Your Doctor Said What?

by Glen Depke

While I do not bash conventional medicine because there is a time and a place, I have to share that I am often shocked at what I hear conventional physicians will share with my clients.

I will share many interesting stories of doom and gloom from a conventional medical approach that ended up in a much easier and healthier path from a natural perspective.

The first two stories are from myself and my wife. 

When I was 17, I had my first grand mal seizure and continued to suffer with these until I was about 28. Early in this time I was diagnosed as an epileptic and put on anti seizure medications and was told that I would be on these the rest of my life to help in controlling the seizures. The joke to me was that I still had seizures even when medicated. Thankfully this was the beginning of my journey toward health and wellness. To make the long story short, I addressed my health naturally, removed the toxic metals in my mouth and my body and have been seizure free for 20 years. All this without the need for the harmful medications that honestly, did not seem to help anyway.

Now for my wife's story as told by her. 

Since endometriosis is incurable, according to Western medicine, my surgeon, the best in Milwaukee, told me in 2004 that I would have to have surgery every 2 years and she gave me a 50/50 chance on getting pregnant. She told me to get pregnant right away, that I was the most fertile after a laporoscopy. That is when they “remove” the scar tissue created by the endometrial lining that escapes from inside the uterus and attaches to other internal organs such as the bladder, bowels, intestines, ovaries, and uterus, creating infertility and painful menstruation. Mine was everywhere; I had an extremely bad case of endometriosis.  

The moment those words came out of her mouth, I was devastated.  I did not want to have surgery ever again, let alone every 2 years until menopause!  Plus I have always wanted to be a mom, and the thought of never having kids was unbelievable.  After a few weeks of grieving her words, I cried asking myself, “How did I make myself so sick?”  And then I promised myself that I would do whatever it takes to heal, no matter what it was, as long as it didn’t involve surgery or pharmaceutical drugs.  I think that was a pivotal moment for me.  The moment I asked myself how I made myself so sick. I have no idea why or where that thought came from. It was before any “self-help” or transformation work that I have done.  But taking responsibility means that I could do something about it, that I was in control.  Not those scary words from my surgeon.  

I soon after met a woman who introduced me to Young Living essential oils that made a huge difference within one month of my cycle, and then I met the head of the endometriosis society in Milwaukee, who said they were linking it to auto-immunity.  A few months later I was blessed to meet Glen Depke, my amazing husband who helped me completely change my diet and release the heavy emotions of past circumstances of my life.  I have never had surgery again, I am about 90% symptom free and have a deep understanding and attunement with my inner body.  The body has an amazing ability to heal, we have to give the body what it needs, and eliminate all that weakens it.

A recent client:

A client of mine came in a few weeks ago and mentioned that her doctor has her on a proton pump inhibitor medication. This is used to significantly reduce the amount of stomach acid produced. This was confusing to me because it was very clear to us that she was not producing enough and this is so important for the breakdown of protein as well as absorbing minerals and B vitamins. Well the reason she was told to take the medication is because they looked within her stomach and found red open sores that they wanted to heal.  

So what the heck was the thought? 

Low stomach acid creates open sores in the gut? I don't think so. How about addressing the daily aspirin that this person is on (per her medical advice) to keep the blood thin while also creating regular and daily damage to her intestinal lining. You know, the red open sores. Maybe instead it would make more sense to take something natural to maintain the blood viscosity that does not damage the gut lining and use simple gut restorative supplements to rebuild a healthy gut lining? 

Another client:

She mentioned developing a goiter and was put on a thyroid medication called synthyroid. Her thyroid levels in her blood were normal but the goiter was unchanged. She was also riddled with symptoms of extreme emotional response and the fear of you will not have more children from the use of the medication. In the end, she stopped the synthyroid and  the goiter went away during a whole health focus for this particular woman.

Another woman:

This woman was tested with a cholesterol level of 279 and told to go on a drug for rest of life because it is genetic. She instead chose to focus on her health and wellness by eating healthier and exercising. Low and behold, this lowered it to 185. What irked this client more than anything is that her doctor had absolutely zero response to what she was able to accomplish.

The young child:

Here we have a child allergic to eggs that was given a MMR shot (egg base). The doctor said it was OK, but it pushed this child into a high fever, cough and rash. The mother called doctor and he said to NOT bring him in and noted the file (without seeing him) that he had Fifth disease. This eventually lead to physical and speech developmental delay and bowels were a "soupy mess." Interestingly enough, the doctor said this was normal for this child. Well in the end, this mother brought her child to a master herbalist who provided natural treatment leading to normal physical and speech development. Oh and of course, healthy bowel movements.

A teenager:

Here's a story of a 15 year old that was brought to a doctor because she was having pain in her left knee and hip when she would run. She was referred to an osteopath where they took an x-ray but didn't see anything. His advice was to try some exercises before she would participate in any activities and if that didn't work, he would give her a cortisone shot. The mother questioned this and took it upon herself to get another opinion. This time they took the x-ray to a chiropractor and saw in the very same x-ray a bit of a twist in her spine. After a few adjustments she was able to run with no problems. No exercises, no cortisone!

Well, the stories are endless here and remember, I am not saying you should not go to your doctor when needed. Just remember, doctors are people too. They make mistakes at times just as I do and you do. They are also trained in one way, which is to address your symptoms, not the cause of the symptoms.

The next time you are asked to do something against what you feel is right, ask yourself, "What did my doctor say?"

Heck, that goes for me too!

If you have any comments or questions in regard to this article, please leave them below for me to address personally.

Why are YOU Bloated?

by Glen Depke

Time after time I have clients walk into Depke Wellness complaining of constant bloating. These clients are often so frustrated because they have been doing everything they know of to address this, yet every morning they are welcomed by the larger than expected and discomfort of the bloated stomach.

Let's get to the underlying challenges of bloating and more importantly, what you can do about this.

Understand that the main challenges for bloating are stress, nutrition and infections. Notice I did not say digestion here. That is left out because I do not look at poor digestion as the cause, but the middle factor between one of the main challenges and the bloating itself.

We'll look at stress first.

What does stress have to do with bloating? Well, how about everything. When you in a stress response, whether this be acute, chronic or suppressed, the flow of blood that would normally be provided to your digestive tract is redirected away from your gut. When this response is engaged, which is far too often chronic for most, this occurs:

• Moves blood away from internal organs and the gut to redirect to your muscular system
• Your heart rate significantly rises
• All your senses become more acute
• Your adrenal hormone production is off the charts
• Your pancreas is releasing glucogon which is then loading your blood with sugar

This response is awesome if you had to truly fight or flee from a dangerous situation but this response is completely horrific for digestion. Think about it, if you were in a serious life or death situation, how important is digestion at that point. If you said, not so, you are right on.

This stress response will then lead to challenges with digestion and the eventual challenges with the chronic bloat.

To check the reactions of stress on your body and your gut, follow this link for your complimentary adrenal assessment.

The nutritional perspective is also a huge challenge.

Nutritionally speaking many individuals are consuming foods that they are intolerant to. Foods such as gluten, sugar, alcohol and many foods that are cross reactive to gluten. Foods such as coffee, rice, potato, dairy, soy and other non-gluten grains.

The challenge that arises when you consume foods that you are intolerant to is the creation of inflammation. When this inflammation becomes chronic this leads to challenges with immunity, brain function, liver dysfunction, adrenal function and you guessed it, chronic bloating.

It used to be that gluten, dairy and soy were the bigger challenges with this, but now that gluten is so much more damaging due to big business, this is leading to cross reactions. A cross reaction is when your body and immune system starts to react to other proteins in your body that are similar to gluten. So often my clients will be eating the very foods that are leading to their challenges and the chronic bloat without any true recognition.

Assess your likelihood of gluten intolerance at no cost right here.

If gluten is an issue, I would suggest getting off this right now, not soon, not go gluten lite, get off this right now! As discussed with one of my colleagues today, Dr Brad Miller, I mentioned the gluten is literally killing people. I would also suggest that you use a cross reactive food test to see if this has progressed into further intolerance for you.

Now infection.

This is all too often an overlooked challenge for so many. I would share that approximately 70% of my client base is living with some sort of gut pathogen or infection. This could be any one of the following and more:

• Parasites
• Protozoa
• H-Pylori
• Amoeba
• E-Histolytica
• Pathogenetic bacteria

If you are living with any of these "critters" as I call them, this is not only leading to the chronic bloat but also many other disorders within your body.

If suspected, I would always recommend a 4 day stool collection kit to understand what you are dealing with and address accordingly by providing your body with the necessary tools to eradicate the invaders.

Please understand that any or all of these underlying challenges will create issues with chronic inflammation, digestive disturbances and leave you with a chronic bloat that will likely frustrate you to no end.

If you do not feel that stress, infection or nutrition is the issue for you, you may find some relief in the utilization of a high quality pre/probiotic formula and a digestive enzyme, such as the Prime Digestive Support. This along with chewing your food well can potentially go a long way in improving the bloat.

If you have any comments or questions in regard to this article, please post this below for me to address personally.

Heart Disease...Winning or Losing?

by Glen Depke

Heart disease was such a focus for so long but isn't it funny that we rarely here of this anymore? 

Is this because we are winning or losing?

Let's find out.

Here is the American Heart Association year-end report:

Statistics Highlights:
 
Although death rates from heart disease and stroke continue to fall, risk factors and the financial and societal burdens of the diseases remain high, according to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2011 Update.

The estimated total cost (including heath expenditures and lost productivity) from heart disease and stroke in the United States is higher than that for any other diagnostic group.

This year’s report includes tracking of the role genetics play in heart disease risk and notes that if your parent had a heart attack at an early age, your risk of having one is nearly double for men and 70 percent for women. (I would share that the most significant factor is "learned" behavoir)

America is winning a battle against heart disease and stroke mortality, but is still losing the war, according to the American Heart Association.

In Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2011, published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, the association reports that the death rate from heart diseases declined 27.8 percent from 1997 to 2007 (the most recent final data available), and the stroke death rate fell 44.8 percent.

However, during the same period, the total number of inpatient cardiovascular operations and procedures increased 27 percent. The estimated total cost from heart disease and stroke in the United States for 2007 (including health expenditures and lost productivity) was $286 billion. That’s higher than any other diagnostic group.

For more info visit http://networking.americanheart.org/blogs/6/114. 

With this information, we can see that as a whole we are getting better at recognizing heart disease earlier and using medical intervention to lower the death rate, but we are still missing the boat on how to prevent this.

Don't be a statistic and depend on medical intervention. Be proactive and address your health at a core level. Save some money and more importantly, save your health and happiness.

Here are some simple tips to be proactive in warding off cardiovascular disease at a core level. Eliminate or significantly reduce these free radicals or the substances that create free radical activity:

• Smoking
• Heated or rancid vegetable based oils
• Toxic chemicals
• Chemical additives
• Radiation exposure through X-rays, ect...
• Microwaving in plastic
• Use of plastics with food
• Chlorinated water
• Sugar

I also want to mention the importance of staying regular with your bowel movements and also define that regular means two healthy bowel movements per day. This is a factor for heart disease because putrefied bacteria in your gastrointestinal system can combine with bile acids to form a very powerful free radical. The longer it takes to move your colon, the more free radical is formed.

It is important to share that individuals do not suffer from heart disease because they eat too much cholesterol containing foods. Simply put, when you have damage to the arterial walls, cholesterol (plaque) is used to repair this damage. 

What causes the damage? 

Free radical activity.

If your not exercising, why not?

While exercise does not prevent or remove plaque, this does effectively enlarge your arteries so it takes more plaque to create a blockage.

Stress and adrenals?

Mental/emotional stress and the effect this has on your adrenal function plays a huge role in heart disease. Finding healthy ways to reduce your reaction to stress is a significant factor. This may be exercise, yoga, deep breathing practices, prayer, and/or any other practice that allows you to release in a healthy way. 

Notice I do not say, take away your stress. While this would be awesome, it is not real to many of us. I'll share though, that finding a healthy way to release is the key.

It is also a good idea to assess your adrenal function. I have reviewed more than 3,800 of these tests in my career and have only seen 4 come back healthy originally. 

There are also some key nutrients that you can use as a way to ward off heart disease. 

• Antioxidants such as vitamin E or C to address free radical activity
• Niacin as one of the best known blood fat lowering agents
• Vitamin B6, B12 and Folic Acid to lower homocysteine
• Calcium, magnesium and potassium as essential minerals for a healthy heart
• CoQ10 which is the coenzyme that enables the mitochondria which is the driving force behind every cell in your body but especially your heart
• Omega 3 fatty acids

While there are other nutrients and supplements that could be used, I wanted to provide the basics. 

So recognize that we truly are not winning the war on heart disease, but you do not have to be one of the statistics.

If you have any comments or questions about this article, please post this below for me to address personally.

Are Your Hormone Creams Hurting You?

by Glen Depke

So, are your hormone creams hurting or helping you? 

You may be surprised by my answer.

Far too often I see clients in my office that have been put on hormone creams only to find themselves toxic in those very hormones or at times, creating other more problematic hormone imbalances.

Today I will share the more common challenges as seen at Depke Wellness.

The two most significant challenge recognized with testing with my clients is women toxic in progesterone and men toxic in estrogen hormones. Now in fairness I will share the many or most of these women had been tested in the past by another practitioner and recognized a progesterone deficiency. I commend these practitioners for searching for the hormonal challenges but the recommendations often provided provide many more challenges than offering positive support. 

Let's discuss the women first.

When a women is recognized as progesterone deficient, the most obvious response is to put this woman on a progesterone cream. Right?

While this is often the recommendation, this most often leads to a toxic build up of progesterone over time. Understand that the hormone creams tend to build up in the fat tissue, especially with those that are over weight. With this build up, the liver is put under extreme stress and a chronically overburdened liver causes it to become congested. This in itself is yet another stress to your body and further hormonal imbalance. As a side note, if the liver is sluggish and cannot process hormones properly, they are released into the blood stream in an even more toxic form than when they actually entered the liver.

I have often seen the results of women that have been on progesterone creams showing significantly high or toxic levels of progesterone. As an example, a woman that may be looking for a healthy level of progesterone between 50 and 400 will show up in the 2500 or more far too often.

On the male side, I see men with high estrogen levels on a regular basis and you will be surprised as to why. Men will have their hormones tested and often find low testosterone levels. The typical recommendation with this is to put this man on a testosterone cream. Not only are we looking at the same potential challenge as listed above but there is one more scary challenge occurring that is most often overlooked. Many men are low in testosterone because they are overproducing an enzyme that is converting testosterone into estrogen. Due to this, when you look at testosterone it will be low. The challenge here though is that by giving this man more testosterone, he will still be converting this to even more estrogen type hormones. 

Yikes!

I had a gentleman in my office recently that I have had a long term comfortable client/practitioner relationship with and we joked that he is becoming a woman. 

But it really was no joke.

He was actually gaining weight in areas that are not normal for a man (breast tissue) and he even shared that is has become much more emotional than ever before.

So you may have guessed this already but we do not recommend hormone creams at Depke Wellness.

To be up front, we do not even focus on "end result" hormones such as estrogen hormones, progesterone, and/or testosterone. We focus on the core of the hormonal challenges as the are represented in your adrenal function. The focus is on the proper lifestyle recommendations, proper B vitamin support (vitamin B5/pantothenic acid) and sublingual baseline hormones only long enough to assist you body in finding its balance. Once your body finds its balance you are off the protocol and often able to enjoy proper hormone balance based on your own normal bodily function.

At Depke Wellness we recommend assessing your hormones with a comprehensive adrenal test kit to understand the full array of hormones that may be challenged for you. This looks at the full array of adrenal hormones along with progesterone, estrogen hormones, testosterone, progesterone and even melatonin. This is not used to diagnose but simply as  way to assess your current function, so we can make the necessary recommendations to allow your body to balance itself.

You can also use this simple yet accurate complimentary assessment to understand your likelihood of living with an adrenal hormone challenge. If this shows a challenge for you, testing is definitely recommended.

If you have any comments or questions in regard to this article, please post this below and I will address this personally.