What can I use to cure severe hives that can last up to 3 mos, and are related to stress and not allergies to products or dust, etc.?

Stress is such a powerful trigger of disease, it is difficult to override it with any supplement or herb.  All of those things will help the body so the stress is not so damaging, or reduce the symptoms, but ultimately stress must be dealt with to resolve symptoms.

Some ideas on dealing with stress:

1) If you can’t reduce the stress you are now under in the short term, you must start the ball rolling to reduce the stress long term.  It will eventually kill you.

2) Recognize all events in life can be categorized into 2 categories: a. things you can’t control  b. things you can control.  On the things you can control, you have to decide which ones are worth the battle, and let the others go.  Sometimes you need a confidant to help with these tough decisions.

3) Release the stressors you can release.

4) Learn stress-reduction techniques–prayer, meditation, massage therapy, Jin Shin Jyutsu, biofeedback.

5) If the stress has been going on for a long time, and adrenal and other hormone exhaustion may have taken place, you may need to see an Integrative Medicine Practitioner to do lab work and prescribe natural products to support you.

I am 39 yrs old and female. For about a week I have been having pain in my stomach directly below my sternum and sometimes I have pain in my chest. It feels like it would be an ulcer, even though Ive never had one before, but it doesnt really seem to help if I take any OTC meds for it. Milk helps slightly, but not for long. When it gets really going it doesnt seem to help if I eat or not. My 13 yr old daughter then came to me with the same symptoms last night. The only thing I can think of is we both have bad case of stomach flu couple weeks ago.. could that have caused injury to our stomachs? I HATE it! Help

The most likely cause of epigastric pain (pain below the sternum, in the area of the stomach) of less than 2 weeks is viral, especially if someone else in the family comes down with similar symptoms.  When the virus is in the stomach, it tends to not only cause stomach pain, but also nausea or even vomiting.

When the virus is mainly in the small intestine, the pain is typically lower in the mid-abdomen area, and if the stomach is not involved, will not have as much nausea.  Because the food may not be properly digested, there may be loose stools or diarrhea associated with it.

Wherever the virus infects, the body will mount an immune response to get rid of the virus.  If the immune system has seen the attacking virus or a close relative to it, the body should rid itself of it in a few days, or you may not even have any symptoms.

If the immune system has to identify the virus as new, it will take 10 to 14 days to build the army to rid your body of the symptoms.  Then the body has to heal the damage left by the virus, which may take a few days or weeks, depending on the extent of the damage and if the intestinal tract is permitted to rest and heal.

If nausea or vomiting is present, try ginger.  Don’t feel like you need to force yourself to eat if you are not hungry–when your body is ready to accept food, you will experience hunger.  Until then, let it rest with fluids as the only intake.

My girlfriend is having severe pain from a urinary tract infection, possibly a kidney infection (she’s had them before). We’re wondering if you could recommend any natural remedy for the pain/symptoms? She’s been taking a daily multivitamin, dandelion, d-mannose, and B complex as far as supplements go. We’ve also seen an acupuncturist/herbalist who is getting together a custom made tea for her issues. If there’s anything you can recommend we’d appreciate it. We’re hoping to get it under control before she has to go to the hospital for antibiotics.

There are two issues to address with urinary tract infections (UTI):

• prevention and
• treatment.

The best treatment I have found includes high doses of vitamin C, about 6 to 10 grams per day and D-Mannose, about 2 grams 2 to 4 times per day.  Cranberry is also effective with UTIs, but it needs to be the unsweetened variety, or in capsules.  Sometimes, the addition of grapefruit seed extract also helps.

Drink plenty of water.  The most common trigger for female UTIs is intercourse, so urination immediately after prevents many of them.  Occasionally an antibiotic is needed.  I would get a urine specimen for culture and sensitivity of antibiotics before using antibiotics so I am sure it is the best choice, which lessens the chance of needing to use more than one antibiotic.

In the archives, I read:
“As you know, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is … manifested as a dopamine deficiency in the basal ganglia, which sends messages to the motor area of the brain. Tyrosine is a precursor to dopamine, so it would make sense that it could help, and indeed a French study in 1985 demonstrated clear improvement. An herb, macuna pruriens, contains L-Dopa, another precursor to dopamine, but it is unstudied”
Question: Would a PD patient take both tyrosine and macuna pruriens? How much of which one for best result?

When you want the body to replenish the neurotransmitter dopamine, you need to take in precursors so the body can more easily produce dopamine.  The dopamine molecule is too large to cross the blood brain barrier, but its precursors are small enough to cross the barrier and get into nerve tissue for better dopamine production.

The product I use is a proprietary blend that has 1150 mg of NAC, L-Dopa (from macuna cochinchinensis instead of the pruriens) and tyrosine (an amino acid).

Dear Dr Gardner,
The most recent diagnostic told that i had thoracic outlet syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Before this thru a course of 1 year have been diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome, Tendonitis, and so on.

I have water retention and have gained 16kg in 3 months. I am at 76kg a wait i have never been in my life. am always around 57-65kg.

i have had severe pain on my left hand and aching and heavy feelings on my left arm til the shoulder joint.

I have done all the possible bloodtest over 25 of them.
The only thing it showed was that my ESR value was between 55-65 each time i took a reading.

What do you think is going on with me?

Pls help.

There are only so many things you can do on your own.  These include

• cleaning up the diet,
• paying careful attention to sleep needs,
• movement,
• reducing toxin exposures,
• thinking healthy thoughts and
• reducing or managing stress.

When these are in place (especially fixing the diet), most people have clear and consistent improvement in their health.  When those things are insufficient, then a physician is needed to look at other lab and have other options for care.

Most of the symptoms you describe are best handled within the realm of alternative medicine.  Some possible sources of these kind of complaints include:

• toxic metals or chemicals in the body and brain (especially mercury from amalgam fillings),
• viruses that the body has difficulty getting rid of (C. pneumonia, Mycoplasma),
• long-term stress,
• hormonal disruptions (thyroid, adrenal fatigue),
• immunologic breakdown or
• sensitivity to viruses or vaccinations.
• Neck trauma may cause fibromyalgia.

Some other things to try if you have not tried them yet:  Try a therapeutic massage therapist to help with thoracic outlet syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, and tendonitis, as many of those problems are caused by tight muscles pulling on joints and at the insertion site of the tendon connected to those tight muscles.

Wondered if you are familiar with prolozone therapy and could comment on its effectiveness for osteoarthritis, in particular for healing a hip joint. I’d like to avoid having a hip replacement. Or could you recommend some other treatment.

I think you are referring to prolotherapy, which is the injection of an irritating substance into a joint or trigger point to stimulate the immune system to come in and repair.  It is excellent, and many have had good results.  I would definitely try it before hip replacement.

• Niacinamide has been found to help many people with osteoarthritis.
• Often there are tight gluteus, hamstring, quadriceps or psoas muscles that could pull on the hip.  These could be corrected by a therapeutic massage therapist.  Misalignment of the neck back or low back areas may also contribute to hip pain, and could be resolved by an osteopath or chiropractor.
• If you haven’t tried glucosamine yet, try 1500 mg per day.  This proteoglycan is an important part of the building blocks for cartilage and joint repair.
• Energy work with an FSM machine has specific frequencies for cartilage, joint capsule, ligament, and other soft tissue.
• Natural anti-inflammatories should also be used—MSM, DMSO, Boswellia, curcumin, quercetin.

Dr. Gardner, I know you are very busy, but I was wondering if you could answer one question for me. I think I have gastritis. I have taken Prilosec for a month, but recently stopped taking it b/c of all the bad side effects I have read about and I have decided to try to heal my self by eating healthier. I have read that fiber is very hard to digest, however I feel that I need to have fiber so I can have a proper bowel movement. I have recently started taking Psyllium Husk. Do you think this will be bad for my digestive system? or do you think it is a good thing for me to take this?

Thanks so much for your help and response. By the way, I love your site

Gastritis is a term to describe inflammation in the gastric mucosa (stomach).  I agree with your concern about taking anything that interferes with the physiology of the body.  Prilosec reduces the acid production, which impairs the ability of the body to digest proteins.  And proteins are needed for repair of the body, including the stomach mucosa.

Psyllium husk is an excellent fiber, and will only help the digestive tract.  It will not harm the stomach.  Some people need to start slow and build up to taking 15 grams of fiber per day.  The best time to take it is with meals.  If you want to reduce your food intake (to help lose weight), take 5 grams of fiber before each meal.  Then the stomach will have a full sensation earlier the you won’t eat as much without feeling like you are dieting.

I am searching for natural alternatives to Coumadin and Xarelto.

My concern with Coumadin is that it works–it interferes so effectively with the clotting process that you will have a difficult time clotting when you start bleeding.  This includes head injury which, if permitted to continue bleeding, would cause excessive pressure on the brain and possible death.

A lot of people who are placed on anti-clotting medications are elderly and have poor balance, increasing the likelihood of falling and hitting their head.  The alternative medicine community is shifting to Nattokinase for this purpose.  It interferes with the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, another way of interfering with clotting, but not so effectively that you run the same risk of the body not being able to stop the bleeding if it needs to do so.

We have a friend whose 18 yr old daughter began complaining of abdominal pain a few days ago.  Her parents took her to the doctor yesterday and they did a scan and found that she has a gall stone.  They have her scheduled for surgery to remove her gall bladder in 10 days.  The doctor told her that gall bladders really were not needed, anyway, much like tonsils and appendix.  Is this really standard medical procedure to remove a gall bladder from an 18 yr old girl who has only just started to have pain?  Is there anything that you would recommend that she try before resorting to surgery?  This young woman also has Type 1 diabetes.

Let’s first of all talk about abdominal pain, especially when it is in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen.  The liver and gall bladder reside in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen, as does part of the colon.

The stomach and esophagus are midline in the upper abdomen, and sometimes pain can be interpreted as being on the right side.  I’ve had a number of patients with abdominal pain who have had their gall bladder removed, and the pain persisted.  It was related to something else.

Second, the gall bladder is needed.  It is known to be the storage unit for bile, which has responsibility for breaking down fats for their absorption and utilization in the body.  Without a gall bladder, this function is hampered.  (Tonsils, appendix, uterus, gall bladder–all have their uses.

I come from the position that there is a higher power who created us, who knows better than me or any other physician what is needed in the body.  And there better be a more compelling reason to remove an organ than “it’s not needed anyway.”

If the gall stone is in the gall bladder, try peppermint oil to try to break it down.  If it is in the bile duct and if it does not naturally pass, it may need to be removed surgically.  Before that I would try a ‘gall bladder flush.’  Take 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1 to 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, drink quickly.  This will stimulate the gall bladder to contract and may help move the stone.  Long term, it must be recognized that, although there are exceptions, most gall bladder stones are a product of the Standard American Diet (SAD), composed of processed food that is high in carbohydrates and low in fiber and nutrients, and often low in healthy fats.

My 4 year old grandson is having major anger issues. He could be ADHD, but hasn’t been diagnosed as such. His mother is reluctant to seek traditional medical help and doesn’t want to medicate him. His recent temper tantrums are off the charts and we wonder what alternative medicine can suggest. His mother is vigilant about the amount of sugar he eats, but she can’t keep him 100% sugar-free. Any ideas?

The vast majority of children’s issues, including behavioral issues, are related to diet, or respond and improve when the diet improves.  Your grandson’s issues may require more than sugar removal:

• chemical additives,
• colorings,
• flavorings,
• preservatives

will also have to be eliminated.  All behavioral issues also need to have the nutrients that are needed most by the brain to be at high levels for optimal care.  This starts with multiple vitamins.  He may also need supplements with extra B vitamins and essential fatty acids to provide more brain support.

If those things are not enough, your daughter needs to find an alternative minded practitioner who deals with children and ADHD/autism.  If the anger issues aren’t enough of an incentive to be 100% vigilant about his food and nutrient intake, then you may have to live with the result.