Archive Year 2006 month 2

I'm bummed.

My 1994 Jeep Cherokee is a great family car for going to the mountains, skiing and lugging all sorts of stuff from Home Depot.

Yet it sucks in terms of Green House Emissions - no surprise but reality bites.

I'm contributing 11.2 tons of emissions per year.

Here I am detoxing and improving people's health one by one in clinic and then outside of clinic I'm dumping 11.2 tons of emissions?

That must be fixed.

I'm going to resesarch a new car now and when money gets around, I'll be ready to buy and drive a much more environmentally friendly vehicle.

Today I lugged the 3 liters of urine to the clinic. I learned from the lab tech that I would not know the results for 2 weeks! That really bites.

It was my first day in the new Bastyr Clinic so the resident walked us all around showing us where all the stuff was. There was Ben carrying his box of urine around as he couldn't leave the tour. I walked the entire clinic with the damn thing and then finally was able to drop it off in the lab.

To make matters more goofy, I walked up and down the corridors with various patient's urine, cervical swabs and other gynecological goodies. The set up is such that docs and students have to walk right by the

A professor of mine has an interesting theory:

Many people are allergic to gluten products -especially wheat.

Why?

Wheat has the most gluten and is the stickiest of all grains. Stickiness causes other things to bind to it.

What could bind to it and cause problems?

Heavy metals, solvents, pesticides.

So it isn't wheat that is really the allergen. It could be the fact that it is binding the metals and slowing them down from passing out of the body. That then allows them to be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and react - causing allergic issues.

This is pure'

Still alive and kickin.

Was a rough evening but now feeling a bit better.

Im already late for my Public Health lecture but wanted to get this down.

My eyes were insanely dry this early morning. I got up about 6 times to urinate and drink a few more large glasses of water.

I did another enema this morning to get rid of whatever metals accumulated in my colon - as mercury, lead and some others preferentially leave via the stool - not the urine. I didnt want them hanging around in my colon for any length of time as they

[Initial test dose of DMSA - 11 capsules]

The heavy metal urine catch is in process. 4 hours down and 2 to go.

I already have 1.5 liters in the good ol' orange bin. I really wonder how much toxic stuff is in there. Ill find out soon enough - hopefully by Wednesday.

At times I feel very flushed in my face, chest and my left knee got very hot as well. Odd that the knee got hot. It isn't at the moment. Sorry for this but the urine just absolutely reeks. Perhaps it is due to the sulfur components of DMSA - likely. At one point, in the inital hour before I began drinking plenty of water, the urine burnt.

[Heavy Metal Collection Kit - 6 hr urine catch]

The appointment went fast - and well. I forgot today was the day that the clinic re-opened its doors for the first time in a new beauuutiful location. Damn - I guess naturopathic medicine is really moving on up in the world.

A patient at the check out desk said today, "Wow. I feel like I am at Group"

I had a late night working with my company so I will not fill in the details of my day until tomorrow morning.

What I can say is that my day overall was pretty good. I was quite tired all day though. Sleep is hard to come by lately which is not handy during such a detox protocol.

The day's summary:

• very intense peat bath this evening,
  
• another enema in the morning
  
• maintained a good diet,
  
• appointment tomorrow with a specialist in Environmental Medicine.

I kinda botched it this evening - and I got a raging headache for it.

My wife came home from the store with a ton of processed snack foods. I was tempted then not - then company came over and BAM. That shit filled my stomach.

Sucks

This brings up a major point actually.

When someone in the home is attempting to fast, detox, eliminate some food or addiction - do not have those substances in the house. Temptation is too strong and much harder when someone 2 feet away from you is munching on something processed and tasty while you are eating a piece of celery.

Not to say it is my wife's fault - not at all. I am to blame.

She told me,'

Headache is gone.

I did an enema this morning and half-way through the procedure, my headache vanished and I felt light and clear in my head. In all the enemas I have done in my life - about 15 I guess - this one had the best immediate result.

The clarity I got was amazing. It was like someone opened my head and poured a glass of pure mountain spring water on my brain. Seriously.

I haven't been taking psyllium husk for the past few nights and it is making a big difference. My bowels have not been moving well and they are not full in size - skinny in other words. Sounds sick and gross yes but it means something. It means that'

Details of a more intense peat bath coming up soon. Im going to dress my 3yr old and make ourselves a smoothie.

I decided that I am going to go see a naturopathic doctor who specializes in environmental toxicity - why not eh? Ive made it this far in the cleanse and now I can do it even more properly. I plan to do a heavy metal challenge where I take DMSA for a day and then a lab analyzes my urine for heavy metals. DMSA binds metals strongly. This procedure is no joke and can be dangerous if not overseen by a doctor. Kidneys and liver are the most likely organs to be damaged if not monitored well. So even though I know how to do the DMSA protocol - I cannot

Late night - so I will write today's information - tomorrow - Ive gotta go sleep. Been talking over http://www.skype.com for the past 3 hours with my friends in India.

If you haven't downloaded SKYPE yet - do it - it is incredible.

What I can tell you quickly is that I did do the mud bath and I also did...the enema.

Drama is tomorrow...

Till then.

Ben

[view of the colon and its neighboring organs - click the photo]

View:

• Day 0
• Day 1
• Day 2
  
• Day 3

If you're unaware of AA and are considering learning more about it, you may desire to read this paper. It is a review of two meetings that I attended per requirement of my medical school's Addictions course.

_______________________
Alcoholics Anonymous, 12 Step Meetings

The room was large, beautiful in an old building located in a large park surroundings. The mix of men to women was about equal and age ranges were mainly middle and upper but there were a couple young early 30’s folks there as well. I was surprised by the number of seniors in the group. I’m not sure of the exact number but I would say about 50 people. The arrangement was well done in a horseshoe shape with the emphasis on the front speaker’s table. The front speaker seemed to organize the meetings structure and was in charge of choosing who spoke.

The seats were simple fold out chairs. There was a ton of light in the room

[Oregano - potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal]

Only day 3? Seems like a month.

View: Day 0 Day 1 Day 2

I'm pretty trashed - but sleeping only 4. hrs the last two nights does not help. Not a proper way to cleanse. But do'

I must say, "Thank you." to my professor of our Addictions & Disorders course. She knew that reading books and hearing lectures are not going to cut it. It is best to throw yourself in the mix and hear stories and meet people who have problems with alcohol - and other addictive behaviours.

You always hear jokes about, "I'm Bob, I'm an alcoholic."

"Hi Bob"

Then Bob goes on to tell his story.

Well - it ain't no joke.

That sentence takes a TON of guts and many many years to say. I am proud of the folks who can say that and who are making an improvement in their life. As an improvement in their life is a direct'

[Burdock root - great herb for the liver]

Just grinding it out. Not noticing too much yet - give me a few more days and likely something curious will begin to appear - like nasty headaches and nausea. Sound fun?

Im preparing myself mentally for the enema that is destined to arrive - have to do it to flush out the colon as it is accumulating all the waste materials from my fat.

I took a shot of psyllium powder to encourage elimination. Ill likely take a product called Liver Cleanse by Sine Qua Non. Too bad the company doesnt make it any longer. Shame. I have a bottle or two laying around luckily.

Ill be taking a

Im thinking this time it's gonna be a tough liver detox.

Medical school. Two little kids. Two businesses. Wife recently had ankle surgery. Phew.

Now this?

Yep.

Detoxing is basically setting your mind to it. Once you do that, it's not too bad. I have pretty much done that bit but it is still quite a bit of work.

If any of you want to join me on this journey - by all means - dive in. Ill give you support and pointers along the way :)


Bed: 1230am after a night of goodbyes to my Russian inlaws - so quite a bit of vodka :)

For my most recent day, click here: Liver Detox Diary


Im required to do a detox by my professor of dermatology. It is not the best time to do a detox as it is not spring. Spring is the ideal time. Yet - he's the boss.

I will post the full program day by day.

• How I feel
• What I did
• If any skin irritations occur
• What supplements Im taking
• What foods Im eating
• What foods Im avoiding

Physiological pain and Functional pain are two major types of pain defined recently by a resident doc of mine. It is a great way to figure out the cause of pain rather quickly. The definitions and possible treatments below are my thoughts on them. Do not treat yourself without seeking the advice of a physician. Simply take some notes from this post and bring it to your doc or tell them what you 'found on the internet'. They love that.

Enjoy the information - it took some time writing this and it is jam packed with information so you may have to read and re-read to make heads or tails of some areas.

 Physiological Pain

• No wound or trauma occurred.
• After long hours of being semi-still - as sleeping - pain gets worse.
• Increased movement helps the pain go away.
• Occurs in many ill health states - like arthritis, maldigestion, diabetes, malnutrition, dehydration, migraines, and headaches.

Long term "exposure of animals to PCBs can lead to disrupted hormone balances, reproductive failures, or cancer. Food can be a major source of human PCB exposure, usually from fish and animal fat."

Don't forget that we - humans - are animals. So chronic exposure to PCB's to us also cause:

• disrupted hormone balances
• reproductive failures
• cancer

The number of crap skin care products out there is not really a surprise.

What is a shocker is the abundance of harmful ones.

Youd be surprised who is at the top for some of their producs... famous Estee Lauder. Yep. Name brand doesn't mean squat. Ingredient listings and understanding what they are does.

Check out the listing of the most dangerous skin care products

Check out the listing of the

I recently signed up for the NutraMedical | Europe newsletter. I thought I may pick one article to read but geez - it's loaded with useful health information.

You should subscribe to it - it's free and very informative. No BS.

While you're at it, subscribe to my blog and my newsletter. Nothing like sifting through health information passively that appears in your inbox. Much better than searching all over the net for it.

My natural'

As a parent with a first child, numerous situations arise which may be frightening, exhilarating or overwhelming. Giving birth is all three. The first smile is exhilarating! Food introduction is flat out overwhelming.

You thought beginning to breastfeed was going to be a snap – ha – it had its issues as well; but now you’ve made yourself into a champion breastfeeding mom or a helpful breastfeeding assistant (we must assume that dads are reading this as well – as a dad is typing this). Food introduction is a similar hurdle – albeit a longer one with a much longer learning curve and requires a significant amount of patience.

There are