From the Trenches: Billing Part 3

1)     If you decide to accept insurance, put some office policies in place that you stick to without fail.  I lost a great deal of money deferring to patients who insisted they had coverage and then walked out on unpaid balances because I had not verified coverage prior to their first visit.   Now, in my office, regardless of the amount of coverage my biller determines,  it is the office policy that patients pay in full the first visit or two in full until we receive back the first EOB (Explanation of Benefits) and see what their insurance pays.   We don’t know WHAT a carrier pays until we bill it the first time.  Often times, even if a patient has met their deductible, a carrier will find a reason to find some reason to deny a payment or two.  If a patient argues with me over this point prior to the first visit, then I refer them to another provider.  Period. 

2)     Consider using an ABN for balance billing.  An Advance Billing Notification is one way to not only protect yourself from unpaid claims, but allows the patient to determine which additional services they want for their session and to bill accordingly.  While some acupuncturists who practice community acupuncture or more of a TCM style, an HMO fee schedule may be fine. But how do you reconcile yourself to $40 for a 5-elemental or Japanese style acupuncture which usually is a longer treatment, 2-sided treatment, involving moxa and fukushin?

The truth is, you don’t.  My own acupuncturist said it best: “I am sick of filling the holes in the US health care system and not being compensated for it.”   In truth, many of us are practicing far beyond our original scope of practice, becoming primary care providers, including counseling, ordering labs, nutritional assessment, massage, managing toxic drug reactions and poly-pharmacy, and herbs that  we learned at the post­­-graduate level, well outside school.  90% of this is NOT included an HMO or PPO fee schedule.  The ABN was what allowed me to finally accept some of the HMO based fee schedules and build an a la carte practice.  Many of my HMO patients opt for higher copays to enjoy the benefit of Japanese style moxa, massage, or nutritional assessment, none of which is covered by their HMO.  I let the patient decide what aspects they wish to pay for and treat accordingly. 

When all else fails, remember a few things -

1)     You will make mistakes that cost you money, sometimes quite a bit.  This is a PRACTICE – you will learn as you go.  Sometimes you have to pick your battles.  No amount of money is worth my peace of mind any more and the longer I am in practice the better I get at letting this go.  Nothing, in my experience, uses up the desire to serve more than doing it constantly without compensation (thus living below the poverty line). 

2)     You will not get paid on many cases.  At this stage in my practice, the reality is that I write off a few thousand annually in unpaid claims, due in part to mistakes, unscrupulous companies and their practices, and clients who skip out of payments.  I won’t deny that this has been a difficult journey, saying c’est la vie to a case when I don’t get paid, but I get better at it every day.  Releasing the bad case opens me to the next client who pays fully and gratefully enjoys all that I have to offer. 

3)     Billing is a SERVICE which you are not obligated to provide.  Many of my patients pay my full fees, regardless of their coverage and I bill for them as a courtesy, particularly if their chief complaint in internal medicine or fertility and we know a carrier will not cover treatment.  For carriers who are problematic, I issue a superbill and let them deal with it.  In the end, the patient has a relationship with the insurance company, not me. 

I have learned that patients have no understanding of their own insurance coverage.  Southern CA where I practice is the most heavily infiltrated region in the country with regards to HMO coverage, and there is a great deal of entitlement on the part of some patients who have been lured into thinking that every aspect of their care requires nothing more than a $10 co-pay.  They have little understanding of the time, effort and hassles associated with trying to bill for their care.  That is fine, but I no longer feel obligated to provide this service for free. 

 

As practitioners, it is vital to protect ourselves from resentment, whether from clients or insurance companies.  Resentment is an emotion that eats away at satisfaction, regardless of clinical success.  Most of us are extremely idealistic and altruistic in their regard to helping patients achieve wellness and it can hurt when some patients have no more commitment to you than a copayment. 

I have learned to set boundaries that protect both my cash flow and my piece of mind, and it has ultimately resulted in both more joy and financial abundance in my practice.  My hope is that more of you will take the plunge into the insurance maze, with the hope that both your own practice and our profession prosper both medically and financially.

From The Trenches: Billing Part 2

Lest you feel dismayed, there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least in terms of insurance billing.  I would like to share a few tips, and some of this is obviously hindsight, which can be summarized in a few points: 

1)     Take a billing class ASAP, as soon as you graduate if not before.  Why this was not discussed in my practice management class is beyond me, and I lost 4 years tying to navigate this maze blindly.  This is something I tell my students as soon as they are licensed:  regardless of whether you plan to take insurance or not, at the very least you need to know how to code a super bill, how to discuss claim forms with clients, how to phrase things so that your clients will be reimbursed and how to discuss diagnosis codes with other clinicians.  Forget about being an intern and “We don’t make a western Diagnosis.”  You must learn how to make a western diagnosis in order to participate in the medical system and since most clinic time is focused on TCM pattern differentiation, learning the ropes of effective coding will save you about 5 years of pain and thousands of lost dollars.  The changes coming next year with the new ICD-10 codes will make taking a new billing class mandatory. 

One lesson I learned the hard way is that I simply don’t code for internal medicine.  I have found that many carriers try the “Acupuncture for this diagnosis is considered experimental.”  In truth, 100% of my clients have pain, whether musculoskeletal or headaches.  I may code for additional issues so that I am in compliance with my charting, but my #1 issue will always include pain of some kind.  Period.  If the patient comes in with another complaint, particularly fatigue, endocrine issues, etc.  It opens the door for balance billing to cover aspects of the treatment associated with their other condition rather than for pain. 

2)     Consider using a free electronic billing service such as Office Ally, again not discussed in my practice management class, but will be addressed in a billing class.  I actually did not begin to use them until this year, when I opted to be in net-work with several HMO based fee schedules where the remuneration was so poor that it didn’t make sense to have my biller do the case.  Office Ally has some amazing features, not the least of which is that if you have an error on the HCVA form it will not be accepted for the batch.  I have only had to rebill a few cases with this amazing software.  And, as I said, free for the user.

3)     If you have an expanding practice, consider hiring an insurance biller sooner rather than later.  I waited too long for this step and so did several of my colleagues. In fact, most of my colleagues wish they hired a biller sooner.   What I did not know at the time is that I only have a certain amount of qi, and if I am wasting 15 hours a week trying to bill $25 than this is not an effective use of my time.  Better to use my talent in generating income (e.g. treating), and let someone who is an expert in terms of billing navigate that.  A biller brings the benefit of being current in coding and HIPPA changes that we may not know about as solo practitioners.  In addition, a professional biller is far more knowledgeable in verifying insurance, finding the loopholes, hidden deductibles, etc.  This has saved tremendously in terms of billing cases where the patient in fact had no coverage.

Be advised, billing for ancillary care such as acupuncture is DIFFERENT than billing for western medicine, and a biller will have their own learning curve in terms of billing for acupuncture,  It took my biller and I about a year to work the kinks out – who required chart notes, who was most likely to deny payments, wait times, etc.   It was admittedly scary that someone was now getting 15% or more of the take, but my own acupuncturist found that when she hired a biller, the service paid for itself in a few months. 

As your qi is freed up from the drain and frustration of billing, it becomes available to treat the new clients who are waiting.  My own practice expanded about 30% after I hired a biller, sort of an if-you-build-it-they-will-come scenario.  Had I not had this billing relationship in place, I would not have been ready to see such a high volume of patients.    

4)     Don’t get greedy.  This was a great piece of advice from my beloved chiropractor prior to billing my first Workers Compensation case.  He said “ Don’t get greedy, don’t over code.”  His advice to me was to never code for more than three procedures in any one visit lest you run the risk of being red-flagged by the insurance carrier.  I have seen some acupuncturists bill PI cases at over $400 per session since PI still tends to pay at 100% of the fee schedule for a period of time.  This is completely unethical and depletes the patient’s med-pay, to say nothing of creating bad impressions for us within the industry.  Chiropractors are reaping the rewards of greed and over billing now so let’s learn from their mistakes.

From The Trenches: The Case For BIlling

(This is a reprint from my recent article in the Journal of Oriental Medicine as part of a series on practice management.  My apologies  to my regular readers since this is geared to students and colleagues).

From the Trenches:  To Bill or Not to Bill Should not be “The Question.”

I was dismayed to see a recent article in one of our professional journals discussing the pros and cons of whether acupuncturists should accept and bill insurance, a topic of some discussion when I was in school over a dozen years ago.  At that time, the reigning consensus was that cash was king, and most wanted to be a cash-only practice, under the radar so to speak, without the hassles of paperwork and coding. 

As romantic a notion as that was then, after practicing for almost a decade, I would venture to say that it is almost impossible to make a living wage in our profession without accepting or billing for certain types of insurance.  A cash-only practice excludes Workers Compensation, personal injury (PI) and certain generous PPOs which have better fee schedules.  Further, I think it excludes us from participating in the medical care system, as exacerbating as it is.   Rather than assuming our proper role along side MDs, DCs, and NDs, we remain second class citizens, medically speaking, often thought of as slightly more educated massage therapists.

In this economic climate, the question is not whether we are to accept insurance and bill for it, but how to do it efficiently and in such a way as to avoid the burnout that frequently drives away otherwise talented clinicians from private practice.  It also requires that we become knowledgeable about coding and speaking with physicians and their staff about how to navigate the insurance maze effectively.  For those of you like myself, who, after graduate school are facing $60-120K in debt, perhaps without additional financial support from a family or spouse, or who have only dabbled in insurance billing before and are somewhat intimidated by the maze, then this article for you.

For most newly licensed practitioners of course, the difficulties and wait times associated with insurance make it difficult in terms of managing cash flow.  My own chronology was that I had a cash only practice for the first 2 years, after which I got my first Workers Comp case.  I think it took me 6 hours to navigate how to even print the HCVA form and line it up with my printer.  OK at that time, my business was slow enough that I was still unacquainted with the idea of  time-for-money.  The fact that it took 6 months and 40 phone calls to get paid was offset by a nice check, although if you include hours worked on the case I think I averaged $4 an hour.

Well into my third year, I began to bill paper claims for some providers, and spent more than 10 hours each weekend doing so, for cases as little as $25,  the going fee schedule for many payers (and sadly still is).  The number of cases that required rebilling was staggering, sometimes for an error as trifling as a misspelled street name.  At that time, paper claims were not processed in under than 60 days, and then add in rebilling and  another 60 days my average wait time for $25 was 4-8 months.  Switching to electronic claims and using a clearing house helped somewhat, but again, lots of rebilling and denials.  Don’t get me started about the hours on hold trying to verify insurance coverage, since most payers at that time were not online yet.  Even now, ancillary care is often not included in the online portion of verifying patient coverage and requires a phone call.

In my 4^th year (and to strains of the Hallelujah chorus) I hired a biller and hired some student interns, and slowly began to get my life back.  But a biller alone did not solve all the problems, since the American medical system and insurance companies in particular, operate with a profit motive which includes unscrupulous practices to deny payment for any reason.  Most medical doctors, unless they run a solo practice, are completely protected from this since they rarely, if ever, have to deal with billing issues.  But for the small solo practice, the nuisances of navigating the insurance billing world leave many clinicians and patients furious and frustrated.   Frankly I was ready to retire by year 5.  

More coming in my next installment....

The Link between Celiac and ADHD

There's evidence suggesting that gluten sensitivity may be at the root of many neurological and psychiatric conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What is gluten?
It's a protein found in wheat grain and part of "gluey" proline and glutamine rich proteins known as prolamines. Prolamines are found in all cereal grains, even rice, corn and oats, but only wheat, and to a lesser extent rye, spelt and einkorn, are assosiated with the serious neurological and autoimmune reactions often linked to autism spectrum disorder.

Gluten is only found in wheat species. Spelt or einhorn gluten has dramatically lower antigenicity of common wheat (Triticulum aestivum) that is used in bread products. Other cereal grasses have what are known as prolamines (proline-glutamine rich proteins) with rye containing secalin, barley containing horedin, etc, but they have very little cross-reactivity with antigens associated with wheat intolerance.

It has long been known that people with celiac disease are also more likely to suffer from ADHD, another condition that is heavily influenced by dietary habits.

However, while the treatment of celiac disease is a completely gluten-free diet, with ADHD the most oft-cited dietary villain is sugar, whereas grains are often overlooked (even though they act much like sugar in your body).

It turns out, though, that there may be a closer link between the symptoms of celiac disease and ADHD than was previously recognized, and that connection is gluten.

A Gluten-Free Diet May "Cure" ADHD
Many children with ADHD do not respond well to most grains, especially wheat. This could be because they have full-blown celiac disease, which impacts an average of one out of every 133 people in the United States (although some studies have found that this number may be as high as 1 in 33 in at-risk populations) -- or because they have a less obvious condition known as gluten sensitivity.

People with gluten sensitivity, which may comprise 10 percent of the U.S. population or more, experience many of the same symptoms as celiac disease causes, including headaches, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, gas and more, but may be unaware that the culprit triggering these symptoms is wheat and other gluten-containing grains. It's also very possible to have celiac disease and not know it … as researchers state, "in many cases, the disease may be clinically silent despite manifest small bowel mucosal lesions."

But the psychological and behavioral symptoms of ADHD are now overlapping so often with those of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity that it's recommended "celiac disease … be included in the ADHD symptom checklist." This suggestion was prompted by a new study, which found people with ADHD who tested positive for celiac disease improved significantly after following a gluten-free diet for at least six months. The researchers noted:

"After initiation of the gluten-free diet, patients or their parents reported a significant improvement in their behavior and functioning compared to the period before celiac diagnosis and treatment … "

It may sound strange to you that eating a grain that wreaks havoc on your gut would manifest as symptoms related to your brain, rather than your digestion, but grains are inherently pro-inflammatory and will worsen any condition that has chronic inflammation at its root -- and not just inflammation in your gut, but anywhere in your body. Chronic inflammation in your body can wreak havoc in your brain, and the importance of reducing inflammation when dealing with mental health issues is well known. It is very common for people to experience a wide variety of mental health and emotional improvements upon eliminating gluten from their diet.


Why Even Whole, Sprouted Wheat is a Problem
I recommend that everyone following my beginner nutrition plan eliminate all gluten from their diets, whether or not they have celiac disease or ADHD, because many experience health improvements upon doing so. Among the most important foods to avoid are those gluten-containing grains that contain gliadin molecules, such as wheat.
When gliadin in the wheat protein complex (containing over 23,000 proteins) activates the protein zonulin in the gut, it opens up the gaps between the enterocytes causing an influx of improperly digested wheat proteins and stomach bacteria.
Therefore regardless of your sensitivity level to the wheat proteins, gliadin opens up a pandora's box of intestinal permeability, and subsequent systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation.

Wheat also contains high amounts of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a glycoprotein classified as a lectin, which is largely responsible for many of wheat's ill effects. Other grains high in lectins include rice, spelt, and rye. Interestingly enough, the highest amounts of WGA is found in whole wheat, including its sprouted form, which is touted as being the most healthful form of all.

Lectins are actually designed to withstand degradation through a wide range of pH and temperatures, which is why sprouting, fermenting and cooking will NOT negate its ill effects. WGA lectin is particularly tough because it's actually formed by the same disulfide bonds that give strength and resilience to vulcanized rubber and human hair.

Furthermore, because lectins are so small and hard to digest, they tend to bioaccumulate in your body, where they can interfere with biological processes. WGA is particularly troublesome in this regard. Studies indicate it has a number of health-harming characteristics and activities:

Pro-inflammatory--WGA stimulates the synthesis of pro-inflammatory chemical messengers (cytokines) in intestinal and immune cells, and has been shown to play a causative role in chronic thin gut inflammation. Immunotoxicity--WGA induces thymus atrophy in rats , and anti-WGA antibodies in human blood have been shown to cross-react with other proteins, indicating that they may contribute to autoimmunity. In fact, WGA appears to play a role in celiac disease (CD) that is entirely distinct from that of gluten, due to significantly higher levels of IgG and IgA antibodies against WGA found in patients with CD, when compared with patients with other intestinal disorders.


Neurotoxicity-- WGA can cross your blood-brain barrier through a process called "adsorptive endocytosis," pulling other substances with it. WGA may attach to your myelin sheath and is capable of inhibiting nerve growth factor, which is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons. Excitotoxicity-- Wheat, dairy, and soy contain exceptionally high levels of glutamic and aspartic acid, which makes them all potentially excitotoxic. Excitotoxicity is a pathological process where glutamic and aspartic acid cause an over-activation of your nerve cell receptors, which can lead to calcium-induced nerve and brain injury. These two amino acids may contribute to neurodegenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Huntington's disease, and other nervous system disorders such as epilepsy, ADD/ADHD and migraines.

Cytotoxicity—WGA has been demonstrated to be cytotoxic to both normal and cancerous cell lines, capable of inducing either cell cycle arrest or programmed cell death (apoptosis). Disrupts Endocrine Function—WGA may contribute to weight gain, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance by blocking the leptin receptor in your hypothalamus. It also binds to both benign and malignant thyroid nodules, and interferes with the production of secretin from your pancreas, which can lead to digestive problems and pancreatic hypertrophy.

Cardiotoxicity—WGA has a potent, disruptive effect on platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1, which plays a key role in tissue regeneration and safely removing neutrophils from your blood vessels. Adversely effects gastrointestinal function by causing increased shedding of the intestinal brush border membranIt is my sincere hope that people will begin to realize that drug therapy, if at all necessary, should be a very last resort, after all other options have been exhausted, when it comes to behavioral problems such as ADHD. The first route of treatment should actually be dietary changes, including:


•Eliminate most grains and sugars, including fructose, from your child's diet. Grains and sugars both tend to cause allergies in sensitive individuals. Even organic, whole, sprouted grain can cause problems in many children so it would be wise to give them a "grain holiday" and see if their behavior improves.


•Replace soft drinks (whether diet and regular), fruit juices, and pasteurized milk with pure, clean non-fluoridated water.

•Increase omega-3 fats by taking a high quality animal-based omega-3 oil. Research has confirmed that animal-based omega-3 fat can improve the symptoms of ADHD more effectively than drugs like Ritalin® and Concerta®. In my view, krill oil is the best option for this. It contains essential EPA and DHA in a double-chain phospholipid structure that makes it far more absorbable than the omega-3s in fish oil.

•Minimize your use of nearly all processed fats, especially trans fats as they disrupt nerve cell intercommunication.

•Avoid all processed foods, especially those containing fructose, artificial colors, flavors and preservatives, which may trigger or worsen symptoms. Gluten is also commonly hidden in processed foods like ready-made soups, soy sauce, candies, cold cuts, and various low- and no-fat products, as well as refined grain products like bread, pizza crust, pasta, cookies and pastries.


I also recommend you have your child follow a gluten-free diet to see if this eliminates their symptoms. Your best bet when deciding to eliminate gluten is to primarily base your diet on lean proteins, vegetables and raw dairy products, as described in my nutrition plan, and stick with the grains, seeds and flours available that are naturally gluten-free.
This includes:
Rice Corn (only eat organic, non-GM corn)
Quinoa Sorghum
Soy (but I don't recommend eating this for other reasons) Flax and amaranth seed
Buckwheat and millet do not contain the gliadin molecule that can provoke the inflammatory reaction from gluten. Therefore, they are usually safe to eat as well.

Gluten-free options are becoming much more in demand and as a result are showing up in grocery stores, restaurants and from caterers. But keep in mind, particularly if you are relying on processed gluten-free foods, that cross-contamination can and does occur, most likely during processing, and many companies simply aren't testing to make sure the final product is still gluten-free.


Finally, the benefits of a gluten-free diet do not always appear overnight. Some do experience improvements rapidly, but in others it can take 9 to 12 months before the lining of your small intestine is fully healed. Generally, allow 6 to 9 months of following a gluten-free diet before you expect symptoms to resolve.

The Stunning Effect of This Single Vitamin on CANCER...

In  scathing commentary about Big Pharma in America and the for-profit drug industry, Dr. Mercola discusses the effect of the cancer industry and the profit motive.   Now I think it is far too simplistc to say that the right version of D3 is the amazing cure-all that Mercola espouses.  But most of us don't have this level of corruption in the psyche, which is why it is inconceivable to think that this information could be surpressed.  Most of my fellow doctors would do pretty much anything to help their patients get well, but you are far more profitable as a sick person than maintaining  your health.  MDs do not get paid for this by the way, the drug companies do....    
Read on McDuff.... 

What if a cure for cancer has been right here all along? What if the very agency charged with protecting your health is the one keeping you from that cure?


A Lawless, Rogue Agency Out of Control
Ten years ago a former New York State assemblyman, Daniel Haley, wrote a scathing exposé on how the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) systematically shuts the door on effective and non-toxic products, many for cancer.

The FDA is the chief agency in charge of protecting and promoting Americans' health and safety. But in 10 stunning, true stories in his book, "The Politics of Healing," Haley describes how the FDA has suppressed and banned natural health cures – eight of them for cancer. He later wrote about two additional cancer cures that worked, which the FDA also disallowed.

The FDA even admitted that one of these treatments, discovered by Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, was successful with some of the most incurable forms of cancer. I shared this with you in a recent article that showed his film, but stories like this are far too common, and you can't help but wonder how many people have died while the FDA denied them cancer treatments that work.

Haley brazenly calls the FDA a rogue, out of control agency that has lied in Congressional testimonies, deliberately falsified data, and destroyed evidence to prohibit cures like Burzynki's from coming to market. The FDA's loyalties are to the drug industry, not to individuals, Haley says.
His claims mirror those of Dr. David Graham, who once worked in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety. In 2004 Dr. Graham blew the whistle on six drugs that were harming people, including Vioxx, but instead of acting on his warnings, Graham's superiors pulled him off his job. He fought back in a PBS television special when he told how he'd been chastised at the FDA for thinking the FDA served the public. The "FDA is there to serve the drug industry," Graham said his supervisors told him.

'Virtually Every' Drug Company Now Targeting Cancer Therapies
Today, the FDA continues to serve its client, Big Pharma, by making sure that toxic chemotherapy, along with surgery and radiation, are the only cancer treatment options legally available to you. This industry is huge, with 139 cancer treatment drugs in the pipeline just for women alone. All told there are over 900 experimental cancer therapies under investigation. No wonder so many pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their cancer drug research!

According to the New York Times:
"Virtually every large pharmaceutical company seems to have discovered cancer, and a substantial portion of the smaller biotechnology companies are focused on it as well. Together, the companies are pouring billions of dollars into developing cancer drugs."

Note they said drugs, not cures. That's because this industry isn't set up for a cure, even though they say that's what they're looking for. It's also why economic forecasts predict 20 million new cancers by 2025, with the $50 billion-a-year cancer treatment business increasing by 15 percent a year. Pfizer alone projects its annual cancer drug returns will be $11 billion by 2018.

The Truth about Vitamin D
Everyone's talking about vitamin D right now, especially since the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) updated their recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for it. The truth is that most Americans are deficient in vitamin D, and studies show that vitamin D supplementation can both prevent and kill many infections and diseases, including cancer.

Vitamin D isn't actually a vitamin, although scientists refer to it as such. It's actually a steroid hormone that you get from sun exposure, food sources and/or supplementation. The term refers to either vitamin D2 or D3, but according to the National Vitamin D Council, D3 (chemical name 25-hydroxy vitamin D) is real vitamin D, and is the same substance produced naturally through your skin by sun exposure.

Older research appears at odds on whether your body cares which form of D it's getting. But a study in the January 2011 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that D3 is 87 percent more effective than D2, and is the preferred form for treating vitamin D deficiency. It's measured in international units (IU's) in nanograms per milliliter, or ng/mL. The Vitamin D Council believes that a person's D3 levels should be at least 50 ng/mLfor your body to function properly. (To determine whether you might be deficient, you need to get your vitamin D levels tested, and ideally, you'll want to get tested regularly thereafter to ensure you're maintaining optimal levels year-round.)
Fourteen famous vitamin D researchers gave the FNB this information, but the FNB apparently ignored the information that the researchers presented because their "updated" RDA levels ended up being so pitifully low that it's doubtful it can significantly impact Americans' deficiency, let alone fight off diseases like cancer and heart disease.

Experts Protest 'Impossible' New RDA Levels
Depending on your age, the new recommendations are 600 to 800 IUs a day for adults and between zero and 600 IUs a day for children. The FNB also said that taking vitamin D in amounts of 10,000 IUs or more could be dangerous – but that's ridiculous, seeing that a 30-minute dose of sunshine can give an adult more than 10,000 IUs! Since countless studies indicate that much higher levels of vitamin D are required for optimal health, it's no surprise that experts lost no time denouncing the FNB's recommendations.
"It's almost impossible to significantly raise your vitamin D levels when supplementing (at the FNB levels)," the Vitamin D Council posted on its website.

Hidden Agendas and Conflicts of Interest
Suspecting that conflicts of interest and hidden agendas played a part in this, the Vitamin D Council filed Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests so they could examine the FNB's notes on the process. They're still waiting on an answer, but I'm wondering if it doesn't have something to do with the fact that over 1,350 clinical trials on vitamin D are currently being conducted by major drug companies, all based on the prevention or cure of many illnesses and diseases, including 388 for cancer.

Yes, cancer.

From breast to prostate, to colorectal to brain cancers, and even basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer), Drug companies such as Pfizer and Merck are currently either sponsoring or collaborating on clinical trials based on the premise that vitamin D administered orally, intravenously or topically (for skin cancer) may either prevent or cure cancer. Cancer foundations and institutes are all in on the clinical study game as well, such as the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health. Even the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran Affairs are studying ways to prevent and cure cancer with vitamin D!

What's really interesting is that several of these studies are using vitamin D in amounts of 50,000 IUs a day or more – which flies strongly in the face of the FNB's claims that self-supplementing with 10,000 could be dangerous to your health. Since recent studies show that supplements of up to 40,000 IUs a day don't appear to be toxic, and that doses as low as 400 IUs a day are too low to even maintain skeletal health, let alone prevent cancer.

The FDA's Definition of Drug vs. Supplement
Over 800 studies already show that vitamin D could have cancer-prevention and/or treatment possibilities. But the problem is that it's a natural substance that can't be patented as a simple supplement, meaning there's no real revenue in it, compared to a prescription brand drug. That's why many drug studies involving vitamins of any kind hinge on how the FDA defines drugs and supplements.

A drug is defined as a product meant for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of a disease. A supplement is defined as a product that is meant to simply "supplement" or "enhance" a normal diet within the daily allowances recommended by the FDA. Drugs – and retailers who sell supplements are not allowed to tell you that vitamin D can possibly "prevent, mitigate or cure" cancer without having the FDA accuse them of selling a drug that hasn't been approved through the proper FDA process.

Again, Follow the Money if You Want to Know the Truth
That process of getting a drug to market costs an average $359 million and takes nearly 10 years– with a good portion of the money going directly to the FDA through user fees. Over the years these fees have become a major funding source for the FDA. What drug companies get in return is faster FDA reviews and drug approvals.

As a result, a kind of you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours scenario has ensued, with drug companies maintaining major leverage over the FDA when it comes to protecting their revenue sources, including making sure the $60 billion-a-year supplement business doesn't get in the way of drug sales. The history of FDA laws and regulations on file at Harvard Law School, explains how years ago an FDA task force long ago established this policy
"… to ensure that the presence of dietary supplements on the market does not act as a disincentive to drug development."

So how does this relate to too-low RDA levels for vitamin D?
Let's look at the clinical trials shows that most of them involve "high-potency" D3 supplements, which puts them in the drug category if it turns out they can mitigate, treat or cure cancer. And that means they can be patented – and sold to you as prescriptions at sky-high prices.

Treatment of Automimmune Disease with Oriental Medicine

Autoimmune diseases are a group of disorders in which the immune system attacks the body and destroys or alters tissues. There are more than eighty serious chronic illnesses in this category including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, lupus, thyroid disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Addison's disease, pernicious anemia, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis and Guillain–Barré syndrome. According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA) twenty percent of the population suffers from autoimmune disorders. Each disease appears uncommon on an individual basis but, as a group, the disorders make up the fourth-largest cause of disability among women.

Due to the complexity of treating autoimmune disorders, integrative medicine solutions including acupuncture and Oriental medicine have received much attention as successful therapies in their treatment particularly for use in providing pain relief, regulating the immune system, managing symptoms and improving overall quality of life.

What Causes Autoimmune Disease?
Under normal conditions, an immune response cannot be triggered against the cells of one's own body. In certain cases, however, immune cells make a mistake and attack the very cells that they are meant to protect. This can lead to a variety of autoimmune diseases which encompass a broad category of over 100 diseases in which the person's immune system attacks his or her own tissue.
The exact mechanisms causing these changes are not completely understood, but bacteria, viruses, toxins, and some drugs may play a role in triggering an autoimmune process in someone who already has a genetic (inherited) predisposition to develop such a disorder. It is theorized that the inflammation initiated by these agents, toxic or infectious, somehow provokes in the body a "sensitization" (autoimmune reaction) in the involved tissues.

As the disease develops vague symptoms start to appear, such as joint and muscle pain, general muscle weakness, possible rashes or low-grade fever, trouble concentrating, or weight loss. The following symptoms may point toward something being wrong: numbness and tingling in hands and feet, dry eyes, hair loss, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, or repeated miscarriages can also be caused by an autoimmune response.

How Acupuncture Treats Autoimmune Disorders
According to Oriental medicine, autoimmune disorders occur when there is imbalance within the body. Imbalance can come from an excess or deficiency of yin and yang that disrupts the flow of Qi, or vital energy, through the body. Acupuncture is used to help the body restore balance, treating the root of the disorder, while specifically addressing the symptoms that are unique to each individual.
Clinical research has shown that acupuncture causes physical responses in nerve cells, the pituitary gland, and parts of the brain. These responses can cause the body to release proteins, hormones, and brain chemicals that control a number of body functions. It is proposed that, by these actions, acupuncture affects blood pressure, body temperature and the immune system.

In addition to acupuncture, your treatment program to manage your autoimmune disorder may involve a combination of therapies including stress reducing exercises, moderate physical activity, herbal medicine and nutritional support.

Learn more about how acupuncture and Oriental medicine can be safely and effectively incorporated into treating autoimmune disorders, call for a consultation today!
Reprinted from our July Newsletter here...

These Five Foods May Cause Problems VERY Similar to Wheat...

 As some of you know, I have espoused a gluten-free and anti-inflammatory diet for anyone with pain, thyroid, or other types of auto-immune conditions, including Type II diabetes, RA, fibromyalgia.  Dr. Kharazian and Dr. Mercola advocate going even one better and ask us to consider eliminating grains entirely from our diet.  This is more in keeping with a daoist form of eating.  In the Shen Nong Ben Cao (circa 400 AD)  the introduction of cultivated grains, including rice was the advent of the "1000 diseases."  I have reprinted a portion fo Dr. Mercola's article here which addresses the lectin found even on rice, which is generally considered safe for a gluten-sensitive individual.

"While eliminating wheat from your diet is an excellent and necessary step for improving health, it may not be alone sufficient, especially in those with serious health challenges. According to a series of articles on the website Green Med Info, there are other foods in the Western diet that have properties similar to wheat, because they contain "chitin binding lectins", which are similar to wheat lectin (WGA).
Chitins are long polymers of n-acetyl-glucosamine, the primary binding target of wheat lectin. Wheat lectin and chitin-binding lectin are therefore functionally identical. Chitin-binding lectin containing foods include:
•Potato
•Tomato
•Barley
•Rye
•Rice


Additionally, sprouted grains, which are typically considered to be healthful fare can also be problematic for a couple of different reasons. Not only do sprouted whole wheat contain the highest amounts of wheat lectin, sprouted grains also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs)—a surprisingly toxic component!
Even a modest reduction in consumption of these types of carbohydrate-rich foods may promote loss of deep belly fat. This could help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, stroke and coronary artery disease, as excess visceral fat (intra-abdominal fat) raises the risk of these diseases.

According to Eurekalert:
"... [S]ubjects who consumed [a] moderately carb-restricted diet had 11 percent less deep abdominal fat than those who ate the standard diet ... [S]ubjects on both diets lost weight. However, the moderately carb-restricted diet promoted a 4 percent greater loss of total body fat".
Yesterday, I discussed how wheat can deteriorate your mental health, and I mentioned that even sprouted wheat can contribute to poor health. I'll delve into this a bit more in just a moment, but first, let's review the health effects of some other non-wheat grains. As it turns out, wheat is not the only grain that can wreak havoc on your health.

Non-Wheat Grains May Be Just as Bad as Wheat...
If you have celiac disease (gluten intolerance), it's absolutely imperative to avoid all kinds of gluten—primarily wheat. But did you know that other non-wheat grains, and even some vegetables, such as tomato, may be problematic as well? Yes, there are a number of other foods with very similar properties to wheat! The following foods contain "chitin binding lectins", which are similar to wheat lectin (WGA):
•Potato
•Tomato
•Barley
•Rye
•Rice

"Chitins" are long polymers of n-acetyl-glucosamine, the primary binding target of wheat lectin. Wheat lectin and "chitin-binding lectin" are therefore functionally identical. This is probably news to most people, and could be an important tidbit for anyone struggling with celiac disease, or any other gastrointestinal issues.

Be Careful if You Have Insulin Resistance
About 85 percent of the people in the population have insulin resistance, and eating any grains, even healthy organic unprocessed ones can be a problem. How do you know if you have insulin resistance?

There are two ways:
You can measure your fasting insulin level. It should be under 3. It is relatively inexpensive and I believe most people should have it done The higher it is, the worse your insulin resistance. If you want to forgo the hassle of a blood test then you can use clinical conditions as a gauge. If you have any of the following four conditions you most likely have insulin resistance:
•Overweight
•Diabetes
•High blood pressure
•High cholesterol

I have explained this information for many years, but now we have new scientific research documenting that grains have other problems that are appear to be unrelated to insulin resistance, and I will review them below.

Sprouted Grains—Perhaps Not as Healthful as You've Been Told
The sprouts of grains such as wheat, maize, and rye are increasingly being consumed as health foods, and are also used for the production of dietary supplements. However, sprouted wheat actually contains the highest amounts of wheat lectin (WGA)—which is responsible for many of wheat's ill health effects! And that's not all. These sprouts (wheat, maize and rye) also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs). Benzoxazinoids are part of the plants' defense system against pests, and are actually toxic components...

A study from 2007, published in the journal Cancer Letters, investigated the mutagenic activities of the two most abundant BA's in these sprouted grains. Both types of BA were found be mutagens, meaning capable of altering genetic material, and both were also found to be aneugenic, meaning they affect cell division and lead to aneuploidy, an incorrect number of chromosomes.

"This is an interesting observation as it is assumed that aneuploidy is a key event in cancer induction and at present no other aneugenic plant-derived substances of dietary relevance are known," the authors wrote.

Now, I think it may be risky to claim that sprouted grains are outright toxic when ingested. That's probably not exactly the case. There may be mitigating factors involved, as there often are when you're dealing with a whole food."