IMMUNOLOGY TODAY: April 2016

To stop and heal from any severe or chronic disease requires the addressing of the underlying issues of stress, infection, toxin or nutritional deficiency to create a movement towards health. Using a variety of immuno-active agents, nutritional supplements and detoxifiers we endeavor to reconstitute the immune system to re-engage in the healing process of any Disease- let it be immune deficiency, auto-immune diseases, allergies, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or immune dysfunctions such as cancer.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Neurotoxins- Silent Poisons from our Environment

A neurotoxin is a substance that is ingested, or inhaled or taken into our body by direct contact that has an adverse effect on our central nervous system, manifesting either indirect neurological symptoms of trouble with memory, focus, concentration, coordination. It can also affect us emotionally in terms of irritability, depression and things of that nature. Such toxins are often undetected until symptoms (like chronic fatigue and frequent headaches) begin to show

-leading to other effects on the body that may prove difficult to diagnose.

Neurotoxins can come from many places in our in-home environment, and they can come from outgassing from furniture that's made from compressed wood, formaldehyde that's outgassing from that, and from volatile organic hydrocarbons from carpeting and rugs that have that new-carpet smell. And also we can get neurotoxins that are emitted by various kinds of molds that you could find in the bathroom, black molds and things of that sort. And these neurotoxins, depending upon the individual's biochemistry, will have different levels of toxicity, so at some level, everybody will be affected by a neurotoxin, but the dose is going to be different for different people, depending upon their individual biochemistry; some people are exquisitely sensitive and can smell mold three rooms away, other people can either piece a moldy bread and look for some blue cheese for dessert.

Everybody has a different susceptibility to neurotoxins- but those who are affected may suffer symptoms that could be prove quite debilitating. To address neurotoxins, we must first review the patient's environment. If you happened to live on the sea shore and there happens to be a red tide, that's the Dinoflagellate that releases a neurotoxin. It kills the fish, but also as the ocean waves are crashing upon the rocks, the toxins disperse into the atmosphere and people can breathe the toxins and can make them very sick. There's many well-documented cases about people getting very sick from exposure to these kinds of neurotoxins that can occur naturally and just the ocean water around us.

ANALYSIS OF NEUROTOXIN EFFECTS
I see many patients with strange neurological symptoms, and the first thing to assess is whether this a structural problem or a functional problem? By a structural problem, we mean "is there a tumor? Is there an MS plaque? Is there something structurally that's chewing on their nervous system creating weird symptoms?" Otherwise, one has to (then) look at the possibility of neurotoxin exposure. Now the problem with that is that the blood test that exists currently, are very bad for trying to isolate these things and document exposure to these neurotoxins as causing these symptoms. There are blood tests for these things, but the exposure that someone has to have in order for it to show up in a blood test is pretty big, so if somebody is very sensitive, as a lot of people are, then they're going be having symptoms at levels below which our current technology can detect. So as a result, these poor folks are going to go, basically, from doctor to doctor to psychiatrist to whatever; whereas people are going to think they're crazy because they're having symptoms from exposure to something that can't be measured with our current technology, but is nonetheless a physical reality.

So to address these neurotoxins, you have to see where it's coming from; was it coming from outside the house? Do you live in the seashore? Do you live in a white house? Is it some place where you might be breathing in something from the ocean? Or is it coming from inside the house? Is it coming from your exposure to volatile organic hydrocarbons from outgassing? Did you buy some new furniture? Did you get some new carpeting? Do you have new insulation put in the house? There was a period of time that they had UFFI insulation, which they removed from the market because the outgassing from that was so toxic, but there're still a lot of houses that have UFFI, and if you are doing renovations on a house that happen to open up a wall that's got this stuff in it, you can release potentially a lot of this toxic stuff into the air, and whether you're particularly sensitive or not it can make you really sick.

So the first thing to do is to try to identify the source and avoid it; so if it's new carpeting, then open all the windows and go take a long vacation someplace and come back when the house is aired out. The other alternative is to get yourself a nice wool berber rug or carpeting, then you don't have to worry about outgassing of anything right from the start, or just have hardwood floors that are made out of real wood and not laminate, so these are things that one can consider.

DETOX SOLUTIONS
Other things that one can do are to take things that are going to help detoxify us from the inside out. So, just as there are red organisms in the ocean that can make us sick with these neurotoxins, there are green organisms in the form of chlorella or spirulina that can make us well, and these green organisms, these microbes, because of the levels of chlorophyll in them and how biologically available and accessible they are, can absorb these toxins and help our body to excrete them, and can help tremendously in reversing and undoing a lot of this problem. Now the neurotoxin exposure will cause a functional problem with our central nervous system causing the misfiring of neurons and cell receptor sites resulting in weird and variable symptoms.

First, you want to pull the toxins out of the system by doing some gentle detoxing, (spirulina and chlorella are good gentle treatments), but then as a matter of repairing the damage that may have been done, and that's a matter of taking amino acids that support the production of neurotransmitters in our brain, things like tyrosine and 5-Hydroxytryptophan and the amino acids that support and the trace minerals that support that, and the vitamins that support them, but it becomes a whole complex of things that help to rebuild the capacity of our central nervous system to produce appropriate levels of neurotransmitters to then reconnect things where they should be and reverse the symptoms of damage that the neurotoxins can cause.

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DR. JESSE A. STOFF is an internationally renowned physician with extensive credentials in clinical immunology and holistic medicine. A graduate of New York Medical College, he pursued extensive post-doctoral training including a fellow- ship at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in London, England. He has authored/co-authored countless articles and 8 books including co-authoring the bestseller "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic" and The Prostate Miracle.

This article is produced and written by the writing team at IMMUNOLOGY TODAY- The Official Newsletter of Integrative Medicine of N.Y. of Westbury NY-- Edited and co-published by Dr. Jesse A. Stoff exclusively for the purposes of this blogpost (Immunology Today) and rejuvenatesoliutions.com The publisher(s) hold all rights (c) to all elements, images and content herein. All distribution, sharing or re-posting of this article is only with the express permission from Dr. Stoff and Integrative Medicine of NY (formerly Linchitz Medical Wellness). 265 Post Ave. Suite 380 Westbury, NY 11590 | 516.759.4200 | www.StoffImmunology.com. Rejuvenate! is a registered trademark of Intermedia Communications Ltd. All written content in this newsletter is produced by the Stoff Institute for Medical Research (SIMR) exclusively for private distribution at the Integrative Medicine of NY ©2016- All Rights Reserved.

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Thursday, April 7, 2016

The North-American Prevention Protocol of VITAMIN D

Vitamin D is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin because our body can actually manufacture vitamin D. It's a fat-soluble vitamin, and it's metabolized in our body from various fat-soluble steroid complexes, as they're referred to. And vitamin D is then metabolized in the skin and split from some of these molecules into the active form of vitamin D- which then has a wide range of effects on basically every single cell in our body. Vitamin D isn't just about having strong bones and strong teeth; vitamin D also has some really wonderful effects from a preventative medical point of view.

Long Island, unfortunately, has been classified as a geographic cluster for various chronic diseases including Cancer. Interestingly enough, there are toxins that are known to trigger certain enzyme systems in our liver called cytochrome P450 system, a system that then can split some of the toxins that we find in our environment and certain forms of xenoestrogens, or estrogens that we take in from contaminated food and water sources, which unfortunately abound. These xenoestrogens are actually carcinogenic, and the pathways of how these things trigger breast cancer as an initiating factor is well known. It's also well known that vitamin D will block that process.

Vitamin D also has some very excellent effects in a similar sort of vein, but different biochemistry of helping to minimize the risk of prostate cancer, and minimizing the effects and growth rate of prostate cancer. Moreover, Vitamin D is critical for the normal functioning of our immune system to help prevent all sorts of severe and chronic diseases.

EFFICACY OF THE SUPPLEMENT FORM
Vitamin D is something that we can get very simply from a tablet that we could find in literally any drugstore or health food store. The reason that one should look to supplement their vitamin D is because we live in a somewhat northern climate, and as such, we have less sun exposure over the 12 months than somebody who, say, lives down in Tucson, Florida, or down in the Amazon or some place where they have much more vitamin D exposure in the course of a year than we do.

So as a result, if one were to look at our average vitamin D levels for the year, you would find that if you do not supplement or you're not eating a good supply of fresh wild-caught fish that can give you some vitamin D, too, then you're gonna wind up on average being deficient in vitamin D and this is a very important vitamin to help minimize our risk of severe and chronic disease, and also from the point of view of our longevity and preventive medicine, vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients that we have in our armamentarium to help us to 'live long and to prosper'.

So, when in doubt take some vitamin D, but another point here is that some people don't metabolize vitamin D as efficiently as they should, and if they take too much vitamin D it can become an excessive and even toxic level of the vitamin because now it's not being converted on a as-needed basis by our body. But when you're taking it from a pill, it is possible to overload on it, so it is important to do a blood test every now and then and see what your vitamin D level is and what your reserves are and what your metabolic rate is so that you can take it in an appropriate level. What I find with most of my patients is that 5,000 units a day is an appropriate level for an adult. But I have patients that are taking 15,000 or 20,000 units a day and barely maintaining a normal vitamin D level because their body's burning it so fast, neither preventing an illness or in combating an illness, but vitamin D can be burned very quickly, so you have to really watch that level.

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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

MIGRAINES- A PHYSICIAN'S PERSPECTIVE

Migraines are a form of debilitating headaches that often begins as an aura. An aura is an early warning that something bad is going on- and the aura is different for different people. So some people have an aura where they'll smell something weird. They'll be in their car, in their home and start smelling cigarette smoke, and they don't smoke and nobody around them smokes. Or they may see some flashing lights or they may get a strange numbness feeling someplace. But there's some sort of neurological symptom that occurs prior to the onset of the migraine, and that's an early warning. And if they get that and they know from past experience that a migraine's about to hit them, they should do some things to try to prevent that migraine if they can.

When I used to work in the emergency room, one of the best treatments for people with vice-like migraines (the kind where a person was light-sensitive and sound-sensitive and they couldn't move because every little movement would cause excruciating pain) was to put them in a dark room and you put them on pure oxygen. You give them five or seven liters a minute of oxygen and you'd just flood their system with oxygen. Because the oxygen level of the blood becomes so high, it actually causes a bit of a reactive constriction-- because they're not exercising, their body isn't really using all that oxygen, so the blood vessels will constrict a little bit. And in doing so, it will help break the vascular cycle that they get into that triggers the migraine to begin with.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR MIGRAINES
There are drugs, of course, that could be helpful. There's over-the-counter things that are helpful too such as caffeine. Caffeine is often helpful in the very early stages of a migraine for the same reason, in that it breaks the vascular cycle that's going on, that is part of what's causing the migraine. But there are supplements that can be helpful too, such as magnesium. Magnesium can be very helpful for people with migraines, both as a preventive and a treatment. Now, one of the most common triggers for a migraine (and there are many) are structural, such as an old injury to the neck and putting pressure on nerves can actually trigger a cluster headache or a migraine.

Another solution is an herb called Feverfew which can both be used for a preventative and a treatment for migraine headaches. It works much better as a preventative because if you're already photophobic and throwing up in a corner, it's a little late to be swallowing pills of Feverfew, you might be looking for some pharmacology instead.

Sometimes over-the-counter things like evening primrose oil could be helpful. And there's various herbs, black cohosh for example, that could be helpful in some of these hormonally-triggered headaches.

CAUSES
A sudden change in blood sugar can often trigger a migraine. I've treated over the years who were chronic migraine sufferers and the simple cure, if you will, to their years and years of suffering from migraines was to throw out the doughnut and coffee for breakfast and eat a vegetable omelet instead, because protein stabilizes blood sugar levels. If you switch to a diet that starts the day with protein and have more animal protein in the course of the day, it's going to give you a much more stable blood sugar level and be much less likely to trigger a migraine event. And then, of course, I would tell them that you don't want to tempt fate, you want to keep the sugars as low as you can in your diet, get rid of as much as the processed sugar as possible, and try to keep the blood sugar as stable as you can.

Hormonal changes can trigger migraines too. There are many women who will get a migraine during PMS time, for example, because of the change in hormones, and there's ways to address that. But the bottom line is that migraines can be a very debilitating sort of symptom and there are people who may spend several days of the month literally debilitated in bed because of a severe migraine. But there's a lot of things that could be done to look into the triggers for their particular migraine and therefore do things to help prevent it. It's not just about pharmacology, it's about looking into patterns of keeping a diary, when do you get your migraine?

If you're a woman, is it in relationship to your cycle? Is it mid-cycle? Is it during PMS time? Is it the end of the period? What's going on? And then look at the hormonal levels at that time and see what's out of whack and do things to correct it. Because, for example, there's over-the-counter progesterone creams you could buy at any health food store that can often be helpful for a migraine headache if this was triggered by a hormonal imbalance. Switching to a high-protein diet is very, very excellent and getting into a regular pattern of exercise that increases the oxygen levels in your blood on a regular basis is also very good and can also help you to minimize migraines. And taking a supplement like CoQ10 which increases the oxygen retention in the blood can also be very good in helping to minimize migraine headaches.

Migraines don't have to be a debilitating part of one's life if one starts to go after them in a systematic sort of way. What triggers it? What is the pattern? what time of day did they tend to occur? Over a period of time, you look for these kinds of patterns and then look for a common denominator so that you can find ways to break that cycle. But in most cases, people can have a tremendous amount of relief, if not complete a "cure" from their migraine headaches by taking a systematic approach to it in the ways I've just said.

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