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Protein is the most essential food humans require. Among its many functions, protein is necessary for the repair of cells and tissue, a healthy immune function, production of neurotransmitters in the brain and central nervous system. It transports hormones, minerals, enzymes and vitamins throughout the body, delivering these vital nutrients to the tissues and organs requiring them.
Over the last few decades an ongoing debate continues in the world of nutrition. What forms healthy choices in one’s diet remains controversial. Is what is best for one person equally good for another? Is a high fat, moderate protein, low carbohydrate diet like the Atkins or Zone diet the best, or a high-complex carbohydrate, low fat diet recommended by the American Heart Association and other medical organizations?
Some say the external environment is a reflection of our internal environment. They claim our thoughts, emotions, and attitudes determine the outer world. While that may be true to some extent I believe it is also our internal biochemical environment that plays out in the world. One example is our food choices. The choices we make are not always carried out in a conscious manner. Many times we reach for something without even thinking about it and assume we’ve made a choice.
It is the goal of medicine to either maintain health or restore health and wellness if there has been an imbalance, injury, or illness. In our Western world, over the years we have become very rigid in defining the methods that can be used and officially termed “medicine.” In fact, some would argue that our society puts more importance of the definition of those methods than in embracing additional methods that help in many cases where Western medicine cannot.
Until one is a parent of a child with a chronic medical condition, one can never know the daily challenges and sacrifices under such circumstances. However possible it is to overcome the heartache knowing your child will never have a “normal” life, one lives day to day hoping for some relief and a miracle. What most parents take for granted in healthy children become monumental steps in the chronically ill child. Being able to sit, crawl, walk, or eat without assistance become milestones for such a child.
In 1971 at the age of 19, I walked into my first health food store in Dearborn, Michigan with no idea what it was but I felt compelled to go. I thought they might have something I could use to protect my lungs and provide extra protein – like a shake. Looking back I have no idea why I thought this store would have such things. I had just been hired by Great Lakes Steel to shovel coal on the midnight shift on Zug Island in Detroit. Naturally, I would be wearing a protective dust mask issued by the company but I wondered if there wasn’t something more I could do.
Allergy is a disorder of the immune system manifesting as an extreme sensitivity to a normally harmless substance (allergen or antigen), resulting in over stimulation of the immune system to that substance.
Sports injury and pain accounts for many doctors’ office visits of professional or amateur athletes. Therapy includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, and steroids. Surgery is often used for the knee, ankle, and shoulder.
Every day we are faced with ever increasing “bad news.” Constant references to terrorism, natural disasters, and the economy nip at us begging for something to be done. Emotional stress plays a large part of our lives in the 21st century. Being so dependent on the array of electronic gadgetry, we lose the inter-personal connections vital to us as human beings. We constantly hear about stress and the impact it has on our lives.