Watts / MD A Toxic Brain

Revelations from a Health Journey
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-6678-2654-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet/DL/kein Kopierschutz

E-Book, Englisch, 328 Seiten

'A Toxic Brain' provides more than hope with science-based proven protocols and lifestyle interventions to prevent and reverse cognitive decline. Upon witnessing her husband's sudden onset of mysterious symptoms, and without conventional medical tests revealing any definitive issues, Strauss embarked upon a quest for answers of vital relevance for 21st century health. Millions are suffering with debilitating maladies, undergoing a series of tests, yet often without revealing what's causing their misery. Without detecting underlying causes, this is putting health destinies at risk. Written in collaboration with Dan Watts, MD, 'A Toxic Brain' alerts readers of the connections between root causes to dementias, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic inflammatory conditions. As an endurance run of body, mind, and heart, Strauss also shares other matters related to dementing illnesses-relationship shifts, family dynamics, legal and financial concerns, along with valuable strategies for navigating similar situations. Through their 12-year journey as healthcare consumers, she gained insights into the paradigm of care needed today for treating skyrocketing 21st century health issues. Precision evaluations combined with effective treatments are transforming health destinies including those with conditions once believed to be irreversible. This is a must-read in today's toxic times because answers do exist!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Watts, Dan

MD,

Leseproben

Introduction In my role as the staunchest patient advocate for my late husband, Rick, I desperately wanted to know what suddenly transformed my healthy, 59-year-old husband into a debilitated stranger whom I barely recognized. After reading “The Terrorist Inside My Husband’s Brain” by Susan Schneider, the widow of Robin Williams—America’s beloved actor-comedian—I experienced a visceral call to action. Although the initial news reports listed Williams’ 2014 death as a suicide, it was later revealed that he had suffered from Lewy body dementia (LBD), a key factor in his self-inflicted demise. This progressive, debilitating neurological condition does indeed wreak terror on the body and brain, as we learned from Rick’s own hellacious experience. In addition, the disease sparks suicidal thoughts. As a result, two beautiful spirits’ lives were decimated by neurological nightmares. In my quest for more answers, new information was revealed only while researching and writing this book. It further confirmed the toxic roots of Rick’s illness. Science has now demonstrated the connections of toxicity with another dreaded neurological disease, a sub-type of Alzheimer’s, and its possible connection to LBD. Yet, these toxic roots are now linked to many other chronic and life-threatening illnesses—autoimmune illnesses, cancers, heart disease, diabetes, to name a few. Toxins are ubiquitous in today’s inflammatory times. We’re inhaling, ingesting and absorbing them often without the recognition of their impact upon our health. As science continues to confirm the relationship of symptoms and diseases to toxicity, it serves as a wake up call for us all. It was an eerie realization reminiscent of an episode from The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s classic 1950s and ‘60s television series featuring freakish science fiction and suspense stories. Could there be legions of people suffering from inflamed bodies and brains, with the roots of their illnesses not being identified early enough? Or treated with therapies that might possibly change their health destinies? These questions begged for confirmation. The much-loved Williams had yet another role to play: spotlighting this more unfamiliar neurodegenerative condition, which was not as well recognized a few years ago. Rick had always been blessed with robust health, a brilliant brain, and a fulfilling career of service, all enveloped within a happy 27-year-long marriage and loving family. Seemingly overnight, he became acutely ill with a multitude of symptoms—bizarre changes in personality and behavior accompanied by tremors, a bloody rash, wrenching gut and head pain, photosensitivity, and abdominal jerking, and many others. While I first believed all these symptoms appeared overnight, I now understand that really was not the case at all. His body was a silent, ticking time bomb, and when a multitude of symptoms became apparent, this instantly transformed our realities and our destinies. Something did not just hit him “out of the blue.” Yet, Rick rarely consulted with a doctor or shared his health concerns with me. Now, he was no longer able to conceal what he desperately had to have been hiding: something horrible had happened to his brain. There was no question about it. I was scared what this all meant. While inflammation fired up Rick’s neurological nightmare, none of his conventional evaluations addressed these triggers. Mainstream medicine typically focuses on the diagnosing of diseases and the treatment of symptoms, usually prescribing drugs or surgery, rather than finding the imbalances in the body that may be causing them. Rick’s case serves as a quintessential example of how multiple inflammatory agents launched a cascade of imbalances that were never properly evaluated or treated by conventional medicine. Even years after my husband was stricken, the underlying causes of these neurodegenerative and other chronic maladies, and the diagnostic testing available to evaluate and treat them, are not being recognized or adopted fast enough by mainstream healthcare practitioners. We cannot afford to wait! This tsunami is devastating lives and swamping precious resources. In “Tip of the Iceberg,” a 2019 paper for the National Institute of Health’s Institute on Aging, a group of doctors said between 2010-15 Alzheimer’s and related dementia global costs rose 35%, to $818 billion (US) and could hit $2 trillion by 2030.1 That doesn’t include the collateral damage it causes to caregivers. Now, after Rick’s death, I am sharing details of his undignified and frightening fall from seemingly perfect health, including the roller coaster ride of my own emotional highs and lows. I offer our experience, including personal details about Rick’s sometimes wild, uncharacteristic behavior and personality changes, for anyone who might be facing a similar situation and wondering what happened to their loved one. In my role as witness, scribe, and educator, I have compiled the details of our family’s journey to provide background for: • Patients and their loved ones, who may be experiencing a similarly confusing, frustrating journey in search of answers. • Health practitioners, to encourage adopting functional evaluation methods to discover underlying organic reasons driving patient symptoms and the therapies and lifestyle interventions needed to correct them. For those who have patients with brain or behavioral issues, to consider neurotoxicity, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), toxic encephalopathy, Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer’s Type-3 (toxic-related), and autoimmune disorders as underlying conditions. • Industry leaders and government regulators, to recognize how both production and manufacturing of products and regulations regarding them can either support the health, safety, and protection of our citizens, or have the potential to create and sustain chronic health issues. • Readers interested in learning more about supporting their own brain health by understanding the root causes leading to neurological inflammation, common symptoms and behaviors associated with it, lifestyle interventions to help prevent its occurrence, and strategies for managing life when the unexpected strikes. For the most part, Rick’s mainstream medical teams were compassionate and caring. Yet they were not trained to look holistically, so they mainly focused on Rick’s brain and behavioral issues. All the other physical symptoms he experienced were signs a functional practitioner would have noticed, inquired about, or tested for. His evaluation in conventional practices included plenty of imaging studies but could not reveal all the biochemical reactions causing his symptoms to flare. I include information about functional evaluation and some of their therapies later in the book. In presenting Rick’s case history, I have drawn from an extensive compilation of my own detailed observations of his changing symptoms and behavior, the treatments that appeared to work, and the ones that did not. I have highlighted some of the email exchanges with practitioners chronicling Rick’s lab reports, neuropsychological testing results, medications he was prescribed, and other support documents gathered throughout his illness. As a man whose career was dedicated to serving others, Rick loved the concept of “pay it forward,” inspired by the movie of the same name. This book is his legacy—to pay it forward, so others might benefit from the pieces of the neurological puzzle that took years for us to assemble and is now being continually reaffirmed by practitioners of advanced medicine. *** This is a fitting place to introduce Dan Watts, MD, a quadruple-board certified physician with decades of experience in both conventional and functional disciplines. He is the founder and director of The Renewal Point in Sarasota, Florida, focused on both prevention and transforming health through integrative assessments and therapies. Upon relocating to Florida in 2018 while seeking a functional practitioner for my own healthcare, I was referred to Dr. Watts, who is known for his stellar reputation and an impressive list of credentials. We first met during his presentation highlighting the impact of toxins upon health. What a welcome discovery—a doctor who understood toxicity and other root causes of health issues! He immediately won my confidence and trust. Later, as his patient, I shared with him that I was writing a book recounting Rick’s toxic-related illness and revelations learned from that journey. He graciously offered to review it and I’m grateful for his wisdom and guidance in creating this resource for today’s toxic times. Life presents us with opportunities that often serve to shift the direction of our lives. Dr. Watts shares his inspiration for the paradigm shift in his own medical practice, his battle and that of his wife from toxic-related illnesses, his passion for getting to the root cause of health issues, and other insights as a functional/integrative physician.2 An Eye-Opening Perspective for Transforming Patient Care More than twenty years ago my mother-in-law, Fannie Belle Burnett, was diagnosed by a neurologist with Parkinson’s disease, exhibiting pill rolling tremor, postural changes, slower...