LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Heart Disease, Stroke, Blood Pressure Tips

WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? DON’T EXERCISE…

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Ok.  So maybe that’s not the best way to title the post.  For some reason, maybe because of society, we like to lean towards exercise to lose weight.  While this is important, diet plays a much stronger role.

That’s not to say that exercise is NOT important–it absolutely is and needs to be a part of healthy lifestyle changes.  But exercise without diet is worthless (think of the new direction McDonald’s took with Ronald promoting exercise…was again missing the diet boat).

Schools stress physical activity in our kids but then feed them refined carbs, dairy and sugar laded snacks and drinks.  Maybe it’s because getting more active makes companies money, but healthy dietary choices will cost them..?

Regardless, this review of studies found only small benefits on weight loss from 3-12 months using only aerobic exercise.  This just further confirms that muscle building exercises, aerobic and diet all need to be part of a weight loss routine.  This is no different for those patients who “tried everything” to lower their cholesterol (what they really meant was that they started walking around the block and it didn’t change their cholesterol).

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CONSTIPATION INCREASES RISK OF THIS???

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There are some who say that death begins in the colon.  They’re really not too far off the mark.  True health is not possible without a healthy gut.  There are two issues with constipation.

First is the consequences of constipation.  Now, as I sit here typing this post over lunch, I’ll try not to get too graphic, but think of the poor little cell lining the GI tract (colonocyte in the case of the colon).  In constipation, the view doesn’t change much.  That little guy is exposed to chemicals, byproducts and waste products from compounds that the body had earmarked for elimination.   If those nasties were not moving along at a healthy pace and I was a colonocyte, I know I would not be a happy camper.

Because of this, the risk of cancer and diverticulosis / itis goes up.  Waste products and toxins that were supposed to be removed get reabsorbed.  A perfect example is the glucuronidation of hormones like estrogen.  This is process by which the body will get rid of levels of excess hormones that it doesn’t need.  It occurs principally in the liver and the conjugated hormones are put into the gut for disposal.

With constipation, these conjugated hormones spend too much time in contact with evil bacteria able to un-conjugate the hormones, sending them back into our bodies in their mutated forms.  These mutated forms of hormones such as estrogen can disrupt hormonal balance in the body.  For this reason among others, a woman having PMS complaints needs to evaluate their overall gut function.

The second issue is what creates the constipation in the first place.  It’s not uncommon for this to begin in infanthood.  It seems that parents are sometimes told that their little infant having a bowel movement every couple days is ok…UGH!!!  This can be a very early warning sign of food allergies and, in an infant I would look at dairy-related constipation first.

Poor quality diets can also lead to constipation, as can too little fluid intake.  Many medications can cause constipation as a side effect.  Antibiotics can destroy the healthy bacterial flora.  Gall bladder problems may contribute (an entire post by itself).

So, fixing constipation begins with those concerns mentioned above.  In the short term, magnesium will easily fix constipation.  NEVER use stool softeners as your gut will adapt to them and become dependent.  I usually recommend 400 mg of high quality magnesium before bed.  This amount may be altered by individual circumstances such as stress levels, base dietary intake and other supplements.  But magnesium can’t NOT work (ever heard of anyone not getting cleaned out the day before a colonoscopy?). 

Add to this probiotics to balance out the bacterial flora and produce more stability within the gut.

With all this in mind, looking at this particular article and finding a 23% increased risk of heart disease in those with constipation should now make a little more sense.  It is not likely a direct result, but rather the lifestyle or food allergies that created the constipation coupled with the problems created by the constipation. 

Either way…get it fixed.

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DRINK THIS TO LOWER CHOLESTEROL

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I know most of you were hoping the answer here was beer, but to date no one has developed a high-resveratrol beer.  Sorry.  If any company gets close to developing one–buy stock.  And although wine has been shown to raise HDL levels, that’s not the subject of this post either.

Green tea has been shown consistently across studies to have positive impacts on any number of chronic diseases.  When I’m asked, most people assume that it is green tea with all the benefits.  While many of the studies are done on green tea, that does not mean that black tea is without benefit and certainly white tea probably has more.  Personally, I shift between all types on a very frequent basis.

While this particular study focuses on the ability of green tea to lower cholesterol, I would never recommend tea as a sole means to lower cholesterol.  Rather, it is part of a comprehensive package of lifestyle changes all geared to improve physiology, which would, of course, also lower cholesterol.

As would be expected, I’m an avid tea drinker and our household goes through about a pitcher of tea per day.  Since everyone seems to be under the false impression that living healthier has to be expensive, let’s squash that notion right now.

I have a reverse osmosis filter on the sink and fill up a stainless steel crock pot that sits on the stove that is only used for this reason.  Teas come from a variety of locations: Tazo from Target, some 30 flavors from Teavana (teavana.com), tons of flavors from Maya Tea, flavors from Republic of Tea, flavors from China Mist.

The tea goes in the pot:

1)  loose leaf goes in an infuser….http://www.teavana.com/tea-products/tea-makers-infusers/p/perfect-tea-ball is my favorite and easy to use

2)  Republic of Tea – 5 of the circle tea bags per pot

3)  China Mist – one package per pot

I bring the pot to a boil and let it cool down.  Takes maybe 2 hours to cool down.  After this the tea gets poured into a glass picture and into the fridge.  While you can make tea any way you’d prefer, this type of an approach, drinking over a pitcher per day costs around $10-15 / month.  Can’t beat this cost with anything other than tap water.

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AVOIDING THIS IN FOODS WILL RAISE CHOLESTEROL

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It’s funny.  We think about what foods to add to lower cholesterol such as raw nuts and fish oils.  We think about what foods to avoid to lower cholesterol such as omega-6 containing oils (sunflower, soybean, peanut, cottonseed, etc..), hydrogenated oils and refined carbs.  This article adds yet another dimension–the elevation of lipid levels when a certain mineral is NOT present in the diet.

Sulfur, as a mineral, does all kinds of good things for the body.  It is essential for the maintanence of healthy joints.  It supports the sulfation pathway of detoxification in the liver.  And, looking at this study, diets that are low in sulfur will result in elevations in blood lipids such as cholesterol and triglycerides.

Foods high in sulfur include the cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower (of course!), onions, garlic and eggs.  And, as expected, these types of foods are good for us in a variety of ways and not just limited to their sulfur content.  So make sure you add these foods into your anti-diabetic lifestyles.

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BONE FRACTURES = HEART DISEASE?

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I’ve always contended that the human body cares not one squat about the artificial delineations we have created in Westernized medicine.  The body does not recognize that “cardiovascular” problem independently from an “endocrine” problem from a “gastroenterological” problem.

Instead, every single system in the human body interacts with other systems.  The degree of this is so complex as to make our division into “specialties” laughable.  Dr. Jeffrey Bland (a strong influence on the way I view health) always called it “knowing more and more about less and less.”

To me, helping patients to make lifestyle changes that will lower their risk of chronic disease, there is NO differentiation between heart disease and diabetes.  These two conditions are so tightly linked that anything that affects one affects both.  Heck, 70% of diabetics die of cardiovascular issues and we want to consider them separate conditions, both treated by different specialists.

So, the results of this study finding that, in those with heart disease there is a strong correlation with the risk of fractures.  This relationship has actually been getting stronger over the past decade or so–likely because we have more sick people with heart disease rather than dead people who had heart attacks.  Live people are more likely to suffer a fracture…

The bottom line is that lifestyle changes to improve a condition are nonspecific and will lower your risk across the board for all chronic diseases.  This is the beauty of lifestyle changes and the glaring failure of pharmaceutical dominated medicine, which touts one cure for one disease.

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SHOULD I TAKE ASPIRIN FOR MY HEART?

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There are a few things in society today that can be repeated with an almost mantra like quality when it comes to preventing heart attacks.  The first is that we need to lower our intake of sodium.  The curtains on this recommendation have recently been pulled back to reveal just how weak of a recommendation this is.  However, not nearly as weak as the other strong recommendation.

For many years now Bayer and mainstream medicine have led you to believe that aspirin is good for our heart and will protect against heart attacks.  While this may be true, the data is so weak as to be pointless.

There is, of course, concern over the dangers of aspirin.  These principally focus on bleeding events such as ulcers and strokes.  Rarely is it brought up that aspirin is suspected to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer as well.

So, as with any intervention, we need to balance the benefits with the risks.  Take broccoli for example.  It can lower your risk of any number of chronic diseases, and the strength of prevention of heart attacks is probably on par with aspirin.  But the side effects!  You know–the dangerous ones associated with broccoli intake like…I’m sure some will come to me in a minute….side effects of broccoli or on the tip of my tongue…Well, I’m sure I read about them all the time………

The point is that lifestyle changes have protective effects that far, far outweigh those of standard recommendations like avoiding salt and taking aspirin.  But we seem to be so darn soft on these recommendations that I don’t think society really takes them seriously.

Getting back to the current study.  Just how effective is aspirin at protecting a first heart attack?  Are you ready for this?

Treat 1,000 people for 5 years.  Do the math–this is an awful lot of money for Bayer…  Ok, so after these 5 years we’ve probably prevented hundreds of heart attacks, right?

Wrong.  2.9 people will have been protected.  Another 2.8 will experience major bleeds as a result of taking the aspirin.  These numbers flat out suck and again highlight our society’s morbid obsession with picking out the really bad interventions like lowering salt intake, taking an aspirin and taking statins and putting them up on a pedestal rivaling Mount Olympus.  All the while burying the real recommendations somewhere in the realm of Jules Verne

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STATINS PRODUCE MORE HARM THAN GOOD

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It should come as no big shock that I am certainly not an advocate of the statin class of drugs to lower cholesterol.  There are many reasons why I am so vehemently opposed to the use of this drugs.  How could this be, when it cuts the risk of a cardiac event by 50%??

For primary prevention (meaning we are trying to prevent a first heart attack), in almost all studies I’ve read, regardless of what value you look at (cholesterol, hsCRP, LDL), a statin will cut the RELATIVE RISK down by 50%.  If you are a physician that does not understand research and take the drug company’s headline as gospel, this seems like a godsend.  Every patient walking through the door is going to get their blood pressure checked and get a prescription for a statin, thinking that you are doing wonders for your patients.

However, before we jump up and down in excitement, we need to understand relative vs absolute risk.  In most of the studies, the numbers are pretty consistent.  Treat 100 people for 3 years and, instead of 2 people having a heart attack, only 1 does.  The RELATIVE drop from 2 to 1 is a 50% reduction and sounds great.  But since the overall risk is pretty low in this population (typically referred to as a 10 yr risk), the absolute risk reduction is a paltry 1%.  This flat out sucks.

There are some lifestyle interventions or supplements that fall into the same category.  The relative risk reductions may appear more powerful than if you put it into absolute risk reductions.  Here’s the difference.  Statins are very expensive (although with the loss of the patent on Lipitor the prices will drop substantially) and have a long list of side effects.  Muscle damage (the damage is present even if someone taking statins does not have muscle pain).  Depletion of CoQ10.  Probably the greatest scare is the increased risk of diabetes.

But, the biggest, staring you right in the face, answer is that I have NEVER not had a patient bring their cholesterol levels in line with the right lifestyle choices.  This is and will always be the only appropriate way to handle lipid issues.  The vast majority of patients with lipid (total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, VLDL) problems are pre-diabetic.  So giving these patients a drug that will worsen the physiological state that is making the number off kilter is just plain bad medicine.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/305/24/2556.abstract

December 26, 2000 Research Update

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James Bogash, D.C. Mesa, AZ
info@lifecarechiropractic.com
www.lifecarechiropractic.com

Antioxidant Effect of Estrogen on CMV-Induced Damage of Heart

This study brings up numerous concepts. At first glance, one might suggest that this is the route that HRT protects against heart disease in women. But then, recalling recent studies suggesting no benefit to heart disease in women using HRT, this is somewhat irrelevant. So, how can we benefit from this study? First, the damage induced by CMV is accepted; therapies/lifestyle changes to stimulate the immune system against virus may be of benefit. Next, CMV appears to increase free radical damage to heart muscles; antioxidant therapy and fresh fruits and vegetables can affect this damage. Circulation — Abstracts: Speir et al. 102 (24): 2990 http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/24/2990

Endotoxin Shock Related to Increased Oxidative Stress

Endotoxin shock therapies have always focused on increasing blood pressure to counteract the drop in blood pressure. Recent evidence is suggesting that this is not the reason patients die when exposed to endotoxins from bacteria in the bloodstream. Rather, if is the excessively high levels of free radical damage that leads to the fatal consequences in septic shock. This suggests that current therapy for septic shock may be misguided, and high levels of antioxidants may lead to better outcomes. It would be interesting to see a clinical trial adding high level antioxidants to current BP-raising therapies. Circulation — Abstracts: Wiesel et al. 102 (24): 3015 http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/24/3015

Strength training w/ fibromyalgia: comparison w/ healthy women

There are a few interesting concepts in this article. First, it confirms the recommendation to add exercise for any fibromyalgia patient. Next, the conclusion of this study suggests that fibromyalgia has a central rather than peripheral origin. I would change this somewhat to a systemic rather than local origin. Much evidence points to fibromyalgia being a state of immune upregulation, many times orchestrated in the GI tract. Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Häkkinen et al. 60 (1): 21 http://ard.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/21

Immobilisation and synovial fluid IL1, TIMP, chondroitin sulphate

It’s always nice to have biochemical evidence to back up what chiropractors have been saying and doing for years–use it or lose it when it comes to joint mobility. Spinal manipulation will help to restore joint mobility after injury or postural stresses, and this study (done on canines) would support such manipulation to achieve/restore healthy joints. Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Haapala et al. 60 (1): 55 http://ard.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/55

Intestinal permeability in Behçet’s syndrome

While this is a wonderful study, the author seems to have totally missed the value of the conclusions gained. He noted increased permeability of all inflammatory diseases studied when compared to healthy controls. With this result the author makes a comment on the lack of specificity of intestinal permeablity for diagnosis of Behçet’s syndrome. Well, of course. Intestinal permeability can lead to upregulation of the systemic immune system (through activation of GALT-gut activated lymphoid tissue) and potentially resultant autoimmune disease. Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Fresko et al. 60 (1): 65 http://ard.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/65

A possible trigger for the autoimmune response in SLE

This is truly a novel study. Most patients with autoimmune diseases can almost pinpoint the time period that their disease began, and many correlate this onset with a sickness or flulike symptoms. This study begins to look at what may cause the immune system to begin to attack itself. The process that may be implicated is the phosphorylation pathway. When a cell dies and its proteins are not properly shielded (via phosphorylation), when the body tries to clear the dead cell, it mistakenly attacks it instead. Ann Rheum Dis — Abstracts: Zampieri et al. 60 (1): 72 http://ard.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/60/1/72

A pilot study of N-acetyl glucosamine, in paediatric chronic IBD

This may be another novel use for glucosamine to heal the damage caused by inflammatory attack on the GI tract. Couple this with natural anti-inflammatories and fish oil, as well as an anti-inflammatory diet, and the pediatric patient may be able to avoid the damaging effects of all the drugs typically used for IBD. Synergy Abstract http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/journals/processfree2.asp?contentid=apt%2E2000%2E15&filetype=abstracts&article=81337

Lyophilized, inactivated Lactobacillus increases H pylori eradication

What an interesting article!! First, if some by-product of Lactobacillus activity has the ability to inhibit H pylori in the stomach, than could this be a reason why H pylori is so prevalent? Could our processed, unfermented foods low in friendly bacteria be allowing for the rise of other bacteria in our GI tract that are not so friendly? It would be interesting to see a study with this preparation along with high dose vitamin C and added hydrochloric acid. Synergy Abstract http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/journals/processfree2.asp?contentid=apt%2E2000%2E15&filetype=abstracts&article=81339