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my personal story
why I CHOSE TO
PRACTICE
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE
AND
WHY I BELIEVE
I CAN HELP YOU
well, as cliche' as it may sound...
I DID IT FOR LOVE
read on to understand why.
In October 2001, just after 9/11 shook the globe, my own family's world was literally rocked harder than I could ever imagine. Our lives were turned completely upside down and painfully twisted inside-out.
This was the month when my wife Linda, the love of my life for 30 years,
was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer...maybe.
What do I mean by "maybe"? Unfortunately we got three different diagnoses from three different labs when we received the biopsy results of a lump that Linda had in her breast for over 10 years: one said it was invasive breast cancer, another said it was cancer but it wasn't invasive, and yet a third lab said it wasn't even cancer! As you might imagine we were feeling confused, frightened, and outright frustrated.
At her doctor's recommendation, she underwent surgery to remove the lump and endured 6 long weeks of daily radiation therapy. She "ate right" and exercised, tried her best to sleep well and not let the stresses of life create unnecessary worry, and made sure to never miss a follow-up mammogram. After 5 years without re-occurrence of the breast lump, we were led to believe she was finally in the clear. She was assured that she had "nothing to worry about"any longer.
Five years after that however, we learned the truth...cancer was back. But this time something was different.
After 8 mentally-tortuous weeks of testing, a diagnosis was finally confirmed. A biopsy revealed that this cancer was not actually breast cancer at all but rather a rare extremely aggressive cancer called Angio-Sarcoma, a cancer found in blood vessel walls. A cancer which would rapidly spread anywhere in Linda's body where blood vessels were found. And even worse...the cancer was determined to have been actually caused as a "side-effect" of the radiation treatments she had received 10 years prior for the suspected breast cancer.
Soon after diagnosis, Linda was given her prognosis by the top doctors in the field...a "death sentence" of just 2 months to live. "Three months if she was lucky", they said.
They just stood there and simply stated that there was absolutely nothing
that traditional medicine could do. They told us she should just go home, get her affairs in order, and kiss our children goodbye.
I wasn't willing to accept the doctor's prognosis, and neither was Linda.
She was ready to fight. She was ready to do whatever it would take to get her life back...wouldn't you?
My mind started to reel...where would she start? What could I do for her?How could I possibly help as fast as possible? I knew an answer to those questions had to exist, and I had to find them.
As a result I began to intensely study the little-understood root causes behind the development of cellular diseases like cancer, so that I could try my best to stop and even reverse them. I desperately wanted & needed to do anything I could to improve her quantity and quality of life, as well as share this knowledge with others.
This is when I discovered the term
Functional Medicine
which simply means
healthcare designed to
search for root causes...
to heal your systems,
not just treat your symptoms
and
to treat the person who has a disease,
not the disease that has the person.
I had found my answer
This is when I discovered that a common "confusion" of our inflammatory response is responsible at some level for all types of cancer and not just Angio-Sarcoma, like Linda had. I already knew that inflammation is a normal part of the body's immune response, and when working right, is necessary for our very survival. In fact, infections, wounds, and any damage to tissue would not be able to heal without an "acute" or short-term inflammatory response.
However, what I also learned was that the typical American diet & stressful lifestyle...including exposure to a multitude of toxins in our air, food, and water...leads to the development of a very different kind of confused immune response. Instead of healing your sick or injured cells, this immune system confusion creates a continued long-term low-level abnormal immune inflammatory response. This abnormal immune response doesn't shut off once the immediate threat is gone, like it's supposed to.
This will eventually damage your cells, create poor bodily function,
and can even cause several extremely common diseases.
This condition is called
Chronic cellular dysfunction
and it's the very same hidden culprit
which science revealed nearly 20 years ago
to be the root cause of
most of all chronic disease which is silently killing us.
As it turns out, long-term or chronic inflammation is the often hidden underlying link behind the most common conditions suffered in America, such as:
heart disease
diabetes
anxiety/depression
digestive dysfunction
arthritis
allergies
autoimmune disorders
lung disease
Alzheimer's and dementia
obesity
and yes, even cancer
Which begs the obvious question:
when is the last time you had your
cellular function
checked to see if it could be related
to your current health problems,
or if it could even be
silently creating chronic disease?
No one ever thought to check Linda's cellular inflammation levels back then, not even me. And it's still not part of a typical medical evaluation
even now, more than 20 years after its discovery as the root underlying cause of almost all chronic diseases.
I wish to God
that I knew then
what I know now
Thank God even with the limited knowledge I had back then I was able to help her add significant quality and quantity to her life. Following the unique cellular healing protocols I created to help her, Linda was able to enjoy a full 3 1/2 years more of life than her original prognosis of just 3 months...15x more time than the doctors expected. However, her cellular inflammation had already been allowed to go unchecked for far too long before I got to begin helping her, raging violently out of control until reaching a point where her body could no longer withstand it. The cancer finally won the battle on October 1, 2014.
Linda was only 46 years old when she died.
Of course, as you would imagine, I was truly devastated when I finally lost her. At the same time, I also appreciated that this extra time I had with her was precious time that would never have been possible had we just thrown up our hands in surrender as her traditionally-thinking doctors did.
In her final moments, I made her a solemn promise.
I swore that I would not let her suffering and death simply be another notch in cancer's belt. Instead, her harrowing experience would be the catalyst for a significant redirection in my life and practice. Linda inspired me to change not only my own life but to help improve the lives of all those people I could reach who were willing to make changes of their own. This is the all-important "why" behind my decision to practice Functional Medicine. This is my passion. This is my Purpose.
SAVE YOUR
CELLS
AND
YOU SAVE
YOUR SELF
After witnessing the utter horror of what Linda experienced due to
severe cellular damage I swore that I would never, ever, let that happen again to another person I cared for. That was a decision that changed my life direction forever. At that moment I dedicated myself to becoming a
certified
Cellular Healing
specialist
so that I could help you
transform
your cells
and finally
change your life
for the better