Only an athlete understands why spending a lifetime to shave off a second, claw an extra inch, or lift another pound seems like a fair trade off. Pain, imbalance, and performance issues arise for various reasons.  At Fundamental Health Solutions, we use a non-drug based, health building approach which has helped athletes ranging from Hall of Fame Professional Caliber to Junior Varsity.   We sell the same nutritionally based products that have been adopted by pro athletes, to gain a competitive edge.  By optimizing your cellular health, we can help eliminate many of the physical issues that prevent you from taking your performance to the next level.

• Nutritional Depletion
• Reducing and eliminating Fibrin- scar tissue
• Strengthening the overall health of your blood
• Increasing Blood Oxygen Levels
• Decrease Recovery Time
• Managing Inflammation Associated with Training
• Reducing Injuries and Oxidative Stress

Nutritional Depletion
Nutritional depletion can contribute to a number of physical issues.  For the athlete, this can include impaired peak performance, range of motion, pain, stiffness, joint and fascia restrictions.Athletes utilize nutrients more rapidly than non-athletes.  Neglected nutrient depletion can contribute to lack of stamina and endurance, improper coordination, inability to provide “bursts” of strength, stiffness, a decreased range of motion, poor flexibility, and a feeling of “heaviness” in the limbs.

How fibrin can slow your athletic performance
Athletes and others who engage in physical activity, including competition and training, experience more frequent, and severe traumas.  Your body begins the repair process with a protein called fibrin. Fibrin surrounds damaged tissue in order to provide stability.  Strains, sprains, tears, cuts, running, leaping, colliding, throwing, punching, pedaling, and kicking can lead to increased fibrin deposits throughout the body.  Our body creates fibrin-removing enzymes (fibrinolytic) whose function is to clear scar tissue and facilitate healing. Insufficient amounts of fibrinolytic enzymes in the body can delay healing and repair needed to accelerate recovery times. This can result in physical performance limitations.

Fibrin is required to stabilize an injured area, however, one of the unfortunate side effects is called “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (D.O.M.S.).” This pain is felt most intensely from 24-72 hours post exertion, and is largely the result of uncleared fibrin.  When uncleared fibrin chokes the much needed blood supply delivering nutrients to our muscles and tissues, our recovery is prolonged.  Because fibrin creates a “mesh net” around muscles, tendons and ligaments, we begin to experience range of motion limitations as fibrin layers grow. This leads to distortions in the fascia- the connective tissue network that surrounds everything in the body. This distortion creates resistance, which has a limiting affect on how well you sprint, throw, hurdle, leap, press, push or pedal.

Increasing blood oxygen at the cellular level
Therapies that only rely upon exposing the blood to oxygen, such as breathing oxygen from concentrators or hyperbaric chambers, or artificially increasing the number of red blood cells such as with blood doping, fail to recognize the most critical part of blood oxygen saturation: the red blood cell’s ability or inability to carry greater amounts of oxygen. Exposing the blood to oxygen does not guarantee it can deliver it to our tissues.

To increase your blood’s ability to carry oxygen, debris in the blood needs to be cleaned up, and your red blood cells must be an ideal size and shape. The cleaner the blood, and the more ideal shape your red blood cells are, the more effectively they can transport oxygen to essential body parts such as muscles and the brain. Achieving peak performance requires foundational changes that need to occur at the red blood cell level.  Debris includes high serum protein levels, and oxidized solids such as plaque, uric acid and fibrin, all which decrease the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.

Reducing Oxidative Stress and Inflammation
Any amount of physical exertion increases something called “oxidative stress” which includes harmful byproducts called “free radicals”.  Free radicals damage our cells making it difficult for our cells to heal, and carry oxygen and nutrients.  Exertion also yields an increase in pro-inflammatory proteins.  In controlled amounts, inflammation is critical and essential to help us heal.  However, in larger amounts inflammation can have an adverse affect on our health and make it difficult to deliver peak performance.

Blood tests to identify these conditions can be done in our office via live blood cell analysis, and out of office via our comprehensive functional blood chemistry analysis and specialized functional lab tests.  Jump start your athletic competitive edge in sports by calling our office, or clicking the link above, for more information on how we can help you reach that next competitive level.

Having the proper nutrients can affect everything from how healthy and strong your bones are, to how happy you feel. Proper nutrition is an important factor in maintaining good emotional and physical health. Often we think of people who easily break their bones as being elderly, and in obvious poor health. Lifestyle choices that include alcohol consumption, strict vegetarianism and refined foods can contribute to early onset of poor bone health and other issues, as a result of nutrient deficiencies. Many strict vegetarians also are very diligent about their nutrient sources and for good reason.

I was recently told of a woman who was an avid runner, and a strict vegetarian. She was not diligent about addressing her nutrition. At around 40 years of age, one day she took what seemed like a misstep on a sidewalk and fell, screaming in pain. Part of her shin bone had shattered in pieces and she now has metal plates in her leg. At no time previous nor after this event were any nutritional tests run, so this woman still runs the risk of further injuries.

Vitamin D is important to your bone health
According to the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition:”
“For adults, vitamin D deficiency has more subtle effects on the skeleton, and can lead to a situation of reduce bone mineral density and ultimately precipitate or exacerbate osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency causes a mineralization defect of the collagen matrix that is laid down by osteoblasts. The rubbery matrix does not provide structural support, which increases the risk of fracture.”

How we detect nutritional and health related issues
Even if you take the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount) of micro-nutrients, how can you be sure you are absorbing them? Besides RDA values being outdated and insufficient, drugs can also play a role in creating nutrient deficiencies, as they can interfere with the proper absorption of nutrients in your body. You may be eating the right foods and yet you may still be deficient in key health building and maintaining nutrients.

Our practice uses the TRIAD Blood Spot test. This is a simple test that our patients perform in the comfort of their home. It requires obtaining a blood spot/smear, and a urine collection, all contained within the kit performed by the individual and does not require a lab. This test, which is billable to insurance, collects a large amount of data, more than most lab tests used today, that tells us what nutrient deficiencies you are experiencing, how well your body is healing and repairing itself, neurotransmitter status required for optimal brain function, gut health, any hidden infections, food sensitivities which can hinder your energy and fatigue levels, energy production and maintenance.

Bone Health
We also work with the NTx Urinary test, which is a non-radiation based test that provides information on bone health. 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. Read more about this on our main website: (http://fundamentalhealthsolutions.com/services/diagnostics/bone-density/)

Both tests can provide answers for people who are concerned about their bone health, and are wondering if nutritional deficiencies are contributing their feeling suboptimal in terms of vitality and energy.

Call or contact us now for more information on how we can help you feel good again, avoid nutrient depletion, physical and emotional drain, and to assess how good your bone currently is, compared to where it should be.

References:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/80/6/1678S.full
http://fundamentalhealthsolutions.com/services/diagnostics/bone-density/

Understanding how our body works on a cellular level
Before we begin to answer this question, we must understand some basic fundamentals:  All chemical reactions in the body are catalyzed by enzymes, every single one, and an enzyme is simply “stuff that makes other stuff happen in the body”. Within our physiology, there are two categories of enzymes:  Digestive enzymes, and metabolic enzymes.  For this discussion we will focus mostly on metabolic enzymes since this is where “the action” is taking place for all drugs and nutrients. Our metabolic enzymes run every single process in the body.  They make and degrade neurotransmitters which affect our mood, keep us young looking, allow for the expression or suppression of genes, make hormones, grow our hair, allow our brain to form thoughts, they do it all.  Both natural and conventional healthcare practitioners seek to understand and influence metabolic enzymes, but in different ways.  The difference is a drug is a metabolic enzyme inhibitor, while a nutrient is a metabolic enzyme activator.

Why enzymes are a key to good health
Enzymes work like a lock and key mechanism.  When you insert the right key into a lock, the lock opens.  In this analogy, the lock represents an enzyme acted upon by a nutrient, which is the key.  The open lock is now “activated” and can be used for its intended purpose.  Now imagine having a different key that can fit into the same lock, but when you insert this key it doesn’t unlock it.  As a matter of fact, it doesn’t do anything but occupy the keyhole space.  Not only does this key prevent the lock from opening, it blocks any other keys from entering the keyhole.  This is how a drug works.

Drugs occupy a space on an enzyme preventing it from being activated.  Drugs shutdown, suppress, and turn off functions in the body by blocking enzymes from working; while a nutrient activates, expresses, and turns on bodily functions like the key that opened the lock.  Both drugs and nutrients act upon metabolic enzymes.  There are a few exceptions to this rule as there are a small handful of drugs which are enzymatic preparations.  Notably streptokinase and urokinase, which are protease (protein digesting) enzymes used in hospitals as clot busting drugs for people who suffer heart attack or stroke.  Hormone replacement therapy is another exception.  Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are not enzymatic inhibitors as they indiscriminately attack and destroy cells in the body.  But, in the most common application, today’s drugs are largely enzymatic inhibitors.

Examples Of Medications / Drugs Blocking Metabolic Enzymes
These are a few examples of drugs suppressing bodily processes.

• NSAIDS, (Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Fenoprofen, Naproxen) block the COX enzyme which produces prostaglandins—a pain mediating molecule in the body.
• Statin drugs (Crestor, Lipitor) block the HMG CoA Reductase enzyme found in the liver which produces cholesterol.
• Blood thinners (Warfarin) blocks an enzyme in the liver, Vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKOR) which helps to clot blood, therefore making it difficult for your blood to clot, thereby thins the blood.
• Anti-viral medications (Acyclovir, Valtrex) block enzymes which allow a virus to reproduce, thereby limiting its reproduction ability but does NOT kill a virus, only your immune system can do that.
• Antibiotics (Penicillin, Vancomycin) inhibit enzymes which maintain the integrity of bacteria’s outer cell wall.  When the cell wall is destroyed, the bacterium break apart and essentially dies. Successful outcomes with antibiotics still require a healthy immune system to win over any infection.

Examples OF Nutrients Activating Our Metabolic Enzymes
These are also called “co-factors” or “co-enzymes,” and they are needed to make our body work properly.

• Vitamin C- activates enzymes which helps form collagen as well as enhance the lethal granules in immune system cells that destroy pathogens.
• Vitamin B12- activates the enzyme in the bone marrow which triggers the release of red blood cells into circulation; this release increases oxygen and energy in our body.
• Calcium- activates enzymes involved with nerve impulse transmission, blood clotting, and muscle contraction.
• DHA- is an essential fatty acid that is used to form brain and nervous tissue.
• Arginine- is an amino acid derived from proteins which activates an enzyme called Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS).  This enzyme can dilate blood vessels and decrease blood pressure.

How We Get Side Effects from Drugs
There is more to this story, both enzymatic activators (nutrients) and enzymatic inhibitors (drugs) don’t just fit with one enzyme; they fit with many enzymes in the body.  This is good for nutrients, but bad for drugs.  This is why we get “side effects” with all drugs, and multiple benefits with one nutrient.  One drug will block both the intended enzyme along with numerous other enzymes because they fit together, like a key that fits with many locks.

For example, statin drugs block the enzyme that produces cholesterol by the liver, thereby lowering cholesterol.  Because other metabolic enzymes are blocked as well, we additionally experience weakness, joint pain, insomnia, rashes, muscle pain, headaches, other infections, sinusitis, chest pain and peripheral edema, in addition to the cholesterol lowering effects.  All of the enzymes which control these functions are blocked as well, therefore they don’t work properly.

Conversely, a nutrient doesn’t activate one enzyme, it activates many enzymes.  Magnesium is a nutrient which is known to activate several hundred different enzymes; this is why nutrients are so important.  All nutrients activate many different enzymes, and are the reason why we need a variety of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats and other goodies to sustain those life giving metabolic enzymes which run everything in the body.

Nutrients are the “chemical intelligence” that your body needs to be healthy.  Enzymes operate in cascades, which mean once an enzyme is activated by a nutrient, that enzyme seeks out other enzymes to activate and so on.

While there  times when the benefits of using a drug may outweigh the risks, it is important to note that no drug has ever cured anyone of any disease, only the immune system can do that. More importantly, a medication cannot correct the condition which allowed the health problem to present itself in the first place.  This highlights a philosophical difference between functional medicine versus a conventional approach to health.  Functional medicine works with the body to seek out the underlying cause of the health problem or deficiency, and then nudge it in the appropriate direction. 

Fixing your health problems means making a choice
You have a choice when it comes to fixing health problems in the body.  Do you want to force your physiology to behave a certain way by using an enzymatic inhibitor (drug) and deal with harmful side effects, or have someone help you identify the underlying deficient physiology and help it work better with a nutrient in order to increase your vitality and well being?