LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Miscellaneous

Treatment of Fibromyalgia with Antidepressants – (11-16-00)

by

Treatment of Fibromyalgia with Antidepressants

This is always a touchy subject when it comes to patients who experience pain in any form. Many patients do experience some reduction in symptoms with antidepressants, but this may be from the overlay of psychological stress leading to additional pain, NOT from the original pain generator itself. This does not mean the symptoms are psychological in origin. Unfortunately, many physicians are so limited in their arsenal against many chronic diseases that antidepressants are their only tool.

Synergy Abstract

Read entire article here

Dietary Antioxidants During Cancer Chemotherapy – (11-06-00)

by

Dietary Antioxidants During Cancer Chemotherapy

Some of the best cancer clinics in the world use the best of Western medicine and natural medicine. These clinics many times are very expensive and having waiting lists that most patients would not survive. This is the way we have to go to really beat cancer. Stop spending so much money on developing fantastic and expensive new cancer drugs–nature gave us what we needed; we just need to use it.

nutrition and Cancer 37(1):1-18, 2000 Several studies suggest that dietary supplementation with antioxidants can influence the response to chemotherapy as well as the development of adverse side effects that results from treatment with antineoplastic agents. Administration of antineoplastic agents results in oxidative stress, i.e., the production of free radicals and other reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oxidative stress reduces the rate of cell proliferation, and that occurring during chemotherapy may interfere with the cytotoxic effects of antineoplastic drugs, which depend on rapid proliferation of cancer cells for optimal activity. Antioxidants detoxify ROS and may enhance the anticancer effects of chemotherapy. For some supplements, activities beyond their antioxidant properties, such as inhibition of topoisomerase II or protein tyrosine kinases, may also contribute. ROS cause or contribute to certain side effects that are common to many anticancer drugs, suc! h as gastrointestinal toxicity and mutagenesis. ROS also contribute to side effects that occur only with individual agents, such as doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity, cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity, and bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Antioxidants can reduce or prevent many of these side effects, and for some supplements the protective effect results from activities other than their antioxidant properties. Certain side effects, however, such as alopecia and myelosuppression, are not prevented by antioxidants, and agents that interfere with these side effects may also interfere with the anticancer effects of chemotherapy.

Psoriasis in Children May Be Triggered by Respiratory Infections – (11-06-00)

by

Psoriasis in Children May Be Triggered by Respiratory Infections

In every other healing art in the world, EXCEPT Western medicine dermatology, skin conditions are related to the gastrointestinal tract. The skin is one of the routes by which the body exudes toxins. Could it be possible that these children who develop psoriasis from respiratory infections were all prescribed strong antibiotics that killed off the normal, healthy flora and affected the function of the GI tract?

(October 6, 2000 MedscapeWire) Although children often contract illnesses such as colds, strep throat, and tonsillitis, it is not well known that these infections are known to trigger psoriasis in some children. In fact, about 20,000 children are diagnosed with psoriasis annually, and many of the cases are attributed to upper respiratory infections. Although these common respiratory infections may trigger psoriasis, they are not the cause. The exact cause of psoriasis is unknown, but research has found that heredity plays a role. For example, if one parent has psoriasis, the chance of a child having it is about 10%. If both parents have psoriasis, the chance increases to 50%. One in three people report a family history of psoriasis, but there is no pattern to the inheritance. Children with no apparent family history of the disease can develop psoriasis.

Public Citizen Says FDA Fraudulently Approved Food Irradiation – (11-02-00)

by

Public Citizen Says FDA Fraudulently Approved Food Irradiation

The FDA is under heavy attack these days with accusations of fraud and abuse. Top among these is the revelation that some 52% of FDA panel members had financial ties to the drug companies they were supposed to regulate. Governmental agencies are fraught with abuse and can no longer be considered as reliable information relating to your health.

(article) The Food and Drug Administration should withdraw its approval of food irradiation to kill bacteria, said the advocacy group Public Citizen on Tuesday, claiming that the agency based its acceptance of the technology on faulty studies. Joined by the Cancer Prevention Coalition and several environmental protection organizations, Public Citizen and the other groups said there were numerous public health threats posed by applying ionizing radiation to food. The groups documented their charges in a lengthy report issued at a press briefing. The report, called “A Broken Record—How the FDA Legalized, and Continues to Legalize, Food Irradiation Without Testing it For Safety,” shows that “FDA has failed in its mandate to protect consumers,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. Samuel Epstein, an expert on carcinogenicity and chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, said there is overwhelming evidence that radiation cuts the nutritional value of food by a third, and that once cooked, the food has no nutritional value left. Epstein also said that there is a large body of evidence that irradiation poses a threat to human fertility and reproductive viability, and that it appears that many of the chemicals created as byproducts are carcinogenic to humans. For instance, benzene, a known carcinogen, is a byproduct that appears in large quantities in irradiated beef, according to the Public Citizen report.

Long-Term Effect of Dust Control on Blood Lead Concentrations – (10-30-00)

by

Long-Term Effect of Dust Control on Blood Lead Concentrations

Frequently cleaning of dust in a household has always been recommended in an attempt to keep the levels of lead to a minimum. This moderately large study suggests that this approach has no effect on a child’s level of lead in the blood. This places additional weight on other methods of prevention; increased vitamin C intake, avoiding fluoridated water (not only does fluorisilic acid increase lead uptake, but poor quality control allows much lead to slip INTO the water supply to make matters worse), keeping an air filter in the child’s room and drinking only filtered water.

Pediatrics — Abstracts: Lanphear et al. 106 (4): e48

Read entire article here

UK Mulls Restricting Ritalin Use – (10-19-00)

by

UK Mulls Restricting Ritalin Use

I truly believe that the long term use of psychoactive drugs that have not been properly tested in children is one of the scariest aspects of health in the US today. Not only do we not know the long term side effects, but we are teaching our children that it is okay to take a pharmaceutical drug for the rest of your life.

(article) Britain’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) is set to release strict guidelines for the use of the hyperactivity drug methylphenidate (Ritalin), following growing concerns by some doctors and the public that it causes depression and lethargy in children and is over-prescribed. The drug could be banned for children younger than 5, according to media speculation. According to a NICE spokesperson, “Ritalin is under appraisal now for best practice national guidelines. Right now, Ritalin has had no universal prescriptive guidelines throughout Britain,” the spokesperson told Reuters Health. “Some doctors are currently prescribing it for very young children while others will only give it to children over 5.” According to a 1998 National Health Service Executive Report by Dr. Anna Gilmore, Ritalin seems only effective in children for a period of 6 months. After this duration, she reported, the benefits of the drug are uncertain. The NICE re-evaluation coincides with legal action against Novartis in the US, where some parents are suing the pharmaceutical company for failure to warn them of Ritalin’s possible adverse impacts on the nervous system.

ß-Carotene or Mixed Carotenoids Protects from UV-Induced Erythema – (01-09-03)

by

ß-Carotene or Mixed Carotenoids Protects from UV-Induced Erythema

Remember all the hoopla about the increase in melanoma in children and adolescents? We heard alot about it here in AZ. All the experts were saying that we need to limit sun exposure and use more sunscreen. Not only person in the news approached this news with any grain of common sense. Does anyone out there actually think kids are getting more sun exposure now than we did 30 years ago??? Kids are plopped in front of computers and video games. Kids are coated with sunscreens (did they even MAKE sunscreen 30 years ago?) and told to stay out of the sun. So, while the logical person would say that sun exposure is actually less, those same people would ask why the increase in skin cancers? This article is a portion of the answer. Protection from the sun comes from inside. Substances like Vit C, bioflavonoids and carotenoids protect us from the sun and our kids are getting less and less of these in their diets.

nutrition.org — Abstracts: Heinrich et al. 133 (1): 98

Read entire article here

Rapid Respiratory Viral Testing & Antibiotic Use in Children’s Hospital – (01-09-03)

by

Rapid Respiratory Viral Testing & Antibiotic Use in Children’s Hospital

The overuse of antibiotics in the paediatric setting is still excessive, despite researchers practically screaming in the medical journals to curb use. It always concerns me that these articles appear in paediatric journals and yet the paediatricians never seem to get the message. What exactly are they reading if they’re NOT reading their own speciality’s journals?? Scares me just a little… Anyway, anything that can be used to lower antibiotic use is a good thing. Most researchers worry about antibiotic resistance. I am much more concerned about the long term damage that destruction of the normal flora causes.

Read entire article here