Excerpt from
8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women
by Dr. Hyla Cass and Kathleen Barnes
(second edition, Take Charge Books 2008)
Introduction
There are almost 109 million
women over the age of 18 in the United States. Because of our fast-paced
lifestyle; the accelerating pressure of career, family, and relationships; and
the shift toward more equality in our social structure, we develop more health
concerns by the day. We are also more susceptible than men to many conditions,
including depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, weight gain, and, of course,
hormonal swings. I hear the same laments over and over from young women,
middle-aged women, and older women, whether in my office, by e-mail, at public
appearances, or even at social gatherings:
“I’m
always tired—it doesn’t matter how long I sleep!”
“I
can’t catch up on everything I need to do.”
“What
can I do about my weight problems? I’m disgusted with myself!”
“I’m
always feeling down in the dumps.”
“My
whole body hurts! If it’s not my back, it’s my shoulders or my feet.”
“My
PMS is actually getting worse as I get older!”
“I
have absolutely no sex drive!”
“I
had no idea menopause would be this bad. Between the hot flashes and night
sweats, I’m miserable!”
“I’m
totally confused about hormone replacement therapy. My doctor says there is no
other choice—either take HRT with its risks, or suffer!”
Nonetheless,
problems with fatigue, sleep, anxiety, depression, weight, pain, hormones, and
memory are real and often debilitating. Part of the problem is that most
doctors simply don’t have time to delve into the reasons for these symptoms.
They may have only 10 minutes to hear out a patient, make a diagnosis, and then
prescribe a pain medication, a diet pill, an antidepressant, or a sleeping
pill.
If
you have felt frustrated at not being truly heard and discouraged that
everything you’ve done to try solve your health problems has failed, take
heart. You’re not alone, and you’re not without tools to become your own health
detective.
I
have devised the Vibrant Health Plan based on my decades of experience in
treating hundreds of women of all ages. As a conventionally trained physician
with a specialty in psychiatry, I have incorporated nutrition and other natural
techniques into my practice for more than 20 years.
At
the core of this practice is a set of beliefs that have served my patients
well:
• Treat
the whole person—mind, body, spirit, and environment.
• Look
for the deepest root problems beneath the symptoms, which includes using the
best that science has to offer.
• Apply
a continuum of treatments, always beginning with the safest, most natural, and
most benign.
I am often asked how I became such a crusader for the
reform of conventional medicine. The fact is, there was no single turning point
or moment of enlightenment. It has been a long process, beginning with my
earliest family life.
My
father was a general practitioner who practiced out of our home in Toronto,
Canada. From an early age, I recall following him around on his medical rounds
at the hospital and going along on house calls. A caring and conscientious GP
in an old-fashioned practice, I saw him practice integrated medicine long
before that term was coined. Available and responsive, he ministered to his
patients with care and skill. He would talk to me about what he was doing,
assuming I understood, never talking down to me. Looking back now, I realize
that as the doctor’s apprentice, I learned a great deal about the spirit and
art of medicine, and even about practical aspects of diagnosis and treatment.
Moving
forward many years, I studied medicine at the University of Toronto School of
Medicine and then interned at the Los Angeles County– USC School of Medicine. I was struck by the serious class
divisions in the system of medical care, experiencing culture shock as I was
exposed for the first time to a clearly segregated medical care system with
serious divisions based on socioeconomic status. In Canada, health coverage is
universal, and I had not seen such a disparity in terms of quality of care and
the respect given to patients and their families. Both my experience with my
father and my medical school training had already given me a more humane and
holistic view of medical care, in contrast to the prevailing mechanized,
impersonal system.
My
interest in a more relational, holistic approach, coupled with an appreciation
for the mind-body connection, led me to psychiatry. During my residency at
Cedars-Sinai/UCLA Medical Center, I eventually found that the standard “couch
and Prozac” combination of psychoanalytic and pharmacological treatments had
their limitations.
I
was drawn to a more personal approach to patients, where therapists were more
directly caring and interactive with their patients. I discovered art therapy
with Helen Landgarten, then guided imagery and other more cutting-edge
interactive techniques such as Voice Dialogue with Hal Stone. Not only did
these methods work more quickly, but they clearly could affect the body in many
ways, from relieving more obvious symptoms to boosting the immune system.
Then,
during my family therapy fellowship, I discovered the “systems approach,” where
the “identified patient” was not necessarily the true problem! It wasn’t just
Johnny who was the “bad kid” or Jenna who was the depressed adolescent. In
fact, there were secret family issues (Mom’s depression, Dad’s gambling) that
had unbalanced the whole family dynamic, and the children’s problems were the family’s
symptoms. Treatment would be successful only so far as the underlying
issues (i.e., the parents’ problems) were uncovered and healed.
By
the same token, I became aware that the symptoms my patients reported were just
messages that something in their body systems was awry. They were clues that
needed closer evaluation in order to uncover the real cause. I paid more
attention to the mind-body connection and the doctor-patient relationship.
I
carried what I had learned into my new medical practice and began to explore
the influences of nutrition and lifestyle on health. I observed how imbalance
in the body can affect the mind. The brain, after all, is an organ, affected by
its internal physiological environment.
It
became obvious to me that psychotherapy is more effective once the brain is functioning
properly. I went on to discover how many typical psychiatric
complaints—anxiety, depression, PMS, even schizophrenia—are frequently related
to biochemical imbalances. These can range from low blood sugar, viral and
fungal infections, hormonal imbalances, allergies, and toxic overload to
deficiencies of specific nutrients.
I am able to diagnose these conditions with the appropriate laboratory tests that give a scientific basis for treatment decisions. Then I can often help correct the imbalances with natural approaches, including the use of well-researched nutritional supplements. In contrast, conventional physicians are most likely to prescribe first and test second, if at all, with problematic results.
The Third Leading Cause of Death
Studies show that doctors are the third leading cause
of death, accounting for 250,000 deaths per year. They don’t do it
intentionally, but due to a lack of knowledge, errors, and excessive influence
from drug companies, that is the end result.
There
is little to counterbalance the over-prescribing of drugs, despite the fact
that according to one study, there are more than 100,000 deaths per year in
hospitals alone, due to medications taken as prescribed. That’s not taking into
account drugs that were improperly prescribed or medication-related disability
that, while not fatal, takes a huge toll. Or the deaths that were attributed to
the condition but were really due to the treatment.
In
my move toward “integral” or holistic psychiatry, I found myself treating a
variety of medical conditions, from chronic fatigue to irritable bowel
syndrome. Patients don’t walk into our offices as disembodied heads. Our bodies
do not separate into specialized compartments for the convenience of
cardiologists, allergists, endocrinologists, or gastroenterologists. You can’t
get to the right diagnosis and treatment without looking at all systems!
Every
symptom reflects an imbalance somewhere in the body’s systems. Conventional
medicine has segmented the body into the various specialties, and often fails
to address the reality of interactive systems.
Holistic or integrative medicine, on the other hand, addresses the interactive
systems of the whole person. The patient is evaluated in a variety of ways and
supplied with specific health prescriptions—for supplements, foods, exercise,
natural hormones, mind-body techniques, and even prescription drugs when
indicated. Moreover, the individual has to partner with the doctor in this
process, both to carry out the regimen and to give feedback in order to
fine-tune the program.
Compared to drug therapy, natural treatments offer safer, more user-friendly solutions with far fewer and less harmful side effects. They work with the body’s chemistry rather than adding what can be toxic substances to an already impaired body.
A Case in Point
I remember one early patient in particular, a
55-year-old college teacher named Jean whose story is pretty typical. She was
being treated by her internist for high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and heart
palpitations. She was referred to me, a psychiatrist, because of her anxiety,
depression, and insomnia. I could find no obvious psychological explanation for
these symptoms, except maybe for the stress of her physical illness. She was
taking an array of medications, with their attendant side effects. Based on
some simple lab tests and my own clinical experience, I determined that a
likely common cause was a magnesium deficiency.
After
a brief trial on this inexpensive and common mineral, together with a
multivitamin-mineral formula and essential fatty acids, Jean was able to
decrease her medications. Encouraged by this result, she trusted me enough to
eliminate some foods to which she was allergic, which helped her even more. In
a short time, not only were her anxiety, depression, and insomnia gone, but she
soon was medication-free, depending instead on a list of supplements (I added a
few to those mentioned here) to restore her normal body chemistry.
As
an integrative physician, I see cases like Jean’s all day long, with sometimes
seemingly simple solutions to what appear to be complex conditions. Part of the
problem may even stem from the prescribed medications.
Situations
like Jean’s leave me with the following questions:
1. Why
had Jean’s internist been unaware of her mineral deficiency, or even, of its
possibility? Why didn’t he at least give her a basic multivitamin-mineral
formula?
2. Why
give prescription drugs first? This approach is like unplugging the noisy smoke
alarm instead of looking for the fire!
And,
more pointedly, why is the prevailing standard of medical practice so symptom- and drug-oriented, especially
when this approach so clearly fails to serve the patient?
One
answer is all too clear: through sales representatives, medical journal ads,
research articles, and conventions, the pharmaceutical industry is the main
source of education for many physicians in practice. The bad news is that drugs
are expensive and often cause more harm than they cure. For example, the
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for arthritis can cause severe
gastric irritation and even ulcers. Or, as numerous human and animal studies
show, the statin drugs for lowering cholesterol deplete the body of the
essential nutrient coenzyme Q10, which heart cells depend on for
survival. This leads us to believe that statins, while certainly lowering
cholesterol, may be doing more harm than good. In his 22-page, fully referenced
report reviewing this issue, researcher Dr. Peter Lonsjoen recommends that all
statins be labeled with a warning to take them with 100–200 mg of coenzyme Q10
daily. Has your doctor mentioned that to you? Have you seen it in any drug ads?
This is the tip of the iceberg for the complexity of the pharmaceutical
industry and our health (fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/02/May02/052902/02p-0244-cp00001-02-Exhibit_A-vol1.pdf).
I cover this in Supplement Your
Prescription: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know about Nutrition.
Most
doctors have minimal exposure to more natural treatments, which they dismiss as
“unscientific.” In fact, the science is there, published in the very same
medical journals that tout drugs. The supplements that I recommend are well
backed by published research.
Fortunately,
this situation is changing as more doctors are encouraged by the results they
observe in their patients who are incorporating natural approaches. (Hint: if
you find solutions to your problems in this book, please share them with your
doctors.) Physicians and even medical schools are showing greater interest in
integrative medicine, which incorporates the best of both worlds.
The
medical profession aside, I believe that with all the variables affecting our
health and well-being, from diet and lifestyle to toxic exposure, we each need
to take greater responsibility for our own health. Rather than taking our body
to the doctor as we would take our car to the mechanic, we need to become
participants in a working partnership in which the physician becomes a
resource.
I
wrote the book Natural Highs as a
“brain handbook” to help those outside of my own office practice to learn how
to change their own brain biochemistry and to orient those who were coming to
see me. Now, in 8 Weeks to Vibrant
Health, I want to reach the millions of you out there who are stuck,
stymied, knowing that something is wrong, but unsure of where to look for the
solution. Here is a new handbook, one for the body as well as the mind.
This book is meant to help you learn as much as you can and do as much as you know how to maintain optimum health and find a doctor who is willing to join you in the process.
About Kathleen Barnes
Kathleen Barnes has long personal experience with
alternative and complementary therapies. She taught yoga for more than 30 years
while working as a foreign correspondent on three continents. She wrote a
natural health column for Woman’s World
magazine for six years until the first edition of this book launched her on a
new career writing and editing natural health and sustainable living books.
Writing for professionals and consumers in these and other forums has deepened
her understanding of the field, including a practical knowledge of what readers
need, want and are able to do.
While
this book is often written from my point of view as a physician, Kathleen
provided her broad knowledge and years of experience in creating the core
content and organization of this book.
She
is currently in the process of writing her 13th book and has recently launched
her newsletter and website, Natural Living Now at http://www.kathleen barnes.com.
With our heartfelt wishes for your
success in discovering or regaining a healthy balance in body, mind, and
spirit, we both offer you our knowledge and experience, as well as our
compassion and our commitment to helping you find your way to vibrant health.
