Many patients walk into our office, aware that antibiotics are often not good or effective treatment.  They express concerns about building up antibiotic resistant infections, and they ask what we can do to help alleviate symptoms and get back to work or school faster. There are 3 products that dramatically affect the above mentioned situations.  They are Fen Gre, Andrographis and Congaplex.  Many patients report that their sinuses are clear within 24 hours.  Results vary slightly between individuals, but these products are extremely effective.

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There are many risk factors for heart disease. Some are controllable and some are not. The factors that you have control over include smoking, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, diabetes, high LDL (bad) cholesterol, low HDL (good) cholesterol, obesity, and unmanaged stress and anger. All of these things significantly increase your risk of heart disease. Factors that, unfortunately, no one has control over include your race, gender, family history of heart disease, and age.

Studies show that Caucasian males, African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans are all at very high risk. The older you get, the more your chances go up. Also, post-menopausal women are at higher risk. Everyone needs to identify their own risk factors and then work with their physician to minimize their risk. Some simple things that almost everyone can do are to exercise for 30 minutes 6 days per week, and find new outlets to manage stress and anger. Also, improve your diet to include more good cholesterol, less bad cholesterol, less sugar, and more fruits and vegetables. Your diet effects your blood pressure, whether or not you have diabetes and how severe it is, and obesity.

We all have various fitness levels. Check with your doctor and verify that you are healthy enough to exercise. Many of us who are healthy enough to exercise just simply chose not to do so. Walking is generally a very safe exercise. You can start out gradually and increase the length of time you walk as time progresses. Get a walking partner or listen to music to make it more enjoyable. It can also be a great time for couples. Having a goal of doing aerobics six days a week will greatly inprove you length and quality of life. Start at whatever level is safe for you to start at and increase it by a few minutes every week. In one study I read, people with metabolic syndrome did one hour of aerobics per day and after four weeks their labs improved 58%. There is no way to avoid exercise if you want to be healthy.

There are many factors and much information to absorb about diet and nutrition. Much of what people generally believe are lies that have been carefully used to make you buy products and spend money. One thing that cannot be disputed, if you want to be healthy and live longer, stop eating junk! This includes organic junk. Organic pop tarts, chips, etc. have the same risks as non-organic except they avoid the pesticides. Sugar is also a large contributor to many health problems. White sugar, raw sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave, and high fructose corn syrup are all high-calorie, high-carbohydrate sweeteners. Some are marginally better than others but sugar is still just sugar when it relates to health.

“Saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet are not the cause of coronary heart disease. That myth is the greatest scientific deception of this century, and perhaps any century.” This quote comes from George V. Mann, M.D., professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University in 1991. There are two very interesting articles that I think everyone should read. The first is about a Harvard study yielding results to support the fact that fat in your diet is not a bad thing. The second article was written by a medical doctor who admits that 80% of what he and other doctors do is actually guesswork.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/coverage-in-the-media/time-to-stop-talking-about-low-fat-say-hsph-nutrition-experts/

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/what_your_doctor_doesn_tell_you_RGm6oJpm2eUOsJj89c3JJO

In our clinic based in Dallas, Georgia, we practice evidence-based chiropractic care.  We’ve seen many patients with acute musculoskeletal pain.  In the last several years, there has been more research coming out about subluxation-based chiropractic care.  Doctor Matt McCoy, the editor and publisher of The Journal of Subluxation Research, has done wonderful work to advance evidence about the benefits of chiropractic care.

Blood pressure affects 65 million Americans.  The University of Chicago published a study in The Journal of Hypertension about the connection between neck adjustments and a decrease in blood pressure.  The blood pressure dropped tremendously for the patients who received chiropractic adjustments.  There was a decrease of an average of 17 points.  It generally takes two blood pressure medications to achieve this kind of result.  http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4520614&page=1#.TzLXociyOSo

Activator Methods Chiropractic Technique did a double-blind study.  There were 331 patients in the study, 64% were female.  They were randomly assigned to one of three groups.  The control group had no treatment or placebo.  Another group had placebo treatment where a sham adjustment was given with an inactive instrument used for adjusting.  The third group was given an adjustment with an activator instrument.  The patients ranged in ages from 18 to 85 years old.  The patients who actually received activator treatment had significant changes in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as heart rate.  http://www.activator.com/measuring-the-effects-of-specific-cervical-chiropractic-adjustments-on-blood-pressure-and-pulse-rate-a-randomized-controlled-trial/

We thought this important information on chiropractic care and blood pressure would fit nicely into February Heart Health Month.  Included at the bottom of this page are some links to various studies that support what is expressed in this article.

http://www.jmptonline.org/article/S0161-4754%2800%2990244-6/abstract

http://www.jmptonline.org/article/S0161-4754%2805%2900002-3/abstract

http://www.activator.com/measuring-the-effects-of-specific-cervical-chiropractic-adjustments-on-blood-pressure-and-pulse-rate-a-randomized-controlled-trial/

http://www.activator.com/a-randomized-controlled-trial-to-measure-the-effects-of-specific-thoracic-chiropractic-adjustments-on-blood-pressure-and-pulse-rate/

http://www.activator.com/effects-of-chiropractic-treatment-on-blood-pressure-and-anxiety-a-randomized-controlled-trial/

CHIROPRACTORS AND NUTRITIONISTS DO NOT DIAGNOSE OR TREAT HEART DISEASE! THIS IS THE JOB OF A CARIDOLOGIST.  IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE HAVING A HEART PROBLEM, GET EMERGENCY MEDICAL HELP IMMEDIATELY!

When a patient walks into a chiropractic office with neck pain, arm pain, chest/shoulder pain, it is important to determine what type of pain he or she truly has.  We start by taking a careful history of the patient and asking the right questions in an attempt to distinguish between cardiac and non-cardiac pain.  If the pain is diffuse below the sternum (breastbone) radiating into the arm or jaw and lasting between 10 and 60 minutes, it is likely to be a cardiac problem.  If the pain is worse on exertion or if the patient has a history of drug use such as cocaine or other stimulants, it is highly likely to be an emergency medical situation.  Other factors that can mimic heart disease can be anxiety, panic attacks and depression.  As part of a healthy lifestyle, do not smoke or use tobacco.  If your doctor tells you that you are healthy enough to exercise, exercise often and walk 30 minutes a day 5 days a week.  Maintain a healthy weight.  Calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) and keep it between 18.5 and 24.9.  If you are depressed, seek a professional for diagnosis and treatment.  Limit your alcohol consumption to 1-2 drinks per day, and do not drink every day.  Heart disease, as with most health problems, has a large behavioral component.  So in addition to the above recommendations, eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  When you consume grains, make sure they are whole grains.  Eat fewer products made from flour, and use whole grains in soups and stews.  Eat brown rice instead of white rice.  We will have more information on heart disease and more lifestyle recommendations throughout the month of February in honor of Heart Health Month.

Supplementary Information:

People at risk for rapid bone loss:

~Men and women over 50

~Perimenopausal and postmenopausal women

~Women recently pregnant or nursing

~Slender, small-framed women

~Tobacco users

~Heavy alcohol consumers (particularly men)

~Men and women with lactose intolerance or dairy allergy

~Race, particularly Caucasian or southeast Asian descent

~History of dieting

Conditions associated with rapid bone loss:

~Sedentary lifestyle

~Family history of osteoporosis

~Overactive thyroid

~Depression

Selected medications

~Hysterectomy

~Stress

~Low vitamin D and calcium

~Weak digestion

~Irregular periods

~Weak adrenals

Research is most often done on foods containing certain vitamins and minerals.  The supplements made from chemicals are in no way equivalent to foods.

In our clinic, we have whole food supplements.  With Standard Process, you are essentially eating foods that have been turned into capsules and tablets.  I recently recommended beets to a patient.  I told her she would not need to buy a supplement if she would eat fresh beets including the leaves on a daily basis.  She declined to eat fresh beets, which would have been the best choice, and decided to take tablets made from beets.

     Over the past year or so, vitamin D has been in the news a lot, and both true and false claims have been made. Vitamin D is essential for bone health, and there has been research done about its role in your immune system, depression and many other things.  It was not originally known that vitamin D is actually a hormone, not a vitamin.  Therefore, vitamin D is incorrectly named.  I have seen research that suggests that most people are vitamin D deficient, and vitamin D levels are routinely checked in medical offices.  However, the Institute of Medicine reports that most people have enough vitamin D.  I believe somewhere in the middle lies the truth.  There are several things to consider when deciding whether or not to use a supplement.  First, you should do everything possible to spend time in the sun.  In order to avoid harmful effects of the sun, get your sun before 11:00 A.M. and after 3:00 P.M. Gradually work your way into it; start with just five or ten minutes in the sun, and slowly increase your exposure over time.  Also, be careful not to get sunburned.  It is a little trickier to get enough sunlight in some parts of the world, in the winter, if you are older or if you have dark skin.  Just a reminder, light through a window will not work!

Too much vitamin D can give you hypervitaminosis D.  More often than not, people actually have a deficiency in vitamin F, not vitamin D.  Vitamin D takes calcium from the gut and puts it into the bloodstream, while vitamin F puts calcium into your tissues.  Supplementing vitamin D will not help you if you have a vitamin F deficiency.  Primarily found in oils, vitamin F is very important.  Science often refers to vitamin F as polyunsaturated fatty acids.  We need linolenic and arachidonic acids from fat in our bodies.  Vitamin F is not found in vegetable oil; it is found only in fat meat and butter.  When we eat processed foods, margarine, shortening and unhealthy, unusable fats and oils, this keeps our bodies from using vitamin D.  There is a lot of misinformation about fats, carbs and food.  The best rule of thumb is to not eat man-made and heavily processed foods.  People have eaten butter, eggs and animal fat for thousands of years.  Cancer, obesity, diabetes and many other degenerative diseases have become epidemic in modern times eating heavily processed food and unnatural diets.

Several women over the last few years have come into my office to inquire about nutritional support for their osteoporosis.  Some of them have been to a dentist that refused to work on them because the jaw bone had been severely damaged as a side effect of osteoporosis drugs.  They are sold under many brand names and one of the best articles explaining this was written by a wonderful medical doctor.   http://blog.drwhitaker.com/blog/your-definitive-guide-to-wellness-medicine/osteoporosis-drug-dangers  He is a wonderful physician who writes many articles and blogs in effort to help people.

Chiropractors and nutritionists do not diagnose or treat diseases.  What we do is offer nutritional support in lifestyle recommendations.  In our office, we have had numerous successful outcomes with natural, whole-food supplements and herbs.   The main two brands that we use are Standard Process and MediHerb.  We find that they have unparalleled quality, as well as wonderful technical support for practitioners.  The protocol recommended by Standard Process includes Cataplex B, Calcifood and Ostrophinpmg.  They also have other bone health products such as Biost and Bone Complex.  The use of these supplements and weight-bearing exercise improves patient outcomes remarkably.

In a chiropractic office, we see a lot of osteoporosis and osteopenia when we take patient x-rays.  What concerns me about that is that bone loss is very significant before it will show up on an x-ray.  A great test for bone loss is a dexa scan.  Dexa scans should be performed, in my opinion, on all women in their late 40’s. 

2% of men 50 and older have osteoporosis of the hip, as well as 10% of women over 50. Hospitals see hundreds of thousands of people with hip fractures. It is estimated that 44 million U.S. women and men 50 and over have osteoporosis.  Approximately 80% of the people with osteoporosis are women.  Some of the causes of osteoporosis are low calcium intake and not enough exercise. People most at risk are  white, post-menopausal, older, petite, females eating a diet low in calcium and physically inactive.  Weight-bearing physical activity and proper calcium consumption are proven to help prevent the progression of this disease.  In addition to dairy products, dark green leafy vegetables, almonds and fortified foods are good sources of calcium.