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.

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.

The Allergy Solution: A great new integrative medicine book

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The Allergy Solution: integrative medicine and inflammationToday, Dr. Leo Galland releases his new book, “The Allergy Solution”.

 
This book gives a comprehensive explanation of allergy and all of the conditions that can be related to allergy and inflammation. It affirms many of the points described in my book, “Radiant Skin from the Inside Out”. Points that developed out my research on inflammation and immune recognition, and had their practical development through Functional Medicine. For those suffering from allergy and related symptoms, this book gives a good practical understanding of how to gain control by getting at the underlying causes.
 
Dr. Galland is a colleague with whom I have shared the path of Integrative Medicine, who I have known since NYU Medical school. We have become close colleagues in the past 17 years, as co-members of a seminal group of integrative medicine physicians who met several times each year with outstanding integrative speakers.
Dr. Dattner
Integrative Medicine
New York

What is Holistic Dermatology, Really?

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What is Holistic Dermatology, Really? Healthy Frontiers

Interviewer:   It’s great. So what is a Holistic Dermatologist? Now we can go on forever…

Dr. Dattner:   Okay, there are a couple of things that are involved in Holistic Dermatology. One, is I am a dermatologist, so I understand the methods that are available and what the positives and negatives are.  I understand the biology and physiology of the skin, so I bring that to the table and at the same time I have other methods to use to get back to the etiology, to the root cause of the problem that’s going on. And the root cause is usually an environmental exposure, whether it’s something topical in which my colleagues are very good at diagnosing when if it’s a context sensitivity. But, the biggest source of foreign material entering the body is through the mouth, so the digestive tract is what I spend a lot of time correcting. Microbial, the digestion, leaky gut all of those things are things that I address in my practice. The other thing is that Holistic Dermatology covers a wide variety of inputs, so some people have an emotional issue which leads to an eating issue which leads to gut issue which leads to a skin issue. So when it becomes obvious that there is a particular area that needs treatment, I address that area.

Interviewer:   Right!

Dr. Dattner:   The other thing is that it’s very eclectic, so I use a number of different techniques that are not in conventional medicine. Those include herbology, those include some chiropractic techniques, some kinesiology to give me further information that corresponds with what I have learned from history and physical as well and helps me better select among the things that intellectually should make sense for say treating, but digestive issues I can refine that.

Interviewer:   That’s great; so why did you choose to practice that way?

Dr. Dattner:   Well, you know I got to the tip of the tip in terms of practice of dermatology and I saw what was known and what wasn’t known. The tip of the tip this was the National Institute of Health, building ten, where we flew patients in who we wanted to study from all over the country.

Interviewer:   Yes

Dr. Dattner:   And we had patients there who had rare disorders that were being treated with Vitamin C, but there was not an understanding of the lure around Vitamin C and bioflavonoids.

Interviewer:   Right

Dr. Dattner:   And I realize I had to go outside of current conventional medicine to bring in the totality of knowledge that was available and so it was very exciting when I found out that all this was available through the….what was called the alternative world then. But interestingly in this particular case with the Vitamin C, the work on bioflavonoids had been done in the 50’s by a Nobel Prize winner. So it had just left medicine for a while.

Interviewer:   Right, forgotten.

Dr. Dattner:   Wasn’t that it was never in it.

Interviewer:   Right, okay should have it was always there.

Dr. Dattner:   Yeah!

Interviewer:   Good!

Using Polio to… destroy brain cancer?

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Poliovirus. Transmission electron micrograph, negative stain image of the polio virus.A very exciting report just came out of Duke University, from the laboratory of doctors Matthias Gromeier, MD, and Allan H. Friedman, MD, demonstrating that a genetically engineered form of poliovirus was able to destroy brain cancers–when injected directly into the cancers.

Interestingly, this virus was able to infected brain cancers, but not normal brain tissue. Besides the destructive effect of the virus on the brain cancers, it was believed that the virus also caused an immune response against the brain cancer, thus targeting the immune system to help destroy the cancer.

It is especially interesting to me, having worked with the founder of tumor immunology, Dr. Lloyd Old, nearly 5 decades ago, and having investigated the nature of immune recognition and destruction by lymphocytes, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the late 1970s.

My chief there, and current colleague, Dr. William R Levis, has a product in phase 2 trials, which is been shown to be effective in eradicating cutaneous melanoma metastases by creating an immune response against them. It is exciting to see immunotherapy of cancer becoming a reality after being part of this field for half a century. Here’s a more recent study from William Levis.

Although this next comment is highly speculative, it is certainly ironic to see the modified form of poliovirus destroying brain cancers when the polio vaccines around 1960 we’re contaminated with SV 40 virus, which is suspected to have a causal role in the formation of brain cancers in rare instances in those people who’ve received it.

A wild speculation might include the possibility that some genetic combined information from the original polio and SB 40 combination gave rise to some of the tumors being treated, and that the new modified poliovirus is cross reactive to some aspect of the brain tumor, and thus sets off a cross reactive immune attack against it.

I hope to have the opportunity someday to tie together some of these various treatments, based on insights from our past studies at the NCI.

To your health,

~Dr. Dattner
Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine

It wasn’t cancer!

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“My doctors were worried I had leukemia because I had a high “eosinophil count” in my blood test. Dr. Dattner did a lot of research and found I had amoebic parasites in my intestine which caused the problem in my blood. He treated me and I followed his program, and my case improved–my blood test changed, and my other doctors no longer feared I had leukemia.” -HL, New York

Autism: Trying Most Things, But Not Everything

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6a00e55255b462883401901b97af0f970b-200wiI recently read a column in the New York Times by Jane Brody titled “Trying Anything and Everything for Autism.” In it, parents of an autistic child find success with alternative treatments, but are unsure whether the treatment relates to the child’s improvement. The article quotes a physician from England who suggests that alternative treatment for autism like avoiding dairy is like returning to the Dark Ages.

What emerges from Jane Brody’s column minimizes the two important positive responses that the boy, Casey showed to the alternative treatments of dairy-free diet and hyperbaric oxygen. The difficulties of avoiding certain foods are emphasized, but compared to the Behavioral Approach, which is promoted but requires working with a child for 30-40 hours per week, dietary restriction should be relatively simple.
Nothing is mentioned about the science related to casomorphin from milk affecting brain function, nor anti-gliadin antibody levels indicating wheat sensitivity.
Other non-conventional treatments are also based on scientific data. Genetic defects found in some autistic children in a biochemical pathway called “methylation,” respond to correction with a combination of B-vitamins and other
supplements. Yeast overgrowth in the intestines irritates the lining and allows undigested food molecules to leak into the circulation and irritate the immune system.  This can be corrected by diet changes and supplements. Since specialized immune cells are involved in the nervous system, it is not hard to imagine that improper dietary stimulation of the immune system could interrupt proper brain development.  Far from the Dark Ages, we can begin to understand multifactorial Autism by connecting scientific basis to anecdotal evidence.

My medical colleagues who specialize in autism treatment use the above science-based and other forms of analysis and therapy.  It would be a shame if parents, physicians, and researchers don’t vigorously pursue these connections that may lead to effective treatment.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology
New York, New York

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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.

 

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