Welbutrin

 I have a client who has gone off Welbutrin. She was happy while on it, but now she is very sad, but aggressive??

This is a dragon that you have on your hands. Just going off without any type of herbal substitute is going to be a long and tough road. If you feel this is out of your hands, I would refer them out. The reason she as fine and now is not is because these drugs just keep serotonin on the synaptic cleft longer. They don’t actually create more of it. But because of the body’s down regulation from something that is constantly there, the body will stop producing its own. So the drugs actually make things worse! 

So my rec would be to find someone like me, Dr Kalish, Dr Oliver, etc that can work with this person. I have found that with nutrition, as well as Amino Aacid therapy that these people make great progress. Lab test can be done to find out if parasites, bacteria, as well as AA def are facilitating this dysfunction. Nutritionally, I have found that a more protein type like creates great success. Nutrition foundational principles and healing the gut are key to her success. From taking all those meds, I will be she has major Dysbiosis, leaky gut, hypochlorhydria, and so forth. The theory behind this is that most people with depressive like symptoms have major gut issues. I have found through research the carbs actually create serotonin release, which can and does deplete any stores that are left. As well, a lot of mood disorders are created through blood sugar handling issues. So initially I like to give the pancreas a break and get their blood sugar under control in order to stabilize their moods.

Joshua Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Well here are my thoughts and what has worked very well for clients of mine. The Trigeminal nerve is the 5^th CN and supplies sensation to the face. There are 3 divisions, the ophthalmic (V1), maxillary (V2) and madibular (V3). Besides senation, they also innervate the massetar, temporalis, med/lat pterydoid, tensor vali palatini, mylohyoid, digastric and tensor tympani. There are some schools of thought that believe that CN5 becomes impinged when leaving the cranium or with TMJ issues. I would find a CHEK Level 3 or higher to refer them to in order to get a full upper quarter assessment from. This might help pin the tail in the donkey. I have seen NMT help, as well as stress reduction techniques that you would now as an NLC. From the west side of it, Trigeminal Neuralgia is created by extreme stress. I have found this to be true, from lifestyle stress all the way to parasitic stress. But besides my exercise, rehab and nutritional programs, what has helped the most is acupuncture, of course. I know I always go this route, but it works. In TCM, we believe that Trigeminal Neuralgia is from an external invasion of a wind cold, wind heat, toxic heat in the channels,  and chronic qi (dull, distending, wandering pain, that comes and goes with emotions) and blood stagnation (fixed, stabbing, chronic pain). From my experience, people typically create this with chronic stress, then sleeping with the windows open or a fan on the face, then driving with the windows open on a very hot, cold or windy day. So each one compounds the next and then you have trigeminal neuralgia.

Joshua Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com

Neck, ear and hair acne

I have small pimples along the hair line, in the nose and ear cavities, along the neck and top middle of the back (bottom of the neck). Does the hairline and jaw/neck area correspond with the kidneys? Could the kidneys be overwhelmed from too much protein? (Or too much of one protein?) I have been following MT diet well for a few years, addressing adrenal fatigue and
estrogen dominance with much success.

ANSWER: Small pimples in the orrfices and along the neck do not correlate with the KD. The bladder meridian, GB, SI, San jaio and Du merdians cross parts of the back of the neck. As for the ears, they do correlate with the kidney. But if there were KD yang excess or fire symptoms, there would not be pimples. Pimples in TCM are typically due to heat of some sort. Summer is actually the season that is correlated with wind heat and wind phlegm attacks in TCM, so that would make sense. As well, the Chinese believe that the “wind” pathogen gets inside the body through the back of the neck through the Du, GB or SJ meridians.  INTERNAL (more chronic, longer lasting and slow to go away)
Lung Heat With Heat In The Blood – heat up surging to the face (not causing cough) causing red pimples with heat and pain in the local area. They will have a red complexion and have pusy eruptions.

Damp Heat In Large Intestine And Stomach – usually relates to diet causing phlegm heat. Red swollen eruptions with a shiny oily complexion, pusy eruptions, nodules, itchiness, pain, constipation and dark yellw urine with a decreased appetite.

Spleen Dysfunction With Damp Phlegm – spleen is unable to transform and transport dampness which turns to phlegm which turns to heat. Dull red complexion with deep eruptions, nodules, slow healing acne which leaves scarring So one of my recs would be to go see an acupuncturist to get a treatment, but some herbs as well to clear heat, and cool the blood.  You say she has been addressing adrenal fatigue and hormone balancing? With what, how long, etc? I find most women (besides the above) who have skin issues are estrogen dominance. I would redo the hormone panel to see where her progest levels are at, to make sure what she is doing is actually working. As well, most women (if on too high of a dose) will get acne, oily skin, increased hair growth, etc if their dose of DHEA is too high. I would reduce  the does and you will see great results.

Joshua Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com

Eye Twitching

I have a complex client who has had an eye twitch for a long time. We have tried nutrition, e-stim and nothing seems to work. As well, she is on progesterone cream for her hormones.

Well, here are my thoughts:

1. Try Neuromuscular Therapy on the eye. Find someone who can get in there to release the extrinsic muscles of the eye (superior/inferior/lateral/medial recti, inferior/superior oblique). If one is too short, when used it will spasm because it cannot shorten anymore.
2. As well, the certain nerve innervations (ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve) can get entrapped with TMJ dysfunction.
3. Get some acupuncture:  Eye Lid flickering, is due to wind from either internal or external wind. This time of year, there is a lot of “wind” pathogen within the seasons. Causes and herbs:
   Heart and Spleen Deficiency – Gui Pi Tang or Si Quan Da Bu Tang
   Liver Wind – Tian Ma Gou Teng Yin
   External Wind Invasion – Gui Gan Long Mu Tang
4. Our eyes are correlated to the liver in TCM and spiritually are related to the reality that we see. If one is not happy with their reality or are trying to use emotions, judgements, etc to smoke screen their own bullshit, that is when you start to see people having issues with their eyes. I would recommend them to a spiritual counselor (www.journeysofwisdom.com and ask for John McMullin) to aid with this issue.

Research by Peate and Seyle showed that almost every cell in the body has receptor sites for estrogen. So if one is estrogen dominant, besides the common things, you can also see muscle twitching.I have found that using oral bio-identical progesterone works better than dermal for many reasons.1. It enters the blood stream immediately, where dermal takes time. Everyone has different thickness of skin and layers of subcutaneous fat.2. It does not have to bypass the liver to get broken down. It enters the body and is turned into chylomicrons and is absorbed by the body immediately. Where dermal cream does bypass the liver and most gets excreted.3. You can dose oral very easily, where dermal is hard to dose. How much is actually in the squirt that you put on your hand?4. Most creams contain toxic solvents and are not bio-identical.I have worked with many women who were unsuccessful with the cream. I am not saying that some do not get success, but from my experience more do not than do. Just some more food for thought!