Fibrin’s role to protect the body
Fibrin is the main protein found in any type of scar tissue, and is elevated anytime we have injury or trauma in the body as a result of a stressor. It is normal to see high amounts of fibrin in the blood when we injure ourselves: cuts, bruises, a broken bone, athletic injury of any sort, or experience anything that can create swelling and inflammation. No matter how tiny an injury, our body instantly elevates levels of cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” which then initiates an enzymatic cascade of reactions which transform the inactive form of this protein, called fibrinogen, into the active form fibrin.

Once this protein is in the active form, called fibrin, it creates a mesh-like barrier used to hold tissues together, and can be seen under a microscope. This is a healthy and normal response by the body to protect itself. When we cut or bruise ourselves, or traumatize any area of our body, we need this net-like structure to bind damaged tissues together which have become torn apart and porous, as they can no longer do the job (for example, a blood vessel with a hole in it). The inactive form of this protein, fibrinogen, stands ready for action, waiting its signal from the body via cortisol needed to transform and provide assistance.

Unintended consequences of a good thing
Anytime we have an injury, fibrin is one of the first proteins to appear on the scene used to start the clotting and repair process. In addition to binding damaged tissues together, it also slows blood circulation by “choking” the flow of blood, thereby trapping nutrients and other components needed for repair. Unfortunately, this can have unintended consequences by also trapping harmful toxins and restricting the flow of much needed oxygen to tissues, especially when a person’s body becomes overwhelmed with excess fibrin and we do not have the enzymes to remove it. Fibromyalgics lose their ability to clear the excess amounts of fibrin being produced by their body which is typically done by protein dissolving enzymes made in the body.

What is the pain of “ischemia”
When we were kids, many of us tried wrapping a rubber band around the end of our finger, and then noticing it would first turn red, then purple, and then then it started to hurt! It hurt because there was a lack of oxygen to that area. This pain, caused by a lack of oxygen, is called the pain of “ischemia”. When you have ischemic pain, or the pain caused by lack of oxygen, there’s very little relief that can be gained by using pain relievers. The only thing that can relieve this type of pain is to cut the rubber band restricting the flow of blood (oxygen) to that area, which will begin to provide relief. Similarly, this is what is occurring in the body of a Fibromyalgic. Imagine millions of tiny rubber bands wrapped around organs, glands and muscle tissue, choking the flow of oxygen to these tissues, only instead of actual rubber bands, the blood is being restricted by an overabundance of fibrin which is doing the same thing.

Why fibromyalgics have more fibrin in their blood than other people
Fibromyalgics agree that they feel worse when they’re “stressed out,” or under stress. We now understand why after the explanation above, however let’s look at additional stressors. Previously, we identified physical trauma as a source of stress, but we must also include emotional stress, as this elevates cortisol too. Feeling “stressed out” from another person or emotional event most definitely raises cortisol. Furthermore, chemical stress is one of the most commonly overlooked mechanisms of fibromyalgia which can be triggered by food allergies, poor diet, weak adrenal glands, pro-inflammatory foods such as refined sugars, and toxins such as insecticides, pesticides, toxic fumes, hydrogenated oils, and harmful chemicals (gasoline, kerosene, propylene glycol-found in commercial products), to name a few. All of these chemicals can elevate fibrin levels. Ironically, most medications elevate fibrin levels in the blood to include many of those that are anti-inflammatory, such as aspirin, or those that reduce pain. There is more ongoing research suggestive that certain Electro Magnetic Frequencies (EMF’s) from cell phones, satellites, etc. may contribute to higher amounts of stress in the body, creating more fibrin.

Reducing excess fibrin
The first, and most important step in providing solutions for the Fibromyalgic are to remedy their severe deficiency of fibrinolytic (fibrin dissolving) enzymes. There are some very strong fibrinolytic enzymes that break down unwanted levels of fibrin in the blood, while maintaining normal levels, without harmful side effects (1). Once excess fibrin is cleared, tissues such as muscle can begin to receive normal amounts of oxygen and Fribromyalgics begin to experience dramatic relief from tenderness, discomfort and fatigue.

There are additional factors to address in Fibromyalgia. To find out more about our complete health and wellness protocol for Fibromyalgics, please visit us at www.austinhealthdoc.com and contact us for our free 15 minute consult for new patients.

1. Certain exogenous enzyme preparations have repeatedly been shown to favorably impact normal bodily levels of fibrin, without adversely affecting other bodily functions. This information is validated from the studies from Nobel Prize finalist, and Immuno-enzymologist, Ronald K. Schneider. The degradation of fibrin by fibrinolytic enzymes has also been validated by Dr. Max Wolf MD, and further elaborated by Dr.’s Miehlke, Williams and Lopez MD’s in the book Enzymes, the Fountain of Life.

What are antioxidants? They are certain vitamins (A, C, E), some minerals such as selenium and zinc, and other nutrients that protect and repair cells from damage caused by free radicals. Many experts believe this damage plays a part in a number of chronic diseases, including hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), cancer, and arthritis. Free radicals can also interfere with your immune system. So fighting off damage with antioxidants helps keep your immune system strong, making you better able to ward off colds, flu, and other infections. (WebMD, 2012)

The body needs a variety of antioxidants to accomplish a variety of tasks. Not all antioxidants can go everywhere in the body. Some antioxidants can only work inside our cells, like glutathione, and certain enzyme based antioxidants. Some antioxidants are small enough to cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) and protect our brain from excess oxidation which contributes to neurodegeneration and plaque buildup in the brain. Antioxidants protect our cells from a secondary form of oxidation, also called “oxidative stress”, which yields free radicals.

What is “oxidative stress”?
The terms oxidative stress and free radicals have become familiar in recent years, but what does this mean? If you want a detailed explanation, please check out our article called Anti-Oxidants and Oxidative Stress  in the Library Section of our Blog. “Oxidation” is the chemist’s term for the process of removing electrons from an atom or molecule. Oxidation occurs whenever our cells use oxygen.  We must have oxidation in order to survive, without it we would die. However, oxidation can yield harmful byproducts after our cells burn an oxygen molecule; these harmful compounds are called “free radicals”. A free radical is a stray, unpaired electron.

Free Radicals Electrons don’t like to be unpaired, therefore an electron will seek out other electrons by stealing them from healthy tissues in order to stabilize itself. After stealing the electron, a damaged leftover cell that unwillingly gave up an electron is left behind. This damaged cell functions less optimally than before, and if it gets damaged by enough free radicals can become crippled and not do its job properly, or die prematurely. This process continues on and on, free radicals damaging tissues unless it can be stopped with an antioxidant.

Ways that we increase oxidation are through exercise, inflammation, stress, poor diet, smoking, exposure to radiation, illicit drugs, several medications, and pollutants to name a few. Being alive requires oxidation, there is no stopping it, and therefore it is important to have a healthy diet to absorb these free radicals which result from oxidation.

Exercise increases oxidation because anything that considerably speeds up our metabolism yields more free radicals. Exercise is good, we need it! However, we must consume foods that provide healthy amounts of antioxidants to neutralize the harmful byproducts that exercise can leave behind. We’ve all heard of Marathoners who have had a heart attack at a young age. Free radical damage can not only affect our cells, but can scar the inner smooth surface of our blood vessels. If these tiny micro-tears are not properly repaired by the body, they can create spaces that allow arterial plaque to take hold and build up.

We have defenses against oxidative stress: substances in our diets, for example, Vitamin C and E, can donate electrons and end the destructive chain reactions, as well as aid in repair. We all experience different levels of oxidative stress. The key to slowing down aging and age-related sickness is reflected in our ability to cope with oxidative stress over time.

How does an antioxidant work?
Have you ever seen the movie “The bodyguard” with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston? At the end of the movie the bodyguard hero, played by Kevin Costner, jumps in front of Whitney Houston as the villain attempts to shoot her. Kevin Costner, the bodyguard, “takes the bullet”, sparing Whitney Houston and saving the day. This is how an antioxidant works. Antioxidants “take the bullet” of free radicals, so your joints, tissues and cells don’t have to. An antioxidant has the unusual ability to safely absorb free radicals, therefore prevent further damage to your cells and tissues. An antioxidant does this by generously sharing its outer ring electrons to bond with harmful free radicals. The greater the number of electrons in the outer ring, the more powerful the antioxidant due its higher absorbency potential. Antioxidants essentially “mop up” free radicals in the body.

How do you recognize a lack of antioxidants in the body?
Many common health issues are a result of short or long term Free Radical damage. Before experiencing serious health problems, it is recommended that you get tested to identify whether you have a lack of antioxidants in your body. Even if you are taking antioxidants, we can assess if they are working properly.

References:
http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/antioxidants-your-immune-system-super-foods-optimal-health
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400537/Stumped-by-Oxidative-Stress.html

Besides providing our body a structural framework which allows our muscles, ligaments, and connective tissue to work, our bones provide a mineral reserve that our body calls upon during times of depletion and stress.

Contained within our bone tissue are large amounts of important minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, boron, protein, and vitamins.  These are used by our body, released from our bones, to drive other essential chemical reactions in the body. For long term bone and overall health, your bones need to have an adequate supply on reserve.

Why is bone health so important to the rest of our body?    Our bone marrow, the innermost portion of our bones, is the “manufacturing plant” for all our blood cells.   Bone marrow makes our red blood cells, which carry precious oxygen to our organs and glands, and returns the gaseous waste product carbon dioxide back to our lungs.  Bone marrow makes all of our immune cells, called white blood cells, which are the guardians of our health.   Our bone marrow also makes platelets, the third type of blood cell, which serves to clot blood when we are bleeding.  When our bone health suffers, only a good “Health Detective” will seek out the underlying cause.

Thick Bone Versus Strong Healthy Bone
It is the quality of a bone’s composition that makes them strong, not necessarily the thickness.  Because conventional approaches only look at thickness, and not bone quality, the structural integrity of our skeletal system is suboptimal.  For example, one type of conventional approach allows weaker, poorer quality bone tissue to build up to achieve thicker bones.  The quality of these thicker bones often contains dead bone tissue that should have been removed in the first place. Good quality bone means that the bone is of strong architecture.

At Fundamental Health Solutions we use a more sensitive laboratory test called the NTx Osteomark Urinary Assay to assess bone health. The NTx urinary assay measures a specific amino acid unique to bone which is found in the urine and detects subtle changes in bone loss, which occurs in everyone over the age of 50. This test provides more information than traditional tests, such as a DEXA scan, without radiation exposure.

DEXA Scan Versus The NTx Urinary Test

The NTx Osteomark Urinary Assay measures present, not past bone loss and it measures the bone loss rate.  Unlike DEXA scans, we can measure your bone health every 3 months, or less, versus annually.  This also allows us to monitor the effectiveness of the recommended protocol, as well as measuring system wide bone loss, versus (DEXA) only focal bone loss.  The NTx Urinary test is an easy and non-invasive way for our patients that enables us to monitor and identify potential problems with your bones before they turn into a more serious problem.

Dr. West was one of the doctors chosen to evaluate the use of Krebiozen. Upon learning of this new experimental drug, Mr. Wright begged to be included in the study. Dr. West administered the first injection on Friday. When he returned to the hospital on Monday, Dr. West was amazed to find Mr. Wright out of bed and well on his way toward a miraculous recovery. His large tumors had “melted like snowballs on a hot stove”.

When Mr. Wright later read medical reports that the horse serum Krebiozen was a “quack remedy” and “an ineffective drug “ he suffered a relapse. Dr. West devised an experiment. He told Mr. Wright that he was scheduled to receive “a new super-refined, double strength” product the next day. This time with great fanfare, Dr. West administered an injection of saline (salt) water. Mr. Wright regained his optimism and his second recovery was even more rapid than his first.

After the AMA issued a press release that “nationwide tests show Krebiozen to be a worthless drug in the treatment of cancer,” Mr. Wright’s condition once again deteriorated and he died two days later. While this remarkable true story is often quoted as an example of the placebo effect, it also provides a vivid illustration of the power of the mind to control the body and to contribute to our ability to heal.

Psychologist Dr. Adler, and many researchers since then, identified that there is an emotional state of mind that accompanies poor health, and a different state of mind that accompanies good health. In 1981 the mind/body connection concept of “psychoneuroimmunology” was born. This new field of study explores the inter-relations between the mind and emotions, the brain and central nervous system, and the immune system.

Conventional ways of thinking
Conventional healthcare views the placebo effect as an obstacle in finding new and effective ways to restore health. The placebo effect is acknowledged to help between 35-70% of patients, while drug therapy rarely achieves this level of significance. A pragmatic viewpoint of the placebo effect is that it should be researched and used to achieve optimal health.

Direct your genes and DNA to express good health, not poor health
Most people who are in the midst of a health crisis generally feel powerless to do anything about their seemingly hopeless downward spiral. Did you know that our environment and mind can manipulate our genes and DNA? Our environment, which is the combination of our thoughts, beliefs, traumas and toxins, provide the signals that determine which genes get activated, and which genes remain silent.

We are not powerless “victims”, waiting for our genes to dish out an inescapable fate, as commonly perpetuated. We can change the way our genes and DNA express themselves and thus affect our health. This field, recently coined as “epigenetics”, is nothing new to healthcare practitioners who have understood the mind-body connection (Lipton, 2005). This field is an integral part of your health recovery and one used at Fundamental Health Solutions.

footnote
Lipton, Bruce The Biology of Belief, Naomi Zack, Lanham, MD: Mountain of Love, 2005 (In his book, “The Biology of Belief”, Dr. Bruce Lipton PhD, an international authority on genes and genetic expression, explains the role and interactions that our mind, environment and genes play in our health. Dr. Lipton is a stem cell biologist and has held professorships at Medical Schools including the University of Wisconsin and St. Georges University. He has also been a lead researcher at Stanford and Penn State University. Dr. Lipton now lectures and travels throughout the world explaining a more accurate role as to how our genes influence health.)

These qualities would prove to serve him well as he experienced the hardship of physical disability, and the stress and emotional turmoil that comes with this. What resulted for Phil is a spiritual, mental, emotional and physical transformation as he sought to recover from mobility problems, seemingly unending pain and serious illness.

How the journey began
In 1997, US Marine Pilot Phil Sledz sustained an athletic injury which resulted in two simultaneous disc herniations with radiculopathy. Radiculopathy refers to the condition caused by a compressed nerve in the spine that can cause pain, numbness, tingling or weakness. By 2000, this injury culminated in a herniation. The chronic pain led him to obtain an MRI consult, where the orthopedist and radiologist showed him the images of his dehydrated, shrinking intervertebral lumbar discs. The complications left him with chronic pain, tingling and numbness that radiated into one of his buttocks, hip, leg and foot.

This surgeon told him, “Son, you have the back of a 60 year old.” Already walking with a limp, his nerves and muscles so damaged that he could only walk with what is called a “foot drop,” which is a condition caused by the inability to lift your feet normally when walking. Instead of a normal walk and gait, he had to raise his right leg high enough to accommodate a toe dragging step. This left him with an uncontrollable slap of the foot.

Phil Sledz was only 28 years old at the time. He felt heartbroken – a diagnosis like this would end his career as an F/A-18 fighter pilot, and his plans to be a future airline pilot.

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
During another medical consult, Phil was diagnosed by an MD with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a rare form of cancer which attacks the lymph nodes. In addition, Phil was experiencing a myriad of health issues that continued to deteriorate his once athletic body. Previously the beacon of physical strength and health, he was now so chronically fatigued that even the 14-16 hours per day of sleep did not relieve him of the deep exhaustion he experienced. During this time, 3 lymph nodes enlarged to the size of plums in his neck, armpit and groin. Add bouts of dizziness, a smorgasbord of gut and digestive problems, unintentional weight loss, night sweats, erratic fever, and brain fog, he was unable to perform required activities of daily living. He had documented over 34 symptoms as caused by his poor health.

Choosing Life and having a goal
After the diagnosis of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, Phil began a serious search of alternative methods for the purpose of recovering his health. After his herniation diagnosis, he sought a Chiropractor, and a DO who worked with three Naturopathic doctors. Together with structural and biochemical help from his practitioners, he finally began to experience pain relief: a 50% improvement using only natural methods. Prior to this, he was still using some conventional modalities, primarily oral steroids and prescription pain medication, to temporarily mask the symptoms. Side effects from these medications was making him feel worse, which served to clarify what was covering up symptoms versus what was truly proving healing for his body. Now having a flicker of hope that his health problems could be reversed or repaired, he was energized and began a further quest for knowledge that could help him improve and recover his own health.

The Health Detective is born
By late 2004, Phil decided to attend Chiropractic school. Prior to May 2006 he took the necessary prerequisite courses, and completed his Doctor of Chiropractic in 2011. Driven by a sincere desire to help others achieve a better quality of life, Phil, now Dr Phil Sledz, DC, continued his education. With the goal of Board Certification in Functional Medicine, “Dr. Phil,” as his friends and patients like to call him, has specialized in building health through nutrition.

By doing additional coursework in areas that include blood chemistry analysis, neurotransmitters, endocrine and autoimmune assessments, Dr Phil not only recovered his own health but discovered and met with many researchers who could bring his health goals to even higher levels. Overcoming his previous health challenges was the original goal, but now the bar was set higher: to achieve optimum health.

Further Discoveries in the use of nutrition to repair and heal health issues
Dr Phil Sledz, DC was fortunate to study with many knowledgeable people who have researched and created bio-available, effective formulations. These people include a Nobel Prize Finalist specializing in immune-enzymology, immune system disorders and holistic interventions for autoimmunity. While researching specific products, he consulted with a team of Harvard and Stanford educated researchers who produced a restorative joint protocol so effective that it had to be protected with multiple patents.

TODAY
Dr Phil Sledz’s transformation from disability to optimum wellness gave him crucial insights and observations regarding the health recovery puzzle:

1) Only a highly functioning immune system, combined with improved cellular communication, can redirect your body towards optimal health.

2) When you see ONE PART of your body breaking down; it’s a clue that ADDITIONAL PARTS of your body are breaking down on a cellular level, at different rates. Conventional healthcare mostly focuses on the body part that is failing, versus the entire body.”

From Dr Phil Sledz, DC

“It’s my job as a detective to help you find this, and show you what can be done to safely arrest and redirect this process. Needless to say, my career in healthcare has been nothing short of spectacular; I have helped countless people achieve a higher level of health and wellness.

Due to diligence, focus and passion, I was able to elevate my health to the level I presently experience today. No limp, and can run 3-5 miles without any back or leg discomfort. I now experience more energy and less digestive issues that I can ever remember, even as a child. I have a healthy body weight, and my blood and immune system are measurably optimal. I lead by example; I show others that you do not have to live a life of misery and sickness if you don’t want to. You can have optimal health once again and feel good about living your body, but you must earn it!”

There is no magic bullet

“Restoring hope, confidence and self-sufficiency are key ingredients to successfully turning around the most severe health crisis. A common and erroneous belief is that there is a magic bullet that will fix everything, or that a person just needs to find the right doctor who can fix you. The truth of the matter is that you are responsible for your health improvement: it is your responsibility to embrace healthier lifestyle changes that can lead to your own health transformation.”  — Dr Phil Sledz, DC

“Dr Phil” believes that with proper guidance, you can fix yourself – and experience the excitement of not only seeing but feeling the difference. He has built his practice on everything that has provided good results. He ascribes to the belief that by changing the quality of your health, you can change your life. Feeling great allows us to have great life experiences, something we all deserve.

The motto for the Marines is “Semper Fidelis, or Semper Fi”—Always Faithful. For Phil Sledz, this translates to his faith in helping others, so that they can live life well and feel free from what holds them back in life.

— Editor