HEALTH & HARMONY

By Dr. Nancy Gahles, DC, CCH

Genetically Modified Foods

Do you know what you are eating? Are you aware that recent estimates show upwards of 70% of processed foods on supermarket shelves, from soda to soup, crackers to condiments, contain genetically engineered ingredients. (The Center for Food Safety).

88% of corn, 91% of soybeans and 88% of cotton are genetically modified.  These are the base ingredients in many of our foods and are those that are fed to animals such as cows from which we get our milk and other diary products in addition to consuming the meat as foods.

So, what are genetically modified organisms (GMO)? 

According to the World Health Organization, “GMO’s are organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.  The technology is often called “modern biotechnology”, “gene technology”,”recombinant DNA technology” or “genetic engineering”.  It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species. Such methods are used to create GM plants-which are then used to grow GM food crops”.

So, why should you care?

This technology has fundamentally altered some of our most important staple food crops. Taking genetic material from one organism and inserting it into the permanent genetic code of another has enabled biotechnologists to create “marvels” such as “super” pigs with human growth genes, fish with cattle growth genes, tomoatoes with flounder genes and thousands of other genetic variations of palnts, animals and insects. 

Sounds like fun and super science? NOT! A plethora of studies from independent researchers have demonstrated serious health risks to humans, and damage to our ecosystem and environment from genetically engineered foods.

While we are far from understanding the cumulative effects on our long term health, renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava believes that GMO’s are a MAJOR contributor to the deteriorating health in America. 

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has called on all physicians to prescribe diets WITHOUT GM foods to ALL patients. They called for a moratorium on GMO’s, long-term independent studies, and labeling. They stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system.  There is more than a causal association between GM foods and adverse health effects.  There is causation...”

As a doctor, I have seen a significant rise in food allergies, asthma, immune disorders, diabetes, infertility and autism over the last decade. While the evidence of direct causation is not there yet, GMO safety expert Arpad Pusztai says that changes in immune status are “a consistent feature of all animal studies.”  From Monsanto’s, (the giant producer of GMO’s), own research to government funded trials, rodents fed Bt corn had significant immune reactions. This toxin, Bt, is now showing up in the cord blood of newborns.

Soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%.  Ohio allergist, Dr. John Boyles, said, “ I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.” (www.naturalnews.com)

Despite the known studies indicating wide ranging health risks, Congress has done little to protect the consumer. “Unsuspecting consumers by the tens of millions are being allowed to purchase and consume unlabeled genetically engineered foods, despite a finding by FDA scientists that these foods could pose serious health risks.” (Center for Food Safety).

When critical issues arise in society that need to be addressed, it is often the young adults that cry out for reform. The think tanks of our colleges and Universities cultivate students who step out of the box to ask the hard questions, expose fraud and deception and demand recourse.

I spoke to one such student on a recent trip to Barcelona where I had the pleasure of an extended conversation on the ethics of introducing GMO foods into our food supply without the knowledge or consent of the consumer.

Michael Dier, our own from Rockaway, is a student studying abroad this semester in Barcelona. Apart from an intelligent, lively discussion on the pros and cons of genetic engineering, I was privy to reading his white paper on the ethical considerations inherent in the industry of bioengineering.  His accurate reporting of both sides of the argument for and against and his capture of the salient points of each necessarily led to the conclusion that big corporations have the money and power to skew studies in their favor and misrepresent the truth to the public. This allows them to exercise some control over governmental regulatory agencies and reap enormous profits at our expense. 

“From the time genetic engineering started being practiced, much controversy has risen over whether or not it is ethical to intervene with the natural evolution of the earth and the human race”, said Dier. Dier continues, “The fact that these companies market their food as “healthy” without actually knowing the effects of them is unethical. The uncertainty of GMO’s safety and their potential to throw the Earth and the human race off their own natural paths of evolution are enough reasons to stop their production immediately”. Dier advocates sticking with foods made by Mother Nature and calls for ethical considerations in labeling foods that are GMO so that consumers can make informed choices and have conscious control over their health.

I believe that this is a directive to all of us to inform ourselves, to contact our legislators and ask for bills supporting labeling of our foods. I would join in on the moratorium that the AAEM and Michael Dier call for on GMO production until we determine the safety issues more clearly from independent sources. I ask you to join us in creating a culture of wellness and health promotion. And I applaud Mr. Dier’s fine work on introducing the question of ethics into this conversation. Money and power should never be devoid of the ethical consideration of the consumer.

May The Blessings Be!

Important Link for Breast Cancer Survivors:

http://bettermedicine.net/news/philly-wellness-community/some-supplements-estrogen-effects-helpful-breast-cancer-survivors

Autumn Unveiling

Autumn is a time for unveiling. Autumn winds blow and the leaves fall unveiling, baring.
Unveiling, baring the tree is able to sustain itself through the winter.
The burden of heavy growth is a detriment in the cold winter.
Ice and snow collecting on the branches will cause them to break if they are overloaded.
Autumn unveils and lifts the heaviness.

Allowing for sustainable life through the winter months.
Autumn is a time for unveiling
and believing in the possibility
that life will sustain us
through the cold, harshness of winter.

Aches and Pains of Autumn

Download the PDF article "Aches and Pains of Autumn"

 

Download the PDF article "Aches and Pains of Autumn"     Autumn is the season that brings with it a plethora of changes in temperature, light and lifestyle. Along with these changes in the environment and in our school, work or social lives, the sensitivities of our bodies give us clues as to the uneasiness with which some of us make this transition from summer to fall.

As a Doctor of Chiropractic as well as a homeopath, this season brings to my office those people who have aches and pains in their back. Their joints are painful and much aggravated by the barometric pressure changes. It is common during the months of late September, October and November to have wide fluctuations in temperature throughout the day. For instance, one may wake up to damp, cool, windy weather only to have it change to hot, humidity by mid-day and back to damp and cool in the evening. People with compromised integrity of joint structures, as in curvatures of the spine, or in those with articular deficiencies such as loss of cartilage in arthritis or degenerative disc disease do not have the inherent flexibility within the spine or the hip joints that is necessary to accommodate rapid changes in barometric pressure.

These people suffer with the weather changes from damp to cold and from the temperature changes from warm to cold. Rubrics that generally represent this population of people are: Spine: Lumbar region, complaints of Cold: becoming after aggravates Generalities: Curvature of bones Generalities: Pain, joints Generalities: Autumn, aggravates Generalities: Temperature, change of aggravates Generalities: Weather, change of aggravates Generalities: Weather: warm to cold aggravates Generalities: Wet (damp) aggravates These rubrics are a place to start your repertorization and then, of course, the individualizing begins. Rubrics like Mind: Sadness, are very commonly associated with these physical complaints as the autumn is a melancholy time for some people, especially those predisposed to Seasonal Affective Disorder.

The top three remedy types that I am likely to see in my chiropractic office are Calcarea Phosphoricum, Pulsatilla and Rhus Toxicondren. Both Pulsatilla and Calc. Phos. have curvature of the spine and I find that the weakness of the back, poor posture and the evils of carrying heavy backpacks make this a remedy that I use frequently in school age children. The obvious Pulsatilla symptoms of weepiness and moodiness along with the wandering pains can help to distinguish the person who needs this remedy. Anticipation anxiety from new school or social environments are also characteristic of Pulsatilla. In teenage girls look for menstrual abnormalities. In preschool and grade schoolers look for clingy behavior and anxiety preventing sleep.

Concentration issues from mental exertion make it difficult to study while reading for a long periods of time. This is true of Pulsatilla as well as Calc. Phos. Both are day dreamers which is not a trait typically embraced by the educational system. This gives them anxiety and the Calc. Phos. child may be the one whose parent complains that they go to the nurse’s office frequently with pain so they can go home. ( Rubric: Home: desires to go). I see children of all ages in my office and the adults that predominate also have ailments from mental exertion. At this stage in their lives, their ideas are more fixed or rigid and this is reflected in their bodies. Generally, they have anxiety over money, business and family issues. Both affect quality of sleep and this too is a cause for back pain.

Our bodies reflect the mental/emotional states that we may not have the language to express. Seasonal sensitivities can give us clues that bear investigation into these realms as causative and preventive factors when treating musculoskeletal or neurological issues. Homeopathy offers us a dynamic counterpart to the chiropractic adjustment. Samuel Hahnemann, in the Organon of the Medical Art, describes his understanding of treating Innate in this way, “ Our life force, as spiritlike dynamis, cannot be seized and affected by damaging impingements on the healthy organism….the only way the medical-art practitioner can remove such morbid mistunements (diseases) from the dynamis is by spirit-like tunement- altering energies of the serviceable medicines upon our spirit- like life force. These energies are perceived through the ubiquitous feeling-sense of the nerves in the organism.” (Aphorism 16).  

Harnessing the Hormones with Homeopathy

by Nancy Gahles, DC, CCH, RSHom(NA) 

Having been privileged to live through infancy, childhood, pre-puberty, puberty, pregnancy, peri-menopause and menopause, I have developed a keen insight into attempting to harness those hormones during times of wild fluctuations.

Harnessing hormones has a particular visual impression for me as the term “hormone” comes from a word that means “to spur on”. I can picture myself during many of the periods of life I mentioned above as though I were a lone rider on a bucking bronco, holding on for dear life!

We are blessedly ignorant as to the infinite number of messages that hormones carry from glands to cells on a moment to moment basis, spurring them on to maintain the delicate balance of chemical levels in the bloodstream that keep us in a state of homeostasis or equilibrium. During times of transition in the normal course of growth and development, there can be fluctuations in the hormone levels that create a turbulence that is both profound and seemingly endless.

A Dizzying Array of Symptoms 

Mood disorders and physical symptoms represent a wide array of complaints relative to each stage. The most distressing symptoms are the ones which limit a person’s life in some area and this is what they will tell you are their presenting complaints. Generic to peri-menopause and menopause are vague symptoms that can span every organ system and leave an MD in a state of confusion. I recall the words of my doctor as I related my menopausal symptoms. “You are asking me to send you to every specialist there is.” Where to start? Start with a system of medicine that takes every organ system into account.  The art and science of homeopathy.

Individualizing Treatment 

In my family practice of chiropractic and homeopathy, I often chuckle to myself when I see the two or three year old girl with raging temper tantrums and earaches and inwardly predict her adolescent outbursts and her journey into menopause.  There is a saying that a leopard doesn’t change his spots so when individualizing treatment with homeopathy, it is not surprising to find that same girl in my office when she is 13 or 14 with mood swings, outbursts of screaming and a changeable menses from too late to too painful and any variation thereof.  This same adolescent may experience mood swings and physical symptoms throughout her life cycles that are characteristic of who she is and how she perceives her changes. Homeopathy is a system of medicine that addresses the suffering of the whole person and not the name of the disease. No two people who go through menopause experience it in the same way. Therefore, there is not one medicine for menopause. Rather, there will be a well selected remedy chosen for the person according to the totality of symptoms that they express.

Homeopathy is unique in this way, thus affording the homeopath the ability to find a remedy that has the greatest potential of stimulating the body’s own healing capacity to restore equilibrium.

Symptoms of Hormonal Changes 

The homeopathic repertory is replete with the myriad of symptoms associated with hormonal changes. Among the top contenders are: fatigue, joint and muscle aches and pains, GI issues, restless leg syndrome, insomnia, mood disturbances, irritability and depression, brain fog, forgetfulness, word hunting, anxiety, palpitations, hot flashes, urinary issues, dizziness, and weight gain.  There are several remedies from the Materia Medica that I have found to be commonly associated with the distresses of peri-menopause and menopause that I would like to give you a picture of so that you might recognize them in yourself or your patients. You will also come to see how it is that women who present with particular mental and emotional disturbances of menopause, along with physical symptoms, are overlooked or dismissed by their family doctor.

A Remedy for Mid-life Crisis  

Typical of hormonal fluctuations is the insidious nature at the onset of the change. In peri-menopause, one might begin to feel fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and, at the tender age of 45 or so, begin to sigh about getting old. There may be some loss of libido and a sense of sadness or depression about this state of low vitality. Frequent yeast infections, vaginal soreness and sensitivity compound the picture. At this age, the woman who has a career and a family may feel overwhelmed by her responsibilities and become irritable and then apathetic to her loved ones. She is much worse from the emotional demands and will likely be the first one out of the house to get to the gym to exercise and blow off steam. As these symptoms are vague and because they can be easily explained by her busy lifestyle, they may well be ignored until a serious depression sets in. The remedy Sepia, made from the ink of the cuttlefish, may be a good match for this person. The classic mid life crisis is reflected in the emotional state of Sepia. “All manifestations of love – marital, parental, filial, even close friendship- are a drain on her reserves of energy and an obstacle to her need for a certain amount of privacy and independence... She may see her children in direct conflict with her need for self-expression, and so she fights the emotional bonds that stifle the growth of her individuality…” (Catherine Coulter, Portraits of Homeopathic Medicine). These Sepia types may well have been the “bra burners” of the 1960’s; the leaders of the feminist movement.

While independence is a big theme for Sepia, the polarity of dependence will also be seen.  She feels forced to accept situations that are against her will and this sense of stasis is reflected in her mental activities which she will report as confusion, dullness, absent mindedness and difficulty thinking.  Her circulation will be likewise impaired and she will complain of hemorrhoids.

The flushes of heat that she experiences in menopause may be reminiscent of the blushing she had as an adolescent. The feeling of indifference may have manifested as post partum depression.  A careful case taking will reveal the entire history and it is based on this analysis that your remedy selection is made.

A Remedy for Rants and Rages  

We are all familiar with the jokes about the rages of women who are “out of estrogen” during menopause. This more acute feature of the hormonal swing definitely requires harnessing.  The person who is sharp, witty and charismatic can become violent, obstinate and quarrelsome on a moment’s notice when the hormones surge.  They are very sensitive, have high energy and are given to extremes so when the surge of heat from a hot flash comes over them they feel as though they are suffocating. They are normally loquacious and now the extremes of their symptoms cause them to be loud and opinionated, even haughty. They jump from one idea to another while telling of their complaints and they may shed tears of self-pity. This constant flow of words mimics their symptoms of heavy menstrual flow, the type that becomes much heavier as menopause approaches. The remedy that fits this picture is Lachesis which is made from the venom of the Bushmaster snake and has hemorrhagic qualities. Characteristically, they feel much better once the flow has started, in both speech, menses, flushes of heat and rages.  The headaches of menopause can be unbearable in this person for the very reason that there is no flow of menses anymore and there is no relief of the headache from onset of flow. This headache will often be the reason they have contacted you and careful questioning about their menstrual history will reveal this keynote.

A woman who needs this remedy, Lachesis, is a powerful, passionate person. They can have palpitations with fainting spells during menopause and are quite concerned about their reputation should this happen in public or at a meeting. I have prescribed this remedy to a top executive who was accused by her subordinates of being manic-depressive in menopause. These people are jealous and suspicious and are much worse for alcohol so one might imagine how difficult it could be to harness the hormones in this case especially when tempers flare after employees get together after work for drinks!

A Remedy for Empty Nest Syndrome  

Pulsatilla, a remedy made from the plant of the same name, is one I have used frequently from adolescence on through menopause. It is a remedy that has an affinity for the genito-urinary organs, stomach and bowels. It is represented in ailments from all phases of menses from delayed onset at puberty, dysmenorrhea and irregularities of menses to issues during pregnancy, post partum, peri-menopause and menopause. These I call my “hormonal people”.  They have the mood swings that we call “PMS-ing”. Their moods are changeable, their appetites are changeable and their symptoms are changeable. In a word, they are very sensitive to change especially as it relates to the menstrual cycle. They are much worse before menses, during menses and from suppressed menses. It is so easy to love the person who needs Pulsatilla. They are sweet, affectionate, and want to please you. When they enter the change zone they can become demanding and manipulative to get attention. They are emotional and cry easily and can become quite depressed.  This marked mood change is a keynote to look out for. I have prescribed Pulsatilla for the menopausal woman who experiences empty nest syndrome when the children leave home or college. The sense of abandonment and a forsaken feeling characterize her depression and she weeps often at the very thought of them leaving.

Physically, the gastrointestinal disturbances of irritable bowel syndrome are likely here with alternating states of constipation and diarrhea. Severe flushes of heat may accompany the bowel pains.  Even though this person complains of being chilly, they cannot tolerate any form of heat. You might note that they have a strong desire for fresh, open air. Once again, the case taking is important to differentiate remedies and in the case of Pulsatilla, she may mention that she has never been truly well since puberty. Chronic headaches, sinus infections, allergies, discharges, bladder infections, digestive disturbances, ovarian cysts and anxiety are all conditions that she may complain of. The manner in which Pulsatilla relates her symptoms is one of a sweet, imploring tone, almost pleading for help and support.

Harnessing the hormones with homeopathy is largely a matter of taking a good case and doing your homework to find a remedy match. We call that finding the simillimum. In each case, you will be able to discern the return to homeostasis as the body regulates itself and symptoms disappear.

Integrative Practice  

Lifestyle choices must also figure into the picture of healing.  Stabilizing other hormones like insulin through diet and exercise and cortisol through stress management techniques is part of the totality of individualized treatment. Chiropractic care can lessen the aches and pains of muscles and joints and bring balance to the central nervous system.  Removing subluxations, especially in the cervical spine, restores proper sympathetic/parasympathetic activity and can lessen the vasospastic phenomenon of the hot flash. Cranialsacral therapy has a positive impact on headaches and mood disorders among many other conditions of an imbalanced nervous system.

Integrative practice is uniquely positioned in the healthcare system to facilitate healing in the true sense of the word. We can reap the benefits of change ourselves by creating a community of like minded healers that you trust as practitioners. When we work in concert with other disciplines that enhance our own, we gain the respect of our patients and our outcomes improve. This is success. As Andrew Carnegie, the great industrialist said, the key to his success was surrounding himself with people smarter than he.

Guided Meditation Video

Here is a new video for guided meditation: