DocNet | Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health

Leyla Weighs In: Getting to the root of acne

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:11:14 +0000

By Leyla Muedin MS, RD, CDN
Acne is not just the scourge of teenagers swimming in raging hormones, but in adults too who may have hormonal imbalances (i.e., perimenopause) or other health conditions that present as inflammation leading to a breakout.
Rather than resorting to antibiotics which will eventually cause imbalances in the ecosystem of the gut, or dangerous drugs such as Accutane which can cause ulcerative colitis, or skin creams which trade one problem for another: acne for dry, stinging skin, it’s important to identify the cause of breakouts.
Sugars and other refined carbohydrates feed the propionibacterium responsible for acne. Proinflammatory vegetable oils used in chips, fried food and other heavily processed foods only worsen the problem.
Bad bacteria in the gut can manifest as acne on the face, chest and back (‘bacne’). Testing for dysbiosis will help identify it so we can get rid of the bacteria. Then, implementing an appropriate probiotic treatment to reinoculate the gut with beneficial bacteria will help reduce if not completely eliminate breakouts due to bacterial overgrowth.

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Ronald Hoffman, MD- Top supplements for immune support this flu season

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:08:32 +0000

ImmPower – AHCC to increase natural killer (NK) cell activity and immune support. One capsule twice daily.
AHCC (Active Hexose Correlated Compounds) are beta glucan compounds derived from mushrooms. They specifically activate NK cells, which combat infections and cancer. In Japan, AHCC is used extensively as a medication to support immunity in cancer patients undergoing chemo and radiation.
In research performed at Drexel University in Philadelphia, AHCC was found to increase flu survival in experimental animals, to minimize symptoms and to hasten recovery.
Probiotics – Beneficial bacteria/flora to help achieve and support optimal immune function. One to six probiotic capsules daily depending on symptoms.
A little appreciated fact is that 70 percent of our immune system is located within the GI tract, predominantly in Peyer’s Patches that line the gut with immune tissue. These defense sentinels constantly sift the intestinal contents for immune messages. Probiotics prime the intestinal immune system for normal resistance.
Studies have shown that merely by taking probiotics, upper respiratory infections can be reduced in severity and frequency. One such study from Scandinavia demonstrated that office workers experienced less absenteeism when supplemented with probiotics.
Vitamin D -The “antibiotic vitamin,” critical to optimal immune function. 5,000 IU daily through cold and flu season.
If you’ve listened to Health Talk, you’ve heard my interviews with Dr. John Cannell of www.vitaminDcouncil.com discussing the immune-protective benefits of D.
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Dr. Richard Nahas- Lymph and the Brain

Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:04:11 +0000

This recent discovery of a lymphatic system in the brain has been reported as a revolution in neuroscience. It was always assumed that there was no connection between the brain and the immune system of the body. But powerful new evidence, which includes beautiful images, shows that a rich network of lymphatic vessels travel along the veins that drain the brain.
We treat patients with post-concussion syndrome, chronic pain and other disorders. These are often triggered by relatively minor injuries, for which the severity of the symptoms just doesn’t make sense. But they can be explained by a few key ideas that are common principles of integrative medicine.

there are long sheets of fascia that weave through all the tissues of the body, creating planes of movement that extend from the trunk to the extremities
restrictions in fascia in a previously injured area can affect function and movement in that area – and along the entire plane
pulling and tightness from restrictions in fascia can affect lymphatic drainage
lymphatic vessels are innervated by the sympathetic nerves – the part of the nervous system that controls the stress response

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Richard Jaffe, Esq.- The Regulation of Stem Cells

Sat, 09 Sep 2017 15:56:06 +0000

In the last year or two, the regulation of stem cells has dramatically changed. My take on it is that the FDA got tired of the wild west stem cell clinics which had proliferated in the mid to late 2000’s. I take some of the credit/blame for it as I was one of the first attorneys (if not the first to clear doctors to use fat cells for autologous use for arguably homologous use. Here is some background:
From a regulatory point of view, there are two types of stem cells: embryonic and adult. There is not much to say about the regulation of the clinical use of embryonic stem cells because embryonic stem cells are not in clinical use. So long as President Bush continues to bar the development of new embryonic stem cell lines, it is unlikely that such cells will be in clinical use anytime soon.
Adult stem cells come in two basic flavors: cells obtained from living, breathing humans, and stem cells obtained from umbilical cords or placental materials. Stem cells are either autologous, meaning that they come from the same individual, or allogenic, meaning that they come from a different individual.
Another important concept is whether the use of the cells is for a homologous use or purpose, which is a use of the stem cells for the same type or purpose as the origin of that particular stem cell. Thus, a homologous use for a stem cell obtained from the bone marrow would be for a blood or hematological condition. A nonhomologous use would be for any other use or purpose. Using umbilical cord blood stem cells to treat a disease such as multiple sclerosis or ALS would be a nonhomologous use.

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Dr. Rebecca Boyd- Relieve Bladder Pain Now!

Wed, 09 Aug 2017 15:53:02 +0000

Are you suffering with chronic pain or pressure over your bladder? Do you feel like you have to pee frequently, usually in small amounts? Do you feel like you have a urinary tract infection, but when you get tested, it’s negative? Painful intercourse?
More than 4 million women suffer with these symptoms of interstitial cystitis, so you are not alone.
Many women do get improvement in their interstitial cystitis with:
-Dietary changes
-Supplements
-Bladder training
-Physical Therapy
-Anti-inflammatories (Aleve, Motrin and others); Anti-histamines (Claritin and others); Tricyclic Antidepressants
-Pentosan (Elmiron) which specifically treats IC, but may take up to 6 months to see improvement
Some have even gone above and beyond in treatment:
–Bladder distention (inserting a catheter into the bladder and stretching it water or gas)
–Bladder instillation (inserting a catheter into the bladder and placing a medication or combination of medicines for approximately 15 minutes)

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Is Fructose Really That Bad For You? (Ronald Hoffman, MD)

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 12:20:41 +0000

I remember a time in the 70s and 80s when I was just getting started in the field of nutrition when fructose was considered a harmless sweetener for diabetics. Marketed as “diabetic sugar,” fructose syrup was dispensed in clear plastic containers and consumed with impunity by persons with blood sugar problems.
The embrace of fructose as an alternative to glucose was fostered by the observation that it evoked a lower blood sugar response than other sweeteners. Fructose was found to have one of the lowest glycemic index (GI) values—20, as compared to glucose, and its disaccharide maltose—100 and 105 respectively.
One putative advantage of fructose was that it seemed to get “under the radar” of the body’s insulin responses. Fructose—unlike sucrose, glucose, malt sugars and starches—not requiring insulin for its metabolism, did not appear to stoke the insulin surges which could lead to insulin resistance, a pathway to metabolic syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes.
This led the American Diabetes Association to endorse fructose as a preferable alternative to other sugars from 1979 to 2001—albeit with a caution about high intakes.
All this changed in 2004 with the publication of a landmark review—one of the most frequently cited in nutrition literature—entitled “Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.”
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Histamine intolerance: A new way of looking at allergies (Ronald Hoffman, MD)

Sun, 10 Jul 2016 15:15:49 +0000

By Ronald Hoffman, MD
Do you have allergies? Sneezing, wheezing, burning eyes, or flushing, itchy skin with hives? Do certain foods trigger stomach cramps or diarrhea? Or do you suffer from frequent headaches or migraines, bouts of nausea, severe menstrual cramps, or panic attacks characterized by a racing heart?
You’ve dutifully tried allergy shots—sometimes for years!—to no avail. Antihistamines work for you, but only partially. Food allergy tests keep coming up negative. There seem to be no clear dietary precipitants—your food reactions seem to be all over the map. But your doctor insists your allergy blood tests and skin tests don’t come up positive for foods. Still, you try popular gluten-free, dairy-free or candida diets, but they only make minor dents in your symptoms.
The answer may lie in a new understanding of something called histamine intolerance. Histamine, of course, is what antihistamines are supposed to suppress. Histamine is part of our bodies’ natural response to insults or invaders. It prompts blood vessels to swell and fluid to leak from capillaries, causing swelling. Think of the itching you get at the site of a mosquito bite, in response to the foreign proteins deposited by the insect’s saliva.
Histamine intolerance is actually a “pseudo-allergy,” which is why it’s not picked up by conventional allergy blood tests that measure IgE. It results when histamine levels soar in the body.
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Supplement of the week: DIM (Ronald Hoffman, MD)

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:13:06 +0000

by Ronald Hoffman, MD
Every now and then, I like to highlight a particular supplement that my audience may not be aware of, and go in-depth about its uses, benefits, and potential drawbacks.
This week, I’d like to talk to you about DIM.
Diindolylmethane (DIM) is a versatile nutraceutical for which I find many uses in my practice. It is naturally obtained via dietary consumption of cruciferous vegetables. Brussel Sprouts, Garden Cress, Mustard Greens,  Turnip, and Kale are rich sources of glucobrassicans, the mother compounds of beneficial glucosinolates like indole-3-carbinol, which is metabolized into DIM. However, heat treatment, particularly boiling and microwaving, degrades myrosinase, the plant compound responsible for bio-transformation of glucobrassicans into useful molecules like DIM and sulforaphane.
An advantage of supplementation with DIM over consumption of large amounts of raw cruciferous vegetables is avoidance of goitrogenic isothiocyanates. These compounds compete with iodine for binding in the thyroid, potentially contributing to hypothyroidism. DIM is thought not to have goitrogenic properties. To obtain the benefits of DIM contained in just two capsules per day, it is estimated that the average person would have to consume two pounds of raw cabbage family vegetables per day, an intake that might court the danger of thyroid suppression.
DIM possesses hormone-modulating effects. It may do so in several ways. Studies suggest it protects the body from xenoestrogens, compounds that mimic and intensify the effects of estrogen. DIM has also been shown to favorably alter the ratios of “good” to “bad” estrogen. In the prostate, DIM has been found to antagonize the effects of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), an excess of which is associated with risk of enlarged prostate and prostate cancer.
Thus, DIM’s application to hormone-dependent cancers (breast and uterine in women, prostate in men), as well as to the condition of “estrogen dominance”, wherein high estrogen levels promote symptoms like breast pain, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, PMS, bloating, anxiety, fat accumulation, and heavy menstruation.
Because DIM combats excess estrogen in females, it might help as a diet aid for women who struggle with a pear-shaped fat distribution.
Another theoretical benefit of DIM may be to offset the potential risks of hormone-dependent cancers in patients taking hormone replacement therapy with estrogen or testosterone.
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Natural Strategies for Keeping Your Vision: Cataracts (Jonathan Wright, MD)

Tue, 24 May 2016 13:57:43 +0000

By Jonathan V. Wright, MD

I’ve written about an effective, well-researched cataract treatment previously:
N-acetylcarnosine eyedrops. Another option for treating cataracts is a combination of Chinese botanicals called “Hachimi-jio-gan,” or Ba-wei-wan. This treatment has been used for centuries in China to treat cataracts, and even has a bit of clinical evidence to support it. In a human study of early cataracts conducted in Japan, Hachimi-jio-gan was associated with lessening of cataracts in 60 percent of the volunteers. In the USA, Hachimi-jio-gan is available as a (much easier to pronounce) formula called “Clinical Nutrients for the Eyes”, which is available from natural food stores, compounding pharmacies, and the Tahoma Clinic Dispensary (www.TahomaDispensary.com).
Rounding out the natural treatment options for cataracts is a single, simple nutrient: Vitamin A. Decades ago, an honest ophthalmologist with a sense of humor wrote a letter to the editor of a medical journal “complaining” that his income from cataract surgery had gone down by over 2/3 since he started recommending vitamin A to all his patients with any degree of cataract at all. I recommend 30,000 IU of vitamin A (not beta-carotene) for anyone who wants to prevent or treat cataracts. In fact, the only people who shouldn’t use this amount are very small children (who don’t get cataracts anyway) and pregnant women.
And while we’re on the topic of cataract prevention, one of the most important things you can do is to eliminate all sources of sugar and refined carbohydrates from your diet! Researchers have found that part of the cause of cataracts is the lens of the eye trying to “help” the body lower high blood sugar by “packing it away” within the lens, which gradually obscures the vision, which explains why individuals with type 2 diabetes have a much greater incidence of cataracts than people with normal blood sugar levels. So even though not eating sugar and refined carbohydrates is better for everyone’s health, it’s especially important for cataract prevention if you have diabetes—type 2 or type 1—in your family. Eliminating all sources of the milk sugar lactose (milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, and many soft cheeses) will reduce your risk of cataract, too.
In addition to eliminating refined sugar and carbohydrates, you may also want to consider incorporating some cataract-preventing nutrients (other than just vitamin A) into your daily supplement regimen. Riboflavin, vitamin C, quercitin, zinc, and carotenoids have all been associated with cataract risk reduction. And one study found that people with higher serum vitamin E levels had 50 percent less risk of developing cataracts than people with lower levels. (When you’re supplementing with vitamin E, remember to use mixed tocopherols, not just alpha-tocopherol.)
As a side note, patent-medicine “cortisone” preparations that are prescribed to suppress symptoms of asthma, severe allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, and other more severe inflammatory conditions always increase cataract risk. So if you’re using prescription patent-medicine “cortisone,” check with a physician skilled and knowledgeable in nutritional and natural medicine for effective alternatives.
Thanks for reading!

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Natural Strategies for Keeping your Hearing (Jonathan Wright, MD)

Tue, 24 May 2016 13:51:06 +0000

By Jonathan V. Wright, MD

“Eh? What’s that you say? Louder, please. No, don’t bother writing it down, can’t see very well, either! Oh, never mind…I probably won’t remember it, anyway!”
If you chuckled when you read that, it’s probably because it sounds familiar—whether it’s something you remember your parents or grandparents saying, or whether you’ve uttered similar things yourself. And while it sounds funny on the surface, the unfortunate truth underlying phrases like these is that varying degrees of failing hearing, vision, and mental function are still considered to be “normal” with advancing age.
But they need not be “normal” for you! You’ve read before about prevention and treatment of “age-related” hearing, vision, and cognitive function problems. This time, we’ll review them all in one place, while you—and I—can still remember to how to lower your chances of going deaf, blind, or losing your mind!
The hormone deficiency that could be destroying your hearing Dennis Trune, Ph.D., of Oregon Health Sciences University, pioneered the research showing that the naturally occurring adrenal steroid hormone aldosterone can often reverse hearing loss in animals.
Based on Dr. Trune’s work, I’ve had aldosterone levels tested in many individuals with hearing loss (most of them “older”), and a significant number turned out to have low or “low normal” measurements. But after taking bio-identical aldosterone in “physiologic” quantities—amounts that would normally be present in adult human bodies—more than half of these individuals have regained a significant proportion of their “lost” hearing.
I’ve been surprised by two aspects of bio-identical aldosterone treatment for hearing loss. First, when it works, it works relatively rapidly, restoring a significant degree of hearing within the first two months. In fact, a few of the people I’ve worked with have literally heard improvement within just two to three weeks.
The other thing that surprised me about aldosterone therapy is that it’s capable of restoring a significant degree of hearing even years after the hearing loss initially occurred. So far, the longest interval I’ve witnessed was in an 87-year-old man who’d lost his hearing 13 years prior to regaining a significant degree of it using aldosterone.
None of the people I’ve worked with have had any adverse effects from aldosterone therapy, likely because the use of bio-identical, physiologic-dose aldosterone restores levels to those that would be found in the body anyway.
I’ve focused this treatment on individuals with hearing loss and low or low-normal aldosterone levels, but I do know of one individual—an M.D.—who decided to try this approach for his hearing loss even though his aldosterone levels were quite normal. His hearing did improve, but unless you too are an M.D., D.O., or N.D. who can prescribe bio-identical aldosterone and order lab tests for sodium and potassium (sodium and potassium regulation are two of aldosterone’s major responsibilities), please don’t take aldosterone, bio-identical or not, if your measured levels are perfectly normal!
That’s all for now!
-Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.

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