LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Hypertension

WHAT IS A GOOD SOLID TEST TO CHECK OXIDATIVE STRESS – (04-25-05)

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Urinary 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid excretion is associated with oxidative stress in hypertensive subjects

Not to confuse anyone with long words (just how much would that be worth in Scrabble?) but it is surprising to me just how many ways we are finding to evaluate oxidative stress.  Truly this is a wonderful movement, because we are still lacking a good, overall, solid test to check for oxidative stress.

What I can see happening is a panel of several oxidative stress markers that will give a good idea of what state a patient is in.  Given that I think oxidative stress/mitochondrial dysfunction is the root of all evil, any markers we can identify to evaluate this is a good thing.

Read entire article here

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF STRESS REDUCTION ON MORTALITY – (05-16-05)

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Long-Term Effects of Stress Reduction on Mortality in Persons 55 Years of Age With Systemic Hypertension

So stress reduction makes you healthier and lowers your risk of dying from many diseases.  Big deal.  But a 49% decrease in risk of cancer in participants performing meditation?  Holy anti-carcinogens, Batman!!  That is cutting your risk of cancer in half from meditation alone.  There was also a 23% reduction in all cause mortality and 30% reduction in cardiovascular mortality.  These numbers are staggering.

 Read article here.

EFFECT OF COCOA AND TEA ON BLOOD PRESSURE – (12-03-07)

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Effect of Cocoa and Tea Intake on Blood Pressure

Let’s face it. Adding dark chocolate to your daily life really isn’t all that painful. Dark chocolate is a regular staple around our house and my 2 year old always gets a small corner of whatever I’m eating. This article is actually a meta-analysis, looking at 5 different studies on cocoa consumption and blood pressure.

The authors concluded that, in a mere 2 wks, that cocoa could drop systolic blood pressure an average of 4.7 mm. Not that may not sound like much, but remember that the best approach to any chronic condition is multifactorial, and in this case increasing intake of dark chocolate is only one intervention that would be used to help manage blood pressure along w/ managing insulin resistance, exercise and stress management.

Read entire article here

MATERNAL NUTRITION CAN DECIDE THE UNBORN CHILD’S HEALTH – (12-03-07)

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Maternal Nutrition, Low Nephron Number, and Hypertension in Later Life: Pathways of Nutritional Programming

This is yet another pathway by which forcing women into pregnancy artificially, whose bodies are not ready for pregnancy because of physiological imbalances, is upsetting the balance of our health. The evidence is piling up that the decisions made in pregnancy can haunt that unborn child’s health for decades into the future.

In this article, the idea is put forth that, when mom is not eating properly, the fetus will develop a lower number of filtration units (nephrons) in the developing kidneys. Later in life, as that child becomes overweight (because they will be at increased in risk for obesity because of the unhealthy mom), this will place excess burden on the kidneys, resulting in kidney failure. Add to this mix a society that doesn’t realize the dangers of NSAIDs on the kidneys and you’ve got a nasty increase in dialysis centers.

Read entire article here

MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF CHRONIC DISEASES – (09-17-07)

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Accelerated Mitochondrial Adenosine Diphosphate/Adenosine Triphosphate Transport Improves Hypertension-Induced Heart Disease

I’ve made it quite clear that I believe mitochondrial dysfunction / oxidative stress is the root of all evil when it comes to chronic disease. So it is with great disappointment that I bring another article that supports this concept. Basically, researchers found in a rat study that supporting the ability of the mitochondria to produce energy for a heart cell prevented the inevitable enlargement of the left ventricle.

Thus, anything that will support mitochondrial function, such as a diet high in phytonutrients / redox potential, calorie restriction w/o nutrient restriction, exercise or targeted supplementation with antioxidants is likely to protect the heart. As an added bonus, all these interventions will also lower any offending high blood pressure.

Read entire article here

PHYSICIANS ARE AWARE OF METABOLIC SYNDROME BUT DO NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND – (01-26-08)

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Metabolic syndrome, its preeminent clusters, incident coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality

Despite the vast amount of research, few give Metabolic Syndrome the respect it deserves. I personally believe that this is because while many physicians are aware of metabolic syndrome, by not reading current literature they may not fully understand the full breadth of this condition.

Let’s put it in terms of this study. When we talk about relative risk, it gives us an idea of how much something (in this case, having MetS) increases your risk of a disease. Now, if the rates of a particular disease are already pretty high in the general population (such as with heart disease), then the risk becomes more important.

In this study, those patients having all 5 components of MetS (high BP, low HDL, high triglycerides, increased blood glucose and increased waist-to-hip ratio) the relative risk was a whopping 6.24 time higher. There’s no beating around the bush here. This is a dangerous condition and needs to be treated as such.

Read entire article here

RISK OF HEART DISEASE INCREASES EVEN AFTER CHECKING CHOLESTEROL – (03-17-08)

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Apolipoprotein A-II Is Inversely Associated With Risk of Future Coronary Artery Disease

There are many patients running around who have experienced heart attacks or blocked coronary vessels that were told that there were no reasons why this happened to them. What they usually mean is that their total and LDL cholesterol levels were not elevated and they had no high blood pressure. However, The reality of CVD risk factors runs so much broader than that. I truly believe that all patients with heart disease have some type of well established risk factor; the problem is that their cardiologist may not have known where to look.

This study just adds more information to the picture of heart disease, and again establishes the fact that just checking for total, HDL and LDL cholesterol is very outdated and will miss many patients with developing CVD.

Read entire article here

DO WE KNOW THAT PLANT SOURCES OF PROTEIN HAVE MUCH HIGHER LEVELS OF ARGININE? – (05-26-08)

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Watermelon Pomace Juice Enhances Arginine Availability and Ameliorates the Metabolic Syndrome

There is much to be said about the source of a protein or carbohydrate or fat. When it comes to proteins, one thing we know is that plant sources of protein have much higher levels of arginine than lysine when compared to animal proteins. This is one of the factors that we believe plays a role in plant protein’s health benefits. Arginine is an amino acid that is a precursor to nitric oxide, and nitric oxide is a major player in the blood vessels’ ability to relax and lower blood pressure.

In this rat study, it was shown that intake of watermelon juice (which is particularly high in L-citrulline–a precursor to arginine) raised serum arginine levels and helped to lower markers of metabolic syndrome.

Read entire article here