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Dr. Daniel Pompa

Is Weight Loss Resistance Your Story?

From Weight Loss Resistance, High Blood Pressure, Hormone Imbalance, Anxiety, and Other Bizarre Symptoms to Total Health Restoration and Helping Others Achieve the Same…

Weight Loss Resistance
Heather’s Story

I can’t believe I was 300 pounds in 2004, and today I have lost over 100 pounds naturally!  It’s so surreal to say those words, and so unbelievable to me when I look back and realize where I was and where I am today. It literally brings tears to my eyes knowing how sick I was, but what makes me tear up even more is knowing that I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for God saving my life by putting me in the hands of people who could help me get my health back. Hello, my name is Heather, and I have been working as a Nutritional Counselor for 3 years now. I didn’t start cooking healthy meals and coming up with recipes just because I liked the natural health movement – but don’t take that the wrong way if you are one of those who love the natural health movement and you do not have a story! It’s okay to not have a story and still be passionate about natural health (more power to you!), but I do have a story.

I used to suffer from high blood pressure, hormone imbalance, anxiety, insomnia, chronic infections, autoimmune issues, neck pain, back pain, and other bizarre symptoms, and no doctor could pinpoint the reason as to why I was having these issues. Keep in mind, before I gained weight, I had always had high blood pressure and hormone problems that were unexplainable. I love my family doctor, and she helped as much as she could with testing, but we never found any answers as to why I couldn’t lose weight or why I had high blood pressure, or any of the other symptoms that I battled with daily – until I walked into Dr. Pompa’s office. It all began when I had 7-9 amalgam fillings when I was 9 years old. I started gaining weight, along with having high blood pressure, and then the hormone issues started in my teens. From then on, I felt like I was sick all the time. Migraines started, and then my immune system consistently failed me. It seemed like I was always taking antibiotics. Someone would sneeze across the room and, no kidding, I would be sick a few days later; that is how poor my immune system was. My friends will tell you that I became a homebody for fear that I would get sick with what anyone had if we went out. I had a poor diet and lifestyle, as well. I wasn’t taking supplements, seeing a chiropractor, or even following a healthy diet. Well, I thought I was following a healthy diet from what I was taught over the years. My body was slowly getting worse as time went on. I went to college and had an amazing opportunity working as a UNIX administrator, but I wasn’t ultimately satisfied with that career. In 2008, I resigned from my job to go back to school and eventually start a career as a teacher, because I wanted to make a difference and help others. That’s what I thought I was supposed to do at that point in my life, anyway, but God had other plans. Keep in mind, I was probably at my heaviest at this point, still with high blood pressure, and I just didn’t feel good….ever. My friends and family will tell you I was just one of those people who always had something wrong with them. I was taking medications for my hormones, pain pills for neck and back pain, migraine medicine and over the counter medicines for whatever symptom I was having that day, along with 14 amalgam fillings (I had some more fillings drilled in at this point), and an unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Then I bottomed out completely. I woke up one day with this feeling that is just unexplainable. I refer to that feeling as “bad butterflies,” and I just felt incomplete in so many ways, along with my blood pressure now skyrocketing to 190/210.

Healing Through God’s Plan

I started working for Dr. Pompa shortly after I bottomed out, and I know that God put me in that office for more than just my health. I met so many amazing people other than the Pompas, like Dr. Jackie and Patrick Newhouse, Warren and Rebecca Phillips, Tracy Mastandrea, Faith Hill, Amie and Eric Olson, and other patients. These people not only had a major role in my natural health and healing, but they also led me to be saved and accept Jesus Christ into my life. Then I found out I had mercury & lead poisoning and my neck was reversed. How did I get here? It started at birth, when I inherited bad genes (which can be reversed!) and had my mom’s toxins passed on to me. It continued at age 9 with amalgam fillings. I was vaccinated. I didn’t take care of myself like I should have with diet and lifestyle. All these things add up and can cause a major overflow, and that is what happened to me. Today, I weigh 100 pounds less, I am still detoxing the heavy metals but my immune system is working great, and my neck is not reversed anymore thanks to chiropractic care.

See how we have our own plans in life but God has other plans? The journey I have been on is amazing, and I am so excited to share my love, recipes, and knowledge with so many of you out there who want to get to the bottom of your health issues.

Living My Passion

Today, I love sitting down with people and helping them get to the bottom of their health challenges, but my main passion resides in the kitchen. Eating healthy can be so complicated for so many out there, and I love to cook. My friend Amie had studied at IIN because she also had a passion for health and wellness. She blessed me with a scholarship to IIN, and there I was trained in more than one hundred dietary theories and studied a variety of practical lifestyle coaching methods. Not only have I applied what Dr. Pompa and my friends have taught me, but life experience and experimenting have now made me want to reach out to thousands of people with my healthy cooking movement!

Making a lifestyle change does not have to be hard. I want to be able to eat a cookie and not feel guilty, and I know and I want to be able to enjoy the holidays and make foods that everyone loves, and more importantly, help each person get to the cause of their health issues by keeping a smile on their face with good tasting healthy foods. Healthy food, healthy moods!

It’s amazing when you eat foods that are good for you how amazing you truly feel. Not to mention the healing that is occurring in your body when you cut out all grains and all sugar. Wouldn’t it be great to eat a chocolate chip cookie, a piece of chocolate cake, or a bowl of ice cream? Well you can have all those things when you bake with almond flour and sweeten with stevia and xylitol. Grain-free desserts like my famous chocolate chip cookie pie are not only packed full of protein but are low glycemic, so eating this treat not only fuels you and has amazing good fats for your brain, but it doesn’t give you the rise and fall like eating a regular, even whole-wheat, chocolate chip cookie for breakfast.

Wouldn’t you like an easy cellular healing, grain-free, gluten-free recipe that doesn’t include 3 different flours and also offers more nutritional value? If you are looking for new dessert ideas, or a breakfast idea that is gluten-free or grain-free, you need to try out this recipe. It is easy, delicious, and nutritious!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

  • 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ cup xylitol
  • 1 teaspoon stevia
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ stick butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup dark chocolate chips
  1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl
  2. Mix wet ingredients together, minus the butter
  3. Add the butter to dry ingredients and mix well
  4. Combine wet and dry ingredients together
  5. Add in chocolate chips
  6. Pour cookie batter into a pie plate and bake at 325 -350 degrees (ovens vary) for 15-20 minutes*

*Gooey cookie (light brown and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes) – my favorite served with a glass of milk!

*Well done cookie (a little darker on top and bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes)

Diet Programs to avoid

HCG diet, Weight Watchers, Atkins diet, calorie restriction diets, watermelon diet, Twinkie diet, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast, and/or any other diet program that promotoes calorie restriction, processed and prepackaged foods, diets that are low-fat and high-protein, or diets that recommend grains and sugars.

For more amazing recipes and Dr. Pompa’s Cellular Healing Diet program, visit www.cellularhealingdiet.com

You can email Heather at: heatherhosilyk@yahoo.com

3 Weight Loss Myths Affecting Teens and Adults

by Olivia Pompa (Dr. Pompa's Daughter)

A recent article in USA Today stated that one third of adolescents are severely overweight or obese. I decided I would interview and discuss this epidemic with my father, whom you all know as Dr. Pompa. I have had many conversations with other teens and adults that are struggling in this area and have found that they believe many weight loss ideas that I have heard my father refer to as “weight loss myths.” I have been in a good position to watch my dad take hundreds of pounds off of people who were unable to lose weight, and most I would say believed many of the same myths. I try to explain what I have learned from him, but most of the time they won’t listen to me. I hope this interview helps everyone see what I know will help them not only lose the weight they are struggling to lose, but will keep them from one of the many diseases that the USA Today article spoke of as a result of being overweight.

That is Too Much Fat

I continually hear people say “that has too much fat,” or worse yet, “I can eat this because it’s low fat or fat-free.” I hear my dad tell his patients all the time that these low-fat products are the worst and will actually cause them to gain weight. He is always telling his patients “fat doesn’t make you fat; it’s the inability to burn it.” In the video, he speaks of this as being a hormone issue. Most people in America are not efficient fat burners due to hormones, and this is the real problem, not how much fat you eat. I have learned that eating more good fats can help you become a more efficient fat burner. Good fats help the hormones involved with weight loss and bad fats will hinder those same hormones. So it’s not the amount of fat that matters, it’s the type. In my dad’s book the Cellular Healing Diet (click here to check it out) he lists all the good fats and even tells you what oils to cook with not to make a good fat become bad. I hope everyone reading really understands this, because it seems like people agree with me, but they still end up reading labels for fat amounts or reaching for the fat free stuff. All of my dad’s patients eat high fat with his Cellular Healing Diet and lose weight like crazy.

Cellular Healing Diet

The Cellular Healing Diet eliminates all grains and sugar until the hormones are corrected. My dad explains that eating too many grains and sugars is one of the main culprits in weight gain and the only way to fix the hormones and become a better fat burner. Therefore, get rid of the grains and not the fat and you will see the results for yourself.

The second myth I have had very little if any success convincing people of is that calorie restriction does not work for weight loss. I believe restricting calories for weight loss is the biggest myth of all. Everyone I speak to believes it’s what you need to do if you want to lose weight. I see it all the time, especially with other girls. I have to admit that the girls do say they lose weight, but my dad explains that most of the weight loss is muscle and the muscle loss will lower your metabolism. He says that girls can lose 5 to 10 pounds, but the weight loss stops, and to lose any more you will need to cut calories further. This is very unhealthy and ultimately leads to failure on the diet as well as making it harder to lose weight on future diets. You should never have to stop yourself from eating more; you should always be able to eat until you are full. As you become a more efficient fat burner, you simply eat less because you are full much faster. Fixing the hormones involved in fat burning is the key to not being hungry all the time and not giving in to the cravings, which eventually cause you to break your “diet.” The bottom line is that calorie restriction for weight loss can work to lose a little “weight,” but in the end it doesn’t fix the real cause (the hormones), which leads to long-term frustration and failure.

Exercise the Cherry on the Top

The last myth (that I plan on shooting a separate video about) is exercising your fat away. All exercise can be beneficial, but when it comes to weight loss, it’s not the lack of exercise that is causing the obesity epidemic in this country. People are making it sound like lazy kids who are not exercising enough are why one third of American adolescents are severely over weight and obese. Even I can look around and see overweight kids exercising and playing sports, and yet still struggling with a weight problem. My dad is a big believer in exercise, but he calls it the “cherry on the top” when it comes to weight loss. What he means is that most of it is diet, but the right type of exercise can help.

Most of the exercise people do for weight loss actually makes matters worse. The endurance type of aerobic exercise that most people do for weight loss affects the hormones needed to lose weight in a bad way. This causes muscle loss and a drop in metabolism, which will make it more difficult to lose weight. On my next video, I am going to show you how to “burst train,” which only takes 10 minutes 3 times a week for the best results. This type of exercise affects those weight loss hormones for the better and causes you to become a fat burner for almost 2 days. So look for my next video; you will love it and it’s easy to do.

True Cellular Detox

Finally, I asked my dad the main causes of the epidemic of weight gain and obesity. He reiterated the need for good fats to help fix the hormones as well as the overuse of grains and sugar; however he also spoke of a cause that will surprise most people. He believes toxins are causing many of the weight problems we see today, especially in regards to something “called weight loss resistance.” He says weight loss resistance is “the inability to lose weight despite what you eat or how much you exercise.” Toxins are in so many of the things we use every day, like makeup, lotions, perfumes, and other personal care products. They are causing hormone problems, which lead to weight loss resistance. The toxin he spoke of in the video, which is in most of these products, is called BPA. It can alter our hormones and cause not only weight problems, but many other hormone-related problems, including cancer. “True Cellular Detox” is something my dad teaches that helps with removing the toxins from our bodies, but avoiding these toxins is also very important for health and weight loss.

Diet Soda and Weight Loss

One last point that I think is really important: If you are drinking diet soda with the hopes of losing or not gaining weight, think again. My dad says that diet soda contains artificial sweeteners, which are very toxic and directly affect the hormones for weight loss. Sorry, but it’s sort of a bonus myth that drinking diet soda is better for weight loss or your health. Stay tuned; I think I also need to do a video where I am going to show you what personal care products I use to avoid these fat-causing toxins.

I hope this helps you uncover the weight loss myths and discover the truth.

Sincerely,

Olivia Pompa (with a little help from my dad)

Probiotics Not Just an Answer to Digestive Problems

The New Science On Probiotics – Not just an answer to digestive problems, and good versus bad bacteria in your gut.

Why autoimmune conditions and obesity are on the rise due to the lack of certain probiotics that you can't get in a pill or a powder.

Probiotics in the form of foods and supplements have experienced massive growth in product sales in the last few years. Probiotics are known for their role in improving digestion and gut health. They are also linked to many health conditions such as autism, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, immune problems, weight loss, and numerous others. Because of the growing amount of research being released about probiotics, consumers are becoming more aware of the need for these good bacteria that outnumber our cells 10 to 1. Sales are expected to reach 31.1 billion by 2015, according to new market predictions. Experts estimate with some of the new studies being released in the next year that even these numbers could be dramatically low.

Are Your Probiotics Worth it?

This might come as a surprise, and I don’t want to be the downer in the probiotic sales boom, but I have never been a big fan – at least from the standpoint of fixing really “bad guts” like the ones I see in very sick and challenged patients. Don’t get me wrong; I believe there is some benefit from taking probiotics, and many people can benefit from them. The issue that I raise is two-fold. First, these are living organisms, and they need to be in their natural environment to survive and thrive. When surrounded by certain enzymes, fats, natural sugars, and components we don't even understand yet, they can survive our tough inner ecosystem and take up home in the lower GI where they are needed most.

Probiotics in a pill or powder are far from being in their natural environment, and too few survive to have any lasting healing effect, especially with severe conditions. Secondly and more importantly, the few popular strains of good bacteria (Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, etc.) pale in comparison to the trillions of bacteria scientists are now realizing inhabit our bodies and are needed for not only intestinal health, but for our bodies to function. The cover of Scientific American stated, “In your body, bacteria outnumber your own cells 10 to 1. Who is in control?” Scientists now refer to this complex community of microbial cells and the genes they contain as the “microbiome”. Its not just about good guys verses bad guys; this is about “who is in control.” Scientists have gained new insights into how our bodies function and why we are seeing a surge in certain conditions like obesity and autoimmune disorders. What they have learned is that the genes of these microbes communicate with our DNA. More than just communicate, they give our cells function.

One of the goals of the Human Genome Project, which was completed in 2003, was to explain the complex function of the human cell in comparison to other organisms. Conventional thought at that time was this: for each gene, there is one function.  Geneticists estimated that it would take around 120,000 genes to explain the higher level of function of the human cell compared to other lowly creatures like the mouse or worm.  The experts were shocked to find that the entire human genome consists of around 25,000 genes.  That’s the same number of genes as a mouse and just 1000 short of the worm at 24,000.  The million-dollar question remained: how do humans achieve all of the complex functions with so few genes?  The answer lies in the “epigenome,” which means “above the gene”.  New science called “epigenetics” revealed that it’s not our genes (DNA), but their response to the environment.  This means that certain environmental factors, good or bad, such as toxins, nutrients, and even the bacteria in our gut, can change the expression, or function, of our genes.  Therefore, it’s not “one gene, one function” as thought before; it’s your gene’s interaction with its environment that drives the multitude of complex functions that our own DNA are not coded for or capable of on their own.

In the Scientific American article it stated that, in 2010, a European group of scientists published a paper documenting that the human digestive tract contains more than 1000 different bacteria species which have 3.3 million genes. Humans have 25,000 genes; that means the bacteria have 150 times the number of genes we have. In the last few years, researchers have come to understand that certain aspects of our health and even who we are have more to do with the 3.3 billion genes from the microbiome than our 25,000. The article stated:

“Research into the nature of the human microbiome has yielded many    surprises: no two people share the same microbial makeup, for instance – even identical twins.  This finding may help unravel a mystery presented by the Human Genome Project, which confirmed that the human DNA of all people the world over is 99.9 percent alike.  Our individual fates, health, and perhaps even some of our actions may have much more to do with the variation in the genes found in our microbiome than in our own genes.”

Therefore, who you are may have more to do with your “bugs” than your parents.  This could be a big sigh of relief for many parents and kids.

New Answers for Obesity and Auto-immune Conditions

This new science goes far beyond our relationship with this new microbial world and who we are.  It gives us new answers for numerous diseases that are plaguing so many.  The irony is that for years, we have been running from and attempting to kill bacteria, and now we have learned we can’t live without them.  It is truly fascinating how we interact with these bacteria, and the diseases and conditions that arise when the bacteria are not present.  For example, a bacterium called “Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron” has genes that code for more than 260 enzymes that help us digest carbohydrates and extract their nutrients.  We simply don't have the genes to make these enzymes, and if you lack the bacteria, you will not get the nutrients from the food.  The bacteria also consume carbohydrates known as polysaccharides.  After eating these complex carbs, the bacteria produce a short-chain fatty acid that is eliminated in its feces.  Sounds gross, but these fats are a great source of energy for us and allow us to eat 30% less calories and be satisfied.  In the Scientific American article, they referred to a study where they raised mice without this bacteria, and the mice in the study that didn't have the bacteria had to consume 30% more calories.  It’s easy to see how this could pack on the unwanted pounds.

Another bacteria involved in unwanted pounds is a so-called “bad” bacteria that perhaps you’re more familiar with called H. pylori.  H. pylori are a bacterium with a bad rap for causing stomach ulcers.  When individuals with ulcers take antibiotics and kill these pesky bacteria, 50% of sufferers find relief.  The problem is that they end up gaining weight for no reason.  For years, doctors and scientists had no explanation, but now they know it’s the result of H. pylori’s close relationship with the hormone ghrelin, a hormone that signals your brain to eat. It’s what gives you the hunger sensation in the morning. It’s now known that H. pylori are involved in decreasing ghrelin levels, therefore decreasing your appetite. When antibiotics are taken to kill the H. pylori, the ulcers feel better, but ghrelin levels increase, which increases hunger and leads to weight gain.  The scientific American article quoted Martin Blaser, a professor of internal medicine and microbiology at New York University who has studied H. pylori for 25 years, saying; “We have a whole generation of children who are growing up without H. pylori to regulate their gastric ghrelin.” He goes on to say that children who are exposed to repeated high doses of antibiotics for things like ear infections are at great risk for obesity.

“He believes that the various bacteria within the microbiome may influence whether a certain class of the body’s stem cells, which are relatively not specialized, differentiate into fat, muscle, or bone.  Giving antibiotics so early in life and thereby eliminating certain microbial species, he argues, interferes with normal signaling, thereby causing the overproduction of fat cells.”

Our Children are at Risk

Our children are at a greater risk than we are.  They are growing up in a generation that not only overuses antibiotics, but antibacterial soaps, and hand sanitizers. Even the way babies are coming into the world put them at greater risk.  Another article in Scientific Daily indicated that the mode of delivery during the birth process has been shown to affect the infant’s microbiome and therefore the health of the child later in life.  Vaginal microbes change through pregnancy in preparation for birth and deliver good bacteria to the newborn during a normal vaginal birth.  However, C-section births, which are on the rise, affect the infant’s introduction to these beneficial microbes.  C-sections reduce the number and variety of good bacteria that the infants are introduced to.  The new evidence suggests that this has a subsequent affect on their health and development.  Even the health of the mother plays a role. If mom has bad gut flora, she ends up having a baby with bad gut flora. The baby in utero is considered sterile until it passes through the birth canal where it becomes inoculated with mom’s good bacteria.  Toxic moms will also produce toxic babies.  More and more research shows that toxins from mom are transferred to the baby in utero, which can lead to a toxic baby even before birth.  Either way, this can set off generations of bad gut flora, which can then lead to other health problems.  In an interview with Dr. Mercola at mercola.com, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, an expert in gut related illnesses such as autism, states:

“What I see in families of autistic children is that 100 percent of the moms of autistic children have abnormal gut flora and health problems related to that.  But then I look at grandmothers on the mother’s side, and I find that grandmothers also have abnormal gut flora, but much milder.”

Dr. Campbell-McBride goes on to say that because these children do not develop the normal gut flora at birth, it leads to a toxic brain later.  Toxins and bad microbes leak across the gut to the bloodstream and end up in the child’s brain.  She explained that the child does not go on to have normal development, which leads to autism and autism-related disorders.

The Auto-immune Answer

Autoimmune conditions are on the rise every year.  Even simple allergies have reached record numbers and continue to rise.  The discovery of a bacteria and its relationship to our immune system has opened the door to a new understanding as to the cause of this epidemic and has given us new hope for treatments.  Bacteroides fragilis has been shown to regulate our immune system by stimulating regulatory T cells.  These cells bring balance to the pro-inflammatory T cells that give us immunity, but if not regulated by regulatory T cells, it can cause the body to be in hyper-immunity, leading to autoimmune conditions.

Scientific American states:

“For years researchers assumed that this system of checks and balances was generated entirely by the immune system.  But in yet another example of how little we control our own fate, Mazmanian and others (scientists researching the relationship with bacteria and immunity) are starting to show that a healthy, mature immune system depends on the constant intervention of beneficial bacteria.”

“Alas, because of life style changes over the past century, B. fragilis, like H. pylori, is disappearing.  “What we've done as a society over a short period has completely changed our association with the microbial world,” Mazmanian says.  “In our effort to distance ourselves from disease-causing infectious agents, we have probably also changed our association with beneficial organisms.  Our intentions are good but there is a price to pay.”

Where Can I Get These Good Gut Bacteria?

Other than avoiding antibiotics, antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizers, and C-sections, my suggestion is: eat more dirt. Okay, I am not completely serious, but I am in part.  Many of these good bacteria are in the dirt and on the plants we eat – if you eat organic, that is. Sprayed, washed, and processed vegetables and fruits will not contain enough beneficial microbes to make an impact on your health. Eating raw, non-washed, organic food will help, but if you are trying to improve your health or digestion, you need to consider fermenting/culturing.  Recall that I said that I was not a big fan of probiotics.  I stated earlier that most of the good bacteria do not survive and they do not contain the numbers (in trillions) or types needed to impact the severe heath conditions that have become pandemic.  Most probiotics on the market contain at best 10-15 billion probiotic colonies per serving, however a fermented dairy product (not one destroyed by heat) or a fermented vegetable contains more than 10 trillion colonies per serving.  You would have to take the entire bottle of probiotic pills to equal that number, and even then, it doesn't contain the types of beneficial bacteria in these studies. You simply cannot get these “super microbes” in a pill or powder. Bacteroides, which I spoke of earlier, are one of the most important and most abundant bacteria in the colon and are not present in any probiotic on the market.  They simply would never survive more than a few seconds outside the gut in the presence of oxygen.  Although Bacteroides can’t be taken in a pill or powder, they can be fed from prebiotic (the food for bacteria) that occurs naturally in healthy foods.  This in turn will increase the bacteria numbers. Eating natural fermented foods supplies us with not only the trillions of good bacteria needed to impact our gut health, but so many more undiscovered bacteria that I believe could be the most miraculous of all.

Fermentation had been around for centuries before refrigeration and preservatives as a way to preserve food.  As you can see, this lost art has had an impact on human health. Most of what people were eating was cultured or fermented; therefore people were ingesting trillions of these good bacteria daily. I believe if we were still consuming fermented and cultured foods, we would not see the number of health problems like obesity, autoimmune conditions, allergies, and the epidemic of GI conditions that lead to a host of other illnesses.

Where Can I Get Cultured or Fermented Foods?

They are not difficult to make if you have a good, reliable culture to start with, however most do not, and let’s face it, most will not take the time to do it.  Truth is, even if you found the time and a good culture, what is the quality of the food you’re culturing? Take cultured dairy for example: is it truly grass fed, which means it has all the good fats and bacteria? Is it heated and pasteurized to the point that it kills all the good bacteria that naturally comes from the cow that eats the grass and dirt?  Does the dairy contain A1 Beta Casein, a denatured protein 23x more toxic than gluten?  99% of all dairy from cows has it, and it drives inflammation, especially in those who have gut issues. Starting with an inferior product leads to a product that at best gets marginal results, but often times can make you worse.

I am a firm believer in grass-fed, cultured dairy, because it is what fixed my gut.  I, like many, tried every probiotic on the market to no avail.  I even sought out a cultured goat product to avoid the allergies and inflammation typical in dairy from cows.  At that time, I didn’t realize that it was the denatured protein in the cow’s milk (A1 Beta Casein) that causes the allergies. A1 Beta Casein occurs in breeding, due to the transmutation of a gene many years ago.  Goat does not contain A1 Beta Casein and therefore does not have the same negative effect.  However, dairy from goats is hard to find, especially cultured correctly, and most people do not like the taste.

Beyond Organic is a company that has genetically bred back cows to an ancient breed that does not have the trans-mutated A1 Beta Casein gene.  Those who react to dairy can ingest the cultured products this company produces with no problems. There is nothing like these products on the market.  I use these products with almost every patient, especially those with gut-related conditions.  The product Amasai is cultured using a very ancient culture from an African tribe known as the Masai.  Even the cheese, which is not heated above the cow’s body temperature (and therefore truly raw), contains many unique beneficial bacteria strains that you will never find in a pill or powder. The cows are raised and slaughtered using biblical standards, which prevents toxic meat.  The cows are only fed grass (unlike most who say they do) but they also utilize a practice called “ultra-high-density grazing.”  This practice not only increases nutrient levels, but I believe increases the bacteria levels, due to how the cows themselves fertilize the fields. When the cows eat the grass and dirt that host so many different beneficial bacteria, many of them end up in the dairy we consume.  If the product is now cultured and not destroyed with high heat, we have a source of good bacteria that cannot be duplicated anywhere. Therefore new bacteria is created during this process, and I believe that we have yet to discover or identify many of the good bacteria in these truly naturally products, as well as other components that add to its healing effects.

You can order these products at www.beyondorganicmilk.com

The company will be offering more unique cultured products.  Currently, I use the Amasai, Sueroviv, and the cheese as the source of these incredible microbes.  They produce a product in the “Suero” line known as SueroGold, which can be used to culture raw nuts, seeds, and vegetables. See my article on intermittent fasting to learn how I use these products to support challenging health conditions.

Hormone Testing

 

HORMONE TESTING 

During coaching, we always look at toxins first. Then we look downstream to the others. My favorite is the 24 hour hormone test, which consists of the estrogen metabolism test. This to me gives the most information to the practitioner for understanding where toxins are causing the disruption. I like to surround this test with a look at the function of the other important glands. The thyroid, adrenals, and the pituitary are a must to evaluate the entire system.


Remember, just adding hormones is often like throwing gasoline on a fire. If we don’t look upstream and address what we find, it will be a neverending battle. Believe me, I know. For years I chased my thyroid, adrenal, hormonal, and pituitary issues to no avail. It wasn’t until I found my mercury problem and started to address it that I started to really get well.


Estradial testing (Serum)
– Used as a flag for elevated estrogen only. This does not give the ratio of good to bad estrogen. If this test is elevated or patient history of estrogen dominant health issues, we recommended the estrogen ratio test from Genova Labs. Note: Someone with low estrogen can still have too much bad estrogen, therefore a history must be taken.
Progesterone (Serum) – I prefer women to be on the higher side of progesterone. If patient is on the lower side of the range, supplementation is usually recommended.

Testosterone Free and Total
– This test is performed on most of my male patients because testosterone is very important for male cancers and general feeling of well being. I run this test on some females as well depending on their medical history and symptoms. IE: women with acne issues or irregular menstruation cycles. This can indicate PCOS (Poly cystic ovarian syndrome). Optimal range for total male testosterone 800-1200. Free testosterone should be above 10.
DHEA – Precursor to testosterone.

 

Standing Aldosterone – This is a great test to assess adrenal function.
Genova Labs Complete Hormones –  This is the most comprehensive urinary hormone metabolism evaluation designed to assist in the prevention and treatment of hormone-related symptoms and conditions. This provides clues about menstrual irregularities, infertility, menopause, fatigue, breast cancer, and osteoporosis. Estrogen Ratio Metabolism Test is included in this profile.

 

The Adrenal Stress Index™ (ASI™) – Was introduced by Diagnos-Techs in 1989 to evaluate stress, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. It is a simple non-invasive test utilizing four saliva samples collected at specified time periods during the day. Since the human adrenal gland does not secrete its steroid hormones at a constant level throughout the day, the Adrenal Stress Index™ (ASI™) provides the clinician with an comprehensive assessment of adrenal function throughout the daily cycle. The ASI panel consists of ten (10) saliva tests: Cortisol (x4),17-OH Progesterone, DHEA/DHEA-S, Insulin (x2), Gliadin Ab, and Secretory IgA.

 

 


Contact our office today to schedule your appointment with Dr. Pompa at (800) 833-2941

Could Your Thyroid Be Why You Are Not Feeling Well?

Could Your Thyroid Be Why You Are Not Feeling Well?



Perhaps you are one of the 13 million people in this country that go to your doctor with sudden weight gain, fatigue, hot flashes, infertility, depression, or some other unexplained symptom and ask about your thyroid.  They send you out for blood work that comes back normal.  According to the American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), there are 27 million people in this country with thyroid conditions and only half (13 million) are diagnosed.  That makes thyroid conditions the #1 under-diagnosed condition types in the United States.  Some experts estimate that more than 80% of Americans have a thyroid condition and are not diagnosed properly.  The truth is you can go 20-30 years with symptoms before your blood work is abnormal.  Finally, when it becomes abnormal, your doctor will put you on thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of your life.  Is there another answer? Read on!

WHY YOUR BLOOD WORK LOOKS NORMAL BUT YOU DO NOT FEEL WELL!

I will make this as simple as I can:  most doctors think the problem is just in the thyroid when most of the time it is not.  The reason for this is because thyroid conditions most often occur because of a problem somewhere other than the thyroid gland itself.

Thyroid hormone levels of TSH, T3, and T4 can appear normal.  I give my patients 3 reasons for this phenomenon.

1.    T4 doesn’t convert to the active hormone T3.
2.    Active T3 can’t be used in the cell because its receptors on the cell are blunted.
3.    You could potentially have an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s Disease.

Let’s start with the first reason.  T4 hormone must be converted to T3 active hormone.  If this conversion does not take place or is shunted into another direction (as in times of stress), then the message to the cell will never get through.  ONLY active T3 can be used in the cell.  T4 is the stored hormone and not active in the cell and therefore, must be converted to T3.  The hormone most doctors give as a replacement hormone once they realize you do in fact have a thyroid problem is T4. Therefore, if you are not making the conversion…well, you get the picture.  Your blood work will look normal and you still don't feel well.

The conversion takes place in the liver.  If your liver is stressed, for instance by toxic overload, then the conversion may not take place.  Has your doctor ever considered your liver in your thyroid program?  The point I am trying to make is that your blood work will look normal because the pituitary gland in your brain is signaled of all the T4 in your system and tells the thyroid that all is well.  Your blood work is normal, but you are not.  Your weight keeps increasing and your energy keeps decreasing, but your doctor keeps insisting you are fine.  Once again…

EVEN THOSE WHO ARE DIAGNOSED AND TAKING A REPLACEMENT HORMONE….

…such as Thyroxin or Synthroid (which are both T4) must make the conversion to T3, and if this is not successful your blood work will look fine but you will still have symptoms.

What I believe to be the greatest reason for T4 not converting to T3 active hormone is stress.  The body doesn’t know the difference between physical, chemical, or emotional stress.  The physiology is all the same in how your body adapts to any of these stressors.  Under times of stress, the body conserves energy to survive.  Survival is ALWAYS the body’s first and most basic priority.  It will stop you flat and lay you on your back, leaving you completely energy depleted in order to survive if that is what is required.  Think of the last time you had the flu.  The flu is a short-term stress that requires a significant amount of your body’s energy to heal from.  You were laid up by your body’s own innate intelligence in order to adapt to the temporary stress.  During this time your body takes T4 hormone and converts it into something called reverse T3 (rT3).  Instead of converting it into T3, it makes the mirror image of it called rT3.   rT3’s role in times of stress is to bind to the T3 receptor on the cell and block the T3 from getting its message to the cell for energy.  This, in turn, conserves the energy so that it can be used to fight the infection.  The problem occurs when the stress becomes chronic rather than acute, for example a long-term emotional stress like the death of a loved one or a stressful relationship.  A toxic chemical stress can cause the same reaction.  Regardless of the stress, the body will continue in this energy-robbing/life-saving mode.   Instead of producing active T3, it will continue to shunt the T4 to produce rT3 blocking your own T3 hormone.  This is what we call rT3 dominance.  Even after the stress is removed, the body can remain in rT3 dominance where once again, the blood work appears normal but you feel anything but.  Has your doctor looked at the ratio of Free T3 to rT3?  Similar to cholesterol, this is more important than the normal ranges themselves.  Has he or she considered your ADRENAL GLANDS and your ability or inability to adapt to stress?

The second reason and perhaps the most common reason for your blood work being normal but still not feeling well:

Active T3 cannot be used in the cell because the receptors to the T3 on the cell are blunted.  An important point that I teach is that hormone problems are not necessarily problems with hormones themselves, but rather the receptor to the hormone.  Similar to Type II Diabetes, where the diabetic has plenty of insulin but the receptors to the insulin are blunted and unable to “hear” the message in order to allow the glucose in the cell, and therefore the glucose cannot get into the cell to produce energy.  That condition is referred to as insulin resistance (meaning the cell is “resistant” to the hormone insulin).  T3 resistance works the same way.  It is like having plenty of gasoline but not being able to get it into your car.  Your cells are literally starving for T3, however, due to the feedback mechanism, the pituitary gland in the brain gets a message that there is adequate T3 and signals the thyroid that everything is ok and therefore your blood work will be normal.  As previously stated, it typically takes years before the innate intelligence will start to produce more TSH to produce more T4 and T3 in an effort to increase cellular energy.

Most doctors simply address the thyroid without an understanding of the distant cell’s ability to receive the message.  Hormone resistance is a massive epidemic driven by cellular inflammation.  The fact that hypothyroidism, as well as diabetes and other hormonal conditions, is approaching unprecedented numbers in this country is evidence that we are not understanding what the true cause is.

If your doctor is not addressing the 3 main causes of cellular inflammation, and therefore hormone resistance, you will spend the rest of your life on medication and chasing symptoms.

Finally, the 3rd reason is that the problem could potentially be you are suffering with Hashimoto’s, which is an autoimmune condition where the body is attacking itself.  It is estimated that 80% of thyroid conditions are autoimmune related.  Most of these conditions also go undiagnosed, because most doctors do not run the correct blood work to check for autoimmune hypothyroid.  You may be asking yourself why that is. The answer is very simple:  their treatment is the same, whether you are hypothyroid or autoimmune hypothyroid.  Therefore, since the treatment is the same in either case, there is no need to run the blood work.  The fact is most doctors give T4 replacement hormone, which does very little if anything, for the autoimmune type of hypothyroid.  The success of treatment will be deceiving because the T4 hormone will make your blood work appear normal.  The replacement hormone T4 will push your TSH levels to normal.  As a matter a fact, TSH levels are the gauge that doctors use to tell you that you should be feeling better. TSH is considered the “gold standard” for thyroid testing.  The truth is there is not one study that shows that normal TSH levels have ANYTHING to do with normal thyroid function.  Before 1971, we treated the patient; today, sadly, we treat the lab results.

How many people are being treated for thyroid conditions with replacement hormones and yet still suffering with a multitude of unexplainable symptoms?  Unfortunately, this is true for so many because the doctor points to their “normal” blood work, and therefore the “success” of the medication.  Of course there is a time and a place for medication, especially if you are one of those who does not have a thyroid.  If you are a person who cannot convert T4 to T3 (the majority of replacement hormone is T4), and would therefore not be converting it to T3 and receiving its benefit, OR if your cells can’t “hear” the hormone (hormone resistance), taking the medication and still having symptoms will be the obvious outcome.  By no means am I suggesting anyone come off of their medication.  That is between you and your doctor.  I am, however, pleading with you to do your homework.  The truth is out there and when you see it, you will be angry that more don't understand.

FOOD INTOLERANCES can drive inflammation and therefore, your own immune system to attack itself (autoimmune).  A massive number of people in this country, enough to constitute an epidemic, have gastrointestinal issues from IBS, Crohn’s, Celiac, and leaky gut, which allow foreign proteins to cross through the gut and cause the immune system to start the attack.  Hashimoto’s can be the downstream result of this preventable condition.  Has your doctor considered your gastrointestinal system as the cause of your thyroid problem?

If you remove the cause, the body can heal.  No doctor can ever provide a treatment that heals; they can only remove the interference.  The proper tests must be done for success.

It is always my goal to enlighten as many people who will listen to this truth.

Copyright 2012 Revelation Health LLC                                                                                        www.drpompa.com

Cellular Healing Diet – Lin-Z’s Snickerdoodles

  • ½ cup of butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup Xylitol
  • ¼ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • 1 ¼ cups garbanzo bean flour
  • ¼ cup coconut flour
  • 2 tbsp. xylitol
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add 2/3 cups xylitol and baking soda. Beat until combined while scraping sides of bowl. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined then beat in flour.

Spoon mixture onto cookie sheet (about a tablespoon size balls). Combine left over xylitol and cinnamon and sprinkle on each cookie. Bake at 375®F for about 10 minutes or until they begin to turn brown.