Imperfection

When life throws a few changes at you, sometimes it is difficult to keep up with routines that help you maintain your health.

Thus not only  are you off balance because you may not be following your maintenance program, you are off because of the stress of your life situation.  Life changes challenge us to grow, whether they are positive or negative.  The temptation would then be to beat yourself up because you are not doing what you know would be good for you.  On top of that you may feel vulnerable because of your recent growth/discomfort -- kind of uncomfortable in your skin.

Take a deep breath and be gentle with yourself.  Give yourself the time and the space to not have your life in perfect order.  Sit in the "muck" for a bit.  Feel it, learn from it.  When you are ready, you will get back in your routine.

 If you seem to stay in the "muck"  too long, reach out and get some help.  Most of us need, at the very least a sounding board, and at times we need some guidance to realize we have choices. We don't have to remain paralyzed.  Part of wellness is wholeness.  We are human beings, not mechanical machines that need just the right diet and combination of supplements and we will be "OK."

We need upside down time, crazy as a loon time, not -so-together time, "my-time", screw up time, together with people time, play time, sleep time, laughing time and crying time, and peaceful time.
TIME.

All you have is today, right now, this moment.
You are precious.
Take this moment-- for YOU.

-Patricia Ryan-Carlson, MD, CCN

Increased Use of Psychiatric Medications Fails to Treat Root Causes

There are 49,000,000 U.S. adults on psychiatric medications - 100 Omaha’s or 6 New York City’s!!

There are 8,000,000 U.S. children under the age of 17 that take psychiatric medications— 9 Omaha’s or 1 New York City!!

What happened to us?

Fact: 
Psych meds for the large majority of us should be used as a secondary and temporary helper while we get other primary help.  Implied here and in the introductory statistics – it does not TREAT it.  57 million adults and children on psychiatric medications and growing indicates non-treatment!

• A lot of medical and mental health professionals don’t know this or believe this – professional problem.
• A lot of the pharmaceutical companies do not want us to believe this – nasty problem.

Listen to their funny commercials where the talking person talks real fast about the crazy side effects like homicide, suicide, and heart attacks and they play soft auditory music and they show us warm and   relaxing visuals around water and beaches with the people holding hands, smiling, providing HOPE.  Go get informed please!

Research side effects of medications you are on or your children.

• Almost all insurance companies pay for psychiatric medications – a contributor.
• A lot of the time we are not told this by prescribing doctors and psychiatrists – professional problem.
• Sometimes the meds do so well that we just decide to keep them on full time – personal decision.
• Sometimes we seek other help and find the other helper isn’t good enough to get the root problem to go away, so we have to stay on them – professional problem.
• Sometimes we believe using the medications is less financially less costly – personal info problem.
• Sometimes there aren’t any trained support groups to treat root causes – professional problem.
• Sometimes church leaders don’t want to train group leaders – professional problem.
• Sometimes we don’t want to do the work it takes to treat the root cause – personal pride problem.
• Sometimes it costs out of our pockets too much immediately to treat the root cause – financing problem

Your life problems will not be treated with medications evidenced by increasing crazy numbers.  If they treated we would see reductions over time but we are not – 49 million adults – 100 Omahas!!!!

It is supported by your insurance which makes it seem less costly but budget it for 10 years minimum.  Small payments over time added up is not less costly.

Meds can provide a quick help but not without other physiological, emotional, and relational problems which by the way are called SIDE EFFECTS instead of ADDITIONAL COSTS TO YOU!
There are treatments to root causes of depression, anxiety, attention deficits, migraines, sleep disorders, and more that TREAT, end your payments and end your medications!!!
Seek it, demand it for you and your children, you will find it and you will enjoy it.

More to come …..

Scott Carlson
LMHP

Inflammation

This is a common topic I have to explain at every visit so I thought I might talk about the definition of Inflammation.

The body is quite effective in protecting us from things that are bad for us. If the body is exposed to something that is harmful, the immune system will respond by sending out certain cells to survey the area. Then depending on what the offending agent the immune system will respond with, the cascading events that will then induce what is called Inflammation.

Inflammation is the result of the immune systems action towards a foreign harmful situation that recruits the white blood cells, blood and fluids that accumulate to destroy and clear the area of the harmful invader. In the process of this causes a visual redness and “puffiness” which then we know as inflammation. However inflammation is not always visual as this can occur in many areas of the body.

For short or acute situations like an injury or bacteria, virus, yeast or fungal infection this is an effective mechanism that protects the body. If there are long term or chronic exposures to a toxin, a bacteria, virus, foods one is allergic to or sugars the body will begin to suffer as chronic inflammation degrades tissues and causes pain.

Basic treatment of inflammation from a Functional Medicine standpoint begins in the diet and supporting the liver. Decreasing and or elimination of sugars and simple carbohydrates are a great place to start. Simple carbohydrates and sugars alone can initiate inflammation in the body.

Support the liver and its ability to remove toxins out of the body that come from daily living. Living in a the Midwest we are exposed to agricultural chemicals, diets high in high fructose corn syrup, sugars, bad fats and chemicals from prescription and over-the –counter medications over time sludge and inhibit the liver’s ability to detoxify or remove toxins from the body. It is the liver that helps us remove harmful substances out of the body. If the liver functions optimally this can help decrease inflammation.

Supporting the immune system can also calm auto-immune causes of inflammation and healing the gut can also decrease inflammation especially if there are offending foods causing inflammation and/or dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria/yeast). Practitioners can assess patients to either test and treat other underlying causes for inflammation.

Michelle McCaslin, APRN
Alternatives
11036 Oak St
Omaha, NE 68144