By Dr. Monika Faulhaber DC
Every new patient that walks through a doctor’s door is a new mystery waiting to be unfolded.
The other day a new patient came in for general malaise and low back pain. He told me that he was on the statin drug Lipitor for high cholesterol and a medication also for high blood pressure. His father had died prematurely at age 50 with heart disease. Mr. B had just undergone a stress test at the hospital and they gave him a good state of health record.
I am not a fan of statins because they are overly prescribed and can cause rabdomyolysis and severe cramping of muscles. Lipitor and the related family of statin drugs should only be used in the short term, like 3 months, until the reasons for high cholesterol can be determined.
I recently read in Nature’s News Professional vol. 1, Issue 2 a study that claims statin drugs are both ineffective and unsafe. After reviewing 20 major published studies on the use and safety of statin drugs Dr. Okuyama, of Nagoya City University, Japan, says, “We have collected a wealth of information on cholesterol and statins from many published papers and find overwhelming evidence that these drugs accelerate hardening of the arteries and can cause, or worsen, heart failure. I cannot find any evidence to support people taking statins and patients who are on them should stop.” Dr. Peter Langsjoen, a heart specialist based in Texas who is co-author of the study said statins are being used so aggressively and in such large numbers of people that the adverse effects are now becoming obvious. These drugs should never have been approved for use. The long term effects are devastating.” You can review the report at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25655639
Hidden inflammation is a key reason for high cholesterol levels, not foods. Measuring homocysteine levels in the blood is very important. Homocysteine is a chemical found in the blood and it acts like an acid, which burns the arteries. The cholesterol comes in to “put the fire out”. Remove the homocysteine and the needs of cholesterol will diminish and hence lower naturally. Unfortunately most doctors will not test for this. You will probably have to ask for this test yourself and probably pay for it yourself.
The antidote to remove the homocysteine are B6( pyridoxal phosphate is the active form,) B12, and folate otherwise known as B9. As an aside, Niacin is another B vitamin which will lower cholesterol levels without the side effects that statins have.
Going back to my patient.
I decided to do an ESTECK, now referred to as the Multi Scan Pro on him. This Russian technology analyzes the interstitial fluid dynamics with electrode contacts at the forehead, hands, and feet along with a finger pulse oximeter. It then runs through a statistical program that gives a risk analysis. It is currently being used in many hospitals and clinics worldwide for triage.
As I reviewed the results I noticed that his thyroid readings were extremely low. His cardiac score was 17 which is very low. The score measures from 8 to 29 with 29 being an excellent result. A score of 14 indicates an emergency and the patient should seek medical attention right away. So, you can see that 17 is a poor score. His cardiac work was at risk as was his heart rate variability and high incidence of atheroma. There was also indication of arterial stiffness.
The Multi Scan Pro measurement for thyroid function is actually a much more secure and reliable indicator for thyroid function than traditional blood tests for thyroid function. The blood tests have too much room for false positives and negatives and are a poor means to measure thyroid function. One other problem is that doctors will only measure TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) and not the T4 or T3 levels. The key is to know the ability of T4 to convert to T3. My sister too was diagnosed with normal TSH levels only to find she had trouble converting T4 to T3 and at that point was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. In the Canadian medical system doctors will not test the T4 and T3 levels if TSH is normal.
What does it mean to measure interstitial fluid? Firstly, interstitial fluid is the fluid surrounding all the cells. Think of it this way. The ocean is the interstitial fluid. The fish and sea life represent the individual cells of the human body. By measuring the ocean fluid this will help the doctor to understand the health of the body systems or at least you can see where the patient is moving towards at a subclinical level. Many times we have screened and found strong indicators for Diabetes only to show on their blood panels 6 months down the road.
So here we have a patient being treated with Lipitor for the past 10 years and high blood pressure medication with a family history of heart disease causing death.
Ok, now how does low thyroid function affect the heart? Are you ready for the answer?
Hypothyroidism will cause high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, calcification or atheromas of the circulatory system, arrhythmias, and many other heart disease symptoms. Low thyroid levels are deleterious to the heart and can cause heart disease. By treating hypothyroidism appropriately the heart problems being caused by the hypothyroidism can be reversed.
Has Mr. B ever been tested for low thyroid? NO. Except for now after doing this scan. Do you see now how important it is to screen patients? As a holistic practitioner and holistic Chiropractor I want to know this. This is my fiduciary duty to my patients. Am I doing a service to my patient? Yes, because this will save his life. He was originally committed to going through the medical system because he trusted them to do the right thing. My next question is what if his father had lived his life with a low thyroid and was this REALLY what killed him?
Chiropractors have the same education as medical doctors except for the ½ course in pharmaceuticals. Many chiropractors continue with education after graduation, as many really do want to help change people’s lives. It can be difficult today to be an MD because of the constraints placed upon them by their governing bodies to perform medicine within their accepted standards of care using drugs. As a chiropractor, able to use a genius device as the Multi Scan Pro, I am able to use this information to help my patients holistically. The Multi Scan Pro does what the human brain cannot, and that is to put all the 70 physiological parameters and their measurements into a whole picture for me to know where the root source of health problem is. It uses statistics to give me a baseline and to be able to do follow up measurements. After all, good science should always be followed by good science.
And it is all about doing what is best for the patient.
I am very thankful for this technology . For those practitioners out there who want to go the extra mile for their patients, this measurement technology will put you above the rest. You will be a better doctor and you will know the satisfaction that you are putting your patients first and on the right road to health. For more information on the Multi Scan Pro go to www.akinom.ca or call John Kirchknopf at 416 841 5657.
To lighten and brighten your day…
Heart Attack by Demi Lovato