Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: THIS PRESCRIPTION DRUG KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN MURDERS OR CAR ACCIDENTS IN THE US Deaths caused by overdosing on painkillers now surpass murders and fatal car accidents in the US. America's rising drug problem recently received renewed attention following the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. The 46-year-old Oscar-winning actor died from a heroin overdose on February 2. Last year, Hoffman entered rehab when addiction to prescription painkillers led him to switch to heroin. US officials now acknowledge that narcotic painkillers are in fact a driving force in the rise of substance abuse and lethal overdoses. Over the past five years alone, heroin deaths have increased by 45 percent--an increase that officials blame on the rise of addictive prescription drugs such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, codeine, and Fentora, all of which are opioids. TELL A FRIEND IN PAIN ABOUT CHIROPRACTIC
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MYTH: High cholesterol is the cause of heart disease.
FACT: Cholesterol is a fairly insignificant player in heart disease.
MYTH: High cholesterol is a good predictor of heart attacks.
FACT: High cholesterol is a lousy predictor of heart attacks. Half the people admitted to hospitals with heart disease have normal cholesterol, and plenty of people with elevated cholesterol have perfectly healthy hearts.
MYTH: Lowering cholesterol with statin drugs will prolong your life.
FACT: There is no data showing statins have any impact on longevity.
MYTH: Statin drugs are perfectly safe.
FACT: Statin drugs have significant side effects, including loss of memory and libido, muscle pain and fatigue, and approximately 65 percent of doctors don't report those side effects, according to a 2007 study.
MYTH: Statin drugs are appropriate for men, women, children and the elderly.
FACT: The only group in which statins have been shown to have even a modest effect is in middle-aged men who've already had a heart attack. If you're not in that group, you've got no business on a statin drug.
MYTH: Saturated fat is dangerous.
FACT: Saturated fat is mostly neutral and may even have some health benefits. A recent peer-reviewed study has shown no association between saturated fat and heart disease.
MYTH: The higher your cholesterol, the shorter your lifespan.
FACT: In the Framingham Study, the people who actually lived the longest had the highest cholesterol.
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George Mann M D., Associate Professor of Bio-Chemistry at Vanderbilt University College of Medicine and a participating researcher in the Framingham Heart Study was one of the doubters of the benefit of the low cholesterol. The diet-heart idea is the “greatest scam” in the history of medicine, he said. “Researchers have held repeated press conferences bragging about cataclysmic breakthroughs which the study directors ‘claim shows that lowering cholesterol lowers the frequency of coronary disease. They have manipulated the data to reach the wrong conclusions”.Dr. Mann also declared that NIH managers“used Madison Avenue hype to sell this failed trial in the same way that the media people would sell an underarm deodorant”.
In 1992, forty-four years after the Framingham Study began, study director William Castelli, M.D.wrote in an editorial to the Archives of Internal Medicine. “In the Framingham Study, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol...we found that people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least, and were the most physically active”.
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Dr. John Yudkin, M.D., pointed out that there was a better and truer relationship between sugar consumption and heart disease. “There is a sizeable minority -of which I am one-that believes coronary disease is not largely due to fat in the die t”. Three decades later, Dr. George Mann arrived at the same conclusion and assembled a distinguished group of scientists and doctors to study the evidence that fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, a concept he later called “the greatest health scam of the century”. Sugar is a far greater danger to your heart than fat ever was or will be. Most medical experts have tried and convicted the wrong culprit. Fat was innocent all the time. It’s sugar that’s the true culprit of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and many cancers.
Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: LOW-LEVEL PESTICIDE EXPOSURE LINKED TO PARKINSON'S DISEASE The risk of Parkinson’s disease clearly increases with exposure to certain environmental toxins, such as pesticides. Pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are potent toxicants that may cause disruptions or damage to the neurological system, including your brain. What is perhaps most concerning is that even ambient exposure to pesticides has been found to increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease considerably,and this was further confirmed by new research linking the disease to extremely low-level pesticide exposure.
CHIROPRACTIC: THE CHIROPRACTIC APPROACH TO PAIN. As Americans we have grown up in a drug culture. Some people don't think twice about putting artificial pharmaceuticals in their mouth because they have this assumption that it must be safe. But when it comes to pain medication this is a dangerous assumption to make. There are certain pain situations that medication might be necessary, temporarily. But the chiropractic/natural healthcare approach to pain is to understand its root cause. Pain can be your friend. It might be the only way you know something is wrong in your body so turning pain off with some dangerous medication makes as much sense as clip in the wire to the oil light when it comes in your car. The oil light is not your enemy; the condition that caused the oil light to come on is what needs to be fixed. When it comes to pain there can be structural causes (subluxation), internal organ or visceral causes, chemical or toxicity causes or emotional/neurotransmitter (brain chemistry) causes. As a chiropractic physician we will search for the root cause and through chiropractic realignment, diet and detoxification, acupuncture and physical therapy, we will correct the cause and the pain will take care of itself. If you or a family member suffers from some pain disorder seek a solution and not a cover-up. More than 2000 people a week die from medications and a high percent of those are from pain medication. Visit our web sites: keefeclinic.com & facebook.com/keefeclinic
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Do you have low T? (Low testosterone.) Here are some of the symptoms of low T: Hypogonadism is a condition in which a man has low T and may experience symptoms, including:
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This is the next great frontier for pharmaceutical companies to try to make a bundle of money. Unfortunately for you it might come at quite a cost TO YOU. Lower down in this article you can read some of the side effects from taking testosterone from a pharmaceutical company. For instance here's just a couple: For Men Under 65: possible 300% increased risk of heart attacks, stroke and death. For Men Over 65: possible 200% increase in cardiac event risk
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I have found for my patients’ natural formulas, foods and herbal products can resolve symptoms of low T without any risky side effects. Just because you see something promoted 100 times a day doesn't mean that it's safe OR the best way for you to manage a given condition. We have been programmed to feel like we need whatever we see promoted over and over again. That's why advertising in such big business.
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So before you expose yourself to unnecessary risk consider a natural approach, there is an excellent Herb that I've used over 30 years for different things but it seems to work great for a lot of men with low T. This herb is called blessed thistle. You can pick it up at my office or virtually any health food store in town, between 4 to 6 Caps does a great job for most men. Your low T could be more complicated than that and we can evaluate you for better targeting of the nutrients you need for this condition. Feel free to call 918-663-1111 for an evaluation.
SIDE EFFECTS FROM TESTOSTERONE THERAPY
AndroGel (testosterone gel) is used to treat conditions in men that result from a lack of natural testosterone, a naturally occurring male hormone. Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, hair loss, trouble sleeping, change in sexual desire, redness/swelling of the skin, change in skin color, or acne.
Some side effects of testosterone may occur that usually do not need medical attention. Check with your health care professional if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome or if you have any questions about them:
More Common
Less common
Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
WELLNESS/PREVENTION: GLASSESOFF FOR YOUR IPHONE GlassesOff scientists have developed a proprietary method for improving near vision sharpness, by improving the image processing function in the visual cortex of the brain. GlassesOff is a personalized product that monitors user performance and progress. The product constantly adjusts according to each user’s ongoing progress. The GlassesOff application is comprised of two components: Game-like challenges: Intensive visual stimulation tasks, composed of reading abilities evaluations and approximately three 12-minute sessions per week, over a period of three months. Ongoing care (as needed): To help maintain the achievements over time in spite of the natural effects of aging, users are prompted to use the product once every few weeks according to their current reading abilities. IT’S FREE
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As we discuss inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods we must understand the difference in body types. There were four body types that require slightly different blends of carbohydrates fat, and proteins. These can be divided into two basic groups one the high complex carbohydrate low-fat and the other being high-protein low carbohydrate. If you’re in a high complex carbohydrate low-fat group then foods like eggs, butter, salt, redmeat and some spices could be a problem. If you’re in the high protein low carb group than refined carbohydrates sugars grains could be a problem. So it’s important to know what body type you have as you review the following list of anti-inflammatory foods. Also any food that you’re allergic to can be pro-inflammatory even on the list of anti-inflammatory foods. For instance the nightshade family can be pro-inflammatory if you’re allergic to them. They include: potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum), many species of sweet and hot peppers (all species of Capsicum, including Capsicum annum), and eggplant (Solanum melongena). Less well know, but equally genuine nightshade foods include ground cherries (all species of Physalis), tomatillos (Physallis ixocapra), garden huckleberry (Solanum melanocerasum), tamarillos (Cyphomandra betacea), pepinos (Solanum muricatum), and naranjillas (Solanum quitoense). Pimentos (also called pimientos) belong to the nightshade family, and usually come from the pepper plant Capsicum annum. Pimento cheese and pimento-stuffed olives are therefore examples of foods that should be classified as containing nightshade components. Although the sweet potato, whose scientific name is Ipomoea batatas, belongs to the same plant order as the nightshades (Polemoniales), it does not belong to the Solanaceae family found in this order, but to a different plant family called Convolvulaceae.
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So as you read the list of anti-inflammatory foods keep in mind that your body type might preclude some of these foods as well as your food allergies.
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Inflammation is one of the body's defense mechanisms. Inflammation results in increased blood flow in response to infection and certain chronic conditions. Symptoms of inflammation include redness, swelling, pain, and heat.
But when inflammation becomes uncontrolled then it becomes the soil for chronic disease. Besides foods, stress, obesity, toxicity and an acidic chemistry help produce uncontrolled inflammation in the body.
Diseases that arise from inflammatory chemistry can be the following: Autoimmune disorders, Obesity, allergies, Alzheimer's, anemia, ankylosing spondylitis, asthma, autism, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, celiac, Crohn's disease, congestive heart failure, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, eczema, fibromyalgia, fibrosis, gallbladder disease, Gerd, Guillain-Barré , Hashimoto's thyroiditis, heart attack, kidney failure, lupus, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, pancreatitis, psoriasis, polymyalgia rheumatica, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, stroke, surgical complications, many other pain disorders.
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Specifics vary from diet to diet, but in general anti-inflammatory diets suggest:
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Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: BUYER BEWARE Most people assume that scientific integrity is somehow assured; that there are safeguards along the way, preventing fraudulent research from harming patients. Unfortunately, scientific misconduct has become a very serious and widespread problem that threatens the entire paradigm of science-based medicine—unless changes are made. Again and again, papers assessing the prevalence of scientific fraud and/or the impact this is having shows that the situation is dire and getting worse. “Last summer, British researchers provoked concern when they published a paper raising the possibility that by following an established guideline UK doctors may have caused as many as 10,000 deaths each year,2" Larry Husten, editorial director of WebMD professional news, writes. “Now, they have gone a step further and published an estimate that the same guideline may have led to the deaths of as many as 800,000 people in Europe over the last five years...
WELLNESS: "DON'T COUNT ON MILK TO BEAT OSTEOPOROSIS. In a Harvard study of 78,000 nurses, drinking three or more glasses of milk per day did not reduce fractures at all. An Australian study showed the same thing. In the Harvard study, women consuming greater amounts of calcium from dairy foods had significantly INCREASED risks of hip fractures, while no increase in fracture risk was observed for the same levels of calcium from non-dairy sources. “Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture in old age. (“Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly”. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 139, No. 5, 1994).
CHIROPRACTIC: CHIROPRACTIC CARE is not just for those patients who have been involved in an accident or suffer from chronic neck or back pain. Chiropractic care can benefit many people with a great number of health conditions. Even those with few, if any, health conditions can benefit from chiropractic maintenance care. How, you ask? Life's daily stressors add up impacting the human body in far greater ways than you might realize. As a natural healthcare approach, regular chiropractic adjustments can restore and maintain balance within your body, leaving you better prepared to live life to its fullest. In fact, ongoing chiropractic maintenance care may offer significant health benefits, including but not limited to, Management/Relief of: Back and Neck Conditions, Leg Pain (Sciatica), Knee, Foot and Ankle Pain, Shoulder or Elbow Pain, Arm or Wrist Pain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Migraine and Tension Headaches, High blood pressure, Sleep disorders, Repetitive Stress Disorders, Stress and Tension Disorders, Fibromyalgia, Bursitis, Arthritis, Chronic Injuries, Improve Nervous System Function, Relieve Prenatal Discomfort, Increase Vitality and Improve Quality of Life, Provide Preventative Care, Improve Overall Health and Wellness for both children and adults.
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A man walks up to the reception desk in a doctor's office.
The receptionist ask him what he had.
He said shingles.
She took down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat.
15 minutes later, a nurse's aide came out and asked him what he had.
Shingles he replied.
She took down his height, weight, complete medical history and told him to wait in the examining room.
A half-hour later, a nurse came in and asked him what he had.
Shingles he replied again.
She took blood samples, a pressure test, a specimen told him to take off his clothes and wait for the doctor.
An hour later, Dr. Keenan asked what he had.
He said shingles.
The doctor said where?
He said outside in the truck. Where do you want THEM?
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In November we covered a new study looking at the use of probiotics in treating depression. Today I ran across another article which shows significant benefits for IBS patients as well. This newest study is a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial which looked at the use of a multispecies probiotic supplement in patients with irritable bowel symptoms. A total of 49 patients were divided into two treatment groups. (25 received probiotics and 24 received only a placebo). Patients were surveyed on their symptoms and in addition, fecal microflora were analyzed in 34 patients (17 from each group) to determine if changes in intestinal flora were actually taking place following supplementation.
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The authors conclude that "Multispecies probiotics are effective in IBS patients and induce the alterations in the composition of intestinal microbiota." At the end of 4 weeks, 68% of the treatment group was reporting substantial relief in terms of pain/discomfort, bloating, stool frequency/consistency... nearly twice the percentage of the placebo group.
"Don't count on milk to beat osteoporosis.
In a Harvard study of 78,000 nurses, drinking three or more glasses of milk per day did not reduce fractures at all. An Australian study showed the same thing.
Nearly 78,000 nurses participated in the 12-year milk and bone fracture study. MILK, DIETARY CALCIUM AND BONE FRACTURES The study found "no significant association" between teenage milk consumption and the risk of adult fractures. Data from the study indicate that frequent milk consumption and higher dietary calcium intakes in middle aged women do not provide protection against hip or forearm fractures. A SHOCKING AND UNEXPECTED REVELATION
In the Harvard study, women consuming greater amounts of calcium from dairy foods had significantly INCREASED risks of hip fractures, while no increase in fracture risk was observed for the same levels of calcium from non-dairy sources.
“Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, was associated with an increased risk of hip fracture in old age. (“Case-Control Study of Risk Factors for Hip Fractures in the Elderly”. American Journal of Epidemiology. Vol. 139, No. 5, 1994).
And the 12 year long Harvard Nurses’ Health Study found that those who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk. This is a broad study based on 77,761 women aged 34 through 59 years of age.
“These data do not support the hypothesis that higher consumption of milk or other food sources of calcium by adult women protects against hip or forearm fractures.” (Source: Feskanich D, Willett WC, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA. Milk, dietary calcium, and bone fractures in women: a 12-year prospective study. American Journal of Public Health. 1997).
Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., who states that: “The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets. The connection between calcium consumption and bone health is actually very weak, and the connection between dairy consumption and bone health is almost nonexistent.”
The best milk substitutes
A favorite milk substitute is unsweetened almond milk, not only because it is alkalizing (as almonds are), but also because it’s delicious and tastes very similar to milk. You can even cook with it!
If almond milk is hard to get, you can also try rice or soy milk
THERE is not a shred of evidence that upping calcium intake above a relatively low threshold, improves bone health or reduces the risk of bone fractures.
A study just published in the prestigious British Medical Journal hammers another nail into the coffin of the eat-more-calcium-for-stronger-bones myth, with the finding that women with the highest intake of calcium had a 19% higher risk of experiencing a hip fracture than those whose calcium intake was modest but adequate.
This study's strengths included: the large number of study subjects (over 60 000 Swedish women); the duration of follow-up (19 years); the fact that it was prospective (i.e. the participants were recruited before any of them had suffered a fracture) and calcium intake was repeatedly measured over the follow-up period, eliminating the problem of 'recall bias' -the tendency of people who have already suffered a disease, to overestimate their past exposure to risk factors for it - that plagues retrospective studies; and the statistical adjustment for various other factors that affect bone health and fracture risk, such as smoking, physical activity level, and whether the women had had children (which decreases fracture risk).
The researchers analyzed the participants' diet records, and divided them into 5 groups, from lowest to highest calcium intake. They found that women with the lowest calcium intake from foods and supplements (less than 750 mg per day) had an 18% higher risk of suffering any type of fracture, and a 29% greater risk of hip fracture, than women who consumed 882-996 mg of calcium per day (an amount easily achieved on an entirely plant-based diet, high in green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds).
However, women with the highest calcium intake (more than 1137 mg per day) had a 19% higher risk of suffering a hip fracture than those in the 882-996 mg/day group. Given that the Australian government now recommends a daily intake of 1300 mg of calcium for individuals over 50, and many older women are taking more than 1000 mg per day of calcium from supplements, above and beyond what they obtain through their diet, the findings from this carefully-conducted study must give serious pause for thought.
According to Carolyn Dean, a medical and naturopathic doctor:
"I've heard statistics like a 700 percent rise in osteoporosis in a 10-year period, even while taking all this calcium. The myth that's been created about calcium is that we need twice as much calcium as we do magnesium. Most of the supplements reflect this. We've got a situation where people are taking 1,200 to 1,500 milligrams of calcium and maybe a few hundred milligrams of magnesium.
The 2:1 ratio—that was a mistake; a mistaken translation from French researcher Jean Durlach, who said never ever go beyond two parts calcium to one part magnesium in your food, water, or supplement intake combined."
Twelve green leafy vegetables were analyzed for their mineral contents. The following concentration ranges (in mg g−1 dry weight) were obtained for the elements determined: sodium, 0·11–0·76; potassium, 0·36–1·07; calcium, 0·24–0·73; phosphorus, 0·18–0·39; magnesium, 0·66–1·76; manganese, 0·03–0·12; iron, 0·35–0·56; zinc, 0·04–0·12. NOTE: 2-3x THE MAGNESIUM TO CALCIUM
Navigating through lies, politics and profit in an attempt to find better health.
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Big food and big Pharma have lied to you to increase their bottom line. In the attempt to understand health and the principles that lead to better health you have to navigate through conflicting messages that attempt to brainwash you into lining the pockets of big food and big Pharma to the deficit of you and your family's health.
To give an example of this we will talk about heart disease and osteoporosis.
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If I ask most people on the street what was the main contributor to heart disease then cholesterol would be the first thing out of most people's mouth. If I ask you the number one way of maintaining healthy bones most people would say consuming more calcium. My question to you is: did you arrive at these conclusions by your own in-depth study of the research and science or have you opened up a medical textbook to determine how these conditions develop and exactly what these conditions are? Was it by extensive research that you come to these conclusions? Of course not you have been taught by television, radio and newsprint and even doctors.
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Let me give you some facts: one of the largest studies, I'm talking real-life studies not theoretical studies, was a Harvard study of 78,000 nurses. The facts are the nurses that consume the most calcium had the most bone fractures. Asian women living in their own culture eating their own cultural diet get one third the calcium that American women get and osteoporosis is extremely rare in their society. When they move to the US and incorporate the US diet they become the top risk group for osteoporosis.
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The next fact is the cholesterol theory of heart disease first gained its acceptance in the 1950s. Medical nutritionist Dr. Keyes supposedly correlated the level of fat intake with heart disease in six countries and even though his theory was rejected at the time he used political maneuvering by becoming part of the Heart Association and finally got his theory accepted. When you look at his original research you will see a study of 23 countries trying to make this correlation and he had to eliminate 16 of these countries in order to make his theory look correct statistically. When you add back the 16 countries he conveniently eliminated the correlation just doesn't stand up. And between the 1950s and about 1976 there are six different major studies trying to correlate fat in the diet with heart disease and they have all failed. In fact every major study from 1969 through the present has failed to support the cholesterol theory.
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One of the longest continual studies is ongoing today started in 1948 in Framingham Massachusetts. This study involves 5000 residents and has shown some amazing contradictions to the cholesterol theory of heart disease. In fact this study has shown after the age 47 the patients with the highest cholesterol outlive the patients with lower cholesterol levels. This study also shows those who ate more saturated fat weighed less and had more energy than those on the low-fat diet.
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In April 1996 the second International symposium on dietary fats and oils consumption in health and disease was hosted by the Southwest University medical school in Dallas Texas. Researchers from around the world presented their findings on the effects of fat in the human diet. After the presentations showing the subjects following the low-fat diet hadn't got rid of their obesity, and not lowered their cholesterol levels, had lowered their HDL levels (the good cholesterol), and had increase their blood levels of triglycerides (a major risk factor for heart disease), the moderators of the symposium pronounce the low-fat diet a failure.
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The strongest evidence points to inflammation as the soil in which obesity, diabetes, and heart disease develop from. So strategies to reduce inflammation will lead to the best chance of better health. This is where diet and lifestyle are very important. There are several factors that lead to inflammation in the body which include: junk food (highly refined carbohydrates), hydrogenated oils that include trans fats, elevation in bad prostaglandins and hormones like insulin which are produced by the overabundance of refined vegetable oils and refined carbohydrates and sugar, and the reduced amount of helpful antioxidants and pH balancing foods and beverages that reduce the excess acidity of the body.
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So as we look to diet and lifestyle (because even too much aerobic exercise without appropriate amounts of antioxidants in the diet can also lead to inflammation) then selecting the proper diet is crucial. Unfortunately there is no one diet that fits everybody and so you need to match the right ratio of fats, carbohydrates and proteins that fit your genetic makeup.
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The body typing system that I use consists of four different body types: thyroid, gonadal, adrenal and pituitary. These four types tend to correspond the four personality types: Sanguine (This type is characterized by spontaneity, optimism, enthusiasm, high energy, mental flexibility, novelty seeking, impulsiveness and curiosity)., Phlegmatic (These people are mainly defined by their social skills, such as their ability to express themselves and read other people face expressions and body language. They do well at connecting facts and seeing “the big picture”. They are nurturing, sympathetic, agreeable and emotionally expressive). Choleric (This type is associated with testosterone, which is also present in men and women, but more so in men. These people are direct, focused, tough, analytical, logical and strategic. They have a great deal of courage and like to compete, often against each other. They often have square jaws, high cheekbones and high foreheads and love to use words like “intellect”, “ambition” and “challenge”) and Melancholic (tend to be calm, loyal and orderly, just as their personality name sounds. They are cautious and conventional. These men and women inherited genes in the serotonin system and their favorite words are “family”, “loyal”, “respect”, “caring”, “values” and “moral”). Most people are unique blend of four different types of personality, where all of the traits are present to some extent.
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These four body types can be divided into two groups. We can call one group the protein group (about 70% of US) and the other the complex carbohydrate group (30%) the protein group tends to be sensitive to carbohydrates particularly refined sugars and grains. The carbohydrate group tends to be sensitive to fats (eggs, butter and red meat), salt and spices. So a diet too high in sugars and grain can lead to inflammation in the protein type. A diet high in fats and oils can lead to inflammation in the carbohydrate type.
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So simply learning which body type you are and focusing on the correct ratio of fats, carbohydrates and proteins you can make a significant difference in your health.
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There are five laws of health that we encourage our patients to follow to regain and maintain good health over a lifetime. These laws are diet, exercise, rest and relaxation, positive spiritual and mental attitude and a healthy balanced nervous system.
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In the area diet this includes eating your body type diet but also consuming enough water for your body weight. In order to determine how much water you need to drink you divide your weight in half and consider that answer in ounces. For instance a hundred pound person their cleansing dose of fluids would be 50 ounces 80% of that would give you the minimum fluids they should drink which is 40 ounces. Dehydration can cause a whole host of conditions and cause any condition your suffering with to be a little worse. Since the EPA recommends boiling city water before drinking we encourage our patients to drink filtered water. Also when it comes to water you can get water in different pH ranges. If you're dealing with an inflammatory chemistry your body is going to be acidic. And so alkaline water can be very effective in the overall management of your body chemistry.
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As we consider water we also consider detoxification because we live in a toxic environment. And so most patients need to undergo some level of detoxification in order to remove important stressors in their ability to maintain normal function and better health. So drinking your cleansing dose of fluids can be helpful in detoxification. And when it comes to how much alkaline water we recommend you should drink about a liter a day. Too much alkaline water can produce negative effects for some people.
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When it comes to exercise there are exercises that work best with different body types.
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Rest and relaxation would also include quality sleep. New research indicates that sleep is one way that our brains are able to detoxify. But there's a growing list of health problems that are associated with the lack of proper sleep. The average adults should get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.
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When it comes to positive mental and spiritual attitude than spiritual disciplines like meditation, prayer and helping others can be very important. When it comes to moods neurotransmitters can be important. Serotonin is considered an important neurotransmitter when it comes to depression or anxiety. What most people don't realize is your gut is your second brain and 80 percentage of serotonin is produced in your gut. Now the serotonin in your brain and the serotonin in your gut don't appear to intermingle. But when the level is out of balance in one area it will affect the other. Probiotics are extremely important in maintaining good gut health; your gut also is your second immune system.
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Healthy nervous system is an obvious necessity based on scientific understanding that the nervous system controls and coordinates everything in your body. It's just outside of chiropractic or osteopathic research most doctors don't know how to improve nervous system function. It is been my experience over the past 38 years in practice that through chiropractic adjustments we can enhance the body's function significantly. In fact the average chiropractic patient undergoing regular care has an immune system anywhere from 200% more effective than the average person on the street. Also recent research has shown chiropractic treatments are one of the few interventions that can raise the level of DNA repair chemistry in your body to help prevent disease and extend lifespan.
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Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: MARIJUANA USE DURING PREGNANCY AFFECTS BABY'S BRAIN Using marijuana during pregnancy could affect a baby's brain development by interfering with how brain cells are wired, a new study in mice and human tissue suggests. Researchers studied marijuana's effects on mice and brain tissue from human fetuses, and found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, interferes with the formation of connections between nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher thinking skills and forming memories. Previous long-term studies have shown that children exposed to marijuana in the womb may have an increased risk of showing cognitive effects, seeking out drugs, or having attention deficit disorder, anxiety or depression, according to the study.
WELLNESS: WHAT IS GARLIC GOOD FOR? With garlic, you get an excellent supply of manganese – 23% of the daily value – containing essential enzymes and antioxidants that perform all kinds of amazing feats in the body, including the healthy formation of bones and connective tissues, bone metabolism, calcium absorption, and proper thyroid function, just to name a few. Garlic also contains 17% of the daily value in vitamin B6, and 15% in vitamin C, while allocating good amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and selenium. Numerous studies show garlic’s amazing health potential in nearly every area of the body, from removing heavy metals to the prevention of numerous ailments, such as the common cold, hardening of the arteries, and gangrene, and even in slowing the aging process. While garlic has long been acknowledged as a healthy food by proponents of both natural and conventional medicine, one study noted its cancer-fighting and cancer preventive qualities against several kinds, including colon, stomach, lung, and colorectal cancers, and possibly breast cancer . Another study documented the use of fresh garlic, garlic powder, and garlic oil used worldwide for centuries for protection against bacterial, viral, parasitic infection, to bolster the immune system, discourage tumor growth, and rid the cells of free radicals with its antioxidant capabilities .
CHIROPRACTIC: KIDS AND CHIROPRACTIC A study published in the March 29, 2004 peer reviewed journal, The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, (JVSR), showed that chiropractic adjustments had a positive effect on children with acute ear infections. In the study 21 children were examined. All these children showed acute inflammation in the inner ear with a red and bulging tympanic membrane accompanied by an increased mean oral temperature of over 100 degrees F. The results of the study showed that after the chiropractic adjustments, the red and bulging tympanic membrane returned to normal in 95% of the children and a decrease in average oral temperature to 98.6 degrees F.
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January 31, 2011
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A study shows that a formulation of curcumin can relieve pain and increase mobility in patients with osteoarthritis. It can also reduce a series of inflammatory markers.
100 patients with osteoarthritis were divided in two groups -- the first group was given the "best available treatment" and the second group was given the same treatment plus 200 mg of the curcumin formulation each day.
According to IFT:
"The results showed that the [curcumin]-treated group had a statistically significant reduction in all primary clinical end-points ... These results were complemented by the evaluation of a series of inflammatory markers, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM)-1, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR]) ... while no significant variation was observed in the 'best available treatment' group."
This could eventually lead to a phase out of NSAID use, at least as a treatment for mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis.
| Dr. Mercola's Comments: |
If you've never heard of curcumin -- the pigment that gives the curry spice turmeric its yellow-orange color -- you're in for a treat, as this is one natural compound that should be on your health radar. Curcumin is also the active ingredient in turmeric, which is a very popular supplement.
Both the ancient Chinese and Indian systems of medicine have recognized curcumin's beneficial properties for thousands of years, and now modern research is showing it may be one of nature's most powerful potential healers.
Most notably, curcumin is known for its potent anti-inflammatory properties. The compound has been shown to influence more than 700 genes, and it can inhibit both the activity and the synthesis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX), as well as other enzymes that have been implicated in inflammation.
One of the BEST Supplements for Many Cancers
Dr. William LaValley from Austin Texas, is one of the top natural medicine cancer physicians I know and he recently shared this important information on curcumin which has the most evidence based literature for as a cancer support among all nutrients. There are over 100 different pathways that curcumin has an effect on once it gets into the cell. Interestingly this also includes the metabolite of curcumin and its derivatives which are also anti-cancer. Curcumin appears to be safe in the treatment of all cancers.
In India where turmeric is widely used, the prevalence of four common U.S. cancers -- colon, breast, prostate and lung -- is 10 times lower. In fact, prostate cancer, which is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in U.S. men, is rare in India and this is attributed, in part, to the curcumin in turmeric.
Numerous studies have looked into this potential cancer-fighting link, with promising results. For instance, curcumin has been found to:
And according to researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, curcumin blocks a key biological pathway needed for development of melanoma and other cancers.
The spice actually stops laboratory strains of melanoma from proliferating and pushes the cancer cells to commit suicide by shutting down nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a powerful protein known to induce abnormal inflammatory response that leads to an assortment of disorders such as arthritis and cancer.
To get the full benefits that curcumin has to offer, you will want to look for a turmeric extract with at least 95% curcuminoids that contains only 100% certified organic ingredients.
The formula should be free of fillers, additives and excipients (a substance added to the supplement as a processing or stability aid), and the manufacturer should use safe production practices at all stages: planting, cultivation, selective harvesting, and then producing and packaging the final product.
Details on How to Use Curcumin
The unfortunate challenge as this time is that there are not really any very good formulations of curcumin available to use in cancer. This is because relatively high doses are required and curcumin is not absorbed that well. Typical anticancer doses are up to three grams of good bioavailable curcmin extract, three to four times daily.
One work around for this is to use the curcumin powder and make a microemulsion of it by combining a tablespoon of the powder and mixing it into 1-2 egg yolks and a teaspoon or two of melted coconut oil. Then using a high speed hand blender to emulsify the powder.
Another strategy you can use to increase absorption is to put one tablespoon of the curcumin powder into a quart of boiling water. It must be boiling when you add the powder as it will not work as well if you put it in room temperature water and heat the water and curcumin. After boiling it for ten minutes you will have created a 12% solution and you can drink this once it has cooled down. The curcumin will gradually fall out of solution over time and in about six hours it will be a 6% solution so it is best to drink the water within four hours. It does have a woody taste.
One caution to know is that you want to avoid the "yellow kitchen" syndrome. Curcumin is a very potent yellow pigment and can permanently discolor surfaces if you aren't careful. So you can perform the mixing under the hood of your stove with the blower on to make sure no powder gets into your kitchen.
Research Highlights Curcumin's Pain-Relieving Power
In the latest study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility, whereas the control group, which received no curcumin, had no significant improvements.
A past study also found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids (plant-based nutrients that contain powerful antioxidant properties) blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.
A Natural Alternative to NSAIDs
Curcumin's anti-inflammatory effects help to reduce irritation to tissues characterized by pain, redness, swelling and heat, which is particularly helpful for osteoarthritis patients.
Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that causes joint stiffness, pain, inflammation and swelling that can become debilitating. Many patients turn to non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics, like Tylenol, for pain relief, but the regular, chronic use of these types of medications is associated with significant, and very serious, side effects such as cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal harm and kidney and/or liver damage.
If you are taking an NSAID, you are at approximately three times greater risk for developing serious gastrointestinal side effects than those who aren't.
Approximately 1.2 percent of patients taking NSAIDs are actually hospitalized for upper GI problems, per year of exposure. One study of patients taking NSAIDs showed that a life-threatening complication was the first sign of ulcer in more than half of the subjects.
Researchers found that the drugs suppress production of prostacyclin, which is needed to dilate blood vessels and inhibit clotting. Earlier studies had found that mice genetically engineered to be unable to use prostacyclin properly were prone to clotting disorders.
Anyone who is at increased risk of cardiovascular disease should steer clear of these medications as well. Ulcer complications are certainly potentially life-threatening, but, heart attacks are a much more common and likely risk, especially in older individuals. So having a natural alternative to NSAIDs for pain relief is invaluable, especially for a painful condition like osteoarthritis.
You can use turmeric in your cooking (choose a pure turmeric powder, rather than a curry powder, as at least one study has found that curry powders tend to contain very little curcumin), but you may also want to consider taking it in supplement form.
For many this is a more convenient method to obtain the potential health benefits, especially if it is from a high-quality organic source, and also if you don't particularly enjoy the taste of curry. As an aside, curcumin is not only beneficial for osteoarthritis … research is also emerging showing it may play a beneficial role in the following diseases:
More Natural Tips for Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis, the deterioration of cartilage that cushions your joints, is the most common form of arthritis among the elderly. It's normally associated with "wear and tear" on your joints, but can also be caused by repetitive stress or acute trauma.
In addition to an anti-inflammatory like curcumin, I've long promoted omega-3 fats for arthritis because omega-3s are also well known to help reduce inflammation. Look for a high-quality, animal-based source such as krill oil. In addition, adding glucosamine to your omega-3s appears to be an excellent choice for osteoarthritis sufferers in particular.
If you have osteoarthritis, the cartilage within your joint is progressively being damaged, and the synovial fluid that keeps your joints lubricated and cushioned is typically reduced as well. The pain is a result of your bones starting to come into contact with each other as cartilage and synovial fluid is reduced.
Your body is fully capable of rebuilding cartilage and synovial fluid, but in order to effectively do so it needs the proper building blocks. In this case, it needs glucosamine to rebuild both cartilage and synovial fluid, so correcting this deficiency by using a high-quality supplement may be helpful.
In one study, participants with moderate-to-severe hip or knee osteoarthritis who received 1,500 mg of glucosamine sulfate along with 200 mg of omega-3 had greater pain reduction and fewer symptoms (morning stiffness, pain in hips and knees) than those who took glucosamine by itself.
I also recommend for osteoarthritis:
Your program should include a range of activities, just as I recommend for any exerciser. Weight training, cardio, stretching and core work can all be integrated into your routine, and, if your condition allows, it would be wise to move toward a Peak Fitness program that is designed for reaching optimal health.
There are several other natural strategies that can offer pain relief from osteoarthritis as well, including acupuncture, herbs like ginger and boswellia, bromelain and evening primrose oil.
By Dr. Mercola
The war against illegal drug use has been going on for decades, but now it seems the “war on drugs” should have a new target… Legal drug addiction is taking lives in record numbers.
In the UK, 1 million people are addicted to over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription painkillers and tranquilizers; that’s significantly more than the number addicted to illegal drugs.1
In the US, it’s a similar story. There were four times more deaths among women from prescription painkiller overdose than for cocaine and heroin deaths combined in 2010.2
Legal drug addiction is tricky because it often starts out with a prescription obtained from a doctor. Many people find themselves addicted to painkillers before they even realize what’s happened, often after taking the drugs to recover from surgery or treat chronic back, or other, pain.
Three Factors That Might Increase Your Risk of Becoming Addicted to Painkillers
Painkillers work by interacting with receptors in your brain resulting in a decrease in the perception of pain. They are inherently addictive, as they also create a temporary feeling of euphoria, followed by dysphoria, that can easily lead to physical dependence and addiction. However, why certain people become addicted while others get by unfazed has remained a mystery.
Researchers from the University of Derby set out to determine what might be influencing painkiller addiction and dependence by conducting an anonymous survey of people who had pain and had used painkillers in the last month. They found three predictors that they said identified those most at risk of developing painkiller dependence. It included those who:3
According to the authors, pain, prior substance abuse and psychological factors may all play a role in a person’s likelihood of addiction. They concluded:
“Based on these findings, a preliminary model is presented with three types of influence on the development of painkiller dependence: 1) pain leading to painkiller use, 2) risk factors for substance-related problems irrespective of pain, and 3) psychological factors related to pain.”
Painkiller Addiction Knows No Bounds
The face of drug addiction in the US and around the globe is changing. You can certainly not gauge who is an addict by looks or occupation. In fact, painkiller addiction spans all ages and walks of life.
For instance, a significant number of older adults, particularly those in the baby boomer generation, are struggling with both illicit and prescription drug abuse.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the number of people in their 50s who are abusing illicit or prescription drugs more than doubled from 2002 to 2010, going from 2.7 to 5.8 percent in this population. Among those 65 and older, 414,000 used such drugs in 2010.4
Among seniors, the health risks of all medications are increased, because the body takes longer to break down and get rid of the drug than it does in a younger person. As a result, the drug stays in an older person's system longer, where it can cause even greater damage.
At the other end of the spectrum, one in four teens has misused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime, according to survey results from the partnership at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foundation.5 Prescription drugs don’t hold the same stigma as illegal recreational drugs, even though they can be just as deadly, leading teens to regard the former as a “safe” way to get high.
Prescription drugs have even been described by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as the “drug of choice” second only to marijuana for today’s teens.6
Sadly, some teens pay for this one “bad” decision with their lives. Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and these drug-induced fatalities are not being driven by illegal street drugs. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, and Soma now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.7
And while men are still more likely to die from prescription painkiller overdose, women are quickly catching up. More than 6,600 women, or 18 women every day, died from a prescription painkiller overdose in 2010. The problem, once primarily seen in inner cities, is now spanning to rural areas, hitting people of all ethnic backgrounds and income levels, from business professionals to single mothers to retirees.
Painkiller Addiction Can Easily Lead to Death
Painkillers (opioids) like morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl are one of the most commonly abused drug classes. These drugs are not only addictive, they can lead to slowed breathing and death if too much is taken, and the risks are compounded if you add alcohol to the equation.
Many are not aware that pain-killing drugs like fentanyl are actually 100 times more potent than natural opioids like morphine, making the addictive potential and side effects associated with prescription drug use much higher. And it doesn’t always take extremely excessive use, or even very long-term use, to have a fatal overdose.
For many, once you start taking these drugs it sets off a cascade of reactions in your body that make it extremely difficult to stop. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and CNN's chief medical correspondent, reported:8
“…after just a few months of taking the pills, something starts to change in the body. The effectiveness wears off, and patients typically report getting only about 30% pain relief, compared with when they started. Even more concerning, a subgroup of these patients develop a condition known as hyperalgesia, an increased sensitivity to pain.
As you might guess, all of this creates a situation where the person starts to take more and more pills. And even though they are no longer providing much pain relief, they can still diminish the body's drive to breathe. If you are awake you may not notice it, but if you fall asleep with too many of these pills in your system, you never wake up. Add alcohol, and the problem is exponentially worse. People who take pain or sleeping pills and drink a couple glasses of wine are playing Russian roulette.”
Because such overdoses now kill more people than cocaine and heroin combined, more US states are now taking action to try and stop this growing problem. As USA Today reported:9
Managing Your Pain the Drug-Free Way
Many of those addicted to painkillers started taking the drugs not to get high, but to control pain – often back pain. The solution, then, is to avoid taking the drugs in the first place, an option many physicians neglect to offer to their pain patients. If you are suffering from pain, I suggest you work with a knowledgeable health care practitioner to determine what's really triggering your pain, and then address the underlying cause. If you have chronic pain, try these first, before even thinking about prescription painkillers of any kind.
It helps resolve underlying, often subconscious, negative emotions that may be exacerbating your physical pain. By stimulating (tapping) well-established acupuncture points with your fingertips, you rebalance your energy system, which tends to dissipate pain.
Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
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Belief not science is behind flu jab promotion, new
report says
BMJ2012;345 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e7856
(Published 19 November 2012)
Cite this as:BMJ 2012; 345:e7856
Jeanne Lenzer
Author Affiliations
1New York An independent meta-analysis of vaccines against influenza has found that claims of benefit have been significantly exaggerated.
The report, released last month by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, was based on a comprehensive review of data published from 1967 to 2012.
1Evidence for “consistent high-level protection is elusive,” the researchers concluded. Although vaccination was found to provide modest protection from infection in young healthy adults who rarely have complications of flu, the authors found that “evidence for protection in adults 65 years of age and older [who represent over 90% of deaths from flu] . . . is lacking.”
The authors also analyzed recommendations issued by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which provides expert advice to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and which are “often considered the standard of practice . . .around the globe.” The report cited 30 instances in which its advisory statements “did not apply current standards of scientific rigor . . . and did not cite relevant work.”
The report’s lead author, Michael Osterholm, a former CDC consultant and an internationally recognized expert on flu, told the BMJ that a Dutch study cited by the CDC as evidence of vaccine efficacy was seriously flawed and constituted a “sales job.”
Nevertheless, Osterholm said, the current jab does offer some protection and should be used until a more effective vaccine can be developed.
Joseph Bresee, chief of the epidemiology and prevention branch in CDC’s Influenza Division, told the BMJ , “I do not agree that CDC has inflated the benefits of influenza vaccine.” He added that he agreed with Osterholm that until better vaccines were available the current ones should be recommended.
That recommendation, however, has come under fire from the authors of a Cochrane analysis that also found little to no benefit from flu vaccination.2 Tom Jefferson, lead author of several Cochrane reviews, told the BMJ, “Based on more than a decade of Cochrane reviews in adults, children, [the] elderly, and healthcare workers, there is no credible evidence that the inactivated vaccines have any effect other than saving on average half a working day in healthy adults and avoiding symptoms in those who least need it: healthy adults and adolescents. Depending on the season, you need to immunize 33 to 99 adults to avoid one set of symptoms.”
Osterholm criticized the methods of the Cochrane analysis, saying that the reviewers’ inclusion of studies that used serology titers rather than reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or cultures to diagnose flu meant that its results were highly inaccurate.
However, he acknowledged that the direction of bias caused by use of serology titers would be to make a vaccine seem far more effective than it was, a surprising bias for a meta-analysis that found no benefit for flu vaccines. The Cochrane reviewers also stated in their meta-analysis that the studies reviewed were “at high risk of bias.”
A growing number of healthcare facilities and states now require healthcare workers to be vaccinated against flu or face being fired or forced to wear masks and identification tags stating that they may be infectious.
A recent editorial in the journal of the Canadian Medical Association,CMAJ, recommending mandatory flu jabs for healthcare staff triggered strong criticism, including a letter to the editor from Peter Doshi, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and several Cochrane reviewers, who said that the recommendation was based on a misrepresentation of Cochrane data.
34 Doshi opposes compulsory vaccination. He told the BMJ that health officials “risk losing credibility by continuing to promote the fiction that mandatory influenza vaccination policies are based on solid evidence. They are not, and it is time for healthcare institutions to do their own rigorous assessment of the evidence rather than continuing this dangerous game of follow the leader.” Osterholm agreed that scientific evidence, not professional opinions, should guide policy. He told the BMJ , “I don’t think the data warrant mandated vaccine. If it was up to me, there are a hundred other things I’d mandate first, like mandating that sick healthcare workers don’t come to work. That is far more likely to be effective.”
Notes:Cite this as: BMJ 2012;345:e7856
Footnotes
bmj.com
News: Bias alone could account for benefit attributed to flu vaccine, study finds (2008;337:a1550, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1550); Observations: A jab in the dark (2012;345:e5313, doi:10.1136/bmj.e5313)
References
1.Osterholm MT, Kelly NS, Manske JM, Ballering KS, Leighton TR, Moore KA. The compelling need for game-changing influenza vaccines: an analysis of the influenza vaccine enterprise and recommendations for the future. University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Oct 2012. www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/center/mission/articles/ccivi-landing.html
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John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: SIDE EFFECTS FROM ADHD DRUGS MAY BE WORSE THAN ADHD The side effects from ADHD medications are often far worse than the condition itself. These drugs actually rival illegal street drugs in terms of their dangerous risks to health, which include: Permanent brain damage, Cardio toxicity and liver damage, Cancer, Changes in personality, depression, and/or hallucinations, Heart attack and stroke, Sudden death and suicide. This is a more than 400 percent increase in ER visits due to adverse reactions to such drugs in a mere six years! Drugs prescribed for ADHD are not "mild" by any means. These are hard-core, "class 2" narcotics, regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a controlled substance because they can lead to dependence. The majority of kids diagnosed with ADHD will be prescribed these potentially dangerous drugs, the most common being Ritalin. By definition, Ritalin stimulates your central nervous system and may certainly interfere with the delicate and complex workings of your brain and personality.
WELLNESS: SLEEP HELPS DETOX THE BRAIN We’ve known for some time that sleep is essential for forming and consolidating memories and that it plays a central role in the formation of new neuronal connections and the pruning of old ones. But that hardly seems enough to risk death-by-leopard-in-the-night. “If sleep was just to remember what you did yesterday, that wouldn’t be important enough,” Dr. Nedergaard explains. In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking. In a series of new studies on mice, her team discovered exactly that: When the mouse brain is sleeping or under anesthesia, it’s busy cleaning out the waste that accumulated while it was awake. On average, we’re getting one to two hours less sleep a night than we did 50 to 100 years ago and 38 minutes less on weeknights than we did as little as 10 years ago. At the extreme end, the result could be the acceleration of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
CHIROPRACTIC: ADJUSTMENTS HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON THE BRAIN A study presented at the International Research And Philosophy Symposium held at Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic finds that Chiropractic adjustments have a positive effect on the Central Nervous System (CNS), specifically on the four primary frequencies of brain function. Brain function is measured on four primary frequencies: Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta. Alpha waves reflect the meditative, relaxing healing mode. Beta waves represent the active, busy brain. Theta waves reflect light sleep, relaxation and conceptual development. Delta waves represent the brain activity during deep sleep, repair mode and energy storage. After receiving a chiropractic adjustment, post EEG scans revealed improvement in all areas of the volunteer’s brain function. Particularly, the researchers noticed an increase in the meditative Alpha brainwave patterns that are associated with a greater degree of relaxation, health and healing. Visit our web site: keefeclinic.com or facebook/keefeclinic.com
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SLEEP seems like a perfectly fine waste of time. Why would our bodies evolve to spend close to one-third of our lives completely out of it, when we could instead be doing something useful or exciting? Something that would, as an added bonus, be less likely to get us killed back when we were sleeping on the savanna?
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“Sleep is such a dangerous thing to do, when you’re out in the wild,” Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish biologist who has been leading research into sleep function at the University of Rochester’s medical school, told me. “It has to have a basic evolutional function. Otherwise it would have been eliminated.”
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We’ve known for some time that sleep is essential for forming and consolidating memories and that it plays a central role in the formation of new neuronal connections and the pruning of old ones. But that hardly seems enough to risk death-by-leopard-in-the-night. “If sleep was just to remember what you did yesterday, that wouldn’t be important enough,” Dr. Nedergaard explains.
In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking.
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Recall what happens to your body during exercise. You start off full of energy, but soon enough your breathing turns uneven, your muscles tire, and your stamina runs its course. What’s happening internally is that your body isn’t able to deliver oxygen quickly enough to each muscle that needs it and instead creates needed energy anaerobically. And while that process allows you to keep on going, a side effect is the accumulation of toxic byproducts in your muscle cells. Those byproducts are cleared out by the body’s lymphatic system, allowing you to resume normal function without any permanent damage.
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The lymphatic system serves as the body’s custodian: Whenever waste is formed, it sweeps it clean. The brain, however, is outside its reach — despite the fact that your brain uses up about 20 percent of your body’s energy. How, then, does its waste — like beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease — get cleared? What happens to all the wrappers and leftovers that litter the room after any mental workout?
“Think about a fish tank,” says Dr. Nedergaard. “If you have a tank and no filter, the fish will eventually die. So, how do the brain cells get rid of their waste? Where is their filter?”
UNTIL a few years ago, the prevailing model was based on recycling: The brain got rid of its own waste, not only beta-amyloid but other metabolites, by breaking it down and recycling it at an individual cell level. When that process eventually failed, the buildup would result in age-related cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer’s. That “didn’t make sense” to Dr. Nedergaard, who says that “the brain is too busy to recycle” all of its energy. Instead, she proposed a brain equivalent of the lymphatic system, a network of channels that cleared out toxins with watery cerebrospinal fluid. She called it the glymphatic system, a nod to its dependence on glial cells (the supportive cells in the brain that work largely to maintain homeostasis and protect neurons) and its function as a sort of parallel lymphatic system.
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She was hardly the first to think in those terms. “It had been proposed about one hundred years ago, but they didn’t have the tools to study it properly,” she says. Now, however, with advanced microscopes and dyeing techniques, her team discovered that the brain’s interstitial space — the fluid-filled area between tissue cells that takes up about 20 percent of the brain’s total volume — was mainly dedicated to physically removing the cells’ daily waste.
When members of Dr. Nedergaard’s team injected small fluorescent tracers into the cerebrospinal fluid of anesthetized mice, they found that the tracers quickly entered the brain — and, eventually, exited it — via specific, predictable routes.
The next step was to see how and when, exactly, the glymphatic system did its work. “We thought this cleaning process would require tremendous energy,” Dr. Nedergaard says. “And so we asked, maybe this is something we do when we’re sleeping, when the brain is really not processing information.”
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In a series of new studies on mice, her team discovered exactly that: When the mouse brain is sleeping or under anesthesia, it’s busy cleaning out the waste that accumulated while it was awake.
In a mouse brain, the interstitial space takes up less room than it does in ours, approximately 14 percent of the total volume. Dr. Nedergaard found that when the mice slept, it swelled to over 20 percent. As a result, the cerebrospinal fluid could not only flow more freely but it could also reach further into the brain. In an awake brain, it would flow only along the brain’s surface. Indeed, the awake flow was a mere 5 percent of the sleep flow. In a sleeping brain, waste was being cleared two times faster. “We saw almost no inflow of cerebrospinal fluid into the brain when the mice were awake, but then when we anesthetized them, it started flowing. It’s such a big difference I kept being afraid something was wrong,” says Dr. Nedergaard.
Similar work in humans is still in the future. Dr. Nedergaard is currently awaiting board approval to begin the equivalent study in adult brains in collaboration with the anesthesiologist Helene Benveniste at Stony Brook University.
So far the glymphatic system has been identified as the neural housekeeper in baboons, dogs and goats. “If anything,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “it’s more needed in a bigger brain.”
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MODERN society is increasingly ill equipped to provide our brains with the requisite cleaning time. The figures are stark. Some 80 percent of working adults suffer to some extent from sleep deprivation. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults should sleep seven to nine hours. On average, we’re getting one to two hours less sleep a night than we did 50 to 100 years ago and 38 minutes less on weeknights than we did as little as 10 years ago. Between 50 and 70 million people in the United States suffer from some form of chronic sleep disorder. When our sleep is disturbed, whatever the cause, our cleaning system breaks down. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, Sigrid Veasey has been focusing on precisely how restless nights disturb the brain’s normal metabolism. What happens to our cognitive function when the trash piles up?
At the extreme end, the result could be the acceleration of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. While we don’t know whether sleep loss causes the disease, or the disease itself leads to sleep loss — what Dr. Veasey calls a “classic chicken-and-egg” problem — we do know that the two are closely connected. Along with the sleep disturbances that characterize neurodegenerative diseases, there is a buildup of the types of proteins that the glymphatic system normally clears out during regular sleep, like beta-amyloids and tau, both associated with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
“To me,” says Dr. Veasey, “that’s the most compelling part of the Nedergaard research. That the clearance for these is dramatically reduced from prolonged wakefulness.” If we don’t sleep well, we may be allowing the very things that cause neural degeneration to pile up unchecked.
Even at the relatively more benign end — the all-nighter or the extra-stressful week when you caught only a few hours a night — sleep deprivation, as everyone who has experienced it knows, impedes our ability to concentrate, to pay attention to our environment and to analyze information creatively. “When we’re sleep-deprived, we can’t integrate or put together facts,” as Dr. Veasey puts it.
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But there is a difference between the kind of fleeting sleep loss we sometimes experience and the chronic deprivation that comes from shift work, insomnia and the like. In one set of studies, soon to be published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the Veasey lab found that while our brains can recover quite readily from short-term sleep loss, chronic prolonged wakefulness and sleep disruption stresses the brain’s metabolism. The result is the degeneration of key neurons involved in alertness and proper cortical function and a buildup of proteins associated with aging and neural degeneration.
It’s like the difference between a snowstorm’s disrupting a single day of trash pickup and a prolonged strike. No longer quite as easy to fix, and even when the strike is over, there’s likely to be some stray debris floating around for quite some time yet. “Recovery from sleep loss is slower than we’d thought,” Dr. Veasey notes. “We used to think that after a bit of recovery sleep, you should be fine. But this work shows you’re not.”
If you put her own research together with the findings from the Nedergaard lab, Dr. Veasey says, it “very clearly shows that there’s impaired clearance in the awake brain. We’re really starting to realize that when we skip sleep, we may be doing irreparable damage to the brain, prematurely aging it or setting it up for heightened vulnerability to other insults.”
In a society that is not only chronically sleep-deprived but also rapidly aging, that’s bad news. “It’s unlikely that poor sleep as a child would actually cause Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” says Dr. Veasey, “but it’s more likely that you may shift one of those diseases by a decade or so. That has profound health and economic implications.”
It’s a pernicious cycle. We work longer hours, become more stressed, sleep less, impair our brain’s ability to clean up after all that hard work, and become even less able to sleep soundly. And if we reach for a sleeping pill to help us along? While work on the effects of sleeping aids on the glymphatic system remains to be done, the sleep researchers I spoke with agree that there’s no evidence that aided sleep is as effective as natural sleep.
There is, however, reason to hope. If the main function of sleep is to take out our neural trash, that insight could eventually enable a new understanding of both neurodegenerative diseases and regular, age-related cognitive decline. By developing a diagnostic test to measure how well the glymphatic system functions, we could move one step closer to predicting someone’s risk of developing conditions like Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia: The faster the fluids clear the decks, the more effectively the brain’s metabolism is functioning.
“Such a test could also be used in the emergency room after traumatic brain injury,” Dr. Nedergaard says, “to see who is at risk of developing decline in cognitive function.”
We can also focus on developing earlier, more effective interventions to prevent cognitive decline. One approach would be to enable individuals who suffer from sleep loss to sleep more soundly — but how? Dr. Nedergaard’s mice were able to clear their brain’s waste almost as effectively under anesthesia as under normal sleeping conditions. “That’s really fascinating,” says Dr. Veasey. Though current sleeping aids may not quite do the trick, and anesthetics are too dangerous for daily use, the results suggest that there may be better ways of improving sleep pharmacologically.
Now that we have a better understanding of why sleep is so important, a new generation of drug makers can work to create the best possible environment for the trash pickup to occur in the first place — to make certain that our brain’s sleeping metabolism is as efficient as it can possibly be.
A second approach would take the opposite tack, by seeking to mimic the cleanup-promoting actions of sleep in the awake brain, which could make a full night of sound sleep less necessary. To date, the brain’s metabolic process hasn’t been targeted as such by the pharmaceutical industry. There simply wasn’t enough evidence of its importance. In response to the evolving data, however, future drug interventions could focus directly on the glymphatic system, to promote the enhanced cleaning power of the sleeping brain in a brain that is fully awake. One day, scientists might be able to successfully mimic the expansion of the interstitial space that does the mental janitorial work so that we can achieve maximally efficient round-the-clock brain trash pickup.
If that day comes, they would be on their way to discovering that all-time miracle drug: one that, in Dr. Veasey’s joking words, “could mean we never have to sleep at all.”
MORE ON SLEEP
http://www.keefeclinic.com/wp/20-ways-to-sleep-better-every-night/
Alan Cassels, MD, states on the first page of his recent book, Seeking Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients, “Medical screening is a powerful, seductive and highly intuitive thing to do … However, much of what passes for prevention—with medical screening as its centerpiece—is expensive, often misguided, and frequently counterproductive.”
How can this be? After all, we’ve been hearing for years, and sometimes found ourselves repeating, that it’s always better to know what’s happening, that finding abnormalities early is always best, and that the benefits of screenings outweigh their harms. Are we now being asked to accept that these pearls of consensus wisdom are wholly or largely incorrect? And if so, how could we all have been led down this path?
Screenings Primarily Identify Mild Cases or Those with Risk Factors Only
As Gilbert Welch, a primary care physician at a Vermont Veterans Administration hospital and Professor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, writes in his equally powerful book, Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in Pursuit of Health, the problem with screening is that it inevitably identifies as candidates for further diagnosis and therapy many individuals who have mild versions of a condition, along with those who do not have the condition at all and may never manifest it, but are found to have risk factors for the disease in question.
These two categories (mild illness and risk factors in the absence of illness) now constitute the majority of those identified by screening, who are the people least likely to benefit from medical treatment, and thus most likely to have a negative risk-benefit ratio. For many of us who have long advocated strongly for prevention, and who have seen screenings as a key part of disease prevention and health promotion strategies, it may be time to rethink our views.
I have been an enthusiastic proponent of preventive services, including screenings related to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and the other major chronic degenerative diseases of our time. This was a key topic in my most widely disseminated article1 and also was addressed in two later peer-reviewed articles I co-authored.2,3 Moreover, during the years I was involved in direct patient care, and at the institution where I now teach, I have encouraged these screening procedures and taught students to value them. I have seen the information gleaned from screenings as a tool to enable patients to know more about their own health, in the hope that this will guide them toward health-affirming behaviors.
Because we live in a time and place where the major killers are chronic degenerative diseases rather than infectious diseases, it seems logical to find out who is most susceptible to these ailments and then to provide lifestyle-based preventive counseling to fend off their onset for as long as possible. Such an approach is of great value, but primary prevention is increasingly being defined more in terms of early detection of disease and risk factors, and less in terms of the deeper level of prevention found in lifestyle-based counseling. Based on accelerating trends elucidated in four books4-7 by physician-authors that I have recently read, I am growing increasingly worried that screening efforts, however well-intentioned, may serve as an entrenched pipeline for lifelong pharmaceutical therapies that often are not needed and in many cases are harmful. I am still coming to terms with this shift in my perspective.
Is the Prevention Movement Being Hijacked?
I am deeply concerned that prevention, which is very desirable conceptually, is being hijacked for purposes that do not serve public health well. The question is: do mass screenings do more good than harm?
There is no question that screenings help some individuals and save some lives. But how many people are harmed in the process? To flesh this out with real world examples (based on Cassels’ and Welch’s writings), we need to ask the following: (1) how many people will be harmed by false positive or false negative diagnoses? and (2) how many people will need to be treated for many years with, for example, medication for hypertension or osteoporosis, in order to prevent one death, one stroke or one hip fracture? Without those answers, we are flailing in the dark.
Ethical Arguments Pro and Con
The argument in favor of widespread screening is quite straightforward. If we can determine which people in a population are at risk for certain diseases or already have those diseases, as long as effective treatments exist we can deliver those treatments and presumably serve their welfare. Thus, there exists an ethical foundation for population screening as a first step toward further testing of those whose screenings reveal risk factors and subsequent treatment of those found to have frank expression of disease. But the foundation used to justify widespread population screenings rests entirely on whether the benefits outweigh the harms. Absent that, widespread screening is unethical.
The argument against widespread screening programs is that they cast far too wide a net, ensnaring people who are largely healthy, labeling them permanently as patients, subjecting them to a range of invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures (including drug therapies), and in the process causing many people both physical and psychological harm. As Dr. Welch puts it in Overdiagnosed, “We are in the midst of an epidemic of overdiagnosis … Diagnosis is a double-edged sword. While it has the potential to help some, it always has a hidden danger: overdiagnosis—the detection of abnormalities that are not destined to ever bother us.”
Screenings and Overdiagnosis
Contrary to widespread and deeply-ingrained belief, more diagnosis and earlier diagnosis does not necessarily mean better health care. It does mean more treatment, but more treatment brings more negative side effects. If a dangerous condition is mitigated or cured in the process, this may be a reasonable trade-off. But when people with mild versions of conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, or prostate cancer, or risk factors in the absence of such diseases, undergo invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, or are placed on life-long drug prescriptions, the trade-off may be a losing proposition. This is particularly true in cases where only risk factors for disease, rather than disease itself, are identified through screening.
Further complicating the issue, in recent years medical guidelines regarding which patients should be placed on drug therapy (statins for heart disease are Exhibit A) have been repeatedly ratcheted down, by committees with strong ties to drug manufacturers. In late 2013, this reached the point where, as noted in a recent New York Times article, “Dr. Nissen [of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio] entered the figures for a 60-year-old African-American man with no risk factors — total cholesterol of 150, HDL (the good cholesterol) of 45, systolic blood pressure of 125 — who was not a diabetic or a smoker. He ended up with a 10-year risk of 7.5 percent, meaning he should be taking cholesterol-lowering statins despite being in a seemingly low-risk group. Dr. Nissen also calculated the figures for a healthy white man, age 60, and also got a risk factor of 7.5 percent.”
Again, we return to the key question: are we doing more harm than good?
In the case of typical medical, chiropractic, or other practitioners recommending or requiring screenings of all patients for a wide range of conditions, I think we should assume that this is done with the best of intentions. And if there is a serious, sustained effort to pursue diet and exercise-based approaches as the first-line approach, I certainly see screenings as a net positive. But after reading these books by Cassels, Welch and others, along with many related articles8-13 for a public health ethics class I just completed, it is clear to me that no such assumption of public-spirited service should ever be granted to pharmaceutical companies, who provide hundreds of millions of dollars to overtly and covertly support widespread screenings and guidelines that encourage vast increases in drug use. These companies also routinely hide the results of the clinical trials they fund that have determined their drugs to be ineffective or harmful. In some cases, these very drugs yield profits measured in billions of dollars.
For an excellent discussion of current trends on prevention and wellness in chiropractic education and practice, I recommend an excellent 2013 article14 (full text here) by Drs. Cheryl Hawk and Will Evans in Chiropractic and Manual Therapies, as well as their book, Health Promotion and Wellness: An Evidence-Based Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2013).15 [Disclosure: I wrote the nutrition chapter in this book.] Because chiropractors recognize the importance of lifestyle-based counseling as the first-line approach, and also recognize the need for medical therapies in more serious cases, the Hawk-Evans approach to clinical preventive services illustrates what I believe is the best available way forward. Needless to say, these two DC-PhD authors are free of drug company conflicts of interest.
Let’s close with an excerpt (Selling Sickness, p. 121) from Dr. Cassels’ chapter on the history of selling osteoporosis drugs, the bisphosphenates such as Fosamax:
“Prior to September 29, 1995, when the U.S. FDA approved Fosamax for the treatment of osteoporosis, that disease was largely unknown to the general public or even to medicine. To understand how we got from there to here is to understand the issue of surrogacy. Intermediate, or surrogate, markers—such as blood pressure, body-mass index, cholesterol levels, intraocular pressure, or, in the case of osteoporosis, bone-mineral density readings—are markers for disease. Your high cholesterol or blood pressure may not be obvious to you, but you don’t want to have a heart attack. In the case of osteoporosis, the reading of your T-score isn’t as important as whether you fracture.
“Many women with low T-scores will never have a fracture in their lives, and many women with ‘normal’ bone density will have fractures. But the point is that a T-score can be measured, assigned a value, and a drug can be given to try to alter that measurement. The goal then, for those with a drug to sell, is to sell the testing first, because without the test you’d have no market. A number of PR firms working in the field of osteoporosis in the mid-1990s were key in reconfiguring osteoporosis from a rare disease that was believed only to strike old ladies to something anyone of any age could get. And in the shadows, funding these activities were pharmaceutical companies like Merck, banking on a big market for its new drug Fosamax.
“The strategy was simple: First, convince women at younger and younger ages that they needed to be screened for this bone-weakening disease, so they were urged through ads and so on to consult their doctors for a bone-density test. Second, the bone- density testing machines needed to be in physicians’ offices, private clinics, and hospitals, so the manufacturers bought and distributed the machines. Third, the tests needed to be paid for, so the PR firms needed to lobby governments to cover the bone-density test. What most people don’t know is that if you define a disease broadly enough, you can capture a large part of the ‘healthy’ population.
“Most also won’t know that drug company executives found themselves at the table at a meeting of the World Health Organization in 1995, helping to create the very definition of osteoporosis. The definition they created was so broad—based on the arbitrary value of the T-score—that it meant that about 50 percent of post-menopausal women in the United States (or about 44 million women) had it. And the message that flowed from the popular press strongly suggested that even the healthiest people should be worried about falling and breaking a hip due to the weakening of their bones.”
The hijacking of prevention continues, with much more than can be contained in this book review. The key take-home message is that for numerous conditions, drugs that may be helpful for a relatively small number of people are being pushed by multinational pharmaceutical companies as appropriate, indeed necessary, for large portions of the population, without evidence that this will do more good than harm. The downside usually becomes known years after millions have taken the drugs, sometimes with disastrous effects.
It is heartening that physician-authors are writing books to make these stories better known. What is needed now is for books like these be read widely, for more people to ask questions, and for policy makers and regulators to do a far better job of protecting the public from predatory drug companies.
References
1. Redwood D. The health reform moment: peril and possibility in the Obama era. J Altern Complement Med. Jan 2009;15(1):1-3.
2. Globe G, Redwood D, Brantingham JW, et al. Improving preventive health services training in chiropractic colleges part II: enhancing outcomes through improved training and accountability processes. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. Jul-Aug 2009;32(6):453-462.
3. Hawk C, Schneider M, Evans MW, Jr., Redwood D. Consensus process to develop a best-practice document on the role of chiropractic care in health promotion, disease prevention, and wellness. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. Sep 2012;35(7):556-567.
4. Welch G, Schwartz L, Woloshin S. Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in Pursuit of Health. Boston. Beacon Press. 2011.
5. Moynihan R, Cassels A. Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients. Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley. Greystone Books. 2005.
6. Cassels A. Seeking Sickness: Medical Screening and the Misguided Hunt for Disease. Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley. Greystone Books. 2011.
7. Hadler N. Rethinking Aging: Growing Old and Living Well in an Overtreated Society. Chapel Hill. University of North Carolina Press. 2011.
8. Fletcher SW. Breast Cancer Screening: A 35-Year Perspective. Epidemiologic Reviews. July 1, 2011 2011;33(1):165-175.
9. Foster P, Anderson, CM. Reaching targets in the national cervical screening programme: are current practices unethical? Journal of Medical Ethics. 1998;24:151-157.
10. Rychetnik L, Carter SM, Abelson J, et al. Enhancing citizen engagement in cancer screening through deliberative democracy. J Natl Cancer Inst. Mar 20 2013;105(6):380-386.
11. Shickle D, Chadwick R. The ethics of screening: is 'screeningitis' an incurable disease? J Med Ethics. Mar 1994;20(1):12-18.
12. Skrabanek P. Why is preventive medicine exempted from ethical constraints? J Med Ethics. Dec 1990;16(4):187-190
13. Takala T, Gylling HA. Who Should Know about Our Genetic Makeup and Why? J Med Ethics. 2000;26(3):171-174
14. Hawk C, Evans MW, Jr. A framework for chiropractic training in clinical preventive services. Chiropr Man Therap. 2013;21(1):28.
15. Hawk C, Evans MW. Health Promotion and Wellness: An Evidence-Based Guide to Clinical Preventive Services Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2013.
Daniel Redwood, DC, is a Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College – Kansas City. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today, Associate Editor of Topics in Integrative Healthcare and serves on the editorial board of the American Chiropractic Association. Dr. Redwood’s website and health policy blog are at www.redwoodhealthspeak.com.
Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
DIET: HOW LEPTIN RESISTANCE CAUSES OBESITY In order for you to significantly gain weight, you must first become leptin resistant. Leptin is a hormone that helps you regulate your appetite. When your leptin levels rise, it signals your body that you’re full, so you’ll stop eating. However, as you become increasingly resistant to the effects of leptin, you end up eating more. Many people who are overweight also have an impairment in their body’s ability to oxidize fat, which leads to a low-energy state. The question then is: what drives this basic process? Why do you become leptin resistant in the first place? Research clearly shows that refined sugar (in particular fructose) is exceptionally effective at causing leptin resistance in animals, and it’s very effective at blocking the burning of fat. When you give fructose to animals, they lose their ability to control their appetite, they eat more, and they exercise less. Fructose looks like it’s playing a direct role in weight gain.
CHIROPRACTIC: DID YOU KNOW A 2009 evidence-based report on population, health and total health care spending suggested that chiropractic care of back pain and neck pain provides higher satisfaction, superior outcomes and more cost-effectiveness than other commonly-utilized back and neck pain treatments, which can include simple rest, medications, surgery and more. A further review of scientific literature indicated that patients with chiropractic coverage as part of their insurance benefits had lower costs and reduced imaging studies, fewer hospitalizations and less surgeries than patients without chiropractic included in their insurance. Based upon a friend's referral, I started chiropractic care for my migraine headaches. I have learned that the spine controls the nerves, when a nerve is pinched or moved it can cause pain. I no longer have headaches or constant back pain. After the adjustments, my headaches are better. -Linda
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