Monthly Archives: February 2015

0 Why Applied Clinical Nutrition is Effective

Our system of health is not working because we are not focused on the right thing…nutritional deficiencies. Like any magic trick, the magician needs a plausible diversion to make the audience believe the trick works. In the case of modern healthcare, the diversion is the miraculous life saving procedures and emergency care that keeps our attention off of the real problem…chronic degenerative disease. Treating these diseases with pharmaceutical drugs is like the gorilla who can hit a 400 yard drive 2 feet from the hole and goes to finish the hole only to hit another 400 yard shot…the ball never goes in the hole.

Of the 17 largest and most technologically advanced countries in the world, the US is ranked dead last in terms of health and longevity by the WHO. The average American is 23 pounds overweight. It is estimated that currently by the age of 65, 77% of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic and within the next 6 years, 1 in 2 Americans will have diabetes or be pre-diabetic. Diabetes aka high blood sugar is the #1 cause blindness, kidney failure and amputations in adults. And it is making us fat…leading to other diseases like high blood pressure, cardiac stress and low immune function to name a few.

People are being misled into the mistaken belief that suppressing these symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs is somehow curing the disease. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In reality, the disease is getting worse.

It is a medical fact that our body is in a constant effort to maintain what we call homeostasis (or stability) and therefore has to adjust to every drug intervention with side effects to compensate. And please don’t confuse side effects with the notion of side dishes. They are not minor, but rather major concerns because they represent not just one, but multiple new diseases and conditions now required by the body to compensate for the intervention. And this is where health spirals in a downward direction.

This approach is appropriate in an acute cases, but that’s not what it is being used for. It is being used to manage chronic conditions like low back ache, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, insomnia, auto immune diseases and all the chronic conditions keeping people from living fully productive lives.

The only way to really fix these conditions and truly restore health is to treat the actual cause…organ dysfunction from specific nutritional deficiency. These deficiencies are the long term result of processed food, highly refines sugars, soil erosion exasperated by the misguided notion that food is not primary to health…on all levels. You are literally the result of everything you have eaten and drank in your lifetime. And please don’t blame it on genetics. Truly genetic diseases that are directly inherited represent a small fraction of diseases and even smaller fraction of known conditions. This is overplayed by the pharmacological medical establishment to relieve us of being responsible for our own health and well being.

So in order to solve these problem for real, what needs to be done is to identify what specific organ dysfunction and nutritional deficiencies are at the cause of the problem. What makes this a challenge, is that each person and problem presents a unique set of deficiencies because each person’s life experience and nutritional intake has been unique over the course of their lives.

For example, in the case of sleep difficulty, we need to find out exactly what specific organ dysfunction and nutritional deficiency is at the root of your sleep problem, not your sisters or neighbor’s.

This requires a competent system of analysis in order to make an accurate determination, and then the right concentration of food source in the right amounts to get the body functioning again.

So to do this, we use a variety of clinically proven tests and testing techniques, make a determination and design a specific program of supplementation needed to fix the problem. This supplementation is in the form of concentrated whole food nutrients that are only available through a physician like myself. We then supervise the administration of these over a treatment course to get the results desired.

So if you or someone you know someone isn’t sleeping well, is worried about their blood sugar, gets sick with a cold all the time, has chronic fatigue and wants real help, I implore you to send them to have a consultation with me, Michael Forman DOM.

0 Whole Food Vitamins versus Synthetic Nutraceuticals: Understanding the Difference for a Healthy Lifestyle

Whole Food Vitamins versus Synthetic Nutraceuticals: Understanding the Difference for a Healthy Lifestyle

While most people are aware that getting a good balance of vitamins is important to a healthy lifestyle, fewer are aware of the differences between the organic molecules found in whole foods, such as meats, fish and vegetables compared to the supplements that are increasingly filling the shelves of supermarkets, chemists and even health-food stores. If you are committed to leading a healthy lifestyle, then understanding the benefits of whole food vitamins over synthetic nutraceuticals is a must.

Despite being labeled as a ‘natural’ product, almost all the multivitamins available on today’s market are what can be classified as synthetic nutraceuticals. A scientific and chemically produced copy of a singular compound, these synthetic nutraceuticals are, by design, unable to replicate the diverse micronutrient structure that makes up a whole food and whole food vitamin complex, despite claiming to have the same health benefits.

To break it down more simply, whole foods vitamins are made up of a complex spectrum of components, complete with other co-factors that enable the product to do its job. Vitamin C complex found in oranges, for example, is not just made up of ascorbic acid, but also Rutin, Bioflavonoids, Factor K , Factor J , Factor P , Tyrosinase and Ascorbinogen. In addition, when you take a bite of an orange, you are also getting Vitamin A, B1, Calcium, Potassium, Magnesium, Folate, Selenium, Fibre, and much more. Together, these work in harmony with each other to deliver a range of health benefits, and our system is geared toward recognizing the whole, rather than individual chemicals that make up our food.

When creating synthetic vitamins nutrients are created in isolation: separating out the individual components that make up a food source. In doing so, these synthetic nutraceuticals shift away from the organic process by which the many co-factors that make up a whole food can be successfully and beneficially absorbed. In fact, many of these isolated vitamins are not even recognizable by the body, and can often be treated as toxins or lead to deficiencies as the body takes the available co-factors from our own tissue to use them.

Adding to this problem is the fact that the food available to us today is increasingly less nutritious, making it harder to get the essential vitamins we need. The pesticides and fertilizers used to grow the vegetables and grains we eat and give to livestock limit the ability of plants to draw in nutrients as they grow. The refining and processing of food so that it lasts longer also strips out and destroys many of the health benefits, and we are only just beginning to understand the implications of genetically modified food. The synthetic vitamin industry has thus become more powerful as there is increasing evidence to suggest that simply maintaining a healthy whole food diet is not enough.

In light of this, how can we make sure we get the right balance of vitamins without turning to chemical alternatives? Organic and biodynamic foods and multivitamin supplements that use whole food sources, such as nutrient rich animal products, fruits, vegetables and herbs are a great start. Most importantly, the answer lies in being educated about what you are eating, drinking and ingesting, and making informed decisions about you and your family’s health by understanding the incomparable and irreplaceable benefits of whole food.