need help-- chronic fatigue, more

[Guest guest]

Ron,

I'm choosing to email you privately because this will be a bit long

for the others on the list to have to read through. I do hope you

will read it in its entirety.

Due to a potentially serious health issue that my husband has, and

also some minor, yet quality-of-life-limiting issues that our young

son with DS has, we have embarked upon learning about health from an

entirely different perspective than that of most medical doctors.

First of all a person doesn't go from good health to bad health

overnight--sickness doesn't just start, when SYMPTOMS appear. In

fact, when a symptom appears, it means a problem has already been

there awhile. And it sounds like your son has had some major things

to deal with: the Hirshschprung's Disease and the surgery to repair

it, the AV canal defect and the surgery to repair it, the pneumonia

and flu, and the Roto-Virus,... In his 2 3/4 years, his body has

really taken quite a beating! And even though the surgeries were to

fix things, surgery takes a tremendous toll on the body.

Our body is an amazing piece of work on the part of our Creator. God

didn't design us to be sick; He designed us to be healthy. Science

has learned much about the human body, and the research in the field

of medicine has discovered much in the way of using drugs, surgeries

and various treatments to suppress the symptoms of disease or to slow

down the progression of disease. But relatively little has been done

to actually cure disease. Our body is like a well-oiled machine--if 1

or 2 things get out of balance, it throws everything else out of

whack, and leads to a downward spiral that many people never get out

of, because their doctor just prescribes another pill. " You have a

symptom? We have a pill for it. Will that pill cause an undesirable

side effect? Yes, but we have a pill for THAT, TOO! "

There are a growing number of doctors who practice a different kind

of medicine called " functional medicine " --that means they deal with

root causes, not just symptoms. Functional medicine is based on the

restoration of total HEALTH rather than the treatment of DISEASE.

Here is an example of some of the things we are learning:

Did you know that the digestive system makes up 85% of the body's

immune system?! An adult carries approx. 2 kg. of bacteria in the

gut, and certain species of bacteria have to predominate to keep us

healthy.

One of the major fuctions of the good bacteria in the gut is to

control about 500 different species of pathogenic (bad) and

opportunistic microbes known to science. When the beneficial

bacteria get destroyed, the bad bacteria multiply into large colonies

and occupy large areas of the digestive tract. This leads to the

breakdown of the lining of the gut, causing it to become porous.

When this happens, the food that we eat passes through the gut into

the bloodstream before it is completely broken down and actually

becomes toxic to our body!

The Bible says that the life of the body is in the blood! However,

it is the digestive system that has the important job of serving as a

barrier to prevent harmful things from entering the bloodstream.

When the bloodstream is carrying around toxins, it nearly always

causes an inflamatory reaction somewhere in the body! Just where the

inflamatory reaction will be depends on a great many factors, but

generally, it will be wherever the individual is weakest (could have

to do with genetics, with previous illnesses and/or trauma, etc.).

Our (almost 3) has asthma, and I believe that what he eats

either contributes to the inflamation and congestion in his airway

and lungs or aids in the reduction of inflamation and congestion.

The standard American diet is mostly made up of processed and fast

foods which are slowly killing us. God put Adam and Eve in the

Garden of Eden and gave them raw, unprocessed food from the trees

(fruit) and from the ground (vegetables). This is the food our

digestive systems were created for. Unfortunately, even some of that

has been genetically changed until it is no longer good for our

digestive systems or bodies. Two examples of this are corn and

wheat. Modern corn and wheat are so genetically altered that they

are far from what they were originally, and they have become highly

allergenic to most people (unbeknownst to them).

I give vegetables and fruit and, occasionally, chicken or

beef. I buy organic when I can. He can have brown rice and things

made with brown rice flour and, occasionally, oatmeal or things made

with oat flour. He drinks either goat's milk or almond milk. He

gets no sugar, dairy, wheat or other glutenous grains, corn, soy,

nuts, or yeast. The only eggs he gets are those that are in baked

goods (using oat flour or brown rice flour). He almost never gets

things with tomato or orange juice (because eczema runs in our

family). is currently off asthma meds and is asthma free!

Antibiotics have a devestating effect on the beneficial bacteria in

the human body, not only in the gut but in other organs and tissues.

Steroid drugs, like Prednisolone, Hydrocortisone, etc. damage gut

flora and suppress the immune system, which makes the body vulnerable

to all sorts of infection. These commonly prescribed drugs, and

others, almost always lead to fungal overgrowth in the body, usually

Candida overgrowth. This Candida overgrowth can lead to a whole host

of other symptoms, including allergies, depression, mood swings,

insomnia, and chronic fatigue.

We are very pleased with the help my husband is getting from Dr.

Lepor at the Total Health Clinic in Lapeer, MI. He looks at the

causes of the symptoms and seeks to find out why the body is not

functioning as God created it to function and then seeks to correct

the body systems and restore the health of the body. In a few months,

we will hopefully know, after repeating some tests, whether this has

helped the particular condition that started my husband on this path.

We do know that my husband's chronically cracked and bleeding fingers

(eczema/psoriasis) that no dermatologist has ever been able to cure

(with their various creams, lotions, and ointments) are healed up for

the first time in 10 yrs.!

Here is a site to look at:

http://www.functionalmedicine.org/about/whatis.asp

From this site, you are supposed to be able to find a FM practitioner

in your area. That would be a doctor who has completed their course,

but you would want to check out just what is the particular idividual

practitioner's approach to patient care.

My husband and I will be praying for you as you seek how to help your

son Lev to recover his health.

GOD's BEST!