I’m seeing patients all over the U.S. while on the beach on my laptop or at home on my desktop And so are many, many other doctors. While I’d like to get the world adjusted and haven’t given up on that goal for a % of a second, you can build a big wellness practice and help 1000s from home.
Lab testing has advanced where you can get the vast majority of tests and critical markers done by sending off a box to a patient and having them provide blood spot, urine, saliva, or swab in the comfort of their own home – or from your waiting room.
While we’ve been offering this for years, it’s certainly serendipitous now that travel can be a challenge or a concern for some people given the times. Well Aligned has made doing virtual wellness or “Tele-wellness” really easy for me and over 100 other doctors to perform.
The conventional medical model tells us that germs cause sickness and disease. While yes, the body does have limitations, if the germ theory of illness were true – there’d be no one left alive to believe it. Viruses and bacteria are everywhere – you can’t avoid them. So why isn’t everyone sick?
Thankfully, these non-seeable invaders cannot survive or cause much harm in a healthy body that has an immune system functioning at a high level. Bacteria, virus, parasites and any other “germs” cannot take over a body with a defense system stronger than them capable of containing and destroying foreign intruders.
While washing your hands is a no-brainer, if you’re sitting next to a carrier of an unwanted pathogen, the fact that their hands are clean isn’t going to save you. You need a titanium immune system.
4 Keys to a Titanium Immune system
- GET ADJUSTED! (Throwing in their again even though it’s not virtual)
The single most beneficial thing you can do for your immune system is get adjusted.
Studies show that every time you get adjusted, your Interleukin-2 (IL-2 Levels go up immediately. IL-2 is what your body uses to kill viral and bacterial assaults. Chiropractic adjustments to reduce nerve pressure have been shown to help increase white blood cells throughout the body. Our white blood cells are what help destroy invaders (bacteria, viruses, etc) and remove them from the body. White blood cells are also what help our body’s ability to fight cancer.1
A landmark review of 443 studies was called “The Sympathetic Nerve—An Integrative Interface between Two Supersystems: The Brain and the Immune System.” 2 It was discovered that the nervous system and the immune organs talk back and forth non-stop to make sure you can respond to any challenges brought on by the environment outside or inside your body. The health of your spine and nervous system is literally how you survive moment by moment in any circumstance.
ONLY WAY TO KNOW IF YOUR SPINE IS HEALTHY: TEST WITH X-RAY
- FIX YOUR GUT!
It’s been shown now over and over again that much of immune function is seated in the gut. Here are answers to how these problems get started and what you can do about them in maximizing immunity. Gut issues, commonly considered “leaky gut” are a condition based on increased intestinal permeability, bacterial overgrowth, and where toxins, bacteria, and other matter can “leak” through the intestinal wall into the tissues.
These tight junctions in the digestive system are there to be gatekeepers between your intestinal system and your blood. These junctions have to carefully and precisely manage the balance between allowing nutrients to enter the bloodstream, but stay small enough to prevent xenobiotics (disease-causing compounds from our lifestyle) from passing from the digestive system out to the rest of the body.2,3
Why we have gut issues?
- Food sensitivities. We have developed antibodies against certain foods, even those considered healthy for other people. The rationale for this can be idiopathic (of unknown origin) or because someone has over-consumed a particular food and the body has developed antibodies against it. As a result, those with hypermobility of the gut (leaky gut syndrome) have an immune system that goes into high alert making many antibodies to deal with the multiple antigens in certain foods. This means there will be many and/or very intense allergies to different foods. 4,5,6
- Antibiotic exposure. Antibiotics destroy the natural intestinal flora leading to unlimited physiologic health problems. It’s not just the antibiotics we’re prescribed, but those we take in from antibiotics found in animal and dairy products along with our intense exposure to glyphosates.
- Toxins. All of us encounter a bombardment of toxins going into our blood. These toxins will often cause intestinal permeability (Leaky gut) as well as be a source of illness as they pass through the gut into our systems where they don’t belong.
ONLY WAY TO KNOW IF YOUR GUT IS HEALTHY: TESTS CAN INCLUDE FOOD SENSITIVITIES, ORGANIC ACIDS, AND/OR STOOL TEST
- MANAGE INFLAMMATION
Chronic low-level CRP increases were associated with increased risk of bacterial infections, gram-negative infections in particular. Genotypes associated with increases in CRP were not associated with increased risk of infection.7 Toxicity, high glycemic (High sugar, carb) diets, the typical American diet loaded with omega-6 fats, stress, and being overweight all raise inflammation. Additionally, certain gene variants such as IL-6, MTHFR, or APOE4 will give people a tendency to create more inflammation.
ONLY WAY TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE HIGH LEVELS OF INFLAMMATION OR INFLAMMATION-PRONE GENE VARIANTS: TEST CRP AND DNA
- VITAMIN D
Vitamin D is supposed to be produced by the body in response to sunlight. Unfortunately, due to life indoors or living in regions that go the majority of the year without sunlight, many people are Vitamin D deficient. Researchers have found that Vitamin D not only affects key cells of the immune system, but plays a critical role in actually regulating immune reactions.8 Vitamin D can modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection.9
People who are overweight or obese. The more body fat a person has, the more vitamin D is needed to increase blood levels of the vitamin.10
CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Depression & anxiety
- Diabetes
- Infection
- Diarrhea and/or constipation (including IBS)
- Gas and/or bloating (upper and lower GI tract)
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Weakened immune system.
- Headaches/Migraines
- Brain fog, memory loss, ADD/ADHD
- Fatigue
- Allergies & Skin Conditions (acne, eczema or rosacea)
- Food cravings
- Systematic Inflammation (arthritis, joint, & muscle pain)
- Sleep Disorders
- Autoimmunity (RA, SLE, MS, Celiac, Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis)
- Poor DNA expression
- Neurological consequences involved in autism and dementia
ONLY WAY TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE ADEQUATE VITAMIN D LEVELS: TAKE A VITAMIN D TEST
Have fun saving the world
Dr. Ben
References
- The effects of chiropractic on the immune system: a review of the literature. Allen JM, Chiropractic Journal of Australia, 1993; 23:132-135.
- Elenkov, et al. (2000). The sympathetic nerve: An integrative interface between the two supersystems: The brain and the immune system. Pharmacological Reviews, 52(4).
- https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/141/5/769/4600243
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5440529/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25543046
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23909601
- Zacho, et al. (2016). Increased Baseline C-Reactive Protein Concentrations Are Associated with Increased Risk of Infections: Results from 2 Large Danish Population Cohorts. Clinical Chemistry, 62(2).
- Aranow, C. Journal of Investigative Medicine, 2011 Aug; 59(6): 881–886.
- http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/5/1420.long
- Cancer.org
