Naturopathic Doctor Mary Schrick's Newsletter

Vol. 1

July, 2004

July is:

• Hemochromatosis Screening Awareness
• National Therapeutic Recreation Week (July 11-17)

This Month’s Issue Includes:
      • Hemochromatosis, by Mary Schrick, N.D. a
      • Go Light on Oxalic Acid, by Mary Schrick, N.D.
      • A Foot Note-“Therapeutic Pedicure”, by Shelia Bryant,
      • The Healing Art of Reflexology, by Shelia Bryant
      • It’s Your Thyroid, by Mary Schrick, N.D.
      • About Chiropractics, by Autumn McGinn D.C.
      • Meridian Stress Assessment System, by Cathy Hopkins
      • Pesto Recipe
      • Calendar of Events
      • Radio Program Listing
      • Starr Walker Savings
 

Hemochromatosis
 

The month of July is Hemochromatosis screening awareness month.  To begin with I think we need to discover together just what this malady is.  Hemochromatosis is an inherited disease; it is characterized by the uptake of too much iron.  This affects one in every three hundred people and one in nine is a carrier.  While iron is essential in our red blood cells, too much iron can be as detrimental as too little. 

In hereditary Hemochromatosis deposits of iron appear in almost every organ, particularly your liver, heart and pancreas.  This can result in complete and wide spread organ failure.

Patients with Hemochromatosis regularly absorb two to three times as much dietary iron as a normal person.  Unfortunately treatment of hemochromatosis has not changed for over fifty years.  Treatment usually consists of taking out blood to lower the iron level.  Every 500 ml of blood contains about 250 ml of iron.  On average men require this procedure about three to four times a year, and women require one to two times per year.  When phlebotomy is used before organ damage has occurred, patients can expect to have a normal life. 

The important screening test for Hemochromatosis is a serum ferritin test.  We do this at the Test Don’t Guess days at The Doorway to Health.  If your level of ferritin is above 80, you should consider donating blood.  Keep your level lower than 80 and higher than 30.  This is especially true for anyone with any heart disease.    
 

Go Light on Oxalic Acid
 

It’s summer time and the produce is looking good.  If you have kidney problems, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout you need to go light on foods that contain high amounts of oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid occurs naturally in quite a large number of plants.  The human body also synthesizes oxalic acid from ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).  One more reason to use Starr Walker Vitamin C Plus, it is much more than ascorbic acids it is a complete Vitamin C complex with bio-flavonoids.  Oxalic acid may combine with calcium, iron, sodium, magnesium, or potassium to form less soluble salts known as oxalates.  Oxalates also occur naturally in plants. 

Since oxalic acid binds with important nutrients, making them inaccessible to the body, regular consumption of large amounts of food high in oxalic acid over a period of weeks to months may result in nutrient deficiencies, most notably of calcium.

Oxalic acid is a strong acid, and is irritating to tissue all by itself.  Extremely high doses are fatal.  Oxalates, on the other hand, form tiny little insoluble crystals with sharp edges, which are also irritating to tissue.  So, high levels of oxalic acid/oxalates in the diet lead to irritation of the digestive system, and particularly of the stomach and kidneys.  They may also contribute to the formation of kidney stones (the most common form of kidney stone is composed of calcium oxalate).

Foods containing these chemicals may be consumed in moderation.  However, if you suffer from kidney disease, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout it is usually recommended that you avoid foods that are high in oxalates or oxalic acid.  Foods generally found on the list include: chocolate, cocoa, coffee, most berries (especially strawberries and cranberries), most nuts (especially peanuts), beans, beets, bell peppers, black pepper, parsley, rhubarb, spinach, swiss chard, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and tea.

Plant foods with high concentrations of oxalic acid (over 200 ppm) include (but are not limited to): lamb’s quarter, buckwheat, star fruit, black pepper, purslane, poppy seeds, rhubarb, tea, spinach, plantains, cocoa and chocolate, ginger, almonds, cashews, garden sorrel, mustard greens, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, soybeans, tomatillos, beets and beet greens, oats, pumpkin, cabbage, green beans, mango, eggplant, tomatoes, lentils and parsnips.

ٱ Info for the preceding paragraph comes from the ARS Phytochemical Database.
 

A Foot Note – “Therapeutic Pedicure”  
 

The nail is made of a hard protein called keratin.  A protein is one of the building blocks which make up the organs of the body.  The nails help protect the ends of the fingers and toes from trauma.  A pedicure can be very relaxing and if you have foot problems, it can be therapeutic.  Every 4-6 weeks it is a good idea to seek the services of your pedicurist.  A well trained professional knows best how to keep your toenails and feet looking healthy and feeling good.

Daily Foot Care:

• The feet should be cleaned daily to reduce the development of odor and risk of disease.  The feet are a very important and undervalued part of the body and it is important to keep them healthy.  People who ignore their feet often develop all kinds of problems requiring years of treatment and thousand of dollars in medical bills.
• Each day when you bathe, make sure that you wash carefully between the toes with Starr Walker Sugar Foot line of foot care to remove the bacteria and fungus that tends to thrive there.
• Dry the feet carefully with a towel.  This will help prevent athlete’s foot.

If wearing socks, use a cotton or wool blend.  These natural fibers will allow your feet to breathe.  You should change your shoes everyday.  Alternate between 2-3 pairs of shoes, so the shoes will dry out completely before you use them again.  Avoid high heels that tend to jam the toes into a small triangle; this will help prevent corns and calluses.  Your shoes should be made of leather because it allows the feet to breathe.
 

The Healing Art of Reflexology

What is Reflexology?  The ancient healing art of reflexology has been known to many for many of thousands of years.  It was first practiced by the early Indian, Chinese and Egyptian peoples.

In 1913 Dr. William Fitzgerald, and American ear, nose and throat surgeon, introduced this therapy to the West.  He noted that pressure on specific parts of the body could have an anaesthetizing effect on a related area.  Developing this theory, he divided the body into ten equal and vertical zones, ending in the fingers and toes.  He concluded that pressure on the part of a zone could affect everything else within that zone.  Thus, reflex areas on the feet and hands are linked to other areas and organs of the body within the same zone.

In the 1930’s, Eunice Ingham, a therapist, further developed and refined the zone therapy into what is now known as foot reflexology.  She observed that congestion or tension in any part of the foot mirrors congestion or tension in a corresponding part of the body.  Thus, when you treat the big toes there is a related effect in the head, and treating the whole foot can have a relaxing and healing effect on the whole body.

Who Can Benefit from Reflexology?  Since reflexology treats the whole person, not the symptoms of disease, most people benefit from treatment.  The therapy brings relief to a wide range of acute and chronic conditions, and is suitable for all ages.  Once your body is in-tune, it is wise to have regular treatments in order to help maintain health and well-being.  An increasing number of people are using this safe, natural therapy as a way of relaxing, balancing and harmonizing the body. 
 

ٱ To schedule your reflexology appointment with Shelia, call

    (405) 753-9355 at Full Circle Health Clinic

It’s Your Thyroid
 

Twenty-seven million Americans have thyroid disease and 8 out of 10 are  women.  These statistics are from the American Thyroid Society.  Checking for thyroid problems is easy and inexpensive.  I encourage everyone to “Test Don’t Guess”.  A simple blood test of your TSH coupled with two tests that you do at home, can make sure that that all-important gland is functioning the way God intended.

Even though it is not recommended that we have wide spread thyroid testing, if    you have any major health issues or simply want to prevent health issues, I strongly      recommend that you DO test your thyroid.  You can call the Full Circle Health Clinic and request a TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone test) or attend the next Test Don’t Guess Day at the Doorway to Health.  Then do the other two tests in your own home.

1.      Shake a thermometer down the night before you intend to use it.  The following morning put it under your arm and leave it there for a full 10 minutes.  You hope to record a temperature of 97.8 or better.

2.      Put a circle of tincture of iodine on your abdomen, about the size of a silver dollar (fill it in).  You hope this stays visible for 18 or more hours.

3.      If you fail any of these tests, we need to talk.

          Discovering a thyroid problem early can spare you many problems and needless  discomfort.  Even slightly high or low levels of this all-important hormone will worsen     over time.  Therefore, even a slight deviation from the normal needs to be addressed.  The American Society of Endocrinologist has lowered what theyconsider to be a normal thyroid TSH.  This is good news for an estimated some 17  million Americans who will now be labeled as hypothyroid. If you fail these tests you need to find out more about Starr Walker Thyroid 2000. This is an all-natural solution to hypo-thyroidism.  If you fail the iodine test, the Starr Walker Molecular Iodine will enable your thyroid to better function.
 

“About Chiropractics”  from Edmond Spine & Sports
 

When people think of Chiropractic, they often associate the practice with auto accidents, work injuries and low back pain.  However, although it is true that chiropractic can help you heal and get out of pain, so much more changes in your body when tension is released and motion is restored.

Chiropractic in its pure form is based on 33 philosophical principles that give direction and intention to the practice.  The first and most important principle is “there is a universal intelligence in all matter continually giving it all properties and actions thus maintaining it in existence.”  Simply put, living things have an innate ability to self heal and self organize.  When you were in your mom’s womb, you started from a humble 2 cells and organized into a beautiful child without any help.  All the information needed to design our bodies is within those first two cells, stored in DNA.  Innate intelligence follows these blueprints to build a human body in 9 months; forming what will be the brain and nervous system first.

The innate intelligence that created our bodies, doesn’t just abandon us at birth.  It remains within us, directing every step until our last breath, when the body returns to being an empty vessel.

The recognition and respect of this self organizing, self healing intelligence is what I want my patients to understand and believe again more than anything else I do.  This simple concept has been distorted and almost forgotten in our society.  A culture where we are being taught that health comes from the outside rather than expressed from the inside out.  Headaches don’t come from a pain reliever deficiency in the body!!  Something else is going on and it is time we start examining the causes of our problems, rather than treating and covering up the symptoms.

Our innate intelligence communicates with every cell in our bodies through electrical and chemical impulses from the brain and central nervous system.  The nervous system is such and important organ that it is encased in bone by your skull and 24 spinal bones.  Messages to and from the brain travel through the spinal cord and nerves that travel through holes formed when 2 spinal bones stack on one another.  As long as a free flow of communication exists, we have the ability to develop and express LIFE fully.  An interference in communication occurs when the bones of the spinal column are not correctly positioned on one another.  Chirporactors call this malposition, subluxation.  Muscles around the area begin to swell and this swelling begins to decrease the nerves ability to communicate 100%.  I tell my patients that a subluxation produces in the body what can be described by a dimmer switch in a room for the lights.  All the way up is full light-full life expression.  All the way down is darkness-no expression, no impulse.  What we are talking about is somewhere between; where there is enough communication, or light, to function, in the body and can decrease your ability to express 100% of your life potential.  

Chiropractors remove subluxation and restore your body’s innate ability to heal and organize.
 

ٱ To make an appointment with Edmond Spine & Sports call (405) 478-2222. 

Meridian Stress Assessment System

     Cathy Hopkins is the practitioner for the Meridian Stress Assessment System at Full Circle Health Clinic.   According to Chinese medicine, the meridians are a system of pathways that carry the life energy or "chi." This energy can be measured electrically at points along the meridians which are much more electrically conductive than the surrounding tissue.
The meridian system is like a blueprint that the body builds itself on. All of the biochemical processes of the body are run by the energy system, and if the blueprint is incorrect, the processes do not flow properly. This affects the cells, which in turn affects the tissues and results in symptoms. In effect, all symptoms begin in the energetic system.
     In a government supported study in 1977, Phil Allen in Energy, Matter and Form stated that "since our bodies act as communication devices, we are constantly receiving and transmitting information coded into energy signals. Changes in our bioenergy field signal the onset of disease before it occurs physically." The assumption is that since symptoms have their roots in the energetic system, if the energetic imbalances are determined, and substances are found that restore balance in those areas, the body’s own systems can be stimulated to resolve the symptoms.
     Using the Meridian Stress Assessment (MSA), one can test the various meridians of the body using a non-ionizing, non-thermal, frequency specific signal to determine which systems of the body are stressed, balanced or weakened. Once the meridian measurements are obtained, the MSA is used to balance the energy on that pathway.
The MSA is FDA registered as a Galvanic Skin Response Device whose function is Stress Assessment. These registrations are indicative of a commitment to the safety and wellbeing of both the patient and practitioner.
     Testing the meridians using the MSA involves touching different meridian points on the hands and feet. MSA testing is a non-invasive way to obtain measurements because there are no needles that pierce the skin.
   The MSA does provide valuable information, but does not diagnose disease.
Additional contributing factors that can be tested and evaluated include:
Additional Testing:
• Parasites         • Chemicals         • Bacteria       • Heavy Metals     • Virus     • Fungus/Molds
• Herbicides/Pesticides    • Mycotoxins   • Vaccines   • Phenolics   • Medication Tolerance Test
• Sensitivity (food/environmental allergy) Screening  and  • Basic Nutritional/Supplement Analysis  And MANY MORE
 

ٱ To make an appointment with Cathy Hopkins call (405) 753-9355 at Full Circle Health Clinic.
 

National Health & Wellness Conference

Presented  by Mary Schrick, ND

August 21, 2004 9:00am – 3:30pm at Nigh Convention Center located at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

Tickets will be available soon at the following locations listed below. 

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