Vitamin D is not technically a true vitamin. By definition, a vitamin is something you can’t make yourself and so has to be acquired from food or supplements. It got lumped in with vitamins early on before it wasn’t well understood.
There are five forms of Vitamin D. The one we’re concerned with, the one important to health, is cholecalciferol. Cholecalciferol is a secosteroid, a steroid molecule with one ring open. (I’m sure you remembered this from biochem.) Synthesis Cholecalciferol is synthesized in the skin from 7-dehydrocholesterol when the skin is subject to ultraviolet B (UVB) light. How much cholecalciferol is made depends on several things: the intensity of the UVB as determined by the latitude, season, cloud cover, and altitude, and the age and amount of pigmentation of the skin. Equilibrium can be reached in the skin within a few minutes of exposure. After that, cholecalciferol degrades as fast as it’s made, making it impossible to get vitamin D overdose from UV exposure. It’s generally accepted that 5–30 minutes of exposure of the face, arms, and legs twice a week provides enough vitamin D for most people. I’m at 4,700 feet elevation. I can burn in the spring at 15-20 minutes if I’m not careful as we regularly have a UV index of 10. The higher the altitude, the less atmosphere to filter out UVB rays. Cholecalciferol can also be produced from UV lamps in tanning beds, though at much lower levels as most tanning beds produce only 4–10% UVB. Blood levels have been found higher in people who tan frequently. Cholecalciferol is inactive. It travels from the skin to the liver, where it’s converted to calcifediol, also known as 25-(OH)D, by the enzyme 25-hydroxylase. Conversion to 25-(OH)D is loosely regulated, if at all. Calcifediol is what’s measured in the blood to determine a patient’s vitamin D status and is the sum of what was produced in the skin as well as any ingested D2 or D3. After a typical daily intake of vitamin D3, it takes about seven days to convert it to calcifediol. Although we measure 25-(OH)D in the blood, it’s not the active form of the vitamin. It travels to the kidney where it’s converted into calcitriol (1,25-(OH)2 vitamin D3), the bioactive form, by an enzyme called 1-alpha-hydroxylase and under the influence of parathyroid hormone. Unlike calcifediol, this conversion is tightly regulated. When these metabolites travel through the blood they’re bound to vitamin D-binding protein. Functions Calcitriol is very important for maintaining calcium levels and promotes bone health and development. It increases the absorption of calcium from the intestines, promotes reabsorption of lost calcium back into bones, and increases the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (influences the brain and peripheral nervous system), nitric oxide (an important vasodilator), and glutathione (the body’s main antioxidant). Lastly, calcitriol promotes the formation and differentiation of new cells. Pretty important substance, wouldn’t you say? Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with multiple sclerosis, asthma, flu, tuberculosis, and certain cancers. And, as we’ll discuss, certain autoimmune conditions. For vitamin D to act, it needs to bind to a set of receptors called, not surprisingly, vitamin D receptors (VDRs), principally located in the nuclei. VDRs can be found in most organs, including the brain, heart, skin, gonads, prostate, and breast. And, here’s one tie-in to the thyroid: VDRs are a subset of thyroid hormone receptors. Deficiency In general, vitamin D deficiencies are caused by decreased exposure of the skin to sunlight. Far fewer people work outdoors now than before and the use of a sunscreen with an SPF of only 8 can block 95% of vitamin D production. The following conditions are considered risk factors for vitamin D deficiency:
I found several studies that establish a relationship between low vitamin D levels and autoimmune disease (both Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease). Vitamin D deficiency was 3–5 times as common in patients with an autoimmune thyroid disease than in controls. The results of the studies indicate:
Vitamin D needs to be present in adequate amounts for T3, the active thyroid hormone, to get into and energize the cell. They both work in the cell nucleus. Put another way, thyroid hormones won’t work well when vitamin D levels aren’t optimal. However, vitamin D’s involvement in autoimmune thyroid disorders goes deeper still. Autoimmune diseases are thought to be caused by genetic polymorphism: small changes at the genetic level that affect the structure and function of important cells and proteins, including VDRs. In fact, several studies have shown that VDR polymorphism is common in those with autoimmune thyroid disease. This means the biological activity of vitamin D is reduced, even when it properly binds to receptors. If VDRs in the thyroid gland are polymorphic, even normal levels of vitamin D can’t produce the same effects as it can on normal VDRs. Therefore, people with polymorphic VDRs need higher than normal serum levels of vitamin D to avoid deficiency. We’ll visit this topic again when discussing vitamin D therapy. Assessment of and Ideal Vitamin D Levels The test to order is the 25-hydroxy vitamin D test. Most labs will have a normal range of 30–100. Many, if not most, MDs won’t consider vitamin D therapy if levels are with the normal range, even just inside the normal range. 1,25()H)D is not tested because it’s regulated by other hormones, such as parathyroid hormone. 1,25(OH)D levels can be normal in a vitamin D-deficient individual. Research is clear that 35 ng/ml is the minimum level for optimum function, for healthy people. But people with an autoimmune thyroid condition aren’t healthy. They often have stress, excess weight, GI problems, high inflammation, VDR polymorphisms, and other factors that inhibit production, absorption, and utilization of vitamin D. So, the minimal 25-hydroxy vitamin D level for those with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis may be significantly higher. But how high? Too much vitamin D is toxic. Get too much of it and it can increase odds of heart disease and, oddly, lower bone density. What gives? There appears to be a close relationship of vitamin D to vitamins A and K2. Higher D levels increase the demand for demand for K2 and A so increasing D intake, especially the higher amount commonly recommended, in the presence of inadequate A and K2 intake is probably unwise. Vitamin D Therapy How much and what kind of vitamins D, A, and K2 turned out to be a more complicated topic than expected, so I’ll cover this in a future post. We'll also discuss the SET-DB™ approach to improving vitamin D (and A and K2) levels.
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Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and SET-DB™ Thyroid ProtocolThis post is an overview of possible approaches for SET-DB™ practitioners who have the SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol and care for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients.
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, also called autoimmune thyroiditis, is one of the most common causes of hypothyroidism and is the most common autoimmune disease in the U.S. Studies have shown that about 90% of hypothyroid patients test positive for thyroid antibodies, meaning their immune systems are primed to attack their own thyroid glands. It’s a complex condition that can involve genetics, diet, digestion, the immune system, and thyroid function. Correcting one’s faulty genes is unlikely, but the SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol can address digestion, the immune system, and thyroid function. Getting a patient to improve their diet, permanently, is tough, so tough I never attempted it with my fibromyalgia patients. I think a strong case can be made for diet revision with thyroid patients. The immune system is tasked with the critical job of keeping track of “self,” our own cells, and “non-self,” foreign substances. It does this primarily by “reading” the surface proteins of cells and substances it comes in contact with. (I also believe the nervous system is involved in immunity—thus the success of SET-DB™ eliminating a sensitivity) If the immune cell recognizes the surface protein as self it will move on. If it doesn’t, or if it has seen the foreign cell before and knows it’s somewhere it doesn’t belong, it releases chemical messengers that initiate an immune response. Autoimmunity is a case of mistaken identity. Antibodies are made to “self” tissues for a variety of reasons. One that we’ll discuss here is, surface proteins of a “non-self” substance look enough like surface proteins of some “self” tissue that the immune system attacks the tissue. Besides Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, examples are multiple sclerosis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. In the case of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the culprit is gliadin, the protein portion of gluten. Gliadin “looks” like thyroid tissue to the immune systems of people with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. When gliadin gets into the body through a porous or leaky gut the immune system does its job and tags it for destruction (makes antibodies). Those antibodies will eventually find their way to the thyroid gland where they find cells with surface proteins that look suspiciously like gliadin, and attack. Even worse, the immune response to gluten can last up to six months. That means if one wants to know if gluten is causing their hypothyroid symptoms, they’ll have to stay off it for at least six months. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis symptoms The symptoms of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are typically those of hypothyroidism, such as weight gain, fatigue, hair loss, brain fog, and depression (to name a fraction of possible hypothyroid symptoms). While there are several reasons for hypothyroid symptoms, in this case they’re due to low thyroid hormone production secondary to destruction of hormone-producing cells by the immune system—fewer cells making thyroid hormone. Because Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is progressive, eventually hypothyroid symptoms appear. But this isn’t all. Hyperthyroid symptoms—nervousness, rapid heart rate, sweating, tremors, palpitations— may occur concurrently with hypothyroid symptoms. When the cells that store thyroid hormone get destroyed by the immune system, large amounts of stored hormones are released into the blood stream. Thus one with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis can be hyper one day and hypo a couple of days later. Quite a wild ride. Eventually the hyperthyroid symptoms disappear, when enough thyroid cells have been destroyed, and only hypothyroid symptoms, which are getting worse, remain. Standard medical care for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis Doctors may not tell patients their lab tests were positive for thyroid antibodies because it doesn’t change their treatment plan. In fact, most doctors don’t order antibody tests for this same reason. The standard of care is to “monitor” the patient until enough thyroid cells are destroyed to cause hypothyroidism, then prescribe thyroid hormone, typically synthetic T4. Once they start on thyroid medication, they typically have to take it the rest of their life. A few lucky patients do well on T4, but many don’t and end up being put on other medications prescribed for things such as depression, high cholesterol, and blood sugar management, all possibly related to hypothyroidism. SET-DB™ approach to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients are treated the same as hypothyroid patients without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, with the possible exception that the practitioner might want to pay closer attention to autoimmune categories. Here are some important aspects of the SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol: Leaky Gut: A leaky gut allows undigested or incompletely digested foods to get into parts of the body they don’t belong, which can lead to more food sensitivities. Seacure is given to help heal the gut wall and eliminating sensitivities helps reduce gut inflammation. Also, an OSST can help detoxify the intestinal tract and possibly reduce or eliminate infectants like parasites and Candida. Digestive enzymes are given to ensure better breakdown of foods and to take stress off the pancreas. Gluten/Gliadin: It’s my opinion that gluten-containing foods should be avoided by everyone. However, it’s nice that once treated with SET-DB™, one doesn’t have to worry about getting a little gluten in a meal now and then. This BioSurvey doesn’t just look at gluten and gliadin. It goes deeper by looking at enzymes and fractions of gluten and gliadin. It’s a must-do treatment. Hormones: If a patient is sensitive to a hormone it can be difficult for them to make adequate amounts of it and whatever influence the hormone should have, the reason the body makes it, it may not wield. Special attention is given to TSH, T3, T4, thyroglobulin, TRH, and rT3, but any hormone a patient is found sensitive to is put in the vial before the treatment. A must-do treatment. Glands: When speaking of autoimmune treatments, I like to use a team sports analogy. If individual team members are quarreling amongst themselves, or are otherwise unhappy with others on the team, it’s difficult for the team to have success. There is little cohesion or cooperation. If a SET-DB™ autoimmune treatment could be performed on the team the effect would be near-instant harmony that could tip the scale toward success on the field. It eliminates the false perception that some part of “self” isn’t really “non-self.“ Glands important to consider here are the thyroid, anterior pituitary, hypothalamus, and adrenals. A must-do treatment. Thyroid Supplement Organ System Stress Test (OSST): Supplementing with critical thyroid nutrients can help patients fell better sooner. This OSST looks for just one supplement. You can use the BioSurvey as-is and it will choose one of the two default supplements, or you can test for any supplements you like. Thyroid Comprehensive BioSurvey: This BioSurvey contains items important to thyroid function not found in ZYTO’s library, like transport molecules and cell receptors for thyroid hormone. A must-do treatment. Other must-do treatments include grains, wheat digestion, dairy, and endocrine disrupters. The practitioner chooses five additional SETs based on the Thyroid Eval Scan or their professional judgement. If the patient needs treatment beyond the basic protocol, the practitioner runs the Thyroid Category Scan: Advanced and formulates a new treatment plan. If your license affords you prescription benefits, you can monitor their medication yourself. If it doesn’t, you might need to communicate and/or work with the patient’s prescribing physician. Do NOT advise your patients in areas outside of your license; i.e., tell them to take less or more of a medication or discontinue a medication. Your thyroid patients will likely need a change of medication as they progress through the treatment program. It’s not difficult to know when. If they’re getting too much thyroid hormone(s) they’ll start experiencing symptoms of hyperthyroidism. If they’re not getting enough, their hypothyroid symptoms worsen. The SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol is already helping many practitioners help more patients feel better and enjoy improved health. Hypothyroidism and iron deficiency have more in common than you might know or think. This brief post will examine their relationship and how SET-DB™ can help.
Hypothyroidism is a condition where:
Some of the symptoms of hypothyroidism—fatigue, cold intolerance, hair loss—are also possible symptoms of iron deficiency. Iron-deficient individuals may also experience irregular heart beat, anxiety, and restless leg syndrome. Did you know the thyroid is closely connected to the gut? When there is adequate T3 supply to stomach cells they produce hydrochloric acid, which, among other things, helps break down protein. Most of the iron we eat (at least the most bioavailable iron) is found in animal protein. If we don’t digest the protein, we can’t get at the iron in it. So, low T3 is tied to low stomach acid and low iron. And, iron is an an important mineral to test for sensitivity, and treat if necessary with SET-DB™. It’s a must-do treatment in the SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol and is found in the Minerals Category/BioSurvey. How is low thyroid hormone availability connected to hair loss? The answer may be ferritin. From Wikipedia: “Ferritin is a universal intracellular protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. The protein is produced by almost all living organisms, including algae, bacteria, higher plants, and animals. In humans, it acts as a buffer against iron deficiency and iron overload. Ferritin is found in most tissues as a cytosolic (dissolved in the cell’s cytoplasm) protein, but small amounts are secreted into the serum where it functions as an iron carrier. Plasma ferritin is also an indirect marker of the total amount of iron stored in the body, hence serum ferritin is used as a diagnostic test for iron-deficiency anemia.” Emphasis is mine. Here is a direct connection between ferritin and hair loss, as found on Dr. Philip Kingsley’s site: “Correct ferritin levels maximize your hair’s ‘anagen’ or ‘growing’ phase and encourage your hairs to grow to their full length. When you aren’t getting enough iron through your diet, your body takes ferritin stored in non-essential tissue, like your hair bulb, and gives it to essential tissue, such as your heart. Because your hair bulb is where all your hair cells are produced, this leeching of ferritin can cause your hair to shed before it reaches its maximum length. The average reference ranges for ferritin are 14-170 micrograms per litre, but our research shows that ferritin should be at least 80 ug/L (micrograms per litre) in women for hair follicles to function at their best.” After some research on the subject, like most lab values, optimal ferritin levels for individuals can vary. One thing I did learn is ferritin can be high for reasons other than excess iron. Systemic inflammation can raise ferritin levels due to its role as an acute phase reactant that up-regulates in response to inflammation or oxidative stress. So, if one wants to be really careful, they wouldn’t have their ferritin checked when they’re sick, or get a hs-CRP test that measures overall inflammatory status. If hs-CRP is elevated, the ferritin level may say nothing about iron status. Furthermore, on this subject, Mark Sisson writes: “Come to think of it, if elevated ferritin can be a marker of inflammation and oxidative stress, the inflammation could be responsible for some of the negative health effects linked to high ferritin. Or, if having too much iron in the body can increase oxidative damage, it may be that high iron levels are increasing inflammation which in turn increases ferritin even further. Biology gets messy. Lots of feedback loops.” Biology can indeed get messy and science is still learning much about the role iron plays in the human body. Here is Sisson's follow-up post on Iron. As for SET-DB™ and ferritin, I couldn’t find ferritin in ZYTO’s library so I added it to the Thyroid Protocol library. It’s not yet in a BioSurvey so you’ll have to test it separately. Sorry Select owners. Eventually I’ll have it in a BioSurvey, when I figure out what else to put it with. Supplementation I wouldn’t recommend anyone start on an iron supplement or purposely increase their consumption of iron-containing foods until they’ve had their iron and ferritin tested. A complete anemia panel should include serum iron, transferrin, TIBC, and the saturation percentage. Diet As a side note, part of the ongoing attack on meat eating is the claim that the iron in meat promotes colon cancer. Sisson unpacks that in the post I referenced earlier, but here’s the gist of it: The relationship between heme iron (the kind found in meat) and colon cancer is conditional on iron oxidating fatty acids in the colon. Not just any fatty acids, though. The kind found in seed oils, polyunsaturated fatty acids. In fact, studies seeking to prove that heme iron promotes colon cancer can’t get the cancer to “take” unless the lab animals are fed high-PUFA oils, like safflower oil. Feed them olive or coconut oil with the heme iron and the study can’t proceed because no cancer occurs. Another good reason not to eat industrial seed oils, aside from their effect on the thyroid. Final comments While researching this topic, and the thyroid in general, I took the time to read through the comments section of the posts. You should, too. It’s a real eye-opener. Skip the snark and pay attention to the ones from people who have been suffering with health problems despite improving their diet, seeing their MD (in most cases), and taking the supplements and/or medications they were told to take. Many have negative reactions to the pills and many just don’t get better. Based on my experience, this is likely due to sensitivities to the nutrients they need to enjoy improved health, but also to all the nutrient groups as well as foods. This is where SET-DB™ can help. Clearing a sensitivity to iron or ferritin could well allow someone to better handle those substances, which could be a big part in them enjoying better thyroid health, and better health in general. In last week’s post we discussed using either the Asthma or Allergy Report when someone makes an appointment to see you for asthma. To add to that, any existing patient with asthma should be given the report to read. We also discussed what to do on the consultation/first visit and what a treatment program for asthma might look like. This post will cover some of the intricacies of helping asthmatics with SET-DB™.
Things to look out for Soy. Asthma symptoms are common to soy sensitivity and soy products are literally everywhere. (I had an old Mercedes that had vegetable waxes covering important wiring in the engine compartment that unfortunately was cracking. I bet it was soy.) Soy sensitivity should be handled in the Grain BioSurvey but be mindful of it when adjusting the Range. Caffeine sensitivity is a common asthma trigger. Watch for a history of unusual reactions to foods like coffee, energy drinks, and even chocolate. They may be getting a dose of it with an OTC NSAID, too. You, of course, would need to check for sensitivity to the foods themselves. Treating for caffeine sensitivity can be helpful to anyone thinking of giving it up as a way to avoid those awful withdrawal headaches. Salt. Sodium sensitivity will be cleared in the Mineral BioSurvey, but don’t forget about salt sensitivity; it’s a common instigator of asthma symptoms. It’s in the Food Additives BioSurvey. Salicylates are chemicals both found naturally in food as well as added to food, usually as preservatives. They can trigger hyperactivity, nasal congestion, and asthma attacks. Run an internet search on salicylate sensitivity or intolerance and see how many websites there are dedicated to it. It will boggle your mind. This is taken care of by running the Salicylates BioSurvey. Here’s another reason to run the Food Additives BioSurvey: asthma symptoms are often triggered by foods other than salt. MSG, sulfates, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and sodium nitrite come to mind. In my opinion, MSG should be avoided altogether. Check a patient’s drinking water, especially if they drink tap water (few people I know drink untreated water directly from the tap). Also check it with patients suffering from eczema or hives. Epidermals. This group can be important for any asthmatic, even those who don’t have pets. Cat dander can linger for years in buildings that aren’t cleaned well between tenants (it can cling to the walls!). Plus, they may have materials found in this group in their home or workplace and not even know. The allergens become airborne and inhaled right into the lungs. Mold and Fungus. It’s rare to see an asthma sufferer who wasn’t sensitive to mold and fungus, but especially candida. Recall the case I’ve related several times of the daughter of a doctor with whom I shared space that had a chronic problem with candida. One SET was all it took to clear the problem. Treating Mold and Fungus could easily yield great results for one of your asthmatic patients. This and that Sensitivity load phenomenon. I think close to 85–90% of the population has sensitivities, likely many inherited. Most of the time they can handle them without experiencing symptoms; the immune system, nervous system, etc., can take care of business in the background. But everyone has a threshold that if they pass, they’ll have symptoms. They can motor past the threshold when under stress: emotional, physical, mental, chemical, etc. Usually it’s a combination of different stressors but many times it’s one severe stressor, such as a death in the family or a serious illness. Just understanding this can help a patient through a tough time. I bet you didn’t know that 5–15% of asthma cases are caused by exposure to on-the-job irritants. Not to say tell your patient to quit their job, but rather be aware of groups like Fumes and Chemicals when treating an asthmatic. For instance, a study done in England showed that people who cooked with gas were 2½ times more likely to suffer asthma attacks. If it’s due to sensitivity, you can fix that. People’s cars and homes can be filled with volatile organic compounds that may need to be treated. As you’ll read in the systemic enzyme paragraph below, circulating immune complexes can deposit in lung tissue and initiate lung symptoms like wheezing and excessive mucus production. All the more reason for patients to go through an entire treatment program. One last category: hormones. You’d be surprised to learn that asthma symptoms can be triggered by hormone sensitivities. Useful supplements for asthma Digestive enzymes. While I think everyone should take a good plant-based digestive enzyme, people with asthma should definitely take one. Why? One of the largest, if not the largest, way antigens enter the body is through a leaky gut. A digested food is far less likely to cause a sensitivity than one only partially digested (or not digested at all). There are many good digestive enzymes on the market. I used Pure Encapsultions Digestive Enzyme Ultra. Swansons Vitamins sells a budget-friendly formulation called n-zymes that uses enzymes made by National Enzyme Co. RespiraTone from Professional Formulas. (I think you have to have an account to see the product.) You know how some products just work? Almost every time? This is one of those. It worked so well we also had it in stock. It can be helpful for patients who have just started a treatment program. It’s composed of nine herbs with a history of usefulness for lung conditions. Systemic enzymes. Like digestive enzymes, I think every adult should take a systemic enzyme. Specific for asthma, systemic enzymes help to reduce circulating immune complexes, which, when there are too many or when they get too big, can initiate sensitivity reactions in lung tissue. Most professional supplement companies offer a systemic enzyme and we tried a lot of them. We settled on Serraflazyme serrapeptase from Cardiovascular Research. I have a bottle sitting on my nightstand, to remind me to take it when I go to bed and get up. Unlike products like Wobezyme, where you might be taking 15 tablets a day, the dosage for most people is one tiny tablet twice a day, on an empty stomach. Couple these three things with a customized homeopathic remedy from an OSST and you’ve got potent options to assist asthmatics while they go through a sensitivity elimination treatment program. If you weren’t before, I hope you’re now confident there is plenty you can offer someone suffering from asthma. You may even offer them complete relief. Last week’s post discussed four potential triggers for asthma: food sensitivities, environmental antigens and toxins, digestive problems, and stress. The post began by explaining that it’s better for patients to go through a complete treatment program but that not all could or would, for financial or other reasons. This post will lay out a suggested approach to helping asthma sufferers with SET-DB™.
Asthma and/or Allergy Report When anyone calls to make an appointment for sensitivity work, they should be told you require them to read one of your reports prior to the appointment. If all you have is the Allergy Report, that will be the one they’ll need to read. If they have asthma, they should read the Asthma Report because it’s more specific to their condition and does a better job of explaining how you can help them with their particular health challenge. If you don’t have the Asthma Report edited and ready to use, take a few hours this week and get it done. Then get the Kids and Allergies Report done, if you haven’t already. They’re all extremely useful for helping get people into your office for sensitivity elimination treatment (SET) and will save you a ton of time on their initial visit. And have them printed as I explain in the Practitioner Manual. Don’t be cheap and staple letter-sized sheets of paper together. The reports will look, well, cheap, and reflect poorly on you. Plus people are more likely to read a report printed as I teach because they look more legitimate. The Asthma Report is also a great way to educate existing non-SET patients about the treatment without coming across as “salesy.” You simply hand them the report and ask them to read it. No sales talk, no pressure. Let the report do all the work. If they’re interested they’ll ask about it next time they come in or call to set up an appointment. If they’re not interested they will appreciate not being pressured and will return for the services you’ve already provided them with. Consultation/first visit I considered (almost) all first visits to be consultations, for which I didn’t charge. They became first visits when the individual agree to receive treatment (and to pay for it that day). Another option is to charge a nominal fee, like $25. Your choice. Three BioSurveys should be run, then printed and discussed with the patient:
The Consultation Symptom Questionnaire can be very helpful as an asthmatic will likely have symptoms related to food sensitivities. Actually, most asthmatics will have other conditions related to food sensitivities. It’s rare for someone to present with only one condition. The OSST may or may not show high stress in the lungs even though you or the patient may feel it should. Trust the findings, not your preconceived thoughts. “Today your greatest stress is in your pancreas.” Then you explain how running the full OSST would produce a homeopathic remedy (or whatever you’re using, if you’ve substituted something else for the drainage formulas) that help remove the stress from all or most of their stressed areas. Then you would say something like: “But as you read in my report, asthma is largely related to food and environmental sensitivities (or allergies, if you’re using that term). Let’s talk about those results.” You’d then go over the Category Scan, then Common Food Scan as discussed in the Practitioner Manual, adapting the language for asthma as well as any other symptoms or conditions they present with. Suggested treatment program for asthma Note: Because of the new BioSurveys added recently, the Foods and Nutrients treatment program now has 25 categories. Recall you can download a PDF for each BioSurvey here. A complete treatment program would include Inhalants and Foods and Nutrients, a total of 34 treatments. You might need to substitute or add Bacteria and Viruses. I would do the treatments in the following order:
Next week I’ll cover some of the more problematic categories, which can help fashion a treatment program for patients who can’t/won’t go through the entire treatment program. Asthma is a huge health problem worldwide. Here in the U.S. about 8% of the population has asthma—around 25 million people—including many children. And it’s a problem on the rise.
SET-DB™ practitioners are concerned with addressing the root causes of many of their patients and clients health concerns, not just giving them something for symptom relief. With asthma, I believe the root cause is immune dysfunction of the hyperactivity or hyperreactivity type, as opposed to autoimmunity or weakened immunity. You’ve seen me write many times that a sensitivity to anything can cause a symptom anywhere in the body. Which is why I recommend having patients go through treatment programs instead of asking you to try and guess what food or environmental substances are causing or contributing to their symptoms. Not everyone will agree to go through a complete treatment program and some practitioners, for reasons I can’t understand, chose not to offer them, so in the next three posts I will outline a recommended treatment approach for people suffering from asthma. I’d like to suggest four potential asthma triggers. 1. Food Sensitivities Diet is, of course, one of the biggest triggers for asthma, as well as many other conditions. The most common food sensitivities are (no big surprise) gluten and diary. Unfortunately for most patients, they have no idea that gluten or dairy can trigger their symptoms because their primary physicians simply don’t know they could be part of the problem. Probably 99% of asthma sufferers are only treated with palliative medications. (I’m not implying they aren’t needed, only that little or nothing is done to look for causation. “You have asthma. Take these medications.”) Let’s say a patient reads something that suggests gluten can cause asthma symptoms in some people and asks their doctor about it. Even if the doctor listens to them and orders tests, all they’d look for would be alphagliadin in the stool and possibly an enzyme called tissue transglutaminase. (Many doctors will not diagnose celiac disease unless these two tests are positive.) These markers are commonly elevated in people with gluten intolerance, but certainly not always. However, there are other proteins, and metabolites of proteins, in gluten foods they could and usually do react to. What happens then is most people are sent away from with the assurance they do not have a problem with gluten, when in fact they do. They keep eating it and it keeps causing asthma (and other) symptoms. This is what makes the Gluten/Gliadin, Grains, and Wheat Digestion BioSurveys so important. Together they contain 107 items, many components of gluten foods, patients need to be checked and treated for if necessary. And then there’s dairy, which people with asthma are often sensitive to (especially children). Medical testing for dairy sensitivity isn’t very good, if it’s done at all. Physicians knowledgable about gluten or dairy sensitivity might tell their patients to eliminate them from their diet for ninety days to see if their symptoms improve. If the symptoms do improve, and they reintroduce dairy or gluten back into their diet and feel worse, they know they can’t eat it anymore. If you’ve been on an elimination diet, or have supervised some, you know they are fraught with pitfalls. One, they’re difficult for most people to adhere to—the failure rate is high—because so many people are used to eating out now. The vast majority of people in the U.S. eat at a fast food restaurant at least once a day. Gluten and dairy abound in restaurant food. Two, most people don’t know that gluten- and dairy-containing ingredients are hidden in many foods. So even if they’re eating at home, they’re likely using supermarket products that contain gluten or dairy. The end result is, they feel the elimination diet didn’t help them much and so think gluten and dairy are okay to keep consuming. It’s so much better to be treated for gluten and dairy sensitivities with SET-DB™. Also, did you know that about half of celiac sufferers are also sensitive to dairy? They continue to suffer even after eliminating gluten from their diet. As I said earlier, any food can trigger or aggravate asthma symptoms. One mechanism is through a leaky gut (also called intestinal permeability). Incompletely digested foods, or foods complexed with immune cells, find their way into areas of the body they shouldn’t be in. Some enter the portal vein, then the liver. If they make it past the liver they’ll go right to the lungs, which act as a secondary filter. The lungs may suffer circulating immune complex-triggered inflammation. Lastly, let’s talk about histamine, an important mediator of the immune system (also called a signaling molecule). Symptoms common to hayfever sufferers are largely caused by too much histamine being released into the lining of their upper respiratory tract and eyes, as well as into the bloodstream. Histamine is responsible for two main effects in an inflammatory response: dilating blood vessels and making them more permeable to allow more fluid to pass from the bloodstream into the tissues. This allows for immune reinforcements to arrive, but also results in localized swelling, edema, and redness. Eliminating sensitivities, especially airborne irritants, reduces histamine release and helps relieve asthma symptoms. But did you know histamine is also found in food? This is another way foods can trigger asthma symptoms. Treatment for histamine sensitivity is addressed in two BioSurveys we’ll discuss in a later post. 2. Environmental Antigens and Toxins Most, but certainly not all, asthma sufferers are sensitive to things like trees, weeds, grass, dust, mold, and the other categories found in the Hayfever Treatment Package. These substances can have a bigger impact on asthma symptoms because they are inhaled directly into the respiratory system. This area also includes toxins, some we get exposed to without our permission and some we can only blame ourselves for as we purposefully bring them into our home or work environment. Examples can be found in common household cleaners and personal care products, mold or dust mites we’ve neglected to eliminate or prevent from populating, products purchased to eradicate insects or unwanted plants, or any of thousands of other products made for the home or work. We’re exposed to incredibly large amounts of toxins in our environment these days and we are unaware of most of that exposure. Companies produce more than 6.5 trillion pounds of over 9,000 different chemicals today. A staggering amount. These toxins can play a significant role in chronic disease conditions, including asthma. Obviously we should we our best to avoid them when we can. Exposure in our homes and businesses that we own is largely under our control. We can use non- or less-toxic products, purchase air and water filters, and use personal care products free of harsh ingredients. But when we go outside or visit places not under our control, we are exposed to large amounts of environmental irritants and toxins. This exposure has a much greater negative effect on asthma sufferers. SET-DB™ can eliminate sensitivities to these substances and thus can help reduce symptoms, significantly in some cases. But, a toxin is still a toxin and should be avoided when possible. 3. Digestive Problems We briefly discussed leaky gut earlier. The gut doesn’t become leaky for no reason so it’s important to consider its causes. Here are some possible causes:
We’ll discuss this further in a future post. 4. Stress This is a broad topic, no doubt. The connection between stress and immune dysfunction has been known for thousands of years. Stress impacts the immune system in many ways and is widely deemed to be a notable trigger for autoimmune disease. And fibromyalgia. I think most of my fibromyalgia patients could trace the beginning of the condition back to an especially stressful time in their life. Death of a loved one, severe illness, an accident or injury, etc. Who hasn’t noticed that they’re more prone to come down with something when they’re stressed? Students are more susceptible to illness when finals are approaching. It’s obvious stress impacts the immune system. Disrupted or inadequate amounts of sleep can stress the immune system. About one-third of people now get fewer than six hours of sleep a night. In the 1960s that number was about two percent. Sleep depravation can lead to cortisol dysfunction: too little or too much produced or at the wrong times. Inflammation goes up and immune regulation gets disrupted. So these are four major triggers of asthma: food sensitivities, environmental antigens and toxins, digestive problems, and stress. In the next post we’ll further discuss a SET-DB™-oriented approach to asthma. I recall having a consultation with a young woman who was accompanied by her boyfriend. Her chief complaint was a deep, crawling, itching sensation in her skin, mainly the arms but occasionally spreading to other areas. Nothing was visible on the skin itself: no urticaria (red, round bumps that itch intensely), no eczema, no plaque formation, etc.
If you’ve never experienced this type of chronic itching, as I haven’t, it’s difficult to empathize with people who are plagued by it. It’s a terrible symptom because scratching doesn’t provide relief. In fact it really doesn’t do anything other than irritate the skin. And because nothing is visible on the skin, loved ones and friends (and often doctors) think the sufferer is having mental problems. The boyfriend fell strongly into that category. You could tell from the look on his face that he thought she was nuts. This type of symptom is caused by systemic histamine release as a result of allergies and sensitivities. When immune cells are excited by antigens (anything recognized by the immune system that induce an immune reaction), they release a cascade of signaling molecules (SM) that cause systemic symptoms and local target organ dysfunction. Each SM produces its own signature of symptoms. Histamine is responsible for two main effects in an inflammatory response: dilating blood vessels and making them more permeable to allow more fluid to pass from the bloodstream into the tissues. This allows for reinforcements to arrive but also results in localized swelling, edema, and redness. That’s histamine’s local effect. Systemic histamine release causes the following symptoms: Headaches: pulsating, whole-head pain, often with a sense of great pressure or bursting within the head Fast pulse, low blood pressure, irregular heart beat Itching or burning followed by flushing and an unpleasant heat Increased stomach acid release with crampy abdominal pain May provoke an asthma attack Anxiety and agitation with a diffuse, odd body sensation often described as “my bones are on fire”, “I feel weird all over”, “a deep pricking, crawling sensation.” Antihistamines may help with localized reactions but have little efficacy on systemic symptoms. As is always the case, removing the cause is the best course of action. Patients such as this young woman should go through the nutrient and foods treatment program. Unfortunately, her boyfriend put the kibosh on that idea and apparently he was in control of their budget. I ran into an interesting research paper titled “Food Allergy is Linked to Skin Exposure and Genetics.” The lead study author is Joan Cook-Mills, a professor of allergy-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
In case you don’t care or have time to read the article, here are the salient points: “The factors contributing to food allergy include the genetics that alter skin absorbency, use of infant cleansing wipes that leave soap on the skin, skin exposure to allergens in dust and skin exposure to food from those providing infant care. Food allergy is triggered when these factors occur together.” Up to 35% of children with food allergies have atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by “at least three different gene mutations that reduce the skin barrier.” Also, soap in wipes disrupt the top skin layer of lipids. While food allergies among children are on the rise, risk factors can be reduced in the home environment by following these simple instructions:
SET-DB™ practitioners can easily eliminate sensitivities like these, but prevention (when available) always trumps cure. My wife and I have been on a ketogenic diet for about eight weeks, for weight loss and to help us gain control over our diet again (perhaps I should just speak for myself on that last one). In the past we always did the homeopathic version of the hCG diet, the one from DesBio we put patients on while in practice. It always worked well for us and we knew it inside and out, but we decided to try something different.
It was a little tough for a couple of weeks, mainly because we didn’t supplement with enough electrolyte replacements, but we’re humming along now. We’re at the point where we’re starting to add more carbs from starchier but healthy sources, like sweet potatoes. (We’ve been eating plenty of vegetables but no fruit). I’m down 17 pounds, my wife about 10 (but she looks like she’s lost more). Anyway, this isn’t a keto diet post, it’s a thyroid post. While researching for my upcoming SET-DB™ Thyroid Protocol, I ran across some interesting information regarding dietary fat and the thyroid gland. “It turns out the linoleic acid suppresses thyroid signaling.” Here are some highlights of the post I linked above (Mark’s Daily Apple—great site):
When I developed my highly effective fibromyalgia treatment program, I didn’t feel the need to include dietary recommendations, for a number of reasons. One, getting people to change their diet is difficult. Most have to be backed into a corner, facing serious health problems, before they’ll give up their favorite fast food meals and daily quarts of sugary soft drinks. Two, the program is very effective without a change of diet. This suggests that diet doesn’t cause or greatly contribute to fibromyalgia, but I realize that may not be completely true. While the average patient sees a 67% decrease in their overall symptom profile, the fact is most had some symptom(s) at the end of the program, albeit far less than they had when they began. Diet modification could well have resolved some of those residual symptoms. Three, sometimes you have to pick your battles. Those who raised or are raising children understand this. Do you want to spend your energy getting patients to come in for their treatments (which actually isn’t difficult at all because we got the money issue out of the way at the start) and take the few supplements you give them, which proved to be effective, or spend your time begging and pleading with them to stop eating at Burger King every day? This won’t be the case with my upcoming thyroid protocol. As you just read (and there’s more to come, diet-wise), there’s enough evidence that diet does affect thyroid and thyroid hormone function. The most important part of the program will, of course, be eliminating a person’s sensitivities to things like iodine, thyroid tissue (80–90% of hypothyroid sufferers have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis), T3, T4, TSH, adrenal hormones, certain amino acids, etc. If this isn’t done, it’s likely supplementation with hormones or nutritionals will not work as well as they could, or at all. I’ve had several practitioners in the past few months who’ve told me they only wanted the standard SET-DB™ package, not the SET-DB™ Fibromyalgia. When I asked one why, he replied, “I don’t like treating fibromyalgia patients.” When pressed he said they’re “too grumpy.” I assume the other practitioners reasons for not wanting the fibromyalgia program would be along the same lines.
At first this attitude surprised me because I had such good experiences treating fibromyalgia while in active practice. But the more I thought about it, the clearer it became… …I enjoyed treating fibromyalgia patients because I had something that helped the vast majority of them get their life back. The ones who started out “grumpy” left my treatment program smiling. And it always started after about six treatments. If you don’t have something to offer that really helps them, the case will end in failure, which is frustrating. Frustrating for the practitioner and even more so for the patient. I wouldn’t like that, either. When I think of my grumpy fibromyalgia patients (they didn’t all start like that—maybe only 25%), one face is always the first to pop up in my mind: Jackie (real first name, but I’ll withhold her last name). She used to scare my wife when she started her treatment program. Incidentally, her husband drove her to our office for about the first half of her treatment program. (They lived about 40 miles away.) After that, she was able to drive herself. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s her testimonial: BEFORE Dr. Boothe’s treatment: “I was unable to do hardly anything. I had to give up driving my car. I had to depend on my husband for everything. I spent most of my time at home and I needed a housekeeper to do my work. I had severe stomach problems, couldn’t sleep, was very tired all the time, and was very depressed. I had to have epidural injections in my spine and took pain medication that didn’t help. I couldn’t eat, I spent a lot of time in bed—days at a time.” (Let’s cut these poor people some slack—who wouldn’t be grumpy feeling like that?) AFTER Dr. Boothe’s treatment: “I’m now doing my housework and I’m able to drive! I have good sleep at night. I’m able to eat and I have no stomach problems anymore. I need no more prescription medication for pain and no more epidural injections in my spine. This is the healthiest I’ve felt in years! I feel happy and am enjoying all the things I had to give up. It was all worth the 40 treatments. I have my life back again!” Jackie Xxxxxx, Stockton I don’t have access to her Symptom Intensity Graph so I can’t show it to you or tell you how she rated herself in the top 13 symptoms of fibromyalgia at the start and end of her program. But, do you really need those numbers? Isn’t quality of life more important? I bet you’re wondering why being able to do her own housework was important enough to her to mention in her testimonial. If so, you’re obviously not part of the post-war generation. You and I look forward to not doing our own housework, but her generation took pride in taking care of themselves and their family, which meant doing their own work. If you could have seen Jackie toward the end of her program—driving herself around, free of heavy pain killers and painful injections, eating what she wanted instead of what she could, taking pride in being able to take care of her house again—you’d understand why we looked forward to each and every new fibromyalgia patient we were blessed to help. |
AuthorDr. Teryl Boothe and selected guests. Archives
January 2024
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