What do I mean by work WITH your body instead of against it? Let me give you an example.

Howard came to me with a diagnosis of proctitis. For a year and a half he had been having fairly regular episodes of blood in the stool, and an uncomfortable “bloating and upset stomach.” Essentially, after an exam and a colonoscopy, what he was diagnosed with was an inflammation of the end of his large intestine. He received the standard medical treatment of an anti-inflammatory and another drug that slowed down his digestive process; an anti-cholinergic drug.

This is a perfect example of the medical model that I describe as “working against the body.” Whether you are on a pharmaceutical or a natural supplement, chances are good that the intent of the pill is to stop some bodily process that is uncomfortable.

The nice thing is that, quite often, this “anti-” approach works. The symptoms can be reduced. They usually don’t go away, but people can feel a difference. In Howard’s case, the symptoms were improved, slightly. He was still uncomfortable, though, and didn’t want to be on the drugs for the rest of his life. He came to me looking for another option.

When we spoke about his condition, I told him that I could offer him a natural alternative to some of the drugs. Aloe vera juice, for example can be quite effective for healing intestinal inflammation.

However, I also said that, if he was open to it, I could offer him a completely different perspective on his illness. Instead of deciding that your colon is doing something wrong and try to stop it, we can instead ask why you are feeling this way? In other words, is there something your body is trying to tell you?

He seemed interested in what I was saying, so I went on. I said, “for example, there could be underlying stresses in your life that are contributing to your inflammation. Correcting underlying sources of mental and emotional stress would allow the symptoms that you are experiencing (the bloating, the upset stomach, the blood) to be healed by your body’s natural mechanisms. That is not to say that the physical symptoms that you have are not real! It’s just that the mind can influence the body and they often need to be healed in tandem.”

I continued, “I think of body symptoms as red flags, or notes, waved in front of us that say, ‘Hey, there’s something wrong down here- get some help!’ Once underlying problems are fixed, the body can often heal itself.

Howard agreed to work with me, but we ended up having just one session. That’s because his symptoms were gone after working together once, and he is now off of his medication.

What happened? The simple answer is that I worked with what his body was telling him instead of trying to stop the symptoms at all costs.

When we worked together, I gave him one very simple instruction: notice what was happening in his body and let himself feel it. When I asked him what he was feeling in his body, he said that his “stomach felt tense.” I asked him to let himself sink into that “tenseness” and pay attention to whatever else came up- whether physical, mental, or emotional.

It turned out that Howard is public school counselor, and his job is to try and help kids with extremely complex problems navigate the school system. There are rarely easy answers, and he found that he was getting very stressed out by the job.

When we started working, he noticed the tension in his belly was similar to the tension he felt at work. When I asked him what the hardest part about his counseling job was, he said that it was like, “trying to find the perfect piece of the puzzle to fit the problem in front of him. The problem is that I know that the perfect piece doesn’t exist, but I can’t help but keep looking for it. In my mind I know I can’t solve the puzzle, but part of me won’t let me stop looking. It’s exhausting!”

Meanwhile, he felt the tension move through his body. From his abdomen, it moved to his chest, then his neck and shoulders, and then back to his upper abdomen. Finally it moved to both his hips and his face and then was gone.

When I asked Howard what it said about him that he couldn’t find the missing puzzle piece, he said that he felt like it was his fault. There was a part of him that took the responsibility for solving the problem with each student and when the perfect solution remained elusive, it felt like it was his fault and that he had failed.

He had an inkling that he was putting a lot of pressure on himself, but now he saw clearly that he was trying to take responsibility for the massive problems in a huge public school bureaucracy. When I asked him to completely sink into the feeling of being at fault, he felt a deep awareness of his true role at work, and a deep release of the feeling of failure.

Howard’s bleeding has stopped and he only rarely gets abdominal discomfort. His job stress has declined significantly as well.

How did this happen? The details of his physiology are still a mystery, but it is clear that I helped Howard work with his body and not against it.

In my practice, I have seen that tremendous things can happen when the processes in our bodies are respected. That doesn’t mean that we don’t need any medications or physical interventions; sometimes the physical damage is extensive enough that we need some repair help. But healing the underlying cause of that physical damage is powerful medicine in its own right, and the most important tools of healing are the ones that you already own: be present and listen.

Please call me if you would like to find out how working with your body can change your life. You can schedule a free 15 minute consult or a full appointment. I’ll let you know if I can help you, and if I can’t, I will refer you to someone who can.

In order to get off of an unwanted medication, it is essential to eliminate the need for it. Alternative medicine can help you do that in a variety of different ways.

One important thing to consider is the type of approach that interests you. How would you answer the following two questions?

1) Do you want a natural alternative to the anti-depressant?
or
2) Do you want to heal the underlying causes of your illness, thereby eliminating the need to take any kind of medicine, be it natural or pharmaceutical?

These are not rhetorical questions, but rather very important ones. I want to make sure that you are very clear with yourself so that you can be clear with me. By being clear with me, I will be able to satisfy your goals quickly and efficiently, saving you both time and money.

Whether you are on Prozac, Wellbutrin, Effexor, etc., doesn’t matter, they all act in a similar way. They manipulate brain chemistry so that the calming, “happy” nerves are increasingly stimulated, and the excitatory, stressful neurons are stimulated less. This is a pretty gross generalization, but the point is that the medications do one thing: change your brain chemistry.

However, your brain is not who you are. There is a deeper level of consciousness than your brain and it may be that the problem lies there. Sure, your brain chemistry is imbalanced, but why is it imbalanced?.

If you answered yes to the first question above, it may be that you would rather not explore that deeper level of consciousness. That is totally fine. Or you may believe that because of your diet, personal habits, or lifestyle, imbalanced brain chemistry is the most pressing problem and that is what you would like to address. That, too, is totally fine.

The picture below is a list taken from HealthNotes- an informational kiosk that is available for free access in most health food stores. It shows some natural supplements that can help with depression. Another list exists for anxiety, though many of the entries are similar.

If you would like an alternative supplement you can research some of these on your own, or make an appointment to get my recommendations and receive an individualized supplement plan.

If you are interested in re-balancing your brain chemistry with a natural product, some combination of the supplements above will probably work. For example, St. John’s Wort has comparable efficacy to SSRI’s in many studies.

However, if you answered “yes” to the second question, you need a different approach. You may be tired of taking pills and would just like to get to the bottom of why you are not feeling well. In that case you will need one or more healing sessions that are designed to identify and eliminate the underlying causes of your illness.

The underlying causes, in my experience, are usually erroneous belief systems or deep wounds that are creating conflicts within your consciousness. The increased stress that you experience as a result of these conflicts have the long-term effect of changing brain chemistry. That’s why the anti-depressants work for a large number of people. They are not concerned with the “why”, they are only concerned with the end-stage, physiological result.

Once the underlying causes are healed and you experience life with less fear, anger, and sadness, the brain chemistry is able to normalize. The majority of the time it normalizes on its own. However, sometimes it is necessary to do a short-term course of a natural supplement to help correct the neurotransmitters.

The benefit of choosing to heal in this way is that you will decrease the need for long-term medication and/or supplements, and you will be able to experience your life with an increased sense of joy, not just less depression. It’s not very expensive in the short run, and it will certainly save you even more money and effort in the long run.

If you are ready to ask for some help with either approach, please give me a call. I offer a no-charge 15 minute consult. Of course, you may also make an appointment to begin the process of eliminating your need for an anti-depressant medication.

It is my experience that addictions are not so much about the feeling that indulging gives, but rather the avoidance of a deep hole within that doesn’t feel very good.

If you have an addiction, you might be aware of this idea. You might notice that it is hard to just sit and be by yourself without descending into a dark place. In general, it is a place that doesn’t feel very good emotionally and might even cause physical pain. It is a hole that has been there for a long time and part of the satisfaction of giving in to a craving is the forgetting that the hole is there.

This concept is why many people end up replacing one addiction with another; the way that they escape isn’t as important as the ability to escape.

Therefore, I suppose that it’s not very accurate of me to say that I treat addictions. Technically, I don’t. I do, however, treat the addict. I directly address the hole and its relationship to the whole person. I help guide each person to stop escaping the hole and by doing that, it disappears.

How does it fill up?  That is a experience that needs to be felt and cannot be described with words.  But it does feel a lot better than a cheap high.

And when the hole is gone, the craving goes, too. The sex, or the drug, or the sugar, or the cigarette ceases to be attractive and can fall harmlessly out of the way.

Please call me if you are ready to heal your addiction:  503-310-2036.  I can offer you a no-charge 15 minute consult or a full appointment.  Details.

In the month of July I will be presenting three classes on “Combining Spirituality and Medicine” at New Seasons Market. The class times, locations, and description are below. There is no charge for attendance. I would greatly appreciate it if you forwarded this invitation to at least one person whom might be interested. Thank you very much!

Wednesday, July 9th, 7-8:30 pm- Arbor Lodge store
Arbor Lodge - N Interstate Ave & Rosa Parks Way, 503.467.4777

Thursday, July 10th, 7-8:30 pm- Cedar Hills store
3495 Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, 503.641.4181

Thursday, July 24th, 7-8:30 pm- Mt Park store
3 SW Monroe Parkway, Lake Oswego, OR 97035, 503.496.1155

Class description: The vast majority of Americans believe in something greater than themselves. Whether via organized religion or a walk in the woods, spirituality is a significant part of many of our lives. However, this aspect of our lives often takes a back seat when the physical body falls ill. We look for a pill or a diet change for a remedy and place the cultivation of spirit into a supportive role.
In this class, Dr. Travis Elliott, naturopathic physician and BodyTalk practitioner, will discuss and demonstrate the integral part that “spiritual nourishment” plays in the physiology of the human body. He will make the case that a disruption of a spiritual connection is the basis of chronic physical disease. The class will extend universal concepts of the mind and emotions, including those outlined by Eckhart Tolle in his books, “A New Earth” and “The Power of Now,” to physical pain, allergies, cancer, and other chronic physical diseases.

As gas prices rise with the global temperature, many of us are feeling a little uncertain.  Our place in the world seems more and more undefined as our species, our country, and ourselves start looking around with the question, “Where do we go from here?  What does our future hold?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  Next year?  Next generation?”

The left side of our brains is futilely trying to find a pattern to explain our misdirection.  Our desire to control is bound up with our sense of just fairness and a wish to manifest what we think is the best outcome.

We are told to try and figure out what we want to do with our lives.  We major in various coursework, we listen to career counselors, and we try to find something that fits us in order to have the kind of life we think we want to live.  It all makes sense; except that every fact upon which we base these decisions could change at any second.

So, in this whirring and roaring current, what, then, is the right action?  How do we know in what direction to apply ourselves and our lives?  Where is the map and how do we get a look at it?  And can we trust Google to tell us the fastest way there?

This morning, in the midst of my own such questions, I am reminded, when I look within, to toss aside my inclination to plan, to visualize, and to yearn.  I am reminded that what will pass in the next day, or week, or year is beyond my knowing.

I therefore have two choices:  exhaust myself trying to get a glimpse of what I cannot see, or relax into the “not knowing” that is my only certainty.

Finally, I am reminded to quit asking, “What do I want to do with my life?”, and instead offer myself to Life, in service.  It is an offer that drops the paddle and the map from my hands with a willingness to be taken where I am needed, and to be shown what to do when I get there.

Which brings us back to today.  Us, mired in that sea of uncertainty, wondering what our next action should be.  I am inspired to do one thing first, and it is the only thing that I know for certain.

I offer myself in service.  I don’t know where the current is taking me, so I will give myself up to its wisdom.

I don’t know how to get where I want to go; a fact that can scare me so much that it brings tears to my eyes.  But in the face of not knowing, it settles my fear a bit to let go, to sink and rise, and to be on the lookout for opportunity.

How can I be of service today?  I’ll start by writing this.  After that, God knows.  I am certainly aware that there are things on my calendar; but I think that I’ll wait…here.  Now.  And see what comes.

In some article or book, the author put forth the idea that spirituality was the belief in something more intelligent than myself. It was a simple idea that transcended the limitations of any religion, and it felt right to me.

These days, I find myself talking an awful lot about spirituality with my patients, so I often fall back on that statement.

That may sound kind of strange for a doctor- talking about spirituality with my patients. After all, they are not coming in complaining of any kind of existential crisis; rather my patients come to me with pain, fatigue, and many other kinds of physical complaints.

But for years, now, I have doggedly pursued the deeper causes of these physical illnesses. I have kept asking the question, “why?” when faced with a potential cause of illness; a strategy that has led me progressively deeper into the complex layers of the human body.

I have helped people with their diet, their supplements, their brain chemistry, their emotions, and their electro-magnetic fields. And at each stop, I find out that I need to go deeper because there are some patients that haven’t been helped.

And, so, I now help people with their connection to something greater than themselves. I literally help them connect their spirituality into their physical bodies to help bring resolution to their illnesses.

Three or four years ago, I heard a story from a fellow practitioner about a sociopath she had worked with who had absolutely no moral sense. This man had no concept of right or wrong, and he had no empathy for the feelings or rights of other people. Needless to say, these deficits left him a very dangerous man. The practitioner told me that this man had been a victim of horrific child abuse; specifically he had been extremely neglected. I don’t remember the exact details- whether he had been locked in a closet for hours at a time, or kept in a bag that was opened only to feed him, or some other horrible situation- but the point was that during his first couple years of life, he was nearly devoid of any human contact. He literally was not able to connect with anything or anybody. In a very real sense, this “childhood” created a kind of robot, or automaton. He was human in the way that his heart pumped blood and his five senses could decode the world around him, but he was inhuman in his inability to relate to anybody else.

I’m telling you this as an example of the importance of connection: connection to your mother, connection to your friends, connection to yourself, and most importantly, connection to spirit. The stronger your connections, and the more numerous your connections, the healthier you will be.

In fact, this idea of connection is just as important in keeping you alive as food and water. That is why I refer to this connection as “spiritual nutrition.”

When we are connected to spirit, we are also connected to each other. Not just the people that you know, and not just the people in your state or country, but to everyone. And everything.

And what I’ve found, is that enhancing this connection to spirit, and helping make sure that the spirit is connected to, and flowing through, all parts of the physical body makes people well. Improving spiritual nutrition alleviates pain, increases energy, takes away nausea and dizziness, and slows down aging.

In fact, I finally feel like I’m finally getting some real answers to my questions of “why?”. And that idea brings me great joy.

(Running time 4:20)

Polly Malby is more passionate about nutrition and the prevention of disease through good food than anyone I’ve ever known. She spent 30 years speaking to mothers and mothers-to-be about nutrition as a nurse midwife at OHSU, and single-handedly changed the mind-set of the entire department.
I’ve invited her to give an interactive talk geared towards kids and their parents on November 17th (Saturday) at 10 am. I know that it will be a great event, since I witnessed Polly completely captivate a tough audience before. She spoke to a group of teenage lacrosse players after a long day of school and practice, and they were hanging on her every word.

Saturday’s program will include a discussion led by Polly followed by a 20 minute video done by America’s favorite pediatrician, Dr. William Sears.

If you are interested in what’s in your food and what goes into your body, we would love to have you join us. Please give me a call and let me know that you are coming so that I can save you space.

And please, bring your kids!

Please listen to the above recording for insight into what makes my practice holistic. (Running time 3 minutes, 17 seconds)

If you know someone who might be helped by listening to this recording, please email them the address of this page: www.drtraviselliott.com/mystery-and-medicine/
Thank you.