Cellular Resistance or “Hypo-functioning organ” – use bio-resonance to ask the question

Deepak Chopra once brilliantly observed that disease and aging is the progressive loss of intelligence. I can still remember how that sentence jumped out at me all those years ago. I was not fully aware then of the significance it would bring to my thinking but even then it was like a light turning on.

I was reminded of this recently when speaking to a relatively young patient who had been advised to consider hormone replacement. I am actually an advocate of bio-identical hormone replacement when it’s done properly and when it’s appropriate for the patient.

However, this case made me reconsider a train of thought that I had already been pondering and I would like to share that with you now.

A healthy cell knows that it’s incomplete without a community to work for and with. Its cell membrane should be loaded with thousands and thousands of receptors – each one just waiting for an appropriate messenger molecule to come by and engage its “open arms.” In this way it can adjust its activities and their intensity to match the demands of the entire system to which it belongs.

The first person who clearly delineated to me the correct chain of events ending in diabetes was Dr. Jonathan Wright. He clearly pinpointed the beginning of that process as cellular resistance to insulin. This state of insulin resistance is a precursor to many diseases including Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer, osteo-arthritis and gout, as well as diabetes.

In any disease process it’s fundamentally important to figure out what came first. If we don’t understand the causative factors we are chasing after biomarkers. These elusive phenomena are like the academic,  end-of-term results we got at school. They make our parents happy that we are making progress in becoming mature adults but the reality is that they probably have little or no effect on the end result at all.

Likewise the doctor and patient can feel well pleased with themselves when the dreaded cholesterol level is forced to take a nosedive when in reality this illusory figure has absolutely no direct relevance on the patient’s health at all.

As Dr. Wright so clearly pointed out with regard to diabetes, the first real trouble starts with cellular resistance. There is an almost complete lack of clarity in understanding this in conventional medicine. To make matters worse, we have mistakenly laid the blame on the organ whose responsibility it is to send out the hormonal messengers.

Hence the mostly incorrect use of the term “hypo” in conditions such as hypothyroid or hypo-adrenal function. The real problem is at the end point – the target cell membranes where the cells are no longer listening to the instructions they are receiving.

Why are they becoming deaf to our messages? In a word – toxicity. Unwanted foreign chemicals and metals have thrown a figurative spanner in the works and the cellular metabolism has been disrupted. As a result the hormones become ineffective and despite a largely correctly functioning endocrine gland, a “hypo” condition results.

Depending on the nature of the feedback loop, the original gland may either increase its output in an attempt to compensate or remain ignorant of the problem mistakenly assuming that another environmental situation has intervened.

The difference between the way the thyroid and the adrenals respond to cellular resistance is interesting here. The adrenals need to see results and quickly. If we can’t respond to stressful stimuli then our very survival is in question.

As a result, the levels of adrenalin and its longer term counterpart, cortisol, rise to meet the “extra” demand. This classic, stage 2, stress response of prolonged supra-normal output is sustained as long as possible which in many cases means for decades until systemic exhaustion sets in. Once this 3^rd stage of organ failure arrives then, yes, we can call the condition truly “hypo” since the exhausted endocrine organ is now only a shadow of its former self.

The case of the thyroid appears to present a different response picture. It appears that evolution has allowed for greater cellular discretion in how much active thyroid hormone each cell needs to be exposed to. Since the thyroid output and purpose is much broader and less dependent on environmental imperatives, it makes sense that the cell can have a little more discretion in how much it needs to use.

Either way the peripheral tissue conversion of T4 into T3 is a clear case of the thyroid delegating some of this authority to target cells. In fact with the discovery of reverse T3 (rT3) it appears that the individual cells have a much wider degree of freedom in regulating thyroid hormone metabolism than was originally thought.

The rT3 hypothesis of famine survival mechanism makes sense whereby anyone who can autonomically downgrade cellular activity into a sort of hibernation is going to be much better equipped to survive prolonged periods of starvation.

Now enter the modern age and patients are presenting with hypothyroid symptoms and high levels of reverse T3. Have these patients decided to starve themselves in some sort of anorexic orgy of self restraint? No not all, but nevertheless their body weight set points are distorted upwards and many show clear signs of “tired all the time” hypothyroidism. In recent years the evidence of guilt is pointing at heavy metal poisoning.

Apparently the intracellular presence of heavy metals switches on the epigenetic, “famine” genes and the normally T4-T3 dominant conversion becomes deviated into excessive rT3. Faced with all this metabolic dysfunction, the thyroid is blindly unaware since the survival mechanism is rigged in such a way as to leave its function untouched until the famine is over. The thyroid hears no alarm bells so why should it worry?

Now here’s the dilemma – should the physician prescribe hormone replacement in this situation? Indeed it appears that thyroid replacement does indeed offer relief in cases where the patient shows signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism but the lab tests are coming back negative for hypo-function of the organ itself.

However, as we can see the problem is deeper, and long term, one might wonder where all the extra hormone may lead to? Suppression of the thyroid activity? Unwanted side effects? The core of the problem is toxicity and until this is addressed any attempt at a “cure” will only obscure the true cause and lead in the longer term to more problems.

We know that insulin resistance is partly (if not mostly) caused by excess blood sugar. But I have no doubt that it’s also partly caused by toxic agents inside and in the surface of the cell membrane. I wonder how many cases of outright diabetes could have been stopped by dietary changes and an effective cellular detoxification therapy?

Hormone replacement should only be considered where

-          we are sure that it’s not first and foremost a problem of cellular resistance

-          the endocrine organ in question truly is exhausted and can no longer deliver the necessary output

With sound mental software, effective training, and appropriate clinical experience it is possible to pose these questions using bio-resonance testing and arrive at the correct therapeutic decisions. The discerning practitioner can distinguish between cases of a “hypo-functioning organ”  and cellular resistance. And that discernment can make all the difference for the patient.

Afternote: For beginners or those wishing to develop their skills, we are teaching bio-resonance testing in NY, USA, on Thu 6th October, details here.