Kids Health

Every parent wants a healthy child.  Good health
depends on a strong and proper functioning immune system. A properly functioning immune system is one of the keys to a healthy, happy child who will resist infections, allergies, and chronic illnesses.  So how do we achieve that .............. stay tuned?! 

Air Travel & Chiropractic Care

 

"Aer lingus 47 Heavy, you’re cleared for take off on 32 left.”
Soon after your pilot receives a message like this, you’ll start down the runway. In moments, you’ll be going fast enough to cause the low pressure above the wing, created by its unique shape, to lift the plane into the air.

To create the speed necessary to produce lift requires an enormous expenditure of energy. Large quantities of fuel are burned during the first twenty minutes of your flight, when your pilot is guiding the plane in its initial ascent. Once the proper “cruising” altitude is reached, it takes hardly any fuel at all to maintain the appropriate cruising speed.

Just like chiropractic care.

At the beginning, lots of energy is used. The visits are frequent. The goal is to create sufficient momentum to reverse the unhealthy spinal pattern that has prompted a visit to our practice.

Then, as symptoms subside, it usually takes fewer visits to maintain the progress and start retraining the spine for more lasting change.

Now that they are feeling better, this is when many chiropractic patients disappear. And since they’re on the ground, not cruising along in the stratosphere, it’s easy to do. Which, of course, predisposes them to a relapse. Which again, requires massive amounts of fuel… Which again, gets them to a comfortable cruising altitude… Which prompts them to discontinue their care… Which, well, you get the idea.

Conserve your energy. Stay well with regular chiropractic checkups so you don’t have to keep burning lots of energy getting well.

Aside from our weekly Chiropractic Health talks we will be holding Talks once a month on other interesting and thought provoking topics such as Stress, Nutrition, Kids, Headaches, Bowel Problems etc etc!  Just keep an eye on your inboxes for times and details.  And remember these talks are free!

When America Sneezes ......... We catch a cold!

Considering how small the world is becoming it is no wonder that so-called health decisions taken in the US will have a profound impact on us!  Well The American Academy of Pediatrics  in their wisdom has recently  released new guidelines for diagnosing and possibly treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The following is copied and pasted from an article I read by Dr Guy Riekemann.

The new guidelines mean pre-kindergarten kids can be added to the millions already on Ritalin. The Los Angeles Times reported this year that five percent of children ages 6 to 17—about 4.5 million children—have been diagnosed with ADHD, and two-thirds of them, 2.7 million, are being medicated for it. The number being medicated continues to increase exponentially, up 1,600 percent since the 1970s.

Significantly ADHD is a disorder, not a disease, and there is no blood test or other biological marker for it. It is determined subjectively—by parents, teachers or doctors. Could they ever be wrong? According to University of Michigan research reported in Science Daily, nearly one million children in the United States are potentially misdiagnosed simply because they are the youngest—and most immature—in their kindergarten class.

Pediatrician Sanford Newmark says: “ADHD is often grossly and carelessly misdiagnosed and over-diagnosed. All too often a teacher complaint and a 10-minute talk with a pediatrician results in an ill-considered diagnosis and an indefinite prescription for psycho-stimulant medication. This hurried process can miss both simple explanations (a gifted child who is bored, a poor fit between student and teacher, parents without adequate time and resources to motivate an intense and difficult child), or more serious problems like anxiety, depression, dyslexia and other learning disabilities.”

And what about the drugs to treat ADHD? According to the Department of Justice, quoted on the website drugenquirer.com: “Of particular concern is that ADHD literature prepared for public consumption does not address the potential or actual abuse of methylphenidate [Ritalin]. Instead, methylphenidate is routinely portrayed as a benign, mild substance that is not associated with abuse or serious side effects. In reality, however, the scientific literature indicates that methylphenidate [Ritalin] shares the same abuse potential as other Schedule II stimulants. Further, case reports document that methylphenidate abuse can lead to tolerance and severe psychological dependence.” The site lists 23 side-effects, plus side-effects of overdosing.

So what option do parents have? Dr. Newmark says that natural, non-invasive and inexpensive means are more effective in addressing the causes, among which he lists junk food, allergic reactions, overstressed parents, too much TV watching, standardized testing and other lifestyle reasons.

“By the way, why don't most doctors know and tell you about this?” Dr. Newmark asks the world. “It is because all too many physicians get their information from pharmaceutical representatives and from conferences sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. These companies have no interest in letting anyone know about cheap and simple non-pharmaceutical treatments. It is also a sad fact that most of the ‘experts’ who write articles in prestigious journals about the ‘correct’ treatment for ADHD receive significant financial support from these same companies.”

It is time to rethink our over dependence on medication!

Are We Overly Drug Dependent?

Q: why are there so many prescription medications for depression?

A: In a word “profit.” Drug companies make drugs to fight depression to make billions for their shareholders, and medical physicians often get a cut of the money from drugs they prescribe.

Q: Why do people take them?

A: The easy answer is that more people are more depressed more often, and the reason for that is the increased stress of modern life. But ...Society has been programmed to believe that, if something is wrong with your health, you can fix the symptoms with drugs and surgeries, and then the underlying cause will go away. Not only that, but aggressive pharmaceutical marketing has caused many to believe that if something isn’t quite right it may be a “syndrome” needing to be addressed by drugs, some of them with horrendous side-effects.

Q: Do the drugs work?

A: Undoubtedly the drugs change your brain chemistry but does that mean they work.  No! They may change how you feel but what about the real reason or underlying cause!  Also the drug disclaimers often list depression as one of those side-effects. In other words the so called cure is causing the problem?  Furthermore people are also taking pills to offset the side-effects of other pills that they didn’t need in the first place. I don’t intend to demean those who need medication to stave off. But, our society has become overly drug dependent.  Something is wrong with our collective thinking.

Things have to change.  As we become more and more dependent on drugs our health is suffering!  Drugs may change how you feel but they will NEVER make you more healthy!

A NORMAL LIFE - and NO this is not a fairy tale!

Here is what a normal life should be like:
You’re born. You get no drugs and no vaccinations. During childhood you have the usual illnesses, but conservative treatment gets you through them without antibiotics or drugs, and you build your natural immune defenses. You don’t eat white sugar, white flour, too much meat or cheese, or drink milk or soft drinks. You concentrate on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and a clean, natural diet. You never learn to drink coffee or to smoke cigarettes. The only pills you take are powerful whole food vitamins and enzymes and minerals, which are part of your daily intake. You drink at least 1 liter of water every day. Into adulthood, you never get sick: no colds, no flu, no headaches, no diabetes, no ADD, no “thyroid problems,” no panic attacks, growing pains, fatigue, or digestive disorders, no high blood pressure. The only pains you experience come from accidental injury. Perhaps you do moderate exercise or sports activity to maintain mobility and general fitness. You look to the care of your spine. Your entire adulthood is spent in this disease-free mode. As you age, your mind gets sharper. You experience no arthritis or osteoporosis, no Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Finally one day after 90 or 100 years, you flicker like a candle and go out.

Cholesterol — Your Life Depends on It!

This is an article from Life By Design a group of Chiropractors based in Canada who are actively promoting healthier lifestyles!

“Eating foods that contain any cholesterol above 0 mg is unhealthy.”

— T. Colin Campbell, PhD, author of The China Study.

The medical establishment is waging a war against cholesterol.  Yet cholesterol is a health-promoting nutrient that just could save your life! Think this is an exaggeration? Consider the following.

The War on Cholesterol

According to Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein, winners of the Nobel Prize in 1985 for their discovery of the receptor that brings cholesterol into cells, the debate about the role of cholesterol in health and disease is a war. They wrote the foreword to a recent book by Daniel Steinberg, MD, PhD, called The Cholesterol Wars. In it, they call themselves and others "who condemn cholesterol as the culprit" the "anti-cholesterol forces." They liken scientific advances in our understanding of this vital nutrient to "powerful new weapons" that have aided the "anti-cholesterol forces" just "like modern armies."

The War on Good Food

According to Brown and Goldstein, the next "battle" of the "Cholesterol Wars" will be fought over what age someone should be before they start cholesterol-lowering therapy. The ideal therapy, they say, is a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.  That means the following: no butter, no eggs, no liver or other organ meats. A diet of dry plant foods, with small amounts of corn oil, soybean oil, and perhaps a few capsules of fish oil.  As you will learn on this site, this diet is not only bland and boring, but it is missing the most nutritious and health-promoting foods the earth has to offer! Not only that, but it is actually polyunsaturated fats, not saturated fats or cholesterol, that contribute to heart disease, cancer, liver damage, and aging.

The War on Your Brain

Short of dramatic changes in diet, these anti-cholesterol warriors recommend starting cholesterol-lowering statin drugs between the ages of 20 and 40 — although other experts are now recommending these drugs be given to children as young as eight years old.  One of cholesterol's most important functions is to support learning and memory — that is why the brain is so rich in cholesterol, and that is probably why statin drugs can cause a disorder called transient global amnesia.  In low-risk populations, over 600 people need to take a statin to save one from a heart attack. In high-risk populations, over 60 people need to take one. Yet the rate of side effects like muscle pain is much higher, and the worst side effects — failing memory, depression, irritability — are chalked up to personality or age and never recorded.

The War on Your Wallet

These drugs cost a lot of money. Who is going to pay for it? Either you, your insurance company, or the government. Whichever way, your wallet gets hurt.  If health insurance companies start paying for everyone to go on statins in their teenage years, the cost of health care will go up.  If the federal prescription drug plan pays for it, tens of billions of dollars per year will be added to the national debt, which in the U.S. now already totals over $9.5 trillion. The government will borrow this money from the Federal Reserve, a privately owned monopoly bank that will create money out of thin air to loan to the government. As that extra money leaks into the economy, the purchasing power of your dollar will steadily disappear — something that has already been happening for decades.

Science is a Search for Truth, Not a War

Those who wage "war" on cholesterol may have impeccable scientific credentials but they are not acting like scientists. Science is not a war against molecules. It is a search for truth. On this site, I look for the truth about cholesterol, and I publish what I find. I hope you find this search for truth as fascinating as I do, and I hope you enjoy the site!

The hierarchy of needs!

Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist—you know, that guy who talked about the “hierarchy of needs”—once said, “When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” That’s one of the things wrong with our health care system. Every time it sees something a bit unusual, it wants to hammer it into submission. The result is too many tests, too much medication and too many surgeries.

Just watch this powerful video and then let me know that we are harming our bodies through chemical stress

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7rACI-WJEw&feature=youtu.be

It Tastes Sweet, But It Will Kill You: Sugar – The Ultimate Disease Food

I came across this article recently which although quite long clearly outlines the danger of sugar! 

It’s contained in many, many foods; it wreaks havoc with many of the body’s physiologic systems and plays a central role in the current heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity epidemics. The culprit: plain old sugar, and its thinly disguised evil cousin, high fructose corn syrup. Yes, they will kill you. Maybe not overnight, but over time, sugar and corn syrup-derived sweeteners will erode your health, leading to many fatal diseases. Sugar is a super-concentrated, unnatural food – the fact that it comes from something natural doesn’t make it natural to the body (gasoline comes from something very natural – oil – and is therefore essentially a natural product, but you wouldn’t want to eat it).  In the past 75 years, our modern industrial culture has seen a unique convergence of many negative lifestyle factors that have lead to a dramatic increase in ‘lifestyle behavior diseases’ which include heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, senile dementia, and cancer (yes, cancer is a lifestyle disease, not a genetic one as is commonly believed). This “Perfect Storm” of disease-producing lifestyle behavior choices includes the following:

§  A decrease in the intake of micro-nutrients and trace elements within our food supply due to commercial farming practices utilizing year-round growth cycles and nitrogen-based petrochemical fertilizers, creating epidemic nutritional deficiencies or malnutrition within modern industrial nations, as well as food processing methods that strip nearly all nutrients from our food.

§  An increase in toxicity of our food supply due to the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides in combination with modern food processing techniques utilizing chemical additives, and preservatives.

§  An increase in consumption of food that has been processed to the point where there is little to no nutritive value.

§  A pronounced decrease in physical activity levels unprecedented in the history of mankind.

Added to this…after the Jesuits’ introduction of sugar in 1751, sugar became less expensive to produce (thanks in large part to slavery), and sugar/sweetener consumption has risen steadily (per person/per year):

§  1821: 10 lbs.

§  1880: 38 lbs.

§  1970: 119 lbs.

§  1990: 132 lbs.

§  2007: 158 lbs.

When found in nature as fruit (think strawberries, bananas, etc.), sugar is in the form of a complex carbohydrate bound to fiber, which functions to slow down or inhibit the breakdown and absorption of the sugars into the blood stream, creating a gradual flow of sugar (glucose) into the blood stream. Refined sugars (simple carbohydrates), such as sugar (versus sugar cane) or apple juice (versus an apple), have been stripped of their natural fibers, allowing for rapid digestion into the blood stream, which causes blood glucose levels to spike. This results in over-secretion of insulin, the carrier hormone that transports glucose from the blood to the cells and tissues. Normally, insulin secretion is gradual, corresponding to the gradual absorption of sugars found in complex carbohydrates. When eating refined sugar or corn syrup, the sudden demand for insulin becomes acute and insulin is ‘dumped’ into the bloodstream. This acute demand for insulin production and secretion overwhelms the pancreas, the organ that produces and secretes insulin. It gets worse: over time, sustained levels of insulin (from continuing to eat refined carbohydrates such as sugar, corn syrup, and white flour – the diet of Americans) results in insulin resistance, a chronic but deadly condition where the body’s cells don’t respond to insulin in a normal or healthy manner, causing even more insulin to be secreted (think of the pancreas as ‘shouting’), thus aggravating insulin resistance syndrome even further, creating a self-perpetuating cycle which ultimately leads to many disease processes including atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries), cancer, diabetes, weight gain/obesity, high blood lipids (abnormal LDL:HDL cholesterol levels), and mineral depletion.  Now with an unlimited supply and unlimited access to foods containing sugar or corn syrup, as a society, we’re totally hooked – sugar is without a doubt, addictive. To verify this for yourself, try going 2, 3, or 7 days without any refined sugar; one, it’s hard to even find foods that have none; two, if you’re like most people, your body is habituated/addicted to the sweet poison.

Sugar Destroys Your Health

§  Causes Obesity and Diabetes

§  Causes Mineral Loss

§  Disrupts Hormone Function

§  Depresses the Immune System

§  Causes Chronic Disease

§  Increases Cancer Risk

Sugar Decreases Immune Function
It’s long been known that sugar intake causes decreased immune system function. Studies have shown that the immune system is weakened substantially within minutes of eating refined sugar; the more you eat, the more your body’s insulin response system is compromised. The body’s cell-mediated immunity, which uses specialized white blood cells called neutrophils to attack tumors, viruses and bacteria, is decreased when there is elevated blood glucose, which is caused by eating refined carbohydrate foods such as sugar and white flour. [Sanchez A, et al. Roles of sugars in human neutrophilic phagocytosis. Amer J Clin Nutr 1973; 26:1180-1184. (view article)]

What’s more, not only are we more susceptible to getting colds and flu, even our body’s ability to fight cancer is compromised when we eat sugar. [Ely JTA, Krone CA Controlling Hyperglycemia as an Adjunct to Cancer Therapy. Integrative Cancer Therapies 2005; 4(1): 25-31. (view article)]

As an illustration, let’s look at one of the worst sugar foods out there: soda pop.

SODA POP – THE ULTIMATE SUGAR DELIVERY SYSTEM
As has been mentioned, there are many huge problems affecting our health today:

§  We no longer eat fresh, natural, whole, organic, nutrient-dense foods; instead our diets are now dominated by processed foods devoid of nutrients and filled with toxic chemicals, synthetic fats, and artificial sweeteners.

§  Neglecting the critical nutrient of movement or exercise in our lives, which – like fresh foods – is genetically essential for health, the vast majority of people now live sedentary lives, which further hastens the onset of virtually all diseases.

As a result, the current statistics are staggering: 1 out of every 2 people will die of heart disease; 1 out of every 3 people will die from cancer; 1 out of every 4 people will develop diabetes; 60% of adults and 35% of children are obese (by the way, obesity is the defining risk factor for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes).

The most startling aspect of those statistics is that all of those diseases were nonexistent, or very rare occurrences, in earlier times amongst the hunter-gatherer cultures that determined the genetic code that our bodies live by today. In other words, the diseases so common today are best described as lifestyle diseases, or behavior diseases.

One of the central players in this cultural health maelstrom (def: a situation marked by confusion, turbulence, strong feelings, violence, or destruction) is our nation’s habit of consuming sweetened beverages that destroy our health – in particular, Americans love soda pop. Soft drink manufacturers make enough soda pop for every person to drink 54 gallons per year. That works out to be 576 12 oz. cans per year, or 1.6 cans per day. It also works out to be over 15 teaspoons of sugar (150 calories) per day. Making matters worse is that soda pop is most often sweetened using high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, both of which have even greater health risks than sucrose (table sugar). By the way, eating 50 extra calories per day for five years will cause you to gain 50 pounds. Hopefully you are starting to understand the connection between the consequences of our lifestyle choices and their effect on our health (i.e. the ever-increasing diabetes and obesity epidemics).

SODA POP DESTROYS YOUR HEALTH IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

Soda pop causes calcium and bone loss:

§  When carbonated liquids go into the stomach (stomach cells are not genetically equipped to handle carbonation), the stomach responds by ‘pulling’ calcium from the blood, creating an antacid to neutralize the carbonic acid; the body, with its incredible innate intelligence, knows that maintaining calcium levels in the blood is critical to many things, including brain and muscle function, and replenishes blood calcium levels by drawing calcium from bones.

§  The phosphoric acid in the soda pop also causes an imbalance in the delicate ratio of calcium-magnesium-phosphorus, causing the body again to draw calcium from the blood and bones to maintain this critical mineral balance.

Soda pop causes diabetes and insulin resistance:

§  Twelve ounces of soda pop contains almost ten teaspoons of sugar; now we have super-sized servings in thirty-two or even sixty-four ounce Big Gulps®, which contain twenty-nine and fifty-three teaspoons of sugar respectively. This incredible dose of refined sugar is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream, wreaking havoc with the body’s ability to manage insulin production and blood glucose levels, leading to diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease, obesity, and metabolic syndrome.

Soda pop causes cancer:

§  Refined sugar intake is associated with increased cancer risk.

§  Because carbonated beverages contribute to acid reflux, drinking soda pop is associated with increased risk of esophageal cancer.

Soda pop disrupts the critical pH of the body:

§  Soda is 100,000 times more acidic than water. The body’s pH (the balance between alkalinity and acidity) must stay within a very narrow range; when the pH shifts, the body will do virtually anything to correct it to avoid catastrophic breakdown in physiological function. The body neutralizes acidity by pulling minerals such as calcium out of the blood or wherever possible, including bone. This is yet another contributing cause of osteoporosis (another cause of osteoporosis is milk consumption – yikes, more on that later).

Soda pop causes weight gain, contributing to the obesity epidemic, in three ways:

§  #1: Extra calories always cause weight gain, no matter how you look at it. The body stores excess carbohydrates as fat. As mentioned above, as little as 50 extra calories per day over a five year period will result in a fifty pound weight gain.

§  #2: When processed by the liver, fructose is preferentially converted to fat.

§  #3: Fructose doesn’t cause the body’s satiety mechanism (feeling satisfied) to be activated, as does glucose, so you will keep eating.

Soda pop causes atherosclerosis (clogging/hardening of the arteries), high blood pressure, and heart disease:

§  Because of how fructose is converted into fat by the liver, soda pop consumption increases LDL lipids (“bad cholesterol”) and decreases HDL (“good cholesterol”), leading to a build-up of plaque within arteries, which narrows the blood vessels, leading directly to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.

Some people reading this will be thinking ‘Isn’t that a bit extreme? After all, what’s more American than having a soft drink at a picnic or my son’s baseball game?’ (not to mention that soda is usually served with a hot dog or chips that have been deep fried, and a sandwich made with processed flour, and cured meats – boy, we’ve got this disease-food thing down to a science don’t we; unfortunately, an evil science). Or my favorite, ‘I just have one once in a while – if it’s in moderation, it can’t be that bad, can it?’ There are two types of toxicity or poisoning: 1) Acute: resulting in vomiting, fainting, convulsions, death, etc.; 2) Slow or chronic accumulation of toxins, which ultimately break down the body’s physiological function. Soda pop falls into the second category (diet soda is even more toxic than the regular sugar-poison variety). My cynical response to the “everything in moderation” paradigm is to ask ‘Is it okay to do crystal meth or cheat on your spouse, in moderation?’