Could Inflammation Be Causing the Rash on Your Skin? ~ Functional Dermatology

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Could Inflammation Be Causing Your Skin Problem?

In functional dermatology, we examine the entire system of the organs and the body as a whole. We see that inflammation is the cause of most of the rashes and skin conditions with itching and redness in the skin, and with scaling, and even blisters. There are different kinds of immune responses that lead to each of these conditions and there are also different kinds of responses where the tissues themselves cause individual reactions you see as very different skin conditions.

It’s important to understand both how the physiology of how your skin works and how the immune system is reacting when you have inflammatory problems. This is the place where a good understanding of immunology is very helpful.

I have been very fortunate to have been involved in the area of cellular immunology and delayed hypersensitivity for many decades. It’s helped my perspective and seeing how conditions can be improved by getting at the underlying conditions that are there and causing difficulties. Be sure you find someone who understands this when you are trying to dig deeper to get to the cause of your inflammatory condition and treat it and get it better so that your whole body improves as well and including inflammation that can cause damage to other organs in your body.

Use your skin as an indicator of your health so it can lead you to the best overall heath possible.

Who are the Best Candidates for Using Holistic Skincare?

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Who are the Best Candidates for Using Holistic Skincare?

Interviewer:   Describe the kind of patient who is most likely to have successful outcome with your treatment, what might they have to do that is a challenge.

Dr. Dattner:   Well, the people who have the best results with me are first of all really motivated. There is not a question about whether this is a yes or no, or what the priority is. And unfortunately, a lot of people are not so clear about their priorities and they are also not so clear about…. The important thing I just want to mention is that I see skin disease as a symptom more that I see it as a condition. So my perspective is what is this telling us, what can we change and how can this impact a person’s life, so I love to have positive side effects.

Interviewer:   Right

Dr. Dattner:   Persons gets more energy they run faster they…. you know.  Instead of having negative…

Interviewer:   Yes

Dr. Dattner:   Exactly, leg swelling goes away. I thought at least things that they didn’t even mention get better and to me that’s really what it’s about. So the kinds of….

Interviewer:   So the kinds of patients who might most likely respond.

Dr. Dattner:   So the kinds of patients then are ones who are first of all committed. Second of all, can actually afford the supplements and seeing me, you know if they can…. Unfortunately the government and the insurance will pay huge sums of money for certain medications.

Interviewer:   Right

Dr. Dattner:   They always have being receiving tens of thousands of dollars even more for certain medications, but they don’t pay now for cognitive work. So spending an hour or more with a patient and being versed in two or three different fields and up to date in those things, they don’t care about that and so it’s impossible to do this on insurance, unless somebody is feeding you money in the back. So unfortunately, it’s too big. I think there is going to be a day when this becomes recognized, when it becomes clear that there is some people who I can fix for much less money in a conventional way. And it’s a small group and it’s a definite group and there are people to be paid for. But at this particular time, people have to be able to afford to do this and they have to be willing to give up favorite foods. Often it’s, the drink at work or afterwards, things that they would crave, that’s sometime the biggest challenge.

Interviewer:   Yeah, habits breaking them.

Dr. Dattner:   Breaking habits, breaking the expectations of their friends and their husband and their family who says come on….

Interviewer:   Right

Dr. Dattner:   So those people who can make those changes and the last one is, since I haven’t found the magic way to do this, they have to take supplements and that means taking a bunch of pills.

Interviewer:   Right, great, great answer.

Dangers of Self-Diagnosing Your Skin Problem ~ Integrative Dermatology

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Dangers of Self-Diagnosing Your Skin Problem

What are the dangers of diagnosing your own skin problem?

Well, the first one is you may get the wrong diagnosis. You might be trying to link it up to some picture on the Internet or something you saw in a book.  And just be off a bit and you might as a result have some condition that gets worse before it has its chance to be taken care of properly.

The second one is that when a dermatologist looks at the skin condition, they think there are a number of different possibilities and it may be one of the possibilities that is lower on the list that you might miss when you’re looking online.

There’s always the possibility that this skin condition might partake of more than one actual diagnosis and may have something in between.  Finally, it’s possible that there are underlying problems that are involved that you will miss when you just come across the name of a condition.  This is something where somebody who takes a more integrative dermatology or holistic viewpoint can be very helpful.

Could Your Rash Be a Sign of Something Serious? ~ Functional Dermatology

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Could Your Rash Be a Sign of Something Serious?

There are a number of different disorders that occur with the skin, which can be addressed with functional dermatology. For example, some patients with skin that is more stretchy than normal, hyper-elastic has a defect of the elastic tissue that also can involve the elastic tissue in their arteries. So they can even blow out a great vessel, and checking that out properly can be a way to keep an eye on it and prevent the possible rupture of the aorta which leads to immediate death.

So, if you have a condition on your skin, a rash that doesn’t go away, or something that doesn’t quite make sense, get it checked out by a dermatologist to be sure that it’s not something that is telling us about a condition that could be really detrimental to your health–or your life. Consider getting support with functional dermatology.

Should You Go Paleo? ~ Natural Skincare and the Paleo Diet

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Should You Go Paleo?

Paleo has become a real popular diet. How does it relate to natural skincare?

One good thing about a Paleo diet is that it avoids a lot of the kinds of prepared foods and chemicals that bring things into us that our bodies may not be able to deal with.

Another good thing about the Paleo diet is that it tends to be one which avoids grains as there are a number of people who are sensitive to not only gluten, but to a lesser extent whole grains.  Avoiding that can be very helpful for those people.

Eating a lot of vegetables is a very healthy thing. For many people having a Paleo diet with meat and vegetables is a healthy way to go.  But it’s not the only answer and for each individual there are usually specific sensitivities that also have to be addressed.  If simplifying your diet by taking away many of the major aggregators makes a difference, if going Paleo takes the sugar out of your diet and makes a difference that way, you’re going to do better.

But if there are also other allergens, you need to have a closer look at that. Either watch what’s going on once you’ve gone to the Paleo diet and see what else is causing you to react or you need to go further in terms of finding out what your specific sensitivities are that are related to the problems that you’re having.

GAPS Diet and Inflammation ~ Integrative Dermatology

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GAPS Diet and Inflammation

Hi for some people the wrong diet can cause a lot more than just inflammation of the skin or of the other organs. For those people various substances that come from the food and get out into the system can cause neurological and psychological problems as well. It’s known that one of the end molecules from gluten that is, the component of bread that gives the thickness and stickiness can cause a variety of problems.

And in some people it can even cause psychological and behavioral issues. Besides gluten sensitivity, there are some individuals who are sensitive to a whole variety of different grains. This was pointed out in a few different books by Dr. Allaine Gutshrack who was the one who came with what is called the specific carbohydrate diet. She found that there were some individuals who had to remove all grains from their diet. Not just gluten containing grains in order to get better, in order to have their psychological issues, their ADHD, even their schizophrenia or their autism improved.

So since that time, and she has passed on a few years ago, there have been a number of people who have taken up her specific carbohydrate diet and made various modifications and given it different names, including the GAPS Diet. The Paleo Diet is similar in some ways. And whatever name you call it, removal of grains is important for a certain sub-group of people. Those people have symptoms that have been going on for a long time that may also include inflammatory symptoms as well as the in emotional or neurological condition. And they do very well once an elimination occurs. In some cases they need other things eliminated further such as the GAPS diet. A gluten-free elimination diet is good for some people and other people need to take out other grains as well.

4 Signs of Sugar Overload ~ Holistic Dermatology

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4 Signs of Sugar Overload

Let’s talk about the sign of too much sugar in your diet. One of them is reaction to the sugar, so you get a boost when you eat the sugar and then you crash shortly afterwards which we call reactive hypoglycemia. Another one is of course pre-diabetes. This is where various changes occurring in your body and reflected in blood test showing elevated blood sugar and also elevated sugars, bound to different molecules in the body.

Now how can you look at that? There is a test called hemoglobin A1C or glycocilated hemoglobin. Now those big words mean that the hemoglobin which is a protein has sugar that stuck on to it, and the blood cells stick around for about 3 months so this gives you a picture of what’s going on in your body over a window of time of 3 months. If there’s too much sugar over that 3 months you’re going to have more of that glycocylated hemoglobin or hemoglobin A1C.

That’s the blood test your doctor can do if they suspect that you may have sugar overload.  Now, of course let’s go on other signs: cavities in the teeth can be a sign of sugar overload. Also, various kinds of reaction, after you eat sugar–craving of sugar can be a sign of repeated cycle of too much sugar, with the crash requiring more and more afterwards. And finally if you get so fat that your arm can’t reach out and touch the refrigerator door to get more that’s a sign of too much sugar.

Best New Sugar Substitutes ~ Integrative Medicine

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Best New Sugar Substitutes

I’ve spoken about sugar in the past and so you probably wondering what kind of sugar substitutes I would recommend. Well for people who don’t have diabetes or problems in that direction but want to cut back on their sugar and use something else as a sugar substitute or sweetener. I have another suggestion, and that is to consider using ribose. Ribose is a sugar that’s part of the molecule of information that makes up our genetic material. Ribonucleic acid and the sugar in ribonucleic acid is ribose.

Ribose seems to be a very useful product for people who have issues with the heart. It’s one of the different ingredients that can be very helpful for the heart, so it’s one thing to use on occasion. On the other side of the argument for ribose, is it’s a very sticky sugar. So for people who have problems with too much sugar and too much stickiness in their bodies and their cells and their molecules too much glycation, I would not use huge amount of ribose. But keep it in mind it’s something that supportive of the heart and also sweetens your food.

I also like stevia, monkfruit, xylitol, and in small amounts, maple syrup, or honey.

Should You Go Gluten-Free? ~ Natural Skincare Advice

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Should You Go Gluten-Free?

Looking for natural skincare support? Gluten has a number of different activities including as a lectin punching holes in cell membranes and enabling things to get into cells or enabling things to escape from the intestinal track that shouldn’t be escaping. Since it’s so high on the list of likely allergens, it is one of the things that can make a difference in people’s health or having various kinds of manifestations of allergic or unknown conditions.

On the other hand, going gluten-free makes it very difficult to eat in restaurants or to eat anything that you don’t prepare yourself from scratch. If you truly have a gluten sensitivity or you truly are celiac, which is a gluten sensitivity plus certain genetic markers.  Then it may also be worth identifying that before you go gluten free because it’s easier to do so while you’re still eating gluten and if you really are a celiac, even a tiny, tiny bit of gluten can set you back significantly and it’s good to know that. So going gluten free is a reasonable experiment to do.

Going gluten-free may be helpful, but it may not be sufficient. Furthermore, there are a number of people who have multiple allergies. Just stopping one thing is not going to make them all better any more than if you’re sitting on three thumbtacks, removing one of them is going to solve all the pain you’re having in your bottom.

What Common Skin Problems Do People Have Today? ~ Holistic Dermatology

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What Common Skin Problems Do People Have Today?

Interviewer: What common problems in your holistic dermatology practice that affect people’s health the most and where do you think these were coming from?

Dr. Dattner: It’s interesting, there are a lot of things I call the social disease. We are eating 140 pounds of sugar per person per year in this country. That wasn’t always. We’re exposed to a tremendous number of pesticides of hormone disrupter in the plastics, and chemicals in the things that we put on our face. We are exposed to maybe different ultraviolet light than I was as a boy because of the breaking down of the ozone. There are so many things that are societal. A lot of us watch television on a regular basis so we get less exercise. Our whole way of living has shifted and it’s very different than it was 50 or a100 years ago. And these things all have their cost, and so a lot of what I am doing is just working against those damages. And it’s a social thing, at some point I hope that we begin to look a little bit more carefully at some of these things and say, is there a better way to do these things? Can we make our population healthier, more vibrant, more able to enjoy life more, produce more.

Interviewer: Yeah for sure, I’m on board for that. I mean the introductions of cell phones and computers, we are going in one direction and we are trying to pull in the other direction, where the world is thinking wellness, and the world is thinking, let’s prevent everything. And we come out with all of these things, it’s such a crazy world.

Dr. Dattner: Well it’s true, and we have to constantly be looking to figure out how to do that better.

Interviewer:  Yeah, got to get a balance there.

Dr. Dattner: Exactly

Interviewer: Okay doctor, do you have any last comment before we wind up here?

Dr. Dattner: Well I just wanted to remind people about radiant skin from inside out, because even when I see somebody for an hour, it’s hard to tell them everything that I have in a 300 page book. I think this would be very helpful for anybody who is interested in skin problems or inflammation in general. And I hope people will begin to find ways to really lead a healthier lifestyle and be more vibrant. And I think a lot of aging is just accumulation of damage that can be reversed. So change your attitude and take your life in your hands and improve it.

Interviewer:  Take charge, that was wonderful, thank you for being on the show.

Dr. Dattner: Thank you.