WELL-BEING
Los Angeles Magazine, June 2001

"Pounce of Prevention"
TAKING INVENTORY OF YOUR BODY WHILE IT'S WELL IS THE KEY TO KEEPING IT - AND YOU - ON AN EVEN KEEL

By Jenna McCarthy

health retreat, " I answer huffily. "Whatever," he says, "Just keep your clothes on."  Half an hour later, I lie sprawled on a padded table as every inch of my naked, oiled flesh is expertly caressed with warm river stones. Complicating matters is the fact that the guy responsible for my current state of ecstasy bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Steven Weber (who in my humble opinion, was way cuter on Wings than on his eponymous new show). If this La Stone therapy is new medicine, consider me a convert.

I've come to the Maes Center for Natural Health Care in Santa Barbara with an open mind, which is good, because over the next three days I will be bombarded with enough information to fill a pharmacological library and subjected to all manner of homeopathic (holistic), naturopathic (plantbased), and chiropractic (structural) evaluations and adjustments. " The commonality of these approaches is that they all recognize the body's ability to heal itself," says Maes founder Luc Maes, D.C., N.D., D.N.B.H.E. (That alphabetic jumble translates as Doctorate of Chiropractic, Naturopathic Doctorate, and Doctorate of National Board of Homeopathic Examiners.)

According to Maes, holistic medicine, unlike Western medicine, focuses on health restoration rather than disease treatment. "When you create a balanced emotional, biochemical, and nutritional environment, " he says, "you give the body the resources it needs to attain and maintain health".

With a treatment lineup that includes darkfield microscopy (blood analysis), homotoxicology (the use of homeopathic remedies to encourage optimal nutrient exchange and hormonal balance), Reiki ( a gentle, hands-on technique of energy channeling used to reduce stress and promote relaxation), massage, and acupuncture, it's safe to call the Maes Center alternative. Ironically, some of the treatments considered alternative today are among the oldest healing practices. People forget , says Maes, that botanical medicine ids the precursor to allopathic medicine, the latter being a mere 100 years old. "Western medicine is incredible in terms of diagnosis and acute care, " he concedes. "If I get hit by a truck, take me to the emergency room. But when it comes to chronic conditions - cardiovascular disease, migraine, autoimmune deficiencies, obesity - often it's just trading one symptom for another. Migraine medications can be harmful to the heart, and anti-inflammatories can ruin the digestive system, which governs the immune system. Managing symptoms doesn't solve the problem."

Even before Courtney Love turned couture, alternative was becoming mainstream. In 1998, Congress established the Naitonal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to develop and support research on these newly budding modalities. The Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that visits to alternative practitioners hit 629 million in 1997, exceeding total visits to primary-care physicians. Clearly there's a market for this stuff.

Fabulous massages aside, Maes is probably most famous for utilizing metabolic typing, a method of measuring blood pH to determine individual biochemical needs. In essence, Maes is challenging the biggest diet debate of all time (low fat versus high protein versus no carb) with one simple claim: There is no such thing as a universally perfect diet.

"Metabolic typing is an objective way to measure a person's unique protein, carbohydrate, and fat needs," explains Maes. "Just by giving someone the right food, you push the body back to a place where cells can absorb nutrients and detoxify optimally. For one person this state of balance produces weight loss, for another it relieves arthritis or allergies or asthma. Every person is different."

"Alternative doctors do one thing many Western doctors don't," says David Heber, M.D., director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition author of What Color is Your Diet?" They listen to their patients." Heber notes that there is some evidence that blood pH is important, but he doesn't use it to dictate diet. "It's true that diet is an individualized thing," he says. "But food intake should be based on metabolic rate, muscle mass, and fat distribution." Since that's the same (somewhat boring) line I've been fed all my life, I look forward to trying Maes's approach.

The typing test takes about two and a half hours and involves relinquishing small amounts of blood, urine, and saliva. The results indicate that my body produces textbook responses to glucose and insulin, making me a "fast oxidizer." I am given a diet that includes lots of protein, especially beef and fish (the darker the better), nuts, oils, and grains (except wheat) and allows most fruits and veggies. "Slow oxidizers" are permitted fewer fats and oils and restricted to leaner sources of protein. (Not surprisingly, no oxidizer gets Velveeta or Twinkies.) Various foods are eliminated for their ability to knock blood pH out of whack by being either too alkaline or too acidic.

Even though my "type" has no milk restrictions, a chiropractic evaluation, during which Maes used applied kinesiology to test muscular strength, reveals a sensitivity to dairy, which I am told to avoid. It also appears (toMaes, anyway) that my back pain is related to a liver or digestive system deficiency. He proposed diet and lifestyle changes rather than the customary snap-crackle-pop of a chiropractor.

After serious protesting over the dairy issue ("But I need cottage cheese!"), Maes performs an unusual energy-balancing ritual involving a vial containing a microscopic amount of milk being held over different areas of my body (think hocus-pocus without the wand), then instructs me to avoid the alleged antagonists for the next 25 hours. By then I should be allergy free. Shushing my inner cynic, I remind myself that just because I don't understand how some things work - airplanes, computers, and the IUD come to mind - doesn't mean that they don't.

My visit ends with a thorough debriefing. I am given specific suggestions for improving my diet (more fat and protein), spinal alignment (more chiropractic and yoga), mental health (lots of Reiki), and immune system (consider removing metal fillings that may be toxic). My prescription in cludes a homeopathic remedy to support my personality and lifestyle, plus the precise cocktail of vitamins and minerals needed to keep my particular engine purring. Being a supplement junkie, I'm disappointed that I'm leaving with a mere four bottles.

Now addicted to the idea of the preventive approach, I sign up for the Ojai Valley Inn's on-site integrative care program. Before my arrrival at Destinations Health, I fill out an extensive personal health history and forward a profusion of medical records. By the time I show up, the staff is intimately acquainted with me. Beyond height (tall), weight (none of your business) and medical family tree, they have a clear picture of my personal habits and preferences, knowing if/when/what/how much I eat, drink, smoke, sleep, exercise, see a therapist, and have sex-and whether I enjoy any or all of the above.

The risk profile is taken with the intent to identify-and help me sidestep-illnesses to which I might be predisposed as a result of genetics, environment or lifestyle. "Medicine has advanced from the research and technical point of view, but (many doctors) have lost sight of the individual," laments the Destinations Health director Florence Comite, M.D. "We bring the human element in by sitting down in partnership fashion to determine which approaches best suit who and where a patient is."

First on the agenda is a comprehensive physical. Everything from my hearing to my blood pressure is tested. An EKG is performed, my cholesterol levels are evaluated, my skin is given the once-over, and my body composition is determined. I'm batting a thousand until we test spinal bone density, which is below normal. Considering a family history of Osteoporosis, I'm not thrilled with this news, but I am reminded with the point of this exercise. By catching deficiencies early, it may be possible to outwit genetic destiny.

I enter the nutritional assessment, the next step, with one goal: to definitely find out if bread is the sprawn of Satan. Imagine my relief to discover that carbohydrates are our friends! That we need them, along with fat-and plenty of it-to metabolize body fat! I'm told that when you eschew carbohydrates, the body cannibalizes muscle for energy, thereby lowering resting metabolic rate. The way to muffle cravings is to always eat carbs with protein. With painful simplicity it is explained how a balanced diet-of all things!-keeps a person slim and healthy.

At my exercise physiology consultation, the chronic low-grade back and neck pain is blamed not on my diet (the Maes regimen is not yet helping) but on my lovely but dysfunctional antique desk. I vow to purchase an ergonomically sound model immediately. To beef up my bone density, we work out a thrice-weekly weight lifting program, working around the beloved Pilates/Spinning schedule that I refuse to interupt.

I meet with an aromatherapist and a guided-imagery specialist, each of whom insists my type A tendencies must be subdued with relaxation techniques (I fight the urge to detail their findings in my Palm). I leave with a list of measures to improve my health and therefore my happiness and quality of life. Will I avoid wheat for all of eternity? Doubtful. Will I continue lifting weights and taking supplements? Absolutely. Will I meditate daily? Probably not. Will I get Reiki and acupuncture on a regular basis? As soon as my insurance decides to cover them. Will any of this make the slightest difference in how long or how well I live? I am banking on it.

-Los Angeles Magazine
  June 2001

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