The Weeks Clinic
Consultants for
Corrective Medicine and Psychiatry
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Your Prescription For Vitality
Everyone knows that health is never to be found in a pill but rather, good health is rooted in healthy habits and some good luck. ( i.e. choose your parents wisely!).
Therefore, let us begin with an understanding and agreement that illness is the manifestation of and the consequence of “dis-ease”.
Think of it this way. Metabolic imbalances occur first at the cellular level and then their consequences precipitate into “physicality” and become lesions. For example, there are specific cellular metabolic imbalances which set the stage for physical manifestation of illnesses such as arteriosclerosis, hypertension, gallstones, arthritic joints, fibroids or acne. After all, you don’t catch these problems. You cultivate them industriously over time!
The goal of the Weeks Clinic is to identify the cellular metabolic imbalances and to address our therapies to the root causes of those imbalances – be they biochemical, emotional or spiritual.
Let us begin by sharing with you an inspirational story about the nature of healing.
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The Three Brothers
An Emperor of ancient China once asked his court physician, a member of a family of healers, which of them was the most skilled in the art of healing. The physician, whose reputation was such that his name became synonymous with medical science in China, replied:
My eldest brother sees the spirit of sickness and removes it before it takes shape, so his name does not get out of the house.
My elder brother cures sickness when it is still extremely minute, so his name does not get out of the neighborhood.
As for me, I puncture veins, prescribe potions, and massage skin so that, from time to time, my name gets out and is heard among the lords of this land.”
Chinese medical doctors offer much wisdom regarding the topic of health. This story points out that small disturbances “the spirit of illness” or subtle energetic imbalances arise and if untreated, develop into more physically manifest materialistic lesions. In this story, the greatest physician works at these subtle levels and is therefore, the least famous. Preventive medicine is, after all, never as sexy as open-heart surgery. But, as the patient, which doctor do you value the most? The one who saves your life or the one that keeps you out of trouble in the first place? Or which patient would you like to be? The “turkey” (as the cardiologists refer to their open heart patients) getting carved up on the surgical table or the boringly healthy, high-performance healthy-most-of-your-life patient whose health habits reward you with vitality well into your older years.
From the oriental medicine perspective, most of western medicine’s suppression of symptoms as inappropriate in that it “locks the robber in the house”. Rather than cleaning house through detoxification and bio-therapeutic drainage while rebalancing the cellular biochemistry, most western medicines are double edged swords. They help somewhat but with significant side-effects. To be specific, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medications suppress symptoms but do NOT usher the robber out of the house. At times this “suppressive therapy” is highly appropriate (for example life threatening situations) however, we have misused antibiotics. Today, every doctor in America agrees that antibiotics are inappropriately overused to the point of creating a frightening scenario of drug-resistant bacteria. We as a scientific community appreciate the importance of breaking the knee-jerk habit of over-prescribing antibiotics and other suppressive therapies. Today, we can offer scientifically validated non-toxic and non-suppressive remedies designed to enhance our immune system and vitality.
So what is the best way to address your problems?
What cellular imbalances (“diseases”) are at the root of your illness?
As we begin the process of figuring out the answers to those questions, we invite you to begin your own self-healing process with the following practical suggestions.
These should be considered IN ADDITION TO the specific targeted nutritional supplements which Dr. Weeks recommends for your optimal health. This is the list of healthy habits which Dr. Weeks assumes you will incorporate into your life in order to take maximal advantage of the targeted nutrients which he prescribes for you.
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Dr. Weeks Prescription for Vitality:
1) Exercise every day – even if only a walk before sleep. The expression: “Use it or lose it!” applies here. No need to break a sweat but you do need to “Move it or lose it”. Exercise keeps one feeling and acting young! It is also an anti-depressant and mood elevator as it increased metabolism, heart-rate and endorphins.
Prescription for Vitality: take a brisk walk 30 minutes every other day (or more!)
2) Drink enough good water to keep your urine clear (not yellow); but don’t drink a lot of fluid with meals as it dilutes the digestive forces which is unhealthy. This habit can be trying at first as you will initially feel bloated, but it will prove very beneficial if you persevere. Note: this prescription for water does NOT include coffee, tea and pop which, though liquid, are in fact dehydrating fluids; Warning: soda pop and seltzer with its carbonation and phosphate levels is an important risk factor for developing osteoporosis! Even the diet drinks are dangerous. Drink WATER!
Prescription for Vitality: Here is the strategy that works! Place four 16 ounce bottles of water in four strategic places and GULP them down at a prearranged time. No sipping. Gulp them like your life depended upon it – actually, it does!) Place them as follows: 1st bottle at your bedside. Your feet don’t touch the floor until it is consumed. 2nd bottle is at the sink where you brush your teeth in the AM before breakfast. Again – no leaving the bathroom until you finish this! 3rd bottle is wherever you are at 10 AM 4th bottle is wherever you are at 4 PM. Only sip fluids after 4 PM to avoid being up to urinate at night. Only sip enough fluids with meals to help wash down food but avoid drinking enough to dilute you all-important digestive juices
3) Stop the Dehydrating Fluids like coffee, pop and (some) teas. Try Honegar or Lemhoney which are two versions of a highly absorbed nutrient drink which gives the boost of coffee with no adrenal and the pancreatic strain. These great Vermont folk remedy recipes involves getting a squeeze bottle and filling it 1/2 with raw honey and 1/2 with whole-apple organic apple cider vinegar for Honegar (or fresh squeezed lemon juice to make Lemhoney). Let sit or shake it to mix both liquids then squeeze an amount to taste into hot water for a comfy wake-up drink or into cold water for a refreshing “pep me up” afternoon drink! Much better tasting and gives more energy than pop or coffee as the vinegar acidifies the stomach and facilitates nutrient absorption from food and from the vinegar itself as well as the enzyme-rich and nutrient dense raw honey.
Prescription for Vitality: Honegar or Lemhoney to taste instead of pop or coffee.
4) Use Digestive Aids appropriately. Most people overeat and digest their food incompletely. This puts a toxic strain on the immune system and can be at the root of many health challenges. If you are overweight, most likely you are overfed and undernourished (because of insulin dysglycemia – more on that later). Therefore, take one tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar (OACV) 30 minutes before each meal in order to enhance stomach digestion. This cheap but effective “aperitif” will trigger brain and gut hormones and enhance digestion. This in turn reduces the burden on your intestinal tract. Also, caloric restriction is the ONLY strategy proven to enhance longevity. This truth is valid today as it was 200 years ago when Ben Franklin wrote: “If Americans ate half as much, they would live twice as long”.
Prescription for Vitality: 1 tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar (OACV) in an 8 ounce glass of room-temperature water 15 minutes before each meal. That should be the first thing you do to prepare the meal. (Also, eat slowly, chew your food thoroughly and get in the habit of leaving each meal a bit hungry).
5) Take a top quality multi-vitamin, multi-mineral (MVMM) supplement. See “Not all Chelates are Created Equal” for reasons why Dr. Weeks advises the use of chelated products which are more bioavailable and therefore beneficial. Most over-the-counter products are poorly formulated with poor quality substances like cellulose, calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide, dl-alpha tocopherol etc.
Prescription for Vitality: Take either the appropriate multi-vitamin multi-mineral (MVMM): Vital Assist, Ola Loa, Lifepak twice a day with meals.
6) Take a top quality essential fatty acid supplement and avoid saturated fats 9except for organic coconut oil) and heated fats (trans fatty acids) such as what comes with fried foods. For those who dislike the taste of fish or flax oil every morning, there are many great options. One trick is to put the tablespoon of oil into a mouth already full of juice and then swallow. This gives no taste of oil. Women are advised to take the flax oil from the new moon to the full moon and the Evening Primrose/Borage oil from the full moon to the new moon. This is especially important if cancer is a concern. Given concerns about heavy metal in the seas, we also recommend omega 3 essential fatty acids from the ground up seed called SALBA. This is delicious.
Prescription for Vitality: the appropriate ESSENTIAL fatty acids: Krill oil, CorOmega, Evening Primrose oil , Essential Balance flax borage, pumpkin seed and other oils), Salba seeds
7) Most old time doctors acknowledge that chronic illnesses begin with a dis-ease of the gastro-intestinal
tract. This is often the result of too much of the bad bacteria and fungal / yeast organism (overgrowth) which overwhelms the “good” bacteria like acidophilus and bifidobacteria. The gastro-intestinal tract is not just a tube going through your body but rather is full of folds and wrinkles designed to enhance absorption. Therefore, prepare for the shocking truth that if the average adult were able to flatten out all these wrinkles the size of the gastro-intestinal tract it would be the size of a tennis court! Add to that shocker, the fact that there are 10 times more of these organisms than there are of YOUR cells. Remember that only 1/4 of what is contained within your skin has YOUR genetic material in it. The rest is NOT you. Hmmm. That means that you are a minority within our own skin! The vast majority of the stuff within you in is NOT you but rather it is either critters like bacteria (both good and bad types) or fluids or minerals, etc. Therefore, in order to re-establish a healthy balance in this vast territory, everyone needs to take a top quality pro-biotic (acidophilus and bifidobacteria).
Prescription for Vitality: We recommend a show of force” by taking the FlorAssist and Saccromyces boullardii twice a day with meals for 1-3 months. Warning: Most acidophilus products on the market are either ineffective or have toxic bacteria. Shop with care! We do NOT recommend eating yogurt to get your dose of probiotics.
8) Fiber – you KNOW you need it but do you know why? Certainly it helps keep you regular (which is VERY important for you health). However, fiber also can absorb toxins which your body, in its wisdom, is trying to excrete. For this reason we recommend ground up organic (of course!) flax seeds as a daily supplement. This doesn’t supply the oil, just the cleansing fiber. Other unrefined foods also offer plenty of fiber – groats are favorite around here.
Prescription for Vitality: use that old coffee grinder you have now retired from coffee and use it to grind up frozen (less sticky) flax seeds and Salba seeds and other fiber soures and put a tablespoon/day on cereal, salad or whatever!
9) Wear your Super Socks to enhance your immune system: You need: a foot bowl of hot water, a bowl of ice cold water, cotton socks and larger pair of wool socks. Plan: heat up feet above the ankle for 5 minutes (don’t burn yourself, but push it to cherry red color) then reach over and wring out the ice cold cotton socks and place them on the hot feet then immediately pull on the bigger wool sock and completely cover the cotton socks. Now GO TO BED and sleep. Why do this? This tricks the body into thinking that a lot of warm blood is needed in the feet. Most of the extra blood is stored in the liver and these warming socks flush the liver and tonifies the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system thus enhancing immunity and bio-therapeutic drainage. Feet should feel warm in thirty minutes and the socks will be dry in the AM if you system is up to snuff.
Prescription for Vitality: do treatments 3 nights in a row when getting sick as determined by you and Dr. Weeks
10) Dry Skin Brushing every AM before shower or toilette, get a natural sponge and brush your skin for 45 seconds in the following manner: stroke from periphery to center (fingers to armpit) and outer to center and towards the heart! Skin and sponge must be dry!
Prescription for Vitality: JUST DO IT!
11) Remember: there is no such thing as “junk food” – there is food and there is junk. Now, while junk can be made to look like food, it is NOT food!) Therefore, eat only unrefined foods that look like you could find them in nature. For example, carrots and seeds and nuts are fine but who has ever seen a peanut butter tree or a pasta tree? You can buy the peanuts and make your fresh peanut butter but most commercial peanut butter has SUGAR added. Equally you can buy the real grain and make real food from it. Therefore, shop the periphery of the supermarket where the live foods are sold. No food additives, coloring and no extra salt or sugar should pass your lips!
Prescription for Vitality: Only eat things that look as if they were once alive. The ancient doctors taught that “Life comes from Life” so eat life if you want to live with vitality.
12) Stop all dairy products (milk, cheese, butter) Why? See www.notmilk.com or call 1-888-not-milk for details. Essentially, modern pasteurized and homogenized milk is very different from what your grandparents drank. The milk moustache ads promote a beverage that is toxic with anti-biotics, pesticides, hormones, pus and other chemicals including bovine growth hormones. Most people are dairy intolerant and most ear infections, ADD/ADHD and weight problems are directly related to dairy consumption. I recommend that you get off it completely for 10 days then enjoy a big milkshake and feel the phlegm start to drown you. Then you will know from your own experience how toxic these products have become for everyone except baby cows. By the way, the milk referred to in the Bible – “the land of milk and honey” – was goat and sheep milk. It was NOT cow’s milk.
Prescription for Vitality: No more dairy. Don’t take my word for it. Understand why!
13) White sugar is the single most toxic food we eat. Avoid it! Excess sugar is at the root of cardio-vascular and heart disease, vision loss, obesity, diabetes and cancer. If you don’t believe me, search the web for Amadori products (the biological consequences of excess sugar).
Prescription for Vitality: moderate raw honey is fine but no more white sugar!
14) The castor bean (Oleum ricini), also known as Palma Christi (the Palm of Christ), due to its shape and healing properties, is known principally as a cathartic (strong laxative). A gentler use is in the form of a pack placed over the abdomen, usually with heat applied. The oil is absorbed into the lymphatic circulation to provide a soothing, cleansing, and nutritive treatment which strongly enhances immune function (the GALT system). See our instruction sheet for details.
Prescription for Vitality: Take Castor oil packs twice a week. Try it! You will LOVE it!
15) Develop sleep habits in order to receive deep stage 3 restorative sleep each night. Protect your soul as the evening advances so that you are preparing for sleep by avoiding watching TV or the news or any adrenalin producing activities. Make your peace with the world and relax into sleep. Good sleep hygiene is critically important. In Chinese medicine the liver (or organ of regeneration) is featured between 10 PM and 1 AM so let’s not get to bed after 10PM! Remember, “The Rest of your Days depend upon the Rest of your Nights.”
Prescription for Vitality: be deeply asleep between 10 PM and 6 AM or call the Clinic to get this problem addressed.
16) Create meaningful relationships with people in order to serve in ways which you feel are important.
Prescription for Vitality: take the time to reflect and assess and evaluate how you are spending your precious time. Guard against victim mentality in all areas of your life!
17) Read and understand the health principles in recommended literature/web sites and do not be afraid to ask your doctors questions. Call us for clarifications. It will help us help you to help yourself! Don’t tolerate “victim mentality” – live your life on your terms.
Prescription for Vitality: be informed so that you know that you are going through this effort for YOUR sake and not because a doctor told you to do it!
18) Enjoy your life and its blessings. Cultivate a sense of meaning to your life. Read between the lines by pausing to consider deeper truths and subtle beauty. Seek the gift hidden within every challenge. Seek it especially in every health challenge. Remember symptoms are messengers that warn us when we are out of balance from a health perspective. They should be welcomed and not feared or hated. They are also healing gestures. A fever, for example, can be therapeutic if managed within the appropriate ranges.
Prescription for Vitality: Slow down, smile, breathe deeply and appreciate the beauty around and within you!
19) Any other suggestions? Please email them to me at admin@weeksmd.com and Welcome to the Best of the Rest © of your life!
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