BOOSTER DOSE VACCINATION FOR COVID-19 AND COVID-19 ANTIBODIES

Ministry of Health Malaysia has rolled out the 3rd Dose (Booster Vaccination) for COVID-19. Many people will be asking these questions:

Q: Who should get it first?

A: Frontliners; Senior citizens (>60 years old); High risk patients with co-morbidities.

Q: When should I get it?

A: After at least 6 months from your 2nd dose Covid-19 vaccination or as soon as it is offered to you if you are in the susceptible group.

Q: How do I know if I am in the susceptible group?

A: The older you are the more susceptible you are, the more medical conditions you have ie Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease etc. the more susceptible you are. The lower your Covid-19 neutralizing antibodies below the cut off point, the more likely you will get infected with Covid-19.

The general guiding principles on whether or not you should be getting your booster dose for Covid-19 vaccination are:

• Covid-19 vaccination benefits far outweigh the risks. It is generally safe and efficacious for the vast majority. So, if  you have no doubts or reservations toward the vaccine, then go ahead and get it the booster shots.
• If you have issues or concerns about getting the booster vaccination, then prove that you really do not need it, then there is no urgency or compulsion for you to get it.
• If you want to reject the Booster Dose (Covid-19 Vaccination), you better have a solid good reason for doing so. Otherwise you are putting yourself and others at risk of getting Covid-19 infection and its complications.

This is the conclusion that I derived from Dr Timothy's post advising doctors on Covid-19 vaccination booster dose. He is the Consultant Infectious Disease Specialist of Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu. Below is the verbatim transcript of his post:

Q: What if a patient would rather have a Sinovac booster instead of a Pfizer booster? (Those who had 2 previous Pfizer or 2 previous Sinovac)

A: Take the Pfizer, but if the patient is still worried then take the Sinovac anyway. (Any booster is) better than not having a booster shot.

Q: What is the level of antibodies that is adequate to give protection against Covid-19? 

A: We don't really know what is the level of antibodies that are needed to reduce the risk of severe disease ie a cutoff point although it is written in the lab form. However, the higher the better. Low titres also does not mean the person does not have any immunity.

 

Q: If the antibody levels are high, should we advice a high risk person ie older age group or those with co morbidities, to still take the booster dose? 

A: No harm taking but I would not push for them to take it.

 

Q: In that case should we then advice people to do antibody levels before advising them to take the booster? 

A: There is no recommendation to take the antibody levels before a booster as most will be low unless they had been infected earlier.

 

Q: Is there any situation you would advise taking an antibody level before advising a patient to take a booster? 

A: I would if the patient had severe side effects from the 1st 2 doses.

 

Q: A patient had mild Covid last year, 2020  and now has already completed 2 doses of the vaccine. Should he get a booster? 

A: So this would be the 4th exposure to the Covid Ag. I wont push for it. No harm getting it though.

 

Q: If the patient had 2 doses and then still got the Covid 19 infection (ie breakthrough infection), should the patient get the booster? 

A: I really think this is unnecessary.

These are all my own personal opinions.

 Thank you

 Dr. Timothy William

Integrative Medicine Kota Kinabalu

ASSOCIATION OF INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE MALAYSIA

Persatuan Perubatan Integratif Malaysia

It was a proud moment for the Association of Integrative Medicine Malaysia to achieve a remarkable milestone in successfully organizing the Inaugural International Integrative Medicine Conference on 11& 12 February 2018 with the support of our Minister of Health, Malaysia and Director General of Health Malaysia.

"This is a giant step forward in providing holistic and seamless approach towards patient management as well as the prevention of diseases within the community and this will benefit health care professionals as well as the community."

-YB Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam

This was something really different compared to other medical conference I have participated. Never before was it conceivable that medical specialists (Anaesthetist, O&G, Cardiologist, Oncologist), Biologist, Scientist, Osteopath, Psychoneuroimmunologist, Sports Therapists, Chiropractor, Hypnotherapist, Homeopath etc., are sitting under one roof to discuss patient treatment and well-being with mutual respect!

Topics discussed included alternative cancer care by Dr Vijaendreh (Gynae-oncologist), non-invasive cardiac rehabiliation (ECP) by Dr Wong Wee Teck (Interventional Cardiologist), Sexual Qi Gong by Dr Amir (Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist), acupuncture assisted anaethesia by Dr Kavita (Anaesthesiologist), Bioresonance therapy by Dr Sherman (Naturopath).

"Integrative Medicine, which is the judicious combination of mainstream medicine and other therapies, should be adequately studied and the proven ones can be promoted for the benefit of all. The Ministry of Health supports every effort to improve the delivery of health of the people, including the promotion of Integrative Medicine."

-Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah

Medical controversies were discussed openly and intellectually in a patient centered manner. It was an eye opening and refreshing weekend to attend such conference.

Ultimately, we all have a common goal towards sustainable healthcare with the patients' best interest in mind and these are its 10 hallmarks:

1. Minimize drug reliance
2. Prioritise non-pharmaceutical approach
3. Affordability to all parties and environmental sustainability
4. Patient-centred approach
5. Informed consent
6. Focus on root cause of disease(s) and prevention
7. Routine monitoring and screening
8. Personalised and guided
9. Empowered self-care
10. Healthy therapeutic partnerships

Dr Julian Lim is a member of the AIMM (Association of Integrative Medicine Malaysia)

The Value of Doing a Blood Test and Medical Check Up at DamaiMedic Kota Kinabalu

Often I get questions from patients asking what are the real differences between different medical check up or blood test packages offered in my clinic compared to other clinics, labs and hospitals offering similar tests.

Well, I am not going to explain the technicalities of the functions of different tests thus its intrinsic value. I will explain that in person during consultation.

Here, I am going to give you some principles about why and how certain medical packages are designed and thus priced.

Medical check ups and blood tests done for healthy people (no symptoms yet) are designed to screen for diseases. We screen for diseases that we think are common and relevant to patients. Screening are seldom done to diagnosed rare diseases. If they do they would probably be very expensive. Imagine there are thousands of laboratory tests checking for thousands of medical conditions. It is impractical to do everything which is likened to searching for a needle in a hay-sack.

Unfortunately we as clinicians are seeing many medical labs providing direct excess to patients by just 'walk in' and asking for a medical blood tests to be done without seeing a doctor first. Is there anything wrong with that? Well, not actually until the patient starts asking questions like:

• DO I HAVE DENGUE IF MY PLATELETS ARE LOW?
• DO I REALLY HAVE CANCER IF MY CANCER MARKER IS HIGH?
• DO I NEED TO START MEDICATION IF MY CHOLESTEROL IS ABOVE THE NORMAL RANGE?
• IS MY TIREDNESS CAUSED BY MY ABNORMAL LIVER FUNCTION TEST?
• CAN I CONTINUE TAKING THIS MEDICINE IF MY KIDNEY FUNCTION TEST IS ABNORMAL?
• WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MY HEPATITIS B SCREENING SHOWS THAT I HAVE POSITIVE ANTIBODIES AGAINST HEPATITIS B?

These questions, putting it plainly sounds like this,"So what does it mean, and what should I do next?"

These questions could not and SHOULD NOT be answered by a pharmacist, a laboratory technologist, a sales consultant or anybody who did perform a physical medical examination on that patient. Who else is competent, qualified and has the authority to examine a patient except a medical doctor? PhD doctors are not the same as a licensed medical doctor so please don't be confused.

I should say that an "unhealthy" trend is becoming rampant in our country lately whereby patients themselves order blood tests from a private medical laboratory and bring the report to the doctor for interpretation. I wonder why the patient did not go to a doctor first to check what is wrong with him/her and then decide what blood tests to order.

Let me illustrate with an analogy to help you understand better. Imagine you are trying to catch a thief who got wet from the rain and ran into a hotel with 100 rooms and the thief hid in one of those rooms. How would you catch this thief? Are you going to open and search every single room? No, of course! You would try to get clues from the foot prints the wet thief left behind and trace it to the specific room the thief is in. That way you will catch the thief by opening just one door! Well the foot prints leading to the door are comparable to a good history taking and physical examination by the doctor. Only then can the doctor be able to order the appropriate tests and come to a diagnosis with all the information obtained.

A good doctor can help you save by not wasting money doing unnecessary tests. He would know which area of the body to focus on to identify the problem. That makes a big difference in the pricing of the medical check up packages offered.

The quality and value of the medical check up does not depend on how expensive the health screening package is and not how many tests done (as if the more the better). Rather, it is how focused the tests are directed in helping the doctor arrive at a correct diagnosis. 

Medical blood test results need to be interpreted accordingly. Another analogy would be like the metal detector at the airport. If you trigger the alarm of the walk-through metal detector at the airport, it doesn't mean that you carrying an explosive. The officer will frisk you to further investigate. If it turns out that it was your metal belt buckle which triggered the alarm, the security officer will let you go without any further question. Similarly, screening blood test should not be taken as the absolute conclusive evidence of disease, nor should medical decisions be made solely on the blood results. I cannot overemphasize the importance of a good history taking and physical examination in any health screening. Many incidental findings of medical problems are picked up this way. 

Schedule an appointment for a standard medical check up today. Rest assured you will be seen by a doctor for both physical check up and interpretation of lab results. 

The blood test packages we offer are as follows:

NO SWEETS, NO MEAT, NO DAIRY, NO REFINED FOODS

The vast majority of cancer patients who achieve reversal of their cancers eliminates sweets (sugar), meat, dairy products, and refined foods from their diets in order to help themselves heal. 

Why cannot eat sugar?
There has been a lot of talk about sugar and cancer, and for a good reason. It is an indisputable fact that cancer cells consume (i.e., metabolize) sugar (glucose) at a much faster rate than normal cells do. This is precisely how a PET scan (positron emission tomography) works: first, you drink a glass of glucose [FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose - a radioactive drug) tagged to glucose to make a radiotracer], and then the scan detects where that glucose is being metabolized the fastest in your body. Those glucose "hot spots" are the areas in your body that are most likely cancerous. While researchers are still not clear whether a high-sugar diet causes cancer, what we do know is that once cancer cells are in your body, they consume anywhere from ten to fifty times more glucose than normal cells do (O. Warburg, 1956). Therefore, it makes logical sense for cancer patients to cut as much refined sugar from their diets as possible, in order to avoid "feeding" their cancer cells, and instead rely on the glucose found naturally in vegetables and fruits.

The connection between cancer cells and sugar was first discovered in 1920s by a doctor named Otto Warburg. Dr. Warburg won a Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer cells get their energy and breathe (i.e., respirate) differently than healthy cells do. Specifically, he noticed that cancer cells get their energy by breaking down unusually large amounts of glucose and that they also breathe without oxygen (known as "anaerobic" respiration). Healthy cells, on the other hand, break down a much smaller amount of glucose and breathe with oxygen (known as "aerobic" respiration). What's interesting is that cancer cells will still breathe anaerobically even when there is plenty of oxygen around. This led Dr. Warburg to hypothesize that cancer cells must have something wrong with their mitochondria, since that's the part of the cell where aerobic respiration takes place in healthy cells. The point is, cancer cells behave differently than healthy cells do, and one of the key differences is that they require lots of sugar in order to function. Therefore, cutting refined sugars out of your diet may be a key way to help "starve" a cancer cell.

Why must avoid dairy products?
There are two main reasons why cancer patients should reduce or eliminate dairy products from their diet. The first is that dairy is the breast milk of another animal, which means it is packed with hormones and proteins meant to make a baby calf grow- not humans. (Incidentally, we are the only species on the planet that drinks the breast milk of another animal.) What's more research has shown that the main protein in cow's milk, called casein, makes cancer cells grow, both in petri dishes and in lab rats. In fact, researchers have found that they can turn a rat's cancer on or off simply by feeding, or not feeding, it casein (Dunaif and Campbell, 1987). 

The second reason why dairy products should be avoided if you have cancer is because dairy products contains unhealthy chemicals such as bovine growth hormones, antibiotics and pesticides.

Finally, it is important to remember that dairy products do not provide us with any nutrients we cannot get elsewhere, even though TV commercials may try to convince us otherwise. For example, we can get just as much calcium from leafy greens and turnips and just as much protein from beans and nuts. Taken together, the evidence is mounting to show that dairy may be cancer promoting, whether due to its inherent casein protein or to the bad things we add on it during production. That is why so many cancer patients drastically reduce or eliminate their dairy consumption, at least until their cancer is completely gone.

Why cannot eat meat?
There is an argument that we humans are designed for a diet that consists of only 10 percent meat, which ideally should be wild, lean meat. Today, our diet consists of 15 percent meat. On the other end, proponents of the Paleo, or "caveman," diet would argue that humans were designed to eat 20 to 40 percent meat. Regardless of what humans were eating thousands of years ago, at present we are dealing with the modern disease of cancer, and the fact remains that scores of large-scale, well-designed scientific studies have linked regular consumption of meat, especially red meat, to many types of cancer (M.Salehi et al, 2013). In fact, one study showed that eating just two servings of meat a day quadrupled a woman's risk of breast cancer recurrence (J.R.Hebert et al, 1998). 

In addition to these alarming findings, the meat, poultry, and fish industries have the same issues as the dairy industry when it comes to the unhealthy additives of artificial growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and omega-6 fats. And, as with dairy, there is no nutrient in meat that you cannot get from other sources. For example, vegetarians can get plenty of protein by eating beans along with whole grains and all the iron they need from beans and seaweed. 

Why cannot eat processed foods?

Cancer patients who are attempting to eat right in order to reverse their cancers should reduce or eliminate refined foods, especially refined grains. A refined food product such as bread is made with wheat that has been converted from its original plant form (the fruit of the wheat plant, or wheat berry) and pounded into a fine flour, which is then mixed with yeast and sugar and baked into a loaf. This results in bread that has a very high glycemic index, meaning its carbohydrates are very quickly converted into glucose- which, as we know cancer cells love. What's worse is that eating high-glycemic foods, such as bread, pasta, flour, or any quick-cook grain, not only gives cancer cells plenty of glucose to feed on but also creates high insulin levels in your blood, which is yet another condition strongly linked to cancer (Gunter and Leitzmann, 2006). 

Therefore, in order to keep blood sugar and insulin levels low and stable, refined foods should be reduced or eliminated altogether. Try instead to eat carbohydrates in their whole forms. Your body digests whole grains much more slowly than refined grains, which helps to keep your blood sugar and insulin levels low. In addition, whole gains have more fibers and vitamins than refined grains do (Q.Sun et al, 2010). Perhaps most important, eating whole grains has been consistently linked with lower cancer rates (A.Schatzkin et al, 2007). Examples of whole grains include brown rice, rye, quinoa, whole barley, and wheat berries. For bread, you could try sprouted-grain bread, which is denser and has much less sugar per slice than both white and whole-wheat bread.

In a nutshell
If you have cancer, your eating habits must change. If all the above facts fail to convince you that eating meat and dairy products is not good for cancers, at least understand what happens behind the scene of this meat and dairy industry...and if you are still a happy consumer after watching this video clip, it is really your personal decision.

(WARNING! The following content may be disturbing to some individuals. Viewer discretion advised) 

 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MEAT AND DAIRY INDUSTRY 

RADICALLY CHANGING YOUR DIET

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

- HIPPOCRATES

Hippocrates, the Greek physician who is heralded as the founder of modern medicine, strongly believed that food has the power to adjust, re-balance, and heal the body.

We are indeed what we eat, because the cells of our food get broken down and transformed into the cells of our bodies. In addition, what we eat and drink directly affects our vessels and tissues, making them more or less inflamed depending on what we put into our bodies. To understand this concept, imagine giving a cup of coffee to a five-year old. After about 10 minutes, you would have no doubt that what we eat and drink directly affects our health.

Our health- and indeed our entire lives- can be seen as the sum of all our moment-to-moment decisions. This includes how we choose to eat and drink, think and feel, act and react, and move and rest on any given day. What makes food so powerful is that it is a very conscious decision. Will I choose a sugary cereal or oatmeal with fruit? Will it be the quick peanut butter and roti kaya or the longer-to-make fruit salad? For most people, there is a nagging doubt underlying these daily food choices, and it whispers, "Does this really matter? Does what I eat really have a vital impact on my health?" The cancer survivors whose lives are at stake- take that question to the next level. They ask themselves, "Can what I eat help my cancer go into remission?" The answer many of them find is YES.

Those cancer patients who experienced reversal of their cancers all tend to make the same four dietary changes. They are:

• GREATLY REDUCING OR ELIMINATING SUGAR, MEAT, DAIRY, AND REFINE FOODS,
• GREATLY INCREASING VEGETABLE AND FRUIT INTAKE,
• EATING ORGANIC FOODS, and
• DRINKING FILTERED WATER

HEALING CRISIS

We live in a high-tech world of bio nanotechnology today where stem cells and genetic engineering promise hope of curing chronic diseases and cancers. Many of us are skeptical that simply changing diet and activity level would have much effect on reversing diseases.

Most of us know that processed foods, smoking, alcohol, sleep deprivation, stress and lack of exercise is bad for health. But we still choose to live that way. Doing the right things for health seemed so hard for so many when it actually cost effective in the long run.

Losing health and treating diseases are expensive but most of us are on this path knowingly. Weird! We do what we do not want (living unhealthy), we want to do the good (live healthy), but we cannot do it. And we do the very thing that we do not want (living unhealthy) [Paraphrased from Rom 7:15-20]. This sounds like addiction! The same thinking and behavioral pattern occurs in all forms of addictions you name it; drugs, gambling, alcohol and sex. It seems like 'unhealthy living' is addictive. Why?

When we are pleasuring ourselves with 'unhealthy living', we are oblivious to the end results of sickness and eventually death because it feels so good that we do not want to stop if there is no reason to do so. A sudden change to 'healthy living' would cause displeasure, pain and discomfort that we want to immediately revert back to the pleasuring sensations and maintain the status quo of 'unhealthy living'. This is what we call, "HEALING CRISIS".

When the body experiences dramatic symptoms of cleansing as a result of improved organ function and immune efficiency, it is referred to as a healing crisis-"healing" because it expels toxins and brings about improvement in health, "crisis" because the symptoms associated with toxic removal can be dramatic.

The symptoms of the healing crisis are the same as those of a disease crisis (illness). For this reason, the healing crisis is greatly misunderstood and often believed to be an illness that must be treated to restore health. The healing crisis is a positive event, a sign of improving health. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly view it as a disease crisis. One is the result of the body overcoming disease, while the other is the result of the body succumbing to disease.

The Body's Power to Heal
All natural methods of healing are based on the concept that the body is capable of curing just about any illness if it is given the opportunity- that is, if negative influences such as environmental toxins, emotional stress, malnutrition and etc. are removed.

The body has an amazing capacity to heal itself. When we get a cut, tear a muscle or get bacterial infection, the body immediately goes to work to repair the damage. We develop symptoms (fever, mucus discharge, coughing, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, etc.) to fight and remove harmful substances. The body knows what to do in every case.

When an injury or localized infection occurs, the body quickly initiates an inflammation response, an important part of the healing process. Inflammation is a process by which blood circulation in a particular area is greatly increased. This allows for the rapid influx of defending white blood cells into the affected area, Damaged cells are removed, along with any infectious organisms that may be present. Healthy cells in the area are stimulated to quickly begin multiplying to replace the damaged cells removed by the white blood cells. This way, the injured or damaged parts of the body are healed.

Similarly, cancerous or degenerative cells are also removed. All of us have cancerous cells in our bodies. The reason we all do not develop cancer is because the immune cells quickly remove these cancer cells before they become too big.

When the immune system is overworked or when nutrients essential for the production of healthy white blood cells are lacking in our diets, our immune system cannot adequately do its job, sickness and diseases results. If the white blood cells are just barely able to keep daily toxins and pathogenic invaders in check, poisons are easily trapped in tissues and build up over time. These poisons can disrupt normal cellular activity, causing degeneration and further burdening the immune system. Good diet and lifestyle choices are the keys to maintaining a strong immune system.

Treating Symptoms
Treating symptoms is easy, convenient for patients and good business for physicians because of the rapid turn over. But is this how healing is supposed to be?

Symptoms are not the cause of the disease; they are only the body's response to it. Suppressing or masking the symptoms will not cure the disease. Taking a pain killer will not cure a headache, it only numbs the nerves so that the pain is not felt. The cause of the headache remains. Taking cough medicine does not cure chest colds. Sleeping pills will not cure insomnia. Antidepressants will not cure depression. Cortisone steroid will not cure arthritis. Anti-hypertension will not cure hypertension. When the cause of the problem is not removed, medications must be used regularly to suppress symptoms. This is the current healthcare (or rather sickness-orientated) system unfortunately. Removing the symptoms brings about a false sense of well-being and perpetuates the attitude of getting a quick fix to solve medical problems. Drugs provide quick relief to many symptoms of illness but don't do a thing about curing the problem.

Drugs by their very nature are toxic to the body and add to the toxic body's load, often making health worse. All drugs have side effects! Natural healing methods focus on the cause of the problem and so their effects on symptoms are not as dramatically noticeable as drugs. When used properly, natural methods cause no adverse side effects, nor do they load the body with harmful toxins.

Symptoms associated with common illnesses are part of the body's natural cleansing process. When our bodies become dangerously overloaded with toxins, our immune systems weaken and we become vulnerable to infectious organisms. When we become sick, our body is telling us to rest so it can focus its healing energies on housecleaning (detoxification). Symptoms of sickness- runny nose, fever, diarrhea, nausea, sneezing, coughing, loss of appetite, etc.- are all process of cleansing.

The symptoms we often regard as sickness are are in fact the protective mechanism that keeps us healthy and alive. There is always an underlying cause for every symptom. That should prompt the physician to investigate further. Sometimes doctors know the causative pathogen and treat specifically and sometimes doctors do not know what is the cause and the empirical treatment approach is adopted.

A healthy protective system and process of detoxification such as fever, urination, opening bowels, sweating, coughing, sneezing, tearing, pimples and boil eruptions are always on standby mode to 'cleanse' the body. These symptoms becomes a 'disease' when the process FAILS to rid the body of the offending agents and toxins. As the result, these symptoms persist and affect more systems until it overwhelms the whole person. That is what we commonly regard as being sick.

Therefore it is crucial for us to understand the distinction between a healing crisis and a disease crisis for appropriate action to be taken.

To put in simply:

DISEASE CRISIS is the process associated with illness and the body's efforts to remove disease-causing agents and restore health. If the body is weak and unable to overcome illness, death or permanent disability may result. In a disease crisis, the body is struggling to remove toxic levels of poisons and microbial infestation in an effort just to survive.

 

HEALING CRISIS is the process associated with heightened cleansing and cellular rebuilding. It is a sign of improving health and results in better health as disease-causing factors are removed. Healing crisis only occurs to the degree at which the body can tolerate without injury and therefore will not cause harm.

The 4 Pillars of Healing

Ancient system of healing approach sickness as a problem of balance and relationship, the result of disharmony between the sick person and his environment rather than the product of specific disease.

Similarly, Hippocratic tradition constitutes detailed clinical observation and an attempt to cultivate techniques of healing that work in concert with the forces of nature, restoring to the body its natural harmony of function. The Hippocratic  physician cared not about the disease but about the patient as the a whole, striving "to know what man is in relation to food, drink, occupation and which effect each of these has on the other." Dietetics was the cornerstone of Hippocratic therapy. The Hippocratic approach dominated Western medicine for almost two thousand years.

The disease process is not caused by the microbe alone. In the case of tuberculosis, people who are infected with the bacteria do not always develop the disease. When the immune system is strong, the bacteria is imprisoned by the white blood cells. The tubercle is not a product of the bacteria, but a defense thrown up by the host. When immunity falters, the bacteria escape. Impairment of the host's immunity is as important for the development of tuberculosis as is the microbe itself.

The physician's task was to support the body's natural healing processes. Signs of sickness is not the manifestation of the disease but the manifestation of the body's attempt to heal itself.

Medicine was about disease, not about health or longevity, and the physician's task was to discover, in life, through physical signs, what organic lesions were present in the patient's body.

Rudolf Virchow, Germany's "Pope of Pathology", established the cell as the ultimate unit of sturcture and function in the body and initiated the movement that traced sickness to cellular dysfunction. However, Virchow resisted the temptation to localize disease within the cell and believes that the social conditions under which patients lived to be more important determinants of health than the tissue changes he saw through the microscope,

Louis Pasteur, the father of microbiology, demonstrated that the conditions of life, not the microbe alone, are the cause of disease with his chicken experiment. Both chickens were injected with the deadly anthrax bacteria. One bird exposed to cold temperature before infection (died), another kept at warm temperature (lived).

Functional Medicine aims to restore the balance between the sick person and his environment. It is not merely suppression of disease. Functional medicine strives to improve the physiological, emotional, cognitive and/or physical function of individuals, sick or well. Restoration or enhancement of health is the aim. The principles that guide the restoration of health are different from the principles that guide the suppression of disease.

Disease suppression therapies have a role to play in medical care, but their importance has been exaggerated.

The 4 Pillars for the Restoration of Health:

1) RELATIONSHIP: social support is linked to health and mortality. Satisfying relationship may buffer the impact of stress, lowering the levels of chemical mediators, decreasing the strain on mind and body. The rewards of friendship may include an increase in self esteem and with it a boost to perceived self-efficacy. A high level of self-efficacy improves an individual's ability to cope with symptoms, adopt healthful habits, and cooperate with medical treatment.

2) DIET and regulation of the daily cycle of rest and exercise.

3) ENVIRONMENTAL hygiene: a major determinant of health and sickness.

4) DETOXIFICATION: The supply of enviromental toxins, chemical and microbial, appears endless.

The human body has many natural defenses against environmental toxicity. These include:-

• The constant shedding of the skin and the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, which slowly dispels environmental toxins from the body.
• The activity of protective immune response that limit the attachment of toxins to the surfaces of the lungs or the gastrointestinal tract.
• Enzymes systems in the liver that destroy toxins and prepare them for excretion in the bile or the urine.
• Enzymes that repair damaged cells and promote healing.

Traditional approaches to detoxification are fasting, purging, and herbal remedies to "cleanse" the intestinal tract.

Elie Metchnikoff (Noble Prize winner for Medicine in 1908) was the first modern scientist to study the notion of intestinal toxicity. He theorized that intestinal bacteria cause senility and degenerative disease by producing toxic chemicals called ptomaines, which are absorbed into the body. He advocated yogurt with "friendly" bacteria called Lactobacilli, would inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria.

Toxins that enter the body from the intestinal tract are directly transported to the liver, which is the chief site for detoxifying enzymes in the body. Strategies for supporting and directing liver detoxification will offer great potential as innovative treatments.

To maintain or regain your own health, understand and actively support the Four Pillars of Healing:

• Nurture relationships with others. Commit some time each day to give your undivided attention to a friend or family member.

• Involve yourself in a group activity that is meaningful to you and enjoyable.

• Eat regular meals with people you care about. Avoid snacks or meals in front of the television. Especially avoid the salty high-fat snack food.

• Exercise regularly with at least moderate intensity for thirty minutes a day or more. Brisk walking is a good start. Do it with a friend.

• Get enough sleep at night so that you can awaken without an alarm clock.

• Reserve 15 minutes or more for quiet, focused relaxation every day.

• Become aware of the environmental hazards in your community and your job.

• Keep to a minimum your use of alcohol and drugs, including medical drugs.

• Consume a nutritious diet that is rich in "detox" vegetables like broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage, and in nuts and seeds. Add sea vegetables and green onions as condiments.

(Adapted from Leo Galland's "The Four Pillars of Healing")