By Mathew Diaz IHP L2, CPT
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food
Introduction
Growing up we question everything, it's healthy to. Somewhere along the way we stop questioning certain beliefs like the belief work has to be miserable or the belief that as we get older we are suppose to fall apart and lose our mind. I'm here to introduce to you the idea that having a healthy lifestyle trumps our supposed genetic destiny.
It boggles my mind how many anti-healthy diet and lifestyle websites there are out there. It's easy to have doubts about "alternative" medicine when we've grown up with a pill for every ill mindset but what's the alternative to "alternative" medicine? Believing obesity, cancer, chronic diseases are all on the rise for no reason but there is a miracle drug out there we've all been waiting for. That the absence of basic nutrients in our diet has no negative impact on our health? That the over 77,000 man made chemicals we are exposed to daily are harmless? Which side seems like quackery to you?
What is healthy?
The short answer is not easy, after all we grew up with the food pyramid as the imagery of an ideal diet. Much like politics, the food industry has also been corrupted by money. If you laugh at that idea then just google the odd sounding ingredients in your children's cereal or in the your bread. The shocking answers won't be coming from an untrustworthy tinfoil hat website. No, the answers will come from government research studies. We already know the food we typically eat are toxic and devoid of nutrients and increases our chances for chronic disease.
I'm not trying to scare you. The answers aren't too hard to find once you know where to look. Which is why I joined in the pro-health movement known as the Integrative Health Practitioner Certification. To spread good information.
Enter the new standard for health coaching; Integrative Health Practitioners (IHP)
Not to sound arrogant but I truly believe having an Integrative Health Practitioner certification from Dr. Stephen Cabral will be the new standard for health coaches and hopefully after reading this blog you will feel the same.
Health coaching is part of alternative medicine. There is a stigma when that term is used so I'd like to cut straight to the point and fight this stigma; there is a lot of mainstream science coming out all the time backing up what natural medicine has been doing for centuries. Meaning, it seems like mainstream science is rediscovering old information. Milk thistle does up-regulate liver function? Yep, been using that for centuries but I'm glade we agree now said "Alternative" Medicine to mainstream science. The main difference in methodologies between what we all know as "conventional" Medicine and "Alternative" Medicine is that conventional medicine works with the symptoms and does not look for the root cause of those symptoms. It may sound like I'm insulting conventional medicine but I believe that the system is to blame not the M.D. The reason conventional medicine is currently overprescribing antibiotics, performing unnecessary surgeries and drugging the world up in general is that it is the system they learned to practice in teaches pharmacology and glances over nutrition. This system is best for immediate life saving conditions and will always be in "emergency mode".
Back pain? Movement causes the pain, let's fuse the vertebrae together so there is no movement. Acne? Let's use antibiotics so we kill whatever is in your microbiome. High blood pressure? Let's make it so your heart pumps softer or you pee more often so you can get rid of more minerals. When we take a step back we can see this all sounds like an all hands on deck, let's get this done approach to problems that could be solved with lifestyle changes over the course of months with the guidance of someone with the knowledge & time to help you. In most cases our bodies are not messing up. There is an underlining reason for our symptoms. We always need to ask, why?
What makes IHPs integrative?
As an Integrative Health Practitioner I draw answers from 7 forms of medicine (Ayurvedic, Naturopathic, Orthomolecular, Functional Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine & Herbalism, Bioregulatory, Eastern Philosophy) to rebalance the body because a balanced healthy body is not an overweight or sick body. This hybrid approach will be the new standard for health coaching.
*IHP's do not cure, treat, or diagnose disease, we can however work with underlining imbalances.
To be honest the names of a group of symptoms do not matter to me, the root cause of those symptoms matter.
Introduction to Functional Medicine
With state of the art at-home functional medicine lab testing there isn’t any guess work involved. The human body is complex & the same imbalances and deficiencies in one person, can lead to different symptoms in the next person. As an IHP L2 I can use 7 3rd party at-home labs and base my consultations off of the information gathered from the tests as well as my client's stories.
Who created IHP?
The IHP certification was created by a Naturopathic Doctor named Dr. Stephen Cabral who has been practicing multiple forms of natural medicine for nearly twenty years, total appointments from his Boston practice are over 250,000. Here is his bio from his website
Equilibriumnutrition.com
-MEET NATUROPATH, AYURVEDIC & FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE DOCTOR, DR. STEPHEN CABRAL
STEPHEN CABRAL
Doctor of Naturopathy ANMCB
ANMCB Board Certified Naturopath
PASSION
Dr. Stephen Cabral developed his passion for health & wellness after going through severe health complications at the age of 17. He saw over 50 different doctors, tried over 100 different treatment protocols, but still saw no hope of recovery.
It wasn’t until he met an “alternative” health doctor whom explained to him how he got here and how he could become well again, that he began his recovery process. It was at this young age that he knew his life would be dedicated to helping others rebalance their bodies and renew their health.
After almost 20 years and over 600,000 pages of research study completed, dozens of certifications in the natural health field, over 16,000 health & fitness client sessions, and a doctoral degree in Naturopathy, you can rest assured that Dr. Cabral’s knowledge, experience, and compassion are at the top of his field.
Dr. Cabral also spent over 5,000 hours of formal doctoral degree work, which included 2,200 hours of internships. These internships were mainly spent overseas studying the very best of natural medicine (much of which is unknown here in the US).
His internships included actually studying, working, and living in clinics all around the world. This intimate setting allowed Dr. Cabral to talk in depth with the patients at these clinics and listen to their struggles and path to wellness. He also got to see first hand the remarkable recoveries these people were making. Some of these internship locations included India, Sri Lanka, China, Europe, and various practices in the US.
The point is Dr. Stephen Cabral has started a movement to improve our civilizations health crisis with his IHP certification and course because rest assured the answers lie in nature for a long healthy life not in taking life long drug prescriptions that ware off and lead to more symptoms over time.
How do IHPs look for the root cause?
By having an overall foundational education on how the body functions it doesn't take too long to know where to start looking or testing with Functional Medicine At-home Labs. Let's take high blood pressure for example.
Here's what needs to be determined:
• Increased SNS stress response
• Elevated cortisol
• High time cortisol
• Low melatonin production
• Diet too high in processed foods
• Imbalanced calcium/magnesium
• Low potassium
• Insufficient stomach acid
• Weak digestion
• Poor protein breakdown
• Gut permeability issues
• Heavy metals accumulation
If any of this seems random it is only because of a lack in knowledge in this field. Feel free to visit Dr. Cabrals podcast website to learn more on high blood pressure or anything else you may have questions on, he has over 1200 podcasts so you should have plenty of information to learn.
Which Functional Medicine Lab tests will help?
Thyroid+Adrenal+Hormone Test
This Test Shows:
- Heavy metals accumulation
- Imbalanced calcium/magnesium
- Balancing electrolytes
This is one of the tests that underrated and gives a ton of data.
And also to be clear this test isn't just for high blood pressure, it's for anything to do with your minerals. Visit the At-home Labs
page for more information or contact me with any questions.
I hope this sheds some light on "alternative" approaches to chronic conditions or health issues. The answer isn't to "have a pill for every ill", our body knows what to do we just have to learn why it's doing what it's doing and listen to what it's saying.
Legally, I do not work with high blood pressure I can work with the underlining imbalances that may cause high blood pressure.
For further education I suggest reading the rain barrel effect by Dr. Stephen Cabral, all proceeds go to charity. All scientific citations are listed in the book.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to mention there are countless Doctors in the fields mentioned above, with books and successful practices some of which are "conventional" Doctors as well.
There is more money in us being sick eating cheap food devoid of nutrients and dependent on drugs for the rest of our lives, which is why I believe there is so much confusion on diet.
It seems odd now, growing up believing that getting sick every year, allergies, joint pain, gaining weight, digestion issues, having poor sleep, losing cognitive ability was just all part of life and getting older. It's a story we hear at a young age and repeat back to ourselves subconsciously throughout our lives.
I hope that this blog is the start of your health journey. Feel free to contact me
with any questions, I'm here to help.