LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Healthy Kids

7 WAYS TO SHORTEN YOUR TEENS’ LIFE

by

Sounds like a pretty strong statement? I cannot make it any clearer that the decisions our children make today will pave the way for health or disease in their later years.

It should also be clear by now that the fastest way to an early grave is by taking in too many calories. Calorie restriction without nutrient restriction is the key to longevity and avoiding all chronic diseases. So how can we tell how well we’re doing with our lifestyles?

There really isn’t a single marker that can measure longevity, but there are a few that correlate very, very strongly with long term health and longevity. One of these is telomere length.  What are telomeres, you ask? Consider them as the wick on the end of the DNA of our cells. When this wick burns down, that’s it. The cell is no more. So, the longer the telomere on the end of our DNA, the longer that cell is going to live and, by extension, the longer you are going to live.

This particular article finds that higher caloric intake in teens led to a shorter telomere length in their white blood cells. Not a good thing. And we don’t get these telomeres back–once they are shortened they’re shortened for life.

Consider that the next time the Mcdonald’s drive thru seems like the “only” option.

So what else has been shown to lower telomere length?

  1. Multivitamin use has shown to lead to longer telomeres
  2. A pro diabetic lifestyle shortens our telomeres
  3. Stress shortens telomere length
  4. Overweight children have shorter telomeres
  5. Childhood abuse (emotional, nutritional or physical) shortens telomeres
  6. Omega 3 fatty acids lead to longer telomeres

Overall, you can see that the everyday decisions we make as parents for our children have a direct impact on their longevity. Decide well or they will pay the price.

SIMPLE TRICK TO GET KIDS TO EAT MORE VEGGIES

by

A common complaint among parents trying to get their small children to eat more vegetables is that they just don’t like their vegetables.  Now, as the father of a 6 year old that loves cruciferous veggies, squash, artichokes and unsweetened tea I don’t think this is a true statement.  Maybe it’s because he’s been stealing these foods off of my plate since he can remember.  For those of you who missed this window, maybe this will help.

Of course, first and foremost is to be eating healthy yourself.  You cannot be eating a juicy burger dripping with grease and high fructose corn syrup ketchup and complain to your child that he or she is not eating their broccoli.  The same goes for smoking.  Ditto for sitting on your butt watching TV and not exercising.  Until this is in place you can never expect your child to be healthier than you are.  The same goes tenfold for stress.  If you are a stress monster, regardless of whether you think you “keep it from them,” children pick up on this.  Put on a smile if you’d like, but children (and animals) are perceptive enough to see through the charade and begin to emulate the parent’s stress management techniques (or lack thereof).

Back to more veggies…

This particular study finds that, by decreasing the entree size, children aged 3-5 increased their fruit and vegetable intake and reduce overall caloric intake.  It’s pretty simple, really–just provide multiple options on the plate without having any one portion dominate the plate.  The result is very positive.  There’s a neat little restaurant here in AZ called Pita Jungle.  They have a kid’s meal that we can order with hummus, a small side of chicken, cauliflower and fruit (there’s a side of pita bread as well, but we usually feed this to the ducks so they can get fat instead…).  The perfect blend and Keegan eats it without complaint and truly loves to go to this restaurant.

TEENS CAN EAT THIS TO DO BETTER IN SCHOOL

by

Society is quick to blame lack of physical fitness on society’s ills.  Heck–even Ronald McDonald would have you believe that you can run around and play while still eating McNuggets to stay healthy.  But while activity is critical, it is not as demonic as this.

Poor quality diet is and always will remain society’s downfall.  And, without a doubt, it starts with our kids.  If we do not feed them good quality foods and load them up on phytonutrient poor foods with high calories and chemicals few of us can pronounce, how can we possibly expect their brains to function optimally?

The dynamics of healthy brain function are beyond anyone’s true understanding.  Can you really look at a Captain Crunch breakfast with milk from a cow that has lived it’s life hooked up to a milking machine and some remotely related form of orange juice that’s been stored for years and had synthetic flavors added back in and think that THIS is what your child’s brain needs?  And does it get any better for lunch?

If you expect your child to live up to his or her full potential, you need to make sure that their diet is as healthy as it can be.  Funny–some consider eating healthy is expensive, but will shovel crap food into their child, sabotage brain function, and then theoretically have that child miss out on a $50K scholarship.  Which path is most expensive?

This particular study looked at the ability of a teenager’s brain to resist cognitive breakdown under stress.  We could all argue that this sounds like a good thing, right?  The two groups got a standard diet or a mixed grain diet.  It was clear that those on the mixed grain diet had higher levels of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor–a hormone that stimulates the development of new connections between brain cells and strengthens the ones already present.

So…what did YOU feed your teen for breakfast this morning?

FEVERS–IS TYLENOL OR IBUPROFEN BETTER?

by

The answer may surprise you.  This is a question that has been asked in the medical literature for many years across many research studies.  In general, they seem to be pretty equal in reducing a fever (called “antipyretic” therapy).  But there is a question that is never, ever asked, and it’s the most critical…

Most parents are aware that you should never combine a fever and aspirin because of the danger of developing Reye’s Syndrome (a serious illness that can result in damage to the liver and brain when aspirin is taken for a viral illness; a fever may or may not be present).  Because of this, most rely on acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen to lower a fever.  When you watch the commercials for these products, you come away with the belief that only the most caring parents use over the counter children’s medications to lower their suffering child’s fever.

Of course, good luck trying to find one that does not contain more toxins than a superfund site.  Artificial colors (really–who CARES what color it is??), artificial flavors (what happened to good ‘ole fashioned sugar?), sodium benzoate (for shelf life), propylene glycol (yes–it really IS used in antifreeze) and other chemicals.  Just what you want to give a sick child.

But this all does not address the most critical concern of all..

Should we even lower a fever at all??

A few surprising medical facts:

  • A febrile seizure is not induced by a high fever; rather, it is caused by a rapid rise in brain temperature that the body cannot cool fast enough.  Antipyretic therapy does nothing to alter whether or not this is going to occur
  • According to the National Institute of Health, brain damage does not occur until a shockingly high 107.5
  • A fever is a normal response of the body, improving the way our immune system responds and inhibiting the ability of the infection to progress

So, the question that has NEVER been asked in the medical literature, at least not that I’ve ever been able to find, is whether lowering the fever prolongs the infection or increases the risk of greater complications from the infection.  My personal opinion is that no one has ever asked the question because we really don’t want the answer–it’s going to cost an awful lot of money to companies that make drugs to lower a fever.

This particular review, which looked at multiple studies (researchers were unable to find any human studies, which again confirms my concern), starts to give us some insight into just how bad of an idea antipyretic therapy may be.  The infection in question was pneumonia caused by the bacteria S. pneumoniae.  The results?

The risk of dying was TWICE as high when antipyretic therapy was used (in this case, aspirin was used).  Just how much does this correlate with what happens in humans?  Again–there are no studies, but the concern is rising.

EAR INFECTIONS IN YOUR CHILD? THEY NEED THIS…

by

Ear infections are far too common in our children. The standard, although inappropriate, approach in medicine today is to use antibiotics. While this trend may have slowed somewhat, it is still far too prevalent. What else can be done to help prevent ear infections in our children?

It is not uncommon for a distraught mother to present to my office with her little toddler in tow, scared because their pediatrician has told them that having tubes put into the ears (myringotomy) is the only option left. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In most situations, pulling the child off of common allergens like dairy and putting them on a course of probiotics completely eliminates the ear infections that had “no options left except surgery.” Overall, it’s really not rocket science.

So what else can be done? How about chewing gum? Who would’ve thought that chewing gum could prevent ear infections? Before you run out to the gas station and pick up a pack for your 4 year old there are a few things you need to know.

In April of last year, we were taking Keegan (5 years old) to Disneyland. We stopped to gas up and he wanted some gum. No problem, right? Went into the gas station and spent the next 10 minutes trying to find gum that wasn’t toxic. Just how many artificial sweeteners can you shove into a small stick of gum? Some has aspartame, sucralose AND acesulfame K!! What happened to good ‘old fashioned sugar?

Good thing that we had, for years, already been using xylitol based gums that he could have as much as he wanted of. Xylitol is believed to work similiar to the d-mannose in cranberry juice (which keeps bacteria from sticking to the lining of our urinary tract) but in the nasopharynx in the back of the throat. It would seem reasonable to believe that chewing xylitol based gum would reduce the amount of ear infections in our children because you will have less bacteria in the back of the throat to create the infection.

Sure enough, in this Cochrane (the brilliant thinktank worldwide research consortium) review, researchers found that 2 pieces of xylitol based gum used 5 times per day were able to cut down ear infection (acute otitis media) rates by 25% in children attending daycare. Couple this with dairy avoidance and probiotics and it’s pretty much a lock.

Our office actually has this gum available for patients to try as well as packs for them to keep with them. At first this may seem like an odd choice for a chiropractic office, but if it can help cut down on the rates of ear infections in our kids, it fits with our mission.

HAS YOUR CHILD HAD ANTIBIOTICS?

by

Despite public opinion, the vast majority of infections will go away on their own.  Somewhere along the way we developed the misconception that our bodies are unable to deal with an infection without antibiotics.  With very few exceptions, this is very far from the truth.

I can almost hear the tremble of fear when parents talk about the notorious Strep infection.  Many would probably not even be able to tell you why Strep can be so dangerous.  The irrational fear is that Strep can cause rheumatic fever and heart valve damage, and so must be treated with antibiotics immediately.  However, the current belief is that the development of rheumatic fever is not directly related to the bacteria itself, but rather a cross-reactivity by the immune system.  Further, up to 1/3 of rheumatic fever patients had no noticeable infection prior to its development.

So what does this mean?  Certainly rheumatic fever can be life-threatening.  However, it is rarely seen in developed countries.  In addition, studies have shown that antibiotics will reduce the progression to rheumatic fever by a paltry 1.67%.  Hardly seems in congruence with the nationwide fear of Strep infections.  Overall, it seems like, if a Strep infection is going to progress to rheumatic fever, the odds are that it’s going to and there may be little we can do to stop it.

 And why the diatribe anyway?  Because antibiotic use is massively inappropriate and, despite researchers literally screaming to cut back on antibiotic use in our kids, nothing has changed.  Prescriptions for antibiotics are still prescribed in 21% of pediatric visits, and the bulk of these were inappropriately prescribed.

So what’s the big deal?  So what if a few extra prescriptions for useless antibiotics get thrown around?

I have said before that I believe that the indiscriminate destruction of healthy, protective bacterial flora in the gastrointestinal system by wanton antibiotic use is one of the worst things we can do to a developing infant, toddler or child.  The list of problems is endless and ranges from allergies and asthma to obesity to autoimmune diseases that can rip apart the gut later in life.

This particular article looks at the prevalence of the superbug MRSA in those who have been prescribed antibiotics.  At the crazy far end of the spectrum, with greater than 4 courses of antibiotics in the prior 5 months, the risk of developing MRSA was 1800 times higher.  And in any child who’s had that many courses of antibiotics in 5 months, there are serious health problems, on top of which a MRSA infection would be a very, very bad thing.

Bottom line is that antibiotics should always be an absolute last line of defense.  Any courses of antibiotics should ALWAYS be following with probiotics.  And we should do everything possible to keep the immune systems of our little ones functioning at the optimal levels with good quality foods and lifestyles.

COLON CANCER: WHAT IS YOUR TEEN EATING?

by

Most people who have been diagnosed with colon cancer will ask themselves and their doctors what can be done to help the outcome.  Few will be foresighted enough to ask what behaviors they have created in their children that will create the same outcome as the parent.

Cancer is what we refer to as a long latency disease.  In other words, you don’t light up your first cigarette today and get lung cancer tomorrow.  It takes decades for the abuse to our bodies to manifest into the chronic diseases of today.  Maybe this is why chronic diseases are so hard to overcome with short-latency approaches like drugs…?

There are countless examples of behaviors in youth that have later impacts on chronic disease.  Just a few include:

This is, of course, merely the short list.  There is clearly enough evidence to say that critical points in cancer development actually occur during our youth, likely starting as earlier as conception (if not before!).

This particular study adds to the list of studies that demonstrates teenage behaviors contribute greatly to long term colon cancer rates.  In particular:

  • Highest intakes of vitamin A lowered risk 18%
  • Highest vegetable lowered risk 19%
  • Highest intakes of calcium lowered risk 17%
  • Highest intakes of vitamin C 17%
  • Fruit 16%
  • Milk 22% (more on this later)
  • Higher total fat increased risk 15%
  • Re meat  increased risk 31%
  • Processed meat 24%

Regular readers will know that I am no fan of dairy, so I would, of course, not jump on the recommendation that teenagers should be drinking more milk.  It may very well be that the protective effect may have been related to the calcium in the dairy or the replacement of dairy in the diet for something more toxic like soda.

Overall, though, you should clearly see that decisions that our teens make can have a massive impact on their long term health.  What lifestyle habits are you teaching your kids?

THINK THE SCHOOLS SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR KIDS’ HEALTH?

by

Society likes to defer responsibility to other people. McDonald’s was responsible for hot coffee and for someone’s obesity. There often seems to be cries to improve school food.

I am, of course, a strong advocate of improving school lunches, but for me the lessons for healthy eating begin at home and begin early. Think about this—by the time a child begins kindergarten their eating habits are well established. And by whom?

You guessed it. The responsibility for a child’s eating habits lies 100% squarely on the shoulders of the parents. In my opinion, the school should make attempts to reinforce the good habits set up by the parents. I have come to understand that school nutrition departments (Chandler Unified School District in particular) try to implement better options, but acceptance by students can be low. Again—this is because these kids have likely not been exposed to things like whole grains and healthier foods at home.

Why the diatribe?  This particular study looks at what happens when elementary schools reduced acces to sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) from the school. The results are disappointing. Overall, it is clear that, as a result of the removal, the purchase of SSB in the schools dropped significantly.

 Here’s the kicker.

SSB consumption overall did not change.  Why?  Blame it on the parents.  It is obvious that parents have SSB at home. Given the contribution of SSB to childhood obesity this is obviously a problem we need to wake up from.