:

10 Super Veggies to Boost Your Health

Sugar and Your Immune System

For more helpful information about diet: Read my book, Your Hormones in Harmony: A Smart Woman’s Guide to a Lifetime of Energy, Focus and Vitality

I hope this has helped you to see the possibilities to a proactive approach to controlling your own health rather than hoping for the best.

As always, I’m available to help in any way I can. Here is a free booklet with the story of how I developed my techniques and how those techniques work (very practical information that shows how your body works and how to bypass the hidden symptoms problem).

Blog Subscription

Cutting-Edge Health Information in your Inbox

Subscribe Now

Unsubscribe at any time

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Life is Crazy Out Here! What’s a Woman to Do?

Life is Crazy Out Here! What’s a Woman to Do?

Hey everyone!  I wanted to take a few minutes and acknowledge that life is super hard sometimes. In fact it can downright stink. Many times, in the age of digital togetherness we exist in a vacuum of loneliness. I see patients every day, so I see your pain in so many ways. The loss of a loved one, the pain of a bad marriage and the stress of a horrible work situation that you can’t seem to change or step away from. Sometimes the hardest things are the things you feel you cannot change.

The stress that this creates is incredible. Anxiety, sleepless nights, anger, irritability, apathy and lack of ambition for life or anything is a common result. Do you ever feel like you are burning up on the inside and can’t even control your emotions when you need to? Do you blame others or lash out and later feel like a total mean girl? It is super stressful in life and you have to have ways to cope… but not just cope, you have to thrive!

One of my patients recently lost a job. A really good job. One of my ladies left a good job to create a business of her own. Both situations are extremely stressful, for different reasons. Sick babies, stressed and difficult husbands and wives, not enough money, house closings, finals, difficult relatives, terminal illnesses, caring for a sick loved one and impossible life situations are some of the things that keep us up at night and burn out our lights and our health. Add all this to extreme fatigue, insomnia changing hormones and you can have quite a fire burning out of control!

I help people with their health, but frequently my job entails being a good listener and even more a helper in soothing and helping direct someone to take a look at possible solutions to the stress that is there. Most of the time they are the only ones who could possibly know what to do next, but being a good listener helps. And that is my point: Our problems are our own, but we need people to listen to us, people to talk to, to help us find our own solutions. Then we aren’t so alone. We really are all together in this life. Your problem may someday be mine and in listening, we can find our solutions and possibly help someone else.

Here are some things I have found successful when I am in an impossible situation that seems to be a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t scenario. (We all have them at some point in our lives):

  • The first thing to do is to stop and put your situation on pause. For a minute or an hour or a day or for a month, however long you need to see more clearly. Imagine you, freeze framed, while the world bangs on uninterrupted and hurried as it always is, and you are just still. It can really help. You see the world still moves without you, but you can be still, and you can take a minute and you can push the other things away for as much time as you need to decide what you need to do or what direction you need to head in.
  • A daily walk, a workout, tea time, a massage, a coffee with a friend or just going to bed early with a good book can give you a little space.
  • Taking your recommended supplements, eating well, staying hydrated and sleeping 7-8 hours per night are things you can do to be kind to yourself and buffer yourself against the stress we all have. When we are so stressed, we burn up our B vitamins and use much more calcium and magnesium to shield the nervous system. Our body is amazing at adapting, but after a while we use all our resources and have to stop at the well again to replenish. If you give and give, make sure you fill back up.

There aren’t always “right” and “wrong” answers to life’s questions. There are just the answers that will bring your life a little more sanity and a little more peace. When you are physically better, you can see these answers more clearly. I was asked this week by a younger woman what advice I would have given to myself when I was 22.  I told her this:

“Life is long. Choose your partners and your friends well. It is not as important as it seems, and mistakes help you grow and learn. Go easier on yourself and love yourself. You will make it the way you want it and you will make it OK because you can.”

I spoke to someone recently who shared with me about her childhood in a family where the father abandoned them first and then the mom left when this woman was fifteen, leaving her to feed and protect two younger children. She was abused and did things she was not proud of to make sure those kids ate and that they all survived. She is grown now and wonders why she has anxiety. She thinks it started last January. But you know what?  She has a beautiful family and a wonderful husband, and she is afraid she will become her mother. I can tell you definitively that this woman will not. She escaped, but she still has scars.

We carry the scars of what made us. They aren’t things we should be embarrassed of though we often are. We carry the shame of things we could not control and the pain of betrayal from those who hurt us when they should have loved and protected us. But we go on and we live and for many of us we create homes where those we love will never be touched by these evil things. We ended the cycle. The scars we carry are badges. And as a wise woman told me recently, they are part of us, but they do not have to define us.

So, take a minute and pause. Realize who you are. A strong woman who can create your own life even out of the pain and the ashes of lost dreams and lost hope. You are the creator of dreams and the creator of hope. You don’t have to have to let anyone slow you down or stop you from blooming. Those things or people that seek to dim your energy and your life are not things you have to let exist in your life. No, really. It is true. You can change even the most impossible situation.

Sometimes, being healthy and having energy again can help you make better decisions. Sometimes those things and those people that stress you most, most need to change because that is why you are sick and tired and stressed in the first place. I start with helping people recover their health. I help the body recover and heal. Once you have your health, you can see more clearly where to go. There is a plethora of ills in the world but only one you. Let’s get you as bright and happy and as beautiful and energetic as possible. Then watch out world! There is nothing too impossible for you to do or achieve!

Let me help you. I love you and wish you all the joy!

Dr. Melodie Billiot

Blog Subscription

Cutting-Edge Health Information in your Inbox

Subscribe Now

Unsubscribe at any time

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts

Boost Your Immune System

Boost Your Immune System

I wanted to write to you and address some effective strategies that we all can take to improve the immune systems of our families and ourselves.  There are many effective and surprising ways to boost your immune system against viruses and other immune system threats. It is understandable to be concerned about keeping your immune system strong in the face of the coming season of colds and flu and the news stories of the Ebola epidemic in Africa facing us every day.  What I have found to be true is that there are sources that exist in our environments that feed our fears.  Mindfully choose to avoid these sources and use your own common sense despite what is being said and beamed out to us continually by countless media outlets.  Flu season is upon us and in addition we now have the Ebola epidemic not only “a world away” but in our own borders.  The way I see it is that we have a couple choices.  We can panic and cease to use our reasoning capabilities or we can look at the true risks and make decisions based on facts, not innuendo or hearsay.  There are basic public health and hygienic principles to follow that would serve us all well if we would do them ourselves and get others to do them too. We hear the reports daily and all the information and disinformation can be very confusing and sometimes disturbing.   I wanted to find some positive and fun ways to keep that immune system strong and your spirits high.  I also have some amazing products to introduce that will support your body and help to keep your immune system strong.  The following list has been shown, by study in many cases, to improve your immune system.  I challenge you to find several of them and introduce them into your daily life.

Keep a Positive Attitude

  1. Laughter is the best medicine! Laughter can strengthen your immune system and boost your energy.  The best part is that laughter is fun and FREE!  Laughter relaxes you and can decrease stress hormones, which will increase your infection fighting abilities and therefore your resistance to disease.   Turn off the news!  Watch a funny movie, play with your pet or your child and do something fun or silly and laugh!
  2. Have sex!  According to Yvonne K. Fulbright PhD a sexual health expert, people who have sex have higher levels of those defenses that protect your body against viruses and other invaders.  Of course use a condom if you don’t know the STD status of your partner but take that time for you and that someone you love and just let go for a little bit.  Reducing stress allows your body’s immune system to function better and more reliably. Studies show that regular sex lowers blood pressure, and keeps hormone levels in balance.  A good sex life can be good for your heart.  In one study, men who had sex at least twice weekly were half as likely to die of heart disease as men who had sex rarely.  Sex, it does a body and an immune system good.
  3. Keep a positive attitude.  Sometimes it is easy to worry.  Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight.”  We only feed the dark side of life when we worry.  Savor the things that bring you joy.  Seek them out and revel in them. That joy, that laughter, that positive outlook keep those stress hormones low and our protective mechanisms high.  Look for the positive in life and work to not dwell on the negative.  There is more than enough of that to go around.  It really is true that your cup can be either half-empty or half full.  It is all in how you choose to look at it.

Natural Immune System Boosters

  1. And speaking of sunlight, go out in the sun.  It has been shown that just 20 minutes of summer sun without sunscreen can make 20,000 units of vitamin D for our bodies.  That’s 100 times the RDA of Vitamin D.  Vitamin D is ESSENTIAL for good immunity.  A German study found that vitamin D increases your immune function by a factor of 3-5 and it helps your body to produce over 200 antimicrobial peptides.  These peptides help fight all kinds of infections.  Vitamin D is also one of nature’s most effect cancer fighters.  Do you know your Vitamin D serum Level?  25(OH)D or 25-Hydroxyvitamin D is the better overall D status and the best marker for overall health.  To help a body that has cancer or heart disease the recommendation is to keep your vitamin D levels between 70-100ng/ml and optimal is 50-70ng/ml.  Your best defense against any intruding disease process is a healthy strong immune system.  Getting vitamin D from sun exposure is the best way to get your “sunshine vitamin.”  We can test you for vitamin D and help you supplement where necessary to optimize your immunity.  Getting your vitamin D levels into optimal range is one of the MOST IMPORTANT and easy things you can do to improve your immune system.  Call us (770-937-9200) or ask about it at your next appointment!
  2. Get some good and restful ZZZZZZZZs.  Yes, lack of sleep can and does affect immunity.  Studies show that people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to get sick.  After exposure to a virus, like a cold virus or flu virus, lack of sleep can cause people to be more likely to contract the illness.  Sleep restriction and sleep deprivation can decrease white blood cells, which make us more open to infection.  Sleep loss can decrease our body’s antibodies, which are our natural defenses against infections and illnesses.  Long-term sleep deprivation can also leave you at an increased risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep.  Teens may need 9-10 hours and younger children may need 10 or more hours of sleep.  Go to bed ideally between 10-11 and sleep 7-8 hours.  Get good restful sleep and keep that immune system in top form.
  3. Eat some delicious whole foods.  Enjoy a wide range of colorful fruits and vegetables.  Oranges, green peppers, broccoli, strawberries, carrots, squash, kale, melons.  The bounty of the garden can give you a very healthy dose of antioxidants.  These substances help to protect your cells from free radicals that can damage cell structure.  Just dropping the soft drinks and junk food in favor of a healthy salad or gently cooked veggies can be a treat to a stressed immune system.  What we eat determines our body’s ability to respond to the stresses around us.   Make sure you are getting the nutrients your immune system needs for optimal health.  Vitamins A, C, E, zinc, selenium and magnesium are essential for good health.  Whole fruits and vegetables are full of these nutrients.
  4. Take your “good bacteria”.  Probiotics can boost immune system health via your gut’s mucosal immune system.  Most people do not realize that 80% of your immunity is in your gut.  A strong immune system is the best prevention against ALL disease and infection.  Probiotics help the body produce antibodies to pathogens.  Without good digestive system bacteria your body does not absorb nutrients well.  Probiotics help your body produce both vitamin K and B and aid in the breakdown of foreign toxins.  Probiotics are an essential part of your body’s immunity.   Not all probiotics are created equal.  You want a probiotic that is acid safe and can survive the stomach acid and reach the small intestine.  Ideally, there would be no need for refrigeration.  Cultured and fermented foods like yogurt, some cheeses and sauerkraut can be good sources of good bacteria.   See the list below for a good preventative probiotic.  Ask at your next visit about probiotics or call us with any questions.

There are many possibilities out there and many scenarios can occur.  The best defense against any pathogen is a strong immune system.  In addition to the above suggestions, follow good hygiene and wash your hands frequently.  If you or another are sick, stay home if you are contagious.  Stay observant and keep your head and your wits about you.  Eat well, sleep well and surround yourself with people and activities that you love and that bring you joy.  Make your day count everyday and help someone else as part of it.  Do the important things and let the other things work themselves out.  Be well and live healthy!

Great News! We have “Immune System Booster Bags”!

Immune Systme Booster products from DesBio

We will have the following supplements available at the office in “immune system booster bags”.  You can purchase them for yourselves and for your families.   Please understand that these products in no way treat Ebola or any other virus.  They merely assist your body and immune system in being healthy.  Please follow all CDC guidelines for prevention and treatment of Ebola.

Healthy Immune System is Key


Note from DesBio: DesBio has not developed protocols or products for either Ebola or enterovirus, nor do we intend to do so. We recommend that our doctors and their patients follow CDC guidelines for prevention and treatment of Ebola and enterovirus. With any illness, keeping your immune system healthy is essential in supporting resilience against infection. Here is a list of supplements, homeopathics and herbals to help keep your immune system healthy:

  • Smart Silver Liquid
    • Provides preventative support
    • 2 tsp orally twice daily
  •  Smart Silver Gel
    • Use in high-contact areas to limit transmission
    • Apply frequently to hands and dab in nostrils
  • Vitamin C Liposomal
    • Adequate nutrition, especially Vitamin C, has been linked to improved ability to handle infection
    • 1/2 tsp daily
  • Immune Support
    • General homeopathic for immune support
    • 10 drops 3x daily
  • Virus Plus
    • A combination of virus nosodes to support the immune system when fighting a viral infection
    • 10 drops 3x daily
  • Flora Synergy
    • A nutritional supplement designed to support healthy intestinal and immune function
  • Liquid Vit D with Vitamin K
    • A unique, highly concentrated tasty liquid that provides vitamin D3, vitamin K2 plus vitamin E, beta glucan, turmeric, L-carnatine, calcium and magnesium. It includes liver and kidney support.
  • Echinacea Premium
    • Assists the body’s immune response in a number of ways. One of the most important is the nonspecific immune response; particularly white blood cells helping with phagocytosis. Phagocytosis is a process involving certain white blood cells that engulf and digest foreign particles or cells that might challenge the body. (The response is nonspecific because the body launches this broad attack against particles of all kinds. It is not specific to just one particle.) A practical effect is that top quality Echinacea root helps the immune response following stress or sudden changes in weather.

Patients who experience flu-like symptoms should consult their primary care physician or, if there is any chance that they may have been exposed to the Ebola virus go to the nearest hospital emergency room. Comments are welcome! If you have questions, please call the clinic at 770-937-9200. We are happy to talk to you.

 

Here’s to your good health,

 

Dr. Melodie Billiot

Alternative Health Atlanta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog Subscription

Cutting-Edge Health Information in your Inbox

Subscribe Now

Unsubscribe at any time

Get Great Information about your Health

  • Weekly blog posts with vital tips and warnings
  • Interesting “pass it along” health facts
  • Cutting edge natural healing techniques and advice
Blog Posts