Posts Tagged ‘environmental medicine’

 Can Fish Oil Help My Struggling Child?

Parents often ask if fish oil can help their child struggling with learning difficulties. I like to tell them the “bigger story” from my colleague, a doctor of environmental medicine. Let’s call him Dr. Child.

Dr. Child says, “In general, any good nutrients that help the body can potentially help the brain as well.”

“Fish oil can be a good body and brain helper. Here is why.”

“The important component for the brain is the DHA in the fish oil.”

It’s the DHA we are looking for

DHA? Docosahexaenoic acid: an omega-3 fatty acid present in fish oils.

DHA can also be found in krill oil and is available from certain algae as well.

Dr. Child says that DHA (not necessarily the EPA) us the key to brain health.

EPA? Eicosapentaenoic acid: an omega-3 fatty acid present in fish oils; also good for you but it is not the quintessential component for brain health that DHA is.

Dr. Daniel Amen (his actual name) in his book “Healing ADD” says that you need a fairly high dose if DHA to be effective. To heal ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) requires at least 2,000 mg of DHA, plus other considerations.

It’s not enough to put the good stuff in;

we need to get the bad stuff out

Dr. Child reminds us that some fish and some fish oils are contaminated with mercury,  and so we need to be alert to make sure the product we are choosing for our child is clean.

Dr. Child also reminds us that in addition to putting in good brain micronutrients, we need to test to see if existing levels of brain toxins (like mercury and lead) are present in the brain already, since “the bad stuff  interferes with learning no matter how much good stuff you put in.”

Glutathione can help the brain heal

A gentle place to start in removal of heavy metals from the brain, says Dr. Child, is to use glutathione, since it is a substance the body is already using to help clean unwanted debris from human cells, and it is effective in cleaning out brain cells.

The glutathioine supplement must be the liquid liposomal form of glutathione however as regular glutathione is mostly destroyed in the digestive process.

Liposomal means that the glutathione is packaged in a lipid (fatty) molecule so that the glutathione has access to the cell at the cellular level.

Stronger measures may be needed

if mercury or lead levels are high

in the child’s brain

Extra measures should be supervised medically.

Environmental medicine have had good success removing mercury and lead using oral detoxifiers such as DMSA and EDTA, respectively, which chelate (bind to metals) and help to remove them from the body and brain. 

DMSA? Dimercaptosuccinic acid: used to remove mercury and other heavy metals.

EDTA? Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid: used to remove lead and other heavy metals.

Dr. Child advises that IV (intravenous) chelation should be used only as a last resort. It is usually better to remove the heavy metals and other brain toxins slowly and gradually over time, using gentler oral detoxifiers.

Doc Meek, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA, May 13, 2014

Image credit: www.123rf.com

“Smog” we know, but

“electrosmog?”

Our modern culture has come to know that we have to watch for biohazards in our food and drink. We have also learned that if airborne contaminants become too concentrated we can suffer from health-hazardous smog when we breathe.

Apparently the word “smog” was invented to denote a bad combination of smoke and fog.

The word “electrosmog” is a non-sequitur because it cannot possibly denote a bad combination of electromagnetic radiation (EMR), smoke, and fog.

However, “electrosmog” does connote a bad combination of EMR (electromagnetic radiation) and the human brain.

The “smog” part of the word “electrosmog” conjures up in our minds a serious biohazard.

And EMR (electromagnetic radiation) is definitely a biohazard.

EMR is especially hazardous to the human brain, especially the student brain, the learning brain.

However, no one wants to talk about it, it seems.

The wife of a friend of mine says that it is OK to talk about biochemical hazards and toxic chemicals because we are all familiar with the territory, but talking about the effects of electricity being hazardous (aside from being shocked of course) is “weird.”

“Leave it alone,” she advises.

Enter Environmental Medicine

A colleague of mine, an MD with a Board-Certified specialty in Environmental Medicine, related a tough case he faced recently.

A teenage boy (let’s call him Harold) was brought in by his parents because he had changed from being a successful outgoing high school student into a paranoid psychotic psychiatric case in the course of only a few months.

Harold had been placed on several prescribed drugs in an attempt to control his symptoms, and was now not only “zombied out” on this drug cocktail, but was still paranoid, psychotic, socially isolated, and hostile when approached in his bedroom “hideout.”

Harold was no longer able to attend school, and his psychiatrist pronounced a dismal prognosis: Harold was likely a permanent psychiatric case and would have to be on drugs for the rest of his life.

Alarmed, the parents felt that “something” had caused Harold’s decline and they were determined to ferret out the cause.

The environmental medicine specialist tested for “everything under the sun” and could find no cause in relation to possible toxins in Harold’s food, water, or air. Neither could the doctor find any nutrient or micronutrient deficiencies in Harold’s body or brain.

Aside from the prescribed drugs, Harold was found to be free of toxins and deficiencies. All the biological and biochemical tests came back in the normal range.

What about EMR (electromagnetic radiation)?

The doctor knew from previous experience that electronic equipment of all kinds can be a cause of brain malfunction, so all of the computers, cell phones, cordless phones, video games, etc., were cleared out of Harold’s bedroom and placed in a separate study room, far removed from the bedroom.

And Harold’s time with all of this electronic equipment was limited so his brain would have a chance to heal.

No improvement.

Mystified, the good doctor took his EMR-detection equipment to the boy’s home and scanned the bedroom. Nothing. All of the electronics had been removed, so theoretically, no EMR. Right?

Suddenly, at the head of the bed, right where Harold’s head would rest on his pillow at night, or whenever he napped throughout the day, the EMR metre shot sky high.

But there was nothing there. No electronics. No electrical equipment of any kind. Not even a clock radio.

It took quite awhile to figure out that just outside the bedroom wall where Harold’s head rested fitfully every night was the heavy-duty main mast and conduit for all of the electricity that entered the house from the power pole nearby in the alley.

EMR to the max.

No one had suspected of course.

Harold’s Brain is Moved Away from the EMR Danger

Harold’s bed was placed in the spare bedroom, far removed from the main electric power mast against the outside of the house, and far removed from all of the electronics in the study room.

Would it surprise you to learn that Harold quickly began to return to the boy he once was?

Off his heavy-duty psychiatric drugs now, Harold once again became the successful and outgoing student he was before he began to sleep in the bed with his head next to the power mast on the outside of his bedroom wall.

Conclusion?

Sometimes professionals have to act more like Sherlock Holmes–the brilliant and famous detective—than to stay within their usual selves in their own areas of expertise.

“Weird?”

Doc Meek, Neurological Learning Specialist, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA, Wed, May 7, 2014