Month: November 2017

The concept of functional medicine is not a new-age revolution of medicine. It has been considered the best practice for achieving health and wellness for a very long time.

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food -Hippocrates

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition. – Thomas Edison

Optimum nutrition is the medicine of tomorrow- Dr. Linus Pauling

Until about 3 months ago, I had never heard the term Functional Medicine. I am a doctor of pharmacy, my training has been on medications. I know when to use certain medications, I know how medications work in the body, and I know how medications work with another medication. In other words, I was trained in what a doctor will prescribe you when your body is not working right, is sick, is broken. I learned medicine the same way the medical schools train doctors. We learn about the body when it is healthy and functioning correctly. Then we are taught about each health condition that can happen to the body. We learn about how to deal with each symptom that may arise by using a medication. This is the current model of our health care system.

The problem is, can you really call that healthcare? A pharmaceutical medication can certainly help a symptom or problem by making it “go away”… but the problem isn’t really gone. For example, if you have chronic constipation and take a medication to regulate your bowel movements that will make you less constipated but it does not address the issue in your body that is causing you the symptom of constipation. Maybe it is that your diet is not providing enough fiber to create easy flow in the intestines. Maybe you do not have the right balance of probiotics to properly break down what you are eating. Maybe you are lactose intolerant and need to avoid dairy so your gut can function correctly. This is the thought process of functional medicine. It is the idea of getting to the root cause of why the body is not functioning. I was recently listening to a podcast on which the doctor speaking gave the greatest break down of the difference between traditional western medicine and functional medicine. She put it like this: As doctors, we are taught about the healthy body (anatomy) and the sick body (pathology) but not about how the body goes from healthy to sick and how to reverse that process so the body can return to health. Healing the body and returning it to a state of health is functional medicine.

Hearing this made me shout YES in my car. That is the kind of medicine I want to be helping people with. It just makes sense. Like an “aha” moment of clarity. It is the difference between “sick care” and “healthcare”. A pharmaceutical medication, of course, has its place in a journey back to health, it just shouldn’t be the stop where you get off the health train and remain at for your final destination. The body is providing you clues to what is going on, and the answer is not to just take a medication for the rest of your life. It is possible depending on the situation that you will have to take a medication to control a health condition long term, but if your body is broken you also have to fix it at the functional level. You need to figure out what is wrong and what your body needs to begin to heal itself. I do not want to see patients just putting band-aids on the issues of their health, I want to see them healing the wounds underneath. This idea makes me so excited. The idea that we can figure out what is wrong with our body and begin to actually fix it. It is empowering.

To heal the body and return it to the best level of function it can have takes more than nutritional supplements. It requires balancing supplements with pharmaceuticals and also lifestyle and diet changes. If you are ready to begin the journey toward your best health please contact me for guidance and support. It is important to make sure you have a health professional advising you on the proper nutritional supplements your individual body needs.

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring PharmD

 

So tired today. No, I am not sleepy, it is more like exhausted. The can’t get out of bed in the morning and catch my breath if climbing stairs tired. Also been feeling anxious and depressed when I really have no reason to be. Have you seen my phone? I just had it but can’t remember where I put it and I am late for an appointment I completely forgot about….

Any of this sound like you? I have been there.

I was fortunate enough to find the help of a practitioner who knew about Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome and wanted to pass on what I have learned to the next exhausted and sick person who has no idea how to feel better.

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome occurs when the adrenal glands in your body are overworked and produce too much hormone either very quickly or are overworked for a long time and finally can no longer keep up with the stress on your body. The adrenal gland is not an often thought of part of the body, yet it plays a very important role in how the body functions and responds to stress. The adrenal glands are located right above your kidneys and are the key to how your body responds to stress during the day. When under stress, the adrenal glands produce a hormone called cortisol which allows you to adapt to the situation.

Cortisol is the hormone responsible for the “fight or flight” response you have likely heard of. A stressful situation causes your body to undergo changes to prepare it for action. Cortisol increases sugar released into the body to use as energy, enhances sugar use in the brain and increases the release of substances into the body to help in healing tissues and decreasing inflammation. Long-term emotional, physical, or mental stress can cause the adrenal glands to be in a continued state of producing cortisol. After a while, the adrenal gland will be unable to keep up with the demands of the stressed body and will get “tired” and not produce enough cortisol. The reason it is unable to produce enough cortisol is usually lacking enough vitamins within the body to continue hormone production. A body responding the best way to stress will be able to produce enough cortisol to respond to a stressful event, and then be able to turn off the response and return to a normal state.

Examples of stress on the body:

injury

surgery

infection

poor nutrition

emotional stress from work, relationships, situations

continued exposure to environmental issues such as allergens and chemicals

There is currently no medical lab test that can accurately detect adrenal fatigue. There is a condition called Addison’s disease which happens when the adrenal gland is almost non-functioning. With adrenal fatigue, the adrenal glands still work but are unable to keep up with the demands of a body under long-term stress. Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome is usually detected by knowing what the signs and symptoms are. Some providers will say Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome is not a true diagnosis or problem because it can not be evaluated or measured with a lab test. I can tell you from personal experience the symptoms are real and can be fixed with the proper nutritional supplements.

Signs of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome can include:

energy levels following a pattern of swinging from low to high (very tired when waking, feel a boost of energy during the late morning, followed by a crash of energy levels mid-afternoon, increased levels again at 6 pm and crash again at 9 pm)

craving salty foods

mood swings

low sex drive

foggy brain/ trouble with memory

shortness of breath

depression/anxiety

unexplained hair loss

pain in the neck and upper back with no apparent cause

fat excess in the belly area

The adrenal glands produce cortisol through the process known as the adrenal cascade. All of the B-vitamins play a role in the production of hormones through the adrenal gland. Providing the body with the nutrients it needs to function properly will allow you to respond better to stress. The 8 B-vitamins are:

thiamine (B-1)
riboflavin (B-2)
niacin (B-3)
pantothenic acid (B-5)
pyridoxine (B-6)
biotin (B-7)
folic acid (B-9)
cyanocobalamin (B-12)

Other important vitamins involved in energy production in the body and important to supplement if experiencing Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome include:

Vitamin C
Magnesium
Zinc

There are many products I recommend to help your body return to a place of full function and health. The supplements I use are supplied by the NutriDyn company because they are so thoroughly tested for quality, safety, and backed up by research studies on how effective they are. I love the quality and how they are diligent with providing gluten and GMO-free supplements which is important to me. Here is a list of nutrient supplements I feel will best provide your fatigued body with what it needs to heal and feel its best with Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.

Cortico-B₅B₆ (Vitamins C, B-5, B-6, Calcium, Magnesium, Citrus Bioflavonoids) Contains the vitamins most important for cortisol production

Adrenogen (Vitamins B-2,B-5, B-6, Raw Adrenal Concentrate, PABA- part of folic acid production) Contains an extract from cow adrenal glands which helps your body make more cortisol.

Adrenal Resilience  Blend of herbal extracts to support the process of hormone production by the adrenal gland and will help body to respond to stress

Multigenics Intensive Care  Multivitamin designed for best absorption by the body

Zinc Lozenge  I tried many different zinc supplements before I found this one. Zinc can cause nausea but this lozenge is very easy to stomach, tastes good, and provides enough zinc to boost your immune system.

NutriDyn Fruits and Greens  Daily drink with the antioxidant power of 20+ servings of fruits and vegetables- comes in 8 different flavors. Tastes amazing and fuels your body with what is missing from your diet (we are all lacking in this area, even with best intentions it is very difficult to achieve all the nutrients needed to function at our greatest potential).

UltraFlora Balance  Probiotic combination to provide digestive and immune health. When the body has been under stress it affects the entire system and our health begins in our gut. Supporting the body with a proper balance of probiotic bacteria will enhance our immune system and help the gut recover from the damage done by inflammation in the body caused by Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome.

You do not have to use every one of these products, but I do suggest at the very least you add into your health routine some fruits and greens drink, one of the options to provide your body with the necessary B-vitamins and a quality probiotic.

In addition to nutrient supplements, your body also needs some ways to decrease and manage the stress. I will not go into a lot of detail in this article but will touch on a couple of techniques I have found to be helpful. Most mornings I have a quick (5-10 minute) yoga routine to get my blood and energy moving and to stretch all my tight muscles. It does not have a be a 45-minute yoga session to improve flexibility and reduce chronic pain. Sometime soon I will post a video of the moves I do each morning. The other technique I recommend you add in to reduce stress is a form of meditation. You will have to experiment with different options and find the one that makes the most sense/ is most helpful for you. The meditation I have found easiest for me is color breathing. You can practice this anytime but it is especially helpful when feeling stressed or anxious. What you do is close your eyes and picture your favorite color is filling the space surrounding you. Take a deep breath and imagine you are breathing in that color and absorbing all the positive thoughts and feelings it gives you and breath back out white air. Continue to take deep breaths trying to spread the color into all parts of you and breathe out the white air since you absorbed all the color. Do this until you have calmed down or as long as you want to practice meditation. The purpose of meditation is to train your mind to be focused on one thought. This practice is referred to as mindfulness and helps to reduce the chaos of thoughts and stimulus impacting the body every day.

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome can make it feel like the life has been sucked out of you. It is exhausting and makes getting through every day a struggle. We all experience stress each and every day to some extent. I remember feeling very disappointed in my body when learning that this was caused by stress, almost mad at myself that I was so unable to handle the stress in my life that my body broke down because of it. It is not your lack of being able to “deal with stress” that leads to adrenal fatigue though. It is just a body that has been wearing down and not provided the nutrients needed to build itself back up and keep going. I am still having to take supplements every day to keep my body going, but at least it is going now. I can get up, get through the day and have energy at the end of it for my family. Contact me with questions and I will try to guide you down the right path to heal your body and reclaim your health.

Your Health Matters

Tiffany Herring PharmD

**THIS AUTHOR AND SITE INTENDS ONLY TO SHARE INFORMATION AND NOT TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT DISEASE.