July 2002 Newsletter
Dear Friends and Patients:
I wanted to start this newsletter by relaying a success story about Kelly. Kelly is a beautiful youngster who was eleven years old when she was brought to the Center by her mother. Kelly had a history of severe, incapacitating migraine headaches that started at around age eight. They were so bad she could not attend school and had to be home-schooled for the past several years. She would miss on average one half of each month due to the nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and pain associated with the migraines. Kelly had seen a variety of physicians, including specialists such as neurologists and migraine doctors, and had full neurological workups. She had been on all sorts of prescription drugs, the last one being Neurontin. These did not help her condition but did cause her to be tired and fatigued. She had just been given a prescription for Lortabs, a very strong narcotic, before her visit with me. Her mother and father were very concerned. They wanted to explore alternatives to drug therapy, but had never been to a physician who practiced integrative medicine.
I began Kelly’s evaluation as I do with all patients by sitting down with Kelly and her mother and taking a history of her symptoms and health. This was followed by a physical exam and CRA (Contact Reflex Analysis) evaluation of acupuncture meridians. Kelly’s physical exam was normal but there were subtle outpoints on her CRA exam. Kelly was placed on several natural supplements to balance her energy points, and she and her mother were advised that nutritional therapies, unlike drugs, took time to work. Two months later Kelly was brought to the Center with an acute migraine which we treated in an alternative manner. The headache subsided within a few hours, whereas before they usually lasted much longer. She was prescribed an Ally device, manufactured by Clarus industries, and was taught how to treat her acupuncture points using energy therapy.
Kelly didn’t make her next several appointments and when she was seen a few months later she was virtually headache-free! She was doing well in school, so well, in fact, that she was able to return to regular school with her classmates. Two months later I received a request from Kelly to clear her medically to try out for cheerleading. Shortly afterward I received the following letter:
Dear Dr. Erickson,
I would like to thank you so much for helping me. Before I was seen by you, I had been to about 10 different doctors. I even was taken to Shands and seen by the migraine specialist there. I had 3-4 migraines a week while being at school and sometimes on the weekends. They started in the 2nd grade. I would always vomit at school, in the car, at home. It was a horrible time in my life. The pain was so bad, I thought life wasn’t worth living. I was very depressed. Finally, I received my blessing through Dr. Erickson. Dr. Erickson is the only Doctor that helped me. I do not know what i (sp. her’s) would do if i (sp. her’s) had not been referred to him through my mom’s friend who has cancer who Dr. Erickson helped. Now for the first time since 2nd grade, I very rarely have a migraine. The other Doctors I went to wanted to put me on all kinds of drugs that didn’t help me sometimes made them worse. They didn’t listen to me and acted like it was my fault, or my sister’s fault, or my parents fault like it was all stress related or in my head or something. Dr. Erickson listened to me and knew exactly how to help me. I thank you so much Dr. Erickson for giving me my life back without migraines. Now I am able to accomplish my school work and my hobbies and live a normal life . . . . and have fun!
Thank you Dr. Erickson — Kelly James
I saw Kelly last at the time this article was being written, and although she didn’t make the cheerleading team this year, I told her I was very proud of how she was doing and trying something she couldn’t have done six months ago. She has her whole life ahead of her without being fearful or depressed about headaches. I also thanked her for taking the time to write her letter as it may help someone else who feels they have run out of options. If you have a success story you’d like to share, please feel free to write us. I can’t promise it will be published, but we appreciate hearing from our patients.
A Biophysical Model of Health and Disease
Many of you have commented on the little Q-Link pendants that you often see me or the rest of our staff wearing or the Ally device that we use at the Center and that Kelly uses at home. The most common question is “What do they do?” To understand this a bit better, one has to understand how a human or animal biological system reacts not only on an organ level, but also a cellular level, and on an atomic or energy level. Western medicine is based on a model of biochemical reactions that affect our bodies and how we can alter those reactions by the use of drugs. What is not realized or understood is that all medications, in addition to their biochemical properties, have electrical or energetic properties that can affect the organism or person on an atomic or energy level. Much of the data in this section is from a white paper by Beverly Rubik, Ph.D. who is an expert in cellular biophysics and complementary and alternative modalities. She has served on the White House Health Care Task Force and is on the advisory board for the National Institutes of Health.
Systems of medicine such as Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, presently considered alternative in the West, have for millennia maintained concepts of a vital force or subtle energy as a key element in health and wellness. This energy is known as prana or qi, respectively, in those medical systems. When the person’s energy is balanced, they are healthy. When the energy becomes unbalanced, they can develop symptoms or disease. In 1994, a panel on alternative and complementary medicine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) created the term “biofield” to address this concept, and this concept over the past few years, as our knowledge base has grown, is more prevalent within science and medicine. Studies have suggested that the human biofield may also be related to the system of acupuncture points and meridians. An example of this is when a homeopathic substance that is the appropriate remedy for a patient is brought near the body of the patient, the electrical conductivity of the patient’s acupuncture points shift immediately and dramatically. Another example is the vascular autonomic signal (VAS response). When a substance that a person is allergic to is placed by the ear, rich in acupuncture points, the substance emits resonant frequencies that inform the person’s biofield of this stressor, and this leads to a change in the tension of the peripheral artery smooth muscle that can be measured. Neither the acupuncture system or other types of energy medicine have been explained by conventional science concepts.
In our modern society we are exposed to barrage of chemicals, toxins, allergens and also EMF’s (electromagnetic frequencies) that come from a vast arrange of electrical devices, computer screens, cell phones, hair dryers, etc. Electromagnetic (EM) pollution is a type of invisible stressor that most people cannot sense directly but can have a wide variety of effects on the body including symptoms of spastic muscles, headaches, fatigue, behavioral changes (in both people and animals), and other symptoms. EMF stressors have also been shown to cause reproductive and developmental changes, altered gene expression, changes in cell growth rate, disruption of biological rhythms, and changes in hormone levels, to name a few. Not all EMF are harmful to life. Some are neutral and some produce beneficial effects.
In the biophysical model, there is a very complex dynamic energy field composed of many different frequencies, analogous to a musical symphony that changes with time, that is created by the components of life, including the biomolecules. Living systems, in this model, are engaged in constant “conversation” with their constituents and their environment, constantly exchanging information and adapting to stressors or conditions. For instance, a person stubs their toe. The immediate area of injury is the toe, but a communication goes on between every cell in the person’s body so that all cells are aware of the injury, and the biofield energy throughout the body is also affected. Stressors can destabilize the bioenergy field.
SRT Technology
Devices such as the Ally or Q-link pendant work by reinforcing or strengthening the body’s biofield. This is in the realm of physics called sympathetic resonance technology or SRT. In a study done by Professor Wilhelm Mosgöeller, M.D., of the Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Vienna, he found that cell cultures that were pre-treated with SRT with a Q-link were protected from subsequent chemical stress that caused cancer and cell death in non-treated cultures. In another study using the Q-link, subjects were exposed to low-level ambient EMF stress for 72 hours and were found to have clumping or aggregation of red blood cells, whereas the Q-link group did not. Also, the Q-link user group felt more energy whereas the control group reported no improvement in energy level.
Evelyn Wiseman is the Educational Director of New Way School in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is a small, private school for children with learning disabilities, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia and underachievers. A one month study involved 52 students, ranging in age from 6 to 19 as well as 11 teachers. The school is situated near a power substation, and one or more computers are in each classroom with flourescent lighting, creating EMF throughout the building. Two types of SRT’s were used in the study, an active unit and a passive unit. Placebo units were used as controls and neither the students nor the teachers knew which one was being used. The bottom line of the study was the most dramatic improvement in behavorial problems occurred when the “active” SRT unit was used in the following areas: “not on task”, “trouble following directions”, and “work not completed.” There was a 49% improvement over the use of the placebo units.
For more information on these devices, please contact the Center. Q-links and Ally SRT therapy devices may be purchased at the Center at a discount.
Chemical Toxins
None of us can escape the slow but steady accumulation of damaging toxins or poisons from our environment. They are hidden in our air, food and water. They can cause a multiplicity of symptoms, from migraines to fibromyalgia to chronic fatigue. Even polar bears in the most remote arctic regions are found to have PCB’s and other chemicals in their fat. Phenol, toluene, benzene, TCE, mercury and other heavy metals, and vinyl chloride, to name a few, are virtually everywhere. Medical recognition of this problem of bioaccumulation of poisons is poor, in my opinion. The Center for Disease Control scientists in Atlanta were quoted as being “astounded” that surprisingly high levels of phthalates from plastics were found in the urine of ordinary Americans. These levels were “much higher” than levels of other well-studied pollutants. Phthalates are known to cause birth defects, glandular and hormonal damage, and cancer. And yet every time we grab a plastic bottle of “purified water” or soda, it has phthalates in it. PVC water pipes, plastic wraps, and plastic baby bottles, to name a few, are also sources of this chemical. When the body sees a new chemical, synthesized in a laboratory and not naturally occurring, there may be no metabolic mechanism with which to get rid of it. So what the body cannot detoxify, it dumps into the fat stores of the body to keep it away from vital organs. In a government study, 100% of the fat biopsies as samples taken from ordinary citizens contained dioxins, one of the most potent cancer causing agents known. We get dioxins from contact with bleached paper products such as paper towels or toilet paper, tea bags and milk cartons, as well as water contaminated from industry. In this same study 100% of the biopsies also contained xylene from gasoline, paints and glues.
What is the Best Way to Get Rid of Toxic Chemicals?
Sherry Rogers, M.D., is an author and an environmental medicine specialist. She states that the ONLY way to adequately detoxify your body given the myriad of chemicals we are exposed in our food, air, water, and environment in today’s modern society is by using an Infra Red sauna. I agree. For people with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, previous surgeries with general anesthesia, thyroid system dysfunction, or other conditions that prevent adequate detoxification, this type of therapy is often times a miracle. It even removes radiation and heavy metals. The Center has one of the few Physician supervised sauna detoxification programs in the United States, and the only Infra red one that we are aware of. These are used in Europe at prestigious cancer centers such as St. Georges Hospital in Germany.
There are many different ways to try to clear toxins from the body, from green foods and juicing to water fasts to colonics. For toxins stored in the fat, these methods simply don’t work well. It has been known for centuries that sweating is a natural, life-saving way to get rid of stored chemicals. Many people, including my wife Judy, could never tolerate a lava rock sauna. It was just too hot and stifling. She would get sick, weak, dizzy and feel faint. We purchased a far infra red sauna years ago and have seen dramatic results. It is a different technology where low frequency wave energy heats the tissues more than the air, triggering a mobilization of chemical poisons from fat storage and into the blood stream and sweat, where they are removed through the skin, colon, and kidneys. This deep tissue penetration allows for a much lower heat to be used, often in the 130 degree range (vs. a 180-190 degree lava rock sauna heat). We are clearly the first generation of man ever exposed to this many chemicals and it seems only appropriate we can use 21st century technology to get rid of them.
For more on this subject, I suggest you go to the Sauna Detoxification Program link. Also read the article on Toxins and Detoxification in the Articles of Interest section. We are running a summer special on the sauna program. Please see the next section.