Alternative Liver Cancer Treatment

>>> on "health matters", television for life, the growing popularity of complementary and alternative medicine. >> this was my last resort. >> a college student finds relief from chronic pain in a whole new way. >> it's insane being able to go

through the day and not have my back hurt anymore. >> see the therapy that got her up and running again and how non-traditional approaches are working side by side with standard medical care. right now on "health matters." ♪

>> "health matters" is made possible by viewers like you, the friends of ksps. and by the following: >> as the saying goes, children aren't just short adults. they have special needs. i'm dr. judy felganhower. i chose providence because they

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i'm dr. steven nisco, and i choose providence because providence is fully invested in my success, and in the success of my patients. >> washington state university spokane, studying the feasibility of a medical school on the wsu spokane health

sciences campus. more at medicine.wsu.edu. >> good evening and welcome to "health matters" here on ksps. i'm your host teresa lukens. we are a nation in search of what is new and different. the same is true when it comes to treating what ails us.

enter the growing popularity of complementary and alternative medicine. so tonight we are going to go beyond the typical doctor's visit in search of alternative cures, from age old practices to cutting-edge therapies. plus, the role faith has in

healing. here tonight, a distinguished panel ready to answer your questions. dr. monica german is board certified in both pediatrics and in integrative and holistic she works at medicine naturally. pamela langenderfer is a doctor

of naturopathic medicine. she works at lakeside holistic health. jane mather is the director of the providence center for faith and healing. i want to welcome all of you tonight. this is a wonderful topic and

one i have been excited to explore for sometime. i would like to go around the panel and just talk about what you do at your practices and sort of how it fits in tonight's topic. dr. langenderfer. >> i'm a naturpathic physician.

i have a focus on women's health and do a lot with hormone therapy, fertility and different issues that arise at different times in life for women. >> so what is your training and background? >> i did my doctorate of natropathic medicine at the

natural college of natural met sin in portland oregon, and i received my master's there as well. >> and dr. german? >> i'm a medical doctor and board certified in pediatric and adults. >> we will get more into that in

just a moment. >> and jane, talk about what goes on at the center for health and well being. it was formerly the center for faith and well being. so the faith piece comes in. we do a lot of planning for helping patients, families,

practitioners of medicine, nurses, and the community at large understand the intersection between what we believe and how we heal. >> and how the body and mind come together to make that happen? >> mind, body and spirit work

together, you can't impact one without impacting the other. and so our part is to help boost -- because there's a lot more attention to mind and body in our culture. our hope is to help understand how to support the spirit as well in the healing process.

>> so you have a lot of education classes and things like that going on? >> we do. we had more at one time and we will have lots more going forward. >> okay. we can talk more about that

also. also tonight we do welcome your phone calls and your emails. this is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of this distinguished panel as we mentioned here in our studio tonight on alternative and complimentary medicine.

i think one of the things dr. langenderfer that i'm interested in, the natropathic >> naturopathic we have used natural medicines to do, that such as herbs and homeopathic holistic medicine is a part of naturopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine is part of

holistic medicine. they go hand in hand. >> do people often get confused about that, dr. german? >> they do. i think a lot of people don't understand what functional medicine is. i'm very excited to have the

opportunity to be trained in functional medicine. i think it's the medicine of the future that's available right now. it seeks to understand and address the root cause of disease and also looks at the system, at the body as an

integrated system. it doesn't treat just one part of the body. it treated the whole body, looking again at the interaction between body, mind and spirit. >> as a medical doctor, how was it you got into this field and added this on to your practice

and the interest to this type of healing came about? how did that happen? >> a few years ago, my son had a recurrent sinus infection, recurrent ear infections. he was very picky. he wasn't eating right, and i realized that i wasn't able to

help him. we did the antibiotics. he was getting better but then he was getting worse again after three or four weeks. so we went into this pattern of infection, antibiotic, improving and getting worse. and then i realized i had to

look into a different modality, and i was very happy to be able to find functional medicine and homeopathy. he was in the hospital when he was 3 years old for asthma. he's now 10 years old. he's not on any medication. we worked with his diet and

herbal supplements and homeopathy and he's been thriving since then. >> that's so interesting. and what type of patients do you see? obviously when you see children, probably a lot of food allergies come into play and asthma,

things like that. is that typically what you are seeing children for? >> children have a variety of problems. a lot of times it starts with digestive issues. i see colic when they are littling and constipation and

reflux and then exschema, sinus infections and as they get older, abdominal pain. a lot of kids have what is called chronic or functional abdominal pain. there's no clear medical reason for their pain, but they are still suffering.

functional medicine can offer a lot of help to these kids. >> and typically, what are your patients then coming in for? are they sort of at their wits end by the time they see you? >> yes. that happens to me quite a bit. a lot of times i'm somebody's

last resort and they have sort of been through the gamut and they are not sure where else to turn. and then they -- and they come and seek me out looking for a different perspective. and i have a wide variety of patients and all ages come in.

and a lot of times, as dr. german was talking, about just looking at diet is really the foundation for a lot -- i think what i do, and just with natural medicine in general. and what i try to do is get people to look at food in this whole different way, that this

is your medicine, and you have to think of it as your medicine. so every time you -- whatever you choose to eat, you have to think about how that is to go impact your body. >> what kind of transformations have you seen typically when it comes to changing people's

diets? >> huge transformations. and one thing i try to emphasize to patients is that, you know, i can give you all the supplements in the world, but if you don't change your diet, i will only get you 50% better. and that really has to be the

foundation. we have to build that strong foundation and go from there. and sometimes simple diet changes is all they need. sometimes it's more than that, and we have to add other things in. >> and jane, that can also bring

in then behavior, changing behaviors, how we think about not only food, but the way we are living our lives and that's where this center can come in. >> absolutely. i think in traditional medicine, more than in holistic and naturopathic medicine, we

focused more on waiting until people are sick to treat them. i like the idea of being able to go out and teach, what does it mean to you to be healthy? because for different people, that has a different feel to it. it has a different sound to it. and we haven't taught or trained

our nation to think about what it means to be healthy in a holistic way. diet and exercise are certainly high on everyone's list, but not always practiced, especially if they know that they should do better. so changing the behavior and the

mind-set, changing the motivation for people is also important. you know, you talked about being kind of last resort. i think -- i'm trained as a certified chaplain. i think we are the last resort. [ laughter ]

>> that could be the case. >> people don't call us until they have exhausted every other possibility, but we like to be able to say, what are you doing to make your -- to have a healthy spirit before you are sick? how do you keep your spirit

healthy? how do you keep your attitude how do you make healthy choices for lifestyle? so that's part of what we hope to accomplish. >> and some of that can mean your faith. >> it can mean meditation or

yoga or any other form of exercise, is that correct? most people know who are heavy into exercise, that you hit a certain rhythm, and the endorphins -- and your whole being changes because of it. and could we do that in other ways.

nurses are busy at the bedside. they can't go out running even between -- on their 15-minute break, they can't come back all sweaty. so how do we help find that relief, that sense of calm and peace on the job? >> mm-hmm.

in the few moments we may have to do that. >> or in the midst of the crisis, because that may be the most important time to find peace. so we're looking at ways of bringing that to the staff, to the public, mindfulness is huge.

big reviews in "time" magazine recently and the harvard business review. mindfulness is one of those ways and it's a spiritual practice. so can we teach people to enjoy and use that practice for their well being? absolutely.

and it isn't expensive. it doesn't even need a prescription, although i wish all doctors would write a prescription for people to be mindful. >> that would be excellent. we already have some calls, ladies.

richard from clarkston, washington. good evening, richard. >> caller: good evening. i'm a retired ophthalmologist and also board certified, and i'm not seeing patients now. i'm glad that this type of program is on the air and people

talking about it and just bringing this to people's awareness. it's a great program and i'm glad you are putting it open. >> thank you very much. did you want to ask the panel a question this evening? >> caller: no.

i just want to thank you for putting it on. >> well, we sure appreciate that. thank you so much, richard. and, you know, an excellent point. we are talking about it. it's coming more into play, the

internet and social media has probably played a role in us learning more about holistic medicine and natural methods. you also do acupuncture, chinese method. talk about how you treat patients with acupuncture because it was my understanding

that people seek out an acupuncturist for pain but that's not necessarily the case. >> right. when people hear the word accure puncture, they do traditionally think about only for back pain or chronic pain issues. actually it's used for lots of

different things. you can use it for hormonal problems and i actually use it quite a bit for fertility issues, digestive issues, post traumatic stress. and one of the things that's been really great to see is that the military has started to

implement acupuncturists as well to help with the chronic pain and the post traumatic stress issues. so we are seeing it become more and more and more available to people. and as people become more aware of it, then they start to

understand how acupuncture is really just another modality that can help many different things. >> how does it work? >> that is the question i think that everyone always wants to know, exactly how does it work? and i think one of the great

things now that we have modern medicine, we are able to see through m.r.i. machines that when you stimulate different points, different parts of the brain become more active, different hormones get released. and now we have a measurable way to see that there is something

happening in the body when people do receive acupuncture. >> it's so interesting. i'm fascinated by it. it's thousands of years old. >> it's a practice that goes back -- you practice the chinese it goes back about 4,000 years and it has been used for a long

time and i always think -- something has to be working if it stayed around that long a time, because i can't imagine that people would continue to do that, you know, if it they weren't seeing any benefit from it. dr. german, you are a huge

proponent to using food and vitamins. we got into a discussion about vitamin d and its importance. i would like you to talk more about that. >> i think the deficiency in vitamin d because we live so much north.

vitamin d is a simple measure and it prevents a variety of problems, asthma in children. there have been studies that show that they are more at risk for asthma, if their vitamin d is low. it boosts the immune system. it prevents depression or helps

for depression, chronic fatigue and prevents different types of cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer. it could be also involved in multiple sclerosis. i will think we all should have some vitamin d? >> how much do we take?

there's a lot of discussion about that and especially for children. >> it depends. i think it depends on the age. it is very common that infants, especially if they are breast fed should have 100 units, international units.

i think adults should have at least 2,000 units if not 5,000 units. you can check the vitamin d level and make sure you are not doing too much. depending how much you are in the sun. but if you are using sunscreen,

you are not going to make enough vitamin d. >> so getting a blood test might be a good idea? yes. >> start it and then collect your blood tests. >> what are the risks if i do take too much.

>> it's not so easily excreted by the body. if you take too much, a level above 150 is considered toxic. like to see a vitamin d level around -- between 14 and 60 and in conventional medicine, 13 milligrams is considered normal.

there's a big from 14 to 60 to 150. it's very difficult to achieve that toxicity. >> we have an email that we want to address and dr. langenderfer, i think is probably going towards you. >> absolutely!

i think acupuncture excels at arthritis and chronic pain conditions. that's why people associate it so much for pape. >> that's something that bob should seek out and get more information about. another phone call on the show.

leon from spokane valley. good evening. >> caller: hello, i have two first, the vitamin d you talked about. what is a normal level? if your vitamin d was 37, and the toxic level is 150, where should it be?

the omega 3s, i got one, and i started taking it and i got to feeling bad. i broke one of them opened and i tasted it and it was rancid. on pills that are oil, should we open them up and make sure they are not rancid, even though they are not out dated because that

really scared me. and as soon as i quit taking it, i felt better but i believe i was poisoning myself from it. the other thing i wanted to ask, if anybody has had any experience with carbon monoxide poisoning and how to detox from my level was 337 parts per

million in my home for almost a year before it was discovered. and so i was toxic for about two and a half years but i wondered if there was anything that you should be taking to detox from carbon monoxide. and so anyhow and then the other thing i was going to ask on

elderly people, how much vitamin d, 5,000 a day is that what i heard her say? >> all right, we will try to get to all of those. thanks for your call tonight. let's start with the vitamin d issue again. >> with the, vitamin d, we like

the level between 40 and 60. so your level of 37 is pretty close. the other question regarding the omega 3s, a lot of the supplements that we take need to be good quality. omega 3 is one that it's very important to have a good brand.

you want to make sure that it's medically certified. a lot of good components have a third party to check the quality of their supplements. this is a site called consumer labs that checks for quality of supplements. the omega 3, it's good to spend

the money and get the good brand like nordic naturals, carsons. there are a lot of companies. >> and look for the consumer label. >> the third party so there is a third party that usually checks for quality. >> and are either of you

familiar how to detox the body with the carbon monoxide poisoning, what a method might be? >> i think of general liver support and use herbs that help the liver with detoxification. that would be one of my first thoughts with that?

>> is that something she should ea holistic doctor or had naturepath to know watt levels under her body? >> i think the levels but also work with a doctor who does natural medicine. when you detox the body, there's a right way to do it and wrong

way to do it. if you go too fast, the person can get much more sick than what they were to start with. and so if you are working with a practitioner that has experience with this, they would be able to help you guide through that, and that way you are not making

yourself more sick in the process. >> another phone call coming. in tom from spokane. >> good evening. >> i was wondering if an individual has had long-term depression -- i had a heart attack.

it got worse. what can one do for that through the holistic medicine? i'm from portland, oregon, and i have tried it in the past and i have had marginal success. >> did you have depression before your heart attack? >> yes, i did but it was low

grade and they were able to treat it with a pill. i have medication given to me for the heart attack and then it became quite acute for about four years until i went back and they did something about it and took me off the medications. well, dr. langenderfer, are you

familiar with how depression can be treated with natural medicine? >> there's a variety of methods for treating depression. i think the key is trying to figure out why the person has depression to begin with and trying to figure out what the

root cause is. sometimes going back to diet. diet can make a huge difference with depression and how somebody feels. the gut is looked at, as like a second brain. if you have a lot of inflammation happening in there,

it will be causing that in your body in general. and so i kind of start with the diet with people and do some other lab testing to try to figure out and pinpoint where some other issues may be. >> jane, i would like your comments, because i think it

comes into play? >> yes, scripps down in california, their cardiology department prescribes mindfulness for all of their cardiac patients. >> because this is not uncommon. >> it's not uncommon. and mindfulness gives a person

some tools to be more aware of their only thought processes and depression isn't something that is totally out of the reach of self-care. there's a lot that can be done if the right methods are taught for helping to be more refreshed, more positive, be

mindful of the -- of the beauty of nature around you and of your own body and mindful of what is happening in your body, when the depressive thoughts intrude. >> and recognizing them. >> and recognizing those and having the tools then to work with yourself and know when to

get help i don't know the mindfulness. so it's actually a precipitation that the doctors write and insist that their patients use. we are looking at having some of it -- some mindfulness exercises on closed circuit tv for our >> that's an excellent idea.

>> i would like to add that the cardiologist at scripps, she was to put a lot of stents in past, but now she uses hot mass which is neuro biofeedback which teaches you mindfulness and gets you into the practice of doing it every day. >> are you finding that we are

getting back to some of these older practices and looking at food and vitamins and how the mind works and faith, rather than just prescribing a pill? is this sort of coming full circle? i really think it is because people want to fix things.

they want to figure out the why and not just simply mask it. >> don't give me a pill and call me good? >> a lot of people are exploring these options and we have plenty of phone calls and emails this evening. let's go it kerry in grand

cooley. good evening, carol. >> caller: i have a question about dietary for ulcerative colitis. i was wondering if there's any recommendation for diet to reduce stress. >> dr. german?

>> so for ulcerative colitis, it's an autoimmune disease and we do an immunization, and i would recommend gluten-free and dairy-free. you can have good results using functional medicine protocol and also adding probiotics. show that the cell 3, which is

the high potency probiotics. of course, stress is very the mind and the body is related. and the brain and the gut are related in both ways. if we are in a stress state, we are in the flight and fight response.

that's when we have difficulty digesting right. so the stress needs to be addressed. it's an important part of the treatment. >> and we have an email from george. first of all, explain what this

is, and if either of you know what george is talking about. >> i know that there are different devices used. this is one here in spokane that has been quite popular. it's called beamer. it comes from germany or switzerland, and it stimulates

the -- the idea is that it stimulates the circulation and the microcirculation. if you have more blood flow to the issues, you will supply more oxygen and you will be able to help heal and fight inflammation and stress which are the seeds of disease.

>> it has already made its way to north america, just seeking it out and finding more information. >> excellent. >> dr. langenderfer, i want to talk about a practice that we have been hearing more about among the celebrity population.

and that's cupping. explain what that is and we have often seen some of the celebrities with these marks on their back. >> and it's becoming more popular. what does it do. >> so cupping is used quite a

bit, actually for pain, but you can use it for other things like asthma or somebody has the cold or flu, it can help the body with detoxification but essentially what we are doing is we are putting some glass cups on the back and it creates a suction and by creating that

suction, it's helping to increase circulation into that area. and usually what i see is that the more tension there is in an area, the darker the marks are, which essentially can look sometimes pretty black and blue or it looks like a hickey on the

back. and then it goes away, usually within a few days or a week. and the more often the person has cupping done, they will get to the point where they won't have hardly any marks from it at all because we will get that circulation moved throughout the

body. >> does it work then sort of similar to how acupuncture works, finding those areas? >> i would say it's a little different than acupuncture, because we are not necessarily always going over an acupuncture point, we are going over areas

where there might be muscle tension and pain. and if i were to use it over an area that was an acupuncture point, maybe if someone was having an asthma issue, there are some points on the back specifically on that, that you can put the cups over to help

with that as well. >> so that's how you know where to place the cups. and how long do i have the cups on? >> if somebody is doing it for the first time, i don't leave them on very long, maybe a couple of minutes.

if they had it done a couple of times, i might leave it on for 10 or 15 minutes. if someone has a lot of pain and tension in the area, they can have a lot of pain from the cupping. so you have to ease them into it can make a huge impact for

pain issues. >> generally how many treatments does it take to get to the point where you are not suffering anymore? >> well, when i do cupping, i do it in conjunction with acupuncture and it depends on what the person has happening.

if it's an acute situation or they just hurt themselves maybe after four or five treatments, this won't be any pain left, but if they have been having something going on for years and years, it will take quite a few treatments to help with that. >> all right.

we have another phone call from valerie in joseph, oregon. good evening, valerie. >> caller: well, good evening to you. >> thank you for calling. what's your question? >> caller: well, i have two subjects, the first one which

has to do with the accessibility, financially, for low-income people who are on medicare and medicaid, which they do not recognize that we need improvements over the years, haven't we? the value of seeing a naturopathic practitioner, and

the reason is for me to be so frustrated is i have hypertension and blood pressure 240 over something. and i am not willing to risk the side effects of the conventional blood pressure medication and i'm currently on zero medication at all.

so i want to understand if there's any information that you can impart, what does the person do to lower their own blood pressure and i'm thinking hisup. and i know walking and diet and positive attitude. i got those. what would you say?

>> all right, valerie. thank you so much for your cal and valerie is -- for your call. and valerie is certainly not alone. we have a nation of high blood pressure issues. she's taking the proactive approach to not be treated with

standard drugs. what can they do? >> so for high blood pressure, there are some things that you can start with herbally that can have a big impact, one of them being hawthorn. and hawthorn is a great herb. it was traditionally used and

made jam out of it. so it's a very safe herb and it has been used for a very long time. and one of the other things i like to start with too is magnesium. most people are deficient in magnesium and magnesium can help

with so many different things that you can -- i will have people use it to help with sleep. you can use it for high blood pressure. you can use it to help the hormones. so it has a lot of positivism

pact on the body. >> she also expressed some frustration with medicare and medicaid, she's having difficulty finding care being low income but this is becoming better, but we are not quite there yet. >> part of that depends what

state you are in and some of the laws are a little bit different and some -- and, for example, in the state of washington, they are starting to recognize naturpathics, the medicaid is. it's very new, so they don't have a lot of providers yet participating in it.

so that's something that you will see change. and i'm -- i know that they are looking at medicaid as well. i think the drive is going to be people wanting this type of >> mm-hmm and she should talk to the practitioner, and this he may work with her on a budget or

a plan. we have rita with an email this and dr. langenderfer, you treat a lot of women. is this something you see? >> yes, i see this actually quite a bit and quite often. a do a lot of bioidentical hormone therapy and so for a lot

of women, i will use a bioidentical hormone to help with that. and sometimes just doing some simple things like increasing. increasingflax oil in the diet as well. it depends on the severity of it, but there's a variety of

ways to improve that. >> and another phone call, we are getting right to them holly from callville. good evening, holly. do any of your panelists have ideas for nerve pain. i will be watching for their responses.

>> thank you, holly, very much for your question. dr. german? >> again, of the question is where the naturopathic coming from? >> this is something. you like to start with the source of the problem.

>> which makes perfect sense. >> so in general, we do a very thorough evaluation, and figure out any other problems, nutritional deficiencies, if gluten has been associated with nerve pain. homeopathiccally, there's hypericum that has been used

four neuro pain. you can try it. it's not going to help. it has to be a thorough evaluation and i would start also with a gluten-free diet for a few months and see if that would help. >> that could be a contributor.

>> it has been associated with the degeneration. >> jane, talk about the palio care. it's sim harr to hospice care? >> well, hmm. it's similar but not the same. palative care can be used in conjunction with traditional

medicine and people would don't have a life-threatening illness. it's treating the symptoms. so in many ways, what you do would be considered palative scare in some ways. it doesn't try to curve, necessarily. the intention is not to cure an

illness but to treat the symptoms and relieve the suffering. palliative care is done conjunction with mind, body, spirit. and it's extremely relational. so a team of people work with the patient and the family

system. typically the stress is from families pulling in different directions. so getting everybody to work together in the family, finding what are the goals of care, and determining what is in the patient's best interest, what

will relief suffering most and you know for some people, it's being treated traditionally until a person dies and for others, it's going on hospice and for people with chronic illnesses, it's often finding ways to just relief the chronic suffering and the debillity that

goes along with chronic >> would it be a series of visits or simply an ongoing process? >> it's an ongoing process. it may -- it depends on the situation. palliative care would hike to move upstream of acute care but

unfortunately, like chaplains, we come in at the end often. so palliative care is often a step in acute practices that palliative care service comes in at -- when traditional medicine determines that they don't have a cure or there is no further cure than palliative care comes

in and what's interesting is that once you make people peaceful and you find out what's underneath their distress, they live longer. >> again, getting to the core of the problem. >> and frequently, all of the things we have talked about

often have a -- an existential or a spiritual or an emotional undercurrent as well. so finding what those are and dealing with those is frequently very freeing for people. so we would like to do it with >> work in conjunction. >> because we don't have neat

little boxes inside of us that says this is my mind box and this is my body box. >> it all works together. >> and this is my spirit box. let's talk to sharon from stony plain, alberta. >> caller: hi. >> what's your question?

>> caller: thanks for taking my call. i have tinnitis as a result of a fall. there are times it's tolerable and there's other times when it's excruciating. i wonder if there's anything to do it naturopathic and i

sometimes wonder if it isn't weather related. >> do you find it triggering at certain times? >> yeah, i do. but it's not consistent. >> i think that if she -- she had mentioned that there was a so if there's some damage that

has been done to the ear, that's where i think about things like acupuncture and herbal medicine trying to help to restore that. if it's been going on for a long period of time, it may take longer to see the results. the longer something has been happening, and you have a

disease, it won't go away necessarily overnight. so it may be doing different treatments like that and being consistent with it for a period of time. >> so probably not something that could be treated with food or herbs or something like that

because it's more of a chronic pain issue? >> well, it sounded to me that it might have been an injury issue. so i'm not sure if it's necessarily diet, because it sounds like an injury that happened.

>> diet, there is an article published by dr. amen about healing brain injury and he has been using -- talking about diet and live style. so that's definitely going to help. there might be some additional treatments necessary.

>> we want to talk a little bit about a chiropractic method. physical therapy, of course, and chiropractic care has been around for many, many years if not hundreds, thousands of years massage also comes into play. but new to the mix is something called a.r.t.

it's called -- it's active release techniques. to say that a.r.t. is a little of all three doesn't really do it justice. so we spent some time with someone would has used this to find out more about chronic pain.

>> tierney bagley is an active college student, but until recently a jog around campus was painful. >> i was in pain all the time, and i could only do certain things without my back just completely, like, tightening up on me and hurting

really bad. >> two and a half years ago, tierney was in a car wreck that fractured bones in her back. she tried all kinds of things to stop the pain, but nothing brought the relief she was looking for. active release was a last

resort. >> it was kind of one more thing, but was also a last hope >> it worked. >> i barely feel it anymore. >> tierney says a.r.t. made all the difference. and she credits chris gradoville

at spokane chiropractic and sports injury clinic for putting an end to the pain. >> it used to be the first thing like when i would get out of bed it would hurt to get out of bed, and now i can go all day without thinking about my back hurting. >> active release therapies work

to restore range of motion and release trapped nerves. >> the muscle releases, and, yes, the pain will go away immediately. >> a.r.t. got its start with athletes, but chris has all kinds of clients. >> i see all ages and types of

patients. anywhere from ages -- i think my youngest is 10 to 85 right now. >> some have injuries from sports, others from accidents. most find chris after other options have failed. >> since it is fairly new. they go to everything they've

heard of first. >> sessions are short. most run 15 to 20 minutes. they're targeted and they do hurt. >> it comes with a little bit of pain as well because you're disrupting the tissue. >> a little pain for a whole lot

of gain. >> it is insane being able to go through the day and not having my back hurt anymore. >> now, we do not have an expert on the panel to address exactly what this. is. dr. german has had this

we saw the practice on the young woman and he mentions it is >> it is painful, from my understanding it works on the fascia. fascia is the tissue that covers the muscles and a lot of time if there is a scar in the fascia due to a trauma or over use,

this technique stimulates the blood flow to that scar and helps resolve the scar. >> so they really have to move things around. >> but it is painful, yes. >> may i ask what you were treated for? >> leg pain.

>> and did you find relief after going through the treatment? >> it's very interesting and another alternative practice that we wanted to explore this let's go to the phones with jeannette from moose jaw. good evening, jeannette. >> i had there.

>> hi. >> caller: there was a lody who would -- lady who was talking about high blood pressure and you suggested hawthorn or now i have been on something for six years. how much would you recommend of the hawthorn or the magnesium or

do i have to see my own physician about that? >> i would see your physician about that, because depending how high your blood pressure, is you don't necessarily just want to stop taking that and take the other, or vice versa, you don't necessarily want to add those

things in with the medication because it pay drop it too fast. and that can certainly happen and people would feel dizzy, light headed if their blood pressure drops too low. you want to be working with somebody before you do that. very good.

and another email this evening to address. >> i think it is. i would do more than gluten-free. i would suggest an elimination diet for at least a month. eliminating gluten and dairy and also looking into adding

probiotics and omega 3s. >> and elimination diets have become quite popular also, to determine different ailments and basically you start with the process of either eliminating wheat products or dairy products and if that doesn't seem to work, then do you move on to

something else? >> we have a protocol that we eliminate the 10 most allergenic foods which are dairy, gluten, also soy, corn. so there is oranges, or orange juice. and we stay off this for a month.

and after a month, we introduce one food at a time for three days and a lot of times you will see a reaction. for example, i have patients who come with pain, pain gets better, but when they introduce dairy or gluten, the pain comes so then you are able to know how

your body reacts to these food and save some money and also the food allergy testing can be very -- it's not all the time reliable. i know a lot of patients would like food allergies but i think the elimination diet is much better than that.

>> another phone call. marion in spokane valley, good evening, marion. >> caller: i just have a question. you had a lady call in about her hearing or the tinnitus in her ears. i was curious on vitamin a.

i know an elderly lady that she started taking vitamin a and she would hear the whooshing sound and it just drove her crazy and the vitamin a seemed to relief that and so she doesn't have -- i mean, she wouldn't complain about it as much. so i'm curious on what their

take is on vitamin a and i will listen you to off the phone. thank you so much, marion. >> vitamin a. >> vitamin a, actually is a strong antiviral. you can use it acutely for people when they start to get sick, and my guess would be that

there might be some type of viral component to what was triggering her condition, and that's why she's fining it helpful and it's a great immune booster. >> a lot of people go on the internet and research these topics and look into things and

we have often talked on this program about how the internet can be our friend and our foe. >> do you have some suggested sites that if people want to learn more about using vitamins and using herbs and food to better treat their bodies or do you suggest they simply see a

practitioner? >> i think seeing a practitioner is the best because you can modify it specifically for what that person has going on. and you are going to get large reference ranges over the internet, but it may not necessarily apply to that

person. and sometimes like vitamin a is a really good example, you may find some of the treatments for it, for a viral condition to be very high dosages, maybe even in the hundred thousands where if you go above 25, it can be toxic.

and so, you can use these high dosages acutely, but you definitely would not take on something like that long term. and so you want to be working with someone that understands that you only do that for a short period of time. >> and to look at this, as if we

are looking at, you know, any kind of drugs or supplements we are putting too our body. we need that expert advice. >> yes, and there have been cases of vitamin a toxicity that can create edema. so all of these measures, all of these natural supplements, they

act in the body -- they change our biochemistry. so they all have to be done in a certain way, at a certain time, and individual as to the patient. the medicine that we practice is patient centered. it's individualized.

it's not disease centered. so we don't look so much at the disease, but the patient and the individual. >> okay, joe from coeur d'alene with a phone call. >> you have a question for the panel? >> caller: yes, i have been

diagnosed with vertigo, actually benign pa ram mall vertigo. for about a month i have been dizzy and knottiated. -- nauseated. i wonder if they have any recommendations for being vertigo and being dizzy off and on.

>> thank you, jo. >> one of the things i think about is inflammation and inflammation is being a trigger for that, and then acupuncture, actually, can be a really great treatment modality for, that especially since it's just current onset and can provide

quite a bit of relief for >> because it can be quite debilitating. >> it can absolutely be so as we talk more about these methods and, of course, i'm fascinated by the topic. not using the internet as the sole source, how do i take that

first step? do i just call? or do i need a recommendation from my primary? or do i just com you to seek help? >> yes, you can. you can do that. you can.

you can pick up the phone and call, absolutely. >> and are people still hesitant to do that? >> i would say not as much. definitely, i would say, you know, when i first got into practice, 10, 12 years ago, things were still new and people

not sure about what, you know, naturopathic medicine is or acupuncture, but there has been so much change and so much good change and just more information out there with just tv, the functional medicine piece of it, and people becoming more and more aware of, that it's almost

becoming second nature, and it's been just great to see that. >> are there still misconceptions about what you do? >> i think it's very hard to understand how powerful this i didn't understand initially. i was very interested when i was

in training but then when i saw the results, it's amazing. of course, everybody has their own journey and there is a physician who comes to the functional medicine conferences dr. terry waltz. she has a story minding my mitochondria.

she had multiple sclerosis, and she was in a weal chair and she started changing her diet. she was able to bike. she's working with n.i.h., funding a clinical trial. so multiple sclerosis can be healed with diet. disease can be reversed.

>> so interesting. dave with a phone call this evening from spokane. hi, dave. >> you have a question. >> caller: they talk about the you have a program coming on on 7.2, at 8:00, and it's about the magnetic field around the earth.

and the reason i brought this up is because there's -- there was a question earlier from the woman with tinnitus about the weather and issues like that and it does affect the body very much. there's a new field now, hyperbarics and it's coming on

strong. i would like your guests to address that and then too, there's more thinking now that the body illness is based pretty much on inflammation in the body and addressing the inflammation. i don't know if it's an herb or a seasoning calling turmeric,

cumin, that's showing great promise in the medical field. could you address that? >> all right, dave, thank you so and let's talk about the atmosphere question, weather and just our surroundings. how much can that affect our health?

>> i think it greatly impacts our health and has a significant effect and i think he was talking maybe about the hyperbarrick oxygen chamber which i'm not an expert in, but i do have quite a few patients that have had that therapy and found it helpful.

>> and we have a center here in spokane, spokane valley here with a hyperbaric chamber. and dr. german, your comments. >> i would talk about turmeric. there is a consensus that if you have inflammation in your body, that has to be addressed and it has to be addressed again as a

whole, starting from the diet, lifestyle, supplements. turmeric is very beneficial in fighting inflammation, but i don't think just taking turmeric will be enough, but it was a lot of studies that suggested it's very beneficial. >> and how much, again, on

something like that, do you recommend? or is that something again you need to consult with an expert? >> i think it depends. you can also take it in food, if you like indian food like curries. >> does it come in pill form?

>> it does, yes. i don't know the dose by heart. again, something to consult with an expert. >> like yourselves. >> we are getting short on time. so i guess i would like some final thoughts and we touched on any number of topic of

alternative and complimentary really, let's talk about some final thoughts about what you do and what you like to see, how you would like to see people address their health issues. >> i would like -- it would be wonderful if we could all understand the impact of diet

and our lifestyle and our there has been a lot of very interesting studies demonstrating that weekend change our gene expression with foods. and -- as a pediatrician, i'm very concerned with the health of our children.

this is the first generation that has a lower expectancy life than their parents. so looking at the diet for our children, looking at the diet of pregnant mom, a woman, it's very important for our future generation. >> all right, dr. langenderfer.

>> i go with the same thing. my thought is always coming back to the diet. really my emphasis to people is eat, real, whole food. and things that aren't packaged and really getting people back to finding things locally, trying to find their meat

locally, getting grass-fed beef. it has a different nutritional makeium than corn-fed beef. so some of these simple changes can have a huge impact and getting people to understand we have been taught that beef is bad. it's not necessarily bad.

it's what we have done to our meat. so getting read good quality whole foods. >> and jane? >> and i would say ditto to all of the above, except that i think we consume more than food. and so i would encourage people

to look more holistically at how we spend, how we consume, how we eat, what we take in, and what we give out. you talked about detoxifying and i think we can detoxify emotionally, spiritually and mentally as well as physically. and i think it's important to do

them together. if you clean out the body systems, but are always angry and frustrated and unhappy, then you have only don't part of the work. so i would encourage people to think in terms of a healthy spirit as well as a healthy mind

and a healthy body. >> well, thank you so much. very good advice tonight and a great discussion. i certainly appreciate this evening's show. thank you again. and that will do it for this edition of "health matters."

our special thanks to everyone who has called in or sent their emails, text or tweets with a a big thank you to our panel for being here and sharing their expertise. i'm teresa lukens. and for all of us at kspk, good i chose providence, because they

care, just for children. spokane. setting the feasibility of a state-funded medical school on the wsu spokane health sciences campus. closed caption productions www.ccproductions.com