Hello group,

I just found this site while doing some research on Sugar for my Ph.D Disseration in holistic Nutrition. I am a Naturopath in private practice for the past ten years. We do health analyses for clients using a biological sample to determine the level of organ and sysem function, the presence of invasive organisms and pathogens in the body, nutrient deficiencies, the presence of heavy metals etc. I have clients all over the country and in Canada, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

My history with the Atkins program goes back to his first book 'The New Diet Revolution. My history in Natural Health goes back to 1970 when I bought Adelle Davis' book 'Let's Get Well' which I still have in my library. I came to the Natural Health pathway after in 1967 doing a diet with an MD in which I took "diet pills", you know, SPEED and a shot every week. I was eating about 500 calories a day and lost 65 pounds faster thatn you can say where'd it go? It came back about that fast too. 1969 was the last time I have taken a prescription medication or seen an MD for a health issue that being for marginal high blood pressure. After three months on the blood pressure I knew that wasn't the path for me. I bought the aforementioned book and my journey in Natural Health began.

I began buying the lastest books on the market and followed the last best advice from these books and when Dr Atkins first book was released I bought it and lost thirty-five pounds in short order. I was still studying and buying other books on Natural Health and following Atkins until I bought into the hew and cry of the day against him.It was said then that anyone following Atkins would die of clogged arteries and heart disease, so I drifted off.

I read and studied and followed the organic lifestyle through the seventies and eighties. In 1990 I went to work for the State of Oregon and when it came time for the annual TB test on the forearm, I tested positive. It was now time for me to see the Naturopath who had helped my mother beat a breast tumor and an aunt with a cervical cancer. He had been in practice since the late 1940's and when I left Dr Slawson's office that day I knew he was the man I had been searching for since 1970. I asked him how I could do what he was doing? I followed his advice, went to school while working for the State and the next time the annual TB testing was done I tested negative. I knew I was on the right track then and when my studies were done I had earned a Doctor of Naturopathy degree as well as a Master of Science degree in Holistic Nutrition. I am now writing my Dissertaion for my Ph.D in Nutrition as I said above.

I went into private practice where I am today where everyday is still a learning experience. I just love it! With clients all over the country, the internet and phone are invaluable.

Now back to Atkins and the low-carb lifestyle. All those years I worked at weight loss and control and had in the back of my head that Atkins was not healthy. OK, I'm a slow learner! Hey, Natural health, vegetarian this and low fat that. You can't be healthy and eat all that meat and fat! Everyone knew that! And my wonderful teacher was an Adventist to boot, vegetarian don't you know. Well I have learned by having many Adventist clients that they have health issues too.

In September of 2003 I just decided I was going to get back on the Atkins program and lose this weight if it killed me. Of course it didn't and I lost a bunch of pounds, from 237 to 175 from Sept 2003 to march 2004.

Then In June of 2004 the University of Pennsylvania release a long term study of people following the Atkins program from the 1970's to now in which they found that these peole not only lost weight, but they reduced two other risk factors for heart disease. These were they had higher levels of HDL and lower levels of LDL in their bloodstream than the average. Well that was nice to hear.

Then in August of 2004 I saw this Professor on one of the Cable news programs and I'm sorry, but I did not get her name or University, but she did a one year study of two groups of dieters. One on low-carb and one on low-fat. They found that both groups lost an average of thirteen pounds. The interesting fact was that when doing the blood work, the low-carb group had higher than average HDL and lower than average LDL and the low-fat group had Higher levels of LDL and lower levels of HDL in their blood.

Well, it appears that the evidence is mounting in favor of Low-carb, Kids! The sad fact is that I could have been a lot better off if I hadn't fallen for the hew and cry of the day in the 1970's, but hey, live and learn and who knows, my path may have been much different and I'm really happy being able to help other every day. So much for listening to the pundits of the day!

Now, I know that not all will follow Atkins, but as for me I will continue to advise and counsel those wanting to lose weight, and the world is full of us, to follow if not Atkins, then a moderate low-carb lifestyle. This is a lifestyle after all. Don't even think of it as a diet that you will go off of when you get to your desired weight. And don't make it too hard on yourself. If it becomes a diet of job, how long will it last. It must be as natural as getting up in the morning. The Atkins people may not like this statement, butI do not and will not buy food in cans and boxes, Packaged food is not the way to go. Buy food that will spoil, and eat it before it does. "The closer to the earth, the closer to the vine, the higher the nutritive quality of your food." Whole and fresh is the way to go. Don't be a "heat and eater." Learn to cook. Enjoy real, live food with all the vital life force intact. The argument is "I'm just too busy to cook." Tune in 30 minute meals on the cooking channel and tell me you can't cook fresh and eat good.

I always counsel my clients to make healthy changes gradually and leave unhealthy habits alone a little at a time. I mean not everyone can just throw the caffeine away and endure that dull and nasty caffeine headache for two to four days. It's much easier to wean ones self off gradually. Pretty soon you are eating and living a lealthy lifestyle and you didn't even notice the change until someone you haven't seen in a long time says WoW! what are you doing? and how can I do it too?

I will say that if a person has a lot of weight to lose, then follow Atkins religiously as the body needs to reorder itself and begin the reconverting of fat to useable cellular fuel. Then when your body is up and functioning at a much higer level of efficiency, and losing those pounds, then I like to counsel to cut back on the meat and fat and add those veggies and high fiber foods and avoid bowel disorders. Fat is nothing more than stored energy and reconverting it is the only way to get rid of it, unless you want it sucked out from under your skin with a long stainless steel tube rammed around under there, or cuf off in large hunks and the skin sewed back together. Ouch!! in spades.

I'll take the low carb lifestyle thank you very much.

OK as usual I've gone on without knowing it. Hey, doctor means teacher and it hits my hot button, what can I say. Have moderation in all things. Eat low-carb and be healthy. Enjoy life, but be sensible about it.

A servant in health I am,

Dr Terry

Hi and Welcome!!!!!

This is a great site full of information!!!!!

You'll love it!!

Hi MsTwacky,

Thanks for the note. I'll check in as I can. I'll look forward to interesting and informative chat.

Dr Terry

Hi MsTwacky,

I posted a reply before I found this quick reply tool.

Thanks for the welcome. I'll visit this site as I can and will enjoy infromative and interesting chat.

Dr Terry

Hello Toni,

Thanks for the welcome. Glad you found it interesting. I'll be visiting this site and will be interested in reading and hearing about how folks are doing in their journeys in health and whatever.

Dr Terry

Welcome to the forum, Natdoc. What an interesting post you left us with. I found out about Atkin's via my grandparents when they started taking Chelation treatments quite a few years ago. Although I didn't put it into action until this past year. Do you have any experience or thoughts on Chelation? From everything they've told me, and from what I've read.. it seems too good to be true, kind of like Atkin's sounded as well.

Take care

Michelle

Welcome to the forums!

Hello Sweetcakes,

Kudo's on your journey. Feels good to accomplish it doesn't it? I'll look forward to visiting this site to hear these great successes.

Dr Terry

Hi Jiggerz,

As you probably know chelation therapy is an intraveinous process. It works wonders in people by cleansing the blood. When I learned live blood analysis in Darkfield, my instructor had just returned from a clinic in Mexico where he had a series of chelation sessions with vitamin C. He said it was rather intense, but was pleased with the results. Vitamin C is a very good cleanser as well as immune system supporter. I'm a big fan of vitamin C. It is a vital nutrient for the body especially the adrenals.

The adrenals weigh only 2-5 grams on average and use more vitamin C than any other organ in the body. They are so vital to health as they produce seven major hormones and over 31 corticosteroids. They are endocrine organs and exert great influence on this system.

When I feel something coming on I start my day with 10,000mg of Vitamin C and take another 1,000mg each hour throughout the day and usually by the next day it pretty much gone. It must be understood that most cold's and flu's are the body's first attempt to eliminate toxic overload.

Cleansing is the first step in the healing process. Then comes healing and rebuilding. Overdose symptoms of vitamin C are loose bowel or a slight skin rash, although I've not encountered anyone who has had the skin rash. I'm told it is a reddening of the skin and not serious. On reducing the intake of vitamin C it goes away on its own.

The loose bowel is a good thing and should not be interfered with as the body is eliminating toxins and junk that caused most likely caused the problem in the first place.

Chelation is an intense way of detoxing the body from toxins including heavy metals, and metabolic waste from cellular metabolism that the lymph nodes cannot neutralize, or toxins or residues from past health issues that just needs to be eliminated.

It is said that about 60% of toxins are eliminated through the lunds in gasseous form and the rest through the bowel, the kidneys, and the skin. The skin is an eliminative organ and is sometimes referred to as the third kidney.

When we put a client on a healing program, skin eruptions and the like, is a common complaint, but is a part of the healing process.

WE don't do chelation as we are not licensed to or would not do invasive procedures. I am a trqaditional Naturopath and do nothing toxic or invasive to the body, We work with the natural rhytms and cycles of the body. We work to help the body help itself and let the natural healing procces. The body is always seeking perfection and we simply help it do what it is naturally sieeking.

Congrats on your success with the low-carb lifestyle,

Dr Terry

Dr. T, what a great introduction. Welcome!

Welcome aboard Dr. Terry

Great to have you with us.

Wondering if you have any thoughts for all us poor arthritically inclined folks who've had to come off Celebrex, Vioxx or any of the other Cox inhibitors and have been left adrift taking huge amounts of Tylenol Extra Strength, at least that's what my family doc suggested, I'm weary of following her advice on this, 2 500 mg 4 times a day, it would like make me so zombie like, sure that I wouldn't care about the stiffness in my knees.

So I've opted to take glucosamine sulfate 3 times a day instead, it will likely take a few weeks for the effects to kick in, but I'm hopeful it may alleviate some of the joint pain, just wondered if it's something you would recommend?

Dr. Terry, Great Introduction, please keep your work knowledge available to us. Write about any interesting idea or experience you have. I really loved reading your work. Thank you. P.S. please give me your feeling regarding vitamins??? do you suggest them to your patients? If yes, what do you suggest. So many different theries out there.

Hello Nikotyme,

Good Lord! 10,000mg of extra strength Tylenol a day? Tylenol is acetaminophen which is known to cause great harm to the liver. I wouldn't take Tylenol if it were the last pain reliever on the face of the planet. In fact, I'd begin doing some liver detoxing, NOW! Sylimarin which is from Milk Thistle would be a good one to use. In my practice and my own vitamin regimin I use NOW Natural Foods products. They test good all the time and their prices are very reasonable. They have a 24% standardized Sylimarin supplement and it is the one I have used with good success.

Take as directed on the label, but only five days a week. Give your body a rest on the weekends. In fact take no herb or supplements more than five days a week. In the case of the Simymarin, take it until the bottle is gone and then leave it alone for a month of two, then if you feel the need, do it again. But don't just start taking it and keep on it. It's not a good idea to take any herb continuously as the body will get used to it and it and there becomes a point of diminishing return. I'd take herbs with the advice and counsel of a practitioner unless you are well versed in the use of herbs. Some herbalists and practitioners recommend too much of a good thing or load up a client with just too many different products. Herbs are powerful medicines and should be taken with care.

The glucosamine is good and if you can find arthenol, which is a collagen product that helps build up the cartilege of the joints, buy it and use it. I will find the the source for you and get it to you. You might try googling "arthenol'.

Your continued loss of lb's and the resultant lessening of pressure on the joints will obviously help. If you are eating any dairy like homogenized milk and cheeses, if you lessen your use or eliminate it altogether you will do yourself a favor. Cultured dairy is different and the body can digest and metabolize cultured dairy like Sour creme, yogurt, buttermilk etc much easier.

I know the dairy industry says milk is a perfect food, but I will tell you that if you feed homogenized milk to a baby calf, that animal will sicken and not thrive. The homogenization process breaks the butterfat into such small particles that they can penetrate intestinal tissue like water. This is not a good thing.

The human body is not equipped to digest and metabolize cow milk very efficiently. However, whole raw goat milk is tolerated quite well by our digestive system.

As far as diet goes, I'd stay away from potatoes and wheat. The starch in these products converts to glucose immediately and raises the blood glucose levels too quickly. Eliminate all refined sugars (sucrose from cane and beets) in all it's forms and guises. Do not even think of using artificial sweeteners including Splenda.

Bottom line on arthritis, like diabetes is it is self inflicted almost 100% of the time. "We are what we eat, and our food is our medicine" as the saying goes. If you are following Atkins I would say that your joint problems will most likely lessen and become a non issue as time goes by.

Your body is always seeking perfection in form and function and as you continue your low-carb lifestyle, you will find that as your body cleanses itself and releasaes its toxic overload it will heal and begin the rebuilding process. Our body has a remarkable ability to rebuild when given the chance. It may sound simplistic, and it is simple, a good and healthy diet will solve many health issues.

As someone who is not a slave to the medical system, I can tell you that being healthy is not all that hard. It's the cleansing and healing process that is sometimes not very pleasant, witness the disordered bowel function or cold's and flu-like symptoms which are elimination of toxic overload. I have a new client that as of this morning wrote me a n E-mail and said that his cold just was gone this morning. He had a cold of better than a week and two days ago mentioned it in a message and I recommend large doses of Vitamin C. He followed the advice and this morning he was amazed that if just disappeared and he was feeling great this morning. Ah, that good old toxic dump! Sorry for the indelicate words there, but it is the best way to describe the cleansing and healing process.

People are so locked into the medical system these days that they think they have to poison themselves with all those prescription medications, not one of which works in harmony with the natural rhythms and cycles of the body. Every prescrition medication had adverse reactions and side effect to the human system. All they do is knock down symptoms, to which your friendly MD says "it is cured". In Natural Health we know that knocking down a symptom does not cure anything. We see symptoms as a red flag or outward sign of an inward problem. We use symptoms as clues to the pathway to the cause. We seek to change the underlying imbalance, dysfunction or malfunction, and when that is corrected, the symptoms go away.

Working with the body and not against it is the true pathway to health. Not what we call cut, burn, and poison medicine practiced by the allopaths (MD's). I know this is foreign to many people because they have been in the system so long that they think if they don't get their pills they will die. I work with people who take so many different meds that they begin to work against each other much to the detriment of the poor person's health and well-being

I would never tell anyone to quit taking their meds, That is up to them and their doctor, but I will certainly do just what I did in my above statements, that it try to teach a different way of living. I have only touched on these things here and have gone on far too long.

So I will close now and just say that if you want to be free of your arthritis, eat healthy and eliminate any destructive habits including caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, tobacco etc. Caffeine is one of the most dangerous as it is a vasoconstrictor. That is, it squeezes down the arteries and vessels of the vascular system, making the heart work harder to pump blood out to the extremeties of the body. Red blood cells carry the nutrients including oxygen (oxygen is life) to the cells of the body for use as fuel and caffeine interferes with efficient blood flow. Caffeine is a very powerful drug that is best left alone.

OK, I'm out of here as I do have an analysis to run on a young client. I hope I have not overwhelmed you Nikotyme. It is hard for me to answer a question simply when there is no simply answewr to it.

Congrats again on your progress and hang with it, it is a healthy lifestyle.

A servant in health I am,

Dr terry

Thanks Dr. Terry

No, you haven't overwhelmed me at all, just confirmed my fears of what my MD prescribed, the Tylenol, I didn't take her advice and didn't start taking them at all.

As far as milk, I haven't drank any at all since starting Atkins, but I do have cream in my decaf coffee, apart from that in the dairy family I have cheese and sour cream only.

No wheat products either, whole or refined or any other starch for that matter and no sugar, but you say no splenda? yikes!! How about Stevia? I've used that to sweeten recipes as well and it is tasty though more costly.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, I'm sure you're going to be a tad busy when more people read your introduction here.

Thanks again.