While many cases of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) can be treated quickly, others are more insidious. These more complex cases fall into five major categories:

1) Dietary

2) Toxicity

3) Infections

4) Hormonal

5) Emotional or Stress related

At the Santa Barbara Holistic Chiropractic Clinic, we have sophisticated techniques for determining the root cause of most cases of CFS. See also Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Treatment

One case of chronic fatigue that I could not figure out was a woman who was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning that was emanating from her furnace. The furnace repair guy cured her! Other rare environmental causes of CFS and fibromyalgia that I’ve seen are asbestosis, lead poisoning and poor sleep caused by electromagnetic stress caused by an electric blanket.

Diet can play a large role in chronic fatigue. The most common issue is consuming foods without any nutritional value. As a result, these people are overfed and under-nourished. Many people are intolerant to gluten, dairy and corn and don’t know it. However, the gut inflammation often takes time to heal even after one stops eating the problem foods. Other common dietary triggers are citrus, nuts, nightshades, sugar, artificial sweeteners, colorings and preservatives.

As far as toxicity, I see a lot of mercury poisoning from dental fillings and aluminum toxicity from cheap pots and pans, deodorant and toothpaste. As for infectious sources, there are viruses like Ebstein-Barr, hepatitis, Lymes disease, household mold and fungal causes like candida. These are extremely common causes of fatigue.

Hormonal and stress related factors also contribute to the sleep crisis we see in America today. This is obviously a very complex topic that could be the subject of several books, but it is what we focus on at our holistic chiropractic center … let us know if we can help!

Dr. Whitten's Treatment room

Healing from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a diagnosis, like Fibromyalgia, that Western medicine has no idea how to treat. There are no diagnostic tests that reveal any problems but the sufferer just feels lousy and exhausted. These are the kinds of cases that acupuncturists, holistic chiropractors, and naturopaths love to treat because we usually get very good results and the patients get their life back.

Depending on the causes, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome treatment can be easy or quite complex. The following are causes that can be resolved fairly quickly:

Dehydration, food allergies, electromagnetic stress, poor diet, sleep issues, nutritional deficiencies, and spinal misalignment resulting in pinched nerves. When properly diagnosed through kinesiology or Eastern pulse or tongue diagnosis, these problems can be brought into balance within a very short period of time.

Electromagnetic stress can be a result of electrical wires that are too close to the bed or being on the computer for many hours per day. The simplest solution is to get a grounding pad for the bed or computer chair. This conductive pad plugs into the third prong of an electrical outlet, which connects to the building’s ground rod. These can be purchased inexpensively through The Healing Place.

Dehydration is not simply a matter of needing to drink more water. The body can only absorb 4 oz. of water into the cells every half hour. This means that if you drink a lot of water all at once you only get the benefit of 4 oz. and the rest just washes through you. The cells are like an ice tray; it needs to be filled slowly. So we must develop the habit of carrying a water bottle with us and taking sips every so often. The other cautionary note has to do with the kind of water bottle we use. The soft plastic, as most of us know, leaches plastic into the water and causes excess synthetic estrogen in the body. This causes all kinds of problems in the long run. Ideally our water bottle should be glass or stainless steel (be ware of the stainless steel bottles with Teflon coating).

The other issues of allergies, nutritional deficiencies, diet and spinal misalignment can be tested and treated through a holistic chiropractor such as myself.

In the next blog I will discuss the more difficult cases.

Beyond Applied Kinesiology

What distinguished the more advanced chiropractic kinesiology techniques developed in the 1980’s and 90’s, like Clinical Kinesiology (CK) and Body Talk, was the concept of priority. Instead of just finding imbalances and fixing them, as Applied Kinesiology or Touch for Health do, the more sophisticated systems asked the body what is the top priority or primary imbalance. When these issues are fixed correctly the body then automatically resolves dozens of other issues that were merely compensating for the priority.

Clinical Kinesiology also discovered the phenomenon of hand modes. These are specific hand positions or mudras that are used in conjunction with manual muscle testing to determine not only what is wrong with the body but also what is the best technique to fix it. Clinical Kinesiology incorporates many chiropractic styles, massage, acupuncture, homeopathy, herbs, nutritional testing, Neuro emotional technique, essential oils etc. It also has the capability to incorporate new systems, as they are discovered, and add them to the menu of potential treatment options for the body to choose from.

Just as H20 can exist as a solid, liquid or gas, we too exist as all three states. We have a solid structure. Our blood vessels and cells are filled with liquid. And our thoughts and emotions are neither solid nor liquid but more like ether or gas. So what level of our being is primary? Well, they are inter-related and when we affect one, we necessarily affect the others. Sometimes the body asks for structural work and sometimes chemical or emotional issues are primary. The point is that with something as complex and multi-dimensional as a human being we can’t rely on our intellect to figure out what modalities would be best for healing. Since the kinesiologist has access to the patient’s own body wisdom he doesn’t need to use his logical mind to ‘figure it out’. In fact, the logical mind can be a hindrance in this case. We serve people best by quieting our mind and “listening” to the body’s needs and delivering the requested therapy (even if it makes no logical sense!)

One of my chiropractic mentors once told me that when he was new in practice he had a patient who was young and appeared quite healthy. The muscle testing said she needed 75 various nutritional pills per day! The doctor said that he didn’t understand the reading and he did not encourage her to take what her body had asked for. He discovered six months later that this girl was close to death. Her body had been aware she needed a tremendous amount of nutrition to heal her but the doctor allowed his logical mind to second guess the muscle testing. He said he has never doubted his readings since.

Call to receive a complementary muscle testing evaluation in my Santa Barbara holistic chiropractic clinic.

Sincerely,

Hesu Whitten DC

Dr. Whitten's Treatment room

Manual Muscle Testing

Applied Kinesiology and muscle testing are often interchangeable terms when used to describe the method for asking the body questions about itself. Muscles are designed to turn on and off very quickly. When you flex any muscle, its antagonist or opposing muscle turns off so the two muscles are not fighting each other.

The basics of muscle testing: This can be done standing or lying down. When standing, have the person you are testing hold their arm straight out to the side and grab their arm just before the wrist. Test to make sure their muscle tests strong ‘in the clear’ before testing anything to know you have a ‘strong’ muscle to work with. When I say strong I don’t mean you should apply 50 lbs of force to it. It is like if a door is closed and you don’t know if it is latched…how hard do you have to push on it to determine if it is in fact latched? So it only takes a couple of pounds of force for about a half second to know if the muscle is “locked” or “engaged”. When it goes weak it feels like a door that isn’t latched and simply gives way.

In muscle testing it can be observed that when we ask a question or make a statement the muscle will stay strong when the answer to the question is “yes” or the statement is “true”. Conversely, the muscle will disengage or feel weak if the statement is not true or the answer is “no”. It is as if the body is a computer and when we feed it information that is not congruent with the truth it creates confusion in the system and interferes with the nerve signal reaching the muscle.

For example, if I were to test your arm immediately after stating “all your organs can easily handle dairy”, your arm would stay strong if the statement was true for you and go weak if it was not true. We could thereby determine your food sensitivities.

Some do’s and don’ts on how to test.

• Only test a question one time. When you second guess the test it creates an air of doubt and uncertainty which makes the testing unreliable.
• Before pushing on the arm tell the person “hold” or “resist” and then smoothly build the pressure for half a second. Don’t test in a jerky manner.
• If the persons muscle doesn’t seem to lock and seems spongy it often is due to being dehydrated. Take a few sips and then try again.
• If you do not test with too much force their arm should not get tired but if it does just switch arms.
• The body will give reliable information but only if the question or statement is unambiguous and clear. Examples of ‘bad’ questions are “am I healthy”, “can I or should I…..”  It is better to say “it is in my best interests to…eat meat, go workout now, stay in this relationship”.
• Muscle testing is not to be used for foretelling the future or picking lottery numbers or stocks. The testing will actually give you answers but they will not be correct.

If you would like to learning muscle testing feel free to email or call. I live in Santa Barbara and do chiropractic kinesiology and clinical kinesiology. If you want to try it on your own I am happy to answer any questions that come up for you in the process. I will put together a class when there is enough interest. Taking a class on Touch for Health is a good starting point.

Sincerely,

Hesu Whitten DC

Come in for a complementary clinical kinesiology evaluation.

(805)962-8548

qchiro1@aol.com

Dr. Whitten at home office

Many Uses for Chiropractic Kinesiology

In the mid-1960’s George Goodheart DC discovered techniques for healing which he developed into a system called Applied Kinesiology. AK is still being developed and improved upon by modern practitioners who are adding their experience and discoveries to this growing body of work. The original finding was that when you test a muscle that is working properly and is testing strong, it will go weak when you touch a place on the body that is injured. This became useful for helping holistic doctors find not only the location of an injury but also for finding misaligned bones, blocked acupuncture points, testing foods to which a person was allergic and much more. Over time people discovered more and more uses for this amazing phenomenon. It was like the body had all the information about itself and if we could figure out how to tap this wealth of knowledge it would tell us exactly what the person needed in order to heal. Although considered controversial in the U.S., this technique is used by a third of medical doctors in Europe.

In the 80’s a man named Alan Beardall DC made a quantum leap in this field and developed a distinct system called Clinical Kinesiolgy. CK enabled the practitioner to not only do much more sophisticated work and delve into the emotional and energetic causes of imbalances, but also had a way to determine the priority issue. When the priority was corrected many other problems cleared up automatically. But because of the additional years of training and the complexity of CK there are less than ten advanced practitioners in the world (including myself). This was a problem for me. I wanted to offer this great work to the world but I realized that it was too complex for most practitioners to want to learn. As a result of this dilemma I have spent the last ten years developing a system that is very deep yet easily teachable. I call it Quantum Chiropractic.

In the coming weeks I will be making videos and blogs on the many applications for this work. The beauty of the work is that it customizes everything. It tells you what your body needs, which may be very different from someone else’s. Here is a list of a few of the applications:

• Finding your self-limiting beliefs
• Discovering you food allergies
• Determining if a situation is healthy for you
• Working out your ideal diet
• Designing your perfect training regimen
• Determining your body’s bedtime and wake time
• Knowing which forms of exercise are good for you
• Finding the right supplements and dosages
• Feng Shui-ing your home

In subsequent blogs I will discuss the particulars of how to perform these applications.

Arthritis Treatment – Dietary

Part two

The  nutritional connection to arthritis is the excessive use of acid forming foods and beverages—protein, sugar, coffee, alcohol, soda—and infrequent consumption of alkalizing foods like vegetables and most fruits. Add to this problem the fact that the soil has become nearly devoid of minerals, which would serve to neutralize these unhealthy acids, and you have the recipe for arthritis and chronic joint pain. So any natural arthritis treatment must start with reducing acid forming food. (Stress further adds to the acidic state of the body and causes inflammation).

We learned in school that cow dairy (aka milk products) are good for the bones because they contain high amounts of calcium. This information has proven to be inaccurate. In fact, the five countries with the highest amount of dairy consumption are the same five countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis, degenerative arthritis, and aging-associated diseases. There are several reasons for this, in addition to the fact that it is unnatural for any species to drink milk past the weaning years or to drink the milk of another species.

• First, when people consume more than 80-100 grams of protein per day, the kidneys start to excrete calcium.
• Second, in addition to calcium, milk also contains high amounts of the mineral phosphorus. Calcium and phosphorus have an inverse relationship just as do sodium-potassium and zinc-copper. So when phosphorus levels are high, the body gets rid of calcium.
• Third, milk, as well as all forms of protein, is acidic. The body needs minerals to buffer or neutralize these acids. Since our diets do not contain adequate levels of minerals (the US Senate report showed 97% of Americans do not get adequate minerals) the body takes the minerals out of the bones.

In the book The China Study there was revealed repeated studies where scientists were able to turn on and off cancer genes in rats by varying the amount of cow dairy in their diets. When the amount of casein (milk protein) in their diets exceeded 5% the rats developed liver cancer.

So the key to a successful natural arthritis treatment is 1. reducing stress  2. alkalizing with a diet high in vegetables and fruits (ideally juicing fresh vegetables daily).  3. eating more raw (uncooked) foods 4. staying fully hydrated by sipping eight ounces of water per hour.  5. receiving chiropractic adjustments and massage to increase the mobility and circulation in the joints and muscles.   6. Taking a high quality multi-vitamin/mineral supplement from a good company like Thorne or Premier Research Labs (available at many holistic chiropractor offices).  7. And do daily exercises that focus on increasing strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health.  The combination of yoga and swimming, for example, accomplish these objectives.

Natural Arthritis Treatments

Part 1

Arthritis is the most common debilitating disease afflicting 60% of the population over the age of 65 and 10-15% of those aged 18-44. There are two major categories under which all types of arthritic conditions fall: degenerative and inflammatory. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative arthritis; Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory arthritis. In this two part series I will present the concepts and natural arthritis treatments that I have used to successfully treat countless patients in my holistic chiropractic clinic in Santa Barbara over the past ten years.

There are several causes of arthritis, in addition to heredity. It can be caused by trauma, over-use, poor posture, poor diet, lack of mobility, and auto-immune conditions. In part one I will discuss the structural therapies that can be done to reverse this often painful condition. If you are suffering from postural causes of arthritis many chiropractors, including myself, can help with this. I also recommend the book Ageless Spine, Lasting Health by Kathleen Porter.

All the joints in the body rely on movement for lubrication. In the spine, the discs lose their blood supply by age 12 and rely entirely on spinal movement to pump fluid into the discs. Without adequate motion the discs grow thinner, are more likely to tear and rupture, and become less effective in their role as shock absorbers. People become shorter as they age because the discs (which make up 1/3^rd of the height of the spine) become dehydrated. This is another reason to develop the habit of staying fully hydrated. When we drink water, the joints are the last part of the body to get it. The body gives first priority to the brain, then the other organs, and if there is any left over it goes to the joints.

Just as we brush our teeth every day to avoid decay, there is one basic thing we can do to avoid decay of the spine. The spine moves in three planes—front to back, side to side, and twisting. I recommend doing twenty of these movements every morning, after drinking a glass of water, to warm up the body and lubricate the joints.

In the next part I will discuss the nutritional aspects of preventing and reversing arthritis. There are natural solutions to arthritis that work very well and don’t have the serious risks involved with taking drugs.

If you look up rheumatoid arthritis online you are likely to see recommendations for drugs like Orencia. Here are the warnings that accompany this drug:

Possible Side Effects of ORENCIA® (abatacept)

ORENCIA can cause serious side effects including:

The more common side effects with ORENCIA in both adults and children are headache, upper respiratory tract infection, sore throat, and nausea. Other side effects in children may include diarrhea, cough, fever, and abdominal pain

Part Four

Health Crisis

Food is our fuel. No other species eats for entertainment. Every week the FDA approves 20 new man-made chemicals to enter the consumable marketplace. That means every year approx. 1000 new chemicals can be added to our foods and beverages. The typical diet consumed in America is tragic. It is pouring good health down the drain and has led to a health crisis that can’t be cured by modern medicine. The current estimates are that nearly 50% of men and 40% of women will get cancer! The main reason for this alarming rate of disease is diet and stress. The typical refrigerator and cupboard in America is filled with dairy products, foods laden with corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and colorings, soda, artificial juices, cereals drenched in sugar, genetically modified foods, coffee, and processed meats. What are absent are fresh fruits and vegetables.

When you add alcohol, cigarettes and drugs to the mix it is not possible to maintain good health for long while living in this way. Not only has the “normal” American diet led to skyrocketing rates of disease and obesity, but has created a restless culture living on anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs. Stable homes with both parents in a loving relationship and healthy children are becoming rare. People are so out of balance today that it makes it very hard for a health practitioner to restore people to a high level of health. Our addiction to these non-nutritive foods must be broken if we have any chance of enjoying health and vitality.

For those who are attempting to do all the right things, like eat a healthy organic diet, exercise, drink lots of water, and manage stress, they too are sometimes frustrated by ailments stemming from food sensitivities and intolerance. It is often hard to figure out what foods are the culprits. The most common offenders that I find in my office are dairy, wheat, soy, citrus, corn, and peanuts. There are blood tests which test our immune response to hundreds of common foods. These can be very valuable. We can also get stool tests to see if we have gluten intolerance (wheat). In my holistic chiropractic clinic, I simply use  muscle testing to determine whether a person’s body likes or doesn’t like a certain food. For those with an allergy natural remedies are available that desensitize you toward the culprit. Studies have correlated muscle testing with other more “scientific” tests, and they have found a very high level of agreement.

I encourage everyone to find out which foods they do not tolerate well. Mothers who are nursing should especially find out what foods their infant’s do not tolerate. Many infants stop nursing much too soon because their mothers are unknowingly eating foods they (the infants) are allergic to and it is coming through in the breast milk. Many cases of ADD can be immediately resolved by eliminating their food allergies.

Come in for a complementary applied kinesiology and food allergy test at the Santa Barbara holistic chiropractic center.

Sincerely,

Hesu Whitten DC

Digestion Problems

Candida Albicans

One of the major causes of digestion problems as well as  is the yeast infection Candida Albicans. Candida is a fungus that lives naturally in the intestines and vagina. Also inhabiting these areas are the beneficial bacteria acidophilus, bifidus and bulgaricus, collectively known as the flora. The flora produce B Vitamins, aid in digestion, and keep yeast from getting out of control. When the intestinal flora is strong, it keeps the yeast in check and there is no problem. When the flora is weak, the Candida can grow in numbers and bore microscopic holes in the intestinal wall (leaky gut syndrome) allowing the fungus to enter the blood stream. This enables the Candida to travel to other areas such as the lungs, brain, mouth, skin and nails and cause infection. The main symptoms of these infections are fatigue, gas/bloating, foul smelling discharge, thick white coating on the tongue (thrush) and nail infection.

Causes:

Candida thrives on simple sugars. People who consume a lot of sugar, bread, wine, fruit juices are feeding the yeast. The anti-Candida diet consists of mostly vegetables and protein. This starves the yeast. What causes the flora to weaken is usually the use of broad spectrum antibiotics. These drugs kill the beneficial bacteria inhabiting the gut leaving the harmful yeast free to proliferate unchecked. There is also evidence that mercury toxicity from dental fillings can contribute to yeast overgrowth.

Diagnosis:

As a holistic chiropractor in Santa Barbara, I am able to detect many strains of Candida using kinesiology testing with various homeopathic vials. This is used to confirm the symptom survey. Medically Candidiasis is diagnosed by stool sample and treated with the drug Nystatin. In my chiropractic office I counsel people with digestion problems to get rid of simple sugars and treat the infection with probiotics, homeopathics and anti-fungal herbs. To schedule a free consultation call (805)962-8548.

Yours in Health,

Hesu Whitten

What makes us different from other animals is free will. We have the power to say ‘today I will make different choices’. Today I will throw out all the food in my pantry and frig that is not good for me. I will follow the basic principles of natural healing. I will take a walk, join a yoga class, ride my bike, meditate, read a book, buy a juicer and start juicing, tell my wife and children that I love them’. Animals instinctively only do things that are good for them. You don’t see a horse eating cake on his birthday.

As a holistic chiropractor in Santa Barbara, I see many people who have made the decision to turn their health around. They see the way their health is going–perhaps they have recently seen a friend die of cancer or heart disease–and they make a choice to make natural healing a top priority so they can see their grandchildren grow up. Or maybe they love to hike or play golf or surf but they haven’t been able to participate for a while because of pain. These are my favorite patients! When people have a reason to get well they will make just about any change. I tell them the old saying “if you keep doing the same things that you’ve always done how do you expect to get a different result?” It’s difficult to make changes; we are creatures of habit. But if you use that will power which only human beings have we can chart a new course for ourselves and our families who depend on us.

The drug companies are counting on us being sheep who eat all the garbage sold by the junk food industry and take the drugs and surgeries being sold by the medical industry. If we achieve good health through natural healing, they make no money. So they have a vested interest in us being sick. Doesn’t it seem strange that the government agency that regulates drugs also regulates food? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Interestingly, the fifteen members on the FDA board who approve drugs are all former (and future) executives of the drug companies. Can you say ‘conflict of interest’.

My goal is to educate people about the true principles of natural healing so you can take control over your, and your family’s, health and not become a medical statistic.

To your health,

Hesu Whitten DC