Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Dr. Arlo Gordin

Some people are terribly exhausted.  They just can’t get their energy going.  Some were born that way, and never had much get up and go.  Some got that way at a certain point in life.  For some, a particular event, an illness, a highly stressful time, a divorce, or a death marked the start of never-ending exhaustion.  Some got tired gradually; exhaustion seemed to just creep up on them.

Regardless, when a person is just wiped out, life is very difficult.  There’s so much that needs to get done, and a horribly fatigued individual may find it very difficult, maybe impossible to keep up.  They can consult a doctor, and he gives their condition a name: “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”  If a cause is found (but often none is) then a treatment for it could commence.  If the person tests positive for the “Epstein Barr Virus” (similar to mononucleosis, the “kissing disease”, that causes people to sometimes be exhausted “permanently”) then that person’s diagnosis changes to EBV (Epstein Barr Virus).

There’s a funny thing about doctors, and patients too.  They like to have a name for things.  “Oh, I have chronic fatigue syndrome.”  The diagnosis tells them nothing they didn’t know already: they know they’re fatigued.  But somehow the doctor and the patient feel more comfortable giving a name to something, even when it offers not one bit of help, no understanding of the cause of the problem, nor any workable approach to treat it, let alone cure it.

Fifty percent of all the named diseases are listed as “cause unknown”.  Of course if you and your doctor don’t know the cause, how could you hope to really fix the problem?

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is just such a “comfortiagnosis”.  If naming your problem, even by just rephrasing it, helps you feel a bit more comfortable, well there you go.  Doctors providing such a diagnosis most often offer silly or damaging treatments. They could decide to drug you with anti-depressants. (The TV ads would have us believe we’d all be better off on those!)  They could give you stimulants.  But all the drugs they can choose from are generally ineffective, non-curative, and all have side-effects that you would never wish to have.

We’ve treated chronic fatigue patients successfully again and again.  How?  By treating the real cause of the fatigue.  There are many things that must be checked to get to the bottom of this problem.  And there are more than a few possibilities.  I’ll mention a few of the most common here.

The individual with exhausted adrenal glands, and therefore tired hormones and up-and-down blood sugar leads the pack.  The man who first published his research on the adrenals, exhaustion, stress, blood-sugar (brain and body fuel) and more, won the Nobel Prize for it.  Yet most doctors completely blow it in recognizing or correcting adrenal problems.  Like so much in medicine, the answer MUST be drugs. YET NO ONE I’VE EVER MET HAS ADRENAL EXHAUSTION CAUSED BY A DRUG DEFICIENCY.

This subject is usually vital to the chronically fatigued, and I invite you to ask for a free copy of our video class on this subject.  There’s much for you to learn about it, and it takes more than a few minutes of discussion to do it justice.

Sometimes the person has already figured out that they have worn-out adrenal glands. They’ve already tried things, and they’ve already taken nutrition for their adrenals.  What more could they do?  They just haven’t done the exact right things needed to fix the problem and get the result.  A little knowledge, or almost the right thing, usually isn’t enough.  Then they often need to call on our experience, with over a quarter century of research and results in treating chronic fatigue, exhausted adrenals and related problems. 

A blockage of nerve energy will cause exhaustion.  It can rob the blood flow to the brain, causing numerous brain-related complaints: fatigue, or dizziness, or headaches, or many more.  Pinched nerves to the blood flow of the brain are very common.

The other day I met a great guy, owner of a pet shop.  He had been exhausted, dizzy and depressed for years.  His doctor had him on an arm-load of medications, but it didn’t improve him.  He wasn’t even sure any more why he was taking all that stuff.

I checked him out, and sure enough, he had pressure at the base of his brain, from a misaligned neck and skull.  He didn’t feel that.  He hadn’t a clue that problem was there.  He just had all the brain symptoms.  In one treatment (adjustment of those misaligned structures) he made a huge improvement.

Some need a nerve system overhaul.  They have pinched nerves from accidents, sports, stress or other causes.  Some haven’t given their brain and nerves the nourishment they’ve needed for years.

Other causes too could be yours.  Some have low-grade infections that have never been beaten.  A person can harbor a low-grade bacterial infection that keeps their energy system wasted.  Their weak immune system just can’t get the upper hand against the germs.  Sometimes the person has a chronic virus that won’t let them get their energy in gear.  An example of this is Epstein Barr Virus.

Some need a hormonal overhaul.  Other glands are worn out, and could be naturally repaired and rebuilt.  Thyroid, testosterone, female hormones, immune system glands are each possible culprits in chronic fatigue.

If you’re really tired of being tired, then consult someone who has experience in actually getting to the bottom of these problems and correcting them!

Adrenal Gland Problems: Still a Poorly Understood Secret by Dr. Arlo Gordin

Many of my patients have been told they have an Adrenal Gland Problem.  But many haven’t ever gotten the results they wish.  You may have taken (many!) adrenal nutritional supplements, but the problems that are caused, worsened or complicated by your adrenal malfunction or exhaustion still persist or even get worse!  Why?  Because adrenals respond to many things in life: what you eat, your emotions, pain and more.  Just taking some nutrients usually is not enough to get the job done.  It takes more, and most doctors don’t know or help enough to get that “more” achieved.  And since precision chiropractic is often so essential, many doctors aren’t equipped to do the job.

You often may need to repair your adrenal glands as a first priority in order to get healthy. You have two of these little guys, one on top of each kidney.  They put out a number of essential hormones for health, and they respond to, and can be damaged by, a number of life’s less desirable but often not easily avoidable occurrences. They also, like your other glands, tend to get less healthy and productive just with age.  Their hormone output drop with increasing years, and can plummet from shocks or stressors, including biochemical ones.

These adrenal hormones release into your bloodstream.  They include: A. The blood sugar hormone that keeps your energy up between meals. If it is low, fatigue, headaches and other symptoms of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) result. B. The anti-inflammatory/anti-pain hormone “cortisone” that keeps your body from pain, as well as from inflammatory and auto-immune illnesses.  These include illnesses whose names end in “itis” (inflammation of) such as colitis, arthritis, dermatitis and bronchitis.  C.  The salt balancing hormones that tell your kidneys to not lose all your essential mineral salts into your urine.  Reductions in these play a role in such things as abnormal swellings of the body, and heart and energy malfunctions, D.  Adrenaline which gives you bursts of energy in “stress” situations, and E. Estrogen for the post-menopausal woman that helps her stay more hormonally balanced.  The adrenals make the only source of estrogen (female hormone) in the body after menopause.

Because of the profound effects of these hormones, if they are out of balance, big problems are the result. Temporarily they may be pushed into high gear by stress or incorrect eating, which later eventually leads to their burnout.  Burnout of the adrenals underlies a great many health problems, and worsens symptoms in the areas of your body that you are already weakened from birth (genetics) or from other insults and causes.

Overeating carbohydrates (sweet or starchy foods including sugar, breads, cereals, etc) will cause an insulin reaction. Generally at the same time all the ill effects of over-secreting insulin occur, the adrenals will be burnt out on the rebound blood sugar crash that follows. Not balancing food properly, overeating carbs, especially ones that arrive fast as sugar in the blood, is one factor that wears out adrenals.  Because insulin reactions to meals badly chosen in type and quantity, are the leading causes of 1) overweight  2) placqued and clogged arteries 3) heart attack and stroke (these two are the leading causes of death), eating better may be one of the best things you could do for yourself and your adrenal glands.  Refer to eating "40-30-30", balancing protein, carbohydrate and oil intake in the right proportions when you eat and when you snack.

Fatigue is a frequent effect of worn-out adrenals.  Because their hormones regulate the fueling (blood sugar supply) of cells, and especially those of the brain, underfueling results in low energy, worn-out-ness. Depression is another effect that may occur to an individual with an underfuelled brain and nervous system.  Many other symptoms of a worn-out energy system and poorly functioning nerves also can result. The reason so many symptoms are possible with poorly regulated blood sugar is because it is the fuel for the brain and nerves, and they are involved in every pain and physical feeling you experience, as well as controlling and regulating EVERY body function.  Sleep problems are also often a result of burnt out adrenals.

Your adrenals are also known as your “Stress Glands”.  Mental and emotional stress, worry, anxiety over love, money, family, any of the usual (or unusual) sources, will eventually burn out the adrenals, and cripple their hormonal output. The man who figured this out (Hans Selye) was recognized by the Nobel committee. He also discovered that other types of stress besides emotional can burn them out. Physical or chemical stresses can also cause adrenal burnout.  Ongoing pain, nerve system stress and malfunction, stimulant drugs, overdosing on caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol are on that list.  Despite the fact that some of the highest accolades  in science were awarded for this understanding, and it was broadly written about, few medical physicians give much thought to, or have approaches for assisting adrenals to repair or function.  This comes as no surprise since most medical physicians are not trained or comfortable to practice nutrition or life-friendly direction.  They are trained more with a prescription pad in one hand, and a scalpel in the other.  As such they are happy to write scripts for pain-killers, anti-inflammatories, and even the hard-to-quit and side-effect ridden medication "cortisone" much more freely than well-informed sense would allow.

If you have a chronic inflammatory disorder, generally medicine or drugs are merely symptomatic treatment.  Colitis, laryngitis, vaginitis, (notice the “itis” endings) are usually medically incurable, but just forever treatable, but only to reduce the symptoms. Chronic pain, fibromyalgia, torn up joints and arthritis are common effects with adrenal components. Now it is finally made its way to common medical understanding that inflammation is a basic factor in arthritis, and also in heart attack and strokes.  The drug industry’s anti-inflammatory drugs do not treat causes, but only symptoms. Headaches and migraines similarly have important adrenal (and blood sugar) components. Asthma and allergies have vital adrenal underpinnings. If ongoing medication is your recommended course, with no real end in sight, you could think then about strengthening your adrenals and fixing whatever else is actually causing the problem, not just spray painting over the symptoms with medications.

When your adrenals are weak, the things that are harming them are generally winning, and those that could help them are losing.  If you want to turn that around, you must try to discard or minimize the harmers, and bring on and support the helpers.  Stress factors should be handled, chronic pain corrected, imbalanced eating repaired, to name a few possibilities.  We do know how to guide you in getting these handled.

One great helper that can be instituted is to take adrenal support NUTRIENTS.  Generally this can be done with supplements into which several adrenal support substances are combined.  The right supplements should be prescribed, and the correct dose as well.  Many adrenal supplements flood the market and the labels look great.  But the actual effects are often not successful, and some, which contain “whole adrenal gland” even from “grass fed cows” have hormone content that sabotages your adrenals’ repair.  Our supplements don’t have hormone content for that reason.

Adrenal rebuilding, although not an overnight process, is a cornerstone of many health miracle cases in our office.  Chronically ill, pain-ridden, fibromyalgia and many times profoundly sick people have been restored to normal healthy lives. Migraine sufferers, headache sufferers, asthmatics, people with chronic pain, to name a few.  Although many require effective chiropractic treatment to areas of the body get the adrenals restored. To get many very sick and beleaguered patients to well often takes being effective in adrenal restoration. 

This is a critical arena of health to understand well and to apply.  It is not likely that it could be done adequate justice in only a page or two of writing.  I would refer you to our health class (in my name on YouTube and on drarlogordin.com), “Energy and Blood Sugar”.  In that seminar a much more comprehensive discussion of this subject is covered, and the specifics of solution explained. 

Our current lifestyles present great stresses on our adrenals. It is no great surprise that many of us have poor adrenal output, nor that many chronic patients have really burnt out adrenals.  If you fall into either category, one of the best things you could do is help your adrenals rebuild.  While doing so, do strengthen your blood sugar handling system, and reduce your risks for numerous health problems. Adrenal dysfunction causes many problems that reduce function and happiness, many nasty and “incurable” diseases, as well as those that are the leading causes of death.

Far better to support life, live it healthily, without pain, inflammation, allergy, metabolic failure and actively to the fullest than to enrich the trillion dollar drug industry, and that only for the hope of short temporary relief.

Accidents by Dr. Arlo Gordin

In collisions when cars run into cars (or motorcycles, trucks, bicycles, trees, pedestrians, etc.) and metal gets bent, it is common to get injured. These injuries are all too easy to sustain, but to heal completely and properly is not so easy.

Most of the time, injury results in pinching your nerves, in sprains, torn ligaments, pain, inflammation and other symptoms. When these injuries are only partially treated (such as just heat, therapy, massage and drugs) they heal incompletely. You can end up with pain, stiffness or numbness, and later, degeneration and arthritis in your joints from incorrect or incomplete treatment.

Accidents can sometimes cause broken bones, cracked ribs, head concussion or even internal organ injuries. Those are some of the reasons that careful examination is important, and when needed diagnostic tests and x-rays.

You may easily understand the way that injury occurs to your neck and spine. After all, the human head has the weight of a bowling ball, and is supported on a bony spinal column only about an inch and a half in diameter. Snapping the weight of your head against the small neck ligaments that hold it up, injuring your ligaments is the cause of “Whiplash”. Frequently you could damage the normal healthy curve that was in your neck before the accident. The mid-back and low-back spinal areas are also frequently damaged and hurt, causing pinched nerve short circuits and pain.

As result your neck and back can be in pain, and often they don’t move fully or well.

Bracing your hands on the steering wheel can cause the impact to be transferred through your arms, injuring your wrists, elbows, or shoulders. For example, the force into your wrist could cause you a carpal tunnel syndrome which "short circuits" the nerves in your wrist, hands or fingers. Your knee can be injured by striking the dashboard or bracing on a pedal or the car's floor. A foot jammed onto the brake pedal will transfer the force to your ankle, leg, knee or hip, potentially injuring those areas. Rib sprains from force to the rib cage can cause tremendous pain.

In my clinic, I have the experience and technical skills to properly assess an accident. So many times I have seen injuries misdiagnosed and mistreated by other professionals. Even on x-rays, the fractured bones were not "caught", sometimes at emergency rooms or with specialists! And often the exact technique needed to replace a displaced tendon, or unpinch a shorted-out nerve in the neck or spine isn't in the repertoire of other professionals who treat accident patients. When those types of shortcomings are encountered, you can most often expect that your recovery can be limited, that future pains will be expected, and that incompletely recovered injuries can "degenerate" (worsen and become arthritic) as the years after the accident pass by.

Very importantly I care about my patients, and my work is to see that you get fully well. I take your well-being as my most important job. My patients have trusted me for years to do the job exceptionally well and to get them out of pain, restored properly, and healthy.

I have three main goals in helping you after an accident: (1) Get you out of pain and feeling better and moving normally as soon as possible, (2) Follow through to treat each injured area so that they all heal properly and completely, so that (3) You will be free of future problems and not have degenerated arthritic joints from the injury in the years later.

Many people choose Chiropractic care for these types of injuries, because it is the type of treatment designed specifically to restore joints to normal position and function, un-pinch nerves and cause them to heal correctly. It can prevent you from developing degenerated and arthritic joints. It keeps back problems from becoming permanent.

Of course the more advanced, thorough and complete the type of Chiropractic that is used; the better will be your result. With my Advanced Applied Kinesiology which I use in my office, your injuries can be diagnosed, understood, explained and treated accurately.

Nutritional supplementation can be very valuable for its natural pain-relieving effects and in supporting the complete healing of damaged (overstretched and torn) joint tissues and inflamed nerves. Because of the side effects of anti-inflammatory and pain-killing drugs, if they are used at all, they should be used only briefly. However, scientific studies show that frequently nutrients outperform anti-inflammatory drugs. Supplements for injury can relieve pain too, but they speed healing, which drugs don’t. The anti-inflammatory drugs actually sabotage tissue metabolism and healing.

It is very important for you to get to us promptly. Wasted time causes things to heal, but they will be expected to heal in the wrong positions (in the place where the bones shifted to from the microtearing of ligaments that occurs in a majority of accident injuries). Yet another big problem is that many times patients have wasted their insurance money going to other places to get little real help at all. Then the insurance company often won’t pay all over again for the real help that’s still needed, especially after the useless treatment undergone already spent a lot of money on medical bills. What a hassle!

Most automotive injuries and personal injury cases can be paid fully by insurance.

We can also help you in the correct legal and insurance direction. It’s usually far better to have us refer you to an excellent attorney, than to have a lawyer choose your doctor (who when be chosen by an attorney to whom money is the most important motive) on monetary grounds rather than on doctoring skills. I've observed that the attorney's work on settling accident cases with an insurance adjuster can require less specialized skills than those required for healing patients properly!

I can accept many accident cases on insurance and am qualified to make all necessary legal and insurance reports. After an accident, I advise you call us first and promptly, and we can advise you on the phone which are the proper next steps for you to take.

Most important: Don’t waste your time, money, and most importantly your health, doing nothing, taking ineffective drugs, or getting poor treatment. These result in short and long-term problems, pain and lost mobility. That can be avoided by getting the best treatment. Here's my suggestion:

Get the right things done promptly and feel right as quickly as you can, and get things to heal completely and right!