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8 years ago I had the fortunate luck to have Kathy J. walk into the office. She is the kind of person that everything hurt. I think her hair hurt. It is one of those case you can’t wait for and at the same time you dread.

• I couldn’t wait to help her, because, well, I could help her.
• I dreaded trying to help her because she very well could not get better.

I always think it is better to try. Many times people don’t get better because they need some fundamental changes that they aren’t ready for or they need more time to heal than they are allowing. Plus, the plain simple truth is that people who want to get better, do.

I came out of school, and like all fresh grads, was so idealistic that I could help everyone. Who wouldn’t want an energetic, pain free, trim, and awesome body. Sadly, those people exist and don’t want to get better.

Kathy wanted to get better. wheeew

For 2 weeks, I made no progress with her pain. I used less and less force and was down to using the lowest setting in the Activator adjusting instrument (clicker). It finally dawned on me, her body can’t get better even though she wants to.

So I told her to go home

But, I gave her a bottle of Cataplex ACP from Standard Process and told her to take a minimum of 6/day. I literally told her not to come back for at least one week.

To both of our surprises I could adjust her like any other patient I use the Activator on. And get his. One week after that I did a DEEP manual adjustment of her middle back that made the walls rumble. She got up feeling awesome. Two weeks earlier it would have killed her. Why?

I’ve rolled this around in my mind for years and she is one of the key patients that taught me a lot about the power of nutrition and Standard Process whole food supplements.

Cataplex ACP from Standard Process

Is rich in natural vitamin C, A, and made from plants high in Rutins “P” factors. These are the backbone structures to “Collagen” and all the connective tissues, including bones, muscles, ligaments, and blood vessels.

These precious nutrients(vitamin A and C) are also the same vitamins needed for a strong immune system.

Kathy was literally not able to heal from a lack of vitamin C, real stuff, not ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is used in store bought vitamin C will NOT help heal. It is not the structural component of collagen.

I use Cataplex ACP primarily for people who

• can’t heal
• get bruises easily
• bruise excessively
• or who need a good immune system boost

You can talk to me about any problems via
email: docaltman [at] gmail [dot] com
skype: docaltman
Voicemail: 612-BE-GREAT (612-234-7328)
Comment on any page, will also get to me.

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Some of you may be wondering why I post about specific supplements and throw in a few pearls of life’s wisdom. I have found over the years that supplements are the easiest way to change someones health.

Drugs make people feel better really fast, but that isn’t health. Often confused, but not the same. You could take cocaine or go on an alcohol bender and feel good, but it is pretty easy to see those as being unhealthy. Did you know some medications are very similar in chemical make-up to cocaine? Weird huh?

Diet.

Is hard to change. People have habits and to break those habits there has to be a really, really good reason. Cancer tops the list. There has to be some kind of problem affecting peoples lives, and it has to be worse than the habit to change. Just being over weight, or tired, generally doesn’t cut it. Unfortunately, when there is a bad problem, diet alone won’t fill the voids. So, we are left with supplements and herbs, and that’s really about it. Meditation, massage, or acupunture can make you feel better, but they can’t give you missing vitamin C.

Supplements.

Are here to stay. I have found over the past 16 years that only the lazy or uninformed say that supplements aren’t necessary. Once again, there are plenty of those people to make getting information tough. I left a comment on a relatively good health blog on an article about supplements. They were recommending high doses of fractionated, man-made vitamin C. It was even patented. I tried to explain eating man-made, fake vitamins, are for fake people and eating a plastic banana would be the same thing. Of course I said it in a much nicer and more professional, logical way. I even quoted the discoverer of vitamin C. The response I got was “I disagree”. O.K. I tried.

Why I write

These are the kind of people I want to educate you against. The world is filled with bad advice. The internet has made getting good advice fairly tricky. The internet is an amazing resource that gives hidden genius a voice, but alas, it also gives the crazy a voice as well. So here is the basics. If you think food that grows in your garden or the field down the street is a good thing and better than plastic stick around.

Food grows perfectly.

The more we ship it, refine it, process it, and box it up to sit on a shelf, the greater the distance from perfection, and the more vitamins it loses. Which means you lose. But, that takes time. You are a magnificent being and filled with copeing mechanisms and reserves to carry you through the lean times. Poor diet choices take years, even decades to show up. When they do, supplements, and I should say whole food supplements can fill those needs better and healthier than processed pieces of vitamins, so common on store shelves today.

You.

I still think the world can be a better place, but there is no way health will ever come from the medical field or the government, or the food processors of America. “Food” manufacturing can’t be done. “Food” grows. Drugs are way to popular and profitable to ever change that juggernaut. So it comes back to you. You have to make healthy choices every day and it can be real hard. So I write for you. Just little reminders of health and natural, wholesome goodness, that you can use as a filter for all the other junk out there.

My simple filter.

Take this and use it to your advantage. “Is what I am about to take or eat natural? The way God intended it to be.”

What got me going was patients. Most people want to know more about the supplements they are taking. So as people order I write my thoughts on those supplements. I figure someone will learn something along the way. So as you see different posts only about supplements, someone has just ordered that. Eventually when I cover them all, I’ll go back to diet.

Patient inspiration

Once again I have to leave it up to you guys to make this all work. I did a “SKYPE” video consult tonight and it works very well. I am not a big fan of seeing myself on camera, but this was worth it. It is much easier to “talk” to someone about their problems when you can see their face and interject questions as the conversation evolves. I think I’ll eventually charge for consultations, but I’d like to experiment with SKYPE video chats. If you have a computer and a web camera all you need to do is download SKYPE from skype.com, which is free, and your good to go. For the month of September I’ll do video consultations with you for free, if you would like. All you need to do is email me a day and a few times that will work and we can try and set it up.
MY skype name is “docaltman”. My email is docaltman [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Tired? sleepy? hungry? spacey?

Your next meal could be making you feel terrible.

Now, carefully think about when those problems may have ocurred. This may be an exercise for the future, but pay close attention if those problems occurred within 2 hours of eating. It is possible for foods to adversely affect you up to days later, but they are much more difficult to detect and sometimes needs a specialty test (sage test).

So for todays project let’s just focus on the obvious stuff. For example: If you eat lunch and within 2 hours you are tired, ding, ding, ding, back up and write down what you had for lunch. The next time you have a problem write it down.

Simple eating solution:

• What is the problem?
• What did you eat in the last 2 hours?

After you have a few entries look at the problem list and you will hopefully discover some trends. Then test them.

For example: I was pretty sure chicken made me tired. So I specifically paid attention to how I felt after a chicken meal versus a beef meal. Chicken is tolerable, but tiring for me, but beef makes me feel like a rock star. I also don’t do well with all veggies, I need meat.

Some people don’t need meat at all to feel great, some will do better with fish, and so on. Keep an open mind and try all kinds of possibilities.

This one idea alone can dramatically affect your health and life, yet it is so simple. Each person is different. You need to test it for yourself if you aren’t feeling fabulous.

These would be food “intolerances” not specific allergies. And I’d bet almost everyone has them. Everytime we did full-blown testing there was always some problem foods. The problem for most people is that testing with a good blood test costs a minimum of $500.

A few things to consider and why you’d want to do this.

1. The human specicies hasn’t evolved to deal with what we would consider “normal” foods. Many didn’t exist thousands of years ago.
2. Intolerances can be made worse with modern foods. The average grocery store foods are lower in nutrients the liver needs to detoxify the stuff your body can’t handle. This is one reason I recommend organic foods and Cruciferous Complete from Standard Process. If your liver doesn’t have the fuel, then your immune system has to pick up the slack. Can you say “modern inflammatory” diseases.
3. Poor digestion just complicates matters. Burping, gas, reflux all can be helped, just ask.

Just the idea of paying attention to how you feel can revolutionize how you approach health when you can directly link problems to your lunch.

If you have so many problems it is seeming impossible to figure it out, just do it in reverse. Start with watermelon and zuccini and add a new food each meal. But, only add one food. Those two foods are generally considered the least problematic.

Also don’t miscount spices and condiments. Three out of five people are actually allergic to black pepper.

Also, don’t take this too seriously. Eat good food and do your best to identify stuff that affects you the most.

Enjoy supper tonight,
Dr. Altman

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“How’s your liver today?”
-An old Russian greeting

My assumption is that they were referring to how much vodka they drank last night. I’m assuming you aren’t drinking vodka on that kind of scale, but there are lots of other ways to pollute and toxify your liver.

The liver is the most resilient organ you have. It has to be, because it takes the most abuse and is responsible for cleaning your body of the garbage that comes in.

5 ways you can totally pollute your liver:

1. Alcohol … that’s an obvious one
2. Smoking … and second hand smoke
3. Pesticides … this is particularly nasty, you get this if you aren’t consuming organic food
4. Medications … they plan medication doses on how fast the liver breaks them down. This is why some medications don’t want you eating grapefruit, because it slows down liver clearing.
5. Partially hydrogenated oils … you have to look for these on the label, on the back label in the ingredients. These are so nasty that they can take months to be cleared.

There are lots more ways, but I think you get the message. There are many common and universal ways your liver comes in contact with pollution. So now what?

Your liver has to get rid of that gunk. To do it, it needs foods and herbs. Things like kale, Brussels sprouts, beets, eggs, contribute special nutritional components that your liver uses to break the junk up into manageable pieces and gets the garbage out.

We also take it a step farther with LivCo form Mediherb. This is a herbal formula that takes into account liver cleaning herbs and the most important herb “Milk Thistle”. Milk Thistle has been used for liver health darn near, forever. It has been know for thousands of years to help heal the liver.

This is one of the herbal supplements I take everyday. Why? remember the simple toxin list above. I get hit with at least one of those everyday. Keeping the body as clean as possible is important to me. Toxins lead to obesity and much nastier things that start with a big “C”.

LivCo was formulated primarily for liver detoxification. It helps supply the body some of those good elements for both phases of liver deotxification. Here are a few things that may give you some pause and consider using this supplement:

• Headaches
• Allergies
• Skin Problems
• Food intolerance’s
• Nausea
• Constipation
• Alcohol consumption

If LivCo is something you want to talk more about or order just send me an email docaltman [at] gmail [dot] com
or call the order line 612-BE-GREAT

“How’s your liver today?”
-Dr. Altman

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So, what’s a stuffy gall bladder? I know “stuffy” isn’t a very scientific term, but it works here. When your liver and gall bladder are stuffed to the rafters and the juices are so thick they don’t flow out very well, then that’s a stuffy gall bladder.   Those juices are called “bile”.

This bile functions to help break down the fats you eat and help eliminate toxins from your liver. All good stuff. Here is a real quick way to tell if your bile is thick like pea soup.

If you eat a meal with some fat in it…do you burp right away?

If you answered “yes” for yourself or your significant other, then keep reading.

Besides eliminating fat, the bile is responsible for helping eliminate the toxins you take in throughout the day.

Often it is the dust in the air, pollen, drywall dust, pet dander, or anything you suck into your lungs that isn’t pure air. This “dust” goes from your lungs to your liver, and once it is broken down, it is passed to your gall bladder’s bile.

That bile is then dumped into your intestines and passed on out.

Now, one of the rivers I’ve fished numerous times is normally as clear as crystal. After a heavy rain, it turns to a chocolate milk brown that is full of sediment. If you have to filter that water to drink, which one do you think will clog your filter faster?

Right? The dirty water. The more pollution you are around, the harder it is on your liver and gall bladder.

Why does this work?

AF-Betafood is made with young growing beet leaves. Those beet leaves are the greatest natural source of betaine. To keep it simple, betaine is very important for supplying the liver with good stuff to run the detoxifying mechanisms. If all is working well, and you are well nourished, the bile stays thin and fluid and the system works great. Toxins in… toxins out.

People run into trouble when they stop eating good food. If you are noticing burping after eating a meal with fat in it (butter, oils, animal fats, etc.), then AF-Betafood may help a lot and get you over the hump until your body and diet are working better.

-Dr. Altman

P.S. If you had your gallbladder taken out, that’s a different problem altogether. We should talk.