Outstanding Clinical Response in 3 Short Weeks

I am going to take a departure from my follow-up to the "Functional Endocrinology" discussion that I initiated in the previous blog to share with you the results reported by a patient this morning (8:00 a.m.) following 3 weeks of patient "customized" nutritional supplementation following his Functional Blood Chemistry Analaysis (FBCA) in conjunction with his Applied Kinesilogical (AK) findings. Mr. X completed for me his Metabolic Assessment Form (MAF) on May 11, 2010 and he listed his 5 major health concerns in order of importance as follows:

1) Inability and desire to focus on large, complex tasks-procrastination

2) Poor memory

3) Lack of motivation and energy (except for spearfishing)

4) Irritability/feeling of being overwhelmed by obligations

5) Desire to lose weight

According to the patient, the first 4 complaints involving mental/emotional status (as you recall from Blog #2, one of the 3 sides of our AK "triad of health" equilateral triangle is the mental/emotional aspect) had discernible improvement of approximately "20%". From my perspective as his doctor and as a clinician, this is quite dramatic because it is evidentiary of the fact that a profound shift in brain neurochemistry has been initiated and sustained, and it is "palpable" to the patient. Perhaps more significantly to him however, and is easily quantifiable, is the 9-10 pound reduction in weight that he has experienced, in the absence of any form of exercise, merely by beginning to re-establish and therefore normalize insulin receptor-site sensitivity with one of several products formulated and manufactured by Apex Energetics in conjunction with both liver and gall bladder digestive support and detoxification that I had additionally prescribed. So, what's the moral of Mr. X's story? First and foremost, he has been engaged in the ongoing waging of the "Battle of the Bulge" for nearly a decade now and is quite capable of deriving weight reduction via the ketogenic dietary management approach championed by Dr. Robert Atkins, but like so many, the weight concern primarily "yo-yos". However, FBCA revealed other considerations that would never respond favorably to the "Atkins Diet" and would otherwise have gone undiagnosed or unnoticed in a typical, traditional medical environment, and quite frankly if left unattended to will become seriously problematic at some point in the future (I will address plasma Homocysteine and its being a major risk factor in cardiovascular risk shortly).

I'd like to take this moment to state something for the record here, so that as I continue to disseminate content regarding functional medicine and its clinical application now and in the future, it is transparently clear as to why we as holistic and FUNCTIONALLY trained practitioners can do so much for you NOW, PRE-EMPTIVELY, BEFORE pathology settles in, whereas you general practitioner, ie the M.D. can do so little. Here's the rub: We as clinicians treat, you, the patient, according to our respective type and level of training. That is to say, if you do NOT have some terribly aberrant finding on your lab work that is clearly indicative of PATHOLOGY, then the likelihood of any type of intervention being taken MEDICALLY is slim and none...not because your M.D. is totally incompetent, and I do mean this sincerely, but because he/she have no clinical basis upon which to place you on some sort of prescription medication because you do NOT have a pharmaceutically related concern. Comparatively, when interpreting one's blood chemistry FUNCTIONALLY, you, the patient, light up like the Disney Electric Light Parade to a practitioner trained as I have been.

In Mr. X's case, as so many metabolic syndrome/overweight and obesity cases we as clinicians always want to "knee-jerk" and jump to the "hypothyroid"conclusion, which is very often the case, however in this instance the MAF in conjunction with the very healthy thyroid lab values clearly ruled out sluggish thyroid performance as a primary concern but those 2 pieces of clinical information (the MAF and FBCA) ruled in insulin resistance , ie, a blood sugar handling problem, as my primary focus. I provided the appropriate nutritional formulations from Apex Energetics, and VOILA!...Mr. X's response exceeded even my cosmically optimistic prognosis, and again, bear in mind I have not prescribed a single neuromodulatory brain supplement (you all know them as Gingko, SAM-e, Bacopa, Vinpocetine, Gotu Kola, Kava Kava, etc), yet the mental/emotional/cognitive state has responded merely by balancing and restoring normal cellular physiology in a mere 3 week period! As an aside, Mr. X's white blood cell differential panel demonstrated a pattern suggestive of a chronic viral infection that may have been manifesting as a low level vertiginous type of complaint (ie, vague intermittent and random dizziness), which completely resolved again because of the formulations that were prescribed as a direct clinical interpretation of his NEED to enhance his virus fighting capability of his immune system, also Apex Energetics products. As my mentor, the genius, Dr. George Goodheart was fond of saying, "Diagnose the need, provide the need, observe the result."

This is, quite simply ladies and gentlemen, a perfect clinical illustration of how FBCA and AK dovetail one another in a clinical environment such as the Boca Wholistic Health Center, where the patient experiences a TOTAL patient approach in a genuine holistically integrated environment and the world becomes a better place because individuals that FEEL good, tend to LOOOOK good and when you smile, God smiles back upon you.

May God Bless each and every one of you and your loved ones.

Now go out and get me those blood chemistries! :)

Functional Endocrinology and its Impact on YOUR Health

So, what exactly is "Functional Endocrinology", and moreover, "what impact does it have on my health" per se? EVERYTHING! to do with you, your health, your future, as in how you age, how you can modulate genetic predispositions, how you can invoke pre-emptive measures today to employ preventative "medicine" etc, etc...so, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes I will elaborate briefly.

First, "endocrinology" can be defined as follows by Wikipedia:

Endocrinology (from Greek ἔνδον, endo, "within"; κρῑνω, krīnō, "to separate"; and -λογία, -logia) is a branch of medicine dealing with disorder of the endocrine system and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation (including histogenesis and organogenesis) and the coordination of metabolism, respiration, excretion, movement, reproduction, and sensory perception depend on chemical cues, substances synthesised and secreted by specialized cells.
Endocrinology is concerned with the study of the biosynthesis, storage, chemistry, and physiological function of hormones and with the cells of the endocrine glands and tissues that secrete them.
The endocrine system consists of several glands, in different parts of the body, that secrete hormones directly into the blood rather than into a duct system. Hormones have many different functions and modes of action; one hormone may have several effects on different target organs, and, conversely, one target organ may be affected by more than one hormone.

Hence, in lay terms, the endocrine system, in conjunction and coordination with the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and all nerves that branch from brain and spinal cord), runs THE SHOW. When I was a student way back in the 20th century before the days of computers and "wireless communicators" (how did we ever exist today's generation wonders?), one of my physiology professors then stated that the two systems were so inextricably tied to one another and therefore co-dependant on each other for functional integration, that the two "separate" systems should more appropriately be combined and singularly renamed the "neuroendocrine system", a term that has gained more and more traction recently.

Functional endocrinology involves the evaluation of body systems that respects and addresses alterations in metabolism as interdependant and complex, as opposed to merely identifying hormonal levels that may appear to be elevated or depressed. Hence, when addressing patients with hormonal disorders, a complex evaluation that ranges from the synthesis/manufacture of the specific hormone all the way on through to its end use (ie, its ultimate role that it plays on a cellular level) should always be, and is always considered by clinicians trained to treat as I do. That is to say, many a patient is erroneously placed on either synthetic or bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (HRT), without ever investigating the underlying cause as to the fundamental reason WHY??? that a particular hormone is in a state of aberration, and therefore the body can only function aberrantly as a direct consequence of the disruption in biochemical messaging.

More to follow...