Ask Dr. Soram

I want to thank all of my readers and listeners who have been purchasing supplements at my online Healthy Living Shop. I opened the store to share the physician – quality supplements that I’ve been using for so many years, and I’m so happy to see that so many of you are taking advantage of the opportunity to get your nutritional supplements here.

I’m happy to announce that my medical office’s website, Khalsa Medical Clinic is now open and more beautiful than ever. For the many of you who were interested in coming to see me as a patient, rather than just emailing with questions, I hope that you will find my site appealing and inviting.

My Last Podcast – at Least for a While

In this podcast, I announced that this is going to be my last podcast at least for a while. Aside from my busy medical practice I have several projects in the works which I hope to share with you in the near future. You may still send your questions by email or voicemail to the numbers listed on this site. I will do my best to get answers back to you.

Integrative Medicine Update

There is lots happening in the world of integrative medicine!

For thousands of years, the yogis have passed on their tradition, that meditation helps the body to heal. I received personal training on this subject from my own teacher Yogi Bhajan.

I am delighted to share with you a new article from Harvard Medical School done  by Herbert Benson, and Towia Liberman. Dr. Liberman is the director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Center.

In this study, they found that a form of meditation called the Relaxation Response was found to alter gene expression that is involved in Inflammation, Energy Metabolism and Insulin Secretion.

Specifically, they found that pathways involved with the function of the mitochondria were upregulated during meditation.

In addition they found that pathways that are controlled by the activation of a protein called NF Kappa B. which are known to have a prominent role in inflammation, stress, trauma, and cancer were suppressed after the meditation sessions. Also they noted that the expression of genes involved in insulin pathways was significantly altered.

It is delightful to me that the ancient traditions of yoga are being proven through genetic pathways!

You can read the article here.

Vitamin D Now Found to Improve Immunity

It’s taken them a while, but the physicians in Australia has the now found that there is a vitamin D deficiency epidemic in Australia.

My colleague and friend Dr. Michael Holick went there to give a lecture and released an exciting bit of information from his recent research. He said “For the first time, this study shows direct evidence that improving vitamin D levels plays a large role in improving immunity and lowering the risk for many diseases.” In addition, he found the 290 genes were altered simply by increasing vitamin D levels. He stated that “These 290 genes are related to 80 biological pathways linked to cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and cardiovascular disease.”

This is what I’ve been talking to you about for so many years. These studies are in evolution and it is very exciting! Take your vitamin D!

Breast Cancer

I want to be sure that everyone saw the cover story in the New York Times Magazine last week about breast cancer. The author Peggy Orenstein is a prominent writer who is a breast cancer survivor. She presents some unique perspectives about the current issues and breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. I urge you to read the article. Here is the link for it.

Allergies are On The Rise

It is now estimated that unchecked global warming will worsen respiratory allergies for approximately 25,000,000 Americans. It will contribute to worse spring allergies, worse fall allergies, more asthma attacks and more health costs.

I announce on the podcast  that there is a new free email service available at this website that will email you every morning with the pollen count for your ZIP Code that day. If you have allergies I urge you to subscribe to this free service.

Here is the link for the full report on global warming and its effect on allergies.

Most Turkey Has Bacteria

It’s now been discovered that Turkey products are contaminated with salmonella and other bacteria. It is estimated that nearly 90% of US Turkey products are contaminated with these bacteria.

You can read more about it at this link.

Macular Degeneration and Integrative Medicine.

A new study that just came out in JAMA – ophthalmology shows that supplementation with a combination of lutein zeaxanthin, DHA and EPA can result in a significant improvement in the optical density of the macular pigment. This is where macular degeneration occurs.

The study was double-blind placebo-controlled was carried out over 12 months. Integrative doctors have been prescribing these types of supplements for our health for many years. It’s a shame it has taken conventional medicine so long to find it out.

My interview this week

My interview this week is with my special friend Guru Prem Singh Khalsa. Guru Prem is a true master Yogi and has been  practicing and teaching yoga for over 35 years.

He has  a very active practice in the same clinic where I work. He works as a structural, breath, yogic and massage therapist and he’s been doing this for over 28 years. He deeply understands the body, and can read its patterns of tension and breathing and help guide one to ease.

In this interview which is very different than the previous interviews I’ve done we talk about Radiant Beauty. We discuss what is radiance and how it is lost. We also talk about what it means to be heavy hearted and long faced, and how the posture can reflect the physical conditions in the body.

This is a very unique and very uplifting interview. Because of that, I have decided not to cut it into two segments and to play the entire 35 minute segment straight through.

I know you’re in for a treat when you listen to this!

You can reach Guru Prem at his website here

and find his music for sale here.

After the interview, I answer questions on the following subjects

1. A lady who was helped by vitamin D and magnesium. Her leg cramps went away with the proper balance of magnesium.

2. A gentleman with a persistent sore throat.

3. I close this podcast with a lovely email from Lisa who thanks me for introducing her to the importance of vitamin D and to the importance of Integrative Medicine. She has found a doctor through one of the lists that I give in my FAQ and she is very happy about that. She asked how to find a similar integrative dentist. I recommend the organization called the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology.

You can find the link here.

Next Steps for Me

As mentioned at the beginning, this is my last podcast – at least for a while. I will be staying in touch with you directly by email, and on Twitter and on Facebook and encourage you to follow me there. If you have not signed up for my newsletter on this website you may do so to the right and I will send you my weekly newsletter. I may be starting a second newsletter each week to bring people up to date on how I use the nutritional supplements in my online Healthy Living Shop to help my patients.

I look forward to staying in touch with you.

I wish all of you the very best that Enlightened Medicine, Conscious Living, and Compassionate Healing can bring you.

Dr. Soram

My New Healthy Living Shop

I start out this podcast reminding all my listeners that my new online Healthy Living Shop is open. For the time being, all new customers will receive a 10% discount if they use the code VPP10FT.

I am so happy that I am able to provide to all my readers and listeners the same physician – quality supplements that I have used for so many years in my practice. These supplements are much higher quality than is what available in health food stores and drugstores.

To make things easy I have started out making available several “ESSENTIALS Kits”. There is an Essentials Kit for men, women and for children. In addition I have several kits for specific health problems and also seasonal problems.

Please check out my new shop at:

Dr Soram’s Complementrix Healthy Living Shop

Breast Cancer

In this show, I start out talking about the new article in the New York Times Magazine entitled Our Feel – Good War on Breast Cancer, written by Peggy Orenstein. This article is a very comprehensive look at our current state of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She discusses the very hot topic on just how many mammograms does a woman need? And just how young of age should girls be encouraged to do self-examination of their breasts?

This article is an excellent review of the pros and cons of our current system for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Of course as I point out on the podcast I believe much more money should be focused on PREVENTION of breast cancer, not just treatment. After all, after a woman has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has surgery and if necessary chemotherapy and radiation, she is back in prevention mode. We must look at some of the underlying contributors to this breast cancer epidemic.

Many of you know I’ve spoken of some of these in previous podcasts. This includes keeping women’s vitamin D level up and having women avoid exposure to phthalates, in their cosmetics.

Integrative Medicine Update

1. In the first article, I talk about  how experiments are showing that the nutrients in berries are protective to the brain. Specifically most of my patients are worried about Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. These diseases have shown an increased amount of toxic protein. Berries are able to promote the brain’s natural housekeeping mechanism thereby reducing the toxic accumulation.

2. One soda a day can increase diabetes risk by 22%. This study was done in Europe and it confirms what has been found in America. The authors found that just consuming one 12 ounce serving of sugar sweetened soft drink each day raise the likelihood of developing type II diabetes by 22%.

3. A new study has shown that alternative therapies may help lower blood pressure. This is exciting news because it was published in the journal Hypertension, which is published by the American Heart Association. They looked at three types of exercise – aerobic, resistance or weight training, and isometric exercises most commonly handgrip devices.

They found that all three types of exercise reduce blood pressure. Four weeks of isometric handgrip exercises resulted in the most impressive improvements – a 10% drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

They did not look at herbs or supplements. In my own practice, I find herbs and supplements can be very helpful in dropping people’s blood pressure to normal.

4. Another study has confirmed what environmental doctors have been quite concerned about and that is the effects of pesticide exposure on reproduction and how this exposure can span generations. This study supported the theory that exposure to some environmental chemicals during sensitive periods of development can cause significant health problems for those organisms later in life – and affect their offspring and possibly their offspring’s offspring.

This is just another reason for women to go on a cleansing program before they conceive and to stay clean while they are carrying their new fetus.

5. Does cracking knuckles or joints cause arthritis? This is a long been asked question and this study shows that it does NOT cause an increase in osteoarthritis. However, other researchers shown that people who cracked their knuckles, were more likely to have hand swelling and lower grip strength.

Interview with Lyn Patrick, N.D. Part 3

In the concluding part of my interview with Lyn Patrick ND, we talk about safe blood Mercury levels for pregnancy. I express my recommendation that there is zero tolerance for any Mercury during pregnancy as it is damaging to the fetus’s nervous system. The EPA has recommended blood levels below 5.8 mcg/L for Mercury.

Dr. Patrick also points out to check your chlorella, if you are eating it, to make sure that it is heavy metal free.

We talk about the benefits of low-temperature medical saunas. Specifically I can recommend Saunaray.

If you mention my name they will give you some extra “goodies” with your purchase. I personally think they make the best and least toxic sauna that is available today. It comes with excellent support. In addition it comes from Canada and therefore is not subject to any sales tax.

By way of full disclosure I do have an affiliate agreement with them.

Dr. Patrick specifically says that we can find doctors who are experienced with detoxification by contacting The American College for the Advancement of Medicine or The American Academy of Environmental Medicine.

Lyn Patrick’s website is here

Your Questions Answered

In this podcast I answer questions on the following:

Chronically dry skin.

A young woman with Sjogren’s syndrome and how she should prepare for pregnancy.

A woman with toenail fungus for many years.

I hope you’re enjoying my podcast. If you are, please do rate me on iTunes! In addition remember to follow me on Twitter and to Like me on Facebook.

With best wishes to your health,

Dr. Soram

I open the show announcing the opening of my new online Healthy Living Shop on April 18, 2013.

This is pictured Here :

Since I first started my podcast and blog, followed by the tremendous response I got from my appearance on the Dr. Oz show, I have wanted to open an online store for my listeners and readers. This new online shop is an important part of my mission, because for the first time I am able to offer you the same physician – quality supplements that I’ve helped so many of my patients with in my practice here in Los Angeles.

In more exciting news is that I’m celebrating the launch of my new Healthy Living Shop by offering a special 10% discount on all your first-time purchases in the first month of opening.

You may have read and you’ve heard me talk about, that more and more studies are revealing that the ordinary products that you buy at a health food store discount store are lacking in quality, and even lacking in the ingredients they claim to have.

That is why my new Healthy Living Store is so exciting! You will be able to order the same physician quality products that I’ve used for so long in my own Integrative Medicine practice.

When you hear me talking about things on my podcast you will usually be able to find those products from my Healthy Living Shop.

Please do sign up for my weekly email newsletter on this site. On a regular basis, I will be spotlighting a supplement I recommend daily at my clinic, and I’m hopeful this information will help you, too. I will explain the health conditions I prescribe them for and how my patients take them.

I’m happy to say that my new online store will have a very responsive customer service department to meet any inquiries or issues that you may have.

When you enter my store you can look at the product categories in the left column and click on the category that best describes your health needs today. Or you can choose one of the supplement kits that I’ve put together on the main page.

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE UPDATE

In this issue I talk about how the month of birth impacts immune system development of a fetus. This study was done in England and is related to Multiple Sclerosis.

Basically what they found is that a mother’s vitamin D level during pregnancy is connected to the likelihood that she will have a child who develops multiple sclerosis. This only reinforces what I’ve been saying for a long time now, that pregnant women must have sufficient vitamin D throughout their pregnancy. In my practice I measure a pregnant woman’s vitamin D level every trimester to make sure it stays in the normal range.

SUGARY DRINKS

In a new study more than 180,000 deaths worldwide in 2010 were linked to a high intake of sugar laden drinks. This includes 25,000 deaths in the United States. This paper was presented at the most recent meeting of the American Heart Association.

Although the American Beverage Association objected to the findings, the author Dr. Singh said that on a “population level” it is possible to estimate the number of deaths attributable to sugary drink composition.

Suzanne Steinbaum, MD, the director of women and heart disease at Lennox Hospital in New York City stated “This sheds light on the linear connection between sugary drink consumption and deaths.” Dr. Steinbaum was not associated with the study.

You can read more about it here.

AIR POLLUTION IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

Exposure in the first two months of pregnancy to air pollution from traffic sharply increases the risk for birth defects is how this article started out.

They found that a mother living in areas with the highest level of carbon monoxide or nitrogen oxide concentrations was almost twice as likely to give birth to a child with neural tube defects is one living in areas with the lowest concentrations.

This article fits in with the subject of my interview today about preconception pregnancy planning.

You can read about it here

and here.

AUTISM

The percentage of US kids with autism continues to rise. The latest estimate is that autism affects one in 50 kids! This includes children from age 6 to 17 and it includes the entire Autism Spectrum Disorder.

When is this going to slow down? Those of you have been listening to my podcast for a long time know that integrative doctors feel the toxins in the mother’s body is a big contributor to this epidemic.

You can read about it HERE

ADHD

The rates of US children affected by attention – deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are skyrocketing according to this new report. The new information shows that 11% of children ages 4 to 17 were diagnosed with ADHD. This is from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The rise was especially dramatic among boys with an estimated one in five boys in high school now diagnosed with ADHD. About two thirds of the children diagnosed with this condition were treated with stimulant medications that can improve attention but also come with side effects.

The link I mentioned to avoid phthalates can be found here.

Before we start with the interview, I am planning on doing webinars on subjects of interest to my listeners/readers. Please take this 3 question survey to let me know of your interests. Click here to take survey.

My Interview with Lyn Patrick, ND.

It is most appropriate with this new news about autism and ADHD that we then move on to part two of my interview with Dr. Lyn Patrick, ND, who does a lot of work with preconception pregnancy planning.

In this podcast we talk about Biomagnification. We also discuss Mercury as an endocrine disrupting chemical.

We also talk about how at the very top of the food chain is the human infant. She reminds us that the majority of the problems with these chemicals is that they primarily affect the boys. That is why we’re seeing higher incidences of autism and ADHD in boys, in my opinion.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

I then go on to answer listener questions:

1. I discuss the integrative medicine approach to Rheumatoid Arthritis.

2. I remind all my listeners that lists of physicians who are trained similar to me can be found at this link on my site.

3. I also address a lady, for whom I have a lot of compassion, who wrote me about the integrative approach to her leukemia with a very high white blood cell count. Unfortunately on my podcast I cannot address conditions about cancer or leukemia because it is just too complicated and too individual. I ask my audience to please remember this.

4. I then receive a question about dosage of vitamin D and I give a comprehensive answer on that.

I’m delighted that I’m able to take phone messages now and we played several of them on my podcast today

Please remember to visit my new store this Thursday, April 18 around noon time at this link.

Also I appreciate the people have called to make an appointment to see me in person and I refer you to my clinic website at . My site there is under construction, but our office phone number to contact us is there.

Remember to get your news on integrative medicine at my new website.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health.

And also please remember to follow me on Twitter where I have feeds at least twice a day and Like me on Facebook!

I look forward to speaking with you again on the next podcast.

I open the show with the announcement that I have a new website! You can find it at Integrative Medicine Update. I’ve made this a free membership site so that you may add articles on integrative medicine to share with the world. It has a Digg style interface and it is very easy to use. Please check it out and catch up on the latest in integrative medicine.

MY NEW WEBSITE AND STORE

I’m also delighted to announce that on April 18 I will be opening a new online nutritional supplements store. Many of you after my Dr. Oz appearance asked me if I had other products that I endorse. In this new store I will be able to make available to you most all the products I use in my private practice of medicine. These are products that are not available at health food stores, because they are of a higher quality and designed for physicians to use with their patients. More about this in my next issue!

VITAMIN D AND DIABETES

I then go on to give you an update in the latest this week in Integrative Medicine. First off we talk about the new study that has shown that vitamin D is able to decrease the risk for diabetes and obese children and adolescents. In fact a quote by the author said, “By increasing vitamin D intake alone, we got a response that was nearly as powerful as what we had seen using a prescription drug”. Click here to read this article.

Although this article was written about children and teenagers I’m sure that it would also be true for adults. If you have family or friends with diabetes be sure to tell them to get their vitamin D levels checked and to optimize their vitamin D.

OUR GUT BACTERIA

We then talk about the importance of gut bacteria and its relationship to obesity. A new study done at Cedars Sinai Hospital here in Los Angeles is the first to show an association between gas production and body weight. The author stated “This could prove to be another important factor in understanding one of the many causes of obesity.” Click here to read this study.

Back to back with this article about gut bacteria, another study has come out saying that part of the benefit of gastric bypass surgery could be a change in gut microbes. The author of this study, Lee Kaplan stated “Our study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss and that finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects can become a valuable new tool to address obesity.”

Over and over again, we are getting the importance of our digestion for our whole body’s health.

FRENCH BOTTLED WATER

I then review a study showing that one in five French bottled waters contain drugs or pesticides. Specifically it contained chemotherapy drugs as well as pesticides. The authors of the study say that the amounts are “miniscule” and not to be worried about. However consumer groups along with integrative doctors know that very small amounts of chemicals can work very powerfully on the body. This is especially true if there is more than one chemical.

They have not done this study on American waters yet but it does make you wonder. Click here to read about this study.

HEAVY METALS AND AUTISM

The next study I review is the one that shows several toxic metals are found in children with autism. This dovetails very well with the subject of our interview today. It was found that between 30% and 47% of the variation of autism severity was associated with the level of several toxic metals, with cadmium in Mercury being the most strongly associated. Click here to read.

ORGANIC FOOD AND HEALTH

I then talk about an article showing that organically grown food provides health benefits for fruit flies! Specifically, flies there were raised on diets with organically grown produce, had greater fertility and longevity.

I know it is only a matter of time until organic foods are shown to benefit humans in the same way!

MINDFULNESS TRAINING

And then we turn the conversation to the importance of mindfulness training. One new article shows that mindfulness training reduces mind wandering. They measured college students ability to perform on exams. The students who receive mindfulness training showed improved accuracy on the GRE and higher working memory capacity, compared to those who simply received instruction in nutrition. The researchers estimated that mindfulness training resulted in the equivalent of a 16 percentile – point boost on the GRE.

If your child is going to be taking examinations, you may want to have them learn mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques.

Yet another Mindfulness studies showed that it is associated with lower stress hormone levels. Specifically high levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland, are associated with physical or emotional stress.

In this study, a Buddhist scholar trained participants in mindfulness of breathing, observing mental events, and observing the nature of consciousness. What the researchers found was that “The more a person reported directing their cognitive resources to immediate sensory experience in the task at hand, the lower the resting cortisol.”

Interview with Lyn Patrick ND

I then go on to my interview with Dr. Lyn Patrick with a world-renowned natural path Dr. from Colorado. Our topics this week is Preconception Pregnancy Preparation. We talk about BPA and other chemicals that are harming our children. We talk about how the mother should prepare for pregnancy before she conceives.

I know you will enjoy this podcast.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

I then answer your questions about:

1. Diverticulitis

2. Leg cramps and their treatment.

3. I talk about the feedback I got from listeners on the importance of silence that they have come to realize.

4. I also addresses listeners’ questions about the safety of vitamin D.

Thank you for listening to my podcast. You may send me questions by email at [email protected]. You may also call the voicemail hotline, which is back up and working, at 310-499-0275.

I will get to your questions as fast as I can.

Reminder! If you’re enjoying my podcasting getting a lot out of it please rate me five stars on iTunes so more people can get the benefit that integrative medicine can bring to them.

Also please leave your comments below.

You may also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Our whole country is moving in the direction of Integrative Medicine! CNN had a special this past weekend entitled Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care. If you missed it on CNN you can see it on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Here’s a link to the trailer for the movie

In the movie they show the need to reorient ourselves towards preventive medicine and positive well-being, rather than being reactive and waiting for a disease to strike.

A direct quote from a corporate executive interviewed in the movie is “70% of health care costs are driven by people behaviors.” Our system will be bankrupt if we do not fix it and reorient to healthy lifestyles.

You can find out more about the movie here and here.

Keeping with the theme that everybody is focusing on staying or getting healthy, a new app for both the iPhone and android has come out. It is called Fooducate. With the App on your phone at the grocery store or health store you can scan a barcode and the App will give you information on how healthy that product is. If it is not healthy, it will make recommendations of similar products that are much healthier for you and your family.

Here is a link to the website where you can get the app.

Along the lines of my logo -Enlightened Medicine, and Conscious Living a new article has come out entitled “Ruminating about stressful events may increase inflammation in the body”:

This is really where the tire meets the road for many diseases. It is so good that it is finally being documented scientifically.

We all know that heart attacks are related to stress and studies are also showing now that cancers related to stress. How does the mind affect the body in these cases? This landmark study shows that just the act of worrying about something and ruminnating on it, can raise inflammation in the human body. Specifically a marker called HS – CRP gets elevated when a person dwells on negative and/or stressful events.

Previous studies have correlated stress with these health problems but this is the first study to prove that inflammation markers in the blood go up when a person ruminates on something negative. Integrative medicine doctors think that inflammation as represented by the HS – CRP is the primary cause of coronary artery disease, the major cause of death in the United States. Many integrative doctors feel that cholesterol is an innocent bystander.

Here’s a link to the article.

In other news about integrative medicine, a new study has just shown that acupuncture improves memory, test performance and reduces anxiety.

This too is a major study showing what many of us have observed for a long time. Dr. Jason Bucell, PhD did the research with 90 undergraduate students. Half the students received acupuncture and half did not, and the placebo effect was controlled for. Then the students took a computerized test of working memory. These tests are associated with predicting performance with such diverse abilities as reading comprehension, arithmetic calculation, notetaking, language comprehension, learning to spell, building vocabulary, writing and many other performance measurements.

Previous research has shown that a series of acupuncture treatments can help individuals with impaired memory. This research was unique in that it is the first study to show the just ONE acupuncture treatment can improve performance in healthy individuals.

It will be exciting to see if this has any benefit for patients with Alzheimer’s or other less severe memory problems that people over age 50 often complain of.

You can read the article here.

Another study, just recently been published, shows that mindfulness contributes to more stable emotions and people who perceive themselves to have better control over their mood and behavior throughout the day. Higher mindful people also described less cognitive and physiological activation before bedtime. This suggests a greater emotional stability during the day might even translate into better sleep.

These results will be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.

You can read the article HERE.

In this Podcast, I also talk about a new study that’s shows that walking is just as effective in alleviating low back pain as muscle strengthening programs that require specialized equipment and rehabilitation clinics. In this study Dr. Michal Katz-Leurer at Tel Aviv University noted that this treatment option of walking fits easily into a daily routine and allows those with back pain to be more responsible for their own health.

In the program it only required 20 to 40 minutes of walking 2 to 3 times per week. As you know I would recommend upping that to seven days a week for other health issues including heart and weight.

You can read the article HERE.

Finally today. we discuss brain injury and concussions. New research using lasers to monitor the brain have shown that even mild traumatic brain injuries can kill brain tissue.

Dr. Serge Kirov, the author of the study is quoted as saying “Even with a mild trauma, we found we still have these ischemic blood vessels and, if blood flow is not returned to normal, synapses start to die.”

Dr. Kirov went on to say “We saw every branch, every small wire and how it gets cut. We saw how it destroys networks. It really goes downhill. It’s the first time we know of that someone has watched this type of minor injury play out over the course of 24 hours.”

The implications of this are profound for the 1.7 million Americans annually experiencing traumatic brain injuries from falls, car accidents, sports, combat and other similar events.

I bring up the question of what happens to our children’s and grandchildren’s brain when they play soccer and they “head” the ball?

You can read that article HERE.

Another article which is a complement to the previous one has shown experts have discovered a blood test called the S100B, that can help diagnose concussions. It is a great deal less expensive – around $40 – than other means of evaluating the extent of head trauma.

Dr. Janigro, the author of this study, is quoted as saying “Think of the blood – brain barrier disruption as opening the door to the brain that shouldn’t be open. Proteins like S100B that normally stay inside the brain get out where they aren’t supposed to be and get attacked. In addition, the doors open for things that don’t belong in the brain to get in.” Basically, this is saying that the blood brain barrier becomes disrupted.

It is estimated that about 40% of football players experience concussions every year. This test will be very helpful in evaluating the degree of their injury.

THE INTERVIEW

This is part two, the final part, of my interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan on Predictive Antibodies. In this podcast Dr. O’Brien talks about his own discovery of anybodies in his body against his brain which could have led to neurological disorders as he got older. Through using the techniques of integrative medicine he was able to reverse and remove these antibodies.

This is very exciting information and I encourage all of you who have not heard this to listen to this podcast.

The laboratory where these tests can be done is Cyrex labs and can be found HERE. You can bring this to the attention of your own physician and they can order the necessary test kits to draw your blood to do the test at their office.

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

In this podcast I answer questions on the following subjects:

If your friends or family have any of these issues, you can let them know about my podcast.

If you are interested in more information about integrative medicine you can sign up for my newsletter here on my website.

Please remember to follow me on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening!

Also if you are enjoying my podcast and feel it has helped you, please remember to rate me with five stars on iTunes so that more people can find out about this podcast.

Wishing you the very best in Enlightened medicine, Conscious living and Compassionate Healing.

Dr. Soram

The cover story of time magazine this week is entitled Why Medical Bills are Killing Us by Steven Brill. I really encourage all of you to read this article because it shows what’s going on with our medical system.

The subtitle of the article is “One SN a minute then tablet cause 1.5 cents. Your hospital marks it up 10,000%.

For me this is just a further message that all of us need to be proactive about our health. It is not good enough to just sit around and wait for a disease to strike. Conscious living in the use of enlightened medicine can help us stay healthy.

And a video with the author is here

Before I start talking about my update for Integrative medicine, I want to share with all my listeners my wife and my  recent discovery of guaranteed lead and cadmium free dishware! I talk about this on the podcast. It is called “Fiesta Dishes” and here is the link.

Speaking of being sure to find dishes without lead I open this podcast within article that just appeared showing that decreasingly small amounts of lead can affect children’s IQ performance. This study was done in the Detroit Public Schools System. Levels as low as 2 mcg/dL in the blood affected children’s educational performance.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130225/NEWS06/302250140/High-lead-poisoning-linked-to-lower-test-scores-in-DPS?odyssey=nav|head

One of the biggest pieces of news this week is that the incidence of metastatic breast cancer is increased in women at the young age of 25 to 39. I’ve begun to see this in my own practice, and now this article from the JAMA confirms it.

and also the New York Times covered this with this article.

I’ve talked to my podcast before and all of you have heard of the increasing amount of phthalates that women are being exposed to and the increasing problem with vitamin D deficiency. Both of these predisposed to – note I’m not saying cause – breast cancer.

We then go on to talk about BPA exposure and childhood asthma. The study tested 568 children and their mothers in New York City. It is the first to link early childhood exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) where the asthma. However studies with lab mice have found a similar link.

One out of every 10 children in our country has been diagnosed with asthma. In my opinion between the study that shows BPA exposure in the known low levels of vitamin D in newborns, we are building a perfect storm towards the development of more asthma in our children.

In this article the author , Kathleen Donohue, is quoted as saying “We saw increase risk of asthma at fairly routine, low doses of BPA”.

Links for these two articles are here:

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/asthma-and-bpa

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257110.php

And here is one from Time Magazine

The New England Journal of Medicine had a lead article this week showing the benefits of the Mediterranean diet in protecting against heart disease. Although this diet is significantly better than the traditional American diet, I still think studies will show that a Vegan diet is even better at protecting against heart disease.

The next article I discuss shows that C-section babies are five times more likely to develop allergies. This finding goes along with previous research that showed the babies born by C-section are more likely to have asthma then babies who were delivered naturally.

The most likely mechanism of this is that the baby is not being exposed to friendly bacteria in the birth canal and this is a major effect on the child’s immune system for the rest of their life.

In my own practice, as you know, I’m very preventive war early diagnostic oriented with my patients. In former heavy smokers I routinely order screening CT scans of the lungs. In the last years I found about six patients with early-stage lung cancer. Please note that a CT scan of the lung finds bone cancer about four years before chest x-ray will.

Now there is a study proving the importance of this technology. It is estimated that this type of screening could avert 12,000 lung cancer deaths annually.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/779823

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/257020.php

Another study that I talk about has shown that the category of drugs called SNRIs only produces a small benefit for fibromyalgia pain. One of the authors Dr Wallit stress that fibromyalgia encompasses more than just pain. And he stated “And considering that these drugs don’t really do much for any other aspect of a patient’s life, the value of these medications seem small at best”.

I mentioned my new discovery of the medical journal Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. The article I mentioned in the podcast about personal care products and phthalates can be found here.

I mention the importance of climate change and specifically this link of an excellent video explaining it.

Dr. Gould is a psychiatrist with an excellent program to lose weight. I mention his new article entitled What the weight loss industry is really selling. He basically says they are selling HOPE. But he points out that the INTERNAL You has not changed (loneliness, boredom, trauma etc.) nor has it even been taken into consideration by the weight loss industry.

You can read it here and you can sign up for his very effective online program.

And finally I talk about the importance of Aerobic exercise in children. A new study has shown that aerobically fit children had 2.4 greater chance of passing math tests and 2.2 times greater chance of passing reading test compared with aerobically – unfit children.

INTERVIEW

My interview this week is a second interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan. This time our subject is Predictive Antibodies.

His reply to the New York Times article was not printed in the newspaper but you can read on his website here.

I know you will learn a lot in this interview. We now have the technology using high-level laboratory tests to see early that a person may be getting a certain disease. Then using the techniques of integrative medicine we can intervene to reverse this tendency. Dr. O’Bryan and I have a lively conversation about this.

In the article we mention Cyrex labs which you can find here.

The article entitled New Predictors of Disease by Dr. Notkins can be found here for your download.

A scientific article for your doctor friends written by my colleague and friend Dr. Vojdani can be downloaded here.

Dr O’Bryan’s website is here

I look forward to your feedback about this interview. You can either put a comment down below or drop me an email at [email protected]

QUESTIONS

This completes the podcast for today. I would ask all of you for your benefit for my podcast to go to iTunes and rank me with five stars. That way a larger number of people will learn about the podcast and we can all share this information to improve our well-being together.

Please feel free to leave your comments below or to write me questions at my email address.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also you can follow me on  Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

I will see you in a couple weeks for part two of this interview on Predictive Antibodies.

I open the show talking about the rise in allergies secondary to global warming. My patients have been coming in with allergies and in February, the pollen count in Los Angeles is higher than I’ve ever seen at this time of the year. Global warming is directly linked to this.

In the show I give some suggestions for managing allergies using a natural approach.

Here are the links mentioned in the podcast to the allergy epidemic we are having now.

Seasonal Allergies Getting Worse From Climate Change

Pollen Allergy Forecast

The allergy video I mention is here

The PDF article on extreme allergy and global warming is here

Yoga is coming to its own and finally being proved to be helpful for human disease! As my readers know I’ve been practicing kundalini yoga for over 40 years and I’m so gratified to see articles about yoga appearing in the most conventional of all medical journals, such as American Journal of Cardiology.

Here it is showing that yoga can significantly reduce the frequency of atrial fibrillation a very common heart condition. If your relatives or friends live with this condition, please refer them to this article.

I’ve discussed with you, my readers and listeners, for a long time the relationship between vitamin D and breast cancer. Dr. Garland is my friend and colleague who wrote the original epidemiologic article that I have quoted in my book and on my recent appearance on Dr. Oz.

Now Dr. Garland has published a PROSPECTIVE study showing that there is a link between low vitamin D and breast cancer.

Here’s the article.

Finally, I talk about the landmark event of an agency of the National Institute Of Health confirming what I’ve talked about on my podcast for so long – the link between the environment and breast cancer. In addition they are changing the focus of breast cancer to be more towards prevention rather than only diagnosis and treatment. This is a glorious day for the women of the world!

Jeanne Rizzo has written our article for the Huffington Post entitled Welcome to the Breast Cancer Prevention Era.

You can read it here

and you can read the official document from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at this link. The title of the article is Breast Cancer and Environment – Prioritizing Prevention

The Interview on Gluten

We then finalize my three-part interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan on gluten sensitivity.

In this section we talk about the accuracy of Celiac tests, and its 6 to 1 ratio of gluten sensitivity to celiac disease diagnosis. Dr. O’Bryan calls this gluten sensitivity epidemic  “Foundational Problem”. You can find a list of practitioners who have been qualified from Dr. O’Bryan’s training on his website here.

Dr. Tom’s main website is here

Then in this show I answer the following questions:

1. An integrative medicine doctor’s answer to weight loss.

2. A few words about Parkinson’s disease.

3. Vitamin D and pregnancy – a very important issue.

4. An integrative approach to allergy management.

5. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, vitamin D, and a comment from a listener about

I also announced in this podcast that many listeners are asking me to guide them to physician-quality products that can help their health. I’m going to be setting up a survey monkey questionnaire asking if you would be interested in my having such products available on my website that you can buy through my site.

Also I announced that the voicemail system I’ve been using is not working that well, and I invite you to send your questions to me by email and not by voicemail until we get this problem resolved. My email is on the front page of my site.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

Wishing you the best in health through understanding Enlightened

Dr. Soram

I am just back from the environmental medicine 2013 update convention in Arizona. The topic of this year’s conference was “Environmental impact on fertility, pregnancy, birth outcomes, children’s health and epigenetic generational health effects”.

The lectures were outstanding from a group of doctors. I feel that it is essential that women do a program that allows for preconception optimization. As I’ve mentioned before, I do this in my practice on a regular basis with my patients who want to get pregnant, and encourage you and your friends to find a doctor who does this before you conceive.

I go on to talk about an article from the BBC about toxic chemicals that could be causing the Pandemic of brain disorders that we are seeing.

I also refer my listeners to the Foresight website which is based in England about preconception preparation.

I then review a study showing that people who have Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts do much worse with a low vitamin D level.

I then talk also about the article on the importance of taking coenzyme Q 10 when taking Staten drugs which you can find here. This is amazing that it is finally being published in the main medical journals. Integrative medicine doctors have been prescribing coenzyme Q-10 for 20 years to statin users.

I reference an article that was just published in the very prominent Journal of the American College of Cardiology that finds yoga to be a safe effective treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation. If you have family or friends with this condition please show them this article.

I also reference the Collaborative on Health and the Environment – an excellent website on the role of the environment in our health.

The YouTube video I mentioned about the Fake Obesity Experts which is most informative can be found at this link.

We then move forward with part two of my interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan on gluten sensitivity. We start out with questions about the laboratory results and move on to some very important information.

There are 19,000 studies in the medical literature about how gluten affects the body. Dr. O Bryan points out that everything from infertility to Ménière’s disease and children with drug-resistant epilepsy can be caused by gluten sensitivity that is unrecognized.

Dr. O’ Bryan points out, as I do to my patients, that you don’t have to get rid of the doctor you’re currently using but you bring a Functional  Medicine practitioner on board to help get to some of the underlying causes of your health problems.

We then talk about Standard Mortality Ratio and the data for people that recognize they have a gluten sensitivity versus people that may not.

Dr. O’ Bryan reminds us that it’s eight times more likely that a gluten sensitivity will manifest outside of the gut than in the gut.

In the last part of the podcast answer questions from my listeners on acne, eczema, vitamin D and pregnancy, and osteoarthritis. If you have friends with any of these conditions I encourage you to let them take a listen to my podcast.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on  Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

Wishing you all the very best in health.

I want to thank all of you for the great response that you’ve given me to the doctor show. After practicing integrative medicine for over 30 years now, it is my mission to get the word out to a larger number of people that I can see in my day-to-day practice.

Your questions have been overwhelming and I am trying to get answers back to you as fast as I can.

I want to honor all of my listeners and readers. You have shown me the value of being on Twitter and on Facebook. I had not been on either of them for a while and now I am on them regularly. I plan to put out at least two twitter feeds per day and to be updating my Facebook page on a regular basis. The promise always give you interesting things to learn about in my feeds.

Because of your strong encouragement for me to get my word out, in this issue I review some of the very interesting articles that I have been reading to send out to you on Twitter and Facebook.

You can listen to the podcast for details but here are the links:

The Not-So-Sweet Side Effects of Soda

Low blood lead levels linked to lower IQ in Italian kids.

Chemical tied to intergenerational obesity

Now onto this issue’s interview. For the next few sessions we will be shifting our focus to the role of gluten in human health.

How do we diagnose such patients? How do we treat them? Can they get by with just reducing gluten or must they avoided altogether? What are the symptoms and signs of such a gluten sensitivity?

These are questions that my patients bring to me every day. There are an enormous number of people who have what we call Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity. In my practice I have seen lives change by the recognition and treatment of this condition.

This is the first of three podcasts on the subject of gluten sensitivity. My special guest that I interview is Dr. Tom O’Bryan, who has spent the last many years studying and teaching the importance of the recognition of gluten sensitivity. He is an internationally recognized speaker and workshop leader as well as a clinician par excellence in treating chronic disease and metabolic disorders from a functional medicine perspective.

In this podcast we talk about the following:

In the next podcast we will go on to discuss the use of the Cyrex tests, where to get them and what they can tell us.

You can see more about Dr O’Bryan on his website.

And Cyrex Labs is here

After my interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan I go on to answer some of your questions that you have emailed to me.

In this show I answer questions about:

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

I am so gratified and indeed humbled by your overwhelming response to my recent appearance on Dr Oz.

Because I see patients every day I do recognize the tremendous need that so many people in America have for Integrative Medicine. By using natural types of medicines along with lifestyle changes so many health conditions in America can be very much helped. In addition, with this approach, very often medications can be reduced.

With all the hundreds of questions I’ve received from you, I’m trying to create a way to help you with answers to your questions. Please understand I’m a single physician in practice and I need some type of organized system to give you answers, without being your doctor.

I have created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to answer the main categories of questions that you have asked. You can find it here.

I’ve created a quick questionnaire online to see if you would be interested in attending webinars that I would hold. In addition it asked if you would be willing to pay small fee to help cover the overhead of running these webinars? I would appreciate your letting me know by filling out this questionnaire which will only take less than a minute. You can find it here.

For those of you who did not get to see my appearance on Dr. Oz you can watch 2 of the 3 segments RIGHT HERE.

Unfortunately the third part is not yet online and I’m asking the producers if they can add it as it was my favorite part! On this segment I was introduced to Kathy Smart and Cynthia Besson, who have been fans of mine from my blog and podcast. We met for the first time in person on the show! Then, along with two ladies I taught Dr.’s some Kundalini Yoga on camera!

Also you can read my article for Dr Oz’s site here

I look forward to staying in touch with you. You may leave me comments below this article.

Let’s transition now to my interview for this podcast.

This is the final segment of my interview with Dr. Michael Gregor.

In this segment I start out by asking him about exercise. He reminds us that the most important muscle in the body is the cardiac muscle. He recommends walking four miles per hour per day he reminds us that we can make it fun, and he does remind us that there are other exercises that we can do instead. Exercise helps us with insulin sensitivity and other biochemical processes that keep us healthy.

We then talk about natural treatment for high blood pressure. Even independent of obesity, a plant based diet can bring blood pressure down. Dr. Gregor talks about the use of drugs for blood pressure as well and he says it is controversial whether or not drugs for high blood pressure actually reduce mortality rates.

The whole food plant-based diet he reminds us not only lowers blood pressure, but the same diet lowers heart disease and the same diet reverses diabetes. He says “It’s kind of like mother nature has been trying to tell us something… But nobody has been listening.”.

We then go on to talk about diabetes and how 10-year-olds are now getting Type II diabetes. He reminds us that this is an emerging epidemic even people at the exact same weight who eat more plants have a lower diabetes risk. This is analogous to the people that have stomachs – stapling surgery which will improve their diabetes even before they lose weight just by having the surgery.

Next we talk about fibromyalgia and how many people with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia actually have a vitamin D deficiency. Of course I wholeheartedly agree with this. In addition Dr. Gregor always puts his patients on a whole food plant-based diet for fibromyalgia.

I then go on to ask the question that’s been burning on my mind for a while. Tthat is whether a whole food plant-based diet protects us from environmental toxins effects? He reminds us that many of our farm animals are fed the remains of other farm animals. So when we eat animals, we are eating higher on the food chain, which is more likely to have pesticides. Dr. Gregor recommends that we eat low on the food chain and purely organic to minimize our exposure to environmental toxins.

We then go on to talk about cholesterol. Dr. Gregor definitely feels it is best to keep our LDL or bad cholesterol at 60 to 70 g with a total cholesterol of 150. He points out that the average cholesterol of people eating a vegan diet is 150. He reminds us that doctors should give their patients the opportunity to try to change and not work under the assumption that they will never change their bad habits whether it be smoking or the type of diet that they are on.

For more information about Dr. Gregor or to watch his videos you may go to his personal website at HERE or his video website HERE. I do recommend you subscribe by email to his daily videos which are only 2 to 3 minutes long and just full of information on the latest in good health.

Dr Gregor has just posted his 10 most watched videos of the year 2012 and you can see them here, which is a great way to start out with his videos!

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.