Cholesterol often wrong target in heart disease risk#health#cholesterol#heartattack

Here is another great post from one of our, Featured Doctors , containing a surprise on one of the big culprits behind heart disease.  Please take a moment to read over the post, and add to your natural immunity resources.

Cholesterol often wrong target in heart disease risk                                                             Cardiology concept.

By Dr Flannery

Everyone has heard that high cholesterol is bad for heart health. But as it turns out, the association between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease has been somewhat misrepresented. Doctors are starting to accept that cholesterol levels do not necessarily predict risk for heart disease as much as we thought. Consider the following:

75 percent of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol.
Older patients with lower cholesterol have a higher risk of death than those with higher cholesterol.
Countries with higher average cholesterol than Americans such as the Swiss or Spanish have less heart disease.
Recent evidence shows that it is likely statins’ ability to lower inflammation that accounts for the benefits of statins, not their ability to lower cholesterol.
We need cholesterol!

Cholesterol is a fat-like substance found in every cell in the human body. The liver makes 75 percent of cholesterol. Cholesterol helps produce cell membranes, vitamin D, and vital hormones, and is needed for neurological function. Put bluntly, we would die without it.
The cholesterol players

When we measure cholesterol levels, we are actually measuring the lipoproteins LDL and HDL. We refer to them as cholesterol, but they are actually small packages of fat and protein that help move cholesterol throughout the body.

High-density lipoprotein — HDL

This is considered “good” cholesterol. It helps keep cholesterol away from your arteries and removes excess arterial plaque.

Low-density lipoprotein — LDL

This is considered “bad” cholesterol. It can build up in the arteries, forming plaque that narrows the arteries and makes them less flexible (atherosclerosis).

Also important are:

Triglycerides

Elevated levels of this dangerous fat have been linked to heart disease and diabetes. Levels rise from eating too many sugars and grains, smoking, being physically inactive, excessive drinking and being overweight.

Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a)

Lp(a) is made up of an LDL part plus a protein (apoprotein a). Elevated Lp(a) levels are a very strong risk for heart disease.

When testing cholesterol, total cholesterol is not as important as:
Levels of HDL “good” cholesterol versus LDL “bad” cholesterol
Triglyceride levels
The ratio of triglycerides to HDL
The ratio of total cholesterol to HDL

In order for cholesterol to cause disease, it has to damage the arterial walls. There are small and large particles of LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. Large particles are practically harmless, while small, dense particles are the dangerous ones, lodging in the arterial walls, causing damage and inflammation. The resulting “scar” is called plaque. Repeated trauma causes a buildup of plaque and chronic inflammation while your risk of high blood pressure and heart attack increases.
The biggest culprits in high cholesterol? Sugar and bad fats!

Although we’ve been taught that a high-fat diet causes problems with cholesterol, the type of fat you eat is more important than the quantity. Trans fats, or hydrogenated and saturated fats, promote abnormal cholesterol, while omega-3 fats and monounsaturated fats actually improve the type of cholesterol in our bodies. Eat your good fats, your body needs them!

The surprise: the biggest source of abnormal cholesterol isn’t dietary fat, but sugar. Sugar (and refined carbs, including processed white foods), drives good cholesterol down and triglycerides up. It causes those small particles, encouraging dangerous plaque buildup, and can lead to heart disease and metabolic syndrome or “pre-diabetes.” Doctors are starting to admit that sugar, not dietary fat, is the bigger cause of most heart attacks.

So, the real concern isn’t really the amount of total cholesterol you have, but the type of fats, sugar, and refined carbohydrates in your diet that lead to abnormal cholesterol production.
Inflammation promotes heart disease

Systemic inflammation plays a key role in heart disease and, in fact, most all chronic illnesses. Systemic inflammation can arise from poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, allergies, and more. Research at Harvard has shown that people with high levels of systemic inflammation (measured by a test called C-reactive protein, or CRP) had higher risk for heart disease than those with high cholesterol, while normal cholesterol was not protective to those with high CRP.

Clearly, multiple factors come together to determine your risk for heart disease, including diet, lifestyle, and environment. If you are concerned about your heart health, contact my office for a comprehensive evaluation to help reveal the factors that may increase your risk for heart disease.

HealthWise Clinical Nutrition

Autism Awareness Month#Autism#ASD#Health

Autism Awareness Month                                                           Lighthouse beaming light ray over stormy clouds

Being this is Autism Awareness month, I decided to take some time to do added research in this area. I was surprised at the material I discovered. To start I have to say, why isn’t insurance covering the speech and behavioral therapies so needed for these children?

There are many parents begging to be heard.  This signaled a recollection of a tune I have heard many, many times over the years.  So often, we look to the authorities for the needed health answers when the ones on the 24 hour front lines have a wealth of valuable information!

One side of the Autism discussion says it’s incurable while the other side shouts that children are healing and being healed.   

Why would groups such as, Autism Speaks and NAAR (National Alliance for Autism Research),  spend so much time and resources on autism genetic research? Last I heard they might consider environmental components as a possibility in relation to Autism for their research.

I found a hope and excitement stemming from parents who are having spectacular results.  Commonalities of healing through biomedical interventions. 

I think if I had a child suffering in this area, I would want to join discussions with TACA , (Talk About Curing Autism).  I would be on the phone with a DAN! Doctor and looking into their conferences. (Defeat Autism Now)

I would be contacting Generation Rescue to find a  Rescue Angel to help me along the path of healing and look into possible grants. I would want to be surrounded with this kind of hope, support and direction.

A great month to donate to Generation Rescue and the Autism Research Institute.

One parent in particular has a site that lends much hope and success stories. Autismrecoveryvideos.org

I read of one family after another that found their way to doctors and research that lends hope and leads to paths of healing.

As I read, across the board, these families lead a hard life.  There is so much behind the scenes that no one sees, and these parents deserve so much love and support.  I hope their lives can be eased in any way possible, and to be able to enjoy any little speck of added affection, and communication with their dear child suffering with autism.  To hope that the many physical symptoms can be healed. A long road, but wouldn’t every little bit be wonderful.

I will continue my research, and share what I come across throughout the month.  On the Featured Doctors menu option are additional doctors with differing methodologies having success in this area as well.  If you haven’t dipped a toe into this life spring of hope then this is a great month to go for a dip.

Autism Awareness Month  – A great month to send our prayers to strengthen our brothers and sisters in this area.  🙂

I came across a quote while researching in the book, Mother Warriors, that really rings true to me.

“Autism is a combination of infections and toxins that can ultimately lead to a neurological breakdown.”

 

 

Allyson McQuinn – Featured Doctors Week#Vaccines#Autism#ASD

I am thrilled to introduce Dr. Allyson McQuinn as one of this week’s Featured Doctors. Dr. McQuinn and her husband have an advanced homeopathic approach they use called, the Heilkunst Treatment.  This husband and wife team have patients they treat the globe over and know how to better the health and heal children with autism.  You will hear more about the details of their approach in the article below.

If you or a loved one have a child with ASD you will love the following story.  Very heartwarming and thrilling to see the healing that little Alexandre has received.  You can read more about this healing method in her first of ten books titled,  “The Path To Cure; The Whole Art of Healing” (www.thepathtocure.com)  I cannot wait to get my hand on this book.

Thank you Dr. Allyson for taking the time to share this precious story of Alexandre and his family.  We hope to hear more from you in the future.

Alexandre; Out of the Spectrum

I first met Alexandre on Feb. 7th, 2013.  I was invited by his mother to meet him in order to begin his Heilkunst Treatment (literally  the whole art and science for healing and curing) for Autism.  While 80% of my patients are treated by Skype, Facetime, Google Hangouts or phone, this time I had the pleasure of meeting this 5 year old in person.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Alexandre’s mom, Nicole, who also introduced me to her very vivacious and outgoing 3 year old, Zoë.  I was invited into Alexandre’s room, which is where I first observed him playing.  He did not look up to greet me, but continued playing, clearly absorbed with his trains and plastic letters.  I was completely astounded by the back of his head, bent slightly forward, and I listened to him breath in concentration.  Something felt hauntingly familiar; ‘Oh my God, he looked exactly like my own son, Jordan, at this age.’

I felt pummelled in the stomach with primal memories of my Jordan’s spectrum gestures.  I was landsliding head-long, back 17 years into what it felt like to have a child who lived in a vacuum, cut off from me, and the rest of the world.  I slowed my own breathing to match Alexandre’s as the tears threatened to choke my throat.  I very quietly and deliberately brought my leg up under me to sit on his bed.  I took out my notebook to take notes, hoping to distract myself and his mother.

It felt like my whole organizing lens was toggling back and forth between my present to my past.  I was recalling very quickly why, over the last 10 years as a Physician of Natural Medicine, that I’ve mostly referred off babes in the spectrum to my husband and fellow physician, Jeff Korentayer.  I’d been attempting to keep it clean and neat, and avoiding this exact pit of tumultuous feelings, still running riotous at my core.

Thankfully, the very familiar intake form that my Office Manager had asked Nicole to fill out prior, was before me, prompting me to start asking the requisite questions as I also tried to process my own feelings. “What’s Alexandre’s diet like? How much water does he drink?  What are his sleeping patterns? Any nightmares?  Where does he spend his days?  What are his verbal skills? When was he diagnosed?” The list went on as I scribbled notes with fervor.

I wrote down the answers and felt myself relax into Alexandre’s case while also allowing myself to feel what it felt like to never have been asked pertinent questions with regards to my own son’s case early on.  I was told by the medical doctor who’d removed the stool manually from my son’s body under general anesthetic that, “… some boys just suffer from extreme gut issues.  We don’t know what causes it, so the best we can do is manage it with drugs and diet.”  At that point, all those years ago, the terror of being trapped without a diagnosis still brings up fear and anger.  The host of alternative practitioners that we consulted offered the same nebulous non-answers, albeit their prescriptions were “more natural,” they’re results impotent.

As I watched Alexandre, I noticed how he loved to place the plastic letters in no particular order, but when Zoë came closer, he would body check her while grunting from his throat with his primal, non-verbalized dissent.  At this point, Nicole was describing how when Alexandre was 2, she was entirely in denial with regards to his developmental milestones even when he never crawled as a baby.  If he got excited, he’d express himself through pinching, biting, or pulling hair.  I recalled these same feelings in me those many years ago when Jordan did not speak, rocking back and forth in a corner instead.

As Nicole described his diet of pizza, fries, and chicken nuggets, I did not judge her in any way, as my own son would literally have starved himself of any food if I did not comply with his wishes.  Watermelon and raw carrots were the only fruit and vegetable that he would eat at the time.  When I tried making chicken fingers from scratch with almond meal instead of flour, they were launched across the room to hit the wall with a resounding “pwouff,” and then sliding down to lay lifeless on the floor; his anger and my anger intertwined.

In addition to Alexandre’s “ASD”, he’d suffered bouts of ear pain, eczema, a marked hearing deficit, sinus issues, and a chronic cough.  I went back to my office to formulate his medicines, knowing I was armed with the arsenal that would launch this babe out of the spectrum efficiently and quickly using the principles of Heilkunst Medicine.  I prepared his Emotional Support Dropper with homeopathic remedies and flower essences that would help to stabilize him constitutionally, while also stripping the excess.  In addition, I also made up his Drainage and Organ Support Dropper to begin the process of detoxing his physical body from toxins and heavy metals, while also supporting his organs and lymphatic system.  This enabled me to set the stage for clearing each issue from his timeline of traumas, including the the use of antibiotics, a car accident, running into a busy street from daycare, his boosters, vaccinations, and birth.

After these events, I knew that I would have access to his Genetic Miasms based on the law of the succession of forces.  Every individual has these in their cellular memory based on a few thousand years of human evolution, layered like a geological dig.  It’s just a matter of which ones predominate, throwing up unwanted symptoms.  Buried in each one of us is the predisposition for skin afflictions (Psora), bronchial complaints (Tuberculinum), heart disease (Medhorrinum), cancer, joint/tendon issues, and autism (Syphilis).  These Genetic Miasms (there are 8 all together), unfortunately, never go away unless cured on the basis of natural law, “like cures like”.  Vaccinations can trigger some of them, or all of them, to start wreaking havoc.

Over 15 years ago, the same Heilkunst medical path, with few variances, was followed for my son, Jordan, who was cured within the year of his own spectrum issues.  Today, at almost 20, he is a trampoline acrobat and Parkour Instructor, as well as a Bowen Practitioner (soft tissue modality) with his own growing practice.  No one, meeting him, would ever suspect he’d ever been in the spectrum.  I’m so thankful for the principles of Heilkunst Medicine or he’d never have realized his essential self.  So many children have now been cured by these foundational principles by the just over one hundred Practitioners world-wide.

Source:  See also http://amzn.to/1hGYdpb

Six months ago, and six months into treatment, Nicole cited, “What brought me to see Allyson is my beautiful, non verbal autistic 5 year old son, Alexandre. I needed to figure this out! I was not settling for what we were dealing with at the time. We still have leaps and bounds to go, but he is growing, I can see light bulbs turning on left and right and he is here with us so much more than he used to be!

We started our journey in early February, he has been a trooper with everything I’ve thrown at him. He asks for his drops if I haven’t given them at the appropriate time, if we’re due for an appointment, his body tells us! Simply amazing. He is now speaking at the rate of a 2 year old, repeating everything and now using small sentences! It’s a start and I’m aching for more!”

Fast forward to March 2014, one full year into treatment, and here is Nicole’s testimonial:

“One year into this journey and my son is a different person, he still has a delay in verbal communication, however, he knows how to get his point across and mimics almost every word that leaves my lips.  Just this morning I was trying to get them into the car to leave for daycare, I told him to “get in the car” in a bit of a demanding tone, he repeated using a very similar influx in his tone.  I beamed and was high fiving myself and him in my head.

I still ache for more!

Being the non-confrontational person I am, I avoid conversations of vaccines and different therapies, that others have a huge opinion on.  That said, I do not hide the treatment plan that we’ve discovered through Ally.  I run a blog and facebook page named “The LeBlanc’s vs Autism”, on this page, I do share some of our treatment plan and the great success that we have had through it.
Alexandre has received all vaccines that the doctors suggest his tender 6 year old body is “supposed” to,  Zoë however will not.  I do not regret the choices I have made, I wish I had known the truth about allopathic medicine before I vaccinated the crap out of my babies.  I thought I was protecting them, and this is what happened.

I still am not sure if the vaccines caused his Autism, but I do know that since we have gone to see Ally, our world has changed.  He still has a limited diet, but he loves water more than any other beverage, and he is open to have a sprig of broccoli on his plate now and then.  We’ve grown together, I have changed, he has changed and Zoë is now on board with her own droppers and paper hearts.  I know without a doubt that I am helping my family and keeping them safe and protected without causing an ounce of pain.

Thank you Ally for coming into our lives.  We genuinely love you and how much you have taught us.”

At this juncture, a year and one month later, Alexandre has many words in his vocabulary and continues to progress on all levels of his cognition.  He interacts well with other children and his family members and his grandparents and relatives have written notes to me acknowledging his leaps and gains with regards to becoming a more engaged and communicative child.  Alexandre is just halfway through his first round of Genetic Miasms.  I’m just imagining where he’ll be in another few months!

Bio:

Allyson McQuinn, DHHP, JAOH, is a Physician of Heilkunst Medicine in international practice.  She is the author of 10 books, including her 1st book, “The Path To Cure; The Whole Art of Healing” (www.thepathtocure.com), which is about her son Jordan’s departure from the Autism Spectrum.  Allyson’s husband, Jeff Korentayer, specializes in the treatment of vaccine damaged individuals, also using the principles of Heilkunst Medicine.  Both of them regularly provide patients with homeopathic remedies for the flu and immunizations for children and world travellers, prescribing most anything patients seek on the sound basis of homoprophylaxis with 99% efficacy (without causing an ounce of harm) over the last 12 years.
Alexandre; Out of the Spectrum