Detox Part 2: 6 Ways to Stay Healthy in a Polluted World (Feb 4, 2013)
Optimizing Your Health, Part 12: Detoxification
Dear Readers,
In my new book, Real Cause, Real Cure (Rodale, August 2012), I discuss the nine underlying real causes of suboptimal health — and "Real Cause #8" is cellular toxicity.
Toxins are stuff that your body can't use and that can cause health problems if they hang around and gunk up cells. They include formerly good stuff (such as hormones) that have done their job and been broken down for disposal. They also include bad stuff (such as pollutants and pesticides) that in an ideal world wouldn't have ended up in your body in the first place.
Normally, your body knows how to avoid excess toxins — you take in what you need, and you get rid of what you don't.
Your liver detoxifies, using what are called phase I and phase II detoxification pathways. Your kidneys detoxify, filtering blood, removing toxins and dumping them into the urine for disposal. Your skin detoxifies, using millions of sweat glands. You even detoxify with every breath, inhaling life-giving oxygen and exhaling toxic gases.
Breathing demonstrates a basic fact about detoxification: the body does it automatically. No worries! (Most people can feel free to skip the fasts, enemas and other "detox" purges.)
But in our toxic environment — where there are more than 85,000 synthetic compounds that can mess with your body — it sometimes helps to improve detoxification by giving your body a helping hand. This issue of the newsletter shows you six simple ways to do just that.
Love & blessings,
Dr. T
CFS/Fibromyalgia Updates
The following are three exciting, new developments in CFS/FM.
Antivirals May Help When All Else Fails
As we have reported for the last five years, a small subset of CFS and fibromyalgia patients do respond well to antivirals. We have discussed elsewhere how to tell which patients are most likely to respond to antivirals.
This new study by Prof. Montoya supports his earlier study showing that a selected group of patients with CFS had significant improvement using prescription antivirals. The medication is quite expensive, so it is usually saved for those people whose health insurance cover it, may take four months to see the benefit, and occasionally does cause an initial flaring of symptoms.
See the study from the Journal of Medical Virology »
An Accurate Test for Epstein Barr Virus?
As I've written in the past, I don't consider testing for the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) to be a reliable way to determine if EBV — which worsens fatigue in CFS/FM — has been reactivated, as most
healthy people test positive for EBV.
But here's an interesting finding from a new study: researchers used a new test to detect an antibody for EBV that was negative in healthy people, but positive in most people with CFS who had a reactivation of EBV. In other words, it was an accurate test!
The test isn't on the market yet, but the authors plan to make it available in the future. Though the study only including a specially selected group of 6 CFS patients, this is one more piece of hopeful news. Soon there may be a reliable test for determining which CFS/FM patients will actually benefit from treating for EBV.
Read the full study at PLOS One »
Amphetamines: Overused for Hyperactivity, Underused for CFS/FM
Clinical experience shows that medications like Ritalin and Dexedrine (amphetamines) can be very helpful in a subset of people with chronic fatigue syndrome — particularly those with low blood pressure issues (called orthostatic intolerance) such as POTS and NMH.
Although these medications are (imho) grossly overused in hyperactive kids, I think they're underused in CFS and fibromyalgia.
Now, a new study shows that an amphetamine medication called Vyvanse was helpful in CFS, at 30, 50 or 70 milligrams (mg) daily.
I prefer Ritalin or Dexedrine to this medication, and at a much lower dose of less than 20 mg a day, as we start to see addiction issues with larger doses. Interestingly though, people with CFS under 18 years old often need higher doses, closer to the doses used with ADD, while those over 30 usually need just 5 to 12.5 mg a day.
Cool Stuff
Wishing You a Stress-Free Day
Especially if you're alone in the house at night and you think you hear a noise in the basement...
Funny Stuff
Catching Fish
Jim had an awful day fishing on the lake, sitting in the blazing sun all day without catching a single one. On his way home, he stopped at the supermarket and ordered four catfish. He told the fish salesman, "Pick four large ones out and throw them at me, will you?"
"Why do you want me to throw them at you?"
"Because I want to tell my wife that I caught them."
"Okay, but you'll need to take the salmon."
"Why's that?"
"Because your wife came in earlier and said she figured you'd be in today. And she feels like salmon for supper tonight!"
Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. is one of the world's leading integrative medical authorities on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He is the lead author of eight research studies on their effective treatments, and has published numerous health & wellness books, including the bestseller on fibromyalgia From Fatigued to Fantastic! and The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution. Dr. Teitelbaum is one of the most frequently quoted fibromyalgia experts in the world and appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide including Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and Fox News Health.
