“Process” is the word-of-the-month
There is often a word that will come up frequently and this month it was the word “PROCESS”.
What I always want patients to understand is that health and healing is a process. When you walk in my door, you didn’t get to this state of health overnight, it took you a lifetime to get to this stage, therefore the process of getting you moving in a healthy direction will take some time. This is not a “quick fix”, “magic pill” type of medicine.
Neither is health a destination, it is a process. Health and healing is always a work in progress. It is the things you do everyday on a consistent basis that is going to lead you on your healing journey. It’s those little decisions you make on a daily basis that will make the difference in your health. For example, if you eat one good meal a week, that’s great, but it’s not enough. If you are the weekend warrior and have one great workout a week, that’s great, but it’s not enough. You need to eat well on a daily basis, you need to exercise on a consistent basis. These are the things that are going to make a difference in the process of your health.
So cheers to you for making all those little but significant, good decisions about your health on a consistent basis, because that’s what will make the big difference in the end by truly supporting the process of healing.
Yours in Health,
Advanced Naturopathic Medical Centre
Featured Article
Cancer – A Personal Crusade
Both my parents have had cancer. My dad in 2002 and my mom in 2009.
When someone as close to you as your mom or your dad gets this scary cancer diagnosis, it is difficult to think straight because you are so emotionally involved.
Now I see many patients with cancer in my practice, I help them and their families to make tough decisions regarding their treatments. I’m a strong believer in laying out the facts, supplying all the information and helping patients to make informed decisions. I have found that the patients who have the best clinical outcomes are those who truly believe that their treatment option will heal them. For example if a person believes that the only way to get rid of my cancer is through chemotherapy and radiation, then they need to do chemo or radiation and I will do supportive treatments with them. In contrast, if a patient believes that they can heal their cancer with natural means, then I will work with them to find a treatment plan that will work best for them.
When my mom was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to lay out the facts and let her make her own decision on what treatment plan to follow. You need to understand the state of mind that my family was in when making these decisions. My dad died of pancreatic cancer in 2002 and he had gone the natural therapeutic route. So my family was very scared of my mom’s cancer diagnosis, scared of her going the natural therapeutic route and scared of my mom dying, understandably. My brother spoke to the oncology nurse who put the fear of God in him, telling him that my mom needed to do radiation if she wanted to live and that if she didn’t this type of cancer would spread to the brainstem and hugely affect her quality of life. So my brother was fully on board that my mom needed to do radiation. Our family and friends don’t have a strong understanding of the aggressive cancer treatments that I offer in my practice and more think of naturopathic medicine as a nice medicine for less serious problems like digestive issues and allergies. I was in a place where I wanted my mom to make her own decision and wanted her to know that she has my support with whatever decision she makes.
Back in 2002 when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was still a student at the naturopathic college. Between my 2nd and 3rd year at the college when most of the students are taking the summer off to study for 2nd year board exams, I went back to university and completed my entire 4th year in 4 months including my thesis so that I could graduate from my Bachelor of Science with honors and I did write my naturopathic board exams that summer as well. If that wasn’t enough, I was also doing a ton of research into natural cancer treatments. It was great to be in a university setting and have access to all this research in scientific journals. It is actually quite astonishing to find that there have been some well researched, effective cancer cures that have been published in the conventional scientific medical journals, yet virtually ignored by conventional medicine. My well-researched thesis on natural cancer therapies was later published in the Townsend Letter.
My dad was offered the Whipple Surgery by conventional medicine, where the success rates are equivalent to not having the surgery, and the surgery is accompanied by a long recovery time and lowered quality of life. He decided to follow a natural protocol called the Kelley method that had a very high success rate in pancreatic cancer. I believe that the Kelley method has a great amount of efficiency, though there are a number of other therapies that could be used adjunctively to increase success, but that’s what I know now, not what I knew then. Unfortunately, my dad died at the young age of 54 after nine short months of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
This is what started my on-going research into effective natural cancer therapies. I started speaking with researchers and health care practitioners, traveling around the world to attend conferences and go to spend time with doctors who were having success treating cancer and finding out what exactly they were doing. Over the years, I’ve accumulated great amounts of knowledge in the area of natural cancer therapies from a number of great leaders in medicine. I have the great honour to sit from a different advantage point, to be able to work with patients who are truly motivated to get better and are willing to make many changes in their lifestyles and follow my often demanding treatment plan. What I get to see is a lot of successful cancer treatments, a lot of cancer remissions, a lot of people being able to regain their health and regain their lives. Then on occasion, I will sit back and look at my dad’s cancer and say “if only I knew what I know now”…..but I know that’s living with regrets and not living in the present.
So now my mom is diagnosed with cancer, she decides to do the radiation which is 6 weeks of daily radiation. As anyone who has gone through this themselves or seen a friend or family member go through this process, this is hard. This is a treatment that is so difficult on the body and I could physically see my mom’s health deteriorating. At the end of her treatments, she was weak, she slept most of the day, she was not herself, but the tumours were gone and she was deemed cancer-free. Unfortunately, a year later the tumours returned. And a year later she was still weak, tired and fragile from the radiation treatments. Her oncologist told her that she had already received the maximum amount of radiation and that they would recommend that she do chemotherapy. At this point, I did pipe in with my opinion. I asked my mom to not do the chemotherapy. I knew she was weak and fragile and her body would be incredibly challenged by the chemotherapy. I asked her to fly out to Calgary, spend a few weeks at the clinic here and get some intensive natural treatments here.
She flew out for 6 weeks and received daily treatments including high dose vitamin IVs, laser treatments, electron footbaths, ozone therapy, visceral manipulation, neuro-viscero regulation therapy, mistletoe injections, neural therapy, dietary changes and a full oral supplement plan. When she returned home she found a doctor to administer the high dose vitamin IVs and mistletoes injections, she continued on the oral supplement plan and diet plan and she got her own electron footbath to do at home daily. In addition, I put her in touch with a biological dentist to remove all the metal from her mouth. At her next scan with her oncologist, to her oncologist’s dismay, the tumours were completely gone. She continues to get checked every 6 months and her scans continue to be clear. She’s stronger now, she no longer sleeps all day and night, she’s got energy and she’s back to being herself. She has the energy to play with her active grandchildren. She comes back to Calgary to visit every few months usually for a couple weeks. While she is in town, I do get her to do some intensive therapies.
I will continue to further my knowledge and remain on the forefront of medicine to be able to offer my patients the highest quality of services and the best therapies. This isn’t just my job, this is my personal crusade.
Your Health Questions Answered
What is the Problem with Cow’s Dairy?
Cow’s dairy has a protein within it called ‘casein’. This is a very large protein that is difficult to effectively breakdown and metabolize. Since our body’s cannot effectively break it down, it will sit in your digestive tracts and cause inflammation. The reason this protein is large is because it is designed for the cow’s digestive tracts which are considerable larger animals than humans.
Cow’s are routinely given hormones and antibiotics to make them grow faster, bigger and stronger, and these substances make its way into the milk that is consumed by humans. There has been little to no research done on the long-term effects of these hormones and antibiotics on human health. The hormones consumed throw off our own delicate hormone balance. The antibiotics consumed kill off our healthy bacterial flora which is necessary for good digestion and a healthy immune system.
The commercialization of cow’s milk has made it a lot different than it was even 50 years ago. Fifty years ago, cow’s milk was freshly squeezed and delivered to your door on the same day from a local farm, where you knew exactly where the milk was coming from, what the farmer’s were feeding the cow and how the cow was being treated. The dairy industry is very different now, it is now a big business industry. Cows are given hormones to make them produce more milk than normal and antibiotics to try to ward off infections. The milk is all pooled together from a number of different cows and different farms. The milk is then heated in a procedure called “pasteurization”, which kills off any bacteria in the milk but also kills off any healthy bacteria from the milk and denatures beneficial enzymes. This leaves the milk with a lot less beneficial substances, a lot more chemicals than it did 50 years ago when you got fresh, raw milk delivered to your door. Due to the homogenization and pasteurization process milk no longer has the benefits of raw milk.
Featured Therapy
Visceral Manipulation – GET YOUR ORGANS MOVING
In order for you to be healthy and reach your optimal health, your organs need to be able to move freely. If your organs are able to slip and slide on each other then they are able to function optimally.
When your organs become inflamed, they soon go through the healing process and will adhere to the tissues around them. This will put your organs into a more rigid state. This rigid state can impede proper blood flow, lymphatic drainage and nerve conduction to specific organs.
Your organs can become inflamed for a number of different reasons. Some of the ways that your organs become inflamed are from injuries, surgeries, infections, food intolerances, heavy metal toxicity, environmental toxins or neuro-viscero conflicts.
Visceral Manipulation therapy is the effective solution to get your organs moving. Visceral Manipulation is a gentle, manual therapy that releases the restrictions or adhesions and allows the organs to move freely.
Here’s a common scenario:
A patient presents with mid-back pain, neck pain and limited shoulder motion. When we investigate further they have had a few colds or viral infections throughout the year.
What has happened is the cold or viral infection has caused the lungs to become inflamed. As the infection clears and the lungs go through the healing process, the lungs will adhere to the tissues around them and thus put them into a rigid state. With every breath the pull of the adhesions alters the movement patterns of the nearby structures, shifting the rib motion and pulling on the spine. These restrictions appear symptomatically as mid-back and neck pain, as well as limited motion in the shoulder.
Visceral Manipulation releases the adhesions of the lungs and enables them to function optimally, allows the ribs to return to normal motion, and the back, neck and shoulder pain can be resolved.
This scenario highlights just one of the hundreds of possible ramifications of a small dysfunction – magnified by thousands of repetitions each day. This also explains how pain can be related to restrictions in organs.
Featured Recipe
When I was doing my internship at the Paracelus Klinik in Switzerland, I tacked on a couple days and visited the South of France. I went to this restaurant on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Nice, which was not only a beautiful setting but the food was amazing. I ordered this salad, it was so simple but so delicious. I tried to recreate it when I got home. It’s not the exact same, but I’d say it’s a close second.
Quinoa Salad
1 cup of chopped celery
1 cup of chopped cucumber
¼ cup of green onions
½ cup of halved grape tomatoes
1/4 cup of quinoa
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp of pesto
½ cup of crumbled goat’s feta
Cook the quinoa with ½ cup of water. Mix all ingredients together.
