Ep 05: Allergies and asthma: A comprehensive approach

Foreign. The views expressed on contacttalkradio.com are those of the guest hosts and callers and not necessarily of this station, its management or other advertisers. This is contact talkradio.com consciousness in action. And you are taking action into your consciousness by tuning into Contact Talk radio and on tunein.coming ING FM and upsnap mobile Contact Talk Radio. Welcome to what the Health an independent approach to your health span. Have you noticed how our healthcare system may not have your best interest in mind? Join Dr. Eckel in this fun and sometimes disturbing exploration of the state of healthcare and what it means for you. Now, here's your host, Dr. Eckel. All right, well, welcome back everybody. This is what the Health and I am Dr. Greg Eckel. Today's topic is one near and dear to me. It's allergies and asthma. A comprehensive approach. I wrote my doctoral thesis back in medical school on allergies and asthma. And I can remember back first experience with really natural medicine and in particular adjustments. I had a patient woman, she was mid-50s and was in an acute asthma flare and she was on steroids, inhalers. She was doing IV therapy at the hospital. Really nothing was getting her out. I mean, when you have asthma, as I'm sure if you do suffer with it or know someone who has it, it's like being a fish out of water where you're not able to breathe. And I was just in clinic as a first year meds, well, first year clinical student and we were learning how to adjust the body. So similar to chiropractic, it's called naturopathic manipulation technique. Really Nobody's ever heard of nmt, but I was taught by osteopaths, chiropractors and naturopathic doctors and adjusted her third thoracic vertebra and right there at T2 to T3 to T4, those nerves that come off the spine actually go into the lungs and the heart around those regions. And I adjusted her, you know, basically top down and kind of heard a loud pop and she burst into tears. And I just thought, oh my God, I broke a rib. You know, like, what is going on here? And, and, but she could breathe and she like gasped for air. Tears are rushing down her face and she just said, oh my gosh. I just had this major, major emotional release. And it was really the, it was so instrumental in my learning. I was like, wow, we could do that with our hands. People like, just like that. Boom. The body is put back into equilibrium and homeostasis and being basically what had happened. And what she had discovered was a lot of her asthma symptoms were related to. She had a lot of extra weight on, too. And basically she had stored emotions and memory in her, basically safety of her body. So she was putting on pounds and pounds and couldn't lose weight and had this intense asthma attack where medications weren't helping her breathe. And by allowing the nervous system to communicate fully with the brain, we got her breathing again. She had this major emotional release. I didn't break her rib, thankfully, but I was hooked. I mean, I was already hooked before then, but it's like, wow, this is truly, truly amazing on what. How the body heals and what we can do to help facilitate that. So I actually went on. That was so instrumental to me and my learning that after two years of clinical rotations at then National College of Natural Medicine, now the National University of Natural Medicine, I wrote my doctoral thesis on allergies and asthma, and for the last two decades have really had a focus there until I've gotten into the regenerative medicine to add on top of that. So I've helped thousands of people with their allergies and asthma, and oftentimes, I mean, they go together. There's a clinical triad. It's eczema, allergies, and asthma. So kids, when they're born, if they come out with eczema, you know, it's an atopic dermatitis, they tends to go into allergies. And then as it gets suppressed in the conventional western approach, it'll go deeper into an asthmatic state. And I always encourage folks with asthma. I'm always just surprised where people will show up and say, oh, yeah, I've had, you know, I've had asthma for 20 years, but, you know, my doctor says I don't have allergies. And it's greater than 50% of people with asthma have allergies. And I would go to reason on the sensitivity front. So that's pure allergies, which we're going to get into talking about today. But if you bring in sensitivities to foods and environment and looking at what's happening in an asthmatic immune system response, I basically call it the spinal tap effect, right? Those guys were cranking their speakers up to 12, right, on a series of 10. And what Western approaches is just turn it all off, shut it down, cut the cords, you know, make it stop. Which sometimes that's very important to do. But oftentimes when we really look at truly healing and having the body correct itself, we've got to get at and understand the underlying root cause. So, you know, really it's that suppressive nature of big Pharma and Western approach to a more naturopathic integrated model, which is, let's look at root imbalances, root causes, and see if we can help modulate the innate healing ability of the body. Like perhaps the symptoms are trying to help the body heal, with which I would argue all of the time the symptoms are trying to do that. It just though sometimes the symptoms of like allergies suck, right? You got itchy eyes, runny eyes, you can't breathe, you're coughing, you're sneezing. It's just, ugh, right? Just coming out there. So we really want to look at those two aspects of suppressive nature versus root cause and underlying imbalances. And one of the big fountain pieces on this discussion is the body's ability to heal and innate intelligence expressed is which I think all humans are all 7 billion of us on the planet right now. It's such an amazing life force really. As we're the eyes of consciousness here, we really want to look at how do we modulate it, right? Because sometimes the symptoms get a little bit out of control. As I mentioned on our global climate, effect on our health, allergies are gaining in popularity, right? Every year I, you know, I track pollen counts and it's like every year there's a higher and higher pollen count. And I think, how can that be? But you look at it, you know, as our temperatures are climbing. Well, what does that mean? Our seasons, Spring is happening earlier. We're having a higher. More heat means more pollen. These plants are just blowing up. And you know, in particular, where I live in the Pacific Northwest, in Portland, Oregon, we've got, we basically call it the Valley of Death, the Willamette Valley, known by the natives. It's so fertile out here. And now we've got some of the largest grass companies, grass manufacturing facilities, I guess they grow them out in the valley and it all just blows right down into Portland. So my poor patients here with allergies are just, you know, totally bonkers. You know, one of the, that's the technical term. So one of what I love getting these notices from insurance companies of, you know, Joe is not compliant with his medication, you know, his singulaire or his cortisone cortisol steroid inhaler and that, you know, he's just not refilling at the pace that if he was using his medication. And I don't write them back, but I just think man, they just do not see people improve with this condition. We're able to actually get people off of their meds. You know, it's like this is actually something that is correctable. The body can heal itself. And I see it time and time again. Now I'm not going to make that claim for everyone. However, if you haven't explored these options that we're going to talk about today, it really behooves you if you're interested in living a drug free lifestyle and not having the symptoms of, of allergies and up to on the continuum to asthma. So, you know, about 10 to 30% of the population has an allergic response called hay fever or seasonal allergies. You know, when I get into a discussion with people around their allergies, they're like, oh, I have seasonal allergies. It's like, well, what season? All four, you know, so it's not just spring. So a lot of people just have the traditional hay fever spring allergy season in Portland. You know, it starts about February with trees, goes the whole way through June with grass and then in the fall there's another bloom. But the fall is usually molds and then winter tends to be mold as well. So, you know, I'll see people, they'll develop through time. They either had them their whole life or they'll develop them later in their life. And it's a little bit different of a cause and different treatment route if you develop allergies later in life. So we'll get into that as well in the treatment section. That'll be the third part of our discussion today. You know, and one of the things, so the symptoms, I'm going to start with allergies, right. But we're really talking about this triad. So it's eczema, allergies and asthma. And we're going to talk about allergies because that, you know, I just see people needlessly suffering with them without really looking at true root cause imbalances. So how do we get there? Well one, we all know the symptoms of it, right? So it's, you know, the red bloodshot eyes, runny eyes, congested, puffy bags, stuffy nose congestion, post nasal drip, cough from that sometimes sore throat, wheezings, affects the breathing, you get fatigued, you just feel like, you know, like you got run over by a truck a little bit. And but it doesn't always have to look like that. So that's more the environmental allergies. We'll talk about food sensitivities and food allergies as well. The clinical diagnosis on allergies in conventional land is really around IgE. It's immunoglobulin E response. Now you have five immunoglobulins. There's G, A, M, E and D. I just remember it by ig, immunoglobulin, gamed G, A, M, E and D. And each one of those has a different effect in our immune system. Looking at a blood test, we draw your blood. We're looking for food sensitivities. So ige, a traditional diagnosis of an allergic response is more of that anaphylaxis, right? You've got closing of the airway, difficulty breathing. That's shellfish, peanuts, Those are the big bee stings. That's an anaphylactic immediate response ige, you go in and to the allergist and they'll do the skin scratch test. So they put the, you know, the little needles of the substance and then you go back in and you get them measured. They're testing their igm, so the M variety of the immunoglobulin. And I don't particularly care for that test. One, it's not super sensitive. Two, you're not really reacting in your skin to, you know, when you're inhaling or eating allergens or sensitivity. So I'm going to start bringing in that sensitivity word because I think it does make a difference for people, but in a true allergic response and you're looking for that, that's an IgM response. You can do a blood draw of IgG, IgE, immunoglobulin, G and E. And I used to do that. It was 98 different foods and there's some great value there. Or the one that I've currently landed on is called the ALCAT test, which is more of a food sensitivity. They test for about 450 different substances and foods, additives, molds, some environmental toxins and food and food additives and spices. I like that one because it's more of a sensitivity. They actually test these foods and 450 substances against your immune system, against your white blood cell count. And you see what kind of response happens over time. Because as I mentioned, the IGG test is a blood test that's a test for hypersensitivity, delayed response. So all these iggs and different testings, really what it boils down to, the gold standard on looking at foods and foods role in your health is an elimination diet. These are very hard to pull off. But the first couple years of my practice I did not address people's diets around that. I wasn't getting the results that I'm getting today. And you know, go figure, food is our best medicine and we've got to address diet for everybody. I mean, it is our best medicine. We're getting that information on a daily basis. What are we putting in there? What are we putting in there? Doesn't mean that you turn into a monk living in Sichuan province. But it does mean we got to address it. We got to look at it one way or the other. The gold standard is elimination diet. So what is that? For six weeks you eliminate the known highest allergenic responders. So, you know, we've got the wheat, gluten, dairy, citrus. We've got. Well, I did say dairy, dairy, wheat, citrus are top biggies. Eggs, along those lines. If you want that information, you can email me at infonatureaturecuresclinic.com at. It's a 26 page booklet that we put together on the elimination diet. It's a hard one to pull off for most people though. I use that one predominantly for about a decade and got really great results. But there is a cut to the chase on let's get responses, let's get results for people. I really moved into the alcat testing for that. It's a blood draw. Yes. There is an expense associated with it. So time versus money, depending on what your response is. Now, the elimination diet does cover there's about seven routes that your body can respond to foods. So whereas the testing is only checking for one or two of those. But it tends to be the larger responses that we're picking up with the blood testing. So that's about a two to three week process on a turnaround time. But we, you know, we want to look at that for sure. If you are just joining in, this is Dr. Greg Eckel of what the Health. You can check out our website naturecuresclinic.com where we'll have our episodes posted. So if you want to hear the beginning of the show, these are going to be recorded for you. So we will have them up in due time. So thanks for joining in. So we are talking about allergies and asthma today. I want to make sure I'm covering it all. I took some good notes today. So yeah, we talked about the traditional testing. Oh and then so sensitivities. So this is where, you know, conventional practitioners do not agree with this. It's not FDA approved. There's a lot of testing that I do that is not FDA approved. Of note There are no known surgeries that are FDA approved because they only approve. They all approve drugs and certain testing, not surgeries and not some of the tests that I run either. Even though I find them very important clinically, they do change the course of treatment for folks. Well, so on the testing front, you know, really, you get a listing of foods if you go conventional routes. But I want to talk about sensitivities because this gets kind of interchanged when you're talking about food allergies or environmental allergies along those lines. So, you know, you look at any type of immune system response, it doesn't have to be an IGE or immediate response, but that's the definition of allergies. So I like to talk about more food sensitivities, where sometimes you can have a food and it doesn't flare you up, and other times you can't have the food because it just sinks your ship. You get real tired or you start getting symptoms. You know, it basically is how full is your proverbial cup. You know, this discussion on food and food responses in the body, you might be thinking, well, I know I'm allergic to grass or pollen or, you know, cat dander. You know, I don't have food allergies. Well, I would beg to differ because it's the same epithelial lining, right, that goes through the nose, down through the throat and into the gut. Same cells. It's called your epithelial lining. And if you have inflammation here, you've got inflammation in your gut. So we really look at, you know, about 85 to 90% your immune system surrounds your gut. It's called the gut associated lymphoid tissue. GALT G A L T. And we've got to address that. I mean, underlying inflammation. When we're talking about wanting to modulate your system rather than just turn it off with steroids or suppressive agents. Well, we got to figure out what is ramping your immune system up. Okay? So of course you've got environmental allergies or sensitivity. So that is a component. It's flaring the. It's flaring the gaps here. So the cells start to get enlarged. And it's called gap. If you've ever heard that term leaky gut, that's where it comes from. The cells start to gap. Same thing that happens up here. So you get larger and larger environmental complexes into your blood. You've never noticed that before. Your immune system says, what the heck is that? Let's get rid of it. So it attacks, and then that's where your symptoms get ramped way up. So, you know, one reframing of the symptom picture that I want to make sure that you understand is your immune system is hypervigilant, which is actually a good thing because it's keeping that out from your system. It's just that the symptoms suck, right? And so we. We want to do something about it. We don't want you needlessly suffering, but we also don't want to just turn off your immune system response because, you know, it's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I don't even know where that saying came from, but seems appropriate, don't you think? So we don't want to just kill your immune system. It's there for a reason, and it is serving you. But we do want to modulate it. So how do we do it? I've got a story about peanut butter cookies for you here. Early on in my career, I treated a woman, and she was 80 pounds overweight and had psoriasis covering her body, Very painful skin lesions all over the body. And over that year program that we put together for her, she lost 80 pounds and her skin cleared up. And, you know, she didn't even have to open her mouth. People would just say, you know, meredith, what are you doing? She said, oh, go see Dr. Eckel. I really, you know, credit me. So, thankfully, humbly, I accept that. But, you know, I treated her whole family. I treated her kids, her husband, her grandmother, and then the great grandmother made it in. I knew, boy, I've got the matriarch of the family here. And, you know, when you're in a provider and you're treating your patients and you're providing a lot of love for them and they start bringing in their loved ones, you know, it's like, near and dear to the heart, like you're doing. Felt like I'm doing a good job. When people bring in their loved ones, they're getting cared for, and that's so. I love that. That's what we do here at Nature Cures. So the matriarch comes in. She says, Dr. Eckel, you're not going to address my diet? Said, all right, I'm not going to address your diet. So I treated her for a month, and after a month, she said, well, when are you giving me the diet diary? Said, well, you told me not to address your diet. Now, the matriarch, she had allergies and asthma. She was on all of the medications. She was still kind of groggy from some of the antihistamines and just not feeling well and still having symptoms, even though she was trying to suppress all of the symptoms and with the meds, still having breakthrough symptoms. So she had. She was a very tough case in conventional world and in integrated medicine, to be honest. So I said, okay. After a month, I said, okay, you're asking me to address your diet. I will, but just, you know, I'm letting you know you asked for this. And she said, okay, but you know what? I'm going to tell you right up front. I will never stop eating peanut butter cookies. They're my favorite cookie and I'm never going to give them up. I said, okay, I will never ask you to give up peanut butter cookies. And we did an elimination diet. That was back in the decade that I was running the elimination diet. And, you know, bless her heart, she did it. And we uncovered. We uncovered a bunch of food sensitivities and allergic responses for her. But so that was in the spring. We got her off of her medications very slow. So I don't. If you're listening, do not stop your medications. Really get under somebody's care. Contact us. You know, let's get you in with a qualified provider and, you know, really do it safely. Right. Because, you know, breathing is important. I recommend. Actually made that recommendation earlier today. Please continue breathing. It's recommended for your health. Yeah, that is my sense of humor. Sorry. So she came in, we got her off of all of her meds and she was doing great all summer long. So, like high pollen counts, not having allergies, no issues with her breathing, not even having to take steroid inhaler. And then the fall rolled around. And then what comes after the fall is we get into holiday season and you know what happens? There are all kinds of potlucks and gatherings and cookies. Right? We love the sweets in the wintertime. And I remember it real so clear. She came in on a Monday morning, it was like, I think after Thanksgiving or right around that time of the year. And she proclaimed to my office staff, I will never eat another peanut butter cookie. And I just thought, what happened? Like, what do you mean you're not going to eat a peanut butter cookie? She said, oh, Dr. Eckel, you know how I love my peanut butter cookies. I do remember that because she really instilled the fear of God in me. Like, do not tell me to not eat peanut butter cookies. So I told her I wouldn't. She said, well, there was a beautiful looking cookie. You know, those are my favorite cookies. I hadn't had one in a long time. I was feeling really good and. And I had it. What happened? She said all of my symptoms came back. She came back. She was on all of the inhalers just suffering again like as if nothing ever happened. She just ate that cookie. Now, you may not be that reactive to peanut butter cookies. That might not be your thing, but let's at least turn the stone over to see what is your proverbial peanut butter cookie, right? If you don't know, at least you can make the choice to have the symptoms. She made the choice to have the peanut butter cookie. But you know, what happens is your symptoms may not be worth it, but you don't know that until you find out. So they may or may not be playing a role in your health. But you got to turn that stone over. It's a biggie. So big that I just spent 30 minutes of my hour long show telling you diet matters for your health and in particular for allergies and asthma. So hopefully you'll remember that peanut butter cookie story because it sure made an impression on me and it really instilled like, man, this is a backbone. Like it doesn't matter what you put on top of that. If somebody's putting in food that is just creating inflammation and immune system response, especially when you're dealing with an immune system issue, which most conditions are. But in particular allergies and asthma, well, heck, we got to look at that one really strongly now, you know, so that is on the testing front, that's one way to go. So food doesn't matter in western medicine unless you have diabetes. Now, thankfully there was just an editorial in JAMA this last month to say, hey, some doc was saying, I encourage all doctors today to get a nutrition background and basis so that we can actually start treating people again rather than just a full on drug approach. 75% of doctor's visits are just drug delivery methods. So you know, if you're looking for a different way of healthcare, which I'm guessing you are, if you made it this far in the show, you know, then let's, by golly, let's address your diet. You know, yes, it can't hurt to know and what you don't know can be hurting you. So you know, let's get that done for you. I want to encourage everybody wanted again remind you you're listening to what the Health. I'm Dr. Greg Eckel. Today's topic is allergies and asthma. You can tune in at Contact Talk Radio online. We're here Tuesdays 2 to 3 every Tuesday. And you can also check out our website, naturecuresclinic.com we're gonna have the RSS feed. You can start the show at the beginning. If you missed the first 30 minutes I encourage you to go back and listen again and or just get it from the beginning. Now what we're talking about, so western approach for treatment here. So what do we have? We have this suppressive component versus root cause medicine. So when we're talking suppression, well what are the big guns? We got steroids that come in and just shut off the immune system response prednisone. And you know I've had to use that. I've gotten Kaiser in Portland metro area. They have their top five allergic response allergy patients and I've got three of them, three of them off of their medications. With the program that I'm going to introduce you today. It's this comprehensive component of looking at treating heart centered beings rather than pieces and parts. But we address underlying root causes and treat whole dynamic beings like go figure. So you got steroids, antihistamines that make you groggy and sleepy. You've got decongestants to kind of thin mucus. And then you got allergy shots, right? So folks will have to go in three to five years for a weekly allergy shot. They're basically desensitizing the immune system. So you know, you go in, get a little bit of the material. It's kind of like modern day homeopathics without the homeopathic part. You get a little, little bit of the stimulant of the met of the basically of the substance that causes you symptoms and it starts to modulate your immune system in theory through time. Now there is an up to date variety of that. Of course it is not FDA approved. I've been using it for about a decade. So before I got into that though I was using diet therapy. Some of either the elimination diet or the sensitivity food sensitivity testing. So lifestyle stuff. I was using acupuncture and Chinese medicine. There's great research on that. Clinical evidence is in, it actually works. You know there's some great points up here called btong, the open up the sinuses. I've got people completely baked in phlegm and they can, they'll leave here breathing again. And then we deal with you know, stress reduction. Stress does lead, can lead to inflammation throughout the body and we really bring in the sanctity of your home. Looking at air purification, water purification, get the bedroom clear. If you have animals in particular Cats. It doesn't mean you have to get rid of those loved loved ones. We, we create a homeopathic remedy to your cat or dog dander. If you're allergic to cats and dogs and then you have allergies, we want to calm down your immune system so we actually do that. Other things, you know, more simple on the root cause component. If you've got environmental allergens and it's to grass and you're out cutting the grass or you're out at the ball game with the kids or whatever that is the good old neti pot, right? You just do nasal lavage. I always feel like I'm drowning when I'm doing that, but I guess I'm not doing it right. But I have patients that swear by it. You know, if I had allergies, I would definitely be doing the neti pot. So, you know, it's basically you wash the pollen out of your nasal cavity so that your body stops reacting to it. Like, that's a simple, that's a simple remedy right there. Neti pots. You can do neti pots. Then the diet that we talked about and then low dose allergens is my kind of the newest thing in the last decade that I put in. And this was one of those therapies. You know, it was kind of like the flavor of the month. I started going to some different conferences and, you know, I used to have seven providers on my payroll here at NatureCures. And it was kind of laughable. You know, it's like send a naturopath or provider out to a conference and man, it's like kids at the candy stores like, hey, check out this new research. Let's use this product and, you know, get these results. Like, look at this great research. So we would bring it into the clinic and run it through 100, 200 patients and not get any results. No clinical result. It's like, well, the evidence in the paper looked really promising, but in the real world, nothing happened. It's like, what in the world? So that's how I kind of dubbed myself, the clinician's clinician. Want to know what actually works in the real world? It's great to have evidence and clinical research, though, that's really important. And it's got to actually get a tangible real world experience, like a result. Like, we've got to get results for people. They tell you in medical school, don't get attached to results, which is hogwash. It's like, you know, no wonder physician suicide is on the rise. It's like Those folks are, they're overworked. The soul and heart is stripped out of medicine. They got no time to spend with people. I mean, it's just the system is broke. I mean, we've gone over that multiple times. But I just, you know, I got to reiterate it and just say I'm so grateful that I get to spend time with my patients. We actually have true understanding and relationship. Our communication is awesome and it's actually in the presence and being together. Like I get to know people and their families and what a blessing. You know, I'm so honored when somebody comes into these walls and you know, these walls don't talk. These walls at Nature cures have heard a lot of stories and there's been a lot of tears, a lot of grief, a lot of joy. You know, you name the gamut of human emotion has been expressed in these walls. And I feel so honored that people feel safe to do that here. You know, and it is a big piece of what's missing in medicine now is that that heart transmission of just being together and listening and, you know, being able to guide people and hold that space. So that's a tangent, but I'm going to come back around here. So, you know, you go out to these conferences and it's like the flavor of the month, right? So I used to send seven providers out and they'd come back with the latest and greatest. Well, I heard one of these, it was called low dose allergen injections. And you know, the first time I heard of it, I was like, this is too good to be true. Like, what are you guys talking about? I'm going to wait until next year and see if you're still doing it. And the next year, lo and behold, they're like, hey doc, have you got, did you put this in yet? Like it's, we're getting amazing results and thought, yeah, let's, let's see, let's see. Next year, three years. Not that I'm slow, but I am cautious. You know, I prescribed a turtle medicine. Slow and steady wins the race. I always leave the door open for spontaneous remissions as well. But on this one, you know, I really, I went and I got trained and man, I am so grateful I got trained on LDA low dose allergen injections. Because one, yeah, there is a funky diet with it. There's three critical days, the day before, the day of, and the day after. But the injections are every two months. You don't have to go in every week for three Years, right? It's six injections a year. And really for resolution of symptoms, it's about 10 to 12 injections. And occasionally you'll need some boosters there. But, you know, the way that I. It's what it is. It's beta glucuronidase, which is the driving agent on homeopathic preparations of environmental and food. There's a couple different blends that we use, depending on what you've got going on and how your immune system needs balance. So I learned it and I brought it in, and I only used it with, like, the 5% of patients that I was not getting results with, with more conservative methods, which was diet therapy, lifestyle stuff, cleaning up the environment, their bedroom, water filters, air filters, kind of debugging their house, so to speak. So diet, environment, and then acupuncture and Chinese herbs. So that was really effective for a majority of people. But what has happened is, so I only put this LDA on the toughest cases that were not getting results with those more conservative methods. And lo and behold, like, wow, we are getting breakthrough after breakthrough, like the toughest cases. I don't know why that was, you know, 10 years ago, plus, and I don't know why I did it that way, but I'm kind of. I'm glad that I did because it really. I pushed that therapy and it worked on my toughest cases. So what has happened is I just keep bringing it up sooner and sooner in the therapeutic regimen or regime or order. It's like, well, how does it work? So it takes. Basically, your immune system has a deck of cards and presenting like, hey, you know this food, you know this food, you know this food, you know this tree, you know this grass, you know this cockroach, right? So it's. It's kind of a memory bank. It beta glucuronidase takes it to your thymus gland underneath the chest, which is the school of your immune system. And it's a re. Education, a relearning for your immune system. And to say, wait a minute, we are way too vigilant out there. These items, we know what they are and they're no threat to us. And so it creates your cup. And I'm using this cup analogy, so I want to talk about that. Your proverbial cup, right? You got genetics that pour water in there. You can't really do much about that. You can change on how they're expressing, but, you know, you're dealt with what you're dealt. And then there's environmental toxicity and Then there's your stress level and then there's your diet and, and your environment and your relationships. And eventually when your cup fill it up, it spilleth over and that's where your symptoms come. So we want to start taking water out of that cup. The lda, what it does is it makes your cup bigger so you can, you can go out to the pub or whatever and have a little bit of a food that may be not so great for your system, but it doesn't sink your ship, right? So it doesn't give you tons of symptoms. It doesn't have your cup fill up over and just run over for days or weeks or months so you don't get into these flares of allergies where, you know, my patients now can live without their inhalers, where I've got their insurance companies calling me saying, hey, why isn't Johnny filling his, you know, inhaler prescription? He's non compliant with his meds. Like, yeah, he's off of his meds. That's why he's non compliant. He doesn't need them anymore. You know, occasionally if the, you know, gets like smoke, particulate matter or you know, how full his cup is, that's, you know, that's really how we gauge it. So that's what I'm talking about. Modulating immune system response, turning it up, turning it down. So the LDA really does help make your proverbial cup bigger. Now that's not the only thing that we do because we put in, you know, that's one component of making your cup bigger. Now if you have a true allergic response to peanuts or bee stings or your celiac, which is on the gluten, is a known toxin. Immune system ramper upper and can make you really extremely sick. It's not going to correct for that. This is really around food sensitivities and making your cup bigger. But it's not going to clear true allergic responses. So I really counsel people to be cautious with that and don't go overboard with their diets. So we put LDA into our treatment programs and it is more modulating. So, you know, we also use the acupuncture. So Chinese medicine really works on blood flow. You know, a lot of focus will be on qi or energy and that, you know, if you're into energy work or you understand energy, great. We don't have a great grasp of it in the west and I will say in the east, they don't have a great grasp of it either. But the energy in the body moves the blood. I focus in on the blood for a couple reasons. One, we can really understand blood flow in the west, right? And the simpleton comment is we like blood in our body, not on the floor. Right? We can all get behind that. Well, why is that important, right? You know, case in point, if I cut the blood flow off to my finger, what would happen to it? Yeah, it would fall off. It would get, you know, maybe a little bit blue, white, blue, purple, black, and then fall off. Right? That's the progression of a tourniquet. Don't do that at home. Don't do that at home. But what. Why is blood flow so the healing properties of the body. Oxygen, vitamins, minerals go in, carbon dioxide waste products come out. All of your hormones travel in the blood. Your whole immune system travels in the blood. So the healing properties of the body travel in the blood. As a medical student, Chinese medicine student, I asked Dr. Long, my pathology professor, in the classic medical textbook called the Wang Dae Nei Jing, they were weighing organs with and without blood. And as a student, I thought, wow, that's really weird. Why are they doing that? So I asked Dr. Long, and he said, look, Greg, you've got cadavers at the end of the hall. They were just doing research. Scales were the way to go back in the ancient times. And so they were doing their research. You've got cadavers. You guys are opening up the body, looking at different organs and on blood flow, nervous system, muscles, bone, tendon, ligament, etc. Okay, that made sense to me. Well, a couple years ago, maybe five or six, somebody reinterpreted the Yuang de ne jing, and they put more emphasis on the character for blood. And the light bulb went off on my head. It's like, oh, that is why they were weighing organs with and without blood. They wanted to know how much blood flow did that organ network control? Very important, right? The healing properties of the body travel in the blood. We get health by informing what's in the blood. Our diet, right, comes back to that. Herbs, Chinese formulas, botanical medicine, homeopathics even work that way. But informing what's in the blood and then circulating the blood. So that's how the acupuncture works. So it's really based off of your pulses. You got three pulses on your right hand, three pulses on the left that represent the different organ networks. We're feeling the width, the depth, the rhythm, and the rate of your pulse for those. And that all gives us information. You know, going out to health fairs, people are always amazed. Like, you Know, I say, okay, don't say anything. It's kind of a parlor trick, but it really does work. You take their pulses and you start asking questions, and it gets eerie quick. And they say, how do you know that about me? I said, well, your pulse doesn't lie, you know, it really is there. You look at The Merck Manual. 1900 was the original Merck manual. And in that, it's a Western compendium of, you know, for diagnosis code. Well, they used to have pulse and tongue diagnosis for all of the different conditions out there. The cynic in me says, well, it's no longer billable, so they dropped it. So now, you know, they'll have, you know, labs, imaging, and then, of course, what drugs do you give for it? But in the earlier text, and I did, there it was, I think in 2000 was the 100. Yeah, that would be 100 years. Good math, Doc. And I got. I got. They reprinted the 1900 volume. So I've got the pulse and tongue description. And they got it, you know, from Europe and from the Europeans, got it from the Chinese. So, you know, it kind of comes full circle that way. We are bringing that back. You know, I've had this study outside of school. One of my teachers, Jimmy Chang, he studied in Taiwan and the hospitals just going ward to ward, taking pulses and really putting it into the Western mindset as Chinese descent. But it really did me a great favor because my in this east meets West Naturally clinic that I've got here, Nature Cures, it really clicked in my brain, like, oh, we can actually put these systems together that way, which is really rad. So that's the acupuncture component. A bit about Chinese herbs and also Western botanicals, because I have made a couple formulations in Western botanicals as well. I like the Chinese herbs. As long as you know your source, right? This old hippie adage of know your source. You want to know where they're coming from. You know, levels of toxicity are very high in China. And so you want to make sure, you know, you've got a reputable source that they've screened for pesticides. There's no heavy metals, you know, there's no molds, et cetera. So you want a very high quality Chinese herb. Not all companies are created equal. We use a very great, vibrant, strong herbal company here at NatureCures. And. And, you know, we prescribe directly to what's going on for somebody's pulse. So it's not, you know, here's the formula for allergies, right In Chinese medicine, we want to go off of your constitution, individualize the treatment plan. Now that said, there are some great things on the kind of the Western botanical lexicon. In addition to, you know, nettle leaf, there's some awesome clinical evidence and research on using freeze dried nettle leaves. Local honey. A lot of patients will comment about using local honey. I haven't had that work clinically in the clinic. However, I've got a lot of patients coming in saying that really does work well for them and you know, they're out pollinating the local plants and so they're, they're kind of creating kind of a bee remedy per se in the honey. As to regards, it's almost a homeopathic honey remedy for your local allergic responses. So it's got to be local honey though. Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine. It's a mast cell stabilizer. So it keeps, you know, kind of what the antihistamines do is it basically stops the mast cell which is an immune system response cell that bursts and then histamine gets released. And you know, that's not even, you know, we're not even talking about histamine sensitivity and mast cell activation syndrome. There's a bunch of these newer diagnoses that I am actually seeing more and more people come in with. And if you're interested in hearing about that, please drop us a line at infonatureaturecuresclinic.com and put in the subject line podcast and whatever topics you want to hear about out there, please. I'm all ears. I got an hour for you every week. I love educating. The root word of doctor is doceri and it's so much fun to share this info. Been helping people for two decades and really just want to get the information out to folks. So in the Western botanical so we got vitamin C as a mast cell stabilizer. So that is definitely one that you want to think about in your own regime. Now again, it' syou don't want to just do green allopathic medicine or green. Instead of this drug, I'm now taking the supplement. So many people do that. They're well researched. They come in with the shotgun, they're taking digestive enzymes and nettle leaf and alpha lipoic acid and bioflavonoids and vitamin C and they line up all of their supplements across the board. Say what do you think of these, Doc? And then I got to research the company, their assays third party assays do is what's in the bottle actually in the bottle and it's like, you know, moving yourself in water. If you can see this, I got my arm straight out on my side and, and you know, trying to move yourself in water that way you're not going to get anywhere. But if you put your arms this way and start swimming forward, that direction is called the Jung, the formula or direction. There's an emperor, empress, a general and assistant. Everybody gets lined up and moves you in a direction. That's how you cut through the crap out here is you get that direction. The Jung of the formula is so important to get it individualized to you rather than, I mean, I know there's a ton of information out there. It's just, you know, what works, what works. You know, all everybody's got their own special remedies. But you really want to find the path that's right for you, filter it through your intuitive self. It's got to feel good for you. But then also get a result. Like it's not too much to ask. I see people, they've been like, I've been on this regime for three years and nothing's happened, Doc. It's like, how in the world did you stick with it that long? Like with not seeing any results, just well wishing and belief. It's like, okay, you got a strong willpower, I can work with that. And we can really get some movement for you. But we want to get movement, we want to show results and that's not too much to ask. If you're not getting results, then you got to try something new. But don't give up too soon either. That's the other piece of that puzzle there. All right, so we covered Chinese herbs, western herbs, so nettles, vitamin C, bioflavonoids. One of my main mentors in Naturopathic School, Dr. Bill Mitchell, he's passed and he was co founder of Bastyr. He talked about bioflavonoids with such a sparkle in his eye. And he thought, and he may be correct, that that molecule will save humanity. You know, bioflavonoids. So it's in your berries, your blueberry, your BlackBerry, your strawberry, your raspberry. All of these colorful berries are packed full of bioflavonoids and their immune system modulators. They come in there, they're an ancient, ancient molecule on the planet and very potent medicine. And you look at it, I mean, again, I don't want to toot the northwest horn, but we have some amazing berries. We're in berry season right now. It is just bioflavonoid central Right now out here, you can see it in my eyes. Really? No, actually, so on, you know, on that front, bioflavonoids have always been in my formulations for allergy and asthma sufferers to help have the immune system really modulate itself there. You know, those are the big hitters. When we look at the different supplements, those are the biggies. I mean there are a lot of nuances. Of course, you know, all of the research coming out around the microbiome and helping the gut healing. You know, when we talk about 90, 90% of the immune system surrounds the gut or the epithelial lining, the Gault, the gut associated lymphoid tissue. Well, you know, if you've had a history of allergy, of antibiotic use and or immunocompromised individual, you've wiped out the immune, your microbiome, all of the kind of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that inhabit the gut. Well, why is that an issue? So, you know, it's kind of gross, but there's about four to nine pounds of aerobic and anaerobic bacterium in the gut. So it's a whole ecosystem in and of itself. And it basically actually isn't in your body yet. Right. You've got that lumen, the tube that goes through from your mouth to your anus. So if it doesn't ever absorb through the lining, it's actually not in you. Right. It has passed through you. I guess technically it's in you if it's in your body. But you get my point. It's not in your bloodstream, it hasn't been assimilated or really truly brought into the integrity of your vessel. So of course we want to address what's in there. A lot of detoxes, cleanses, really focus in on colonics. And these things are in the intestinal lining and the lumen. There's a component of that in that once it's at that point it's not in your body. Right. So to detox or cleanse that area of the body, I don't really, I don't attest to that. All of you know, when I talk about detox and cleansing with my patients, everybody thinks, man, am I going to just be on the toilet all day like having explosive diarrhea? No, you won't be because we're not going to do a colon cleanse. Right. I like to cleanse the liver upstream. And this will be a topic for future. Actually, I'm going to write that one down. We're going to talk detox and Liver coming up here. So that, yeah, that's a really good one to talk about, actually. So, you know, we really do focus in on the liver, opening that up and what gets filtered in the liver, the blood. So there's another tie in to why I love that aspect of Chinese medicine. Acupuncture, herbs, diet therapy. We're informing what's in the blood. It gets then filtered in your liver, right? So you think of any other filter in your life, if you don't change breaks, right? Or it gets congested, that's your liver. So we're going to spend a whole hour talking on that. That's a fun topic, actually. Especially after the dismal kind of global climate crisis that I was talking about a few episodes ago. This is one of those things that you can be very proactive with your health. And I do recommend I do about two or three detox cleanses a year. And most of my patients are doing minimum one, preferably two, ideally three a year. So we'll talk about why in upcoming episodes. So the detox, that's a piece of it. You know, you got to get that cleaned up to help modulate your blood and bloodstream and blood flow. So I just want to recap here because this was a big topic on allergies and asthma. You got the suppressive western approach or you got root cause, integrative approach. You know, you're an adult, you get to decide what you want to do. Occasionally the suppressive agent, you know, your breathing is that important. We want you to keep breathing. So don't stop. Sometimes you got to go the suppressive nature until you get the groundwork and the foundational work covered over here. So, you know, a lot of times people get frustrated with me. I remember I had an allergy sufferer, I kept her on her medications for a year, but after 18 months, we got her off of all of her drugs and really got her health back. But she was furious with me. I was like, look, if we took you off too soon, you're going to crash your breathing. Is that important? I want you to stay on the planet. You got a lot of work to do here. So, you know, slow and steady wins the race. Don't go into this willy nilly. Don't stop your medications if you need to be on them. Get with somebody that can guide you through this process and really support you back to Wellville. All right? So please do that for me. And so then you've got the suppressive component, which we've gone over, and then more the nutritive. We want to uncover underlying root imbalances. Food, again, is your best medicine, even if you're just reacting to environmental stuff. And then, you know, we get your blood moving, we bring back your innate healing ability, and then you get back to Wellville. So that's a pretty picture, isn't it? And it actually can happen. So, you know, give us a call again. This is what the Health I'm Dr. Greg Eckel here on the what the Health podcast. We're covering all facets of your health. If you like the show, please subscribe. Share us with your neighbors, your loved ones, your community. We want to be out there and please use us as a resource. I got into medicine to be in service to you, so please ask me whatever you need to about your health. I'm out here for you and I truly mean that. I want you to tune in. We're here on Tuesdays from 2 to 3, so come back next week. Definitely subscribe to our channel. Get on Contact Talk radio. Check out my website, naturecuresclinic.com it sure has been a pleasure this hour. I hope you got something out of it and I really look forward to seeing you next week. It.