IT’S THE QUALITY, STUPID… Of the uncountable diets that are out there, none that I am aware of balance the quality of the food to the calorie. Some, like Weight Watchers, look only at the calorie. Others, like Atkins, look only at the macronutrients. There is no doubt that our bodies do much better with a low calorie, high phytonutrient diet for long term health. This means that your 1200 calories / day comes from broccoli and not a Big Mac Value meal. This particular study further supports this, finding that a high quality diet alters our hunger in a positive way. We all need to look at every morsel that crosses our lips as having phytonutrient value or not. If it does NOT have value, we should not be eating it. Then we take into account calorie content…so while dark chocolate is loaded with polyphenols, it is higher in calories so keep it to a minimum. Tea and espresso, on the other hand, are virtually calorie free, and can be taken in more liberally. This is exactly how we structure our weight loss program here at the clinic. Read More…
Healthy Living in a Toxic World
Mesa AZ Back Pain Doctor Response to Medication Study
Medication Is NOT The Way To Go
MEDICAL ERRORS KILLS A 747’S WORTH OF PASSENGER PER DAY? To many, this data is not a surprise. And keep in mind that 98,000 deaths and 1 million injuries per year is, by most estimates, a very, very conservative number because it only includes errors, and does not include deaths that result from properly performed surgeries and proper medications. Medicine is, without a doubt, a dangerous game to play. The problem we see in this study is that, since the IOM’s report came out in 1999, there has been no improvement in the error rate. And, considering that our country’s prescription drug use is going nowhere but up, we can expect to see these numbers either stay the same or worsen. It is times like this that I am truly glad that I am a chiropractor who does not have the responsibility of prescribing a drug because it is considered the “standard of care” and not because it is the best thing to do. Read More…
Mesa AZ Chiropractor Explains the Dangers of High Calorie Drinks
SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE SLOW LEARNERS WHEN IT COMES TO OUR CHILDREN’S HEALTH. Can anyone explain to me WHY the sales of high calorie drinks went UP?? At an elementary school?? Let me say this now and make it very, very, very clear. We should NOT, without a doubt, be drinking our calories. Soda, milk (yes…dairy), juice (yes…even the 100% juices). Period. The fact that 92% of the elementary schools had flavored milk is unconscionable. Can someone please explain to me why our kids have accessibility to these types of drink on school campuses? Until we manage this, we will never get a grip on the obesity in children crisis. If we continue to feed their collective sweet tooth at an early age, they will never develop a healthy relationship with their taste buds.
Joint Pain Doctor Mesa AZ Provides Research
Caution! Drugs May Be Deceiving!
DON’T ALWAYS BELIEVE WHAT YOU READ ON THAT LITTLE SLIP OF PAPER THAT CAME WITH YOUR DRUG…We’d like to believe that all the info that our doctors and we get when we get a prescription is truthful and not deceitful by omission. But alas!! The world of pharmaceuticals is fraught with half truths and bloated outcomes. In this particular study, the authors looked for the printed incidence of cough associated with the use of ACE-inhibitors for high blood pressure that is given to the patient vs the actual incidence in clinical trials. One drug’s actual incidence was 9X higher in the study than in the print, another was 31X higher. Talk about deception! Read More…
Pain Relief Chiropractic Mesa AZ
Drugs and Their Effects
SOOOO…THE DRUG MY DOCTOR WANTS TO GIVE ME WORKED IN A CLINICAL TRIAL..BUT COMPARED TO WHAT? This is, arguably, one of the more important questions we can ask. In randomized, placebo controlled trials we compare a pill with the active “drug” ingredient to an inert pill with nothing in it (a “sugar pill”). Or so we thought. I just found out last night that in the early studies approving Prozac for use here in the US, that when participants in the trials experienced side effects like agitation, they used benzodiazepines (like Valium) to control the side effects!! This was not disclosed in the study. We could easily argue that we NEED to know what the active pill is being compared to. What if there are other components in the placebo that also have clinical effects, like the benzodiazepines used in the Prozac studies (I’m not saying that this was in the placebo, but you get the idea)? Than how accurate is the comparison? If the placebo contains some harmful tableting chemicals that will make 20% of the patients who take it ill, and 21% of the patients got ill from the active drug, the study will say that there was no difference in side effects between the placebo and the active drug! Makes it sound safe, huh? This particular study looked at how often drugs trials described what was in the “sugar” pill. In only a meager 8.6% of the studies looked at did they disclose what the “placebo” was. You cannot get a good idea of whether a drug is effective or has too many side effects without knowing what the placebo fully is. Period. What was YOUR drug compared to? Read More…
Are Your Cooking Pans Damaging Your Child’s Health?
You know those wonderful, non-stick pans that you love so well? I hope you realize that many of today’s “conveniences” like non-stick cookware come with a price beyond the initial purchase.
The wonderful Teflon that keeps all your foods from sticking to the pan is no exception. The chemical compounds typically found in non-stick cookware include 25 cent words like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS). Toxic compounds like these have been found to affect thyroid function, cancer risk and heart disease.
In this particular study, researchers looked at the relationship between PFOA and PFOS levels and cholesterol levels in 12,476 children. Here’s what they found:
- PFOA was linked to higher total cholesterol and LDL-C
- PFOS was linked to higher total cholesterol, HDL-C, and LDL-C
Even if these compounds were not linked to heart-disease-friendly changes in blood lipids, do we really want something called “perfluorooctanoic acid” in our children’s blood anyway when the word is too long to even fit on a Scrabble board??
Toss your non-stick cookware and buy stainless steel.
Antidepressants in Children; the Big Lie that They Don’t Want to Admit
In 2001 there was a large study (called study 329) published by GlaxoSmithKline that essentially gave the green light to the use of antidepressants (specifically paroxetine) in adolescents.
This green light led to pediatricians whipping out the prescription pads in an attempt to help manage depression in adolescents. This was to the tune of a whopping two million prescriptions in a single year written for children and adolescents with depression in the United States. Since the drug had not been officially approved by the FDA for this indication, all of these were prescribed off-label.
And how did this happen? Through a well-planned marketing blitz that called the results of Study 329 as demonstrating “REMARKABLE Efficacy and Safety.”
There was a problem, though. A big one.
Turns out that the negative side effects were severly downplayed and the study was actually written by a ghostwriting firm hired by GSK. Despite what the original study authors concluded, later reviews of the actual trial evidence concluded something entirely different. Turns out that the combination of paroxetine and adolescents led to an increase in suicidal ideation and attempts.
Yes–the trial that was promoted to provide “remarkable efficacy and safety” not only did not help with depression, it actually increased the risk and thoughts of suicide in adolescents.
It is clear that GlaxoSmithKline went out of their way to deceive pediatricians and the adolescents they serve. And, when all is good and right with the world, GSK should’ve paid the price. And they did pay out on numerous lawsuits brought about by families of 450 children who had committed suicide, the US Department of Justice and the New York attorney general. But the billions paid out in lawsuits did not exceed the billions of dollars made on sales of paroxetine.
It was clearly a net profit.
Despite all of this, you would think the original publishing journal, the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, would have retracted the original study. But despite multiple re-evaluations of the trial date, including this particular article, the original article has never been retracted.
If this was an isolated incident, I think we’d all be ok. But, given that this is not the first time an incident like this has occured, I think we can assume that this is business as usual among the pharmaceutical companies.
With this in mind, how many other drugs out there that are used day in and day out have been built upon lies?
The problem is that we really do not have any idea how many of the drugs out there in common use has been promoted to doctors and the general public using data that has been either made up, twisted, hidden or surpressed.
This particular case with paroxetene may be an isolated event. Far more likely this is representative of how the drug industry works. The data and research over the decades has suppported this later view.
I have frequently referred to our system of medicine as having been built on a house of cards supported entirely by massive dollars from the drugs companies. And it’s working for them. They get slapped for fines in the hundreds of millions while they make money by the billions.
“Smoking Gun” of Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma Found
When a 50 year old 3-pack-a-day smoker gets lung cancer, we all shake our head. But when it’s a 6 year old, only horror is felt.
Personally, I have always believed that childhood cancers come from a bad combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental chemical exposure. Either way, it is in no way, shape or form from decisions that the child has made. Unless, of course, the child independently decided to take up smoking at 3 and moved next to a nuclear waste dump against parental advice.
Personally, I have done everything possible to reduce or eliminate my family’s exposure to toxic chemicals. Selective vaccinations (yes—this little tidbit is glided over when describing the risks of vaccination…), no non-stick cookware, glass or stainless steel containers and glasses, no herbicides, no pesticides, organic foods when possible and only essential-oil based fragrances.
I remember a time when we had an ant infestation. There was a clear trail from outside directly to one of the dog bowls, where they had immersed themselves in the leftover dog food. Outside and along the inside of the molding I sprinkled grits. But since grits take some time to work, I remember crawling around on the floor with duct tape capturing all of the home invaders. My then-toddler thought it was a blast.
This is not the extent to which most people would go through to protect their family from toxins, but I’ve always had a distinct fear of toxic chemicals, regardless of how “safe” they have been declared. (BTW—the “safety” of most of the pesticides in use today have been determined by the companies that manufacture them)
Time and time again, my fears, when it comes to how much of an impact that toxic, everyday, household chemicals have on our healthy, have proven well-founded. This time is no different.
In this particular study, researchers looked across 13 different studies to evaluate the impact that pesticides used in the home have on the risk of childhood leukemia and lymphoma.
Of all the cancers, the blood-origin cancers, leukemia and lymphoma, are among the scariest. The solid tumors like breast, prostate, colon and pancreatic, have very well-defined lifestyle risk factors like diet and exercise. Not so with leukemia and lymphoma. Sure, your dietary choices play a role, but this role is not as great as the hidden chemical exposures that increase risk.
“Hidden” being the scariest word in that paragraph. Personally, I’m pretty well aware of where these hidden chemicals lie, but the average person is unaware of most. And the ones that we should be aware of and avoid are so commonly used that no one questions them.
Household pesticides are one of these chemicals, as we really see in the results of this study:
- Overall, indoor residential insecticide exposure was linked to a 47% higher risk of childhood leukemia and a 43% higher risk of lymphoma.
- Even worse, when both indoor insecticide exposure and professional home treatment exposure was present, this risk jumped 204% higher.
- The overall risk for all childhood cancer from indoor pesticide exposure in general was increased 40%.
These are some scary numbers, especially with the combination of professional and non-professional home use. I know that many of the pesticide companies will only spray outside the house, but I would still be worried. We really have no idea how much of these chemicals make it into the home.
And here’s the rub—at least here in the Phoenix area, there are a large number of pest prevention companies. It’s a thriving business. And this means that there are a large number of people in developed countries that are exposing themselves and their families to toxic chemicals that are known to increase the risk of childhood cancers.
Maybe the next time you see a cockroach running across the floor it’s not the time to run to the phone and call the exterminators.