I try to keep up on the literature, but I find that I only read those things that seem interesting to me and my work with nutrition. In the last year I have noted that special groups have sprung up who need to blame one thing for the problems of the world, or at least their own sickness or depression. I get phone calls from people all over the country who ask me to let the world know that if we could just control lead, pesticides, mercury-amalgam fillings, aspartame, the cost of medicines, far-right religious zealots, population explosion, DPT immunization shots, and dogs pooping on the front lawn, the world would be free of crime, we would all have jobs, and we would not be sick.
Now that we know that the body and the mind are connected, we should pay more attention to the relationships between those two parts of us. I would have to believe that our ancient ancestors, living as hunters and gatherers, had plenty of stress, but they did live long enough to procreate. How did they handle stress? Or was it such an all-pervasive part of their lives they just assumed that the adrenaline rushes they had were normal. I would like to blame impoverished soils, processed foods, and lack of exercise as the chief problem of our century.
If we could live in an unpolluted environment, we might be able to handle the germs, viruses, and unwholesome foods we are usually forced to eat. Those mercury-amalgam fillings that seem to be responsible for the truncated immune systems of the bearers of that metal have been around for 150 years. Why are they now related to all this trouble and "causing" multiple sclerosis, arthritis, chronic fatigue, and malaise.
Each decade that I have been observing the human scene seems to bring more evidence that some of our best foods (milk, wheat, corn, eggs, nuts, seafood, and soy) are causing sensitization reactions which force many of us to refrain from their ingestion. But we need those foods to help strengthen our immune systems so that we can withstand modern living. Farmers, in general, put potash nitrates, and phosphates on the top soil to produce their crops. But then, how are we to get the calcium, magnesium, boron, selenium, iodine, and the other trace minerals that we all need to keep our gears turning?
The health care professionals have to stop everything in their patients' environment to get a baseline evaluation. If you do an adjustment and it works only temporarily, do you keep on doing it until radon is discovered in the basement, or they stop smoking, or their mother-in-law dies? We need to be like canaries in the coal mine. If we suspect our time-honored therapies are not working, we must step back and figure out what we are doing that is not on target.
I used to give B-complex shots to patients. It seemed to work for most, but only for a while. One lady had the impertinence to get worse. We found that she did not need thiamine in the mixture. Apparently she made her own in sufficient amounts to take care of her needs.
The trick of being a caring professional is to have a good self-image. Then if you cannot find the stressors in your patients' life, you might not be embarrassed to ask the patients. "What do you think is the problem?" Sometimes they know. (Psychiatrists are trained to ask their patients, "Why do you have these migraines?" "Why do you need to be depressed?" "How is your ulcer helping you with interpersonal relationships?"
Diseases are multifactorial. If you do something for a patient and they get better for awhile, find out what is the triggering stress. Not every shoulder pain is due to carrying a bowling ball in the purse.
Lendon Smith, M.D.
Portland, Oregon
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