Clinic Notes, Issue 5, January 24

Hope your new year is going well. I usually find I can triple my workload in January but this has been the quietest on record! Cost of living, do we reckon? Let’s hope it picks up and gets easier for people. (Ha! Since I wrote that intro, I’ve had tons of progress, case reviews, ask Mickis etc, welcome January!)

First, did you see this article on BBC News about sexual infections like syphilis and gonorrhoea increasing? I expect it has a lot to do with better diagnosis and Covid, as they say. I wonder what we in Functional Medicine, can do about it? Any ideas? I also note that Viva Labs have brought out a comprehensive new set of STI tests so check those out if needed. I’ve never listed these as I don’t have the analysis knowledge, but maybe I should; I can imagine people would like to do this sort of test privately and from home??

PLMI are doing a brain/limbic training/neuroplasticity webinar on Feb 6th. It’s seems funny, but also very pleasing, to me to see such a lot now on this topic. When I started writing about it and doing it for myself back 12 years ago, people thought I was potty and I had the usual ‘don’t tell me it’s all in my brain’ criticism. Nowadays, I always incorporate brain, limbic retraining and vagus work of some kind in any chronic case. See how I used it to help myself in my Healing Plan here (started in 2014 and released in 2017, time flies!) and, if you have no idea about the subject, this webinar should be a good place to start. 

Note that it looks like the webinar will focus on the Gupta programme. This is fantastic but, as you will see if you read my book, it was too strong for me and has been for some of my patients. Sometimes, you have to go much further back first – just a tip in case it helps! Oh, and you can see some of my fave Mind-Body Medicine resources here and here.

Did you see that Europe has voted to ban mercury amalgam filling by Jan 25? At last. Yet again, Europe (IMHO) has gone further and been braver than the British Govt on a toxin. Of course, there is an outcry from British Dentists, who say they have been given no time to implement the changes and that there is nothing as effective (or cheap, or toxic, methinks). Only NI will come under the new rules because of Brexit but it will most likely affect supplies of the filling material coming to the UK from Germany, meaning dentists won’t be able to do them anymore anyway. As the BDA says, though, it has got to affect our already-struggling dental services in the UK, which are really dire. We need to wake up to that fact, let alone mercury toxicity, and do something about it properly. Dental treatment is so expensive, many people are suffering because they simply can’t afford to go private or even pay NHS fees – if they can even find one. Oral health is becoming a really big factor in chronic health, as we know.

Got a patient with kidney problems? I always work back from the gut and liver, and often use SHS special drops and teas as gentle support. Another angle: look for ochratoxin maybe…

Ochratoxin persists longer in the body than other mycotoxins, because it grabs onto a blood protein called albumin, which makes it harder for the kidneys to dump it. Then it can stay in our bodies much longer, wreaking havoc.

It accumulates in the kidney tissue as the kidneys try to figure out how to dislodge it from the protein. Ochratoxin exposure is correlated to all types of kidney diseases and cancers.

Check out Dr Christa’s Ochratoxin Protocol

Please sign and share this for me widely if you can to raise awareness of MCAS (which I have, ugh). https://www.facebook.com/reel/1062921484982379. Ta muchly.

I’m enjoying Food for the Brain’s series on the Four Horsemen of the Mental Health Apocalypse. I like their diagram which summarises their hypothesis, all actually quite easy to check for and correct – which makes a n ice change!

Finally, did you see that Regenerus has discontinued a load of their tests to streamline their offering – and that many prices have changed? You can see the list of discontinued ones on their site. Quite a few of my faves have gone up quite a bit – P88 allergy, Mycotox etc, and I notice that things like GPL Tox, Kryptopyrroles and some immune ones have gone – I have swapped some of those to Colabs instead and am using Genova and Viva Labs a bit more.