Doc Meek

Posts Tagged ‘cognitive functioning’

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I just spent an hour with a man who specializes in solving chronic “unsolvable” medical problems. He is an MD with a wall full of specialization certificates. More importantly, he is highly knowledgeable, reliable, honest, trustworthy, dedicated, relentless, and kind. He also has a wry understated sense of humor. A rare human being.

He is more like a “Sherlock Holmes” of mysterious illnesses and their causes, than a medical practitioner, although of course he is both. Some of these mysterious illnesses involve both the body and the brain, and the patients may suffer from various learning problems or psychological problems, in addition to physical issues.

Detection of toxicity in the body or brain not easy

Initial investigation of a mysterious chronic illness may involve the standard blood and urine laboratory tests with which most of us are familiar. If exposure to a toxic substance has been relatively recent, there may be good evidence of the toxin in the blood serum or urine.

However, if the exposure is from an earlier time in the patient’s life, the body has usually tried to protect the person by removing the toxin from immediate circulation and sequestering it in some organ or bone or muscle or fatty tissue, including the brain.

It takes specialized testing, in some cases highly specialized testing, to determine whether we have dangerous toxins sequestered in our body or our brain.

Why is it so important to know that poisons can “hide out” in our body and brain?

Because many a person has been deluded into thinking they have no serious toxic issues (based on lab results showing no toxins in the blood or urine), when in fact their body or brain could be loaded with mercury or lead, both highly toxic substances. And mercury or lead must be removed from the body and the brain, if the person is to recover normal health.

And urgently to the point, mercury and lead must be removed safely, or the toxic issues are worsened, not bettered.

Even MDs are sometimes misled when lab results show no toxicity in the blood or urine. They assure the patient that s/he has no tested-for toxins, and may show the patient the lab results as “proof.”

This is kind of like showing dry, caked/cracked  desert earth as “proof” of no rain, after the flash flood has wreaked great havoc and all drained away. 😮

Nutrient deficiencies are also a clue to brain dysfunction

The first order of business is to drench the body/mind system in the nutrients and micro-nutrients they need for optimum functioning. Obviously, any general or specific nutrient deficiencies would be addressed at an early stage of any investigation of human health issues.

Second, avoid further toxic exposures to all incoming toxicities humanly possible to avoid.

Then, slowly and safely, detoxify. Many people try to detoxify first, before strengthening the body and this is usually a mistake unless it is an emergency, a matter of life and death, or almost that. The reason is that detoxification taxes the body/mind’s resources and we want the body/mind system to have optimal power to handle the detox.

After the toxin has been slowly and safely removed, the patient must continue to feed the body and brain the essential micro-nutrients required for health (toxin or no toxin).

Prescribed drugs may be offered as well, to assist, and these need to be given very careful consideration, with great attention being paid to possible detrimental side effects (often ignored or glanced at cursorily).

I like to err on the side of caution and conservatism when it comes to drugs. In some cases, they are essential and life-saving, and hopefully temporary. In too many cases, however, side effects can be damaging to future welfare and drug dependency is engendered, even in cases where superior alternatives exist.

Obviously there is wisdom in getting a second opinion. And a third maybe, remembering always what my friend says:

“It’s best not to ask a barber (only) whether you need a haircut or not.” 😮

Recently, I was delighted to see in a book I was reading [Dr. Edward Howell (1995), Enzyme Nutrition: The Food Enzyme Concept] this healthy statement: “It is a sign of wisdom, not cowardice, to seek a second or third opinion.”

Learning strategies must be engaged

Beyond the healthy biological steps just mentioned, the person must take steps to teach his body and mind how to work properly again, much like a person would need to learn to walk again, after having a leg in a cast for a lengthy period of time.

And in some cases, where the person has never had good health, it is a case of learning for the first time how to manage the body and the brain properly, for good health and for good function. Such new learning strategies are essential, as a vital adjunct to good physical health for both body and mind.

Happy cognitive functioning!

Doc Meek

Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA; and South Jordan, Utah, USA