.The joy of a kid running can inspire us all.  But first…

Imagine going to work in a cubical in a windowless office and day-dreaming about being a Park Ranger.  How about building houses in Siberia and dreaming of being an investment banker?  Not likely, but someone has to want to be an investment banker.  This kind of mental tug-o-war can affect your health.  Your creating an internal stress that shows up as restlessness, depression, or even lethargy.

How do you beat it?

This requires some intestinal fortitude.  You have to want to change then take the steps to get there.  If you want to be a Park Ranger, I’m sure you need to go to school, maybe intern, and probably be willing to move.  Take on the attitude that you must do it.  Your health can depend on it.

What if you don’t know?

This is likely the largest problem.  Many people know they want something different, but don’t yet know what.  The easiest thing to do is make a list of all the things you are good at.  There is a job in there.  Something will jump out at you.Now…Imagine sitting in your chair and not being able to get up.  How about lying on the ground freezing to death?  Maybe laying in bed not being unable to turn over.  I’ve seen all these people in the office over the past 12 years.  The names and faces change but they come in everyday.  I was thinking about these people because of a conversion I had this afternoon with a want-to-be patient.  He pop’s in to pick something up for his wife.  He makes the comment that his back is pretty stiff and sore and he feels like it could give out any moment.  This is how people wake up in bed unable to move.If you wait until the problem rears its ugly head, it’s too late.  I tried to explain to him that if you get adjusted now instead of waiting until your laying on the floor immobile you will save yourself a lot of money, time, and agony.  He left…

That reminds me of the one and only time I ever laughed at a patient.  Same deal as above, except he came back in 6 months later dragging his leg.  He left as well, because he didn’t want to spend the money and time to prevent it.  He did 6 months of medications and therapy and now was dragging his leg.  I wanted to prove a point so I took sympathy on him and had to work him hard to help him get better.

My point is… almost anything is fixable if you get to it in time and treat it right.  I

Sometimes you need grace from above, especially if you are a kid, but don’t ever give up.  Amazing things happen when you keep going.

“James is 4 1/2, he has always been behind in gross motor skills.  He started to walk at 19 months and has a very tight penguin waddley walk.  He has never been able to run, just do a fast waddle.  For him to get up from sitting or laying down he rolls to his side and slowly, VERY slowly gets up.  It always looked like a struggle for him to walk quickly or get up and down.  He struggles alot with stairs and his 20 month younger sibling was climbing stairs before him.  He still has a bunch of trouble climbing them when standing.  I had been trying to get him to tackle stairs by holding his hands, trying to get him to run or walk faster by holding his hands, and encouraging him to climb, dance ex… but improvements were little and very far apart.  He couldn’t run despite my efforts to help him. 

I brought him into see Dr Altman with me just to see if anything could be done.  I wasn’t very regular with bringing James, maybe once a month.  James was happy to go because he wanted to run fast!  I think it was on his fifth visit that things really moved!  Dr Altman was sure we would see a big differance this time.  When we went to Walmart he actually kept up with me instead of lagging behind.  When we got home I was making dinner for my wonderful husband and five beautiful children, like always the five were under my feet, wanting to all tell me what they wanted to eat.  To keep them occupied while cooking, I told James to race with the children up and down the hallway to show them how fast he was. 

I was expecting his quicker waddley walk that he normally did, but when I looked up, he was running, both feet off the ground at times run!  He finished shortly after his older brother and I couldn’t stop laughing while his older brother, Joshua, was stunned that “James was actually faster!”  James was so happy he kept running up and down the hallway!  The rest of the day he would pop up from sitting on the ground to get things my husband and I needed, at times even beating Joshua to it!  James has never “popped” up before! LOL!  He spend alot of time running that Monday!

 I’m looking forward to seeing more improvement and helping him to build muscle tone so soon he will move like other 4 year olds his age, but I’m praising the Lord for such a wonderful thing to see a 4 1/2 year old who couldn’t run and can now run!  God works in all things for the good of those who Love Him, and he has worked in James’ life!

Well, Dr Altman, you may not be in Europe yet, but God has worked that delay for good!

God Bless!”

-Lisa Hagen

 I hope to bring you another great story about low backs, soon.

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I had a great off-the-cuff conversation with a patient Friday that I thought everyone should know.  As happens often, this patient was walking out the door and remembered she was going to ask me something about the health reports she keeps getting in the mail.  If you order any kind of natural health books, info, reports, or darn near anything your name ends up in a huge database.  In time you start getting lots of mail to buy this herb from the deepest recesses of the amazon jungle that only appears for one day, and that vitmain that no one has ever heard of because they just discovered it on the moon.

The hard part about these mailings is that they are written by professional copywriters  and they get a token M.D. to stand in and be the front man.  They look fabuluous and can part the seas.  I see the twinkle in every patients eyes when they have a chance to be pain free in 1 week and all their joint damage will be erased.  The written word is powerful when used by a professional.

These are tough calls to make as a doctor.

I can’t recommend these for various reasons and it isn’t because the herbs don’t work.  This is how I advised the patient.  In reality, the product won’t hurt the person and may even make them feel a little better.  They had 2 anti-inflammatory herbs and natural aspirin in there.  So sure, they will likely feel a little better.   To buy the product is clearly up to the patient, unless I see something dangerous in there.  Diet supplements are the ones you really need to watch closely.  They are often jacked up with adrenal stimulants.

Here is the problem that I pointed out to the patient that you can go and check yourself.

When perusing the literature the product was in a nutshell:

• For joint and pain relief
• $40
• Mixed with other herbs
• Main herb was Boswellia Serrata 150mg (no extract ratio)

I thought this was interesting because I just took 2 Boswellia Complex (from Mediherb) that morning.  It is a great anti-inflammatory.  The last 2 days I’ve been in snowball fights with my kids and my arm isn’t used to throwing that much yet.  To make life easy I grabbed my own bottle to use as an example.  You are never going to find 2 identical products from different companies, so I attempted to just explain quality differences in herbs

So here is my Boswellia complex in a nutshell:

• For joint and pain relief (anti-inflammatory)
• $20.50
• Mixed with other herbs
• Main herb was Boswellia Serrata 277mg (7:1 extract ratio)

This is where is gets interesting.  We have an herbalist on-call and believe me over the years I’ve called her a lot.  A really good herbal company always puts the EXTRACT ratio on the label.  It looks like this (7:1) or (4:1) or any variation of that.  That is the fastest and easiest way to tell if you even need to investigate any further.  What that means is if a label doesn’t contain an extract ratio I don’t buy it.

Why?

Because….

The one thing I’ve learned over the years about herbs, is that you need to be getting (on average) at least 2000mg of herb or the equivalent.  Some of our herbs have a dose of 6000mg.  Here is why most people are getting ripped off.  They look at the fancy label and a laundry list of ingredients and go “WOW” there is a lot in here, this is a much better supplement.  The problem is they only have 100-250mg of herb, with no extract ratio.  Go ahead look at your bottles.

So why does that EXTRACT ratio make such a difference?

Well grasshopper… this is where the rubber meets the road.  The extract ration tells you how concentrated the herbal preparation is, so you have to multiply the ratio number by the mg to get an equivalent dosage.  In our example above…

The Boswellia complex I as taking was 277mg with a (7:1 extract ratio)

we take 277 * 7= 1,939mg in one capsule.

Overall comparison:

Advertised supplement
150mg
$40

Boswellia Complex
1,939mg
$20.50

You’d have to spend $517.06 to get the same amount of herb from her flashy advertising supplement company.

Herbs aren’t made the same and many herbs can be switched out for others that look exactly identical to cheat the manufacturer.  Not all companies have the expensive chemistry equipment to analyze the potency. Quality matters!  An expensive herbal product doesn’t automatically make it better.

Basic rules to follow:

#1 Look for an extract ratio
#2 Avoid USA manufactured herbs.

There is only a food grade standard for quality.  Other countries have a pharmaceutical grade standard.  Which really improves quality and potency and label accuracy.  This is why we buy our herbs from Mediherb, an Australian company.  Their more potent than any other herb preps I’ve seen.  Mediherb is not available in stores so if your only access is a natural food store, at least look for an extract ratio.  It may seem expensive but compared to what you get it is often much cheaper for the potency.

/ The February 25th article from the Associated Press brings to light some very disturbing news about the future of your health.  Your health is an official business and you are costing the drug companies money.  Now stand in the corner and let us take all your money and make you sick and dependent on us.
This is a chance to exercise your mind and your freedom, while you still have it.

Here is the original article:

But what I find so alarming is the blatant disregard for secrecy the drug companies are so used to doing.

For starters it clearly implies the CDC bends over backwards to accommodate the governments recommendations.  So in reality , the advice all doctors get is coming from the government, nice.  The truth behind why they feel every person should get vaccinated is nicely stated.  “Yet every year we wasted millions and millions of doses,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert.

Ahh, I get it, nobody wants the poisonous, toxic soup we made, so lets get the government to mandate it.  I want you to realize that to the CDC and Big Pharma you are just a dollar bill, you aren’t a person.  So when you see ads on TV and pandemic hype in the paper about the impending viral apocalypse stop for a moment and remember they are just selling you their vaccines.  It is ALL marketing.  If the concept that vaccines of any kind are harmful take a quick look at www.mercola.com and search for “vaccine”, “flu”, “swine flu” and you’ll learn a lot.  They did a nice job digging through the facts.

I’ve been in practice for 12 years and after seeing thousands of patients I can definitely tell you that it is getting harder to help people.  If you wait to take care of your health you will become a victim.  Make 2010 the year you learn something new about health.  I can promise you there is something to learn or do to make yourself healthier.  The process never stops.

Some ideas to focus on:

Physical Health

-Get your aches and pains taken care of with a chiropractor.  If the Olympic athletes use them I think you’ll be fine.
-Start exercising either more or more intensely.
-Eat more REAL food (ie…fruits, veggies, meat)
-Switch to organic foods.
-Wear clothes that make you look and feel good.

Mental Health

-Make a vow to only say kind words to your family.
-Stop reading the newspaper or the watching the news.
-Read inspiring books.
-Eliminate the stresses in your life, relationships, financial, work, etc.  I realize that each person is different, but there are so many resources available at the library or on the internet that if you don’t know how, you can find the answers with some work.

Spiritual Health

-This is part of the triangle of health.  Find a deeper connection to God and you will be rewarded with amazing insight.  This isn’t about drinking the purple kool-aid.  Spirituality means different things to different people.
-Go to church
-Read a book
-Start praying or at least meditate every day.

These are just ideas.  Within each idea are many more things you can learn.  Health is the most important part of living.  I know that is bold, but without your health nothing else matters.  I see it in the office, week in and week out.  When you realize how easy it is to be healthy and put health on the high priority list you’ll never need to worry about drug ads again.

Your health is your responsibility, not your doctors, not the CDC, and definitely not the governments.

 As a little review of how healthy you are, print off the surveys below and bring them in Monday and I can give you a fresh analysis of what your health status is and what direction to go from here.  Monday the 8th is the ONLY day you can drop these off.  If you check off any of these boxes I encourage you to drop them off sometime Monday or if you can’t get to the office, then email them.  If you aren’t a patient I still may be able to help give you some guidance.  Whoever gets these in my hands on Monday February 8th gets top priority.  We still have 2-3 months to make your health awesome.  This is my free gift.

Symptom Survey

Toxicity Survey

Dr. Altman’s Fun Fingernail Survey

Full issue at www.docaltman.com

Inside this issue:

1. Acid stopping drugs and how they are associated with broken bones.

2. The real cause of heartburn

3. Swine Flu News

4. Extreme dangers of taking estrogen drugs

5. 120 days to curing diabetes

6. Why “studies” can be dangerous

7. Good old water info.