LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Ear Infections

Planning on Having a Healthy Baby? You Need Pets for Kids

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Every couple plans on having a healthy baby, but somewhere we get sidetracked. It is pretty clear that you need pets for kids to keep them fully healthy.

And it’s not just about lessons on loving and losing a family member.  Or why we should not torment Rover with the push bubble mower.  Or just why that ear really should remain attached to Fido’s head.

Somewhere, sometime our public health officials and the government decided that there needed to be an attempt to sterilize all aspects of our lives, beginning at birth.

It begins with immunizations when the newborn is minutes old (yes–because that newborn will soon be doing IV drugs and having unprotected sex–hence the need for the Hepatitis B vaccination in the delivery room).  This is further compounded by wanton use of antibiotics destroying the normal, protective bacterial flora.  Add in anti-bacterial everything and you’ve got a recipe for allergies, asthma and an overall dysfunctional immune system.

So where do pets fit in?

We already know that pet owners with chronic health conditions (like high blood pressure or heart disease) live longer than non-pet owners.

Pet ownership clearly has other, not quite definable, benefits to our health.

In kids, pet ownership has been shown to slash allergy rates in half.

This particular study takes the knowledge base further.  Researchers looked at how exposures to dogs and cats had an effect on respiratory and other infections in a child’s first year of life.  The results were pretty promising for us animal lovers:

  1. Children having dogs at home were 31% healthier when it came to infections than children without dog contacts
  2. Children with dog contacts at home had 44% less ear infections
  3. The dog exposure group used antibiotics 29% less
  4. Overall, both the weekly and the yearly contact with dogs and cats were associated with a lower risk of dying from a respiratory infection

Sounds like a visit to the pound may be a very smart decision for your child’s health.

So what other benefits have you found from having a pet in your household?

EARLY LIFE ANTIBIOTIC EXPOSURE – (08-28-06)

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Atopic wheezing and early life antibiotic exposure: a nested case control study

With all the research pointing to just how darn important a good, balanced, healthy bacterial flora in our GI tract is, you would hope at SOME point pediatricians would back off on antibiotic usage for everything that comes through their office.

But hey–give the 3 month old antibiotics for the ear infections caused by cow’s milk formula, and you’re practically guaranteed that you’ll get some extra visits with the child gets older and develops allergies and asthma. Talk about practice building techniques!!!

Read entire article here

NEGATIVE RESULTS OF KILLING NORMAL FLORA – (06-27-05)

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Watchful Waiting for Acute Otitis Media: Are Parents and Physicians Ready?

For everyone out there thinking there is a strong move towards “Evidence Based Medicine” may be a little surprised at the reality.  Using antibiotics for acute ear infections is something that has been hammered in the medical literature over the years.  This ain’t new info.  And, most look at the dangerous of antibiotic resistance with no thought whatsoever about the serious consequences of killing off normal flora.

So, with the research saying we should avoid antibiotics and serious ramifications on long term health from destroying normal flora you would think most physicians should be on the bandwagon, right?  6% used watchful waiting most of the time.  Evidence based, huh?

Read entire article here

USE OF PROBIOTICS REDUCES SEVERITY OF COMMON COLD – (07-09-07)

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Probiotic bacteria reduced duration and severity of common cold

I had a mom bring in her 1 yr old baby that had a history of reflux (meds at 3 months) and now recurrent ear infections. Figuring out what was wrong was not difficult (pretty clear cut allergy to dairy), but of issue was the multiple courses of antibiotics she had been on. Recently, she had taken her daughter to urgent care, and the physician recommended she give her daughter probiotics. A little surprising, but good nonetheless. Her pediatrician, however, told her later there was no evidence on probiotics. I told her she needs to find a pediatrician who has cracked a medical journal in the past decade.

The bottom line is that these commensal bacteria are supposed to be there. The benefits of having them there are too many to mention. I firmly believe that this is the most devasting impact of innapropriate antibiotic use.

Read entire article here

TRENDS IN MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE OTITIS MEDIA BY PCPS – (02-11-08)

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Trends in management of acute otitis media by PCPs.

In 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians release guidelines on the antibiotic management of acute otitis media (your average ear infection). These are trade organizations that have the best interests of their members in mind. So, you would think that physicians would diligently adopt these recommendations because they would be in the best interests of their patients. So how many did in this study? 15%. Fifteen percent. That’s 85% short of full participation. Quite frankly, this is appalling, sickening and unacceptable.

As physicians, we have an OBLIGATION to do the best for our patients. And that includes staying current to at least a minor degree with medical literature and guidelines. What makes this all so much more bothersome is that ear infections are not that hard to fix, and use of antibiotics will likely increase risk of future infections by destroying normal, protective flora, not to mention the major negative effect years down the line by destroying a major factor in our overall health!! EESHH!! I feel better now.

 Read entire article here

EAR INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN RESPONDS INCREDIBLY WELL TO NON-PHARMACEUTICAL APPROACHES – (03-17-08)

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Emergence of a Multiresistant Serotype 19A Pneumococcal Strain Not Included in the 7-Valent Conjugate Vaccine as an Otopathogen in Children

Geez. Where do we start with this one? Do we start with the idea that ear infections in children responds incredibly well to non-pharmaceutical approaches like allergen avoidance, probiotics and chiropractic adjusting that it is crazy to think we would need a vaccine?

Do we start with the fact that Mother Nature ALWAYS wins, and that when we try to squash down her creations that she’s going to get upset? It reminds me of a Whac-a-Mole game, where you try to smash down a mole with a mallet, only to have him pop up in another hole. Such is what we’re seeing here. Develop a vaccine against some strains of bacteria, and we see other strains, more difficult to treat, rise up. What a mess we are creating!!

Read entire article here

USE OF ANTIBIOTICS FOR TREATMENT OF ACUTE MAXILLARY SINUSITIS – (05-26-08)

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Antibiotics and Topical Nasal Steroid for Treatment of Acute Maxillary Sinusitis

There are several conditions that we, as a society, have been conditioned to associate with antibiotic use. When the poor response to antibiotics is mentioned to patients, they frequently seem at a loss and feel that SOME type of treatment needs to be rendered for conditions such as ear infections, sore throats, bronchitis and sinus infections. The reality is that many of these conditions resolve with or without antibiotic use, and the use of antibiotics is some cases may actually LENGTHEN recovery time. That doesn’t even take into account the damage to normal bacterial flora.

This study finds no benefit to the standard treatment of antibiotics and steroids to sinusitis. Now, many doctors will defend their blatant disregards for the lack of efficacy when giving the prescriptions to the patients, falling back on the belief that patients are demanding some type of prescription. The bottom line is that, if the patient has respect for the knowledge of their physician and their physician clearly articulates why no prescription is needed, it would be much less of a problem.

Read entire article here

OVERUSE OF TYMPANOSTOMY TUBES – (09-01-09)

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Overuse of tympanostomy tubes in New York metropolitan area: evidence from five hospital cohort

Wow. And ANYONE has rights to throw stones at the chiropractic profession? This is sickening. Unforgivable. Not only did these children have a completely unnecessary surgery, but no one ever thought to actually fix what was wrong with these children (allergies, destruction of normal, protective flora) before six. Without fixing the problem, you are dooming these young patients to altered physiology and immune dysfunction for the rest of their lives. Do you think these surgeons got paid?

Read entire article here