Parasites More Common Than You Would Think

Parasites! How did I get parasites?

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Parasites are more common than you might think!

This is the first question patients ask me when I deliver the news of a likely parasitic infection. I realize the words “parasitic infection” conjure up images of tapeworms and other gross bugs teeming in some third-world child’s belly, so I’m quick to point out that this type of infection is far more common than you would think. In fact, approximating the number of these infections is very difficult because so many people carry around some form of parasite without ever knowing it. The first questions is “what kind of parasite do I have” and the answer is always the same…”it doesn’t matter because we support the body in the same way”. All of these little buggers are equal opportunity, affecting people of all races and economic standing, as well as even the most hygienic among us.
Parasites can be found in many different tissues and organs of the body, but most commonly found in the colon, liver and lungs. The most common way to get parasites for Americans that don’t spend a lot of time in 3rd world countries is food allergies. Gluten and dairy are the most common culprits in the US. When a person has a food sensitivity, eating that particular food causes inflammation of the cells of the gut which compromises the gut’s immune system. Other things that increase this susceptibility include acid-blocking medications, herbicides, pesticides, trans-fats, and too much sugar. Eliminating these offenders is the first step in healing.

Parasitic infections have widely varying symptoms. Here is a list of common indicators:

  • Constipation/Diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, Colitis
  • Lower abdominal bloating
  • Bumps on the back on the arms
  • Anal itching
  • Dark circles under the eyes
  • Skin rashes
  • Abnormal or excessive Hair Loss
  • Abnormal Stool: skinny, black specks, white specks, string-like, mucous
  • Asthma
  • High Eosinophils (Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that fights parasitic infections)
  • Eosinophilic esophagitis (This is an inflammatory condition in which eosinophils affect the esophagus, causing difficulty swallowing, food impaction, vomiting and heartburn)
  • Lack of energy
  • Endometriosis
  • Autoimmune symptoms

The approach Western medical doctors usually take is to attempt to diagnose parasites through stool tests. These tests often do not show infection because parasites wax and wane with the lunar cycle and are most active around the full moon. According to the American Society of Microbiology, the probability of detecting clinically relevant parasites in a single specimen may be as low as 50 to 60%. The result is that allopathic doctors don’t diagnose parasites as the problem and even if they did, the treatment would be antibiotics which are known to cause further compromise of the gut.

A better way to identify parasitic infection is to measure the level of the white blood cell called an Eosinophil. Eosinophils elevate when the parasitic burden is high and are a tell-tale sign that parasites are the underlying problem. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry believes in treating the symptom instead of the root cause, and in response, has developed the drug Falsera to reduce the Eosinophil count. Ironically, Falsera is contraindicated if you have a parasitic infection. Keep in mind, by the time the infection shows up in the blood, the person already having significant symptoms. Because the support for parasitic infection is gentle, we can look to symptoms, muscle testing and EAV testing to indicate parasites before they have shown up in the blood.
The good news is that enzymes and herbs do a great job of supporting gut health. With the right combination, the body’s immune system can be activated to rid itself of these nasty pathogens in a relatively short time.

Besides supporting digestive health, there are several precautions you can take to avoid these gut invaders. People who live in or travel to 3rd world countries are at risk for more dangerous parasites which tend to produce more dramatic symptoms like chronic nausea, persistent weight loss and chronic stomach bloating to name a few.

I always warn patients who are traveling to less developed countries to avoid meat and street vendors while encouraging them to take preventative herbs and enzymes.

With clean food, a well-supported digestive system, and proper precaution, you’ll be well on your way to preventing parasites from wreaking havoc on you! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions, suspect that you have a parasitic infection or are interested in taking preventative herbs and enzymes.

You can reach me at 847-860-9200 or info@jbswellness.com, or view our contact page.

If you’re not in the Lake County, Illinois area, connect with Dr. Shaw at Authentic Health’s Website.

Woman with Lower Back Pain

Got Lower Back Pain on Your Brain?

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Our world is filled with the wonder of technology – smart phones, space exploration and the sheer number of cute puppy videos on Instagram – but one problem that will affect up to 80% of the population in its lifetime has yet to be solved: low back pain.

Low back pain accounts for more than 264 million lost workdays per year workdays and stands as the 3rd most common reason for doctor visits in the United States, behind skin disorders and osteoarthritis/joint disorders. (https://www.acatoday.org/Patients/Health-Wellness-Information/Back-Pain-Facts-and-Statistics) It can be caused by a range of factors including anything from being a weekend warrior who played too hard to a tickle of the nose that caused a sneeze. If you are one of the 8 in 10 people who have experienced this common malady, you know it’s no joke.

Luckily, the majority of cases end up resolving with standard treatments including our personal favorite, chiropractic care to address alignment and nutritional remedies to decrease inflammation, but for an unlucky 10-20% of back pain patients, their acute pain turns into chronic pain. It just won’t go away.

Chronic pain, whether in your lower back or anywhere, is defined as pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks. Chronic pain is associated with serious negative effects on those who suffer from it, including psychological disorders like depression and anxiety, to more complicated physical ailments such as loss of muscle strength, reduced range of motion and disturbed sleep. (https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Low-Back-Pain-Fact-Sheet)

Unfortunately, common treatments for chronic low back pain like anti-inflammatory medications, opioid pain medication and steroid injections have widely varying efficacies and rarely provide sustained pain relief, in addition to introducing toxic chemicals to your body. What many patients call, “The Big Fix”, surgery, is invasive and expensive, to say nothing of the time lost to hospital stays and lengthy recovery. Charles Rosen, M.D., clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California,

Irvine, School of Medicine says, “An enormous number of back surgeries don’t give patients long-term relief.”

What is a chronic back pain sufferer to do?

JBS Wellness is delighted to introduce a new treatment for chronic lower back pain: the Erchonia FX 635 laser, the first and only FDA market cleared low-level laser option for reducing chronic lower back pain. In the clinical trial leading to the FDA clearance, 72% of patients experienced a minimum of a 30% decrease in their level of pain up to 8 weeks after their laser procedure. The clinicians conducting the trial stated, “We believe we have demonstrated that the use of non-thermal lasers has proven to be a far better option for treating low back pain than that of opioids or NSAIDS.”

The Erchonia FX 635 laser works by applying different wavelengths and outputs of low-level light directly to a targeted area. The body tissue then absorbs the light. The red and near-infrared light cause a reaction, and the damaged cells respond with a physiological response that promotes regeneration. The procedure is painless and noninvasive with no
sound, vibration or heat. Each treatment takes only 20 mins.

Dr. Shaw has seen patients respond positively to laser treatment. She says, “I’m happy to provide the latest technology for my patients experiencing the devastating effects of chronic lower back pain.”

For more information about the Erchonia FX 635 laser or a consultation with Dr. Shaw, contact JBS Wellness here.

Fighting Back to School Germs

Back to School Germs

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Back to school often means the start of what we call the cold and flu season. With so many children sharing space, germs are inevitably part of the equation.  Conventional wisdom urges us to fear the germs and teaches us that the only way to keep yourself and your family healthy is to scrub, disinfect, and go to war with them! While it is important to practice good hygiene, it is time to shift focus to what we can do to boost our immune strength. With this approach, we are focused on building, maintaining, and nourishing our body’s natural abilities to withstand and cope with illness.  Instead of fearing the germs, let’s empower our bodies.

Dr. Shaw’s Top Ten Ways to Beat the Cold & Flu.

  1. Chiropractic Care. No surprise here! The nervous system supplies the nerves to the important immune system organs. A healthy nervous system means the immune system can function efficiently.  Additional adjustments outside your regular protocol while you are sick will give a boost to your immune system and help your body heal faster.  Don’t stay away when you are sick!
  1. Supplements. Whole food supplements, herbs, and homeopathic remedies can be used to up-regulate your immune system to help fend off illness. They can also be used in acute situations in higher doses so immune response is stronger and efficient. Avoid synthetic over the counter medications as they will distract your body from its job of healing.  Discuss what options are right for you during your next visit with Dr. Shaw.
  1. Healthy Diet.
    1. Rich in colorful vegetables and fruits.
    2. Quality protein (grass-fed, organic, wild): eggs, fish, organic meat, and poultry.
    3. Healthy fats: coconut oil, avocado oils, nuts oils, olive oil.
    4. Incorporate a variety of nuts and seeds.
    5. Limit grains except quinoa, buckwheat,  and wild rice.
  1. Healthy Gut. 80% of the immune system resides in the gut!!!  Take good care of it by avoiding food allergens (main culprits are gluten, dairy and soy) and by balancing gut flora with fermented foods like sauerkraut, pickles, and kombucha.
  1. Avoid Toxins.
    • Hand sanitizers and flu shots are many people’s go to solutions, but they burden your system with chemicals and hinder your body’s ability to ward off illness.
    • Avoid consuming, inhaling, and absorbing chemical pollutants.
    • Choose organic foods and toxin-free personal products.
    • Avoid OTC medications.
    • Drink distilled or reverse osmosis water.
    • Choose natural cleaning products and avoid the use of commercial air fresheners.
    • Add plants to each room and crack a window all year round to improve air quality in your home.
  1. Reduce Sugar/Fructose/Carbs. Sugar competes for space in your immune cells with Vitamin C! The more sugar in your system, the less Vitamin C can get into your white blood cells causing immune suppression.
  1. Hydration and Minerals. Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water per day to keep you hydrated. Your body needs water to flush the lymphatic system of viruses and bacteria.  Improve your body’s ability to absorb water by adding a pinch of sea salt to add minerals, and a squeeze of lemon to alkalize the water.  Coffee, black tea, smoking, and alcohol all dehydrate so minimize their consumption and be sure to up your water intake if you do consume them.
  1. Healthy Fats. Don’t be scared of fat but make sure they are the healthy fats.  Coconut oil, cocoa butter, butter, eggs, avocado, flax seed, sesame oil, olive oil, and wild caught fish are wonderful sources.
  1. Rest and Reducing Stress. Our adrenal glands are responsible for immune system response and strength so take good care of them by minimizing stress and make adequate sleep and down time a priority in your life.
  1. Essential Oils. Good quality pure essential oils can aid our immune function.  Many have antiviral, antiseptic, antibacterial, and anti-infectious properties making them a wonderful companion through the “flu season”.  Diffusing them and applying them topically can be beneficial.  Be sure you research the oils before using them.  They are incredibly potent!  Thieves oil is a great oil with many purposes and should be a staple in every home.
Man blowing his nose, fighting off Spring Allergies

Spring Allergy Guide

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allergy pic

SPRING ALLERGY GUIDE

If you suffer with seasonal allergies you know springtime brings challenges!  Sneezing, itchy eyes, congestion, and fatigue during the spring are symptoms many allergy sufferers are familiar with.  They are also signs that your body could use support as allergies are a barometer for the overall strength of your immune system.  The heavier the immune burden, the more “allergic” a person tends to be and more strongly they may experience the symptoms.  Working on up regulating the immune system will help to build strength and decrease a person’s sensitivity to their natural environment.   Additionally, since the liver is responsible for clearing histamines in the body, eating foods that support the liver will increase your ability to clear out the histamines and offer symptom sufferers the relief they so desire.  Here are some tips to help you through allergy season.

  1. Avoid over the counter allergy medications.  They suppress symptoms instead of addressing the root cause of the problem.
  2. Avoid pro-inflammatory foods.  Major culprits are dairy, sugar, gluten, and refined carbohydrates.
  3. Increase anti-inflammatory foods.  Ex: foods high in omega 3 fatty acids, leafy greens, blueberries, fermented vegetables, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and green tea.
  4. Incorporate local honey in to your diet all year long.
  5. Eat an overall diet that includes protein with each meal and good fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, seeds, and nut butters.
  6. Reduce stress and increase rest.
  7. Minimize exposure to known allergens.  Avoid mold and mildew.  Shower after being outdoors on high pollen days.
  8. Stay hydrated. Drink half your weight in ounces per day.
  9. Talk with Dr. Shaw about whole food and homeopathic supplement options.

 

SUPPLEMENT OPTIONS:

Dr. Shaw likes to use Antronex, Allerplex, and Allergy homeopathy spray for patients suffering with allergy symptoms.  Talk with her today to see what she would recommend for you.

 

Woman with Sore Muscles

Muscle Soreness

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“Just take an Advil”

I recently shared with another health care provider that I had started a new, intense workout program. I shared that the soreness of my muscles was something I had to stay on top of.  She responded, “Just take one Advil before and one Advil after.”  This is a very common response that most people would not think twice about.
So, what’s the big deal? 

 

Ibuprofen, the main constituent of Advil, can damage the kidneys.  People who are dehydrated are more at risk.  Because dehydration is a common risk of working out, Advil is actually a very bad choice.

What is a good choice for muscle soreness?
The answer is minerals!  Minerals like Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium actually help to neutralize lactic acid, improve hydration, and decrease muscle soreness without risking damage to the kidney, liver, or stomach lining.

 

There is also a great herb called  Boswellia serrata that not only help with pain but inflammation too.  Make sure you are getting it from a respected herbal source.

 

Finally, keep hydrated!  Be sure to give your body support during workouts and increase the amount of water you consume.

Sick care vs. Health care

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There has been a lot of uncertainty with health insurance lately surrounding the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Debating the pros and cons of the new law is an important conversation to have, but the current discussion seems to overlook some very important issues.  It is time for an overall paradigm shift that would help us to see health insurance through a more realistic lens.

Calling it “health” insurance presumes health is the priority. In reality, it would be more accurate to call it “sick” insurance as the system requires you to be “sick” before you can use it.  It is imperative to understand our health insurance system measures success in terms of profit, not measurements of health.  Therefore, there is no incentive for the system to promote health or wellness.  It is time to stop relying on a for-profit private insurance company to determine what we can do for our health.  Health insurance is important to help insure us against a catastrophic illness or accident, but you and only you can insure your own health.

Statistically, the US is number one in emergency medicine but we are 78th in wellness care.  We can do better.  Health is not a mystery.  We know how to achieve it.  But, until our system is set up to have health as a measurement  of success, it is ultimately up to us to take responsibility for our health through diet, exercise, chiropractic care, nutritional supplements, and other holistic based modalities that nurture our body, mind, and spirit.  We will likely not see improvements to insurance coverage for health improving activities, it is up to you to invest in the most important asset you have.

Body Messages – Brown Skin Spots

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One of the more popular new cosmetics product out recently is the “age spot” remover. These brown spots on the skin are not called age spots because you are growing older.

 

 

AGE stands for Advanced glycation end-product.
Translation: your body cannot handle all the sugar you are eating. You can think of it like the sugar is carmalizing under your skin.
Understand when I say sugar, I am also referring to carbs. Carbohydrates are a bunch of sugars all connected together. Some of the worst offenders are bagels, breads, pasta and rice.
Brown skin spots are minor considering what unstable blood sugar can do to your body. Internal inflammation, hormone imbalance, elevated triglycerides, PCOS, excessive weight, osteoarthritis, fatigue are just some of the symptoms.
Stablizing blood sugar relies heavily on getting enough protein and avoiding carbs. There are several diets that follow this basic idea; Phase II diet, Paleo diet, Mediterranean diet. The short version is protein and vegetables for every meal and get off the grains and sugar.

Body Messages – Red Dots on Your Skin

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Our bodies are often giving us messages, so do we know what they mean or that it is a message?
Red dots on the skin are an important message. They can show up anywhere on the body; arms, back, chest, face.
These little dots are an indication of too much estrogen in the body. They can show up on women or men. Men can get lots of them if they are taking synthetic testosterone since excess testosterone in a man’s body will turn into estrogen. Women can get them when the body is not filtering estrogen properly, from birth control or HRT. Anyone can get too much estrogen from non-organic animal products, plastics, soy, pesticides and many other sources.

If you have too much estrogen in the body, it can put women at risk for breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers and men at risk for prostate cancer. If you find little red dots on you or your family, pay attention to this very important message.

There are things you can do to help reduce estrogen in the body:

 

    • Eat 1 serving of cruciferous vegetables / day (kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts)

 

    • Avoid soy products

 

    • Switch to organic sources of animal products (milk, cheese, butter, meat, etc)

 

    • Seek natural alternatives to birth control & HRT

 

  • Avoid using all pesticides and herbicides
Photo of water bottles

Think Before You Drink…Fiji Water

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I am not a fan of plastic bottled water as a rule for several reasons:
1) Cost
2) There are no purity standards
3) Plastic leaches into the water and contributes to the severe hormonal imbalances found in a majority of Americans
4) The enviromental impact of bottling and shipping water all over the world
5) It is one of the major contributors (plastic bags being the other) to the plastic waste problem that the world is facing along with the Eastern Garbage Patch that is already the size of Texas found in the Pacific Ocean

Now I have one more to add after reading this article on the irreparable damage that the Fiji Water Company is doing to the island of Fiji, the people and the environment.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/24/tale-of-fiji-water-too-familiar-sounds-like-industrial-colonial/

A good way to make sure that you and your family have clean, environmentally responsible drinking water is distillation. You can find countertop distillers on Amazon.com or Gaiam.com. They require a investment of $200-$400 which is easily made back with avoiding plastic bottled water.
Distillaton removes

  • Bacteria, viruses & other microorganisms
  • Fluoride, sodium, nitrates and other soluable inorganic salts
  • Organic chemicals like pesticides, PCBs, THMs
  • Radionuclides
  • Heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, etc.
  • Soluable minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, etc.

What distillation does not remove are gases and volatile organic compounds but this is easily remedied by incorporating a carbon filter which most countertop distillers have.
It is important to note that most distillation does require electricity so a easy way to minimize your electric bill is to run it over night. Using glass or stainless steel bottles to store the distilled water in the refrigerator allows for busy families to grab and go.

The controversy that is brought up over distilled water is that is devoid of minerals…which is true but the claim that ingesting distilled water will leach minerals out of the body is false. Once distilled water hits our stomach it mixes with our stomach juices and immediately loses its leaching abilities.

An easy solution to make your distilled water into absorbable mineral water…a few grains of brown rice in your water bottle!

 

If we are going to claim to be “GREEN”, we have start speaking with our money and skipping the bottled water, especially Fiji Water, is a good start.

Understanding the Nervous System

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Every day in my office I explain how the nervous system works and that chiropractic is not really about neck and back pain but about caring for the nervous system.