Gratitude is such a happy word.

To be thankful. To love and appreciate the good around us. The people and the things that make our lives better and worth living. The big things and the little things. I am so grateful for so many things.

I also am guilty of not really being that grateful a lot of the time.

I look at the bad. I will be honest. I get afraid a lot of the time that only looking at the good will make me less safe; will make me unrealistic and a “Pollyanna.” I must see the bad too. What’s wrong, what isn’t going right so that I can fix it and make it right. Do you ever feel like that? The problem with this perspective is that it can create fear, and fear does not beget gratitude. Fear begets more fear and as a consequence, more bad things are likely to happen as darkness very rarely brings light.

Sometimes the darkness can feel safer. From darkness we can keep finding all the wrong places, from there, all you can see are the wrong places. And there are more and more wrong places and after a time you have a hard time finding the right places. All you have been looking for is the wrong. What we put attention on grows, and when you find all the wrongs, you’ve been watering the wrongs for too long.

As a doctor, I often know when someone will get well and when they won’t. It starts with all the wrongs. If someone can only see what is wrong and cannot see anything that is right or that it could ever be right, it will always be more wrong than right. Sickness and health are that way. Sometimes we are afraid to let go of the wrongs because if we do, it just seems impossible. It seems we may have to be someone else; it seems we may have to do different things than we’re comfortable with. So, we hold on to the wrongs— and they have a way of spiraling down and down into the abyss of more wrongs.

How to recover? How to change this mindset? How to replace this fear with something better— with love? I have found that I can change the way I see things, I can start to see the rights in my world, by being grateful. Just as with acts of kindness, being grateful is never wrong. These last two weeks have been stressful in both our personal and work families. My husband’s dad who is 93 almost died from a heart arrhythmia and it took ten people in the ER to bring him back. With the technology we have today, he is back home with an unblocked heart and a pacemaker to guide things. He gets better every day.

I am grateful for the technology we have that saves lives in our emergency rooms. I am grateful this technology gave us more days with this wonderful, kind man who is the light of his family and who is such an example of love to so many. I am grateful he is in my life and the lives of my two boys and that I have had the last 23 years to claim him as my family too.

I am also grateful today that one of my valued staff members who had to have an emergency surgery last week is at home recovering. I am grateful that we have surgeons who can create modern day miracles and save people’s lives and give us back our family members and friends so we can love them some more. I am grateful for life.

I am grateful for my boys who are my life. I am grateful that they teach me every day to be a better person. I am thankful for my husband who does such a better job than I do at seeing the rights and putting more attention on them than the wrongs. It has balanced the days when I could only see from the darkness.

I am grateful for my pets. My beautiful, special pets who bring so much joy and silliness to our lives. I am grateful for so many things. Do you see the light gratitude brings? It is spilling over in my heart and drowning out the darkness and the wrongs, so much so that I want to tell you about so many more things that I am grateful for; the light on the trees, the flowers in the yard, a beautiful song, a lovely talk with a friend, a friend.

I am grateful for the beach, that I have known unconditional love, that my son got well when he was so sick. That I had another son and that I have two boys who are big and strong and who love me. I am grateful for good food and good times and love. The light grows and the darkness recedes. The wrongs may still be there, but they are not as big not as scary. I challenge you to try it.

Pretty soon, the wrongs will start to fix themselves or you will see what to do because you are the light, the joy the gratitude and darkness cannot live there. Just start. Get a gratitude journal or share one thing you are grateful for every day with a friend or family member. You may run out of notebook, because what I have found is that even when the wrongs hit, I find some gratitude in them. It may be between tears, and it may take a minute, but even in the “wrongs” there can be gratitude.

For example, I lost a valuable staff member at a really bad time, how can I find gratitude? I could blame her, I could blame myself, I could say it is all lost and now I’ll never find anyone good. Because darkness never gave birth to light remember? Or I could say, “I will find someone who is an even better fit, who will stay and bring their gifts to the business and help it grow even more than the person who left.” I could also be grateful that I could learn from the choice I made and see how I could improve the next time.

I lost my grandmother last fall. She was a very special person to me for all of my life. We were very close and the loss for me was very hard; it still is. If you have ever lost someone you love, you understand and it is very hard to find gratitude sometimes, and easier to find pain. The pain was so deep though, that I knew my grandma would have wanted me to frame it differently, because she never would want me to hurt like that. She was always so positive and so grateful even in hard times, especially in hard times and she taught me by her actions.

So, I was tasked with finding gratitude in the loss of my Grammy who I could not hug or go visit ever again. I couldn’t call her or ask her help or advice again. I couldn’t hear that beautiful voice again or know she was always just a phone call away. How to find gratitude in that? But you know what? There it was right there; in all that. The fact that my grandma was always there for me to share a hug or an accomplishment, to give me encouragment and love any time day or night it didn’t matter to her.

I used to spend weeks in the summer with my grandma and grandpa camping and playing in the woods as a child, visiting and making rhubarb pies with her. She was always there for me when I came home from college with a special meal just for me and hours to talk. She supported me through many hard times and always, always loved me no matter what.

I found my gratitude.

I had known unconditional love from this woman for almost 50 years. I know what it is! She modeled this for me, for my whole family. I know what it looks like, what it feels like and I am so very grateful for this gift that she gave me! Not everyone has this type of love, let alone for this long. The ache doesn’t leave from her loss, but it is now tinged with joy, with the light that she always had emanating from her heart.

Gratitude is magic. It fills the empty dark spaces, it makes light. Can you see it? Can you try it? Don’t be afraid. And if the darkness and the fear come back in, “gratitude it back out.” Replace it with love, with gratitude. Keep listing all the things. There are so many. We have so much, so very much to be grateful for. Gratitude will soften your heart it will bring you joy, and it will light the way in a world that tempts us to only see the wrongs.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this simple thing cannot change the world. This simple thing can change the world because it can change you; and you and I together can change the world.

It is a simple and gentle thing. Do it and keep doing it every day. If you do, eventually you will start to see more good than bad, more rights than wrongs. You will wake up one day with love in your heart and magic in your soul and you too will make your own miracles happen for yourself and for all of us. To a better world, with more light and more gratitude!

Love for the journey.

Depression: You Need a Program, Not a Pill

If you or someone you love is suffering from depression and anxiety, what is needed is real help.

What isn’t needed is temporary “solutions” that depend on theories developed to market pharmaceuticals.

FALSE: Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain

Recent studies have disproven this theory. In truth, there has never been a study that showed any evidence that it was true in the first place, so finally having the theory disproved shouldn’t be a shock.

Read about the recent study here.

This theory was first developed to justify antidepressant drugs. The pitch was that if your depression was caused by chemicals, then more chemicals could correct this.

What do Antidepressant Drugs Do?

According to the CDC, one in six American women over the age of 15 takes antidepressant medications.

What IS known about these drugs is that they are dangerous and addictive (see the “black box” death warning on most of them).

What is a mystery is how and why they affect different people different ways. Some people seem to get help from these drugs. Others can’t tell that they are taking them at all. Some get very negative reactions.

Overall, the longer a person takes these drugs, the more dangerous they become.

Also, the chances for possible relief of your depression and anxiety are not that great: about 20%:

Following is from “Depression: How effective are antidepressants?” NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine):

Studies involving adults with moderate or severe depression have shown the following:

• Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
• With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.

In other words, antidepressants improved symptoms in about an extra 20 out of 100 people.

What is not included in this study are the health and life disasters that often result from long-term drug use.

The truth is the patient doesn’t need a pill; they need a program

Anyone with depression and/or anxiety has many interrelated health issues that have resulted in their symptoms. There is no “silver bullet” single drug or treatment that will solve the problem.

What is needed is an integrated program including:

• History of infections
• History of head trauma
• History of chemical and toxic metals exposure (such as amalgam dental fillings)
• History of previous drug use
• Dietary, exercise, and sunlight habits
• Testing for allergies, blood sugar problems, and hormone imbalances

I have been using this evaluation method and finding the root causes of depression and anxiety for decades in my practice. I can report that most patients improve, don’t take medications, and progress through any mental therapy course.

As a “bonus,” these patients make overall health improvements that often result in greater energy, better sleep, better digestion, less pain, and overall well-being.

Becoming healthy is itself a valid therapy for anxiety and depression!

Patient Story:

I Have a Real Sense of Hope Instead of a Chemically Induced High!

I have seen significant improvement with my last 3 – 4 visits. My headaches have all but vanished. I have so much energy and mental clarity, and it feels amazing. I have been waking up in the morning feeling like my night’s rest was adequate and restful instead of needing 3 hours to get myself fully alert. I can get so much more accomplished during the day than I used to. I have been off antidepressants for over a month and a half, and I have a real sense of hope about my life instead of a fleeting, chemically-induced high. My sugar cravings have diminished significantly, a truly amazing feat considering when I first walked in here about the only thing I ate or craved was sweets and sugar. The best part is that I have learned so much about nutrition and my body, information that will be invaluable to me for the rest of my life. THANK YOU! — J.R.

Introduction

Below this Introduction is a well-written in-depth article on Leaky Gut with some great examples of how it happens. This Introduction is a short version if you don’t have time for the full story.

There is this thing called “Leaky Gut” that you may have heard of or run across.

You may already know something about it, or it may be an unknown, just vaguely alarming.

You do need to know about it because it’s increasingly common and can mess up your life in ways that you would never normally associate with anything related to digestion.

Leaky Gut can be a Factor in:

• Attention deficit disorder
• Symptoms resembling autism
• Chronic and rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Eczema
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Joint and collagen problems
• Compromised liver function
• Malnutrition
• Multiple chemical sensitivities
• Psoriasis
• Skin disorders ranging from urticaria to acne and dermatitis
• Symptoms like schizophrenia

Leaky Gut can cause stress to your immune system leading to chronic problems (the ones that don’t get better) of all kinds.

What Is It?

To understand Leaky Gut, you must know about the two main functions of the “gut” (small intestine):

1. To absorb nutrients from the food you eat by transferring them from the gut into the bloodstream.
2. A barrier to protect your body from the microbes, undigested food and other unwelcomes from escaping out of the gut.

“Leaky Gut” happens when your gut fails to some degree with these two functions.

Leaky gut is associated with a wide range of general symptoms such as fatigue, abdominal pain or bloating, diarrhea, feelings of toxicity, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and poor tolerance of exercise.

Because your absorption of food is affected, you can have multiple health problems from malnutrition, despite eating a healthy diet.

Do I Have Leaky Gut?

If you have one of the conditions listed at the beginning of this article, or if you have chronic health problems of long duration, there is a possibility that Leaky Gut is a contributing factor or the primary cause of your difficulties.

There are degrees of Leaky Gut. The problem is that once this gets started, it tends to become worse and rarely heals itself.

How to Avoid or Improve Leaky Gut

1. Clean up your diet. Food chemicals such as preservatives, colors, and flavor enhancers often worsen gut problems. Eat fresh foods, not canned, bottled, or bagged. Stop all fast and junk foods. Limit restaurant foods.
2. Find your allergies and avoid them. There are effective blood tests for this. Allergies are one of the main stress factors that worsen Leaky Gut.
3. Eat protein and veggies, limit carbs and eliminate sugars.
4. Avoid antibiotics (soaps and drugs) unless absolutely necessary.
5. Eat plenty of high-fiber foods.
6. Don’t take NSAIDs (like ibuprofen).
7. Eat fermented foods and take good probiotics.

I hope this helps!

Dr. Melodie Billiot

What Do You Mean By Leaky Gut

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

The intestinal lining has two opposite functions:

1. The absorption of nutrients from food in the digestive tract.
2. A barrier function, to control microbes or large food particles from going beyond the gut environment and getting into the bloodstream.

The digestive tract has tiny permeable openings between the cells (called tight junctions) to absorb nutrients from our food. If these pore-like structures open too wide, toxins from the gut can spill over into the bloodstream, overwhelming the liver and causing allergies or any of dozens of other ailments.

This malfunction is known as hyperpermeability because the lining has become too permeable (porous)

It’s also called Leaky Gut Syndrome because the gut begins leaking larger food particles and toxins from the gut.

It’s not a disease per se, but rather a natural process gone bad. Under normal optimal conditions, these pores open and close whenever nutrients are absorbed from our food. Only when the pores open too wide is leaky gut is said to occur.

The Big Picture Behind Leaky Gut: The Real Story

Here’s a detailed account of how leaky gut occurs. Let’s use the example of someone who has a food allergy. Suppose Mary has a wheat allergy and innocently eats a bagel; this can elicit a reaction in her body. If she has an immediate food allergy, her immune system may begin reacting right away. If she has delayed allergies, the reaction may not occur for as long as three hours, but it could take as long as forty-eight hours to occur.

What is surprising is that no matter when it occurs, Mary may not even be aware that it’s happening. She may have a vague feeling of discomfort that could include mild indigestion, a headache, or even joint or muscle aches.

Although she may not notice anything more than vague discomfort at the time, she may develop some chronic problems later down the road, such as auto-immune disorders, allergies, asthma, or arthritis. And she probably won’t link it to this microscopic process going on in her digestive tract as the lining becomes too permeable and begins leaking tiny particles.

On the other hand, she may have noticed that if she cheats on her allergy diet and has milk for breakfast, sometime that day or the next, her joints may be achy, and exercise will become a major effort.

The response of Mary’s body to the offending food also activates her immune system. When she eats allergic foods, her immune system sounds the alarm through chemical messengers, the cytokines. They act like horn-blowers calling out the cavalry, and their job is to bring the infection fighters (the antibodies).

Now the immune system is set in motion. While we always have cytokines as an essential part of our system, the gut will start leaking when too many cytokines and other immune chemicals are circulating in the bloodstream.

The Healthy Mucosal Lining

When Mary’s system is working properly, absorption occurs through tiny structures in the small intestine lining. All this is happening on a microscopic level. Nutrients are being absorbed through three structures:

• Directly through the cells of the gut lining, called transcellular absorption
• Between the cells, in paracellular absorption
• In the crypts, tiny crevices in the lining of the gut

Each structure is programmed to absorb nutrient molecules of a particular size and electromagnetic charge. Between the fingerlike villi lining the gut are crypts, crevices at the base of each villi, like the webbing between your fingers. Because of their larger size, the crypts absorb bigger molecules, such as the disaccharides, which are complex sugars.

Between every cell in the gut lining is a tiny pore-like structure called a tight junction. These tiny pores are also active during digestion. They expand and contract just as other muscles do, opening and closing to release nutrients from the gut into the bloodstream or contain the food mix as it passes through the gut.

The Damaged Mucosal Barrier

Too many immune chemicals can cause the pores to open too wide, causing too much permeability. When there’s inflammation or any crisis in the body, if too many immune-signaling chemicals are circulating in the bloodstream, they can overstimulate the tight junctions, causing the pores to open too wide.

This process can be compared to a house with doors wired to a fire alarm system. If the alarm system malfunctions, it may keep all the doors in the house open and won’t let them close. Clearly, other problems can result. Intruders could easily enter the house.

Leaky gut can raise the body’s exposure to intruders, such as bacteria, yeast, or large food particles that would normally remain in the gut. Again, when the pores open too wide, material is inappropriately released into the bloodstream. In Mary’s case, if her immune system detects large food particles in the bloodstream (perhaps other innocent foods, released through the leaky gut), it will assume they’re allergens and launch a second attack, flooding her system with more cytokines. Then the whole dynamic just gets worse.

Resolving hyperpermeability can have Real Benefits.

Leaky gut is associated with a wide range of general symptoms such as fatigue of unknown origin, abdominal pain or bloating, diarrhea, feelings of toxicity, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and poor tolerance of exercise.

Hyperpermeability can be an underlying factor in such conditions as:

• Attention deficit disorders
• Symptoms resembling autism
• Chronic and rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Eczema
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Joint and collagen problems
• Compromised liver function
• Malnutrition
• Multiple chemical sensitivities
• Psoriasis
• Skin disorders ranging from urticaria to acne and dermatitis
• Symptoms like schizophrenia

Conditions that May Cause Leaky Gut

• Aging
• HIV
• AIDS with diarrhea
• Alcoholism
• Malnutrition
• Burns
• NSAIDS
• Cancer
• Pancreatitis
• Celiac disease
• Psoriasis
• Certain drugs
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic hepatitis
• Shock or anaphylaxis
• Crohn’s disease
• Toxic shock syndrome
• Cystic fibrosis
• Trauma
• Giardia and other parasites
• Ulcerative colitis

Compliments from Functional Medicine University

Fatty Liver and Dementia

Introduction

Fatty Liver can be caused by alcohol use, but it can also happen in people who don’t drink or use very little alcohol.

Called “NAFLD” (Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease”), it affects 25 to 30 percent of people in the US and Europe.

Recent studies link NAFLD with cognitive impairment and dementia. This can occur even with no other symptoms.

You may or may not develop symptoms from NAFLD. The most common symptoms are feeling tired or discomfort or pain in the upper right side of your abdomen.

However, your only symptom may be a loss of short-term memory and slowed-down thinking. Studies are showing that NAFLD may also cause Alzheimer’s Disease.

If you’re wondering what has happened to your previously sharp mind, this is a possible answer.

NAFLD should not be ignored in any case, as it can lead to cirrhosis, a severe and potentially fatal disease.

What Causes Fatty Liver?

Eating sugar, refined carbs (bread, cakes, rice, pasta, potatoes), and bad fats (fried foods, chips) creates a risk for Fatty Liver.

• The same process that causes Type II diabetes also can cause Fatty Liver Disease. If you’re “Pre-diabetes” or a diabetic, you’re at risk.
• High levels of fat (especially triglycerides) in your blood.
• Overweight

What to do about Fatty Liver Disease

As with most chronic illnesses, NAFLD has different causes in each person. If you want to get the problem handled, you’ll need to be tested to determine the exact problem causing your body stress and preventing it from healing. Go HERE to get started on this process.

DIY NAFLD Improvement:

(See article below for more information):

1: Lose excess weight–losing between 7 and 10 percent of body weight can improve other symptoms of NAFLD, such as inflammation, fibrosis, and scarring

2: Research from 2017 suggests that the Mediterranean diet may help to reduce liver fat, even without weight loss.

3: Exercise: It’s important to stay active when you have NAFLD. A good goal to shoot for is at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

4: Avoid foods with added sugars-Dietary sugars such as fructose and sucrose have been linked to NAFLD development.

5: Take an omega-3 supplement–A peer review study suggests that taking an omega-3 supplement may reduce liver fat.

6: Avoid known liver irritants–Certain substances can put excess stress on your liver. They include alcohol and certain over-the-counter medications.

7: Consider taking vitamin E--Vitamin E is one antioxidant that may reduce inflammation caused by NAFLD. Must take all components of vitamin E. This would include Mixed Tocopherols and Tocotrienols

8: Consider Herbs--A 2018 paper identified certain herbs, supplements, and spices that have been used as alternative treatments for NAFLD. Compounds that have positive effects on liver health include turmeric, milk thistle, resveratrol, and green tea.

I hope this helps!

Dr. Melodie Billiot

NAFLD and Dementia

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

A study from the journal Neurology revealed that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is independently associated with cognitive impairment.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an umbrella term for various liver conditions affecting people who drink little to no alcohol. As the name implies, the main characteristic of NAFLD is too much fat stored in liver cells.

Dementia and NAFLD are two frequent conditions that share underlying risk factors mainly in the realm of metabolic disease.

The study from the journal, Neurology included 4,472 adults aged 20–59 years.

The participants underwent assessment of liver enzyme activity and hepatic steatosis by ultrasound. They underwent cognitive evaluation using the following computer-administered tests: the Simple Reaction Time Test (SRTT), the Symbol-Digit Substitution Test (SDST), and the Serial Digit Learning Test (SDLT).

Increased activity of the liver enzymes alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) correlated with lower performance on the SDLT, while increased alanine aminotransferase was also correlated with lower performance in the SDST.

The current studies suggest that NAFLD patients incur cognitive dysfunction.

Although if left untreated, NAFLD can lead to much more serious conditions, including cirrhosis and liver failure. The good news is that fatty liver disease can be reversed—and even cured.

8 Steps to Effectively Treat Fatty Liver Disease

1: Lose excess weight–losing between 7 and 10 percent of body weight can improve other symptoms of NAFLD, such as inflammation, fibrosis, and scarring

2: Research from 2017 suggests that the Mediterranean diet may help to reduce liver fat, even without weight loss.

3: Exercise: It’s important to stay active when you have NAFLD. A good goal to shoot for is at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

4: Avoid foods with added sugars-Dietary sugars such as fructose and sucrose have been linked to NAFLD development.

5: Take an omega-3 supplement–A peer review study suggests that taking an omega-3 supplement may reduce liver fat.

6: Avoid known liver irritants–Certain substances can put excess stress on your liver. They include alcohol and certain over-the-counter medications.

7: Consider taking vitamin E--Vitamin E is one antioxidant that may reduce inflammation caused by NAFLD. Must take all components of vitamin E. This would include Mixed Tocopherols and Tocotrienols

8: Consider Herbs--A 2018 paper identified certain herbs, supplements, and spices that have been used as alternative treatments for NAFLD. Compounds shown to have positive effects on liver health include turmeric, milk thistle, resveratrol, and green tea.

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.

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. SEE STUDY IN JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY STUDY HERE.

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.

Do you have chronic health problems (possibly from toxic exposure)?

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 and have my assistant call you for any additional information and let you know if you might be a good fit for my clinic. It’s complimentary, 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.