Leaky Gut, Molecular Mimicry and Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune Diseases have been particularly difficult to treat in the past. As we gain new understanding about their origin we begin to make inroads into the treatment and resolution of these health issues. Several mechanisms of disease have recently come to light.

An autoimmune disease is a disease characterized by the body’s own defense mechanism attacking itself. In the case of Rheumatoid Arthritis, the body attacks its own cartilage and synovial tissue. In the case of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, the body attacks its own thyroid tissue, in the case of Lupus, connective tissue is at risk and in Multiple Sclerosis the myelin tissue is targeted. Autoimmune diseases generally have a hereditary component, which is triggered by another factor in the person’s environment or diet. The genetic tendencies are not necessarily expressed if we can avoid the triggering event that begins the autoimmune response.

Increased intestinal permeability, commonly referred to as “Leaky Gut”, is thought to be a predisposing factor to the autoimmune disorders. Leaky Gut is characterized by increased permeability of the small intestine. Normally the small intestine is a very tight barrier to invading organisms such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins and undigested foods. Leaky gut can occur as a result of several mechanisms. Parasites, candida imbalance, viruses, food allergies, use of NSAIDS (non-steroidal antiinflammatories) antibiotic use and various other drugs can lead to increase in the permeability of the small intestine. This increase in permeability allows unwanted toxins, undigested foods and other pathogens direct access to the blood stream.

Once in the blood stream, these invaders can cause a chain of events or reactions to unfold. The first event comes from the adrenal glands, which essentially sound the alarm that an invasion has occurred. This alerts the immune system to react and “send out the troops” in the form of macrophages, which are a type of white blood cell. These white blood cells are in charge of cleaning up the debris in the blood. If they are overwhelmed by the amount of debris around, they release a chemical called histamine in order to facilitate the process. Histamine is an inflammatory substance. When histamine is released it may cause some unwanted side effects such as joint pain, headaches, mucus production, congestion, fatigue, brain fog, etc. Once the body has identified the invader, further exposure to these invaders can have a quicker response from the immune system. Food allergies and sensitivities are created in just this way. These food allergies or hyperimmune responses may further aggravate an already existing leaky gut situation.

Signs and symptoms of leaky gut include fatigue, muscle pain, abdominal pain, bloating, fever, skin rash, food allergies, migraines, diarrhea, and chronic diseases. Causes of “Leaky Gut Syndrome” include: consumption of allergenic foods, premature birth, whole food exposure before 4-6 months of age, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, radiation therapy, alcohol consumption, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, secretory IgA deficiency, corticosteroids, lack of variety of foods, amino acid deficiency, zinc or vitamin A deficiency, digestive tract infections (bacteria, candida, viruses, parasites) bioflavonoid insufficiencies, excess stress, poor digestion, antibiotic therapy and excessive sugar consumption.

Molecular Mimicry
Bacteria, viruses, and undigested foods can share similar protein sequences with our own human tissue. Thus these invaders may look like “us” to the immune system. Here is where we get into serious trouble with autoimmune responses. When these substances activate the immune system (in genetically susceptible people), antibodies are formed to attack the foreign substances or antigens. The problem is that the antibodies also recognize the protein sequences in the self or human tissue that are similar to the foreign protein in the bacteria or virus. This is called cross reactivity.

People with hereditary predisposition for autoimmune diseases are particularly susceptible to food interactions with the immune system. Some common culprits are milk proteins, wheat gluten, and kidney beans. Lectins are often responsible for these reactions. Other lectin containing foods include lentils, peas, jack beans, peanuts, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice and soy.

Treating and Preventing Autoimmune Disorders
Treatment of these disorders necessarily requires a multi-tiered approach. One of the first things to address should be the digestive system. If the foods are not broken down properly and the stomach is not producing enough hydrochloric acid to kill pathogens and break down food proteins then the autoimmune responses will continue. Hydrochloric acid and pancreatic enzymes should be considered.

Repair of the leaky gut should be considered next. It is extremely important to “close the door” to incoming antigens (allergenic substances) and pathogens. Allergy testing and removal are critical. We must address the food sensitivities that are involved and remove them from the diet for a period of time to allow the immune system to rest and to help repair the leaky gut.

Getting the digestive system working well, repairing the leaky gut, and removing allergens from the diet is only the beginning, however. Once the autoimmune response has been triggered it is extremely difficult to stop this response of the body. At least it has been in the past. However, with the use of Cetyl Myristoleate this has become much easier to accomplish.

Cetyl Myristoleate to the Rescue
Cetyl Myristoleate was developed by Harry W. Diehl, a scientist who was doing research on populations of rats to try to find a cure for arthritis. He wondered why he was able to induce arthritis in populations of rats but was unable to duplicate this in mice. He soon isolated a substance called Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO) that protected mice from arthritis. Dr. Diehl began injecting this substance into rats and found that he was unable to now induce arthritis in these rats. Cetyl Myristoleate provided a sort of immunity to the disease.

In 1991 CMO appeared on the market as a dietary supplement and has been proven effective in relieving symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It seems to work by turning off the autoimmune response. Certain nutrients are recommended along with the CMO to increase it‘s effectiveness. Omega 3 fish oils, or flax oil, 300-500IU Vit. E, Glucosamine sulfate, pancreatic enzymes, lipase, lecithin and ox bile should be considered. Usually only one month on this regimen will be sufficient. In some cases it may take longer. Carbonated beverages, citrus juices, sugar; alcohol and caffeine intake should be avoided.

Case Studies

Case of Margaret M.
Margaret was a 57 year-old Caucasian woman who had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1988. Her daily pain level was so severe that she was forced to quit her job as a counselor and go on disability. She was on 10 medications when she came to the office for treatment. (Guafinesen, SMZ/TMP, Cyclobenzaprine, Effexor, Clonazepan, Hydrocodone, Levoxyl, Calulose, Ambien, Vicadin-PRN). In addition she also had Type I insulin dependent diabetes, a paralyzed colon, severe fatigue, sleep disturbances (that usually accompany fibromyalgia) and severe hair loss. On August 13, 2001, her first visit, we started her on a regimen of supplements that included Total Multimmune-an immune support blend with IP6, and power mushrooms, Calcium D-Glucarate to decrease her estrogen levels which were found to be inordinately high, PSI Nighttime to help with sleep, Progest E- a very potent form of natural progesterone, and Cetyl Myr-Plus.

On September 17, 2001 Margaret was seen for a follow-up visit and reported that she was now pain-free. She had discontinued all medications except Levoxyl, and Effexor on her own and still had no pain. She also reported that she was sleeping a normal 8 hours and waking refreshed and that her energy levels were great.

Case of Mark H.
Mark was a 47 year old male Caucasian who had been seen in our office for complaints of severe asthma, allergies, chronic sinus infections and fatigue since he was a child. He had been using inhalers (Vanceril, and Maxair) for 8 years. We had been seeing him since 1998 with good results but he still had to use his inhaler almost nightly. His energy was good, he was able to work out without breathing problems and able to fight off infections well. We started him on 2 Cetyl Myr Plus a day on May 31, 2001 along with a protocol for treating leaky gut problems. He was seen for a follow-up visit on June 27, 2001 and reported significant relief from the asthma with only occasional use of the inhaler. His sense of smell was returning, and he was feeling great. We continued on the protocol and will do a follow-up visit in October.



References:

1. Toohey, Lynn Nutri-Notes , Vol. 5, #2 Mar-Apr 1998.

2. Dr. Charles Cochran and Dr. Raymond Dent, “Cetyl Myristoleate-A Unique Natural Compound Valuable in Arthritis Conditions“, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, July 1997, PP. 70-73

3. Ackerson, Amber N.D., Nutritional Management of Intestinal Permeability Defects, Abstract

4. Goldberg, Paul A. MPH, DC, Musculoskeletal Complaints and Intestinal Permeability, Nutritional Perspectives.

5. Appleton, Jeremy ND, Leaky Gut Syndrome: Restoring Integrity of the Intestinal Mucosa, Advancing the Standard Volume No. 2, Issue No. 1, February 1999.

6. Toohey, Lynn MS, PhD. The Little Buggers Steal the Headlines Again, Nutri Notes, Vol. 3, # 1, Jan-Feb 1996.

Emotional Freedom at Last!

Emotional Freedom technique is sweeping the country! It is the most profound technique to come out of natural healing and energy medicine to date. With this technique many have been able to overcome limiting beliefs, phobias, traumatic events and anxieties very quickly and permanently. This stunning discovery in how the body works sound almost too good to be true. What has been discovered is that “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system”, according to discoverer Dr. Roger Callahan.

Dr.Callahan, a psychologist with over 40 years experience, developed Thought Field Therapy. TFT was further refined by Gary Craig a Stanford Engineer who became interested in personal improvement. He developed the technique known as EFT, which is changing the practice of psychology. You no longer have to spend years in talk therapy to achieve results. You can achieve amazing results and progress with emotional issues sometimes within minutes. There is no long drawn out “tell me your life story” feature to EFT. There are no pills. There is no painfully reliving past traumatic events. By correcting the energy imbalances created by emotions you can take the charge out of them.

Our electrical systems are vital to our physical health. When energy stops flowing, we die. About 5,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered a complex system of energy circuits that run throughout the body. These energy circuits or meridians are the core of many healing techniques today. EFT uses this knowledge to unlock the trapped emotions in the body and release there hold on the conscious and unconscious mind. Once the energy meridians are balanced the emotional intensity goes away. This is the most powerful thing you can learn about your emotions, they are caused by energy disruptions. If a memory can no longer cause a disruption in the body’s energy system, the negative emotion can no longer occur.

These techniques can give you the freedom that allows you to blossom. They allow you to rise above whatever hidden hurdles keep you from performing to your capacity. Freedom to earn that greater income, make those business calls, start a new business, improve your golf score, lose that weight, approach people with ease, get rid of that phobias that keeps you from living your life fully.

Can you imagine freedom from years of self doubt and torment? We see consistent results using this technique. Most problems vanish in minutes, a few problems take longer, maybe two or three brief sessions. The most difficult ones tend to require anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. However, these are in the minority.

A new innovation such as this technique naturally meets with skepticism because it violates people’s beliefs. EFT contradicts just a about every belief there is about psychology. Quick relief for “difficult” emotional problems are generally considered impossible. If your reaction to the claims in the previous paragraph sounds a little too good to be true, I’m not surprised. This is a common response to these techniques. But I urge you to try it out before you pass judgment. I have seen these techniques perform true miracles right before my eyes. And people make improvement despite their skepticism.

One other advantage of this technique is that once you learn it (it’s easy to learn) you can perform it on yourself. You can continue to work on your emotions at home on a continuous basis. (I do this technique on myself almost daily!) And according to Dr. Mercola, one of the biggest fans of EFT, “Perhaps the biggest limit you will encounter in using EFT is not recognizing how much you can do with it. “ You’ll never know how good you can be until you try!!

I introduced EFT to the professional athletes and trainers at a Charles Poliquin seminar in Phoenix this year. It was incredibly well received by these folks. They saw the true value of clearing underlying belief systems in their clients. Many of these clients are Olympic athletes, trying to achieve their personal best. We all know that our thoughts and beliefs are incredibly important in these endeavors. The mental game is every bit as important as our physical game in achieving the results we are after.




Wholistic Kinesiology Center is located at 9809 Candelaria NE. Opened in 1996 by Dr. J Dunn, the center has become the focal point for education in Natural healing in the community. Seminars and lectures are given on a regular basis. Dr. J Dunn is the developer of Wholistic Kinesiology®. Six month courses in Wholistic Kinesiology are given twice a year. (EFT is taught as part of the course) All of our practitioners are trained in EFT. Come check it out-you’ll be amazed!! For a Free mini demo Call 275-9809 today!

Adrenal Fatigue

Fatigue is one of the most common complaints among adult patients. If you also have symptoms such as:

· Fatigue
· Anxiety
· Allergies
· Frequent infections
· Arthritis
· Dizziness
· Lightheadedness
· Depression
· Reduced memory
· Difficulties in concentrating
· Reduced sex drive
· Insomnia,
· Need for coffee or stimulants to get going in the morning,
· Cravings for salty, fatty, and high protein food
· Increase symptoms of PMS (women)
· Pain in the upper back or neck with no apparent reasons
· Inability to lose weight after extensive efforts
· Food and or inhalant allergies
· Dry and thin skin
· Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
· Low Body Temperature
· Heart Palpitations
· Unexplained hair loss
· Alternating constipation and diarrhea
· Dyspepsia



You may be suffering from adrenal fatigue.

Our modern lifestyles contribute to incredible amounts of stress. Especially our American lifestyle of more and more work hours, cramming phone calls in between appointments and on the road, working long hours on the computer. We are constantly on the go from sun up to sun down and then some. The onset of this disease can creep up on you. Adrenal fatigue has so many symptoms which many doctors don’t recognize as coming from the adrenal glands. Patients are told that they are stressed and need to learn to relax more. We are told that stress is hard on us, but I think it is largely underestimated how it can affect every system in our bodies.

Maintaining a balance of stress and rest along with being able to adapt well to stressful situations is the key to survival. Underlying emotional issues can be responsible for an ongoing underlying stress level. Undetected infections can also be contributing to the issue, genetic tendencies may also be involved. Many things may be involved in the underlying imbalance. With Wholistic Kinesiology, we can sort through all these possible contributing elements and begin to restore balance and adaptability to the body.

If you have many of these signs and symptoms, it is time you consider adrenal fatigue as a possible cause once you have ruled out other organic pathologies. There are several tests available to evaluate the health of the adrenals. Experts agree that saliva tests will reveal the most information on the adrenals, however using Muscle Testing techniques can reveal the myriad of underlying issues that might be leading to your adrenal problems. Using this approach has many advantages to the expense and snapshot approach revealed through blood, saliva and urine tests.

Using Wholistic Kinesiology® techniques we can evaluate how well your adrenal glands are functioning and devise an individualized program for restoring your health and balance.

Dr. J Dunn-Photo

Combining the Best of Both Worlds

The Line has been drawn and it needs to be erased. Where is it written that you can’t combine natural medicine with allopathic medicine?? It is very rare that you run into a practitioner on either side and get a balanced viewpoint about the other. With all the talk about integrative medicine, there really doesn’t seem to be movement on either side to really do this. I believe it’s up to us as patients or warriors in the battle of preventive health to call the shots and demand that both sides begin to bury the hatchet.
I recently had a brush with death at the hands of a medical intervention. I was infected with a rare and slow growing bacteria in the hospital when there for a routine appendectomy. I eventually had to return to the hospital to get medical intervention again, as I was unable to get on top of this infection through natural means. I was on three different antibiotics. My doctor asked if I was taking any natural supplements and asked me to stop. I refused. They were helping me avoid a yeast infection, reducing the inevitable gas and bloating that occurs with these medications and keeping my energy up. I know not to combine medications with certain supplements, so I am confident in what I was doing.
Really, I am a self proclaimed medical basher, but I learned a few things through this experience. One very important lesson is that there is a place for both philosophies and they can be used together very effectively. So many people are frightened by their medical doctors into not combining the two because they don’t have any knowledge of natural medicine, and natural health practitioners are equally as guilty of believing that all procedures and medications given by the MD’s are bad, poisonous, dangerous and completely unnecessary.
It’s time for a new paradigm and a blurring of the lines between the two disciplines. We need to start demanding what we want as consumers of health care. It is up to us to make choices and to vote with our feet. I propose the following bill of rights for us medical consumers that want more out of our health care professionals.


Patient bill of rights:
1. We demand to be listened to, we demand that you take your time and really understand our complaints and feel our pain.
2. We reserve the right to choose our own course of medical care with your expert advice to help guide us and we don’t want to be bullied into procedures or medications that we don’t fully understand.
3. We demand to have every procedure or medication or supplement explained to us in a manner and in language that we can understand. We need to know the risks, outcome and goals of each.
4. We want to be given choices, where a noninvasive, less expensive procedure will suffice let us be given the choice.
5. We demand health care providers that will refer us out to others more competent when they are not the right one to take care of our needs. We want practitioners that put our health above their egos.


Using Natural Health Care with modern Allopathic Medicine: What would that look like?
How about a combination of the two that really covered all our needs. What if we could go to a natural health care practitioner that took care of our needs for preventative medicine. They would check us for nutritional deficiencies that would later lead to disease processes. They would make sure we were getting the proper supplements. Our diets, and lifestyles would be evaluated and we would be counseled on ways to improve our chances of remaining well. We would be evaluated, and corrected for structural imbalances that could lead to further injury later in life. We would have basic vital signs measured to be sure there were no signs of dangerous medical conditions impending. We would also see on occasion a medical practitioner that would do a more detailed physical and include occasional blood work to evaluate our path to optimal health. When such an occasion arose for emergency medical intervention, we would be referred to the appropriate health care provider. If medication was absolutely necessary, our natural health care provider would be well enough informed to counsel us on nutritional supplements to reduce the side effects and not interfere with the medication. What a concept! Let’s demand that now, it’s up to you!!
Visit our website at
www.wholistickinesiology.com

Gallbladder Blues

Gallbladder imbalances are rampant in our society, largely because of over consumption of trans-fatty acids, fried foods, and hydrogenated fats. In addition, hormone imbalances can throw off the functioning of the gallbladder. The results are some of the following:

· Pain in the shoulders (especially the right one)
· Dry skin despite consumption of EFA’s and fish oils
· Joint pain and arthritis
· Hormone imbalances
· Fatigue
· Memory problems
· Prostate hypertrophy
· Immune system weakness
· Pain between the shoulder blades
· Pain in the webbing between the finger and thumb
· Pain under the right ribcage
· Burping and belching
· Indigestion and bloating
· Inability to digest fatty foods
· Failing eyesight
· Depression or other mood imbalances
· Allergies to pollen, dust and animal dander

If you suffer from some of these problems, your gallbladder may be the culprit.

What is your gallbladder and what does it do? Your Gallbladder is a small hollow organ situated under your liver. Its main job is to concentrate the bile produced by the liver. Bile is released in response to fats in the diet and acts like a soap to break up the molecules of fat. These fat molecules are then digested by the enzymes secreted by the pancreas. These molecules are the source of our anti-inflammatory agents, hormones, joint lubrication and cell membranes. The fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are absorbed correctly when the gallbladder is functioning well. Without absorption of these vitamins, we end up with eyesight diminishment, skin problems, thickening of the blood, greater risk of cancer and osteoporosis in addition to those issues listed above.

Many people take essential fatty acids, such as fish oil and flax seed oil, in order to prevent heart disease and inflammation. If your gallbladder is underfunctioning, this is not only a waste but also may aggravate the problem.

Gallstones
Gallstones are common--they occur in approximately 20% of women in the US, Canada and Europe--but there is a large variation in prevalence among ethnic groups. For example, gallstones occur 1 ½ to 2 times more commonly among Scandinavians and Mexican-Americans. Among American Indians, gallstone prevalence reaches more than 80%. Women tend to have more estrogen which increases the amount of cholesterol that is deposited in the bile and increases its viscosity. Gallstones are mostly made of cholesterol. If the liver does not secrete enough bile acids and lecithin, some of the cholesterol also does not dissolve. In either case, undissolved cholesterol sticks together and forms particles of cholesterol that grow in size and eventually form gallstones, which further blocks the flow of bile.

Gallbladder disease or imbalances will only be recognized by allopathic medicine once they become serious or life threatening, and then their only remedy is to remove the offending organ. This increases the imbalance and creates more problems in the body. In natural medicine, we can evaluate and prevent this imbalance by maximizing function of the gallbladder with herbs and supplements that tone and strengthen it. This can alleviate those symptoms listed above. It is also possible to dissolve gallstones and thereby eliminate the need for surgery. Imbalances in the gallbladder can be detected easily and painlessly by using Kinesiology.

Dr. J A Dunn
Wholistic Kinesiology Institute

Basic tenants in Wholistic Kinesiology® Part 3

There is the other peril of the alternative health care practitioners. They are just as guilty of one size fits all treatment plans. They are also guilty of charlatanism. This discipline leaves itself open to bizarre health care practices and claims. So many supplements are available today and so many of them are useless and sometimes downright harmful. The regulation of dietary supplements is sketchy at best. What is scary is that it is left up to the manufacturers to police their own products. “Under the provisions of DSHEA, manufacturers of dietary supplements are not required to provide evidence of efficacy or safety prior to marketing the product. Moreover, except for a supplement that contains a "new dietary ingredient," dietary supplements are not required to have FDA approval or to be registered with the FDA before they are produced and marketed. Manufacturers are responsible for establishing their own manufacturing practice guidelines, because there are no FDA regulations to ensure the identity, purity, quality, composition, or strength of dietary supplements.1 “

The results are that we have so many products that make fantastic claims that contain virtually no active ingredients. Several studies were done recently and the results were very revealing. ”A survey of St John's Wort products purchased from Californian health food stores has found that the concentration of hypericin can vary from just 2.9 per cent of what is stated on the label to as much as 114 per cent. And sometimes the majority of the active ingredient is not hypericin itself but a close relative, pseudohypericin” (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.1598).

What we need is education and a standard by which we can measure truth in our own bodies. What if you had an alarm signal that beeped every time you tried a supplement or food that was bad for you? This would be very handy at directing you toward optimal health. The truth is that we do have this alarm. However, we have become so adept at ignoring it that we can no longer hear it. If we listened closely to the signals our body gave us we would have no problems. What about that fatigue after we eat something? Sleepiness, mental fog, aches and pains, slight headache, intestinal pain? These were all alarms that we have learned to ignore. Until we begin to listen to our bodies signals again, muscle testing allows us to tap into that information in a very graphic and gentle manner.

If we paid attention to what our bodies were trying to say and only did healthful practices the majority of the time, we would have radiant health way beyond the norm and be very resistant to disease processes. Because we believe in the inherent wisdom of the body, we try to get to the root of the health problem and prevent it before it becomes a bigger problem. This is the specialty of natural medicine. Modern medicine has nothing to offer in this regard except some vague advice about balanced diet, getting some exercise and avoiding stress (would that it was that easy!!) We can get very specific about what that means for you as an individual by using Wholistic Kinesiology.

Allopathic medicine believes in trying to outsmart the body. They believe that disease processes are a mistake that the body has made instead of a signal of imbalance. They go after the symptoms and try to make us comfortable while the disease process remains blazing out of control only to emerge later as a medical emergency. Their further belief in the germ theory makes hypochondriacs out of us. We are scared of the tiny little disease carrying bugs that threaten to get us at every turn. So we wash with antibacterial soaps, and scrub our bowls with scrubbing bubbles and clean ourselves with sometimes some very harmful substances. While I am not proposing that we do away with basic hygiene, I worry about the current trend of over concern with the small critters that surround us and are sometimes very beneficial. We tend to go overboard with antibiotics and antibacterial soaps in an effort to be sterile.

Antibacterial soaps were used mainly in clinical health care environments. Now, antibacterial soaps are a $16 billion-a-year industry. Many products now contain antibacterial agents in which the active ingredient is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth; it also has been shown in a recent study to kill human calls. (Triclosan: cytotoxicity, mode of action, and induction of apoptosis in human gingival cells in vitro. Zuckerbraun HL, Babich H, May R, Sinensky MC. Department of Biology, Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, New York, NY 10016, USA.)

Triclosan was introduced into consumer products in 1995, and its use has spread rapidly.
Many scientists fear that the widespread use could lead to a strain of resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” and cause the ingredients to lose effectiveness for the times when they really are necessary. In the study, published in the March 2, 2004 Journal Annals of Internal Medicine, people who used antibacterial soaps and cleansers developed cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms just as often as people who used products that did not contain antibacterial ingredients.

Many traditional medical authorities now accept the hygiene hypothesis, which proposes the idea that children need to be exposed to some bacteria in early childhood in order to strengthen their immune systems. Children who are not exposed to common bacteria, which are wiped out by antibacterial soap, may be more prone to immune problems such as asthma and allergies.

This is just one illustration of the thinking that bugs cause disease. If this were so, why was it that Mother Theresa could go to disease infested areas and never become ill? Why aren’t doctors the sickest of all, they are exposed day in and day out with all kinds of germs from patients. Clearly there is something else going on here. Louis Pasture even admitted his error on his death bed. He stated that it truly was the terrain not the bugs that was the cause of disease processes. Getting rid of all the bugs is impossible and not even a good idea. So many species live in and on us and are there for our mutual benefit. Keeping the body in homeostasis is the only route to true health. When we get off balance we are then susceptible to infections with the bugs that we live with and are exposed to daily. Wholistic Kinesiology can help us maintain that equilibrium.

Dr J A Dunn
Wholistic Kinesiology Institute

1. Leisman, G., Shambaugh, P., Ferentz, A. Somatosensory Evoked Potential Changes During Muscle Testing. International Journal of Neuroscience. 1989; 45:143-151.

Basic Tenants in Wholistic Kinesiology® Part 2

So, how is modern medicine doing in this fight to right the damage that we have done to ourselves?? So poorly in fact, that doctors are now the third leading cause of death in the industrialized countries according to a recent report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 284 July26, 2001). There are over 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic (doctor induced) causes. These numbers include unnecessary surgeries, medication and other errors in hospitals, infections in hospitals, and negative effects of drugs. Despite the new technologic advances in our country, we are still second to last in overall health indicators including low birth weight, neonatal mortality and infant mortality, and overall life expectancy.

The following is a quote from Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor in chief on the New England Journal of Medicine

“The combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 (35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all of the other 490 businesses put together (33.7 billion). Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the U.S. Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers and the medical profession itself”.

The poor performance of the United States was recently confirmed by a World Health Organization study, which ranked the US as 15th among 25 industrialized countries. While there is the perception that the American public behaves badly by smoking, drinking, and perpetuating violence, the data does not support this view. Female Americans smoke less than the Danes but more than the Japanese, males smoke way less than the Japanese. Yet the Japanese are the healthiest according to this study. The US ranks fifth best for alcoholic consumption. We consume less fat than most industrialized nations and our cholesterol levels are third among the industrialized countries.

Drugs, surgery and hospitals are rarely the answer to chronic health problems. Enhancing the healing capacity of the body is the key. Improving the diet, exercise and lifestyle are the building blocks. A new paradigm of health is needed. Now as never before, people are starting to question the traditional medical paradigm of healing. Kinesiology is a modality whose time has come. We are confident that this modality can help restore proper function to the individual by devising an individual approach to restoring balance. One size fits all diets and supplement routines are also an area where one can get lost. So many folks read the latest diet or health book, they buy the diet program and or supplements recommended and find out months later that it did nothing to help them. Of course this dietary advice is good. It must have helped someone, or else the book wouldn’t have been written. How will you find the exact diet and supplement program for you in a book written about someone else?

Only the body can give you feedback about what it needs. It can do that in a very elegant and consistent way. With this knowledge it is possible to monitor how things are going internally and adjust according to needs of the body. Homeostasis is achieved in this way and health can be restored. We all have very different needs. We have different genetic makeup, different diets, different lifestyles and stress levels and so therefore, it stands to reason that our nutrient needs would vary.

Medical Doctors are beginning to respond to the demands of consumers for more natural health care solutions. Nutrition has in the past been strictly an elective course for MD’s. Not much was taught to them in Medical school. This subject had to be studied outside of the medical education. Once a Doctor gets out of school he/she is often too busy trying to pay back student loans and start a practice that they often don’t have the time or energy to stay current with nutritional knowledge.

Many schools now are including an integrative medical program in the schools. This is a positive trend in some ways. A little knowledge can be dangerous however. Witness the trend of MD’s to recommend 1200-1400 mg of Calcium to their patients. Not taking into account the type and quality of supplement they may get, nor their current consumption in the diet. In addition, often the patient’s absorptive ability is completely ignored. Too much calcium can lead to accumulation in the joints, kidney stones and various other problems. If calcium carbonate is consumed, the digestive system is impaired because of the pH imbalance of the carbonate form of calcium. So you see a little bit of knowledge can be detrimental. This information generally comes from your family doctor in whom you have confidence because he has so much schooling and knowledge and he wears that white coat. We assume a confidence that can be perilous at times. More and more physicians are attending nutritional conferences and overall this is an exciting development. I recently attended a seminar on “Functional Medicine” in Vancouver BC where over 600 doctors were in attendance. The majority were MD’s. I was encouraged.

Dr J A Dunn
WholisticKinesiologyInstitute.com

Basic Tenants in Wholistic Kinesiology® Part 1

Basic tenants in Wholistic Kinesiology® are these:

1. The body has an amazing ability to be well if it’s given the right tools. The power that made the body can heal the body.
2. The body can tell you through muscle testing where imbalances are.
3. The body runs on food, (carbohydrates, proteins, fats), vitamins and minerals and if it gets the proper amounts of these and the proper kinds of these, it will run smoothly and you will be healthy. If you ignore any of these elements, it will begin to malfunction and disease processes begin.
4. Lack of the above nutrients can come from variety of sources: Lack of nutrients in our diets, improper supplementation, excess stress (emotional, physical and chemical), active disease processes, (parasites, yeast or fungal infections, viruses) and hereditary factors.
5. The body can tell you what it needs through muscle testing and how much it needs in a very accurate way.

I know that this must sound a little too simple and easy. It is! I have seen these techniques work their miracles over and over again in the many years that I have been using Kinesiology. The power and beauty of the human body still constantly amaze me. It is truly a miraculous system. And I am amazed at how well these techniques work at helping to restore the body back to balance and health. I see people get their lives back daily.

The time has come for us to reclaim our power in the health care field. There is an explosion in the medical field of new scientific advances and technology. This takes us even further from the way nature intended our bodies to work. We need to go back to the beginning, and understand how our bodies work.

The basic requirements have not changed for eons. We still require good food, with proper nutrients for our bodies to function properly. We will never be able to replace that basic concept. To deviate from this is disaster. Technology would have us believe that we can create the stuff of life in the laboratory. We constantly try to achieve bigger and better yields from our crops by bioengineering with less and less nutritional components in the food we are eating. How can we have healthy bodies at this time? It is very difficult to achieve. We are also bombarded daily with pollutants and challenges that we are as yet unable to adapt to. Witness the explosion of cancerous conditions. Cancer threatens to overcome heart disease soon as the number one killer. Where is this coming from? A breakdown in our basic nutrition coupled with exposures to foreign substances that are wreaking havoc on our immune systems. Because we ignore the basic needs for clean air, pure water, and basic nutrients, vitamins, minerals. We expect our bodies to put up with incredible amounts of abuse and still keep performing. We fill our bodies with junk, take drugs, travel miles to get to work in polluted environments, don’t replenish our nutrients and then wonder what happened when we suddenly get sick. We then expect to go to the doctor and take more chemicals in the hope of curing us. We have so overlooked the obvious answer. Back to the basics!! Let’s treat our bodies right and then we have the right to expect good health. Modern science will never replace this concept.

The modern method of medicine is not that old. We have a relatively short history with allopathic medicine, but it has so invaded our consciousness that we can’t even think about how it may have been in the past. We think of the past of medicine as the dark ages. What did People do when they had cavities, heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer. The fact is these diseases are of modern origin also. None of this existed before the advent of modern nutritional practices. Our technology has been our demise and now we expect technology to come to our rescue. But believe me, headaches never have been and never will be an aspirin deficiency.

Dr J A Dunn

Wholistic Kinesiology Institute

So what is Wholistic Kinesiology®?

What is Wholistic Kinesiology®? It is the art and science of neuromuscular evaluation for optimizing health. Or simply put, it is a remarkable tool that allows you to speak to the body. If we want to get more complicated, it is a neurological test for evaluating the body’s electromagnetic potentials. We are working with the nervous system, which is an electrical system and has positive and negative flows. It creates an electromagnetic field around it (very measurable) and it can be shorted out just like our electrical systems in our homes. The Chinese systems of flow of electrical energy are called meridians. We make great use of the meridian flow pathways in the body in Kinesiology. The eastern medical practitioners have paved the way for us by literally mapping out electrical highways in the body. If electrical energy is not flowing properly to an organ or muscle or joint we can detect this imbalance through testing the nervous system. This system of diagnosis may sound simplistic but it is very profound and valuable. We can literally ask the body how things are going internally.

When we see signs of imbalance by looking at someone, such as fatigue, paleness, weak nails, dark circles under the eyes, etc. we can interpret these as signs that the body is trying to tell us something. If we cover them up we only mask the signs and ignore the cause. With kinesiology, we can match the signs up with the cause and get to the root of the matter. We can also detect imbalances before they become symptomatic. I have countless times told patients what was going on in their body before they even knew or felt the symptoms.

Dr J A Dunn
Wholistic Kinesiology Institute

What is Kinesiology?

What is Kinesiology? Wikipedia gives the following definition: “Kinesiology is the scientific study of human movement. While an understanding of kinesiology is fundamental for the analysis and treatment of problems in the musculoskeletal system, it is not - unlike "applied kinesiology" (AK) - a stated method for the treatment or diagnosis of illness.

Kinesiology encompasses human anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, exercise physiology, exercise psychology and sociology, history, and philosophy of sport. The relationship between the quality of movement and overall human health is also studied.

Kinesiological information is applied in such fields as physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic, osteopathy, kinesiotherapy, massage therapy, ergonomics, physical education and athletic coaching. The approach of these applications can be therapeutic, preventive, or high-performance. The application of kinesiology can also incorporate knowledge from other academic disciplines such as psychology, physiology, sociology, cultural studies, ecology, evolutionary biology, and anthropology. Related interdisciplinary fields in motor skills, skills research are graphonomics, i.e. the study of handwriting movement control and the study of motor control in speech.

There are some professional physical therapists who are also fully credentialed as "Registered Kinesiologists." The general difference between the job of a kinesiologist and a physical therapist is that a kinesiologist will assess movement, or problems in movement with regard to physiology, anatomy and biomechanics, while a physical therapist will actually assess and apply therapeutic techniques to correct the identified problems.”

Be sure and check out the next post where we'll examine the question, "So what is Wholistic Kinesiology®?

Dr J A Dunn
Wholistic Kinesiology Institute

Wholistic Kinesiology Introduction

Muscle Testing or kinesiology is making an appearance on the natural health care scene!! Its popularity is growing by leaps and bounds as more and more people become familiar with it. The reason for this is its incredible usefulness in understanding the human body and restoring health. Wholistic Kinesiology® is one of the many types of muscle testing. The different types however, all share the same basic tenant; that muscle testing can give you feedback from the body. This feedback is used to enhance your health in a variety of ways, nutritionally, structurally and/or emotionally. Many of these techniques specialize in one or more of these areas. The beauty of Wholistic Kinesiology and its predecessor, Kinesionics, is that this technique gives you a framework for doing any healing modality you want. The framework allows you to test for the best possible healing path for you as an individual.

Wholistic Kinesiology® has evolved from a variety of sources. There are many different branches of Kinesiology that come from the original works by George Goodheart and Kendall and Kendall; each practitioner adding or eliminating things as new information arises. Wholistic Kinesiology must be considered a work in progress. You no doubt will take what you learn here and expand it even further, or take it and adapt it to what works best for you and your clients.

What you have here is an accumulation of things that I have learned over the years from treating patients, classes that I have taken, books that I have read and suggestions from Doctors, clients and from my own intuition. It is what works best for me and my colleagues now. Again this may change as we all learn more about the human body and all its marvels. I compare this ever expanding field to that of computers. Just as soon as you buy a new computer, there is an even more up to date one on the market. That’s OK, you have to start somewhere. I’ve tried to give you a great place to start and a thorough understanding of Kinesiology, as I know it. From there you can use this most valuable tool to do anything you want. It is a beginning...

Dr J A Dunn
www.wholistickinesiologyinstitute.com