Fall 2010
Catalyst new pioneer food co-op's newsletter
Tad Stolley
Gluten-Free 2 Years
For Tad Stolley, what started as a winter
illness evolved into the battle of this
former UNI runner’s life. After struggling
with increasing exhaustion and hypoglycemia
that caused him to give up
his long-distance dreams in college, Tad
was also ready to give up on ever feeling
healthy again. Th en he turned to an unlikely
source for help: his chiropractor.
“I had been to six or seven doctors and no one had any
answers,” Tad explains, “it makes me tear up to think of how
much Dr. Adam Introna has changed my life.” Tad was initially
hesitant to mention his symptoms of unease and fatigue to his
chiropractor, fearing another misdiagnosis that could create
tension in their doctor/patient relationship. But as soon as Dr.
Introna heard Tad’s story, he recommended testing for Celiac
disease. Tad was diagnosed as gluten-intolerant and within days
of going off gluten, he felt completely normal again.
It’s not always easy being gluten-free, Tad admits. “It’s a
challenge to go to restaurants and have to explain it to the
wait staff … before they would give me such a funny look, but
now seven or eight out of ten of them know what I’m talking
about.” He recommends getting to know someone with the
disease who can help you through the adjustment, or joining
a support group.
“Celiac disease is very tough until you get in a group, but
you don’t need a support group for years on end. It’s not this
terrible disease that you will suff er from forever; all you have
to do is cut gluten out of your diet and that’s not as diffi cult
as you might think.”
Tad has become a big fan of the wheat-free desserts at the
Co-op, and is also a devoted consumer of Breads from Anna
baking mixes. He applauds the progress that has been made
in the recognition of this disorder, “Nowadays you are lucky
… there’s been so much work done to this point.”
1705 South 1st Avenue Iowa City, IA 52240 319-337-2331
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© Copyright 2009, Women’s Edition, Inc. All right reserved.
Reprinted with the express written permission of Women’s Edition,
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H E A L T H Y L I V I N G
By Beverly Hahesy Hannon
Chiropractic
Dr. Adam Introna
Hippocrates,
the “father of medicine,” (460-377 B.C.) taught: “Let food be thy
medicine; thy medicine shall be thy food.” Dr. Adam Introna of
Coralville Chiropractic has taken Hippocrates’ advice to heart. He
has been a practicing chiropractor for the past 13 years, treating
between 120 and 150 patients a week. Operating mainly as a pain
relief clinic, Dr. Introna specializes in whiplash treatment.
Even though chiropractic students
receive a lot of education on nutrition, Dr. Introna has taken a
renewed interest in nutrition and supplements over the last few
years. It is primarily because of concerns about his own health. His
energy level was not what he hoped, his cholesterol level had risen,
and he was not sleeping soundly. He also noticed that many of his
patients complained of the same symptoms. Those patients thought
these were the normal effects of growing older, stress at work, or
some other reason not severe enough for medical treatment. They
complained of being tired, rundown, and overweight. They had
indigestion often, poor sleep habits, menstrual or menopausal
complaints, and/or irritable bowel symptoms.
Dr. Introna said he thought, “Doctors
want to solve problems and uncover causes of illness. If I can do
that for my patients, I can do it for myself.” He went on to
complete an additional 100 hours of nutritional studies.
“Chiropractors can affect visceral systems in a positive way when
those problems come from the spine, but nutrition and environment
play important roles in wellness too,” he said. Eventually, he put
together a simple program composed of three parts: patient
assessment and history, blood tests, and hormone level tests. He
stated that this allows him to get the “full picture.” It helps to
assemble the pieces of the patient’s “health puzzle” together. He
offers a free initial consultation.
Dr. Introna explained that there are
53 different blood markers that assess the metabolic state. A few
examples of what blood tests reveal are cholesterol levels, liver
function, blood sugar metabolism, and thyroid function. Medical
doctors don’t usually intervene with the thyroid until there is a
thyroid problem or disease. Once a person is taking thyroid
medication, her thyroid gland shuts down and becomes inactive,
meaning that the person has to take thyroid medication for the rest
of her life, Dr. Introna explained.
His program, through these
comprehensive tests and a unique-to-the-patient nutritional
diet/supplementation program, narrows the test parameters to pick up
metabolic dysfunction earlier. And it takes a preventive approach
without the use of drugs. He believes that most patients show
symptoms of one or more diseases early, which is why they feel the
symptoms before it becomes the actual disease. His program is unlike
other nutritional programs in that he retests in four to six weeks
to see if the program is working.
All tests are done by LabCorp Labs,
which is the largest medical lab in the country, he said, and
Diagnos-techs. Hormone tests on saliva are sent to a lab in
Washington. Follow-up tests should show that liver inflammation is
at a lower rate; cholesterol is lower; weight should be better; and
sleep should be better, among other results. If not, adjustments are
made and the patient is retested again at intervals until normal
body chemistry is achieved. Dr. Introna stated that his ultimate
goal is to guide the patient’s body to heal itself and become drug-
and supplement-free. In other words, the patient should become well.
One of his patients was having
menstrual periods every two weeks. The only treatment options made
available to her were to live with it or take birth control pills.
She did not want to do either and consulted Dr. Introna for a
second opinion. He suggested supplementation and her condition
improved immediately. The supplements were not hormone replacement,
but helped supply nutritional support to her adrenal glands and
ovaries. Dr. Introna was quick to add, however, “Not everyone reacts
so soon or so completely.” But he pointed out that his clinical
experience has shown that his program can drop a patient’s
cholesterol level by 60 points rather than seven to 10 points on a
low fat cereal replacement such as oatmeal or Cheerios.
Another patient approached him after
one of his free lectures and asked him to help with her insomnia
problem that had persisted through many treatments over six years.
He told her he wasn’t sure his program would work on insomnia, but
she insisted on trying it. He waited anxiously for her call to
report any effects, but the call didn’t happen until day five. The
patient had slept almost six hours on the third night, but was so
surprised that she thought it was a fluke and waited two more days
to call him. She was not yet sleeping eight or nine hours a night,
but she was ecstatic with the relief she had obtained thus far.
Dr. Introna cautions that his program
is not the “easy way out” by popping a pill, but instead
necessitates testing and retesting and a change in diet, with
supplements if needed. He said if he tells a high-cholesterol
patient not to eat pizza, that patient will probably still eat
pizza. But if he shows the patient the lab results on his
cholesterol and explains what high cholesterol can mean, the
patient usually pays attention and cooperates. He feels his job is
not just to treat symptoms, but to determine why that patient has
high cholesterol, for example, and to guide his body in achieving
normalcy. He said he believes his program is filling a gap. “So many
Americans are not feeling well but excuse the feeling as normal
because so many others feel the same way.”
There are two chiropractors besides
himself at the practice, as well as two massage therapists. They
also offer ultrasound and muscle stimulation at the clinic. Dr.
Introna is a second-generation chiropractor after his father. Both
attended Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, which is where
his father met his mother, and Dr. Introna met his wife, a nurse.
His parents moved to New York after his dad graduated, which is
where Dr. Introna was born and grew up, along with an older brother
and younger sister.
He remembers the day he decided that
he wanted to be a chiropractor. He was cutting grass outside his
father’s clinic. A patient arrived who could not get out of his car
alone, so Dr. Introna helped him. A little later, the patient
reappeared, got in his car, and drove away. Dr. Introna said to
himself, “I want to be able to help people like that!” He obtained a
pre-med degree in Pennsylvania before attending Palmer. Each year,
he lectures medical students at the University of Iowa Medical
School about alternate medicine. He also delivers free public
lectures.
For more information, to schedule a
consultation, or to learn more about his free public lectures,
contact Dr. Adam Introna at Coralville Chiropractic, 850 22nd
Ave.
in Coralville. You can also visit
www.painiowa.com or
coralvillechiropractic@gmail.com.
WE
Printed April 2009. Use of this information is valid only through April 2009 through April 2010.© Copyright 2009, Women’s Edition, Inc. All right reserved. Reprinted with the express written permission of Women’s Edition, Inc.