Adjunct Lesson Two Symptom & Health History Analysis Forms

Transcription

1 HMPT Level One Adjunct Lesson Two Symptom & Health History Analysis Forms I recommend that you include a thorough food diary analysis in your client/patient intake paperwork. In the previous adjunct module, we looked at the importance of asking your clients and patients to complete a food diary. The food diary is one piece in your health detective initial jigsaw puzzle and, to be fair, you d have a lot of success using the food diary on its own and simply coaching your clients/patients to eat according to Hompes Method recommendations. Symptoms & Disease But a food diary alone is a little one-dimensional and doesn t give you everything you need in terms of an initial assessment. For example, it s really important to know: What symptoms does your client have? How long has he or she had them? Is there anything in your client/patient s family history that is of concern? Has the doctor diagnosed a specific disease or disorder? Are there any red flag symptoms that need a medical opinion? What medications is your client taking and for how long? Does your client smoke or use recreational drugs? Does your client/patient engage in exercise? By asking your client/patient to explain his/her symptoms and history, you get an idea of what kind of case you re dealing with. If the case looks very complex, you may want to refer out to a more qualified or experienced practitioner (over time, you ll learn how to piece the information in an initial paperwork and initial consultation together and choose your clients wisely I still get it wrong from time-to-time!). Some diseases/disorders we tend to stay clear of, even when believe we might be able to help are: Cancer Post-heart attack Severe autoimmune conditions Extreme chronic fatigue Serious neurological diseases Extreme depression or manic behavior (including attempted suicides, etc.)

2 Hompes Method can help people in these situations because quite literally, some of the disorders above can actually be due to, say, a gluten intolerance! But in my opinion, it s best to stay clear of tricky cases and let people who specialize in those areas take over. It s not just the client/patient s wellbeing that s at stake - it s also your reputation. And, to be honest, it s also your time and financial wellbeing that s at stake. As mercenary as this may come across, it s my experience that these very unwell people find it tough to pay for services and can become draining on your energy. This is my experience I m not judging but I ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way, spending lots of time and energy working with people at 4 or below on the Vitality Scale, and then having to give refunds to them because they a) simply couldn t to apply the recommendations and/or b) couldn t afford to implement the recommendations. Health History I ve found it incredibly helpful to create a timeline of my clients health. It s something I learned from Dr. Kalish when I took my first functional medicine training. You can derive huge clues as to what s going on with your clients and patients when you ask them to recite their health history, right the way back to childhood. I actually tend to create this timeline during the initial consultation rather than on the paperwork. Often times, you ll receive great insight into what may have triggered a client s descent down the vitality scale. Accident or trauma (bang to the head, sports injury, car crash, etc.) Stressful event (divorce, finances, bereavement, etc.) Food poisoning Toxin exposure (sometimes occupational) These trigger events give you ideas about why your client/patient s body has become symptomatic. Did symptoms appear after only an event or were they already there and simply become amplified? Did symptoms develop gradually without an event? How long have symptoms been present since childhood, or only recently?

3 Make no mistake: any kind of acute stress can cause a decapitulation of normal physiological function. Under stress, the body reverts back to fight or flight, or stress adaptation mode. Digestion, immune function, detoxification and sexual function are sacrificed as the stress response is activated and maintained until the stressor has been overcome. If your client or patient s health history indicates symptom or illness have developed following a physiologically stressful situation, it s important to consider whether that stressor (or those stressors) are still causing problems: Perception of a specific situation, person, event or circumstance Bad bug (food poisoning) Ongoing toxin exposure, or new occupational exposure? Commencement of a medical drug? Commencement of a new diet or supplements? As you can see, creating a little timeline in your own format can be extremely helpful! Another important function of taking a health history is that it can jog your client/patient s memory and help them realize that some of their symptoms may have been going on a lot longer than they actually thought. In your initial consultation you can use leading questions to help extract more information: How were your energy levels when you were at school? Did you get tummy aches as a kid? Did you have ear infections? How was your skin when you were a teenager? Did you have a lot of temper tantrums as a young child? These questions can all give clues about whether your client may have had (and may still have) issues with things like food sensitivities (gluten, cow s milk, sugar, etc.) or possibly even nutrient deficiencies as a child. Previous Medical Check-Up From a legal perspective, it s in your best interest to make sure your client or patient doesn t have an underlying medical condition. People can and do hide information from you out of shame and fear of judgment. It is wise to have your client sign a document that no underlying medical conditions / diseases are present to his or her best knowledge.

4 Where possible, it can also be helpful to ask your client or patient to obtain a comprehensive blood chemistry profile (CBC) from the doctor. This panel will check for things like cholesterol, triglycerides, blood glucose, insulin, sodium, potassium, iron, red blood cells, white blood cells, liver enzymes and so on. For various reasons, having a clean CBC doesn t mean your client is healthy, but for YOUR purposes in keeping within legal boundaries, and for YOUR peace of mind, having a recent copy of one of these tests is helpful. You may even like to make it a condition of engagement to have your client/patient present you with a set of results that have been checked by a physician. In Hompes Method Level II, we actually cover comprehensive blood count testing in some detail and I teach you how to interpret the tests in a completely different and much more effective manner than most medical doctors do. Family History Politely enquiring about your clients family history can be extremely helpful. It can give you clues about possible genetically acquired symptoms, or phenotypically acquired symptoms. True genetic diseases are rare very rare. We have part of the genetic make up of every organism that has ever existed on this planet. Through evolution, Mother Nature keeps genetic material that s advantageous, and dumps genetic material that s not. Humans are the highest order organism on the planet, and are made up of genetic material of the past 3 billion years or so. When you look at insects, fish, birds, mammals and primates in the wild, they animals obviously don t get the same diseases as humans (unless they are exposed to certain environmental influences from manmade activity or in the experimental setting). The human genome project showed that humans have only a few thousand more genes than a fruit fly, or tiny experimental worm, but that these genes can be expressed (turned on, if you like) through environmental influences. When genes are turned on and off by environmental factors, we call it epigenetics, meaning over or above genetics. Two people can have the same potentially disease-causing gene, but that gene may only express itself under certain conditions.

5 What are some of the environmental conditions that can affect genes? Food Manmade chemicals (bad toxins) Infectious organisms (bad bugs) Nutrient status Injury Structural misalignment Pain Perceptions of the external environment o Support / challenge o Relax / stress o Good / bad o Right / wrong o Beliefs o Emotions The sum total of environmental influences creates the organism s phenotype. So you have genotype, which is the genuine genetic make up of a person. And you have the phenotype, which is the person s genetics interacting with their environment. I realize this is a slightly complex topic and it s not something I recommend you spend too much time on unless you have a real interest in it. BUT, do understand that your client/patient s symptoms can have either a genetic or phenotypic background. An example to clarify what I mean: High blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease could run in a family. Identical twins are born (identical genes); one twin lives a healthy lifestyle, eats well, exercises and only drinks occasionally, whilst managing stress very effectively; the other twin eats processed foods, is a couch potato, is a stress-head and drinks a lot. Which one is most likely to develop heart disease? It s also worth pointing out that as children, we learn the behavior of our parents and other influential people in our lives. Kids are constantly modeling other people, so if parent s lifestyle has contributed to a certain set of symptoms, the kid is quite likely to develop similar symptoms because the kid will learn a set of behaviours from his or her parents (food the kid will typically be fed by the parents - exercise habits, dealing with stress, etc.) Thus, family history of a specific disease (cardiovascular, diabetes, thyroid, arthritis, neurological etc.) is usually as much reflective of beliefs and habits passed down the family lineage as it is the actual genetics.

6 Why am I sharing this with you? Well, you re going to come across clients and patients who believe they have a genetic disorder, when in fact they probably don t. They may not have a genetic disorder at all, or they have an epigenetic disorder that can be resolved by altering environmental influences (foods, detoxification, exercise, circadian rhythm, hydration, and so on). People can use genetics and family history as excuses to disempower themselves and these cases may be tough to deal with. As you know, by changing choices, behaviours and lifestyle, your clients and patients can overcome symptoms and conditions that may previously have been blamed on mum, dad, grandma and grandpa! Summary Feel free to use the same health history form (HHF) as we do I have provided an unbranded copy for you steal When you add this document to your initial client intake, along with a food diary, you can derive an enormous amount of information about why your client/patient is feeling unwell and, importantly, where to begin in order to help them begin climbing the vitality scale. In the next adjunct lesson/module, we ll cover something that here at Hompes Method, we affectionately call Biomeasures. Biomeasures add even more information to your initial client intake, helping both you and your client understand some of the reasons for symptoms. Would You Like An Online Version of These Forms? We ask our clients to complete their initial forms online, and we can help you install them on your website as well because our web design / online marketing associates have the ability to brand the online forms for you. I invested more than 2,000 ($3,000) to have these forms developed and installed on my websites, but you can have them on your website for a fraction of the cost. To see how it works, click the link below: Online Health History Form Contact us for details on how we can help you install these forms on YOUR website.

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