Ellen Potthoff, DC, ND

Ellen Potthoff, D.C., N.D.

6528 Parkdale Plaza

Martinez, Ca. 94553

(925) 229-2645

6^th ENewsletter

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day celebration!! Here we are in a new year – with plenty of rain to keep things growing nicely now.

There are several current articles in this copy of the enewsletter. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comment, as always, please share them with me.

Food Poisoning Can Return with a Vengeance

I was intrigued by an article in the Contra Costa Times about how food poisoning can return years later and cause serious health problems. As reported by the Times, E. coli and other specific bacteria, like Salmonella and Shigella, can return 10-20 years later and cause symptoms like high blood pressure, diabetes or pancreatitis, kidney damage and even full kidney failure. Even a mild case of Campylobacter poisoning can cause paralysis (emphasis mine) at a later date.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) says that 325,000 hospitalizations occur annually due to food-borne illnesses and 5,000 deaths result. For the most part there is mystery surrounding these occurrences. The best information regarding this phenomenon comes from the University of Utah, which tracks E. coli poisoning in children. About 10% of these patients develop a life-threatening condition that cause kidney and other organ failure. Ten to twenty years after recovery 30-50% of the syndrome’s survivors have some kidney-caused problem, according to Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university’s pediatric infectious diseases chief.

As a practitioner I was intrigued by the mystery surrounding this condition. As anyone who watches TV knows, Activia (yogurt, a bacterially cultured product), is purported to help replenish bowel flora (bacteria). As their ads point out, 60-70% of the immune system is located in the tissues lining the colon, so eating Activia can improve immune function. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that particular product, eating a high quality yogurt has kept long-lived groups healthy, including the Hunzas and the Georgian Russians. Yogurt and other cultured and fermented products are associated with several groups known for their level of health and longevity (think homemade brined sauerkraut, tempeh, kefir etc.). It doesn’t take much thought to move from food poisoning to altered immune function.

Unfortunately, even well-meaning practitioners can cause further illness by killing off offending bacteria without supporting liver function first (the liver filters all waste materials from the blood including bacterial bodies). These dead bacterial cells can cause toxicity on their own. If the digestive tract is not in good enough condition to eliminate them on its own, the immune system and the liver must do the job. In this country where poor fat quality, alcohol/drug consumption and anger impair the liver; there is rampant stress; and where there is little support for immune function (as in eating a very good quality yogurt, taking probiotics – beneficial bacteria in capsule form) or taking immune modulating herbs), the whole body responds to such an assault and could cause all manner of disastrous symptoms.

The bottom line is, of course, to take good care of your colon flora (bacteria). Use antibiotics with extreme care and as infrequently as possible. If you are susceptible, one major course can wipe out your colon bacteria, and without adequate replacement, you can experience an invasion of unwanted bacteria or other micro-organisms, through contaminated water, or food. It can take quite a time to re-establish your colon flora, and if you are susceptible, it can take a long time to do so. I had one patient who took antibiotics for a year to kill some candida (yeast) on her skin (she was a swimmer and the pool’s chlorine killed off the beneficial flora on her skin leaving her open to the candidal invasion, but that is another story). It took almost a year to re-establish her bowel flora with probiotics and other supplements. Fortunately, the candida, when it returned, was easily killed off by using dilute tea tree oil.

I often do digestive function testing for patients with digestive symptoms, and multi-system problems (chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, etc.). Not only is the digestive system the core of bodily function, but it is the basis of practice in Naturopathic medicine. We try to optimize digestive function early on in treatment, especially in complex cases. If you have any interest in finding out how your digestive function is, these particular tests are relatively inexpensive and very easy to perform (painless too!!). Just give me a call and we can easily start the ball rolling.

Beyond that, food poisoning is relatively easy to prevent and treat – so it is unfortunate to ever become victim to late sequelae of a food borne infection

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The Question of Faith – Is it a Wonder Drug?

Another recent article in the CC Times made me perk up and take notice. It involved the case of a 43 year old pregnant Martinez woman who suffered two successive brain hemorrhages. Her husband claimed that his and their congregation’s prayers were instrumental in her long-shot recovery. Scientists have frequently studied the role of faith and prayer in healing. Dr. Larry Dossey, in a well-known study, showed that in two equally matched hospital groups, the group that was prayed for recovered faster than the control group.

The article goes on to talk about some prestigious institutions who were studying the relationship between prayer/faith and healing. More than half of the physicians surveyed by a group at the University of Chicago said that religion and spirituality significantly influence their patients’ health. The authors of a study at the University of Missouri at Columbia determined that religion can help those with chronic conditions, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and arthritis.

According to the Times, the “John Muir Medical center in Walnut Creek recently advertised for a supervising nurse with theological education. The new manager will offer support to nurses who work with religious congregations.”

In the meantime, there is a parish nursing specialty that focuses on spirit within the confines of health care. Rebecca Faith, who counsels, instructs and refers parishioners at First Congregational Church of Oakland, is a nurse practitioner at both UC San Francisco and Alta Bates Summit Hospital in Oakland. She says that many chronic health problems have at their root a spiritual as well as a physiological dysfunction. She sees an epidemic of anxiety and fatigue among women. When asked “How’s your spiritual life?” they will reply that they used to meditate but don’t anymore.

A spiritual emptiness helps spur addiction, and irreverence for the body as a sacred vessel can lead to disorders such as obesity and hypertension, she said. She prays with them and speaks to their values and beliefs.

In the holistic world, we wholeheartedly agree that a person’s spiritual experience colors their whole life. Fortunately, in addition to standard prayer, meditation, etc. there are helpful adjunctive therapies: Bach, California and other flower essences, homeopathic medicines and even whole food supplements.

If you are experiencing a spiritual crisis, beyond consulting your spiritual advisor, a holistic consult may prove to be very beneficial. Please feel free to call so we can pursue the matter further. In addition, stress management techniques can be of use as there is a close tie-in to spiritual crisis. I will be teaching some stress management classes coming up soon. Please check below for further information.

Flu Epidemic

You may be one of the unlucky ones, or you may know someone who is suffering from a mild to a much more serious flu. A lot of people seem to be currently “under the weather” with a very nasty 3 week flu and sore throat combo; or maybe the cold and coughing version. Whatever you or your friends or loved ones may be experiencing, my previous advice for the cold and flu season still holds. It is not too late to take some Oscillococcinum. It is very effective for pretty much any cold or non-gastrointestinal flu. Try a dose of a capful and repeat as necessary until symptoms are gone. No more than one dose a day should be necessary. If there is no response within 3 days, it probably will not help you. Resting and drinking a lot of warm fluids are always good options as well.

Stroke risk in middle-aged women

According to a recent study done by Dr. Amytis Towfighi, of the University of Southern California, strokes have increased 3-fold in middle-aged women in the U.S .in the last 5 years. Although only two percent of 35-54 year old women suffered strokes, it is worrisome because strokes usually occur in an older population. The sudden spike in middle age victims is ominous, especially coupled with the fact that it happened even to women on medicines to control cholesterol and blood pressure, steps considered to lower the risk of stroke.

No traditional risk factors like smoking, heart disease or diabetes changed enough to account for the stroke increase. However, women’s waistlines are nearly two inches bigger than they were a decade earlier, a bulge that corresponds with the stroke increase.

Strokes are linked with heart disease, intermittent claudication and even erectile dysfunction. The same plaquing that causes heart disease can cause strokes – it is the same process. There are many treatments for arterial plaquing including chelation. Coupled with improved diet, exercise and lifestyle choices, these conditions can be quickly turned around. Please do not become a statistic!!