Monday, February 21, 2011

Wellness Maintenance Code

Two days ago, I went to a western medical doctor simply because I thought it time for a complete blood count, a blood chemistry test, and a lipid profile. Since I’m not even certain I’ve ever had these tests, why not go? I have insurance, after all.

I answered a thousand questions on the forms and then waited. I got to see my weight, which was an eye-opener, and to know my blood pressure, which was as expected. Then I was taken to an examination room where I waited for at least forty-five minutes. I wondered if I would have been antsy and uncomfortable if I’d been ill instead of healthy. After all, I was energetic so could text my daughter and read and check out the propaganda on the walls, but what if I’d felt depleted, longing for my own bed?

The lady doctor came in and after introductions she asked, “So, do you like your job?” To which I responded, “I love my job.” She took a moment to scan my paperwork leaving me to wonder if her clientele didn’t like their jobs, and then she asked, “So what can I do for you today?” I explained my plan ─ that I was there for the signed paperwork to take to a lab so as I could have blood taken and tested. She was very concerned about my resistance to invasive medical procedures, vaccinations, antibiotics, and the like ─ information she’d gleaned from the forms. I felt that anyone as advanced in age as I am with my present number of “no” answers all over her forms, should be proof enough as to why I don’t need all of those procedures just to ensure health that I already knew I had. She explained that it wasn’t that she had a problem with my stance against standard procedures but that the insurance company would have a problem with it. They would be on her case to be on mine to submit to these procedures in order to ensure health. We decided that a call to my insurance company will surely release her from responsibility and settle that issue. I personally feel a corporation has no right butting into my health routine, especially when it’s working. I pay into the insurance. They pay out, which by the way, has been extremely minimal these past twelve years. In fact, I would be willing to compare what I have cost them against all their members to date. I bet I’m at the top of costing the least expense to them. I pay them. They work for me. Well, in theory, they should be there for me.

After all that was settled and I actually found, to my surprise, that I liked this woman, we came to the problem of settling on a diagnosis code for my visit for billing purposes. I was tickled, for I have this problem in my own practice. For acupuncture insurance, I have yet to find a “Wellness Maintenance Code.” She regarded me. “Anxiety?” she asked because I had told her how hard I was finding the expectations of the sixth-grade magnet teachers and their workload for my daughter. “Nah. You don’t look anxious,” she decided. Back to the drawing board. I offered, “You could give me a cold if you want,” because that seemed harmless enough. “No. What we need is “Well-Woman.” I said, “No, because you probably have to do a pap [smear] for that.” She tried it anyway on her computer. Nope, it wouldn’t accept it. “We need a “Wellness Maintenance Code,” she said searching and searching her list, leaving me feeling sad for the public who obviously don’t go to the doctor’s for “Wellness Maintenance” without submitting themselves to all the set exams and procedures. “Ah ha! Here’s ‘Wellness Worried.’” “I’ll take it,” I offered. “You don’t look worried. What you are is responsible for your health,” she pointed out. I thought, Yea, “Wellness Responsible” that should be a code.


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Bio-Oxidative Therapies

According to…Madison Cavanaugh in her book The One-Minute Cure, “Ozone (O3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) are the simplest substances available for effectively oxygenating the body [therapeutically]” (47). These treatments are called bio-oxidative therapies, and they work by stimulating “the movement of oxygen atoms from the bloodstream to the cells to a greater degree than is usually reached by other means” (41, 44). Cavanaugh goes onto say, “Most people undergo gradual oxygen starvation without even knowing it” (64). Perhaps symptoms such as depression, impaired judgment, alcoholism, sinusitis, acne, colitis, hepatitis, warts, and/or cancer are communicating to you that you have an oxygen deficiency. Although some people might be unconcerned about how oxygen deficiency affects their body and seek relief from physical and emotional issues with prescription ointments and pills, drugs distributed legally by white-coated drug dealers has not lowered the percentage of diseases suffered by people. In fact, Cavanaugh reports, “There are more sick people in the U.S., for instance, than at any other time in history – not just in actual numbers but as a percentage of the population” (6). The increase in the number of sick people is a concern, especially because greater numbers of people seem to be reaching for readily available pills and other medicines for ailments, large and small, yet are not becoming healthier. In fact, drug use has actually removed people from being involved participants in their health and well-being.

How does oxygen deficiency relate to poor health? Because the body is made up largely of water, and water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, insufficient intake can have a negative effect on health. Cavanaugh writes, “Only 15% of the oxygen you inhale is absorbed into the bloodstream” (44). Basically, if you are experiencing a host of ailments, or even just one ─ low energy ─ it’s possible that your system isn’t receiving enough oxygen. There are two fundamental culprits behind the human system not receiving oxygen that are worth checking into before going for a blood panel at your doctor’s office: stress and lack of oxygen being brought into the body in the first place.

Perhaps it will shock you to hear that experiencing constant stress can actually suffocate your body (110). Cavanaugh writes, “It goes without saying that being in a tranquil or joyful state of mind – free of stress, worry, doubt, fear, anger, resentment, guilt, and anxiety – is the ideal state to be in throughout the day” (111). The subject of stress is for another article, but what it does inside your body, preventing your system from accepting oxygen, needs to be discussed here and now. Basically, when your autonomic nervous system is functioning normally, your cells are open and receptive to any oxygen within the environment, and open cells are “impervious to disease” (110). When you’re experiencing relentless stress, the parasympathetic nervous system switches to the sympathetic nervous system and the cells are held closed, preventing admittance of precious substances like oxygen, even if you’re presently doing oxygen therapy (108). Explaining the mechanism of what occurs, commonly known as “fight or flight,” Cavanaugh writes, “Your blood flow moves away from your gastro-intestinal tract and skin; your pupils dilate; your heart rate increases; blood gets diverted to the muscles and your whole body goes into high alert” (109). Emergencies are supposed to end, allowing the human body to recover and switch back to the parasympathetic nervous system, and the cells to open and function again normally. Our stress doesn’t seem to end. Compounding the problem, closed cells become sick cells (110). Many common behaviors tax our systems, such as long lists of things to do, issues with coworkers, and our food and beverage choices. Legal drugs like coffee, alcohol, and prescription and over-the-counter medications all affect cell function. It’s time to take responsibility for our health and stop these constant attacks on ourselves from within and from outside us.

So who’s stopping you? You have the choice to ignore the drug ads, recognizing that Big Pharma has the money to inundate you with their wares at every corner and move on to learning about your choices from other avenues that focus on wellness (like oxygen), not illness. It will require effort. Education on alternative choices is not found as easily as turning on the television or visiting your doctor and being handed a pamphlet on the latest wonder drug. Drugs can be patented and money can be made for more than one interest. Oxygen can’t be patented, so it’s a nuisance to businesses that want to patent anything and everything (47). Research the drugs while you’re at it, too. While drugs may offer some relief from ailments, they do not promote living in wellness (6). Those drugs that appear to be helping you are, as Cavanaugh writes, “harming the body to some extent” and those businesses are “enjoying average profit margins of $30,000% to $50,000% on pharmaceutical drugs over the cost of raw materials” (7, 16). Consumers would do well to consider the motives of pharmaceutical companies and the vast amounts of money made from high-cost medicines. Because medicines often have adverse side effects that cause more suffering, a concern is that your continued suffering benefits pharmaceutical companies (16). Your suffering is working for them.

When you experience a complaint with your health, usually the drug you reach for only treats, or aims to treat, a specific part of your body or psyche. With 35% food-grade hydrogen peroxide diluted to safe doses, the whole body is affected, not just the problem being pin-pointed and calling for the therapy in the first place (33). And here’s something in contrast with a lot of drug therapies “that tend to shut down the body’s immune system at a time when the body needs it most,” hydrogen peroxide “takes into consideration the human body’s chemical constituents and their interaction with each other within the biochemical parameters of the body” (35-6). Hydrogen peroxide also doesn’t harm the body’s beneficial bacteria (84). Oxygen therapy with ozone or hydrogen peroxide is not exactly “curing” your disease, but, as Cavanaugh writes, “creates an environment in your body that is uninhabitable by disease microorganisms, viruses, harmful bacteria and pathogens” (15). Your body, by not being under attack, may right itself! Surely it’s time for a therapy that works with you, not against you.

Cavanaugh writes, “Ninety percent of our biological energy comes from oxygen” (9). Are you abnormally tired, that is, if you can recall what normally tired is? Perhaps you’re oxygen deficient. Do you drink alcohol? Cavanaugh states, “Alcohol creates a state of oxygen deficiency in the bodily tissues because it is a toxic agent that impairs cellular respiration” (63). Refusing to ingest alcohol helps your oxygen levels to some extent, and, as Cavanaugh reports, hydrogen peroxide has stopped the desire for alcohol consumption in some alcoholics (64).

Oxygen therapy is neither a strange nor new concept to medical settings. Oxygen is the treatment of choice for pneumonia and emphysema as well as for, as Cavanaugh states, “Carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene and decompression sickness,” to name a few (9). Even some treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and Interferon drugs for multiple sclerosis, “take advantage of oxygen’s effect on diseased cells” and “owe their efficacy to the fact that they raise the body’s oxygen levels” (10). Cavanaugh points out that the oxygen therapy she’s offering “does not come with any of the adverse effects typically associated with toxic drugs and other radical medical therapies” (11). If there are “toxic effects” like nausea, dead cells are most likely being expelled from your body (76). This misery is what is referred to as the healing crisis, “the body’s reaction to the removal of disease-causing or toxic conditions” (76). Discomfort indicates “the therapy is working” (77).

Be aware that 35% food-grade hydrogen peroxide is reactive and toxic as is upon delivery (65). Cavanaugh writes, “It will burn your skin if you spill any, and it is flammable” (73). It must be taken on an empty stomach and diluted in chlorine-free (distilled) water, because high levels of chlorine removes oxygen from the water (76, 90). Also know that taking the drops on the schedule recommended in Cavanaugh’s book can be uncomfortable, especially if you’ve never done any cleansing. Unlike a newborn who gets hydrogen peroxide in its mother’s milk, you are most likely toxic (87). Cavanaugh does, however, recommend “if you become nauseated at a certain dosage level, keep taking that dose for a few days until you feel comfortable” (76).

To learn more, please read The One Minute Cure: The Secret to Healing Virtually All Diseases by Madison Cavanaugh and O2xygen Therapies: A New Way of Approaching Disease by Ed McCabe, and visit your local health food stores to compare prices and quality for 35% Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide against Internet sales.

Dr. Allsup strongly recommends that you research the subject thoroughly before taking hydrogen peroxide internally. In addition, only begin taking hydrogen peroxide internally when you are feeling healthy and strong due to the “healing crisis” that may ensue. For illnesses and diseases, Allsup recommends you look into receiving ozone administered by a trained practitoner. Please contact John Butler at (315) 498-9560 with questions about ozone.