INTERESTING TIMES

It's a free, online, educational event about how to interpret and act on your own genotypes.  There will be some fascinating lectures here, and some very basic ones.  I definitely want to hear the one about ketogenic diet.  You can sign up here.

EDIT: I did listen to one lecture per day, or at least part of each one.  Genetics and Epigenetics since it became a thing have been an interest of mine.  The programs were oriented at the general public, and I garnered no new information.  I was hoping that it would go a little deeper and nerdier for me.  Would be very useful for folks who are just getting introduced to the significance of modern science with regard to their genetic makeup and health.  Lots of correlates.  Very interesting.

The funny thing is that the clinicians all say the same thing, that your SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) for the most part won't do you harm if you keep your general level of physical health strong.  There's a lot of redundancy build into human genetics and systems.  If someone forgets to cross a T somewhere in your genetics, you'll probably be fine, long as you don't wear yourself to a frazzle, skip sleep, and consider trips to the refrigerator to be adequate exercise.

I'm cleaning out my file cabinet and just reached the naturopathic medicine file.  It is full of philosophy notes from my first couple years of nd school.  I'm going to summarize them here so I can toss the paper.

SIX TENETS as taught by Deborah Frances
1. Primum non nocere - first do no harm (suppression is harmful)
2. Vis Meicatrix naturae - the healing power of nature (elemental)
3. Tolle causum - seek and remove the cause
4. Tolle totum - whole person
5. Docere - doc as teacher
6. Praeventare - prevention

OTHER CONCEPTS
Tonify, balance, bring to the middle
Do not Suppress symptoms, allow them to express, or else you push the illness deeper
Depression = suppressed fire: let it out and you have irritation, anger

HERRING'S LAW
Healing occurs in 3 directions
above downward
within-outward (more severe within, less severe the more peripheral)
in reverse order that it happened

ALIVENESS OF MEDICINE
vitamin C from a factory as vs from rose hips
complexity of plant medicine: many constituents with the wisdom of a living thing

HIERARCHY OF CARE
surgery
drugs
hormone replacement
stimulate the vis
tonify
nourish
foundation -- start here and work upward in the heirarchy

OATH
The Naturopathic Physician's Oath as written in the 2008 NCNM convocation brochure is long and wordy and I do not like it.  I must prefer and do swear by the Classical Chinese Medicine Oath:

I will promise to follow the way of the great physician.
I will strive to live in harmony wiht nature, and teach my patients to do the same.
I will stay calm and completely committed when treating disease.
I will not give way to personal wishes and desires, but above all else hold and nurture a deep feeling of compassion.
I will be devoted to the task fo saving the sacred spark of life in every creature that still carries it.
I will strive to maintain a clear mind and be willing to hold myself to the highest standards.
It will be my duty to diagnose sufferings to treat disease.
I will not be boastful about my skills and not drive by the greed for material things.

Above all, I will keep an open heart.
As I move on the right path I will receive great happiness as a reward wihtout asking for anything in return.

OH I just dug deep enough into the notes to find some gold.  I'm not going to dissolve this file after all.  Going in archive.

Bring carbs
Eat protein.

Dr Paul brings ribs from a restaurant.  He's in his 90's and doesn't mind spending his money on food for others.  He's a retired physician, orthopedic surgeon to be specific.  His sons are all in medicine too, some clinical and some research.  He gave me the Mayo clinic book on Alternative Medicine.  They basically have a stoplight rating system for all things alternative, and the majority of treatments get the yellow light based on the science that they found.  I appreciate it pretty much.  They don't damn naturopathic medicine, it gets yellow also.  There are good and bad parts.  I wish they'd do the same approach for conventional medicines.  People might be shocked how weak the evidence is for some of them.  The degree to which pharmaceutical businesses drive the FDA and the delivery of medicine is apalling.  I love it every time I read of another review that shows reasonable conventional doctors understand that some of the uses of pharmaceuticals are unsubstantiated and may do more harm than good.

I found an awesome tree key online. Here: http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/tree-key/simple-leaf-trees.htm This one is only good for trees with "simple" leaves, meaning that they are not compound, or rather, that only one leaflet is on the leaf stem. Some trees like walnuts and ashes have many leaves extending from the leaf stem.

More than you wanted to know--unless you are into knowing about trees. =-]

The Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians is one of the best state associations for my profession. Ever since the ACA was passed they've been working to force insurance companies to cover ND primary care in the same way that they cover MD primary care. I'm happy to hear that they're going after this particular company. If a licensed ND provides basic medical care in a competent fashion, that care should be covered just the same.

I do have mixed feelings about the ACA and negative feelings about insurance in general. I wish that we had a different system.

Link to press release: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.oanp.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/Lawsuit_Press_Release_FINAL_.pdf

I'm not big on woo woo. When practitioners choose modalities simply because they "resonate" with them, I am skeptical. But when science backs up the use of something that has long been thought of as energy medicine, I am happy to recommend it. Of course people will tell you something is backed by science when it isn't, so you have to go look at the science for yourself, or find sources like me that you know are science-minded and skeptical to help filter the claims for you.

Here's a case of energy medicine turning out to be something real. Scientists have found that acupuncture points are detectable by CT (computed tomography, fancy medical imaging). All those points have a certain size of larger blood vessels, and also thick mats of fine blood vessels that have lots of forks (birfucations) in them. Piercing the tissues at these points is probably affecting the nervous system associated with those blood vessels. This supports my belief that energy medicine (that actually works) has a anatomical and physiological basis. Acupuncture is well proven to be effective for pain, short term at least. To treat pain longterm one must take the naturopathic approach and find the reason for the pain, and change that.

The old code was a restatement of the naturopathic treatment principles. The new code more explicitly addresses the issues which could affect our licensing. I like it that the new code specifies that we shall not give remedies without explaining what's in them. If only conventional physicians would do the same.

( The new Code of Ethics )

I'm told that for any petition with over 25,000 signers, the White House promises to give an official response. So we've met that hurdle. Would it be cool if naturopathic medicine were covered in the mandated insurance scheme to come? I'm not sure, but that's the direction we're headed in. I've been contemplating advertising myself as a medical advisor who is NOT biased by what is reimbursable by insurance. After reading recently that at least 9/10 of the lesions removed as supposed melanomas are NOT melanomas, my cynicism has increased a notch. Insurance encourages doctors to do what is covered, and discourages them from doing what is not covered. Too bad insurance rarely covers what is actually needed. As I have, and will continue to say: Insurance is not healthcare. The inclusion of naturopaths in insurance is a double-edged sword.

She gets it right, here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-rothenberg-nd/naturopathy_b_1660830.html