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About Dairy Allergies
Dairy allergies are one of the most common food allergies found. Many patients with dairy allergies tend to have, or have a predisposition to the following:
- heart or cardiovascular problems
- diabetes (adult onset)
- diabetes (childhood)
- asthma, airborne allergies, excess mucus production
- arthritic conditions
- ear infections in children
Dairy allergy is a protein phenomenon. It is the protein in the dairy products that the patient has an allergy to. Many people think they have a lactose problem, but most are allergic to one or more of the specific proteins in dairy products. Therefore, lactose-free milk is not a good alternative unless a patient only has a lactose allergy and does not have an allergy to the milk proteins, whey, casien and lactoalbumin (rarely the case).
Childrens Health Issue: Breath Easier
Asthma attacks can be very stressful and debilitating childrens health issue. Fortunately, asthma is a disease that can be managed fairly well, if not completely eliminated. At the FM&WC, we believe that suppressing the effects of asthma is not as important as determining the primary conditions that lead to an asthma attack. Determining and correcting the underlying process is vital, because it is this process that will eventually lead to other symptoms and even disease later in life. A common factor that shows up in all of our asthma patients is stress. It is our goal to uncover the stresses unique to each individual. Determing theses stressors may be a cure for your child or at the least hinder the negative process that may lead to further diseases down the road.
As with every disease, stress is the major contributor whether it is structural, chemical and/or mental/emotional stress. Of the three stresses, chemical stress is the key player in this childrens health issue. A very high percentage of asthma sufferers have a food intolerance or allergy, specifically to dairy (i.e. cheese, cow’s milk, ice cream and yogurt). Most asthma patients have done the standard blood test and or scratch test to determine any allergies. However, these tests are not usefull in determining DELAYED food allergies. Saliva testing is the gold standard for this type of testing, as it looks at the digestive tract itself.
Some parents have identified a food allergy/intolerance and eliminated it from your child’s diet and still not see life-changing results. Eliminating an allergen is doing half the work. The other half is repairing the damage caused by all the months and years of ingesting this food. Repairing and healing the body can be accomplished by way of medical foods and natural formulas that are prescribed by a physician.
How does a food allergen lead to the childrens health issue, asthma? First, when the gut repeatedly consumes an allergy it will start to get stressed. A stressed gut causes your child to revert to a “flight or fight” mode, which will cause the adrenal glands to start producing more adrenaline and cortisol. Cortisol, if left high, will force your child’s body to become catabolic (breakdown) to its digestive tract, as well as many other organs, such as the brain. The breakdown of the gut has been coined “leaky gut” which then can lead to “leaky brain”. As the gut breaks down it starts to cause an inflammatory reaction in an attempt to wall off the body from the allergen your child is ingesting. Eventually the wall will crumble and the child will start to ingest larger proteins that the body can’t break down. This results in higher histamine levels, as well as other inflammatory markers that will not only contribute to asthma, but also to allergies like hay fever, rag weed and skin conditions. As a result you may start to see your child suffer from other childrens health issues like skin conditions or sinus infection. As your child is frequently attacked, their immune system will start to amplify and become stressed. When the immune system is stressed, it can become hyper and start attacking everything that moves. This then becomes an autoimmune disorder.
Adrenalin and steroids are usually prescribed for asthma sufferers. However, the body makes both. So why prescribe something your child naturally makes? Right now, your child may produce enough adrenalin and steroids, but still suffer the effects of asthma. This is because they are continually affected by structural, chemical and mental stress. Sooner or later their body’s receptors become desensitized to their own hormones. For example, have you ever walked into a smelly room and after a while, you can’t smell anything anymore? This is desensitization and it is a safety mechanism that your body has so it does not burn out its own receptor sites.
On the other hand, if your child is not making any adrenaline or cortisol they may be lacking the precursors to do so. By eliminating the stress that is putting your child in “fight or flight” mode the body can rebuild the precursors that produce these hormones. Which will have a positive effect on their childrens health issue, asthma.
Childrens Health Issues: ADD/ADHD
ADD/ADHD has become far too common in children today. The temporary “cure” for ADD/ADHD is basically speed for kids. Ritalin and Adderall, the most popularly prescribed medication for ADD/ADHD, are amphetamines – legalized speed. As our kids get older, we instill the thoughts that alcohol and drugs are bad, yet by giving our kids prescribed medicine for ADD/ADHD, we are in fact giving them a drug that can make them chemically dependent at an early age. For parents with children who suff er from ADD/ADHD, a temporary cure may seem like the right answer, especially during the days when all hell is breaking loose and you feel like you have no control.
However, by medicating your child, you are simply putting tape over your child’s mouth. At the Functional Medicine & Wellness Center, we have a permanent solution that does not include medicating your child. At the FM&WC, Dr. Ozzie will evaluate our child and determine the cause of the disorder, eliminate the cause and repair the damage that was done. The root of ADD/ADHD stems from diet (chemical stress), followed by structural and mental/ emotional stress. Most parents think that by eliminating certain foods from their child’s diet, like sugar, that everything will be okay. But, that’s not the case; there are other factors that come into play. At the FM&WC, we address and remove all three stresses, whereas most doctors either don’t consider or address one or more of the three stresses.
One or more of these stresses has caused severe damage that has led to your child’s disorder, so once the stress has been addressed, we repair the damage. Keep in mind, the process of repairing the damage may take some time, depending on the severity of the damage. Determining chemical stress in children requires looking for a food allergy or intolerance. This can be done through saliva testing. When the body ingests food that it is allergic to or cannot tolerate. As a parent, you may not remember that being a child can be very mentally stressful, whether dealing with problems at school, siblings or mom and dad fighting.
Emotional stress plays a huge part in contributing to ADD/ADHD. This type of stress can cause serious changes to the brain chemistry.The brain functions off of sensory input from the movement of muscles and joints. So, stress on the body’s structure can cause negative input to the brain and in turn the brain can cause negative impacts on the body. This is why chiropractic care contributes to the treatment of every single disease or syndrome known to man. Chiropractic care has the ability to reduce and eliminate a huge amount of stress on the body.
Eliminating stress allows the brain to focus on proper function of the wholebody, including brain chemistry. You may think your child has no structural imbalances; however the vast majorities of kids that are treated at the FM&WC have extreme structural imbalances, can only be adjusted by a chiropractor. Chiropractors especially Applied Kinesiologists, such Dr. Ozzie, are experts in the field of muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints.ADD /ADHD A New Hope for your Child To schedule an appointment at the Functional Medicine Center, contact us at 214.395.7264
The creation of the Functional Medicine & Wellness Center came from the need to address all three stresses: structural, chemical and mental/emotional under one roof. Addressing all three stresses has been found to be the key to success for most complex diseases and/or disorders. Ignoring one or all of these stresses together has a detrimental effect on the body and therefore leads to unsuccessful treatments.
Childrens Health Issues
Children’s health concerns have become a very popular issue these days. More parents are becoming increasingly concerned with their children’s health or lack thereof. Younger kids are being placed on adult medication for diseases that have only been thought of as adult diseases. Obesity among children is now an epidemic as well as heart disease and high blood pressure, and even depression. The odds of learning disabilities are now 1 in 6; Autism is 1 in 150 and getting worse, ADD and ADHD seem to be everywhere; and childhood cancers are rapidly rising and some are being diagnosed within the fi rst years of life. Fifty years ago none of these diseases were imaginable or even heard of in children. So what is going on and what can we do about it? We need to understand that each individual has a unique body structure and chemistry and that “one size dose not fi t all”. What may be good for one person may be extremely bad for another. We also need to understand that the more we change our environment, like our food supply, from its original state the more stress we place upon our body which lays the foundation
for disease. This edition of Dr. Ozzie focuses on the most common ailments seen in children today as well as the causes for dysfunction and the remedies of such dysfunction.
Digestion is one of the most critical modifiable factors of aging that needs to be working correctly. Without proper digestion you can’t assimilate the nutrients and use them for your metabolic processes. The first part of digestion takes place in the mouth. This is where everyone can help their digestion, it’s called proper chewing. When the food enters the stomach, the stomach releases hydrochloric acid to help break down the food, especially proteins. According to “Guyton’s Textbook of Medical Physiology”, the pH of the stomach should be between 1.0 and 3.5. The older we get the less stomach acid produced (higher pH). If your pH rises above 4.5 this will not stimulate the small intestine to release secretin. Secretin causes the pancreas to release sodium bicarbonate into the small intestine neutralizing the acid food contents (chyme), therefore you end up with slightly acidic chyme in your small intestine that causes heartburn, and can ultimately lead to a duodenal ulcer. A simple test to see if this modifiable factor of aging is causing your heartburn, is to mix a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a couple ounces of water and drink it after you eat. If this stops the heartburn, then you know you have a low stomach acid level.
A lack of stomach acid has been associated with food sensitivities. A study of the use of medications to reduce stomach acid has been found to increase food allergies. The FASEB Journal, 2005 stated, “we have demonstrated that anti-ulcer drugs, such as H2-receptor blockers and proton pump inhibitors, promote the development of immediate type food allergy toward digestion-labile proteins in mice…Thus, the relative risk to develop food-specific IgE after anti-acid therapy was 10.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.44-76.48).” Medications will do this but if your body doesn’t produce it’s own stomach acid you will increase your risk of food allergies.
The most important way to balance hormones which is a modifiable factor of aging is to balance everything else. Hormones are very delicate by nature. For example: too little thyroid hormone will result in lower metabolism, fatigue. Too much hormone will result in feeling jittery, insomnia, and in extreme cases cardiac arrest. Too little estrogen will result in osteoporosis, and low libido. Too much estrogen can cause uterine fibroids, fibrocystic breast and increased risk of reproductive cancers. Too little testosterone will lead to decrease muscle mass and decrease libido. Too much testosterone will cause aggressiveness, increased prostate problems, and hair loss. Too little insulin, a modifiable factor of aging is diabetes, which in turn can cause blindness and limb amputation. Increased insulin will cause weight gain, high cholesterol, increased LDL, increased triglycerides, increased blood pressure, and increased risk of heart attack.
Cholesterol is the precursor to all our steroid hormones which include estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, cortisol, aldosterone, and DHEA. Eighty to ninety percent of cholesterol is made by the liver. Cholesterol is converted into pregnenolone which is then converted into progesterone which is converted into androstanedione which can be converted into estrogen or DHEA or testosterone. If the person has excess body fat, they will make an enzyme called aromatase which will convert testosterone, a modifiable factor of aging into estrogen increasing estrogen levels. If a person has insulin resistance their body will produce two enzymes, one called 17, 20 lyase and the other 17 alpha hydroxylase. These enzymes convert progesterone into testosterone which can cause polycystic ovary syndrome, hair growth, loss of head hair, and infertility in women. The testosterone could then be converted into estrogen by the aromatase enzyme made in body fat, once again increasing total estrogen levels. High estrogen levels in men can cause prostate problems. In women high estrogen levels can increase the risk of reproductive cancers as well as uterine fibroids, fibrocystic breast, and endometriosis. According to the “Journal of Carcinogenesis” you can have 10 to 50 times the amount of estrogen in breast tissue than in your blood, therefore blood levels of estrogen may not indicate the tissue levels of estrogen. When you’re under stress your body will convert your DHEA into cortisol. This process has been named cortisol steal which is a modifialble factor of aging. When this occurs the body’s levels of DHEA, aldosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone will all decrease. This is how stress can cause hormonal imbalances in people.
There are 11 sites on the estrogen molecule for detoxification, and each has three types of estrogen, therefore the body has 36 different types of estrogen. The three primary detoxification sites are the 2 hydroxylation pathway, the 16 hydroxylation pathway, and the 4 hydroxylation pathway. The 2 hydroxyestrogen’s are good for you promote health and actually fight cancer. The 16 hydroxyestrogen’s are 30 times more mitogenic (causes cell division), and therefore increase the number of cells to potentially turn into cancer. The 4 hydroxyestrogen’s are 30 times more carcinogenic and therefore greatly increase the risk of cancer. In our environment there are thousands of synthetic estrogens, these come in the form of plastics, pesticides and other chemicals. These synthetic estrogens are detoxified through the 16 hydroxylation pathway. Alcohol, smoking and hydrogenated fats are detoxified through the 4 hydroxylation pathway. Indole 3 carbonol which can be found in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts all increase the two hydroxylation pathway and therefore promote hormonal balance. Once an estrogen has been detoxified, if it becomes oxidized, it then becomes a quinone, which is also carcinogenic, and this is why we need good antioxidant status.
Isoflavones found in soy, helps modulate hormones. Black cohosh is also an excellent estrogen modulator. Chasteberry is an excellent progesterone modulator. Saw Palmetto is excellent for prostate health, and Primiline is excellent for testosterone support.
Food sensitivities are very common in our society, although most people don’t know if they have any. One of the best ways to discover your food sensitivities is to do a food elimination diet. You do this by removing a food from your diet for a minimum of six weeks (120 days is best), then reintroduce the food and see how you feel. Some of the most common food sensitivities are: gluten, wheat, dairy, corn, soy, and chocolate, but it could be any food.
Food sensitivities have been associated with some diseases. A study on multiple sclerosis, published in Neurology 2001 states, “The authors describe 10 patients with gluten sensitivity and abnormal MRI. All experienced episodic headache, six had unsteadiness, and four had gait ataxia. MRI abnormalities varied from confluent areas of high signal throughout the white matter to foci of high signal scattered in both hemispheres. Symptomatic response to gluten free diet was seen in nine patients.” This study shows that 9 out of ten patients diagnosed with abnormal brain MRI’s diagnosed with M.S. showed dramatic improvement with a 30 day gluten free diet.
Dimentia is has been linked to gluten allergies. Lancet 1999 stated “High levels of circulating antigliaden antibodies (gliaden is a protein sub fraction of gluten) were found in 57% of patients with neurological dysfunction and early stage dementia.
According to the European Journal of Gastroenterology 1998, “celiac disease patients (a gluten allergy) have a ten times increase of auto immune thyroiditis.” If you have autoimmune thryroiditis, but you don’t have celiac disease, it’s a safe assumption that you have a gluten sensitivity and it should be completely eliminated from the diet.
Type 1 diabetes has been associated with a dairy sensitivity. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1992 states, “Studies have suggested that bovine serum albumin is the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes… Patients with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction… Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response.” According to Diabetes, June 2000 “high level consumption of cow’s milk during childhood (
A lack of stomach acid has been associated with food sensitivities. A study of the use of medications to reduce stomach acid has been found to increase food allergies. The FASEB Journal, 2005 stated, “we have demonstrated that anti-ulcer drugs, such as H2-receptor blockers and proton pump inhibitors, promote the development of immediate type food allergy toward digestion-labile proteins in mice…Thus, the relative risk to develop food-specific IgE after anti-acid therapy was 10.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.44-76.48).” Medications will do this but if your body doesn’t produce it’s own stomach acid you will increase your risk of food allergies.
Immune function is very important to sustain life. If your immune system is set too high, you may develop allergies or an autoimmune disorder such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Crohn’s. If your immune system is set to low you may develop infections or cancer. Approximately two-thirds of your immune system is located in your gut. It is the gut associated lymphoid tissue and the mucosal associated lymphoid tissue. When you have dysbiosis you can severely stress your immune system.
Dr. Sidney Baker say’s that the role of the nervous system is to survey the external environment and then to elicit an appropriate response, he then says the role the immune system is to survey the internal environment and then to elicit an appropriate response. If we consider that the neurotransmitters in the central nervous system also affect every single cell as well as the immune system, and that everything that affects immune system also affects central nervous system, we can conclude that the immune system is a circulating nervous system. This is what is called psychoneuroimmunology. The premise behind psychoneuroimmunology is that every thought that we have produces neurologic and immunologic changes. The conclusion is that negative or stressful thoughts create a sick body, while positive, happy thoughts create a healthy body.
There is research associating specific infections with the onset of specific diseases. The Journal of Rheumatology states, “Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) affects approximately ½ million people in the U.K. and some 96% of them possess HLA-B27, while the frequency of this antigen is about 8%…Clinical studies have showed that AS patients during active phases of the disease, had increased quantities of fecal IgA antibody levels against Klebsiella microbes.”
Womens Health: In direct proportion to stress load
Stress is one of the major causes of women’s health issues today.
Women are more stressed out than the human body can handle. Being a mother, a wife, a professional, and/or being physically fit can be very stressful. To avoid the build up of stress, we need to realize that the body does need rest and that we may need to lessen our work load or rearrange our priorities. Too much of anything can have serious negative effects. If you re-evaluate your work load and balance it a little better you reduce the stress and come to a place where your body can be manually supported so you can endure your everyday life without some of the life threatening consequences.
So what are some of the major womens health concerns? Every day I see women who come into my office who are concerned about weight gain, thyroid problems, hormone imbalance, infertility, and cancer. Would it surprise you to know that all of these can be directly or indirectly related to stress? This is why I always recommend that every woman who seeks my help does a salivary adrenal stress test, which we offer in our office. The adrenal gland is a gland that rests on top of your kidneys and deals directly with all the stress in your life. Once the test results come back we begin to recommend interventions and treatment plans to help repair your adrenals and balance out other systems in your body that may have been pulled out of line in response to stress.
Here are a few things you can do to decrease your stress from womens health concerns. Before going to sleep lie in bed and visualize all the stressful moments of your day; a angry co worker an undisciplined child etc. Do your best to use all your senses to get you back to this moment in time. When you are back there again relive this situation with it having a funny outcome i.e. your co worker with a clown face. You should literally crack a smile or laugh then you can move to the next stress until you have visualized them all in a funny way. Next contract every muscle you can think of one at a time starting from the tip of your head and down to your feet. Contract them for two to three seconds, relax for two to three seconds and then move to the next one. Do this two to three times and then start breathing deeply, concentrating on seeing your stomach move not your chest. Once you feel your body relax and release the tension you are ready for bed shut everything of and go to sleep.
Stress Management: The key, know your stresses.
The key to stress management is to know your stresses.
What a hot topic – who isn’t stressed these days?
There are three main stresses that the body encounters – structural, chemical and mental. Everyone suffers from one or more of these stressors and this adds up to one unhealthy nation. For over 10 years I have been developing different techniques in my office to counterbalance all three.
Structural Stress:
First of all let me provide a brief example of all three stresses. Structural stress occurs when the muscles or joints are not functioning properly. This could be caused by sitting at a desk all day at work, which may cause body stiffness, getting into a car wreck, or just by playing sports. In order to counterbalance this stress, one should see a chiropractor. Through numerous studies performed by governments worldwide have proved that chiropractic care is by far the most cost effective, least invasive and most importantly safest way to deal with structural stress. Chiropractors are not limited to spinal adjustments. If you have any muscle or joint pain or discomfort anywhere in your body chiropractic care is your best choice for this stress management.
Chemical Stress
Chemical stress is caused by what we ingest through food, water and air. There are over 10,000 chemical additives in our food supply. The average American ingests 14 pounds of additives, 158 pounds of sugar, and 8 pounds of salt per year! This is way more than the body’s organs were designed to handle. We are constantly ingesting heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and many more everyday again through the air we breath, water we drink and food we eat. At the Functional Medicine & Wellness Center, we have specially-designed programs to help patients rid their bodies of these toxins, also known as detoxification. (Please do not attempt to detox on your own seek the help of a trained Physician as detoxing can be extremely dangerous if not done correctly.) A stress management technique you can do at home is eat as much raw organic fruits and vegetables as possible. Eat organic free-range chicken, beef and fish when possible. Drink reverse osmosis purified water and eliminate your intake of all soda, diet soda and heavily processed foods.
Mental/Emotional Stress
Mental/Emotional stress is the most common of all three stresses Mental/emotional stress stems from issues dealing with family, romance, work, and/or finance. Many of use often think that because this stress is not physical that it has no bearing on our bodies. In a recent study, it was been proven that the same receptor sites for the neurotransmitters in the brain are on your immune system as well. Meaning that the thoughts you think have a direct impact on your health and your immune system. This is why someone who has a huge mental burden, such as the loss of a loved one, can become ill within a very short period of time. These people really need stress manangement.
Another example is that of sports psychology and mental imaging study where they attached electrodes to an Olympic athlete and mapped the muscles that fire when they are actually doing an event. While mentally imagining this event with the electrodes attached, they noticed that the exact same muscles fired at the exact same time. In my clinical experience this mental/emotional stress component left unaddressed can be the most debilitating and disease causing of all the stresses. In our office we have developed specific techniques to counterbalance the negative effects of this stress that may include acupressure with mental focusing along with homeopathic supplementation when necessary.
To set up an appointment with Dr. Ozzie, please contact him at:
Functional Medicine & Wellness Center
2653 Sagebrush Drive, Suite 230
Flower Mound, Texas 75028
CITYPLACE FITNESS
2711 N. Haskell Avenue, 3rd Floor
Dallas, TX 75204
214.395.7264 ● 972.899.8146
