LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Healthy Kids

Breastfeeding & Risk of Hospitalization for Respiratory Disease in Infancy – (03-18-03)

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Breastfeeding & Risk of Hospitalization for Respiratory Disease in Infancy.

Okay…how much more money do we want to spend on determining that breast milk is superior to formula? Pick a benefit, pick a long term benefit and breastfeeding is superior. Breastfeeding and the Risk of Hospitalization for Respiratory Disease in Infancy: A Meta-analysis.

Click here for more information.

Childhood Health Problems Associated With Disease in Adulthood – (09-21-00)

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Childhood Health Problems Associated With Disease in Adulthood

This article stresses the importance of keeping our kids healthy. The lifestyles and diets of children today are horrendous and we really need to start setting good examples as adults and parents so that the children can enjoy health all their lives.

Major childhood health problems appear to increase the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, and arthritis in adulthood, Dr. Mark D. Hayward reported Sunday at the American Sociological Association meeting in Washington, DC. “The odds of having chronic lung problems are over four times greater for those reporting infectious diseases as a child [compared with] people who were healthy as a child,” Dr. Hayward told Reuters Health. Childhood infectious diseases such as scarlet fever, pneumonia, measles, and tuberculosis are strongly associated with the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adulthood, he added. In adults who reported childhood noninfectious conditions, such as anemia, scoliosis, or heart murmurs, the researchers found a higher incidence of cancer, arthritis or rheumatism. “The risk of developing all major fatal conditions — except diabetes — as an older adult are elevated if you have had a major childhood health problem,” Dr. Hayward said. He added that this risk remains even when factors such as education and income are considered.

Timing of Vaccination–Your Doctor Knows Best, Right??

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Let’s get something out of the way right now.  The immune system in an infant is malleable and very susceptible to influence up until about 2 years of age.

This can be good or bad.

Good if it’s the right choices.  Breast feeding until at least 6 months.  Vaginal birth or at least not a planned C-section (it seems like the induction of labor, whether delivered by the vaginal route or C-section, is an important determining event).  Exposure to the right blend of bacteria through breast milk and / or supplementation.

Bad if it’s introduction of solid foods (especially grains) before 6 months of age.  Bad if we rely on dairy products.  EXTREMELY bad if antibiotics are used in the first 2 years of life.  Processed food choices.  Tylenol is not good for the developing immune system.  Bad if it’s vaccination before 2 years of age.

What??  Vaccination??  But we recommend some 25 vaccinations (not counting the flu vaccine) before the baby is 2 years old, so this can’t be correct.

It’s a dirty little secret that is never mentioned by your pediatrician.  Worse, if you asked, they might give you the blank stare of a doctor who hasn’t cracked a medical journal since med school.

In general, the goal of a vaccine is to stimulate an immune response.  Since the thing vaccinated against (such as a bacteria or virus) is usually not strong enough to wake up the immune system, vaccine manufacturers use what is called an adjuvant.  Most commonly the compound alum is used, and alum is well-known to elicit a Th2 response by the body.

“What’s a Th2 response?” you ask?  In general, the immune system has two arms–the guard dogs (Th2) and the attack dogs (Th1).  We need a healthy balance between the two.  Throwing this balance off kilter can lead to diseases like allergies, asthma and autoimmune conditions, and the first two years of life are absolutely critical to developing this balance.  This is why all the factors, both pro and con, noted above are so critical.  They all play a role in programming your little one for his or her immune future.

Back to alum.  It is a chemical used in vaccines to force your immune system to react more aggressively to whatever the vaccine is trying to protect against.  This creates a Th2 shift in the immune system–it’s what it is supposed to do.  The problem is that this throws off the balance of a developing immune system.  Couple this with wanton antibiotic use and you’ve got the perfect recipe for allergies and asthma.

This is the little tidbit pediatricians never seem to bring up when a parent questions the wisdom of vaccinations.

So what does all of this have to do with this particular study?  In it, researchers looked at a measles outbreak that occurred in a high school in Canada to see if the timing of the two doses of measles vaccination had any impact on the child’s risk of getting the measles.  The results may be a little shocking:

  1. There were 102 cases and these were matched to 510 controls.
  2. Most of the cases (89%) were in patients 13 to 17 years old.
  3. If that child had his or her first measles vaccination at 12 to 13 months (current CDC recommendations) instead of after 15 months of age, the risk of measles was 6 times higher.

Six times higher.  And I have heard some suggesting that we delay certain vaccinations for the reasons noted above.  These vocal people suggesting delay are usually slammed by other commenters on message boards that there is no evidence that delaying vaccinations is a good idea.  Apparently these commenters are not reading pediatric medical journals like this one.

Overall, this clearly goes back to messing with the immune system at a critical time in its development.  Always remember that the first 2 years are critical.  Do everything you can in this timeframe to NOT mess with the immune system.  Let Mother Nature do what she is supposed to do and don’t think you can second-guess her wisdom.

 

Reflux in Infants: 3 Ways to Stop it Now

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While it’s been some time (and my memory is going with age) I still remember the first time I heard of a newborn being put on Prilosec for reflux.

Incredulous.  Stupefied.  Dazed.  All adequate descriptions for how I felt at that time.

After this time, I heard more often of cases where infants were given drugs to shut down stomach acid production.  To me, the idea borders on idiocy.  Stomach acid is critical to the digestion and absorption of nutrients.  Without good digestion we can’t thrive and grow.  It’s bad enough to use these drugs on an adult, but an infant?

An article some time back vindicated my position, finding that some 82% of prescriptions of drugs to control acid in infants were given inappropriately.

The symptoms that usually drive the prescriptions are babies that cry shortly after feeding and spit up frequently.  The answer lies not in medications, but in identifying foods allergies (this is the biggest factor in most cases) either through direct feeding to the infant or in what a breastfeeding mom is eating.  Imbalance in bacterial flora can play a role as well, leading to thrush and general irritation of the lining of the esophagus.

This particular article adds a new aspect for me that I would not have thought of.  Delayed neurological development.  Or maybe “delayed” is not the right word. “Not caught up” neurological development may be a better term.  Delayed sounds pathological, but not quite caught up sounds like just a slowing of a process that’s going to fix itself in a short time.

Researchers looked at 105 infants under 8 months of age who had feeding difficulties, delayed neurological development or delayed psychomotor development.  70 of these infants all had signs of B12 deficiency (low cobalamin levels, homocysteine levels or methylmalonic acid levels) and were given a single injection of 400 micrograms of B12.  Here’s what they found after a single month:

  1. In all the infants, the markers of B12 deficiency improved.
  2. Scoring systems for motor development as well as parent’s perceptions improved.
  3. Regurgitation alone improve 69%.

The nervous system develops at an incredible rate, both in the womb and in the first few years.  B12 is important in this process as we can see from this study.  That means that, during pregnancy you need to make sure that you’re prenatal vitamin has strong levels of B12, and NOT as the cyanocobalamin form.  While nursing a newborn this is equally as important. Incidentally–antibiotics will destroy the all-important bacteria in the gut that both show up in breast milk to balance the developing immune system, but also the bacteria that produces B12 in the gut as well.

In our office we recommend a supplement to go along with the prenatal that has B12 (as hydroxycobalamin), folic acid and B6 for all pregnant women.  Based on this study, it is possible that B12 during pregnancy may help prevent reflux and digestive problems in the first place.

In summary, three things to try if your baby is experiencing digestive problems.  1)  Identify common food allergies like dair, wheat, corn and soy and remove them from your diet.  2)  Make sure your baby is getting probiotics, whether through direct supplementation or taking them yourself if you’re still nursing.  3)  B12 supplementation.

Still Buying Your Kids Chicken Nuggets? You Won’t After This

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Any self-respecting parent who cares about his or her child should restrict fast food.  As in less than once per quarter.

Some of you may think this is a little harsh (and it’s likely going to be the ones who hit the drive thru at little more often than monthly), but I stand by that statement.  The quality of fast food is abhorrent and is in no way, shape or form part of a healthy diet and is a contributor to the childhood obesity statistics we see in this country.

There are some acceptable “fast food” restaurants you can choose instead, Chipotle has some good options for kids.  There are some sandwich shops that aren’t too toxic (Subway or Quizno’s are possible, but you’re going to have to put some veggies on the sandwich to bring it up to par).  Maybe Taco Bell.

Ok..so maybe not Taco Bell…

But you always get your child chicken nuggets, and they’re chicken, so they can’t be that bad, right?

Wow, are you wrong.  This particular study looked at what actually made up “chicken” nuggets from 2 national fast food chains (while the study did not identify the chains, you can make some guesses).  Here’s what they found:

  1. Striated muscle (chicken meat) was not the predominate component in the nuggets.
  2. Fat was present in equal or greater quantities.
  3. Also present were cells from the epithelium (skin), bone, nerve, and connective tissue.

While this may not come as a shocker, I guess we’d expect “chicken” nuggets to be made up of mostly chicken.  According to this study, that’s not even close to true.  Worse, you can bet the chicken meat is not of the organic, free range variety.

If you still choose  to buy your children chicken nuggets after knowing this little tidbit, I don’t really know what to say.  (As a side note, I had Keegan, 7 1/2, read this article and his response was that it was just “wrong…”)

Alternatively, Costco (Kirkland brand) sells a natural chicken nugget with whole grain breading in Mickey Mouse head shapes that taste fantastic…

 

Does Your Kid Have Behavior Problems? Common Habit May Be to Blame

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We’ve all seen the crazy 5-year-old in the store that seems completely out of the control of the parent.  Aggression, withdrawal, inattention.  But it must be a brain condition that needs meds.

Or maybe it’s a common behavior you’re allowing your child to partake in.

I’m pretty sure that no parent thinks that soda is good for a child.  But there’s no harm in a soda a day, is there?  Besides, my kid’s active and will just burn off the calories.  This last one always seems to be the rationale we use to justify toxic calories that we allow our children to have.

ANY empty calorie is bad for the human physiology, regardless of your age, gender, ethnicity or favorite subject in elementary school.  I could easily take this further and note that drinking our calories, period, is a bad idea.  You will NEVER get the nutritive value in a liquid that you can get from a solid.  Pomegranate juice?  Nothing compared to pomegranate seeds.  Apple juice?  No comparison to the whole apple.  Milk?  Nothing compared to, well…pretty much anything.

This particular article looks at just how toxic soda is for your child’s mental health and behavior and the results will hopefully make you reconsider condoning ANY soda for your child except on a rare occasion.  Researchers looked at almost 3,000 5 year olds to determine how much soda drinking affected certain behaviors.  Here’s the details:

  1. 43% of the children drank at least 1 serving of soda per day, with 4% drinking 4 or more servings per day.
  2. Aggression went up more with each soda per day.
  3. 4 or more also had more attention problems and withdrawn behavior.
  4. The highest consumers were 254% more likely to destroy others’ belongings, 228% more likely to physically attack people or 212% more likely to get into fights.

Unless you’re training a little mini cage fighter, these are some pretty bad statistics.  The bottom line is that soda is clearly toxic to a developing, young brain.  It is not merely the increased calories that you have to worry about.  It is either some combination of ingredients in soda that aggravate the brain or possibly the lack of other nutrients that were displaced by the soda dementing the brain.

Instead of soda, try tea or water (NOT in a disposable plastic water bottle!!).  Anything with calories should be avoided (milk, soda, sports drinks, lemonade, etc…) otherwise you’ll be battling a weight problem instead of a behavioral one.

 

Can Chips Make my Kid Dumb? 5 Foods to Make Your Child Smarter

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Certainly some aspects of intelligence are genetic, but there are many things you can do to give your child an edge.  Quick tip: chips aren’t on the list.

Some things that affect children’s IQ happen in the womb and can no longer be changed.  Another important factor that play a role in childhood intelligence is environmental toxin exposure such a flame retardants and pesticides, which can indirectly affect brain function via negative effects on the thyroid.  Lead exposure, even at levels considered to be safe, have been shown to affect children’s intelligence levels.

Before we get into the heart of today’s article, we need to have a quick review on brain cell anatomy.  For regular readers understanding of the mitochondria is usually all you need to know, but we have to move further out in the cell for this one.  All the was out to the cell membrane, made up of the infamous “lipid bilayer.”  Basically, the outside membrane of your cell is made up of a sandwich, with a fat soluble aspect as the center and a water-soluble aspect as the bread of the sandwich.  Because of this arrangement, things moving inside and outside of the cell are tightly regulated.  Few things can pass through unaided; most have to be shuttled through pores in the cell membrane.

The makeup of the cell membrane is very dependent upon the fats we eat. Unhealthy, animal based saturated fats will lead to a hard and stiff cell membrane, negatively impacting the transport of stuff in and out.  On the other hand, healthier fats like the infamous omega 3 fatty acids as well as mono and polyunsaturated fats in avocados and nuts will make your cell membranes more fluid and adaptable.

So it would make sense that healthier fats will improve brain function in all kinds of ways.  There are very clear associations between depression and omega 3 intake.  Intake of healthier fats benefits both migraine and epilepsy patients as well.

So can we use these same tools to help your child be smarter?

Turns out this may actually be true.  In this particular study, researchers looked at 70 7-9 year olds and compared the dietary intake of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids on the performance during the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Assessment Battery .  Here’s what they found:

  • When children had high intakes of omega 6 over omega 3, if the child still took in a decent amount of omega−3 in the diet, they had better performance.
  • When children had more equal amounts of omega 6 and omega 3, the kids had better performance when the overall amount of omega−3 and 6 were lower.

In other words, higher intakes of omega 3 were still protective even when there were too many omega 6 fatty acids present in the diet.  As an example, if you choose to feed your child brain robbing Doritos, at least make sure it’s on the side of some wild caught salmon.

However, if the amount of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids were closer to equal, the kid’s brains were better off if the intake of both fats was lower.  In other words, if you’re not going to feed your child salmon, you’d better plan on scrapping the chips.

There are plenty of ways to get your child to eat more intelligence boosting omega 3 fats.  These include:

  1. Wild caught fish (Keegan loves Morey’s wild caught salmon from Costco)
  2. Nuts and seeds
  3. Omega-3 eggs
  4. Edamame
  5. Algae.

Ok, so maybe it’s going to be hard to get your kid to ask for algae at the dinner table, but the rest are all foods that most kids can enjoy if they are exposed to in the right way.  Better yet, get them started as a toddler so that there is no need to introduce these foods–he or she will already be eating them.

Probiotics Hit Home Run for Your Infant’s Eczema

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I hate to bore you with another probiotics are good for you blog post, but I’m going to anyway. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Destruction of the normal bacteria flora in an infant or toddler’s body is one of the worst things that can be done to his or her long term health.

Although research has shown that probiotics seemingly help with almost everything (obesity, anxiety, diarrhea, constipation, ulcers, ear infections, etc..), I think the most important feature is how well they balance out a delicate, developing immune system.  The first two years are critical.  Lose this windown and your little one may be fighting immune imbalances for the rest of his or her life.

This particular study highlights the benefits yet again.  Researchers looked at how well a specific probiotic (Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001; Bifidobacterium animalis subsp lactis HN019, at 6 and 9 billion CFU / day respectively) could benefit eczema and allergic sensitization at age 6 when given within the first 2 years of life.  Here’s the details:

  • Maternal supplementation from 35 weeks until 6 months post-partum if breastfeeding, and then infant supplementation from birth (or at cessation of nursing) until 2 years.
  • The HN019 didn’t have an impact, while HN001 made a pretty large difference as seen below.
  • 44% lower rates of eczema.
  • 31% lower rates of skin-prick-testing reactions.

Keep in mind that this is a single intervention with probiotics and takes no other lifestyle changes or supplements into account (pets in household, vitamin D, trans fat intake, omega 3 fatty acid intake, etc..).  This is a powerful statement.

And one that still is not getting across to pediatricians.

One final comment.  This particular study looked at how effective a single probiotic was at lowering the rates of eczema.  But this does not mean that we should drop everything and try to find the one or two “miracle” probiotics.  Rather, research is headed towards patterns of probiotic species present that represent disease or health.  In other words, there may be 4 or 5 principle bacteria that are more likely to be found in someone who is obese.  Lean people, on the other hand, may have a different blend of 4-5 bacteria.  While this story and the research has a long way to go, suffice it to say that, from what we know right now, a good quality broad spectrum probiotic supplement (around 20 billion / day) coupled with a good quality diet will be your best approach.