The worst pains that anyone could ever imagine are from a condition known as kidney stones. Women who have experienced natural childbirth and kidney stones say that the excruciating pain of a kidney stone is much worse than the pain of childbirth- and far scarier because it comes on so suddenly and is so painful that many believe that they are going to die.

 

Yet as painful as a Kidney Stone is, it is only a tiny crystal the size of a grain of sand and even smaller that that, that has become stuck that causes so much pain. Once someone has had kidney stones, the likelyhood of getting another is 50% or more- and some get several in their life. Unfortunately, the only advice that most doctors have is to drink lots of water and to avoid the calcium which is the usual component of kidney stones. But avoiding calcium in the diet and in supplements is not only worthless at Preventing Kidney Stones, but can be dangerous- increasing the risk of osteoporosis unnecessarily.

 

 

However, there is a natural remedy for kidney stones that is effective and practically free.

 

Citrus Juices!

 

Particularly lemon and orange juices- have been shown to be an effective natural remedy for kidney stones that may stop them from ever forming before they ever start. Kidney stones, also called Renal Calculi, are formed when calcium in the blood is unable to dissolve. This undissolved calcium then turns into crystals that pass through the kidneys into the urinary tract- causing pain when one is large enough to get stuck. But citrus juices are acidic, and the acid called citric acid in these juices allows the calcium to dissolve in the blood, be absorbed through the intestines and be a natural remedy for kidney stones.

That’s part of the reason why they add calcium to orange juice. The citric acid in the juice helps the calcium to be absorbed – giving a double shot of good healthy calcium to prevent osteoporosis and to be a natural remedy for kidney stones.

So many studies have shown that this treatment works, to the point that it is not debated WHETHER juice works as a natural remedy for kidney stones, but WHICH TYPE of juice works best. Lemons and orange juices, with their high amount of citric acid, seem to be the most effective; while grapefruit juice and cranberry juice have shown mixed results and have caused higher rates of kidney stones in some studies. Even apple juice, which has malic acid, seems to work well.

But make sure that your juice is JUST juice and does not contain any sweeteners, as fructose has been shown to be a CAUSE of kidney stones and could make your renal calculi problem worse. So, every day, take a squeeze of lemon juice and make sure you follow the instructions on the Kidney Stones, and you could prevent the most painful condition known to man from ever happening to you.

 

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

 

Question:

Why is 50,000 prescribed once a week,instead

of 7000 units per day?

Does the body store

the surplus and release it daily into the

body?

 

Answer:

Vitamin D is a Fat soluble Vitamin and it does, indeed, store it up and ‘time release’ the Vitamin D into the body.

HOWEVER, the Vitamin D that your doctor is prescribing you is Vitamin D 2 and not the superior form of Vitamin D that you can get at your drugstore, Vitamin D3! Researchers have stated, “Vitamin D2 should
not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation or
fortification.”

But if you are taking Vitamin D3 (NOT Prescription Vitamin D), you do not even need to take Vitamin D as often as once a week. Many studies have been done on vitamin D showing that giving at much as 300,000 IU’s and up to 600,000 IU’s of Vitamin D at a time ONLY ONCE is sufficient for 3 to 6 months of treatment! In many places, they will give 600,000 IU’s of Vitamin D once YEARLY to the elderly in nursing homes to simply PREVENT vitamin D deficiency.

So, while I’m happy that you are being treated for your Vitamin D deficiency, you may want to speak to your doctor about getting on Vitamin D 3 Supplements instead of your Prescription Vitamin D2 Supplements that your doctor gave you!

 

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

 

New research in Finland has just found a correlation between Type 1 (or insulin dependant diabetes) in children and wintertime. They had many speculations as to the reasons for this.

But NONE of these so called researchers speculated that a vitamin D deficiency was to blame!

Is Winter To Blame For Type 1 Diabetes?.

So, WINTER is to blame, but NOT low vitamin D levels? These ‘researchers’ need to be doing more research. There is TONS of research into the correlation between low vitamin D levels and Type 1 Diabetes- and this study is yet another in a long line of studies showing this. It’s too bad that the RESEARCHERS don’t understand their findings- even when several of the studies on Diabetes and Vitamin D were ALSO done in Finland as well!

But maybe they should. There is a GREAT but obviously ignored study done on Vitamin D Levels at Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. This study clearly showed that people with Type 1 diabetes had lower Vitamin D Levels at Diagnosis than controls.  And this LANDMARK study studied over 10,000 children and came to the conclusion that NOT supplementing with Vitamin D increased the risk of Type 1 Diabetes in Children.

 

So, why is it that we are STILL not listening to these studies?

 

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

 

Some new research is showing that sugar feeds cancer. While there is new  EVIDENCE , lets not claim that we didn’t know this all along. Sugar is terrible for us and we know it. Yet most of us still eat it. It’s an addiction and this is evidence that  WE are causing ourselves to have cancer and not some arbitrary  Genetics problem that doctors tell us we have in order to not have to tell us that  WE are our own worst enemy. That  WE cause  our own cancer.

No one wants to say that, yet it is exactly what most of us need to hear.

But as promising as this research is, the study’s author states that the next step in his research is to develop animal models to test his ideas. “If we can understand that, we can break the cycle of glucose utilization which could be beneficial in the treatment of cancer,”

via Does Sugar Feed Cancer? New Research Sheds Light On Old Saying.

WHAT did he say?! Develop animal models?! I’m sure that  AFTER we’ve  ‘developed animal models” and run studies for the next 10 years, then we can begin to start the decade long process of developing pharmaceutical drugs to figure out how to stop sugar from growing cancer. Oh, hey- I have an idea. How about if  RIGHT NOW you just stop eating sugar!  I wonder what our animal models will have to show us with THAT!

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

 

 

Question:

Hi! I have been having body pains and my Dr and I thought it was fibromyalgia. I have a vitamin D level of 6 mg/nl that can cause the pains I am told, and the diagnosis is now a Vit D deficiency not fibromyalgia. But when I read up on fibromyalgia I was shocked that I have 70 symptoms that are the same as the Early Symptoms of Fibromyalgia!

I have 16 out of 18 tender points. Also, severe eye pain that feels like a ‘headache’ in the eye, burning and painful heels, IBS, seborrhoeic dermatitis, post nasal drip, mucus in my stool, stiff neck, sleep problems, dry eye, short term memory loss, foggy brain, extreme fatigue, ridges on my nails, depression, noise and light sensitivity, sugar and carb cravings, PMS, cold hands and feet, excessive sweating, deep hip pain, fibroids, sore spot on top of my head, morning stiffness all over the body, itchy skin, dry mouth… What does this sound like to you? I also have cervical spondylitis.

Look forward to your reply. Thanks
Mona

 

Answer:

Hi Mona,

This is a very interesting question that I have been wanting to address for a while. Yes, you have a lot of Symptoms of Fibromyalgia, but what does this really mean? It means that you have a collection of symptoms that doctors have grouped together in order to help classify it. All of these symptoms, when put together, doctors have got together and argued and debated and decided that THESE particular symptoms, when grouped together, will all me considered Symptoms of Fibromyalgia- or better yet Fibromyalgia Syndrome.

Contrast this to someone who comes into the emergency room with lower right sided abdominal pain, weakness, nausea and fever. They have a collection of symptoms that you might call “Right Lower Quadrant Abdominal Pain Syndrome”, but doctors go looking for the cause. Often, they will find the CAUSE, call it the DISEASE of appendicitis and do surgery.

 

 

If they DON’T find the Disease of Appendicitis or the condition of Constipation or the condition of a ruptured ovarian cyst, then they say that they don’t know what it is and send you home with the instructions to return if you get worse.

They either find a disease or disease process or say that they don’t know why you have it. The terms Fibromyalgia Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome etc. have come about because so many people have these ongoing problems that have no answer as to why they are occurring that doctors had to name them SOMETHING.

But when you have lower abdominal pain and they diagnose appendicitis, this is based on the fact that you HAVE symptoms and they have found the cause. When you have Fibromyalgia Syndrome, you get this label because they CAN’T find a cause! This is a big difference. And this is why your doctor is holding off on the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia in favor of an actual problem that he can find- Vitamin D Deficiency.

 

 

Whether you get better when your vitamin D deficiency is corrected, depends upon a lot of factors, but what if your doctor never LOOKED for vitamin D deficiency. Then he could not say that you have Vitamin D deficiency, right?

 

I know that sounds stupid, but bear with me here for a minute.

 

So, doctors like problems that have ONE answer:

Abdominal Pain —> Appendicitis

Arm Pain —> Broken Arm

They do very well with these, but what they do NOT do well with are problems with MORE THAN ONE cause. And that is generally what most ‘chronic’ health problems or syndromes have- MORE than one cause. And what if those causes are things that doctors just don’t look for? How will they ever know WHAT is causing it, if they ‘Decide’ that it is Fibromyalgia Syndrome, they now have a diagnosis and so they don’t HAVE to go looking for a Fibromyalgia Cause

According to medical wisdom, Fibromyalgia is a collection of symptoms that no one knows why you have and it’s “incurable”, you can help to manage symptoms with certain drugs, but that’s it- and sadly enough, they are even beginning to diagnose Fibromyalgia in Children more and more.

Now, I ask you, do you want your doctor to ‘give up’ on trying to find out what is wrong with you in favor of a diagnosis? And what if your doctor can’t find out what is wrong with you because he is not looking in the right place?

These are Vital questions to ask because generally your doctor will stop looking for problems when he gives you a diagnosis of ‘Fibromyalgia Syndrome’ AND he is also not looking in the right place anyhow.

 

What is Fibromyalgia

So, in my experience, there is not simply ONE Fibromyalgia Cause – it is NEVER just one thing. Fibromyalgia sufferers may have any and all of the following problems:

Gluten Sensitivity
Other Food Allergies
The H pylori Bacteria
Intestinal Parasites
Increased Intestinal Permeability
Intestinal Candida Infection
Heavy Metal (Mercury or Lead) Toxicity
Vitamin D Deficiency
Magnesium Deficiency
Chemical Overexposure
Vitamin B 12 Deficiency
Chemical Overexposure
Other Nutrient Deficiencies
Inability to Detoxify Substances
Adrenal Gland Fatigue

 

Has your doctor looked for, or even suggested that you might have even ONE of these? Except for Vitamin D deficiency, he hasn’t. Nor has he looked, nor will he (he might look for Vitamin b 12 deficiency and magnesium deficiencies, but his test will likely be the wrong test and won’t find it anyway…).

So, in my practice, I look for and often find these problems using laboratory testing that doctors COULD do, but choose not to for various reasons. I use the following tests and almost always find something that can improve Symptoms of Fibromyalgia to some degree.These are REAL tests that have peer reviewed studies showing their accuracy. They are not some ‘woo-woo’ tests that require you to see how you feel about something. They are laboratory tests that are sometimes even more accurate than the ones that your doctor is using- and they WORK!

Adrenal Gland Testing
Intestinal Pathogen Testing
Urine Porphyrins for Heavy Metals and Toxin Exposure
The Organix Profile-this test tells you:
Fatty Acid Deficiencies
Carbohydrate Metabolism Abnormalities
Cellular Mitochondrial Deficiencies
Markers of Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth
How well you detoxify substances
B vitamin deficiencies
Amino Acid Deficiencies
Food Allergy Testing- this test tests for over 100 different food allergies in 3 separate ways. And they Guarantee that if you follow their instructions that you will feel better!!

If you doctor tested you for these problems and corrected them when he found them, it is unlikely that we would NEED the labels of Fibromyalgia Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

So, I have no problem with anyone getting a diagnosis and seeking a diagnosis for their problems. In fact, I INSIST that all of my clients get a full medical workup before seeing me. It is inappropriate to treat a Parathyroid tumor with Vitamin D. It is inappropriate to treat a bleeding ulcer with Vitamin B 12. So, by getting a diagnosis, at least you can be sure that you have no severe medical problems that will kill you or that you may need surgical intervention for.

But once you have that diagnosis, what is next for you. A diagnosis of Fibromyalgia syndrome dooms you to a life of pain and minimal functioning and some symptom control with pain medication and antidepressants. Not an exciting proposition. But once you have that diagnosis and your doctor can’t find anything ‘wrong’ with you, then come see me and I may be able to find the UNDERLYING cause of your problems and to correct these imbalances and make you feel better.

In the meantime, get some help for your fibromyalgia with 7 Fibromyalgia Tips!!

 

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com