Introduction
This is one of the hardest editorials I have had to write. Walter’s death was personally devastating: he was a dynamic student in my very first class at the then named John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine (1982 graduate), a good friend for decades, co-author of several IMCJ editorials, and coauthor with me of Clinical Environmental Medicine, published by Elsevier in 2018. With his booming voice, expansive gesticulations, wicked humor and colorful patient stories, Walter was bigger than life and his loss is felt deeply by many.
As the environment has become progressively more contaminated, a handful of courageous clinicians have been relentlessly pushing the boundaries of our understanding. Unfortunately, many of them paid a serious personal price for exploring and developing our understanding of the huge contribution of the growing load of environmental metals, chemicals, particulate matter, etc. on everyday ill health and disease burden.
Walter Crinnion, ND, Pioneer in Environmental Medicine
Walter was relentless in his efforts to understand and help develop the emerging field of environmental medicine. Even as a student, he was always very interested in exploring how traditional naturopathic detoxification techniques could help patients with complex disease. Soon after graduation, he founded a clinic in Bellevue, Washington, where he set up several saunas to facilitate depuration therapy. He extensively sought guidance early on from such luminaries in medicine as John Bastyr, DC, ND, and Associate Editor Jeff Bland, PhD, and later spent considerable time studying with environmental medicine pioneer, William Rae, MD, at his clinic in Dallas, Texas. He wanted to know not only historic practices but how to better understand the chemistry and biochemistry of toxicants and the best practices for assessment and elimination. Decade by decade, his skill and understanding continued to develop. Not surprising, with his engaging lecture style, rigorous study, and great clinical cases, he attracted a large following of practitioners and doctors seeking to better care for their patients.
He partnered with, Lyn Patrick, ND—another early Bastyr graduate—and Cheryl Gray, RD, to found SpiritMed and the Environmental Health Symposium to create an exciting educational environment where attendees could learn from the best and interact with others searching for solutions for their patients with very difficult health challenges.
His work and inspiration led to his creation of the environmental medicine curricula and departments at Bastyr University, University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, and the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. His work was so compelling, his expertise was recognized and welcome far beyond the naturopathic community where he started. He founded the Naturopathic Association of Environmental Medicine which became the National Association of Environmental Medicine, was an adjunct faculty at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, a blogger at Huffington Post, and a reviewer for several journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Biology, Science of the Total Environment, and the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.
He wrote many articles for diverse medical journals and consumer magazines, created multiple educational videos, lectured extensively in North America and throughout the world, and his monthly Crinnion Opinion is of such great value that my wife Lara and I have subscribed for many years.
Working with Walter to write Clinical Environmental Medicine, I learned a lot about the practical application of environmental medicine in a clinical environment. While I came to this body of knowledge from a public-health perspective, he was there in the trenches with real patients. He also authored/co-authored two books for consumers, Clean, Green and Lean (2010) and The Prediabetes Detox: A Whole-Body Program to Balance Your Blood Sugar, Increase Energy, and Reduce Sugar Cravings (2013).
More about Walter and his work can be found here: http://environmentalhealthsymposium.com/walter-crinnon-nd-memorial/ and here: https://www.listenandcare.com/walter-crinnion-nd/.
Rest in peace dear friend. The world owes you a tremendous debt for your courageous, pioneering work.
Caution for In-Office Depuration?
During the past year-and-a-half, the 3 of the most prominent environmental medicine doctors who have for decades provided patients in-office depuration have become seriously ill, and two have died. Walter during his many lectures would comment on the weird smells emanating from his patients as they went through depuration in his office saunas. Obviously, whatever a person is smelling is entering their body. Could their inexplicable health problems and early deaths have been due to the toxins to which they were inadvertently exposed as they left their patients’ bodies?
Until we have clarity, seems logical to me for all practitioners engaging in in-office detoxification to be extremely careful about toxin exposure from their patients. I recommend we research practitioners engaged in in-office detoxification to determine if there is indeed a serious risk. Such a study would include such factors as:
Number of years in practice
Number of saunas in office
Sample air in the office during depuration
Measure levels of volatile toxins in the doctor and staff involved in detoxification procedures
Determine measures of toxic damage most likely to occur from volatiles released during depuration. Immune and neurological function seem best candidates.
In This Issue
As usual, Associate Editor Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD, FACN, FACB, kicks off the issue with another of his insightful commentaries. In The Dark Matter of Nutrition: Dietary Signals Beyond Traditional Nutrients, Jeff, again as usual, insightfully raises new and important concepts important for more deeply understanding nutrition and nutrition therapy. I find his thesis of the far greater impact than we have realized of non-nutritional molecules in food having both positive AND negative physiological consequences quite fascinating. Toxic amino acids, prions, microRNA—the list of molecules previously considered irrelevant are now being shown to substantially impact human physiology and disease risk. Makes me even more concerned about yet more unanticipated adverse effects when stomach acid is deliberately suppressed allowing these food constituents to avoid normal degradation in the stomach. Add to that the growing body of research showing that both types I and II diabetes also increase the risk of decreased pancreatic enzyme secretion. Added together, clearly the microbiome and cellular function are being ever more substantially impacted by food constituents that would have been either substantially modified or fully disassembled by a properly functioning digestive system.
John Weeks’ latest update on the politics and business of integrative medicine covers Nan Sudak, MD, and her pioneering work with Essentia Health, how California Democrat Judy Chu (D-CA) and Indiana Republican Jackie Walorski (R-IN) are the new co-chairs of the Congressional Integrative Health and Wellness Caucus and the potential impacts of single-payer coverage. While many in this field may be excited about more government control of healthcare, unfortunately the international results, as seen in Canada and UK for example, do not support integrative care, non-totally mainstream therapies or non-MD healthcare professionals, even when they are licensed.
We have an unusual interviewer this issue, InnoVision publisher Dick Benson! He presents to us the work of Barrie Tan, PhD, using tocotrienols to address lifestyle and metabolic disease. Dr. Tan’s work is yet another example of how nutritional factors in food traditionally considered unimportant are proving to be quite important indeed. I am currently working on a future editorial on how we need to rethink megavitamin therapy, since so often focus on a single component of a broadly impactful group of nutrients can result in unexpected adverse results.
I have found the work of entrepreneur Tom Blue on how to advance adoption of the important concepts and clinical practices of our new medicine quite interesting. After hearing him present on his findings, I asked him to write an article for us. Tom articulates in this two-part article the many challenges and then discusses possible solutions and strategies. This is important work since until we are fully included in medical insurance reimbursement system, our medicine’s impact will be very limited.
Managing editor Craig Gustafson interviewed Safiya McCarter, ND, MSAOM, LAc who will be presenting at the annual conference of naturopathic physicians (AANP) August 15-18 in Portland, OR. Dr. McCarter was the Joseph E. Pizzorno, ND, Alumnus awardee in 2018. Talking with her I was struck by her remarkable ability to communicate with her patients and facilitate their ability to better communicate about their health challenges. This interview very effectively presents how she thinks about the critical doctor/patient relationship and ways to better communicate with patients of color.
As I have mentioned repeatedly, I think we clinicians need to continue to advance our skills in nonpharmacological treatment of not just pain, but most health challenges. Jeffrey M. Tarrant, PhD; Neus Raines, PhD; Wayne R. Blinne, MA provide us interesting new research on how meditation affects measurable physiological functions. Not at all surprising that lovingkindness/compassion meditation results in immediate cognitive improvement.
George Cody presents his 8th column examining the roots of integrative medicine. I must admit to being totally fascinated by his work elucidating the origins of many of the ideas that evolved into this medicine. This work has never been published before and is fundamentally changing our understanding of the challenges advancing this medicine and how much of the known history is either incomplete or simply inaccurate.
When I heard Asia Muhammad, ND, present on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at the AANP convention 2 years ago, I immediately realized our IMCJ readers needed to know about her work. The 25% worldwide prevalence of NAFLD is simply stunning, especially considering this disease didn’t even exist a few decades ago. Asia provides expert guidance on causes, diagnosis, and interventions, both conventional and natural. In other words, how to practice integrative medicine.
Our second interview by Craig is of Adam Perlman, MD, MPH. A key reason I asked Craig to interview him is for us to learn about his substantive challenges trying to bring integrative medicine into conventional academic health centers. In Adam’s message, we must understand and appreciate the challenging impact of all the many competing financial interests and how current reimbursement systems leave so little room for bringing in this kind of thinking.
Associate Editor Bill Benda, MD, finishes the issue expertly addressing the Dr Jekyll/Mister Hyde of pharmaceuticals. Very, very well said, Bill.
Biography
