The year is coming to a close and as I like to do each year end, I have been reflecting on the changes that have come in these last twelve months. I think the most exciting always every year are the new births-the miracles in life that I think keep us all going and are even more inspiring when they come through a person having struggled with health and conquered that obstacle. Perhaps even more special is that we are often honored to become a part of those baby’s healthcare-we may then be able to influence the next generation in a positive way.

Each year, I enjoy reflecting on and comparing our current thinking with what it was when we started this work more than 20 years ago. I have been reflecting on some of the really great people impacting this filed whom are no longer with us, like Dr. Fuggazzato. Dr. fuggazzato made a huge mark on the face of Interstitial Cystitis. He influenced me tremendously at the beginning of my career along with many others that were included in my Doctoral Thesis- but he really made a big impact on my thinking at the time. He helped many people over his career because of his forward thinking. His work was the reason I conducted broth cultures with every patient that came in to see me at that time in my career.

That work ultimately led me to realize that, the urine of those having IC more often than not showed an overgrowth of Strep B or e.coli with an occasional presence of other organisms such as Klebsiella Pneumoniae. More and more I began to realize that the infectious organisms were occurring from within the body as opposed from an outside source.

Dr. Leslie Kaplan is another doctor who has made his mark in the lives of so many women with IC-I don’t think he is discussed much on line, but he has helped so many women and more than anything I have appreciated that we have been able to refer one to the other over the last two decades. I have appreciated his respect for what I do and I very much respect him for what he does.

So much has changed in the last two decades not the least of which is how technology has been expanding at lightening speed and is effecting everything in the world including healthcare. There has also been a huge growth in the arena of chronic healthcare and the thinking involved with helping these conditions and as many doctors to meet that sadly epidemic demand.

In the UK one doctor’s work is very interesting to me– Professor James Malone-Lee in UK. His work- as I see it from a distance is similar to mine in that he is focusing in on the various bacterium that are lurking in the body and recognizing that the frustrating issues that surround these bacterium quite literally, are the biofilms that make them quite illusive. Some other heroes more specific to chronic healthcare and CFS-a condition that often is suffered by many having IC-Dr. Myhill and Dr. Forsyth also in UK. They are both doing their own work in this area and helping so many people profoundly.

The thing that I love about all of these different doctors specializing in these different areas of unwellness from their own area of medicine is that it allows a patient to find the methods that work for her, or him. For some the paradigm of a Western medicine is unthinkable, whereas for others an alternative paradigm is rubbish. Many people are somewhere in between and love to have these paradigms merged.

The holiday season often brings sentiment. Perhaps that is why in the last month several people have popped up from the past, reaching out to express happiness and gratefulness for what they have been given back in life because of the work that we did together. This has definitely made going into this holiday season even more meaningful. Few things bring us greater joy than to know we have helped make a change in someone’s life.

Many current people under my care reminded me of why I began this work in the first place- they expressed appreciation for simply being… “believed”. When I first embarked upon this journey, I remember what it was for no one to believe that there was anything wrong with me. As I became better myself, I realized the importance of helping others and “believing” without judgement. I remember one family mocking me for the “allowing” their family member to express her pain in what they though were ludicrous words. But, for me, they were not at all ludicrous if those words were appropriate adjective for her discomfort. This is something that is very difficult to understand if one themselves have not suffered deeply.

Something that also made me feel so grateful myself was how many people acknowledged how important it has been for them to know that we have simply always “been there”-on the other side of an email when they needed a shoulder to cry on or an answer because they were in pain-acknowledging that this is something we have done all of these years even through our vacations without exception. This really touched my heart-deeply-as this is only one small bit of what we do outside our working hours motivated by our deep compassion.

Of course we have not and can not help every person that comes to us for help. No person is capable of such a thing. However as true as that may be, it pains my soul no matter the reason regardless of where that reason falls. I have contemplated this issue tremendously, as, it is my deep belief (and this is also what I was taught by my Ph.D. Professor, Jeffrey Yuen, a world renown healer and one of the most highly esteemed in our field of Chinese medicine) that no one person can help all people. The variables when it comes to the human being are endless. When we fall short of helping someone, it brings us equal sadness and sense of loss as it does the person we are endeavoring to help. Each of us learn from our failures just as much as our successes.

It is especially exciting to see that the foundation of what we feel is at the heart of the chronic condition of IC is currently getting attention from virtually every area of healthcare today- the microbiome. Of course each of us have our particular viewpoint into this important part of health and illness, but so many of us agree that this is indeed the fundamental aspect of what drives health and disease.

Further, there has been an incredible amount of growth genetics and the many types of flaws that may contribute to chronic health conditions. There have also been huge changes in the thinking on the use of antibiotics-the importance of which goes back to the idea that the health of the microbiome is greatly fundamental to health. Some other topics that are exciting–microbial transplants, nutritional alternatives, and alternative cancer treatments.

So, comparing what we know now to what we knew 20 years ago—well this is a much expanded version of the same things we were thinking back then. We have ways in which to support our understanding of things more fully. One example is the now well known MTHFR gene flaw-Dr. Lynch is one of the top experts in this area of medicine. As the years have passed, I began to realize that more and more of my patients were being tested for and having some positive variation of this gene flaw (s). I became so interested in this, I reached out to one of my professors to conduct a retrospective study on my patients to see how many of them had this flaw to understand better why, if, I did not do what the now common treatments are for it, why they got better. (23Andme is a resource for genetic testing).

To me, the answer is simply that we were using Chinese medicine. At one point in my fascination of all of this, I decided to test myself. As it turns out, I have the homozygous forms of the two genes contributing to this gene flaw placing my body at an incredible disadvantage for health. Yet, I too was able, as many know to regain my health solely through this kind of healthcare despite not knowing until many many years after the fact.

However, having the ability to test for these kinds of genetic flaws is something we could not do years ago and it offers us the ability to make choices that we may not have made before ultimately increasing our ability to be more effective-certainly altering our food choices and being able to fine tune our supplement choices.

Cancer is also be an offshoot of these gene flaws and as such it became quite important for me to focus more on that subject as well. Thank goodness it has come up very little very little over these 20 years. It does seem to pop up everywhere though for all of us I believe-like chronic illness, it feels so epidemic. Thetruthaboutcancer.com is becoming a huge and wonderful resource for alternative cancer treatment information, as is chrisbeatcancer.com. I have posted numerous times on Dr. Stanislov Burzynski as well-someone doing incredible work in this field. There are numerous things that are being done in this filed of research that correlates with both cancer and chronic illness. The use of marijuana is one example-one that I personally shut my mind to for all of these years. And, while I personally do not ingest this substance, I have definitely opened my mind to all that is going on in this area both internally and topically. We have reached out to Dr. Alan Frankel in Los Angeles and learned more about what he is doing there and with his ties to another well known Doctor in this field in Israel. As an extension of that I have also been intrigued by the use of marijuana in its raw form juicing the plant. The thing that I found of most interest is that the theories he was reviewing with me very much cross over to the theories behind chronic illness—I remain open on this topic.

I have found myself reading endlessly on this subject and improving my own knowledge of it from the point of view of Chinese and Western alternative thinking. We do not intend to treat cancer but, as it is important to understand the many things that may culminate from the route of origin, we felt this was very important to dedicate time to. We have passed on what we have learned to whomever has needed it, taking our personal time to deliver that information because one never knows what small piece of information may save a life. These are things we do with our time away from work because it is important to make a difference in what we do as human beings as much as what we do professionally.

Another related thing that we have considered paramount to healing is water. Anyone who has worked with us knows how we feel about this subject. Last year, we moved into a new home with a well. In the past with patients we have noticed that even with wells, those people did not do as well as when they switched to bottled water. However– we are huge advocates for a Green lifestyle for our bodies and for our Earth. These bottles are wasteful and not something that we would like to continue to advocate. We are always looking for ways to stop this practice but have not found any means to do so. When we moved into our new home, we decided to seek assistance in examining the quality of our well and installing a system which would neutralize the issues we found with it and drive that healthy water to our entire home so our bathing water was as clean as our drinking water. Reverse Osmosis was not an option for us as we have continued to correlate the use of RO as one factor that may occur with a pre-onset of IC (there are so many-so we are not implicating RO water as a single cause). So we worked with a lab and installed a system that was individualized specific to our needs. It has been one year now and we are all continuing to do well with no noticeable changes in either direction to any of our states of health. This is exciting as we would like to take this information and experience and apply it to our patients at time where we feel safe in doing so.

One challenge of practicing Chinese medicine is correlating it with the Western model of physiology in a way that can be understood- so it doesn’t sound- “Chinese”! This is where Boaz far surpasses me, as even I am in awe of him when I listen. We often say we need to record some of these conversations for viewing because they are truly helpful for people who want to know more and truly understand. I think often because the concepts are so foreign that it is easy to think that certain issues are not always being addressed within this system of treatment. I think what has been incredible to me over these years is witnessing the improvement that may occur (the MTHFR example above being one) because although the system of diagnosis was different the end result was the same. However-both the caregiver and the person receiving that care really need to be on the same page to be able to reach the place they are both hoping to reach together.

This said-again, no system is perfect. And, while many systems are effective in diagnosis and treatment, the human variable is astounding. So, lastly—I have been contemplating the why with regard to that. The human factor involves so many things. And, a person’s environment-meaning the health of their homes, their work spaces, their relationships, etc….all matter! And, perhaps they matter more than once thought. This is where sometimes other forms of treatment may become quite necessary-and in the current state of alternative health, there are so many alternative types of care in this area.

As we have spent the better part of the last several years discussing the future of the ICAMA, and our vision moving forward, We have considered many scenarios. It has been challenging for many reasons in the last two years as the wonders of internet communication, while incredibly helpful may also sometimes create interference and misinformation. The challenge to keep up with all that goes on behind the scenes of patient care is quite daunting when the spin of internet communication is layered on top. Support becomes more and more necessary but is not always available to smaller organizations such as ours.

In consideration of how we may serve our patient community and humanity best, Boaz and I have decided to refocus the ICAMA in the direction of being a resource for information and networking for all of those who are doing valuable work with IC and it’s related conditions, realizing that we are deeply passionate about our work but that it is also very important to try and be the string that helps to ties all of the people together that are fighting the same battle. It has been our life’s work to not only treat but to educate and create awareness on the importance of the things we have learned and to assist in, not only the treatment of, but the prevention of IC and it’s related conditions to the present population and the coming generations. We have been in existence for over 20 years and carry a wealth of information that we would like to share, but we will be reaching out and creating an effective network of doctors who will be willing to interact and communicate with one another in the spirit of truly making a huge impact on world health as it relates to IC and its related conditions.

We would like to include such things as inviting commentary from and featuring other doctors/practitioners that will join us in the ICAMA vision of being a united force of information in this important field of health.

We will also likely be asking for volunteers whom may be able to donate their time on a regular basis to assist us in maintaining this site so that we may uphold its function within the community in the highest standard of conduct. (If you are interested, please contact us privately).

We remain very passionate with the paradigm within which we work, but acknowledging that what each of the unique heroes of medicine and health today are doing and creating a forum through which to share a platform for those bodies of work seems critical in today’s current state of affairs. We welcome all respectful commentary to this blog.

Happy New Year-much health!

ICAMA

We use raw milk as a part of our nutritional protocols. Many believe that raw milk is bad because it is dairy. What we always say is that it is not the dairy, but the non-raw dairy that is the problem. I like the following article as it points to this issue a a couple of others which we also agree are important to health and to healing:

http://healinglifeisnatural.com/harvard-scientist-urges-people-to-stop-drinking-low-fat-milk-immediately/

The Emotionality Of Un-wellness….

Do you ever wonder why you have a “theme” to your emotions? Do you wonder why the same emotional patterns seem to reappear in your life over and over and don’t seem to be within your control? Do people blame you for not being able to control yourself emotionally?

Emotions are often the outward expression of the internal imbalance. Outward signs are often an indication of internal “wrong-goings”. These can be visual as in skin or hair or muscles and joints for example, but very often it is emotion and, no, you are not crazy!

This 5 Element (one of many systems of thought in Chinese medicine) chart below is a very very rudimentary chart correlating each organ with its corresponding emotion (s). Varying types of an emotion can be relevant to an organ depending on the way in which that organ is imbalanced. This helps identify patterns for the Chinese medicine practitioner in helping the individual.

Basic five elements characteristics and classifications 

I thought this might be an interesting chart for those wondering about their feelings and if there is something else going on besides the fact they can’t seem to “get a hold of themselves”. This is obviously just a chart-but perhaps it is helpful to see that even thousands of years ago when this incredible system of medicine was being developed, connections were being made between physiological imbalances and emotion. I think sometimes even though we know so much more today technologically there was more wisdom all of those years ago.

The Web That Has No Weaver by Ted Kaptchuck was my very first book discussing Chinese medicine and all of it’s basic concepts. It was life changing for me. I highly recommend it for people wanting to learn more about the subject or even people already deep into the use of Chinese medicine as a method of healthcare wanting to delve deeper.

Dr. M

The concept of the tree trunk and it’s branches is one I use all of the time draw an analogy to better understand the model for illness in the gut and how that is the core root for chronic illness of most kinds. This is repeatedly useful as it helps to illustrate the concept of how an imbalanced gut can lead to different types of symptoms and/or other chronic conditions. If the trunk is unhealthy-there may be limbs rich with green leaves, while other limbs may have leaves that look sick, while some limbs may have no leaves at all. In a case like this, does it make sense to put fertilizer or medicine on the limb? Probably not. But this is essentially what is happening in a lot of cases where medical caregivers are addressing symptoms but in my humble opinion not really understanding what is driving it to happen. In my opinion, this is one area where test results may be confusing and lead the treatment plan in the wrong direction.

For example for as many times as we see high TSH meaning Hypothyroid function—we also see patients being prescribed thyroid medication. But….in chronic inflmmatory conditions iwe find that using thyroid medication for this problem only succeeds in driving the inflammation into a heightened state. Why? The reason is because the thyroid is not hypofuncitoning due to the thyroid being the primary problem. It is rather a secondary problem to the inflammation itself. If you administer medication-it only pushes an organ that is already stressed which then creates more inflammation and more pain. I had someone call me last week who went by all of the markers her MD found to be off and after three weeks of following the protoco that Dr prescribed her pain levels were exponentially worse. Thyroid was one.

We are not saying of course that there are not exceptions to that rule-of course there are situations where the thryoid could be a part of the primary problem. However, these problems definitely need to be taken into the context of the person’s condition. And, this is where different caregivers could do better working together as a team-offering equally valuable insight to the patient.

Another subject that came up with this patient was the number of supplements that she had added to her protocol that she said were benign-as they were simply to help her digestion/gut. There is not such thing as benign. Anything you put in your mouth or on your body will have an effect. Those substances must be strictly balanced when inflammation is high. That strictness may be loosened up step by step as the inflammation is lower and lower. One substance that she viewed as benign was an enzymatic formula which, is a very very strong supplement. When using enzymes one must consider it relevance and if it is determined to be relevant how to balance it out so that the body does not respond with greater inflammation. Another one that came up this week was sachromayces boulardii-this is a substance that I am personally not a fan of after having tirelessly revisited it over the last 20 years.

I think the real issue is- there is a where, a when, and in whom when it comes to everything. And the focus of good treatment is a blanced one. Revisiting the concept of Compensation-it is easier to understand how the body will swing in  response to what is going on with it both in sickness and in health. So giving it an avenue that is balanced to follow toward the ultimate goal of health is paramount to actually being able to arrive at that destination.

Dr. M & B

When we first started practicing 20 years ago-we were on board with the idea like everyone else that high cholesterol was an evil to be treated fiercely. Over time, we started to realize that patients who came to us-with high levels of inflammation also had high cholesterol. What was more interesting was that over time with the diet methods we employ and the anti-inflamatory protocols (which at first look might look like something that would increase cholesterol) actually were lowering cholesterol levels without doing anything with the intention of lowering it. As we continued on the Ph.D. path, studying under world renown Jeffrey Yuen, we came to be familiar with the term Compensation, which, is explained in Dr. Matia Brizman’s thesis. Elevated levels of cholesterol are one example of how Compensation works..the body’s natural response to endeavor to cool down the inflammatory cycle and protect the body.

We came to realize and connect the dots that we really did not need to do anything else in repsonse to these elevated levels of cholesterol short of treating the body as a whole, which is of course what this medicine we practice is based in. As these years of practice have passed, more and more Western research is substantiating these ideas. The following article is based on the view point of cancer prevention-of course everyone has the perspective of their own medical art. But it is all wrapped up in one and applicable to all isn’t it? We all need to substantiate one another’s work. One day we will all work together for the greater good of each person seeking thorough integrative care. 

https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/cholesterol-statin-drugs-cancer/?gl=582832925&mpweb=144-1690407-535647452

Dr. M & B

I just received this article in my email from a patient and wow, wow, wow. For the first time, a researcher who is saying the same thing that we are almost to the “T”. Incredible. For anyone who knows and understands our work, this article is a must read. http://www.healthrising.org/blog/2015/12/21/exercise-gut-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-cfs/ 

This is a great article on vitamin D, which we use all of the time, where and when appropriate (which is always key). It is one of the supplements we use to help the Gut repair itself and the immune system correct itself. And, what an appropriate study which back this dynamic up from a scientific view point. 

High-dose vitamin D may boost diversity of the gut microbiome: Study

By 27-May-2016 
Last updated on 27-May-2016 at 16:00 GMT

Someone asked me to post this recipe-I am not very exact with my cooking and baking but this is pretty darn close. This is a rich, moist, bread/non-sweet cake that is super yummy alone or with something else.

A fun snack that is nutritious and fun: Approximately

3 cups Almond Flour (or a flour of your choice –results will alter as you cange the flour though)

2 eggs

1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda

a couple of swigs of vanilla extract

1 stick butter

a bit of himalayan salt  

milk ( i use raw organic)–enough to create some moisture enough to make it kneadable like bread dough

Bake in a greased pan (also with butter) at 350 for about 1/2 an hour

This is a nice snack that has a great balance of protein and carb for a snack and you could alternate flours to change the taste

I have posted a bit on this topic because cancer seems to be everywhere and I think that it has a strong relevancy when thinking of your chronic health. Although in the ICAMA world we are dealing with the bladder-it is really a condition of the entire system, as is cancer. These are simply two different manifestations of similar imbalances. I have had a difficult time reconciling in my mind over the years why very different diets seem to work for cancer and how that relates to IC. I stumbled upon this article a couple of days ago and I can’t get it out of my head, as I think it really correlates with my thinking with the work that we do with IC in that–different, sometimes VERY different diets and supplements must be used to assist someone in rebalancing their body. This article is a bit lengthy, but, keep reading as I do think the information is quite good. I have posted a lot about the ketogenic diet and cancer–but, this article discusses that and then the flip side. The foundation of Chinese medicine is based upon the idea that we are all so very different and our imbalances are unique and therefore must be untangled relative to that unique presentation. This is a very similar discussion: http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/dr-gonzalez-dismantles-ketogenic-diet-for-cancer/

Dr.M

Tics have been a big problem this year it seems-depending on where you are in the world. I have learned some pretty cool stuff over the last month in trying to combat it. I have so many animals, it’s critical to have this under control in my household. I have been doing a few things–one of which, I am not entirely on board with but, I believe it is working and may be the lesser of evils—goat formula (as in the dried powder of the mothers milk of goats, which, is fortified with….brewers yeast, yikes, a big no no in  my book. But, I noticed that my goats were literally never getting tics while my dogs were geting many. So of course the next logical thought was what were the goats doing that the dogs weren’t. Well, they are babies-I am feeding them goat formula. So as I compared the goat formula ingredients to the kinds of natural things that dogs are being given to help ward off tics, the common ingredient was brewers yeast. YIKES! I am NOT a fan of brewers yeast. BUT, I felt desperate as I am not a fan of tics either. So, I started giving my dogs some of the goat formula every day. Immediately, I noticed about a 90% improveement-incredible. Because I was so worried about this and me missing one and them coming into my home, I did everything so I muddied the variables somewhat and added in tow more things–one pretty cool-some would say crazy. One is a tag–a dog tag of sorts that is said to sync with the biochemistry of the animal wearing it and then send signals to make the animal unattractive to tics and the other an essential oil collar. I purchased these at onlynaturalpet.com a very cool site for natural pet products. Since I have been doing this, I have only found a couple of tics on the dogs if they go into an area of ivy infested with them. I otherwise have not found any! I need to close by saying again, I am not a fan of using yeast at all-ever for my patients, but the reason I was open to it in my animals is because I have an animal right now I am working on that has huge problems and one of the ingredients that has been helping him is a product with brewers yeast in it-he also, along with the goats has not had one tic. So, I am considering the possibility that while it may not be something I ever consider in my patients, it may just prove to be useful for these things in pets. I wanted to share these insights as I thought they were important.

Dr.M

I would love to know how many of you sleep flat as opposed to with your head slightly or greatly elevated and why–what it makes you feel. Would love your input.

Dr. M & B