To Help Someone New with Something New by Joan Kent, PhD

 

Just recently, a woman contacted me about helping her with a medical condition called exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Here’s a very brief account.

 

In EPI, the pancreas does not produce the enzymes necessary for digestion and absorption of foods. The missing enzymes are lipase, amylase and protease, needed to process fats, carbs and proteins.

 

The resulting problems with digestion and absorption lead in turn to serious problems:  severe weight loss, fatty stools, malnutrition, low energy, and more. Since people with EPI have difficulty absorbing fats, they easily become deficient in the important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

 

EPI can be a result of cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s, diabetes, celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis, or even surgery that partially removes the pancreas.

 

Never had I worked with a client who had this problem, so I immediately researched the condition, even before the woman and I spoke on the phone. It turns out that EPI is not reversible, not curable, and the patient needs to take enzyme-triggering meds with every meal.

 

Now, my sub-specialty is in insulin dysfunction, and many of my clients have been able to reverse metabolic syndrome, comprising several health conditions.

 

Over the years, I’ve been asked for help with CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy), ADHD, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and athletic performance. I’ve also helped clients reverse such issues as anxiety, depression and mood swings.

 

Because my orientation is to work with foods to reverse the effects of medical conditions, I found myself wondering how – or even if – I could help this woman.

 

I devised a sensible solution that would allow me to offer help on 2 tracks:

1. Help her stay structured and systematic in handling the medications as directed. This may sound like a no-brainer, but it wasn’t really. She’d just started the meds but was already playing fast and loose with their administration, taking them sometimes before, sometimes during, and sometimes after her meal. It had already backfired and left her feeling awful.
2. Help her with the nutrition content and structure of her meals and snacks, using what I know about foods, hormones and brain chem, to get – and even more importantly – keep her stable, alert, active, healthy and feeling great.

 

This concrete solution seems obvious now, and I knew it would help.

 

Even more than the challenge and the thank-you notes I’ve received from clients’ doctors, I love the transformations I see in my clients.

 

Got health problems? Don’t suffer needlessly! Instead, visit LastResortNutrition.com and request your Make Me Healthy consult. Find out how easy it can be to make simple food shifts that can mean big results for your health.

 

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar.