Why Is Your Appetite Out of Control?

One of the most common requests I get is for help with appetite control. I do have some homeopathic remedies that may help, but the real solution is always to get to the bottom of the situation and fix the imbalance at the root.
There are many reasons for feeling hungry even after a meal, or finding it difficult to stop eating once started. Our food is pretty inadequate today, in terms of nutrient density. Organic foods from superior sources may be more satisfying. I find that my family consumes less chicken when it is pasture-raised than when it is just organic. Pasture-raised chickens follow herds of cattle and they grub in the grass, eating a standard bird diet. Chickens are omnivores (meaning they eat both animals and plants), but they naturally will eat bugs, worms and small animals if allowed to roam. Chickens should not be fed a vegetarian diet, even when it is organic. If you alter the natural diet of any animal or human, they will get sick.

Snack food is chemically engineered to be unsatisfying so that you keep eating it. Remember it is not about your health or even your enjoyment for the big food corporations. It is about how much junk they can get you to consume that increases their bottom line. Good reason to avoid processed foods. There should be another category for all the junk and fake foods, so that they do not get called “food” and fool people into thinking they are getting food.

Most of the processed foods are pure carbs, and will spike and then drop blood sugar, causing a person to feel hungry (and tired) a couple of hours later. So, in addition to avoiding wheat, grains and sugar, be sure that each meal has complete protein and good fat. Complete proteins have the amino acids that human bodies need to make tissue, bone, muscle and enzymes. Almost every cell in the body, and all the process that break down food and manufacture cells, require certain amino acids. Fish, chicken and meat, eggs and dairy products, nuts, and legumes all have complete proteins. Otherwise foods like beans and rice that have only some of the required amino acids, must be consumed in combinations so that all the amino acids are present. This is a matter of simple construction. All the materials have to be available to get the building in place.

There are strong hormone connections and I will write about those next time.

Halloween-How To Avoid Goblins and Sugar Blues

Did you know that Halloween comes only after Christmas in the amount of money spent on a Holiday? $6 billion dollars and counting. One quarter of all the candy purchased in the U.S. is bought at Halloween-not much of a surprise.
We actually have the Irish potato famine to thank for the evolution of Halloween in America. Halloween was an ancient celebration of the Harvest and Celtic New Year on 1 November. The evening before- All Hallow’s Eve (hallow means holy or sacred) was thought to be a night when spirits were free to roam the earth. Costumes were worn so that the spirits would not recognize the people they met. The Druids also used animal heads and masks in their ceremonies.

The church chose the same day as All Saint’s Day, and parades were held on All Soul’s Day, the evening before 1 November. Poor people went “a-souling” and “soul-cakes” were given as exchange for prayers for departed loved ones.

During the Irish potato famine one million people died and two million emigrated, most of them to the U.S. Halloween became known as “Beggar’s Night”. It was a night of vandalism but the hooligans could be placated with treats. Communities and newspapers campaigned in the 1920’2 to dampen the damage and make Halloween a holiday for families and children with the ghoulishness reduced.

If you or your little witches indulge in candy, be sure to eat protein and good fat before to slow the sugar rush into the blood. Minerals are very important when refined sugar is consumed. Calcium, magnesium, zinc and iodine will help protect the teeth and immune system, as sugar takes a toll on both. Let kids burn off the sugar with lots of exercise and then give them extra sleep. Cheap chocolate can cause upset to the gall bladder and that may be a reason for the tummy-aches. Digestive enzymes and supplements may help. Email me and I can direct you to my favorite ones.

I have always loved Halloween and the excuse to dress up. I try to look for healthier choices in treats, which is not easy and can get very expensive if you get a lot of  Trick and Treaters. One of my patients told me their neighborhood gets 2000 kids! So, eat extra healthy around the treats to help make up the damage. And may all the ghosts you meet be friendly ones!

The Practice Has Moved!

I am pleased to announce that I have taken new office space in an office building that looks like a Castle at 178 S. Victory Blvd, Suite 205, Burbank, CA 91502. With 3 treatment rooms, I will be able to expand my services to include more pain treatment, as well as the Clinical Nutrition and Natural Medicine.
I am really committed to prevention and helping people get and stay healthy in the sense that they can have a full and active life, and avoid disease as much as possible. Life is really an Olympic event, when you think of all the demand we have, mentally, physically and spiritually. But how many of us are eating like athletes preparing for World Class competition. Instead, most people are using the chemicals in food to medicate themselves, knowingly or unknowingly. This gives momentary stress relief, but affects over-all performance, and leads to diminished vitality.

There is really only one way to avoid disease states. All the use of sanitary wipes on shopping carts and covering our mouths when we sneeze and flu shots will never stop pathogens. Our innate immune systems are the determiners of whether we stand or fall when illness sweeps in.

Processed, devitalized or chemical foods create devitalized bodies that are susceptible to pathogens, but also cave when mental and emotional stress hit.  The commercial food supply we have in the U.S. is severely compromised, and deficient. So, think like an athlete, and what it takes to win the game. How you eat might make all the difference. I hear it from patients all the time, when they do a cleanse or drop sugar and grains from their diet. More energy, better sleep, less bloat and indigestion.

It is getting yourself mentally prepared to make the changes that is the real challenge. All sport is really lead by how we think, followed by how we act. Including the sport of life.

Senseless Violence-The Real Cause

We don’t know enough about brain chemistry to be fooling around with it. There is a hubris in Pharmaceutical-driven medicine that says humans are guinea pigs and it is okay to mess around with our natural chemistry to alter our behavior and mood. If every human being was exactly the same, this might work. But we are vastly different; in weight, gender, nutrition, genetics, age, psyche and habits. We are each different day to day, moment to moment, depending on whether we ate cake or chicken for lunch, how much sleep we had, where we are in our hormonal cycles, what time of the day it is, Whether our dog just died, or we just got a raise, or just listened to someone say “I love you”.
So, is it any wonder that some people will react violently when certain chemicals are given to alter their brain chemistry? Many psychotropic drugs are known to cause homicidal or suicidal reactions and some carry black box warnings by the FDA to this effect. But they are still prescribed.

Here is what an award winning investigative reporter wrote about the shootings in the Navy Yard.

Despite 22 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile shootings/killings tied to psychiatric drug use, there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.”

By Kelly Patricia O’Meara
September 18, 2013

It took less than 48 hours to learn that Washington Navy Yard shooter, Aaron Alexis, is another in a long line of psychiatric drug-induced perpetrators.

The New York Times has reported that while in Providence Rhode Island on August 23, 2013, and again, five days later, in Washington , D.C. , Alexis had been prescribed Trazodone, an antidepressant that carries an FDA black box warning for suicide, and is documented to cause mania and violent behavior.

Now, twelve innocent people (plus the shooter) are dead at the Washington Navy Yard.  Yes, these senseless deaths are sad, tragic, and incomprehensible. And it is time to point the finger at those who are responsible.

Because lawmakers, both at the state and federal level, refuse to address the enormous amount of information revealing theconnection between violence and prescription psychiatric drugs, mass shootings, like the massacre which occurred at the Washington Navy Yard, will continue.

Despite 22 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile shootings/killings tied to psychiatric drug use, there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

Seriously, how many mass shootings have to occur by shooters with a psychiatric drug history before those who have the power to make a difference finally take the necessary action to protect the American people?

The list of shooters receiving psychiatric care and psychiatric drug use is long. In just a little over a year there have been three such mass shootings, including Aurora, Co., Newtown, Ct., and now the Washington Navy Yard, totaling 52 dead and 69 injured. In each case, as in dozens of other mass shootings, the common denominator is that the shooters were either receiving psychiatric care, taking mind altering psychiatric drugs or both.

Alleged Navy Yard shooter, Aaron Alexis, is reported to have been taking the antidepressant Trazodone.

While law enforcement fumbles around trying to figure out a motive, it may behoove them to look at  Alexis’ psychiatric history and, specifically, his complete psychiatric drug “treatment” record. This information is imperative and, yet, it is astounding that, more often than not, obtaining the psychiatric drug information of the shooters is withheld from the public for months and years.

A perfect example of this is the lawsuit that has been filed in Connecticut to force the state’s Medical Examiner to release the psychiatric history and psychiatric drug data regarding gunman, Adam Lanza.

The same difficulties occurred with Aurora, Co., shooter, James Holmes, who also was under psychiatric care, and although police recovered four prescription bottles from his apartment, they have yet to make public what psychiatric drugs Holmes had been prescribed.

People are dying needlessly. This information isn’t a state secret. The proverbial cat has been out of the bag for years about the connection between psychiatric drugs and violence.  Even the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, gets it, plastering Black Box Warnings on most of the psychiatric drugs because they are known to CAUSE violence.

Ironically, even the military has finally begun to address the over-prescription of psychiatric drugs because of the epidemic of military suicides. Unfortunately, a recent study, conducted for the Department of Defense, DoD, looked at dozens of factors that may contribute to the military suicides but, believe it or not, failed to even mention psychiatric drug use, which according to DoD’s own data, is increasing yearly.

These are not benign drugs. They alter the mind. The FDA’s MedWatch system reveals that between 2004-2011, there were 14,656 reports of psychiatric drugs causing violent side effects—1,415 cases of homicidal ideation/homicide, 3,287 cases of mania & 8,219 cases of aggression.  The FDA admits that less than 1% of all serious events are ever reported to it, so the actual number of side effects occurring are most certainly higher.

This isn’t guess work. It is documented. At least 31 school shootings and/or school-related acts of violence have been committed by those taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, resulting in 162 wounded and 72 killed.

Mania, hostility, violence, suicidal ideation and even homicidal ideation are adverse effects of psychiatric drugs. Twenty-two international drug regulatory warnings have been issued for psychiatric drugs.

What part of these national and international warnings, the FDA’s Black Box Warnings and the lengthy list of shooters (including Alexis) with psychiatric drug use, don’t lawmakers understand? How many more innocent people have to die because lawmakers lacked the courage to explore the possibility of a connection between psychiatric drugs and violence?

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Kelly Patricia O’Meara is an award winning former investigative reporter for the Washington Times, Insight Magazine, penning dozens of articles exposing the fraud of psychiatric diagnosis and the dangers of the psychiatric drugs – including her ground-breaking 1999 cover story, Guns & Doses, exposing the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed book, Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill. Prior to working as an investigative journalist, O’Meara spent sixteen years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer to four Members of Congress. She holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Maryland .