July 27, 2015 Puzzle Piece
Dr Childs will be one of our presenters at the January 29-31, 2016 Brimhall Homecoming. The theme this year is Functional Medicine Integration. He has joined our ranks in clinical practice, research, webinar and seminar presentations. He has the ability to read and remember the medical literature, correlate it and then come up with new insights for clinical application.
Topics for preceding webinars and presentations at HOMECOMING 2016:
+ Integrating functional medicine into your current practice: become part of the new paradigm shift
+ Reversing diabetes: prescribing diet, exercise, and nutrition to reverse insulin resistance
+ How to order laboratory testing to diagnose and treat insulin resistance
+ Understanding the hormonal theory of weight loss
+ Adding anti-aging to your current practice
+ Protocols for integrating weight loss/body contouring programs into your current practice
+ Medical integration into your current practice: the combined MD/DC or ND/DC practice
Topics that will be included in the above discussions at our Functional Medicine Integration Symposium:
1. Understanding the biochemistry behind weight loss.
2. Learn how to prescribe high intensity exercise to your patients to increase the youth hormones for true antiaging, working out only one to two days a week.
3. Utilizing laboratory testing for patient care and a full list of nutrition/supplements that assist with weight loss/body contouring backed by science.
4. Peripheral Neuropathy treatment that is truly a niche for success using all “Six Steps”.
5. Genetics, genomics, proteomics and epigenetics, in evaluation and treatment.
John W Brimhall, BA, BS, DC, FIAMA, DIBAK
Big problems call for big solutions. The problems with our current healthcare system are tremendous and solutions will require a huge shift from the conventional paradigm. Our current model is based on symptomatic treatment and the mantra of ‘one pill for every ill’. No regard or consideration is given to underlying cause of disease, or that disease can be prevented. As a result, medicine has become “cookie cutter”. It is based largely on “if this, then that” flow charts.
What do we have to show for this type of Medicine?
Let me share some sobering facts with you:
1. 50% of patients who present to the hospital with a heart attack had an LDL-C of less than 100.
2. There are 78.6 million obese adults in the United States, costing 147 billion dollars (in 2008).
3. Diabetes is a completely reversible disease and yet the American Diabetes association still promotes eating whole grains and nonfat dairy products.
4. We spend more money than any other country and label it Health Care, when it is only Disease Care. We rank the lowest of the industrialized nations in health.
I’ve been a part of this medical system. I trained in it for a decade. I spent several years in the hospital, spending 80+ hours per week taking care of patients. The sad part is I never actually helped anyone. Sure, I got them out of the hospital, but they would invariably return. We treated symptoms and not the causes, so it was only a matter of time and they were right back in the hospital again. Once someone was sucked into the conventional medical system, there they would stay, only to be sent for expensive and frivolous testing which never produced real measureable results. In all my time in conventional medicine I never felt like I was actually helping patients get well and stay that way.
Despite my unhappiness with the current medical model it wasn’t until I became sick that I found how ill-equipped our current medical system really is. During my medical training my weight fluctuated as much as 40 pounds. I suffered from chronic fatigue and anxiety. I developed strange rashes on my skin and irritable bowel syndrome. I was constantly tired despite sleeping more than 8 hours per night. I used all of the knowledge my decade of conventional training had taught me and I ended up with absolutely no results. It wasn’t until I met with Dr. Brimhall and had 1 treatment that I realized something better existed. After 1 session, I was immediately 50 percent better and I gained the rest of my health over the next 3-6 months.
I am a standing testament to the power of functional medicine and I know it is the answer to our current healthcare problem. Functional medicine is built upon root cause analysis. This is the same method of thinking that Dr. Brimhall has been supporting for the last 4 decades but under a different name, the “6 Steps To Wellness”.
This is the solution and it comes just in time.
Patients are tired of the conventional medical system. They don’t want to wait 2-3 weeks to see their doctor. They want to spend more than 7 minutes with them (the average time a primary care physician spends with their patients).
I know because I was on the bad end of their frustrations. Everyday patients would ask me for solutions that did NOT include adding more medications to their regimen. They wanted to spend more time with me. Unfortunately, the hospital dictated how many patients I needed to see per day and it didn’t allow for extended discussion with my patients.
Patients want more; they just don’t know where to turn to get it.
Now is the time to become an early adopter of functional medicine. Your patients are demanding it. By implementing this style of medicine/health care into your practice you can expect more referrals, improved outcomes, better patient compliance and more revenue.
Implementing functional medicine into your practice doesn’t have to be hard. You won’t be able to learn everything in one e-mail, but we can start with the basics.
Before we dive into advanced laboratory testing, reducing chronic inflammation or healing leaky gut (all parts of functional medicine) you should always be thinking of four key aspects of health that need to be addressed on EVERY patient prior to any further work up. These 4 aspects include:
1. Rebooting the diet with proper foods and non GMO, predigested, organic whole food, pre-methylated nutrient supplements like OHS has available
2. Managing stress levels lifestyle changes with nutritional supplements like Opti Adrenal with the many techniques Dr Brimhall teaches
3. Obtaining restorative sleep by specific nutrition and possibly utilizing the Bemer technology that restores normal sleep rhythms
4. Movement, specifically like our ancestors did. Sitting is the next smoking…
Next week in Part II we will dig into each category and expand our discussion of Functional Medicine Integration.
If you have any questions check out restartmed.com for more information or e-mail me at [email protected]
Westin Childs, DO