An estimated fifty million people suffer from symptoms including fatigue, joint pains, depression, or heart palpitations — signs that the immune system has turned on itself, causing conditions such as thyroid disease, hepatitis, or multiple sclerosis. And while doctors may prescribe treatments to relieve these surface ailments, when asked about the life-long health implications of an autoimmune condition, they often just shrug their shoulders. Yet much like cancer, having one autoimmune disease puts you at high risk for developing another.


For most autoimmune diseases, the best that medicine can do is keep some of the symptoms at bay.  The root cause of the condition, or any potential to cure the autoimmune disease, is rarely - if at all - addressed.  Once your autoimmune system turns on you, it may start a seemingly downward health spiral characterized by development of other autoimmune conditions.  Multiple autoimmune conditions are frequently accompanied by dramatically worsening allergies, heightened chemical sensitivities, hormonal imbalances, and a host of other debilitating and life-changing symptoms.


For the most part, doctors throw up their hands when you ask, “What can I do about my autoimmune condition?”  Most doctors just shake their heads, perplexed, when you ask, “How can I avoid getting more autoimmune-related diseases?”  Most doctors don’t have an answer to: “Is there anything I can do to help prevent my children from developing autoimmune disease?”


Over time chronic malfunctioning of the immune system can ultimately lead to various cancers.  Most doctors have no idea on how to recapture your health, no way to slow or halt the immune system gone haywire as it launches each new attack on another part of your body.


You won’t find answers in main stream medicine.  You aren’t likely to hear them from the typical HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) doctor, who may not even recognize or easily diagnose many autoimmune conditions, much less know how to treat them - particularly given the constraints of the typical HMO-mandated 15-minute-or-less appointment.  And the answers aren’t likely to be forthcoming from the average primary care doctor, or GP, or ob-gyn - the doctors most of us see for our day-to-day medical care.  These doctors rush through dozens of patients a day and barely have time to keep up with key developments in the most studied conditions such as heart disease and cancer, much less delve into complicated and often misunderstood autoimmune diseases.


And even those doctors who consider themselves experts in treating the most common autoimmune diseases rarely venture into the uncharted territory of actually dealing with the autoimmune process itself.  Most are content to focus on treating symptoms.  So endocrinologists give insulin for diabetes and thyroid hormone replacement for thyroid disease. 
 
Rheumatologists prescribe pain relievers and immunosupppressives for rheumatoid arthritis.  Gastroenterologists offer surgeries and drugs from Crohn’s disease.  But ask these doctors about autoimmmune implications of the conditions and they may draw a blank.


That is why you need a doctor that specializes in “functional testing”.


Would you like to take the guesswork out of knowing what you really need to be healthy? Functional testing allows us to target your specific nutritional and metabolic needs. The state-of-the-art test allows us to select the most effective and efficient combination of nutritional products for you, based on your individual results.


Your body’s systems don’t work in a vacuum.   Dr. McKernan takes a functional approach to determine areas of imbalance or deficiency. His testing provides information about antioxidant deficiencies and insufficiencies of nutrients like carnitine, NAC, lipoic acid, and CoQ10. You will discover how effectively the B vitamins function in your body, how well your body handles toxins, and how well your brain’s neurotransmitters are functioning. It looks at lipid peroxides to see if you need additional antioxidant protection and provides a fatty acid assessment to optimize your ratio to reduce overall inflammation. These functional tests will even reveal unknown digestive abnormalities that may be causing health problems and uncover food sensitivities that can impact a host of conditions including difficult weight loss, skin disorders and autoimmune disease.


Stop taking medications to cover up your problems and start to get to the cause of your disease.  Call us today, it will be the most important decision you make about your health. ​

EndoTrim™ is a comprehensive endocrine and metabolic balancing formula designed to promote optimal body composition by favorably modulating the hormones insulin, leptin and cortisol; balancing blood sugar; optimizing the lipoprotein lipase enzyme; and limiting cravings. The ingredients in EndoTrim™ were chosen based on the latest research in overcoming the challenges of losing body fat while maintaining and even increasing lean body mass and basal metabolic rate. This formula was also designed to control appetite, the stress response, moods and energy. EndoTrim™ contains the non-stimulating American ginseng for cortisol balance. The herbs banaba and green tea are included to enhance glucose control and insulin performance, along with the minerals chromium, vanadium and zinc. Coleus forskohlii, Garcinia cambogia and the polyphenol EGCg from green tea promote lean body mass through ergogenic activity, stimulating metabolism and allowing for greater fat burning. Activated B vitamins and carnitine provide nutrients for optimal mitochondrial function and metabolism. N-acetyl-tyrosine supports thyroid function and proper catecholamine balance. The addition of GABA provides an element of craving control to this unique product. These nutrients help keep us calm when stressed which helps reduce stress-related eating. ​

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Gastrointestinal function is critical for good health. Emerging evidence has associated overall GI function and gut microbiome status with a wide variety of common illnesses including, but not limited to:

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Celiac and Other Malabsorption Disorders
• Mood Disorders
• Autoimmune
• Autism

Our testing assesses three critical areas of gut health: digestive function, gut inflammation, and the gut microbiome—areas affecting not only GI health, but overall health as well. For patients with symptoms that may have gastrointestinal dysfunction as their root cause, comprehensive stool diagnostics provide an effective tool for gaining clinical insight into next steps.
In addition to performing critical digestive functions, the intestinal tract contains significant amounts of organisms — the gut microbiome. Imbalances in this internal ecosystem have been associated in the scientific literature with a wide variety of common illnesses.

Assessing and normalizing GI function can have profound effects on overall health, leading to improvement in these and other conditions. The GI Effects® Comprehensive Stool Profile is a critical clinical tool in the management of our patients presenting with symptoms that can be associated with compromised gut health.
What advantage does the profile offer compared to other diagnostics?
The test report is organized so that the patient may move through results in a logical order that enhances clinical utility, starting with an innovative Interpretation-At-A-Glance cover page.
What can clinicians and patients expect from this type of testing?Functional testing can help uncover the root cause of many chronic conditions that often frustrate both physician and patient. The scope of the premier biomarkers on the GI Effects Stool Profile provides comprehensive information to the patient for the development of strategic interventions. As identified functional imbalances and inadequacies become more normalized through targeted dietary, lifestyle, and supplementation therapeutics, intractable symptoms often improve for many patients.
Each biomarker is associated with specific pertinent therapies, but general therapeutic considerations include:

• Discerning general evidence of bowel inflammation and providing intestinal mucosal and anti-inflammatory support
• Addressing any identified infection with appropriate pharmacological and botanical treatments
• Supporting commensal bacteria with pre/probiotic supplements and dietary changes

A structured diagnostic panel, like the GI Effects Profile, is easy for patients to understand and gets to the root cause of their chronic problems.

This was a fit female patient in her early 40's.  She exercised 5x's per week, and ate healthy on a regular basis.  As you can see she had 9 food sensitivities, which some were being consumed on a daily basis.   One of the interesting findings was the higher than normal L-Lactate levels.  L-Lactate is a product of muscle use, so it is constantly produced in normal daily activity. Low lactate is seen in people with very little physical activity and in highly trained athletes. High lactate can cause muscle cramping, fatigue and brain fog. It indicates insufficiency of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a nutrient that enables the body to use oxygen to generate large amounts of energy. It is important for athletes in order to maintain intense muscular activity. CoQ10 is also a potent antioxidant helping to slow the aging process and prevent a variety of degenerative diseases. Risk for certain kinds of heart disease, cancer, and hypertension are increased when CoQ10 is insufficient.
 Another interesting finding was the elevation in Suberate.  Suberate elevations indicate metabolic blocks. Carnitine is needed to move fatty acids into the mitochondria where they are converted to energy using vitamin B2.   Supplementation of carnitine and vitamin B2 may be needed when these compounds are too high. Insufficiency of vitamin B2 is implicated in impaired carbohydrate metabolism, migraines, and dementia. Carnitine supplementation has been documented to improve Alzheimer’s, age-related cognitive decline, and cardiac function.
High levels of Sulfate were also found.  Sulfate is associated with your body’s use of glutathione, an amino acid critical for removing toxins that is also a powerful antioxidant. Many disease processes can be adversely influenced by glutathione insufficiency. Supplementation with various amino acids, especially methionine and glycine, can help rebuild total body glutathione.  Sulfate levels are reflective of your body’s sulfur containing amino acid status. Supplementation with various sulfur amino acids (e.g. N-acetylcysteine, methionine, glutathione, and taurine) and sodium sulfate can be used to support adequate levels of glutathione.
A lot of people know about Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.  The results of this test indicated that her "good" Omega 3's were low and her "bad" Omega 6 were high.  Many profound clinical symptoms hinge on fatty acid status. While there is much discussion of the negative impact of fats on health, the positive benefits associated with “good fats,” known as essential fatty acids, is often overlooked. Achieving the optimum balance of essential fatty acids minimizes inflammation, a major risk factor in heart disease and cancer. A balance of fatty acids is also necessary for proper brain development and function of the nervous system. The activity of every cell in your body is compromised when fatty acids are deficient. Cell membranes, made of fatty acids, serve as the door that regulates the flow of nutrients into the cell and removal of metabolic waste products out of the cell.
Now that we know EXACTLY what this patient needs to supplement her daily routine, we can be absolutely sure that she is taking the right vitamins/supplements and getting the best possible results with those supplements! 

I am excited to tell you about a new product available at our office that has clinical evidence showing the ingredients to be as effective as Fluoxetine (Prozac) at improving depression.  This offers people a natural alternative for suffering with depression and anxiety, and it's only once a day dosing!
Mood-Stasis™ is a blend of vitamins and herbs that work synergistically to support a calm and positive mental outlook. It contains saffron and sceletium extracts, along with vitamin B12 and folate.
The ingredients in Mood-Stasis™ work synergistically without the unpleasant side-effects of pharmaceutical antidepressant medications. Also, unlike prescription antidepressants, this product is not habit-forming and will not induce dependency or withdrawal symptoms. 

​
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Fatigue: extreme tiredness, typically resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.
We all know what it is.  But how do we get rid of it?  Or better yet how do we get the body to function better to relieve the fatigue?
Energy pretty much is produced in the adrenal glands.  So what we need to do is 1.  improve the circulation to the adrenals, 2.  help rebuild the adrenals, and 3. nourish the adrenals with what they need and activate them.  So how do we do that in our office?
There are a few supplements that we can use to help do these things in the body.  One of them is called Drenamin.  Drenamin helps support the adrenal glands by helping improve the circulation to the adrenals, rebuilds the glands, and contains tyrosinase, and organic copper to help activate the adrenals.  The next supplement is gender specific: Symplex M (men) and Symplex F (female).  These are a special combination formula to support endocrine cellular health and balance.  They contain organically bound minerals to help balance the nervous system.  Next is Protefood.  This is a product to help with protein replenishment and metabolism.  Protefood contains 8 essential amino acids, which will stoke your metabolism and keep you going day in and day out.  It is an excellent product, and a POWERFUL one.  The last one is called Eleuthero (AKA Siberian Ginseng).  This enhances the vitality and endurance, immune system and adrenal support.  Great for Chronic fatigue and stress.  If you take these together, they will have a synergistic effect and I can almost guarantee you that your fatigue will be greatly diminished or entirely gone.  You can order these products at standard process webstie: www.standardprocess.com.  Enter code: DUVFH5 for my practice code and have them shipped directly to your house.

Dr Chad McKernan, DC is warning patients against the dangers of ‘text neck’—a condition caused by continually looking down at your smartphone.


If you’re like millions of Americans, you probably own a smartphone, tablet, or similar device. And, if you’re like the vast majority of them, you spend a considerable amount of time staring at the screen daily. But, as Dr. Chad McKernan of McKernan Chiropractic wants patients to know, this could be greatly impacting your health.


“Your grandmother probably warned you to sit up straight for your overall posture,” explains Dr. McKernan. “But what she didn’t know about was how prominent cell phones would become in our lives. This continuous bending of the neck to pay attention to social media or texting causes most people to position their head unnaturally. What we’re seeing is added stress on the spine, which can cause serious health effects over time.”


According to industry experts, ‘text neck’ can lead to pain, spinal degeneration, and even the need for future surgery.


The reason for this has to do with the weight of your skull. On average, the human head weighs about twelve pounds. The further you bend your neck to look down, the more stress that is placed on the joints in your cervical spine.


At around a fifteen-degree angle, this equates to around twenty-seven pounds. But at a sixty-degree angle—where most people bend when looking at their phone for large amounts of time—that figure jumps to a whopping sixty pounds. To put things in perspective, that’s like carrying around a small child on your neck for multiple hours per day!


With experts suggesting an average lifetime figure of over 5,000 hours spent hunched over our cell phones, this phenomenon is hitting epic proportions. In fact, young people are the most at risk for developing a problem associated with neck position and smartphone use as time passes.


So, what can a patient who is addicted to their phone (or at least one who uses it frequently) do to prevent this sort of issue and relieve pain? “Look up occasionally,” advises Dr McKernan. “Use your eyes to look at the device and not your neck whenever possible. Good posture leads to good neck habits when using your smartphone. It really does matter.”


Chiropractic care can also help with text neck. After low back pain, neck pain is also a common reason why people see a chiropractor. Adjustments will help reduce muscular tension and restore normal joint function.​

Hi my name is Kaylee and I am nine years old. Before meeting Dr. Chad I was told that one of my eyes is lower than the other and pointed out a little. This was causing me to have double vision and headaches several times a day. My parents were looking for some sort of therapy for this and my Nana suggested Dr. Chad.  After meeting him we also found out my neck was straight when it should be curved. I have been seeing Dr. Chad twice a week and the curve in my neck is back and my double vision is all but gone. Thank you Dr. Chad, you are the best.




Kaylee