lOvE – Revisited

Re-post/reprint

Love.

It is the thing that this life is built upon.  Christ spoke so often about love, and said of the commandments to the Pharisees, loving God is the greatest and loving your neighbor as yourself is next (paraphrase).  I believe that He was saying a little more than, “God wants you to love Him”.  I believe He was also saying, “The key to a happy life is love”!

PASSION, is part of an enlightened life.  Passion is what takes you from sleepy and tired as you wake up in the AM, to wildly excited for your day, whistling to yourself as you shave in the mirror, and looking forward to your day.  Passion is what allows you to absorb awful news one minute, and then to bounce back with a plan in the next.  It is LOVE which rules PASSION.

The primary reason I am re-posting this (this part is new mind you), is because I experienced this yesterday.  I woke up at 5am to teach a class at my gym.  I had little and poor sleep for some reason.  I was so tired when I arrived at the office at 3pm.  Spoke of love to my staff, told them the “beatings would continue until we loved the patients more”… yeah, I was trying to get a laugh because I was actually beating my staff.  Anyways, I started the afternoon with a few upbeat “hello’s” and “let’s get the power turned on”.  And before I knew it, I was floating on air, the afternoon got real busy, and I just got more elated and upbeat… this is a lesson to me, and hopefully to you.  I won’t fill in the blank, that should be up to you.

I am easily deemed handicapped according to the laws of our world, because of the injury that took my left eyesight.  I was not handicapped in the moment that it happened, nor for more than a minute ever since.  And the reason, is because I have a passion that burns beyond my left eye.  It doesn’t make me special, but it might make me unique among the average person in this world.  I love my wife!   For 24 years she has been my girlfriend and 15 of those she has been my wife!  I love my practice, I couldn’t imagine not being involved with leading people to health, it is what I was created for.  And I love my GOD!  He rocks!!

So what about you?  If you don’t have a spouse to love, then go get one!  Just kidding, if you don’t have a spouse, then you should love something else with a similar excitement.  An activity, your church, a hobby, pursuit of something… maybe even your job?!?!  I know, I know, how could you love your job enough to get excited about it?  Well, in my opinion, if you don’t, you are really missing out.  (did you see my addition to this re-post above???)

For you who are married with kids, PLEASE take at least two dates a month.  My wife and I commit to that as a minimum, and usually we get four (lately it has been less… good thing i am re-posting this).  We work hard to insure it, it is difficult, but it is so worth it.  I would prioritize that expense before cable TV, before a cell phone, before a nicer car, before a larger home, before just about anything materialistic.  It is just TOO valuable.

For those who are single, no kids, and no serious relationship.  I would ask you to please, please, please just STOP!  Pause your life for a day, and take every effort to figure out what just excites you like crazy!  What makes you want to dance naked in the rain, and scream at the top of your lungs?  Figure it out, and pursue it, somehow, some way, and with passionate intensity!

Love.  It is such an awesome emotion.  Please be sure you are experiencing it!


Firestone Wood Fired PIZZA and Grill…

Pizza?  Pizza?  Eric, how can you be eating Pizza??  There are grains in Pizza, and you hate grains!

Correction, I love Grains!  I wish I hated them, it would make life so much easier.  But the truth is that I love them, I just take them for what they are.  A food designed to be a part time enjoyment.  I have many Paleo dieting friends, who might argue that there was a man once upon a time that walked around eating what he could kill or see growing in plain sight.  I do not believe that man existed, and therefore, I have a belief that man knew the skills of farming very early on.

However, his diet, was never a grain as the primary source of food.  It tasted bad (he was not baking bread), it was tough and hard to chew (try chewing a mouthful of unmilled, uncooked wheat, tell me what you think).  And there were other more plentiful food sources around.  Have you ever seen how many peppers can grow on a well cared for pepper tree?  (I called it a tree on purpose)

I do not condone excessive grain consumption for that reason, but once you have healed your leptin and insulin receptors  there is no need to be completely off of grain (unless you still need to heal your GI tract lining, that could be a good reason to, but lets move forward).  So in my life, I enjoy some grain, usually a serving a day.  So this day, I enjoyed an incredibly prepared grain!

I have been taking care of the Sigley family for awhile now, not sure how long, but a decent amount of time.  And in that group is Chef William.  Chef has been an executive chef in some fantastic restaurants in Atlanta and across the country.  This new restaurant, Firestone Wood Fired Pizza and Grill, represents his crowning achievement, as he is partnered up on this one, and it represents a great chance for him to have a successful restaurant very close to home!  So let me tell you about it, because I want him to do well, thus I want you to try it out, but on top of that, I would like for you to eat healthy while you are there!

First off, he does not follow my no pork, no shellfish rule; so for all of you who have resisted my attempts to rehabilitate you, this place is for you!  So what I didn’t have, but what I would recommend from the menu… Braised Lamb Shank for $14.50 (you will notice you can get some pretty nice entrees, very reasonably priced), Baked Atlantic Salmon for $13.50!!  And a grilled hangar steak, which is likely to turn into a grilled Grass Fed hangar steak at some point… this for only $14.50.  I tell you I love the prices he has come up with.  This ambiance is much like an upscale downtown wood fired grill.  Take the word Pizza out of the name and you feel like you need a babysitter and three hours to go have dinner here.  But with the word pizza, it is a place that is priced in a way to bring the whole family, and so (like me) you do!

My girls loved it, we ordered artichoke hearts for a vegetable, on top of the house salad, and they enjoyed them both.  This menu (which we will be handing out in the office today) had a bunch of tapas plates.  A lot of pork and shellfish here, so we went with the trio of crostinis (more bread) each covered with a different topping from roasted eggplant, to white bean hummus and finally ricotta cheese. We loved them all!

Chef William has an olive tree in the middle of his patio, and on one end a stack stone outdoor fireplace about 16 feet high.  I can’t wait for the cool weather to stick so I can go sit in front of that thing.  He pulls seasonings from his herb garden right on site, and makes practically everything right on site, including his ice cream.  It really is a great addition to Woodstock, and with a chef as talented as he, I can almost guarantee as we (HealthSprout collectively) begin to push for certain tastes, we will see them emerge from this great restaurant.

Brooke and I for a leisure ride up the gondola, right after the S'mores!

So we finished the night off with a pretty nice splurge.  S’mores that you fire at your table.  My wife and I did these in Aspen with my daughter Brooke a few years back, on an outdoor patio in 40 degree weather, but with a huge firepit that made you completely comfortable.  It was nice to be transported back to that day, right here in Woodstock.  I will eat here pretty regularly, and I will typically use the tapas menu to find myself some low grain options.  But if you want to pull out all the stops, the pizza is awesome!

Be well, Eat well, God Bless!  Dr. E

Last thing – please pray for those who suffered damage from the tornado the other day!

Top Ten Violence Inducing Prescription Meds

No, I wasn’t attacked!  Though I sometimes wonder if I might be mugged by some random group of Daily Sprout hating pharmacists on my way to the car (kidding, you remember my dad is a pharmacist?)  This article came out at the beginning of the year, and I have meant to simply “share” it, so here is the sharing (not much original material here).

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)  published a study in the journalPLoS One highlighting the worst prescription drug offenders that cause patients to become violent. Among the top-ten most dangerous are the antidepressants Pristiq (desvenlafaxine), Paxil (paroxetine) and Prozac (fluoxetine).  What is interesting to me, is that these drugs made another list only a few years back.  The list of black box labeled, “could lead to suicidal ideation” group of antidepressants.  So what is it, mad at the world, or mad at yourself?  Well, with side effects, you can never tell.

So Time Magazine posted the study results, and this is how they interpreted the date from the report.

10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) – An antidepressant that affects serotonin and noradrenaline. The drug is 7.9 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

9. Venlafaxine (Effexor) – An antidepressant that treats anxiety disorders. The drug is 8.3 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

8. Fluvoxamine (Luvox) – A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug that is 8.4 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

7. Triazolam (Halcion) – A benzodiazepine drug for insomnia that is 8.7 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

6. Atomoxetine (Strattera) – An ADHD drug that is 9 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

5. Mefoquine (Lariam) – A malaria drug that is 9.5 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

4. Amphetamines – This general class of ADHD drug is 9.6 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

3. Paroxetine (Paxil) – An SSRI antidepressant drug that is 10.3 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs. It is also linked to severe withdrawal symptoms and birth defects.

2. Fluoxetine (Prozac) – A popular SSRI antidepressant drug that is 10.9 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

1. Varenicline (Chantix) – An anti-smoking drug that is a shocking 18 times more likely to be associated with violence than other drugs.

So… do you have any close friends who might be taking any of these drugs?  Don’t get them mad, they might get you hurt.  Seriously, the worst for you, isn’t the potential harm to you, it is to them.  These drugs lead to societal issues, and eventually they will cause harm.  All we ask is that you identify them, and be aware of the risks of dealing with those around you!  Be well and enjoy Labor Day!!!

 

Why you should grow your own food – Aquaponics

So you might have been around long enough to have heard me speak about Aquaponics from the “I really don’t have a clue what this is” perspective.  To the “I think maybe, if we could just perfectly, make this to kind of…” perspective.  And now, I am in the understanding and hopeful place, which will lead to the “I am tweaking the output to insure that” phase.

Basically, it is a simple concept.  Fish poop.  That poop is incredible fertilizer, in that all of the minerals necessary for food growth are present when that poop is broken down in the nitrogen cycle.  So basically, if you were to stick the roots of your favorite veges in the water of a fish pond, and if you were to pull them out just often enough that they could absorb nutrients and water, and oxygen, then they would become bountiful plants.

Aquaponics does just that.  So when you watch this video, you should ask the question – “Is it worth the hassle”?

So the answer is, yes!  Now, my system is a lot more effort to create than what we will be teaching you how to create, but the hassle and extra expense do two things that you might want.

  1. Improve your cleanliness of your food, allowing organic to be truly achievable at every level.
  2. Give you permanence to your system, so that you can produce a garden full of plants all year round (winter too), as long as you like, with minimal maintenance to your system.
But still, what is the value of this thing?  Well, my system could be valued at $4-6,000 simply because of the time that we put into design, re-design, and build.  But that is a pricey system for those reasons.  Let’s assume we knew what we were doing from the beginning.  I think we could have produced this for a cost of close to $3k.  And that is an aesthetically pleasing fish pond, with the ability to produce an amazing amount of food.
The grow bed surface area is a total of 80 square feet.  This interesting study took some time to digest, but it has me estimating that with the right number of fish in my pond (oh, and I might be trying the tilapia… we’ll see), I could yield the same number of crops from my 80 square feet, as I could from a dirt garden of about 1000 square feet.  Now I will be the first to say, I am not a green thumb, so this might not work out as planned.  But let me break this down.
If I were to spend $100 a week in organic produce, I could easily replace that during a four month period with the draw from my gardens.  So that works out to $1600 that I could save.  In addition, I have an additional four months where I will replace about $30 a week in vegetables. Another $480.  I figured that I could also plant some annual plants and train them out side of the grow bed area, and improve that over time (blueberries are my first thought).
My next generation backyard!!
So in a decent growth rate, I should be able to cove most of my cost in about one year.  But this is the piece that I need you to understand.  We are in a food crisis, with escalating costs of all food, not to mention organic food.   I do not want to be making healthier and healthier decisions, that continually cost more and more money.  I expect that my health, and the health of my family, will always be the number one expense in my life… I choose that.  But I do not expect to see those costs continually escalate.  This is why I am eager to grow my own!
A dirt garden is a great place to start if you have no garden, but by next spring, we’ll be ready to teach you exactly how to get your own system going if that is what you want to do!  Be well, be organic!  Dr. E

 

After the adjustment there is…

It is always good to review some of the science of chiropractic, and make sure we overlay the philosophy, so that you not only understand what is happening in the office and in your body.  But so that you can also manage your expectations.  For many of my more seasoned patients, you completely understand the idea of getting “sick” after an adjustment.

For those who are wondering… what I am referring to is not actually getting sick, but expressing the symptoms of well.  Your body has a God given potential to respond to outward stimuli with an internal effort towards health.  If your body requires an immune response, then you would want an immune response to get well.  If your body requires inflammation, then inflammation is your best bet to get well (remember, this is in a body that is working correctly – if it is working improperly, then we have a problem).

So back to the whole sick thing.  I have had many patients come in feeling the start of a sickness, and following an adjustment the feeling turns into an immediate feeling of sick.  Fever, headache, clammy, coughing… the whole story, all within a very short time of the adjustment.  Others have had no such symptoms.  Why?  Why is it good to be either one?

Yes, Ronald is getting an adjustment… perhaps the only reason I would ever stop at McDonald’s!

The key lies here, the goal of the adjustment is a SINGULAR goal.  There is no mixing of the goals, it is one thing… to IMPROVE the function of the nervous system.  Whatever happens after that is between you and God.  If you need an immune response, then it will come with symptoms.  If your immune system is working well, then it is likely that little change will happen with the fight that is already going on, but anything could happen, and neither we, nor you, are in control of that.

I know this is actually a really simplistic concept, but it is the most important concept that surrounds what we do.  This concept is also the greatest one separating the medical model from the wellness model.  The medical model is one aimed at controlling outcomes, it is one that suggests that we can take a hold of one area of the body, and manipulate that area to follow our plan, without ill effect on another area.  We have come to the obvious understanding, that there is no way to do that without having some ill effect, so the goal now is controlled ill effect.  The wellness model is aimed at a pursuit of overall health, and balance in the body, understanding that crisis could very well be along the path towards better.

Accepting soreness in a workout routine is commonplace.  Nobody argues that the soreness is a bad thing, we understand that it is a part of the process towards building greater fitness.  Likewise, there are many different types of situations in the body that are actually a sign of greater function, that will cause us to think that we are not getting well.  We need to actively pursue wellness, and then work to differentiate movement in the right direction from movement in the wrong direction.  The difference is often difficult to understand, but by looking hard, we can find out the truth.

So, all of this to come back to this simple statement.  What happens after the adjustment is between you and God.  The truth will always hold, that 95% of you will feel better following an adjustment, in so many ways.  But my goal is never to make you feel better, it is always to improve function of the nervous system.  Period.

Be well, God bless, and stay on the pursuit of health!! – Dr. E

Total Food Makeover Coming Soon!

So we have a total food makeover coming up shortly.  For those of you who were here for the GMO talk this Wednesday, I know you were left with questions, and concerns.  That is the nature of this world right now, the answers don’t come in easy packages.  So we always recommend that EVERYONE do the Total Food Makeover, and follow the Healing Diet/Maximized Living Advanced Plan diet.

The Total Food Makeover is a series of  six workshops that come along one time per year.  This is your time, waiting another year is a BAD choice.  I honestly don’t feel that a good enough reason really exists not to do this.  As we delve into the deep understanding of eating healthy (I know many of you think you do a great job of that, while those who know my standard get that none of us do a great job – myself included), we will uncover the mystery of food choices, timing, and source.  Food source is the toughest nut to crack.

Ask someone who hasn’t spent any time on it, and they would ask “Why would i even care about organic?  I have been eating conventional my whole life!”  To which the response I would have “Well, there are two things to consider.  First, the fact that you have been eating this way your whole life might really be the reason why it is time to change.  You have no idea how many cancer cells are in you right now, in most cases you can develop up to 40 billion cancer cells before having a symptom.  And secondly, the need to yield crop has increased in this new world.  If a farmer doesn’t get the yield he needs, one season can wipe him out.  Chemically aided crops have the best chance of yield, so there are more chemicals being added to crops than there ever were before.  Ripening plants with ethylene gas increases the amount of ethylene exposure a tomato would have naturally, by up to 200 times.  We don’t know what that can do to someone over time.  In addition, the added pesticides have only increased the likelihood of toxicity over time.  Lastly, if you eat a conventional diet, you already take in too many toxins through your chemical additives.  These all compete for detoxifying enzymes in the liver.  You need to learn some more about the risks of a toxic lifestyle.”

I can remember my very first food education series.  It was the worst compared to today, but the best as of that time in my life.  I did it at Jehovah Java (a downtown Woodstock coffee shop) and it was a four week review of Rex Russel’s book, “What the Bible says about Healthy Living”.  I was basically trying to get the eight women who signed up, to stop drinking Coke.  Stop eating Pork and Shellfish (me included at that point), and to try to eat some raw veggies at least once a day.  LOL!  You would love if that was all I asked of you today!

But let me give you the real reason why I love leading a Total Food Makeover.  Because shopping is the hardest thing to overcome.  I can teach, teach, teach… and you will go into the grocery store, and have no idea what you are supposed to be looking for.  Then I take you into the grocery store, and just like that you can be a whole new person, because we actually looked at ingredients, and killed the idea of certain foods being healthy.  That sticks.  So last season, we went to Kroger and looked at their foods.  This year, I would like to arrange to go to both Kroger and Trader Joe’s… so you can see the good and bad at both.

So get yourself organized, this is the most valuable way to spend Monday night that you can come up with.  If you are committed to something else, I would ask you to start planning to get out of that commitment, or to get anyone you are committed with, to get committed to this as well.  It will improve health in these ways:

  1. Improve Hormone Function
  2. Increase Variety of Healthy Foods you eat
  3. Increase your physical performance in all activities
  4. Decrease the cancer cell load in your body
  5. Improve the circulation and decrease heart disease risk in your body
  6. Improve your sleep
  7. Increase your overall energy
  8. Improve your digestion
  9. Allow you to lose weight if needed, or gain weight if needed
  10. Make your spouse love you more
Well, I am not too sure that number ten will actually happen, but the rest are real!  I know I wrote a Daily Sprout about a month ago that had a bunch of you saying, “tough love man, tough love”.  To which I responded, “Yes, but love all the same, love all the same.”  After which many of you were ready to sign up for whatever was coming next… so this is next.  Well, Dr. Levi’s 20 minute Vaccine workshop will be in twelve days (Wednesday, September 7th at 11:45am), so this is not really next, but soon!  So sign up as soon as you can!
Check out the link to Total Food Makeover, get registered, and bring about 100 of your closest friends.  We’ll rent out all of First Baptist if we need to!  Also, parting news.  I have a new patient who has chickens roaming free, pecking away for their dinner.  We’ll be taking egg orders soon!  Be well – Dr. E

How Many Lives Could A Flu Shot Save, If A Flu Shot Could Save Lives?

This is a re-post of an article from 2008… just getting ready for the HYPE!

It’s flu season again and the Campaign has started off strong with recommendations for everyone to get the flu shot. Well, not everyone, just people who are at high risk. People like children aged 6mos to 18 years, anyone who may come into contact with these children or those under 6 months, people over 50 years old and anyone who comes into household contact with these high risk people, any woman who may become pregnant, all healthcare personnel, and people who have medical conditions such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injury, and people who are taking medications that affect the immune system, and children who take aspirin. Did I leave anyone out? While nearly 100% of the population is recommended to get the shot, on average only 5%-20% of the population will get the flu. (http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/index.htm)

 

The CDC website states what has been commonly accepted in the lay and scientific press “about 36,000 die from flu”. It’s the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.(http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/index.htm). But an actual look at the statistics tells a very different story. These numbers combine the flu and pneumonia together for some strange reason. According to the British Medical Journal article Are U.S. Flu Death Figures More PR Than Science? (Dec. 2005), “there are significant statistical incompatabilities between official estimates and national vital statistics data. Compounding these problems is a marketing of fear- A CDC communication strategy where medical experts ‘predict dire outcomes’ during flu season.”

 

Influenza and pneumonia took 62,304 lives in 2001. 61,777 were attributed to pneumonia, and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified. Only 18 cases!  It would be tough to build a vaccine campaign on only 18 cases. The thinking is this: the flu leads to pneumonia, pneumonia kills. We must kill the flu with a shot. But who dies from pneumonia and what caused pneumonia? I’ll go with the pneumonia numbers:

Let Me Count Thy Ways

 

  • 90% of pneumonia deaths are ages 65 and older with the majority of those being 85 and older. That’s about 55,000 deaths for this group and leaves 7,000 deaths for the rest. Remember, pneumonia not necessarily influenza.
  • Pneumonia makes up a small portion of overall deaths in this group.
  • Hardly anyone dies from ages 5-55 compared to the other ages, the first blip on the screen starts at the 55+ age group. Another relatively small blip is in the 2 and under age group.  This is the baseline for recommendations. Asthma death statistics follow a similar trend.

Risk factors associated with pneumonia that won’t help a vaccine awareness campaign:

  • Pneumonia is mainly caused by viruses, bacteria and other organisms. Pneumonia can also be caused by the inhalation of food, liquid, gases or dust. One type of pneumonia caused by fungi is pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) which primarily affects AIDS patients. Certain diseases, such as tuberculosis, can also predispose someone to pneumonia.
  • A recent study found that stomach acid suppressing drugs (Prilisec, Nexium, Zantac, etc,) are associated with community acquired pneumonia (JAMA 2004: 292;1955-1960)
  • The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition estimated that 1,000,000, world wide pneumonia deaths could be prevented in moderately undernourished childen. Certainly that could play a part in some of the deaths in the U.S.
  • You can acquire pneumonia just from going to the hospital itself. This is called HAP or hospital acquired pneumonia.
  • Getting intubated at the hospital is linked to pneumonia. Flu shot won’t prevent this.

 

  • I found at least one case where Antideppresants are linked to pulmonary changes without the patient even knowing until it’s too late.( Eur Respir J, 1996, 9, 615–617DOI: 10.1183/09031936.96.09030615).
  • Approximately 50 percent of pneumonia cases are believed to be caused by viruses and tend to result in less severe illness than bacteria-caused pneumonia. Most pneumonia in the very young is caused by viral infection, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The symptoms of viral pneumonia are similar to influenza symptoms and include fever, dry cough, headache, muscle pain, weakness, fever and increasing breathlessness( Pneumonia  http://www.marylandlung.org/content/1/2/32.html). Flu shot won’t save these lives either
  • Rotavirus vaccine  associated with increase in pneumonia related deaths.  RuetersFeb. 15, 2008
  • .Pneumococcal pneumonia accounts for 25 to 35 percent of all community-acquired pneumonia, and an estimated 40,000 deaths( Pneumonia  http://www.marylandlung.org/content/1/2/32.html).  Wow! Flu shot won’t help here either.
  • A vaccine is also available for bacterial pneumonia. The pneumococcal vaccine protects against 23 types of pneumococcal bacteria populations and is effective in approximately 80 percent of healthy adults. Unfortunately, the vaccine may be less effective in people in high risk groups. People over age 65, and those over 2 years in high-risk groups are still advised to receive the pneumonia vaccine.  (Pneumonia  http://www.marylandlung.org/content/1/2/32.html).  Did you just hear that? It doensn’t work very good for the people who may benefit the most but “good news its 80% effective in everyone else. The same is said for the flu shot.
  • Staph infections (76% MRSA) caused pneumonia and killed otherwise healthy people in 2006 AmericanCollegeofEmergency Physicians.
  • The Lancet (aug.2,2008) concluded that the flu shot did not reduce the risk of pnuemonia in the elderly.
  • The British Medical Journal (October 28, 2006) showed that for people under 65  the flu shot “did not affect hospital stay, time off work or death from influenza and it’s complications”
  • The Cochrane collaboration published a review concluding that children younger than 2, flu shots are no better than placebo, and safety has not been established.

 

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