In our chronically sick patients there are several common themes.  The most important problem is a nutrient depletion complicated by a comprised gastrointestinal tract. Most patients have a story about how they became unable to digest enough fruits and vegetables (nutrients) to keep themselves healthy.  Each story is unique.  Consequently, the approach in returning patients back to health has to be individualized.  We started Our Center to help nutrient deplete patients with effective, cutting edge therapies that address the lack of enough “ground substance” to build healthy cells.

The next most common theme is stress.  Whether its emotional, psychological or physical, each patient has an adaptation to handle the situation.  These adaptations were probably necessary for a short period of time.  But stress over longer periods of time will cause disease in most people.  In returning people to health, the feeling of being nourished and cared for allows stressed out patients to switch over to parasympathetic mode.

The third most common theme is lack of sleep or disrupted sleep.  The inability to rejuvenate your body with deep sleep will cause or significantly accelerate the disease process.  Living and practicing medicine in the Bay Area comes with a particular set of challenges.  We work too much.  Our days tend to stretch from early am to late pm.  Sleep is that quaint thing that comes after work, kids, family and exercise.   It has gotten so bad that its become a “media thing.”

A few day ago, the New Times had an article that calls sleep the new status symbol. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/fashion/sleep-tips-and-tools.html?_r=0 )  For us here at the Bay Area Center for Nutrient Therapy, sleeps has been a thing we impress the importance of.  We want our patients to have deep rejuvenating sleep as often as possible.  You can’t heal completely if your body is not doing the deep repair and processing that happens during deep sleep.

The practical suggestion: If you have a chronic set of symptoms and you are not sleeping at least 7-8 hrs a night on average, you may not be able to return to your vital self.  Lack of sleep will aggravate the hormone system and produce more cortisol.  The effects of more cortisol are far reaching. For simplicity sake, let’s just say too much cortisol will help you in the short term.   But, over time elevated cortisol creates effects that can lead to chronic disease.  Please make time for sleeping only a few things are more important for your long term health.