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Optimize Your Health
With New and Advanced Blood, Urine, and Saliva Tests, which can help guide you back to optimum health.
What if there were one test that could finally define why you're tired, why you can't lose weight, or explain the underlying causes of a wide range of health conditions that fail to respond to any treatment you've had before? You'd take the test, wouldn't you? What if this test could give your doctor superior, comprehensive information that standard blood tests don't reveal and predict disease trends long before it's too late? You'd really want to take the test.
It's a known fact that many people who were diagnosed with "good health" by their family doctor because their blood tests were within normal limits are not really in good health. Only weeks and months after these medical exams, they report being afflicted with a sudden stroke or heart attack, or they discover they have some other life-threatening disease, like cancer. Think about it: Are you being told "there's nothing wrong with you" when you're feeling sick and awful?
Even if you show no signs of a serious illness, the delicate molecular balance of your body's cells may be disrupted enough to cause a life-threatening disease somewhere down the road. The majority of the American public now realize that standard blood tests fail to reveal the complete picture of their health status. This is especially true since these tests tell your doctor very little about your body's ability to cope with pollution and stress and the ever-increasing pace of modern life. Clearly, an immense chasm exists between medically-diagnosed normalcy and optimal health. The Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine utilizes new sensitive diagnostics and therapies that probe deeper into the biochemical-biomolecular causes of illness, long before serious illness develops. And, when we're faced with a serious illness, these tests give us more clues regarding how and why you're ill and help us correct nutritional deficiency states with more accuracy.
Long before you get diagnosed with a serious disease, your body's normal cellular processes and safeguards against worldwide pollution and unrelenting stress begin to malfunction. Brittle bones, wrinkled skin, slow wound healing, poor memory, poor digestion, and fatigue all begin the your body's cellular world and all have to do with trillions of tiny energy generators (mitochondrion) in your cells. When these energy generators fail to work properly and your molecular chemistry is disturbed, your body begins to lose youthful resilience against stress and invading microbes and fails to excrete and disarm toxins from your body.
At the Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine, we assess your body's chemical and molecular health status with Biological Terrain Assessment (BTA™). This multiple battery of tests go far beyond the important, but superficial measures of most standard laboratory tests. The BTA-2000™ can pinpoint the nature of these cellular events and either prevent or minimize the accumulated damage that leads to many disorders of accelerated aging. Most importantly, the BTA monitors many facets of your body's chemistry, allowing us to measure, fine-tune, and strengthen your body's many biological functions.
When patients visit our center they typically complain of a lack of energy, headaches, sleep disturbances, and muscle and joint pain. These symptoms correlate with deficiencies and imbalances in the BTA™ tests in the majority of our patients. Our preliminary findings indicate that impaired digestion, poor diet, stress, environmental toxins, or a combination of these factors cause alterations and reductions in the biological terrain that lead to premature aging (Townsend Letter for Doctors, Part 1-3, April; June; Aug/Sept, 1997).
Until recently, modern medicine was at a loss to explain how oxidative stress influenced the aging process, for better or worse. Now, with the help of the BTA, the Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine has astounding ways to understand and render effective treatment to patients suffering from a wide range of disorders that commonly do not respond to other diagnostic and treatment protocols.
Understanding Free Radicals
More than sixty diseases are traceable to an excess of free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive atoms or molecules that have lost one electron and are aggressively seeking a replacement. Free radicals are by-products of normal metabolism in the cells of your body. As such, they are an intrinsic part of the day-to-day processes your body performs to survive: if you couldn't create waste products and toxins through your healthy bodily functions, you could die. Yet, free radicals can get out of control in your body causing great harm to your cells, tissues, and organs. Before you understand the details of how this special defense system works to enhance your health, let's examine the basic chemistry of oxygen.
We depend on oxygen-we must breathe. What's hard to understand is that oxygen has a dark side-that oxygen and free radicals, when out of balance, are extraordinarily toxic to the body. A normal oxygen atom has four pairs of electrons. What happens to oxygen in our body when it is not utilized properly? "Leftover" oxygen forms highly unstable molecules by robbing electrons from the body's normal metabolism and become free radicals. When these unstable molecules take an electron from a molecule in a cell wall, a new free radical is created and a chain reaction begins. The chain of electron theft erodes the cell's protective barrier and damages hormone receptors. But, there's the good news: this depletion of electrons can be scientifically offset on an individual basis by defining your body's biological terrain. Then, depending on the test results, specific supplements that are electron donors (also known as antioxidants) are prescribed to help your body achieve molecular and chemical balance. Although your body uses antioxidants to stay healthy by deploying them against free radicals, too many antioxidants or the wrong kinds of antioxidants can actually cause serious damage to your body. On the other hand, the correct balance and doses of antioxidants promotes high energy, fat burning, heart health, brain wellness, and longevity.
Almost everything on earth oxidizes as part of the cycle of life. When you take a bite out of an apple and expose it to the air for a few minutes, you can visualize the effect of oxidation as the exposed flesh of the apple turns brown. Oxidation causes rubber to lose elasticity, paper to turn brown, iron to rust, and butter to turn rancid. The BTA™ measures your body's oxidative stress levels. When your oxidative stress levels are too high, these unstable oxygen molecules punch holes into our body's cellular walls, damaging DNA, the genetic material within. These tiny destroyers react rapidly with anything in their path, unleashing a destructive cascade of multiplying chemical reactions that lead to genetic damage. When oxidative stress escalates your body become rusty, like an old car. The way to get protection from these molecular predators is to avoid "rust" or oxidation inducers-cigarette smoke, irradiation, and food, and water pollutants-and get generous amounts of individualized, electron-donating nutrients.
Defining Your Biological Terrain:
A farmer whose crop isn't growing well examines his soil or "terrain" to uncover the root of the problem. The experienced farmer attempts to normalize the terrain by balancing the pH of the soil and by adding minerals or other nutrients that work together in the soil to produce healthy crops.
Similarly, by assessing and readjusting your body's terrain or biochemistry, you can produce good health, year after year. In addition, the BTA™ provides our staff with unique, one-of-kind, information regarding how much free radical burden (oxidation of tissues) your body is exposed to. This measurement known as oxidation-reduction potential (abbreviated as redox) actually assesses the degree of oxidative stress and accelerated aging in different organs and systems of the body. When a molecule loses an electron, it goes through a process called oxidation; when it gains an electron, the term reduction is used. This constant reducing and oxidizing, or redox, is vital for the body to create and store energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is the fuel that actually runs the body. At the Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine we use and recommend cutting-edge supplements that enhance energetic processes in your cell's mitochondria. The result: your body's energy levels escalate and you feel great!
The BTA analysis is, in essence, an in-depth physical and health examination. It measures three different factors in three different body fluids: the pH, redox, and resistivity of the blood, urine, and saliva. The data gathered from these nine different test's help to identify problem areas and treat them before damage occurs. These tests provide the earliest indication of accelerated aging in your cells and thus are also predictive of your risk of developing age-associated diseases.
And, patients who undergo a BTA™ assessment typically have "normal" laboratory values based on a blood test and other standard tests. They visit our office looking for answers as to why they're sick. All these individuals have abnormal BTA tests, even though their blood test results do not show it. In order to ensure optimal aging rates, your pH, redox, and resistivity must satisfy the criteria to function at the highest level.
Let's examine these three factors in more detail:
- pH reading, commonly referred to as acid/base balance, is measured on a scale of 0-14, with 0 being extremely acidic, 7 being neutral, and 14 being extremely alkaline. Normally, saliva pH is 6.5, blood is slightly alkaline, at 7.35 to 7.5, and urine can range from 4.8 to 7.5, depending upon one's dietary patterns and degree of acidity.
- Redox refers to cellular energy cycles-involving the flow of electrons-that help the body create and store energy in the form of ATP. An optimal redox reading is essential for your body to burn up or oxidize many infectious organisms and pollutants that find their way into your body.
- Resistivity or R measurementm gives us information about your mineral status. When mineral concentrations are too low or deficient (commonly seen in cases of the bone demineralization process of osteoporosis), resistivity measurements are high. On the other hand, when your mineral levels are too high, it usually indicates a congestion or buildup of mineral salts, commonly found when your are dehydrated or there is a congestion of minerals in your lymph and liver tissues.
Stress, poor air, poor food quality and resultant nutritional deficiency states, and a lack of aerobic exercise cause your body to struggle to maintain the proper values of biological terrain. Health suffers as the biological terrain is altered, causing one or more of the following health problems:
1. Sexual dysfunction: Environmental pollutants contain hormone disrupters called xenoestrogens that mimic hormones and block vital sexual functions. The BTA™ helps to identify areas of toxin infiltration, guiding us to give you individualized treatment that will balance and restore youthful levels of sex hormones, without testosterone therapy or surgery.
2. Obesity - The BTA™ helps predict why your body is not burning fat. When you correct the underlying molecular chemistry of fat storage patterns, you'll lose weight like never before.
3. Heart Disease - Many toxic environmental chemicals cause oxidative stress levels to soar in your circulatory system. You'll discover simple, safe and effective ways to counteract and eliminate these harmful substances and stop them from being deposited in your vessels and arteries.
4. Arthritis - The BTA™ values reveal why the body can't fight inflammation and pain and give us specific clues as to how to support the liver/kidney detoxification functions so toxins are no longer stored and deposited in your joints or tissues.
5. Immune dysfunction - Monitoring immune enhancement protocols and defining liver detoxification functions help to maintain a vibrant immune system. The BTA™ gives us analytical guide posts regarding the underlying chemistry that controls and dictates a multitude of immune functions.
6. Neurological disorders - It is now well established that neuro-toxins, oxidative stress, and cellular acidity underlie Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, MS, and other neurodegenerative syndromes. Monitoring and treating your body's biologicial terrain prevents the progression of these disorders and even helps the body repair nerve-induced damage more rapidly.
7. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Many viral and other infections are opportunistic, only replicating and thriving when the biological terrain is altered. Furthermore, studies have documented that CFS involves intracellular acidosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and mineral imbalances-all the factors assessed by the BTA™ on multiple levels.
8. Diabetes & Hypoglycemia - Disorders in your body's molecular chemistry prevent insulin from working in the normal, natural manner. By improving your body's terrain, you can improve the function and production of your body's own insulin levels, without insulin injections!
9. Digestive disorders - All digestive disorders involve disturbances in pH levels and enzyme functions. Maldigestion can prevent antioxidants from being absorbed and transported to your cells. Moreover, undigested food residues cause oxidative stress disturbing liver function and many organ and glandular systems of the body.
10. Age-associated disorders - Oxidative stress not only damages large molecules such as the proteins and nucleic acids of the connective tissue, but it also damages small molecules, such as DNA and RNA. DNA provides the blueprint for growth and repair in the body. RNA molecules deliver the DNA messages to the protein-manufacturing assembly line of the cells. With oxidative stress, however, this blueprint becomes distorted from the cross-linking of molecules and the messengers begin to misrepresent their messages. This misrepresentation of messages alters normal genetic expression and rapidly increases aging at the cellular level. Distorted genetic messages increase accelerated aging. Because of these faulty instructions, cells manufacture faulty proteins, enzymes, and hormones that are less effective-and even harmful. Immunosenescence (the aging of the immune system) occurs as the immune system wastes its vital resources to attack faulty proteins. These faulty proteins cross-link with one another and attack the very foundation of the body's regulatory system: the extracellular matrix. The flexibility of skin and blood vessels are reduced as avenues of circulation are choked off. Nutrients can't get through strangled tissue and waste products accumulate making tissues stagnant and toxic. Cross-linking contributes to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, weakened muscle, wrinkled skin, high blood pressure, and many other disorders of accelerated aging.
Take the BTA Today and Safeguard your
Health from Today's Polluted
Environment
Don't wait to benefit from the revolutionary new, assessment and treatment protocols available at the Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine. One of the most important things you can do to protect your health is to become better informed about the benefits of normalizing your body's biological terrain. Since anything that enters your body, including medication, can potentially shape the functioning of your body for better or worse, the hidden influences of the material you ingest can be monitored with the BTA™ assessment and re-assessment. And, if you are concerned about making the best supplement choices for your family or uncertain about the safest ways to use nutritional products, the BTA™ helps us predict the right nutritional supplementation needed to give you lifelong health.
The BTA™ is a "space-age" test that probes the hidden molecular world of your body. The Ash Center for Comprehensive Medicine uses this test to set health goals that are reasonable for you and to guide you through the process of achieving optimal health and aging. You will also see the underlying changes in biochemical function in these laboratory tests as you move in the direction of optimal health. Seeing your test results improve will give you the added incentive to stay with the program and reap the benefits of optimal health and longevity.
References:
Ash, R. & Levy, B. DHEA: Unlocking the Secrets of Youth, BL Publications, 1996.
Yanick, P. Nutritional Modulation of Mitochondrial Energetics via Biological Terrain Assessment. Anti-Aging Medical Therapeutics. Vol. 2, 1998. Yanick, P. Biomolecular Nutrition and the GI Tract. Townsend Letter for Doctors. 1248-53, December 1993.
Yanick, P. Functional Correlates of Ph in Accelerated Molecular and Tissue Aging. Townsend Letter for Doctors, 34-38, May 1995. Yanick, P. Functional Disturbances of the Liver and Lymphatic System.
Townsend Letter for Doctors, 1050-53, Oct 1994.
Yanick, P. The Physiological-Chemical Assessment of Undernutrition.
Townsend Letter for Doctors, 282-86, July, 1988.
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