LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Hypertension

ATENOLOL NO BETTER THAN ANTIHYPERTENSIVE AGENTS – (11-21-04)

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Atenolol in hypertension: is it a wise choice?

I’m thinking we should just scrap the whole “double-blind, placebo controlled” studies. The research that many doctors are told to base their everyday decisions on has been blasted with holes in the past few years. Take this study. Atenolol (Tenormin) was determined to be the “gold standard” for high blood pressure. Over the years, other antihypertensive agents were compared to atenolol to determine if they were effective. Here’s the kicker…atenolol may be no more effective than placebo. And they say chiropractic has no research–thank goodness!! (just being facetious–there are volumes of research supporting much of what chiropractic does) The Journal : Back Issues –

Read entire article here

MATERNAL CALCIUM INTAKE DIRECTLY AFFECTS KIDS BLOOD PRESSURE – (10-20-04)

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Maternal Calcium Intake and Offspring Blood Pressure

Yet another beautiful example of how much the mother’s nutrition impacts, not only the immediate health of the newborn, but that her nutritional status is pre-programming that unborn infant for their future health. So, what if increasingly unhealthy generations of mothers have children that then grow up unhealthy and have kids? Not a pretty picture, huh?

Maternal Calcium Intake and Offspring Blood Pressure — Gillman et al. 110 (14): 1990 — Circulation.

Read entire article here

LOW GRADE INFLAMMATION RISKS STIFFNESS IN HYPERCHOLESTROL – (06-10-04)

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Low-grade systemic inflammation impairs arterial stiffness in newly diagnosed hypercholesterolaemia

Sorry for the long title, but basically, CRP as a marker of inflammation and waist to hip ratio were a better marker for less elasticity in the aorta (not a good thing…) than “traditional” risk factors such as LDL and total cholesterol and blood pressure. It is still rare for me to see a CRP level come back from any labwork ordered from another physician. This is just another example of clinical practice running decades behind what is in the medical literature.

Low-grade systemic inflammation impairs arterial stiffness in newly diagnosed hypercholesterolaemia – Eur J Clin Invest, Vol .

Read entire article here

CADMIUM EXPOSURE MAY CAUSE FOREARM FRACTURES – (07-02-04)

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Cadmium Exposure and Distal Forearm Fractures

I remember an elderly patient of mine awhile back. She was scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery and I had run a hair analysis on her looking at whether heavy metals may be contributing to the nerve issues. She had been a smoker for many years and the results came back very high in cadmium. She had been dealing with high blood pressure and severe osteoporosis (she had already had multiple hip replacements) as well. These were all hallmarks of cadmium toxicity. I referred her out to a physician doing IV chelation, but her surgeon would not perform her surgery until the cadmium issue was put to rest via a letter from me saying it was not relevant to her surgery. Her friend/home care nurse was livid and could not see how cadmium fit into her clinical picture.

This article, in the highest blood levels of cadmium, showed almost a NINE times risk of forearm fracture. The patient ultimately had the surgery and never followed through with the chelation due to the ignorance of one nurse. Who knows how this patient’s overall health would have improved had she done the chelation?

read entire article here for more information.

COST SAVINGS ON DRUGS FOR TREATING HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE – (05-13-04)

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Economic Implications of Evidence-Based Prescribing for Hypertension

Estimates for cost savings of hypertensive meds range as high as 25% cost savings on the drugs used to treat high blood pressure if physicians would follow the recommendations put out by the medical journals and research. I know as a chiropractor, my reimbursement is constantly in the cross hairs of the insurance company and yet it is pennies compared to costs savings on drugs. It just does not make sense. JAMA — Abstracts: Fischer and Avorn 291 (15): 1850

Read entire article here

BP DROP CAUSES DISORIENTATION AND UNSTEADINESS – (03-22-04)

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Blood pressure and cognitive functioning among independent elderly

Just thought I’d throw a little wrench in the works for the idea that the lower the BP the better. I can tell you that from experiences in my office, not all patients feel better when their BP drops to “normal” of 120/80. It is not unusual for these patients to feel disoriented and unsteady at this BP.

Science Direct – American Journal of Hypertension : Blood pressure and cognitive functioning among independent elderly.

Read entire article here

High Systolic Blood Pressure? Med Ups Blood Pressure Levels

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High systolic blood pressure is called the silent killer because there aren’t any early symptoms. Some meds will up blood pressure levels in unexpected ways.

I’m going to cover one of these strange ways that a class of medication can increase your blood pressure, and it starts, not in the cardiovascular system as you would expect, but rather in the digestive system.

I could argue that the human body does two things….Digest, and everything else.

The digestion and absorption of nutrients from the food and drink we put in our mouths is absolutely critical to good health. Disruption of that process in any way, shape or form can only harm us.

But stomach acid just helps us digest some proteins, right? And my doctor told me that I make too much so I need to take a drug that lowers it.

So what exactly does stomach acid do?

  1. Begins the process of digesting proteins
  2. Sterilizes bacteria so that they don’t begin to grow where they are not supposed to
  3. Turns on all the other inactive enzymes (they are deliberately made inactive to protect the glands and ducts they are made in)
  4. Turns on anti-cancer compounds like DIM from Indole 3 carbinol in cruciferous veggies
  5. Creates an acidic solution so that the pancreas can sense the acid and neutralize it (pH needs to be at least 3.5 for bicarbonate release from the pancreas). Otherwise, the contents of the stomach remain acidic and can damage the lining of the intestines
  6. Helps us absorb certain vitamins like B12
  7. Helps separate certain minerals so that they can be absorbed in elemental form

So, if your doctor handed you a prescription for something like Nexium, you should ask him or her what critical digestive processes are going to be negatively impacted. If he gives you a blank stare and just reiterates that you make too much acid, he or she has NO RIGHT giving you that drug.

If someone is going to give you a drug that blocks some essential process, they better damn well know the downstream consequences.

There is one other function of stomach acid that I didn’t mention…

It is coming to light that stomach acid may play a large role in helping foods that we eat to lower our blood pressure. Here’s how it works.

Nitrates naturally present in foods (vegetables, in general, are very high in nitrates), are converted by bacteria in our mouth to nitrite. (We have seen studies where antiseptic mouthwash actually stops this process and studies that suggest that stomach acid and nitrite protect the stomach lining)

The nitrite is then acted on by stomach acid to produce nitric oxide, which is a molecule well known to help lower blood pressure.

This means that anything that lowers stomach acid production can actually increase your blood pressure. This includes stress, age and acid blocking drugs like Nexium, Prilosec and antacids.

This particular study confirms this, finding that the use of omeprazole in rats stopped the ability of a solution of sodium nitrite to lower blood pressure.

Chalk up another benefit of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Lowers blood pressure.

As to whether or not you actually make too much stomach acid…Consider this. Stress shuts down stomach acid production (via stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system) and, as we age, the region of the stomach that produces stomach acid wears away, leading to lower levels of stomach acid as we age.

So, unless you’re 25, stress free or have a tumor producing too much gastrin, I would pretty much put my license on the fact that you make too little stomach acid. This means that, for everything except a bleeding ulcer, supporting digestion rather than shutting it down is a much better idea for your symptoms.

So what changes did you make that helped with your reflux, heartburn or gastric pain?

Erectile Dysfunction Symptoms Under 60: Don’t Miss This Warning Sign

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This isn’t just performance anxiety we’re talking about here. This is full blown, unable to perform, erectile dysfunction symptoms. So what do you do about it?

No problem, right? Just pop a Viagra or Cialis and you’re good to go for the next 4 hours (anything longer and the term “priapism” no longer seems like a laughing matter…). Of course, if you’re Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, you fear for your safety if you happened to be taking any blood pressure or heart medications. Other than that, we are led to believe from the commercials that we have little to fear and that a tiny little pill can help you rise again like a 16 year old teenage boy in the girls’ locker room.

If you think that you need to avoid Viagra or Cialis because you have a heart problem or high blood pressure, you’ve got it absolutely backwards.

There is no longer any question that erectile dysfunction (aka impotence) is strongly linked to heart disease.  Just for clarification, we are not talking about psychological impotence, but rather physiological impotence. If you have any question about which you may have, Google “stamp test.”

Here’s where the association is.

The enlargement of the penis is dependent upon the opening of blood vessels that fill it with blood and create the erection. But, if someone has blood vessels problems (vascular dysfunction–the beginning stages of heart disease and stroke) and the blood vessels begin to plaque, you lose the ability to move blood to create an erection.

In other words, erectile dysfunction = bad blood vessels.

Not a good thing.  And NOT something that any medication is going to fix. As always, this requires comprehensive lifestyle changes to pull back from heart disease. And let’s face it–if fixing erectile dysfunction is not incentive enough, NOTHING else will be!

Ironically enough, studies have shown to those who engage in more regular sexual activity actually have lower risk of heart disease. There are, of course, hundreds of other ways to lower your risk of heart disease and improve the health of your blood vessels.  Many of these can be found here.

So, if you or your partner are experiencing erectile dysfunction, you need to understand that you are a ticking time bomb. This particular article demonstrates just how bad it is.

Researchers found that, in men aged 40-49, the presence of impotence was associated with a FIFTY TIMES likelihood of having heart disease. 

Fifty times.  Let’s put this another way. If you were a 4 pack a day smoker for 30 years, you would still be less likely to get lung cancer that an impotent 49 year old man is of having heart disease. I hope that’s clear.

If you are someone who experiences erectile dysfunction and you are not willing to make lifestyle changes, please let me know why you’re sticking with this decision…