Doctor, Who? Does Your GP Know What You Need?

Does Your GP Know What You Need?
Beau Bressington
 

How many times have you come back from the doctors with no answers, still scratching your head a week later and thinking that nothing has changed, and that you haven't seen any improvement in your health? I bet it's more than amount of fingers you have on your hands. Do you start to ask yourself if your doctor is an idiot or if the pain is all in your head? I know I do!

As many of you know I have Fibromyalgia, an Auto Immune Disease that has a number of symptoms and side effects. Since I've had it I've seen it get worse and dramatically better in the space of 12 months. Who helped me? Not doctors, all they wanted to do was pump me with pills which made me feel even worse if I missed taking one, so I decided to try another option. A Naturopath.

I started helping myself initially with a lot of the ATP science products, mainly Cort RX, after a while I saw great results, and I applied to be apart of a small knit community known as The "ATP Tribe" a group of like minded Health Professionals, Customers and the guys who run the company. One of the members was Jess Blair, a clinical nutritionist (the step before naturopath) she had previously been a bikini competitor which meant she was on the same wave length as Rachel and myself, fitness, but on a natural level.

We booked in to see Jess in a week, answered a couple of questions online and explained our situation. I didn't know what to expect, was she some hippy lady in a corner burning incense or was she going to question everything I had been doing and judging me? Nope, none of that, just chatting like a group of people in relation to the answers we gave her online about our problems. She also asked us to bring in our blood test results that we got done by our doctor a few weeks earlier....... Let's skip back in time for a sec. Rachel and I wanted to get our hormones tested again as we both know that they aren't the best. When we went back to the doctors, they told me there was no concern everything is normal. Now this is the point of this post... even though I don't feel normal, I know I'm not. The range for a doctor for someone to be normal is a lot broader than it is for a specialist, nutritionist or naturopath. "You don't want to be normal, you want to be optimal," Jess explains. Looking over my blood test results, Jess shows me testosterone, normal range is 11-41. I'm 12. Now this is pretty concerning to me, as testosterone is what helps us maintain muscle, strength, reproductive systems and burn fat, as well as motivation and stable mindset. Why would I want to be on the bottom end of normal? I want to be smack bang in the middle!

So after the hour chat, Rachel and I went home and got a follow up email from Jess explaining how we can get our hormones healthier. We already had the exercise down, we were eating healthy, and we're both quite fit, but we want to be next level. Diet is how we are going to attack this, and it's not a fad diet, we've taken her guidelines and created something that suits our needs, health specifications and budget. After I did the anti-candida protocol and saw dramatic changes, it was time to step up my game. Adding a smorgasbord board of vitamins and minerals, and health supplements I've seen a noticeable change in pain over the last 3 weeks.

If you aren't seeing changes I urge you to get in contact with a naturopath, and get your health sorted today. It's the only thing you have that supports you, make this relationship work.

Benefits of Tumeric

Turmeric, an ancient spice from the same family as ginger, is something that could be missing from your life. Turmeric contains some handy little things called curcuminoids, the main ones are curcumin, desmethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. These fellas are responsible for most of the anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and antioxidant properties that turmeric contains. This spice can be helpful as a natural therapeutic relief to tissue injury, arthritis, phlebitis, tuberculosis, fevers, allergies, sinusitis, fibromyalgia, gastritis, tissue irritation and autoimmune disorders (McMahon, 1997). Turmeric is also packed full of micro-nutrients that your body requires, like niacin, sodium, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc and vitamins C, E, and K.

So lets simplify and break down 5 things turmeric can do for you:

1. It is an anti-inflammatory Although short-term inflammation can be necessary for the body, long-term (chronic) inflammation can work against your own tissues and cells (Singh & Aggarwhal, 1995). The curcumin, which I mentioned before, is so anti-inflammatory that it has matched effectiveness with some medical-grade anti-inflammatory drugs (Jurenka, 2009).  Beau’s fibromyalgia was causing him a lot of pain one day (more than usual) and he was aching all over and felt like he was getting the flu, but had no other symptoms, so I made him a turmeric tea. Beau said that he used to mainly get the pain through his hips and he noticed that an hour or two after the tea the pain had just disappeared. He drinks it every day now.

2. Fights colds and flu Heat 1 cup of milk with ½ a teaspoon of turmeric (and then strain out the turmeric and drink the milk – it does not taste pleasant…) as a natural remedy to colds and flus. Studies have shown that the spice can help reduce the symptoms and severity of colds (Turmeric: the golden spice’, 2013).

3. Helps indigestion and weight loss There have been some studies which have shown that curcumin is able to help reduce symptoms of indigestion and bloating and acts as a natural thermogen. If you’re not yet familiar with the world of supplements a thermogen is a product that promotes thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is a process that takes place when the central nervous system of the body burns fat in order to maintain it’s regular temperature. Increased rates of thermogenesis can mean increased body temperature but also greater fat burning and faster weight loss (Jin-Gyu, 2014).

4. Relief for arthritis and other joint inflammation The pain from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis can be relieved by the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric. In addiction to the pain relief because it’s a ‘natural pain killer’, turmeric has been found to also destroy free radicals in the body, free radicals can damage your cells.

5. Controls diabetes Turmeric has been found to moderate insulin levels, improve glucose control and increase the effectiveness of diabetes medications (Finney-Brown, 2011). It is still best to consult a medical professional before taking turmeric capusules for this purpose.

So there you have it! Five great things about turmeric, and there are way more too! The easiest way to have turmeric is half a teaspoon in a cup of boiling water (like a tea). The taste does take a bit to get used to, if you really can’t tolerate it try adding some cinnamon and/or raw honey.

References:

Finney-Brown, T 2011, ‘Turmeric for diabetes’, Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism, vol. 23, no.2, p 96.

Jin-Gyu, K 2014, ‘Beneficial dietary effect of turmeric and sulphur on weight gain, fat deposition and lipid profile of serum and liver in rats’, Journal of Food Science and Technology, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 774-779.

Jurenka, J 2009, ‘Anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin, a major constituent of Curcuma longa: a review of preclinical and clinical research’, Alternative Medicine Review, vol. 14, no. 3, p 277.\

McMahon, S 1997, ‘Tumeric: from kitchen cabinet to medicine chest’, Vegetarian Times, vol. 240, p 70.

Singh, S & Aggarwhal B 1995, ‘Activation of transciription factor NF-kB is suppressed by curcumin (diferuloylmethane)’, Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 270, no. 44, pp. 24995-25000.

"Turmeric: The Golden Spice." Facts For You 8 Jan. 2013. General OneFile. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.