Les Miserables Inspires Me: Leaky Gut and the US Revolution in Medicine and Whole-Person Wellness

I wanted to follow up about leaky gut syndrome today, as the article I wrote two weeks ago at the time of the Newtown shootings has gotten quite a lot of activity, and I'm getting feedback from my conversations with people about it related to "more interest in mental health and gut health, please".  

 

For those who have not read it or want to refresh yourself related to what I said or the very interesting psychiatrist writing at Psychology Today about foods and mental health, here's the link (and I also link directly to her website as it has a really massive amount of information and I like the way it is presented. I really like Psychology Today as well but it is a collaboration of many providers the same way as Lumigrate is, so this is like my providing a link to one of our experts' websites in addition to suggesting you read what they provide at Lumigrate is all.) 

 

 

I'm providing a couple of links that you might find surprising, but please read my reasoning in selecting them.  One is from WebMD, because that is the 'bastion' of allopathic medical education, and the MD does a nice job of essentially saying 'they don't teach this to us in medical school so I really don't know that much about it'.  The MD reinforces how 'evidence based' allopathic medicine is, which means there are big expensive studies that get funded and that is where 'the bar is set' in many providers' minds related to how to proceed with what you believe in and recommend to others as a medical provider.  "Objective data" it is driven by and based on.  So here's the link about it, please come back and read on, though, as this from WebMD is a VERY GOOD article from an allopathic aspect, but that's only one aspect in medicine and not the type that Lumigrate is about, which is functional, complementary, integrative, etc.  

 

 

"Alternative medicine", in my mind, is based on people finding things that make sense to them when they hear about them the first time, and upon further exploration, grab them as worth pursuing looking into further.  "Complementary medicine" and "integrative medicine" kind of blends the allopathic 'prove it in a big study that takes a lot of time and money and energy" (which is fine/it's good science methodology) -- those providers use their JUDGMENT, which is something that is perhaps a fading skill no matter what people do for a living or what type of medicine they practice/perform within. 

 

Some will really 'study' something after getting 'turned onto it',  and we can only presume they are investing their time, energy, and money in learning because they're seeing something 'to it'.  I'm going to use myself and my history of IV nutrition called Myers Cocktails for chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. My MD in Denver, Milton Hammerly, recommended it  long before he wrote an excellent book on treating fibromyalgia via an integrative medicine approach (which has information about Myers' in it if anyone is interested in buying an inexpensive paperback to learn about these things. You can find my references to him on Lumigrate if you search. 

 

I went after work at the end of my day and then home, where I was barely able to stay awake, I was just really REALLY exhausted.  "Yeah, THAT was a great use of time, energy and money (as insurance does not believe in IV nutrition as something they'll pay for so it was $ out of my pocket).  Since I just went to see Les Miserables yesterday, I'll use that as an example: I was ONE "Miserables" woman at the age of 37 starting a new career with this condition that came on during my time in OT school in my mid 30s. 

 

For the price of going to a movie and getting popcorn and a soda, OR the amount of money I was spending back then per week on getting coffee at the en vogue coffee chain, and about the same amount of time it takes to go to a movie, for those who do that on a regular basis, I could drive out of my way in the city of Denver to get my doctor's medical assistant to pump liquid vitamins and minerals into me, all water based so if you get more than your tissues can handle, it all just flushes out through your urine.  But UGH, I felt bad when I got home and went to bed early, more exhausted than EVER, unhappy with life more than you can ever imagine as 'what the doctor ordered had not made me feel better'.  

 

UNTIL I woke up the next morning -- VOILA! It turns out the horrible fatigue the day before, feeling like I could barely stay awake to drive or cook dinner or get into bed was where I was at with the blood pressure issues that come from adrenal fatigue and fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue spectrum 'stuff' that made me feel so snoozy and tired driving home into the warm Colorado afternoon sun that night -- because the next morning I was MY OLD ENERGETIC SELF!

 

And then I didn't have that problem again, even when the blood pressure would be VERY low immediately after the IV. And I had a few hours to drive back to home after that, for the weekend, and the doctor waited to see it start to go back up before I was turned loose to drive.  "I have paperwork to catch up on, just hang out here a bit longer and I'll come check on you after one more dictation". 

 

I had to work out of town shortly after that and he set me up with all the items needed that any doctor's office wouldn't have on hand and I asked a physician in the community I was going to be in to substitute for my MD in Denver and give the IVs.  They obliged and then figured 'why not try it on some of my other patients with this type of condition that has baffled me and I've not been able to help them?'  

 

BANG, 8 chronic illness patients with fatigue were back on track and that physician felt like a hero and tried to study more in the US but left the US to study in a more progressive country not long after, because of the difficulties in providing what can actually solve the underlying problems.  (The very good primary care doctor I had in the late 80s when I got chronic fatigue had also left the US citing religious reasons and desire to be outside the US due to feeling repressed here for growth as well.)  

 

To that doctor, it was 'enough' to reason through 'I trust this information, the source, the concept, and the risks are low compared to the possible benefit, I'm told to 'do no harm' as a medical doctor.  I won't get into all the politics and backstory of why it 'might be' that the truth about these things has been known to me even as a normal consumer in the 1990s with a chronic illness that I sought out books about and found 'the wheat connection' (and for me I was as allergic as you could be to wheat yet insurance-based food allergy testing saw a small reaction but not enough to deem me 'allergic' because my illness/condition leads to a strange response in the body to things. (and about 20% of people as I understand it, are having these backwards reactions and getting faulty results on tests!).

 

So getting the information to the consumers and providers in a somewhat balanced, interesting way is what I'm 'about' and today is no exception and maybe you will see why I so appreciate the Les Miserables/revolution backdrop to use here.  We just had two incidents in 2012 which, in my opinion, had foods as an underlying cause among other things such as exposure to media that had a lot of impact on the brain as well.  But ask yourself: what came first, the foods the kids ate or the 'perseveration to video games and superhero action figures'? It's not just one or two or three things, it's a LOT of bigger and smaller things that add up, but wheat and leaky gut is a BIG ONE.

 

_________ ELEVATOR GRAPHICS HERE, when it's all ready to go, check back! It's cool! ___________________________

 

 

The good news is that insurance-based health care and the government teams have been studying this, you wouldn't believe the numbers of groups out there working on this, and really exciting things being pushed through to spring up now and replace the old ways that have outlived their useful years, if you ask me and many others who get medical care in the US via allopathic, 'conventional' providers. At Les Miserables I happened to sit next to a woman who was very friendly and kind and who is a massage therapist in an insurance-based, conventional medical office! How progressive is that!?  I wonder if they also are selling supplements and creams for the face to look better and be healthier as well, another revenue stream and if the doctor's knowledge base helps select the products to sell there, why not offer it as an option? I resisted this thinking in 2012 and decided for the new times to get with the program! (Robin Thomas and Marc Spurlock will be happy that I will now pipe down about if that makes the consumer/patient suspicious about the provider's intentions with recommending products if they're making the $ from them, but my hairdresser does it and I don't wonder about if that's good shampoo or not, right? I'm actually happy to purchase something from her so she'll be in business next month/year/the future and succeed as a professional in her endeavor as I know she has stuck her neck out to start a progressive salon related to topical toxins and education about that for the Earth's well being and ALL on it!) 

 

It seems relatively sensible business-wise for the doctors don't just say 'I could be taking people's movie money and making more money for myself if I did those IVs', or 'I could learn about foods causing chronic illness and tell my patients about it'.  BUT WHY DON'T THEY? I think it has to do with the risks involved in punishment that can come if someone accuses you of doing something outside the box, it's harder to defend yourself than when you 'do like EVERYONE else always has and does'.  

 

And that is why I say that SO MANY are victims of these breakdowns in the systems -- medical, legal, educational, etc., on and on.  Adam and his mother most likely, were not told by their medical providers about leaky gut related to the specific symptoms he likely had from very early in his life related to mental health/physical health/spiritual health. Did the providers EVER hear the theories and simply not subscribe? What about the school personnel, were they ever offered education on these topics or were they lead to believe that the way children eat in schools today is JUST FINE and to not make waves about nutrition? 

 

My mother was a 4th grade teacher in a mountain town in the 1970s who learned about sensory integration because she saw that 1/3 of the students were not doing well in their brain/body coordination and it correlated to the ones who had the poorest test scores.  She was 'driven out on a rail' by the principal who replaced the one who allowed her to do it in the first place, and in the mean time, she's seen the results of her efforts and stood firm and didn't back down, resulting in personal and financial and professional injury as a result. But I am very proud that she did that and was blown away when a ranching boy who had her stopped me at a reunion and asked about her. 

 

She'd died long ago of the pain of her life's outcome feeding into her leaky gut issues and medical/mental whole person problems, and he said he was 'so sorry to hear that' and 'she did me a lot of good, I want you to know that'.  I think I heard her roll in her grave at that one -- if you only knew how challenging those ranching kiddos were to our teacher and our other students, they were the wild west's best and grew up to be truly fine/outstanding people, we just didn't get what they were about and they didn't get what we were about with this newfangled stuff the newcomers brought to the west.  Much like the conventional and progressive providers today -- we'd be a lot stronger for ALL people if we'd better understand each other, hence my format on Lumigrate! 

 

The information's been out there and a bunch of us believe in it wholeheartedly, but it's not what 'the man' wants people to know.  And I personally believe that most Americans right now are "Les Miserables Medically" in one way or another.  How many people know of a parent or child who is not doing well in school due to things related to their brain function? The brain is a mirror of the gut, even Dr Oz has had THAT on his relatively balanced allopathic/alternative/complementary medical show.

 

Now that the holidays are over, how many times have you heard jokes about 'there's one in every family"? I saw a really funny cartoon/graphic image on Facebook that said something like "if your family says there's one in every family and you don't know who it is, it's probably YOU!"  I didn't reshare that one, but I did chuckle.  And then thought 'at least I don't have to wonder in my family who they think it is', I was long outcase from my family for believing differently about things to do with the mind, body, and spirit.  Maybe there's only one in each family in each generation that are cut out and intended to get into the fray of a revolution, while others stay back and keep the world turning. That's all I have to say about that. 

 

It's all fine for us to use our humor and 'funny bone' about families. Back when I was younger the joke was that everyone had an Aunt Esther and they were usually fireballs or oddballs, you had to just take your pick. But if we just stop there, at 'awareness' and 'joking about it', aren't we really staying in pain over having someone in our family that is not well and that affects ALL around that person, at their home, in their community, at their work if they are well enough to have a career or job and not be disabled from mental or physical problems? Wouldn't we benefit, as I wrote if you read the article about Newtown I wrote, by starting with ourselves and what we put into and on our bodies that is leading to our wellness/illness every moment of every day?  

 

Dr Marc Spurlock told me at our last in-person meeting this fall (2012), that in his environmental medicine practice in Dallas, Texas (USA), where people come from around the US and beyond for his expertise on chronic illness remediation, people typically have never heard of "leaky gut syndrome".  You might know that in 2012 Lumigrate and I put a LOT of effort in over the summer and fall seasons related to SAFE WATER IS GREAT/SWIG, which is related to fluoride being added as a mass medication to many water treatment facilities which doesn't particularly make sense to most consuming people once they are educated about it, it turns out.  Naturally, chlorine is also a toxin and people have known about that being bad for your gut or breathing or skin for many years, and about everyone has a charcoal filter but they don't realize that doesn't take out fluoride.  I actually didn't know that five years ago, I put charcoal filters on my showerheads and would fill up water pitchers for the kitchen and bathroom sink area from that, thinking it was also taking out fluoride. Whoopsie, so now I am back to having artesian water bottled from as close a source to my home, as long as it has good quality, delivered. A ridiculous expense, I hurt myself all the time on the 3 gallon bottles and at least once a day spill water trying to manipulate something but it's better than taking the medication that 'the man' thinks should be in the water because someone in the 1940s thought maybe it was good for teeth.

 

(It turns out it likely reduces 1 cavity per child when they have the right amount in what they eat and drink for about a 3 year period of time, but more studies show the more fluoride is added to water the lower the IQ is of the child as well, and so if you want to learn more about all THAT, just Search at Lumigrate on words like fluoride or SWIG and at your overall search bar just add the word Lumigrate and whatever word you're wondering about and your search engine will pull up whatever we have along with other website's as well.  Education is key, knowledge is power and please DO read other places than Lumigrate, this is just a starting point or one point! )

 

We are all learning. We're all in this together, no judgments about where your knowledge level is, thought I caught myself TWICE lately saying 'you don't know ....???' more about world leaders and how money is raised by government, not medical as I 'took a break' aside from bringing fluoride-free water and wine when asked to bring beverages over the holidays. I said the same thing to Dr Spurlock when he said 'most of my patients don't know what leaky gut is when they start with me'.  REALLY? Well, then let's DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT on Lumigrate!   

 

SO, it was time for us to collaborate on something about that.  Dr. Spurlock's vitae/professional experience can be found at this link www.lumigrate.com/forum/my-vitae-wm-marcus-spurlock-md for those of you interested in checking into him, something every person should do before going to any provider, naturally.  He's been out there 'sticking his neck out of the box' as I call it jokingly, for a long time, longer than I have, which is five years starting next year/2013.In my Les Miserables analogy that I'm using today a point of reference related to what I see currently in the 'revolution' happening in medicine in the United States (and beyond/elsewhere), I see myself and ALL that are contributing as experts to create Lumigrate to be what it is, as standing on that pile of furniture and all those watching Lumigrate for information as those who have thrown down the furniture from their homes to support us. So thank you all!  

 

But in these "new times", for those who might believe similarly to me about what 12/21/12 'was about', let's presume we will have a peaceful, cerebral revolution over time going forward, progressing along via much letter writing and discussions in person and via the Internet, and using the various means of communication and learning today. I hope that all start to realize the INVESTMENT we have made in creating something for YOU to have access to, and perhaps that will inspire you to also INVEST in YOU (or those around you  that you are influencing related to wellness/illness issues.) 

  

I hope that YOU begin or continue building at least a virtual "dream team" around you like our You Model shows, using information from these types of providers which I have gotten onto Lumigrate over the years of our existence, beginning in 2008. We have someone from most of the major disciplines represented at least once and then naturally you have your real-world providers to incorporate as well. Hopefully you can also include from your community a RPh (pharmacist)  or a DAOM (acupuncture doctorate) or PhD/Psy (doctorate in psychology), DC (doctor of chiropractic), etc.  But if 'my house is your house', then my website dream team is YOUR dream team too!                                  

 

This is often a shift that occurs for each person as they learn and progress with understanding outside the box, and ALWAYS,  people don't really take the time, energy, or put money toward their wellness until there is something that motivates them.

 

Simply sit back right now and breathe a second, maybe take a sip of something to refresh and hydrate yourself, and think about how you've spent money this last day, week, month, year -- then look ahead to this current day, week, month, year and are there things that can be shifted around that would reduce the pain and illness in people around you, whether psychological issues or physical -- what IF they're BOTH/ALL from foods? Spirituality is diminished from any sort of drug that numbs you, such as the legal ones Americans typically use recreationally.  There perhaps are reasons why many religions have restrictions about alcohol and also about foods in some religions! Look at the 7th Day Adventists being studied related to diet, for instance (which is food and drink, naturally).    

 

 

The easiest 'guest' or customer at Lumigrate or for me in consulting is someone who simply is one to plan and foresee needs ahead.  They have decided their life goal/intention includes being well and living a long, happy life. Others are motivated by body size or appearance. Others by pain or fatigue and they're wanting to get out of being miserable and will make the changes necessary to do so. Some will see something in common between someone like Adam who does something horrendous, and someone they know and say 'wow, that could be me', and then they decide to 'roll up their sleeves'.  Ultimately, every person, at a spiritual level, is on their own path, learning whatever they need to learn every moment and as they learn and change, their life changes.  That might mean they learn things that are 'bad' and it might be 'neutral' or 'good'.  

 

Again, Les Miserables is such a wonderful story demonstrating how someone did something bad (stealing bread for a hungry family member) and was punished in a harsh way for almost two decades. When he was freed, he stole a bunch of silver and the Monsignor assisted him in getting off from being punished again, which turned this injured man back to being a good man as he was before his time being punished (and used as a laborer). "The man" overseeing his crew and in charge of him, who processed his discharge, ended up pursuing him when he broke parole and didn't show up, but what he had done instead was take the valuables the Monsignor gave him with the blessing to use the money to do something good and start his life over. He, the hero of the movie, had become a very successful business man by the time 'The Man' protagonist caught back up to him.  And when our hero spared The Man's life, without the motivation of being 'against' our hero (his enemy), he couldn't handle living and suicided. 

 

People are 'miserable' in so many ways in the US today. Some know they are in pain, they feel it physically. Others are in emotional pain and might have been running from it one way or another trying to cover it up to others and even to themselves, 'avoidance' is a wonderful tactic for preserving our sanity.  

 

"What is causing this?" people wonder and sometimes ask me. To me, one silver lining of what has come out of "Aurora" and "Newtown" in 2012, is that BOTH young men had been diagnosed and treated by medical or educational professionals doing their best attempts with the resources they had, we can presume for argument's sake, for medical issues that affect the mind, called "mental health". But our old system of doing things has broken things apart instead of looking at people as a whole.  I tried for a long time to get the medical and psychological provides in the building I used to do weekly education in to bridge that gap and see that nutrition had something to do with mental health and physical health issues in our mutual patients. "Resistant to learn and change" was what I encountered and right now, five years ago, I was literally making the decision to announce on my first day back after New Years, that I'd be leaving in order to go into what you now see as Lumigrate! 

 

Here from the  'outside the allopathic medical box world', I simply believe that the majority of what we see overall with all the conditions 'afflicting' people around us or us/YOU stems from genes that get tripped by leaky gut. It all adds up, what we have going into our bodies from the moment of conception, our parent's genes, and epigenetics shows us that the greatest effect can be the third generation after something extreme happened with food changes! WOW, does THAT explain the exponential curve of how it's not just one in every family anymore but three, to put it simply.  When did we start eating so much wheat, and when did it stop looking like real bread like was baked for many centuries and be like that wonderful white soft mush I begged for as a child? 

 

So NOW you've learned about 'leaky gut', and I hope you will take the TIME and spend some ENERGY and possibly go on to also spend MONEY (the three resources) differently, in order to get your gut and mind/body/spirit "well" and away from "ill" if it isn't already.  

 

And here is my last offering related to a link to support what I am saying about the "inside the box" medical industry, as I found this researching on something that was pertinent to more than one person I was doing consultation with 1:1 in the last week. 

 

 

Essentially in the past five years I'd seen people getting diagnosed or thinking they had bipolar disorder and it just seemed like the new ADD. I have long suggested to people who have ADD or their children do, (or ADHD, naturally), to look into foods and the gut, so now I am extending this to people who are getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Do some online research, and do you AGREE with the professionals you're paying with your energy/time and insurance and/or money? Focus on your symptoms/'complaints' and not the 'label' aside from it helps you find topics to study.  Is there more to what causes your symptoms that resonate and 'make sense to you'? Then how much time are you willing to spend, and energy, and money, to have a different outcome.  

 

And you know what? I ate and drank stuff with the movie yesterday which I normally wouldn't, the popcorn comes out of the back room and is yellow and who clearly not healthy popcorn like I make at home from organic popping corn. The oil was, who knows what. The soda, I chose sugar over the neurotoxic artificial sweetened kind despite it's harder on the blood sugar. I lived to tell about it, thoroughly enjoyed one day -- the first all of 2012, where I went to a movie and did like I used to EVERY time I'd go to a movie. Had wheat and dairy for dinner after as I figured as long as I was 'taking a day off' from my normal life, I just would really take it off!  I lived to tell about it here, too, but the feedback is clear as I definitely felt like I'd been out 'partying', and it was really from foods that my body is simply 'having to deal with' rather than rejoicing in.

 

If I want to function at the level I want to be at, I need to keep up my efforts toward aligning my actions with my beliefs about foods and wellness of the mind, body and spirit. As often and as much as possible.