The Health Detectives

A news headline the other day read

“…large doses of B vitamins can halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with memory problems and may slow their progression toward dementia, data from a British trial showed on Wednesday, Scientists from Oxford University said their two-year clinical trial was the largest to date into the effect of B vitamins on so-called “mild cognitive impairment” — a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.”

In our clinics and hair testing as The Health Detectives, and no doubt for many natural medicine practitioners, there was a moment of “I told you so” hovering in the air. Mental function, even mild feelings such as ‘brain fog’ experienced by many people way before serious loss of function, often respond well to B vitamins.

When we test for memory and brain health, or the cause of someone’s depression or anxiety, we check that the neurotransmitters (brain messengers) are in balance, and if they are not we have to find out why, and how to correct this.

Many factors spring to mind and we test for these – such as mineral or vitamin deficiency (for example Vitamin B6 or B12) , toxicity from metals such as aluminium – known to correlate to cases of Alzheimers – which need to be removed from the body if found, and high quality oils – important in the building of proper myelin sheaths around nerve fibres for proper neurological functioning.

We would not ASSUME that someone with mental problems would automatically require a B vitamin, though it has long been recognised by naturopaths and nutritionalists as an important remedy to consider. We always TEST to see what an INDIVIDUAL needs to correct their biochemistry so that they can function properly. For one person with memory problems it may be caused by a deficiency in the right nutrients for their body to function optimally, for others it may be that a toxic metal is stopping their biochemistry from functioning by poisoning the enzymes that oversee the different reactions needed to function well. So giving someone with aluminium toxicity, lots of vitamin B may not be as important as chelating the toxic metal and getting them out of the body (largely through the kidneys, which in turn may need to be supported by some kidney supporting nutrients).

At the end of the day, a guess is a guess, but why not come for testing or send in a hair sample if you want to check your brain chemistry (neurotransmitters) and important risk factors, such as toxic metals, and lack in B vits. It’s not just fillings (dental amalgam) that can leach toxic metals into our blood system. We have found patients who are using make-ups which test up to toxic metal, and drinking water (additives) as well as mercury being used as a ‘preservative’ in many vaccinations which are pushed hard onto the population such as the swine flu vaccine.  Always ask what the ingredients of a vaccine are before you have the cocktail injected into your little children.

Other factors during our younger lives can predispose us to future toxic levels of metals, increasing our risk of alzheimers and dementia. For example, depending on our body types (Auyurvedic) we may have a natural susceptibility to aluminium, mercury and lead, or nickel.

The news articles I read also mentioned a connection between high levels of homocysteine and Alzheimers. We also test for homocysteine, and it is part of a very important chain of reactions called the Methylation cycle. This is very important for good cardiovascular health and is an early indicator of heart problems. This we have always treated with nutrition – such as specific B vitamins – so the big news of the week is really not new at all. Ask any complementary therapist, but then, many doctors do not rate our sector sadly.  We would also check homocysteine and methylation in our health MOTs as well as toxic metals – so rather than guessing, and spending a fortune on B vitamins that may not do the job in your case, come and be tested (or send a hair sample – click on Hair testing in the menu) and find out what your risk factors really are… and how to correct them.

So please… B vitamins are not new news – though its heart warming to see a headline that recommends a great natural nutrient that does so many essential jobs in the body – rather than another block buster pharmaceutical such as statins, with known side effects and questionable benefits, where natural healthy living practices could do the same job in many cases.  In a month where new E U regulations are taking yet more wonderful minerals and natural remedies off the shelves purely on licensing grounds, hurray for one being made too popular to axe!

If you are worried about your health – contact us and we will ‘get on your case’!

Best wishes, The Health Detectives

Hello everyone.   I was struck recently while listening to a new patient telling us how worrying it felt, KNOWING something was really wrong and yet all the test results, and blood tests from the hospital had  come back clear. It reminded me that we have heard this many times before.

When nothing can be found by blood tests, scans and so on, people naturally start to get really worried about all sorts of sinister possibilities  (such as cancer, M.S., parkinsons etc) in the absence of any sort of diagnosis . And a few of our patients have been refered to the top consultants, sent to London and still no benefit. One patient with muscle wastage on his leg was sent to top neurologists to no avail. They thought it was some sort of nerve damage.  With the kinesiology we use,  it showed up as being to do with lymes disease which was healed with a typical herb excellent for Lymes, and he has gone from strength to strength.

So when test results come back clear, people can not only feel that no one believes them, but without any idea of what is happening to their bodies… they are often also unsure where to start trying to look for alternative help.

Sometimes I think  much of the time we are not REALLY LOOKED AT when we go to the doctors. It doesn’t help that they spend a lot of time staring at their computers – thought thankfully some doctors do earn praise. Yet so often our ‘issues’ or biochemical disturbances are reasonably visible when someone walks in…. you can see the hormonal exhaustion, or the toxic digestion, or the cranial and structural distortions, or the energy blockages – carried in the body. The visual features are all clues, and its really what being ‘ a health detective’  is all about!  We take everything as clues and will always find information that starts people feeling better, simply by starting to understand what has been happening to them, and why.

So if your tests have come back clear, and you are being told they ‘can’t find anything wrong with you’ .. don’t dispair! Come for kinesiology – we don’t stop testing until we find what is wrong and why- and then the work starts – to match each person to a remedy that will get them back to full health.  So if you can’t find a diagnosis – let us take on your case!

In our clinic we meet a lot of people on a lot of different medications. We are impressed with how many of you really don’t want to be on them, but have been given medications and left on them for years. Some regular themes have been coming up so I thought we could share them with you, and perhaps you can pass this on if friends of yours are affected.

A lot of people seem to be told that once they are on thyroxine, they will always be on it. For those people who don’t like being on tablets at the best of times, this news is often a shock and very upsetting. Well, we don’t see things in quite the same way being Health Detectives. We want to know WHY someone who has previously been happily making their own thyroxine  (made in the thyroid) should suddenly not be able to make it anymore. And then we want to know HOW to support their body to make their own thyroxine again as soon as possible – and not need to take it externally. So we set about rebalancing the whole endocrine system (a set of glands producing lots of different hormones doing loads of different jobs) – and once it’s back in balance, including the thyroid gland, we can’t see why the body wouldn’t make its OWN thyroxin again.

We have found with some patients that this is exactly what happens, and when the doctors see their thyroid tests, they can’t seem to believe their eyes… calling the patient back in to re-check the blood tests… and are stunned to find that (having told the patient they have to be on thyroxine for life) they ‘seem to be making it again’ and the doctors have to reduce the medication!

To us that is great news – and shows that the body really does want to run its own chemistry by itself without being dependent on one drug company or another. So if you know anyone on thyroxin,  who would like to get their system back in balance and see if they can show the doctors that they can reduce their medication intake, please give us a call! If enough of you respond we will be happy to run a thyroid clinic locally! Let’s see a few raised eyebrows in the blood test laboratories, folks!

We are glad to welcome you to our newly updated website and hope that you like our new design and more interactive site.

We offer a thorough natural health test to find the cause of any imbalances and symptoms you are experiencing, and to assess how to treat them effectively with natural remedies. You may have had a lot to do with doctors and medicine; you may have tried various complementary therapies too.

Based on the principles of natural medicine, we aim to treat the causes rather than the symptoms of your problems, so that you can be rid of the symptoms once and for all. The recommendations we make aim to get your various body systems back into balance so that you can get on with normal life without relying on on-going medications. Come to one of our clinics or send us a hair sample for testing if you live away or can’t come in person. You’ll receive a full report and prescription for any treatment needed after we’ve tested your hair sample.