Treating thyroid conditions...

"Before I became a chiropractor, I was a medical technologist. My first college degree was a bachelor of science in medical technology, a four-year degree in laboratory medicine. We learned how to draw blood and run laboratory tests and how to recognize blood cells, bacteria, and parasites under the microscope. We studied all the diseases of blood cells. We learned about infections that are common and infections that are rare. We became skilled at distinguishing different viruses, species of bacteria, types of fungal infections, and parasitic infestations. We gained knowledge about cholesterol and blood sugar. We were taught which diseases could be diagnosed with a simple urine specimen and which with a blood test.

"I know. Too much information, right? But most of us don't think about who runs those tests or the training they have had. Someone needs to run these tests. Before I became a chiropractor, that someone was me.

"Like me, a great many chiropractors obtain advanced specialty degrees in sports medicine, neurology, orthopedics, pediatrics, and radiology. My specialty is in nutrition and internal medicine. My training in laboratory medicine gives me an extra tool in my diagnostic tool belt.

"After I draw someone's blood in my office, I spend a good forty minutes with the patient at a subsequent appointment going over the results of the lab tests. As a physician, I consider it one of my roles not only to give the patient the correct remedy or advice, but also to explain why. I need to explain what will possibly happen if we just leave things alone. I need to tell the person what we can do to correct a problem. My patients are comforted by the fact that I will be redrawing their blood and re-running the tests to see how the treatment is working."

"When treating patients for low thyroid, all I do is to provide the patient with the raw materials that their thyroid gland needs and proper stimulation if their thyroid has become lazy and—ta-da!—the thyroid starts to work properly again. Because I am not providing exogenous hormone (hormone that was made outside of the patient's body), but rather I am supporting the patient's own body to function on its own, their thyroid glands end up stronger. In contrast, if patients receive Levoxyl, Synthroid, or Armour (porcine thyroid), the hormone itself is being furnished from the outside, so the patient's thyroid gland doesn't need to recover the ability to manufacture its own hormone. My approach to treatment matches the sensible adage: 'Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.'" 

 

Healthy eating...

"The reason I devoted an entire chapter to healthy eating is that your first step should be to clean up your diet. Remember that wheat, soy, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and sometimes dairy can contribute to a low-functioning thyroid. You also need to remove the chlorine, fluorine, and heavy metals from your drinking water. This is important for you to know: if you don't want to change your diet or don't think that you can do it, I suggest you take a more pharmaceutical approach." 

"Most of the time I take a very hands-on approach to analyzing and assessing proper dosages with my patients. In the next few pages I will be going over the supplements that I give out at my office. Sometimes I will be quite adamant about sticking to the particular brand name that I am recommending. Believe me, it's not because I own stock in the companies that I recommend. If I recommend a certain product from a certain company, it's because I've tried similar products from other companies and gotten very little to no results. I want to keep you from making the mistakes I have already made."

"In the King James Version of the Bible, Paul talks about buffeting his body. Some jokes have been made by preachers/leaders who turn the word buffet into an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord to imply that Paul saying one of his spiritual disciplines was overeating. And you know what? I get the joke. And, if it wasn't so true and sadly epidemic, I might find it more amusing. I like a good pun as much as the next guy. My wife and kids might even roll their eyes at this and say 'significantly more than the next guy.' However, gluttony is not a laughing matter; it's a sin. It's referred to several times in the Bible. Sometimes it's even paired with drunkenness.

"The Bible doesn't say that money is the root of evil; it says the love of money, the heart issue behind the money, is the root of evil. By the same token, eating is not sinful; it's the heart issue behind it. Gluttony is not simply eating a lot of food. Gluttony is the 'eating for all the wrong reasons.' Feeding cravings. Emotional eating. It implies that what my body wants, it gets. It masters me. I don't master it.

"I know someone whose pastor always used to say, 'There's no meetin' without eatin'.' However, I think we need to remember that no matter what you eat or drink, do so to the glory of God. (See 1 Corinthians 10:31.) Jesus relaxed and ate with people. Food is a great way to gather together. It's been suggested that even Communion was simply that, gathering for a meal to remember Jesus and be a community and share and be connected with each other." 

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