LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Healthy Kids

Does Your Pediatrician Read Medical Journals?? 5 Reasons to Switch

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“Primum non nocere.”  First, do no harm. My, how far we have come from that oath, especially when it comes to medical imaging in our children.

Let’s clarify something: CT scans give you a boatload of radiation exposure.  As an example, a single CT scan of the chest is equal to about 133 two-view x-rays of the chest.  But few of us think of this danger from the medical imaging because the doctor needs the information.  Right…?

If they practice in one of these 7 healthcare systems, the answer is probably no.

In this particular study, researchers looked at the number of CT scans done on children from 1996 to 2010.  Most commonly were abdomen/pelvis scans, spine scans and chest scans. Obviously the spine scans fall well within my area of expertise and rarely would a CT scan be needed, with the exception of serious trauma.  We already know (from a previous blog article that can be read by clicking here) that the number of CT scans done in the ER on children has been climbing, with no notable benefit on the health or diagnosis in the child.  In other words, mass exposure to radiation without any added benefit over ultrasound or MRI.

Did physicians in this particular study fare any better?  Sadly, the results can be seen here:

  • CT use doubled for children younger than 5 years of age up until 2005, although they seemed to be on the decline after 2007.
  • CT use tripled for children 5 to 14 years of age, with a similar hint at a decline after 2007.
  • 5-10 million pediatric CT scans are performed  annually in the US

Ok.  So what?  Some kids had some CT scans that they maybe (probably??) didn’t need, where an MRI, ultrasound or just good ‘ole fashioned diagnostic skills would’ve done just as well.  Given the high radiation dosages of CT scans, what does this high level of exposure translate to?  You’d better sit down:

  1. Projected lifetime risks of solid cancers were higher for younger patients and girls.
  2. CT scans of the abdomen/pelvis or spine produced the highest risk.
  3. In girls, a radiation-induced solid cancer will likely be caused from every 300 to 390 abdomen/pelvis scans, 330 to 480 chest scans, and 270 to 800 spine scans.
  4. CT scans in kids younger than 5, there will likely be 1.9 cases of leukemia for every 10 000 head CT scans (doesn’t sound like much until you do the math).
  5. An estimated 4 million pediatric CT scans of the head, abdomen/pelvis, chest, or spine performed each year are projected to cause 4870 future cancers.

Almost 5,000 cancers ANNUALLY.

Do the math on what this means over the course of a decade.  If your pediatrician recommends a CT scan for your child, they better have a damn good reason.  All too often, in both adults and children, I have patients whose PCPs have ordered CT scans for reasons that are unacceptable.  In many cases, MRI would have actually been the better choice of imaging.

If your child had a CT scan, did your pediatrician explain why CT was the absolute best option for that particular situation?

Pediatric Overmedication Can Occur With Multiple Cold Medications – (01-08-01)

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Pediatric Overmedication Can Occur With Multiple Cold Medications

My question on this topic would be, why are children being given so many medications? Letting a cold in a child run its natural course is a healthy and safe practice. The child needs this chance for his or her body to learn to fight off infections. The symptoms of a cold are NOT symptoms…they are mechanisms that the body uses to defeat invaders.

(article) Pediatricians at the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have voiced an added concern this cold season: they fear that parents may not appreciate how easy it is to give a child an overdose of cold medication. “It is essential that parents read the label of an over-the-counter cold medication carefully before selecting a medicine for their child because the risk to children from the misuse of cold medications is still widely underestimated,” said James Kaltenback, MD, of South Jersey Pediatric Associates, a division of Children’s Health Associates.The pediatricians’ chief concern is that children may be getting an overdose of fever reducers, which can affect the liver or the kidney. Some children’s cough and cold medications contain a fever reducer, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen. But often, parents who are unaware of these ingredients may give their children an addition! al fever-reducing medication. For this reason, 64% of the surveyed pediatricians believe it is very important that children’s cold medications do not contain fever reducers.Pediatricians are urged to alert parents to the potential dangers of over-the-counter cold medications. One example is the over-the-counter fever reducer acetaminophen, found in some children’s cold medicines such as Tylenol, Dimetapp, and Triaminic. Acetaminophen became the preferred fever reducer in the 1970s after studies showed a link between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome, a potentially fatal disease in children and teens. Recent studies indicate that too much acetaminophen could adversely affect a child’s health.

Does Your Infant have Reflux? Two Things to Try Before Meds

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I still remember the first time, several years ago, I had a patient tell me that their infant had been put on Prilosec for heartburn.

Heartburn in an infant. Seriously? Maybe it was the chili dog and beer.

If we can believe that a newborn infant can have reflux, we would have to assume that Mother Nature screwed up somewhere. I’m not sure about you, but I refuse to believe that this could ever be the case.

So, if your infant is seemingly upset and spitting up, what else could be wrong if it’s not reflux? This is a question that never seems to be asked by the pediatrician. But it’s a critically important one; instead we just accept that your little son or daughter “makes too much acid” and leave it at that.

There are several reasons why an infant would show signs of reflux. But first, we need to clarify something. Just because your child is spitting up and seems to be negatively affected by eating does NOT mean that reflux is the diagnosis. Quite frankly, this is very far from true. In a study published in 2008 that can be read by clicking here, researchers looked at just how likely a group of infants who were given a prescription for acid blockers actually met the diagnostic criteria for reflux.

Only 8 out of 44 prescriptions. 18%. Talk about over prescribing.

For argument’s sake, let’s just say your child happens to fit into the small percentage that truly does have reflux. They need medication, right? Unfortunately, the research to date does not support the use of medications for treatment of GERD in infants (you can read more by clicking on a previous article here).

Despite all of this, infants are still put on medications for reflux at the recommendation of his or her pediatrician. How can this still happen despite the concerns and research noted above? This particular study may give us some insight into this question. Researchers looked at what influence the label of “GERD” made on the parents’ likelihood of medicating the infant. Here’s what they found:

  1. Parents who received a GERD diagnosis were interested in medicating their infant, even when they were told that the medications are likely ineffective.
  2. Parents not given this disease label were interested in medication only when medication effectiveness was not discussed (and hence likely assumed).

The mere diagnosis given (and remember that, in only 18% of cases is this likely to be accurate) had a serious impact on whether or not the parents were going to medicate, DESPITE being told it was not likely to be effective!

Just how brainwashed are we in society today? We get a disease label and our brains, based on seriously successful marketing by the drug companies, equate the disease with the use of the drug. It doesn’t matter that it’s not going to work.

Since medication is such a poor option, we need to get back to the question of where the problems may be stemming from. The are two very common situations:

  1. Food allergies (think dairy, corn, wheat….). If mom’s nursing, she needs to look at her diet. If the baby’s on formula, consider a hydrolyzed formula that will be easier on the baby’s sensitive immune and GI system.
  2. Dysbiosis. The wrong bacteria in the system. This means probiotics are critical. Some pediatricians may feel this is too early, but since the baby gets exposed at birth and it shows up in breastmilk, I think Mother Nature would strongly disagree.

So before your child is put on ridiculous medications for a condition that likely doesn’t exist, consider the above 2 tips to see if it helps. I think you’ll be surprised.

If your child had digestive issues as an infant, what natural approaches did you find that helped the most?

Living Here as a Teen Ups Lifetime Risk of Stroke

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Lifestyle is all important. Period. But sometimes we have to admit that we can’t change everything, especially if it happened back when you were a teen.

I personally believe that chronic diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and stroke have “critical periods” in our lives that pre-program us for or protect us from these diseases. Think this sounds strange? Here are some examples:

I’m sure you’re getting the idea. It is clear that the choices we make as a teenager follow us the rest of our lives. Pretty scary, huh?

While there isn’t anything you can do to turn back the hands of time and eat more broccoli, if you have children this information is critical. No longer can you accept that your teen’s Wonder bread, ubiquitous artificial sweetener intake and Monster energy drinks are just a phase. These choices WILL affect them 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years in the future.

Now that I’ve set the tone, it’s time to get to this particular article. The Stroke Belt is a region of the southeastern United States (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) that has a higher risk of its residents suffering a stroke.

Basically, researchers looked at whether living in the Stroke Belt during certain age ranges led to a higher risk of stroke later in life. After teasing out other accepted risk factors for stroke (such as high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, etc..) the only time period that became important was the 13-18 year old range.

This group, if living in the Stroke Belt between the ages of 13 and 18, had a 17% higher overall lifetime risk of stroke. This is not chump change when it comes to an increased risk.

Of course, the question is whether lifestyles during the teenage years trip some kind of genetic switch (much like the studies noted above) or whether those living in the Stroke Belt during their teenage years pick up bad habits (smoking, sedentary lifestyles, down-home-Southern-cooking, etc…) that persist years later.

Either way, and regardless of whether you live or have lived in the Stroke Belt, you need to understand that your child’s current behaviors will likely affect his or her health for a lifetime. Help them choose wisely.

Early nutrition and leptin concentrations in later life – (06-06-02)

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Early nutrition and leptin concentrations in later life

This article is incredibly important wake up call for parents of today. This study stresses the importance of nutrition in the infant. Formula feeding may lead to altered hormone patterns that lead to obesity later in life. I cannot stress the importance of good nutrition in the infant enough. When I see parents putting soda into their child’s sippie cup I know society has a serious, serious problem. As parents we need to take 100% responsibility for the nutrition of our children–you control the diet of your child and subsequently their long term health.

AJCN — Abstracts: Singhal et al. 75 (6): 993

Read entire article here

Heart Disease Prevention: Is Your Teen in the 1%?

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Cardiovascular disease is a lifestyle disease.  Period.  Genetics play a very small role.  Period.  In almost all cases, if you have heart disease it is due to choices you made.

Hard to swallow, but it’s the truth.  We don’t want to think that the personal burden of heart disease was our fault.  It’s much easier to blame genetics and age.

So what factors do the American Heart Association consider established risk factors for heart disease?  Here’s the short list:

  1. Ideal blood pressure
  2. Ideal blood glucose
  3. Ideal total cholesterol (not my favorite)
  4. Ideal physical activity levels
  5. Ideal body mass index
  6. Non-smoking
  7. Health diet score (very basic, simple changes)

Pretty simple list.  These are all health decisions that you make (or don’t make).

So how well are our teens sticking to these guidelines?

Sickeningly few.

This particular study looked at just how well a group of 4673 teens aged 12-19 were following each of these guidelines.  Here’s what they found:

  • Ideal blood pressure:  males 78%, females 90%
  • Ideal blood glucose:  males 89%, females 74%
  • Ideal total cholesterol:  males 65%, females 72%
  • Ideal physical activity levels:  males 44%, females 67%
  • Ideal body mass index:  males 66%, females 67%
  • Non-smoking:  males 66%, females 70%
  • Healthy diet score:  less than 1% for both males and females

Overall, less than 45% of males and 50% of females had 5 / 7 factors in his or her favor.

As a society, if we can’t maintain even the most basic of lifestyle changes in our kids, things are going to get ugly in the future.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, the AHA guidelines are very basic and are still short of what I recommend in my free ebook, Dr Bogash’s Lifestyle Recommendations.

The bottom line is that, statistically, if you’re reading this blog post, you are not maintaining ideal cardiovascular health factors.  If you are not at least at this basic level, the responsibility for your cardiac disease is yours and yours alone.

Natural Help for ADHD: Brain Health Answers

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In the discussion and treatment of kids with ADHD, brain health never seems to come into play.

We talk about behaviors and medications and diagnosing these kids, but never about the critical aspect–improving the health of your child’s brain.

I am certainly willing to entertain the idea that things happen in the womb (specifically, epigenetic changes that modify the way DNA is expressed) due to stress, vitamin D deficiency, poor quality diets and toxic exposures.  I also believe that these changes are later ignited, if you will, by a secondary event such as vaccination or poor nutritional status.

Regardless of the cause or causes that we may all argue over, I’m pretty sure no one would argue that a brain-healthy lifestyle would be a bad approach.

So what does a “brain health lifestyle” look like for a young child?  It can include:

  • An unprocessed diet from of artificial food colorings and flavors (the Feingold diet).
  • Low or no stress (which starts with the parents).
  • Exercise (both physical and brain based).
  • Consistent intake of health fats found in wild caught fish, avocados, nuts and seeds.
  • Good night’s sleep.
  • Supplementation to include a multivitamin, vitamin D and fish oils.

Beyond that, there are additional supplements that may play a role in improving the brain health of your child.

This particular study looked at the ability of phosphatidylserine, a compound found in foods like soy, to improve ADHD symptoms in children, aged 4-14 years of age.  Phosphatidylserine is known to help stabilize the membrane of our brains cells, making them more effective at getting messages in and out when these messages are supposed to be moving in and outside.

Here’s what they found improvements in:

  1. ADHD, Attention disorder and hyperactivity disorder.
  2. Short-term auditory memory.
  3. Inattention (differentiation and reverse differentiation).
  4. Inattention and impulsivity

That’s a pretty impressive list for a single supplement, but keep in mind that this would merely be one tool in the list noted above of a brain-healthy lifestyle.  It is NOT a replacement for those other aspects.

If you have used phosphatidylserine with your child, did it seem to help?

 

Drops for Allergies to Peanuts: Start Early

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Peanut allergies can lead to something called anaphalactic shock. Not pleasant when it is your child’s airway that closes up.

Many of these families have to carry around a shot of epinephrine (“epi-pen”) to open up the airway if they are exposed to even the smallest amount of a peanut.  In some cases merely being next to someone eating peanut butter can be enough to trigger a reaction.  Hence the disappearance of peanuts on airline flights.

What if something could be done to derail an allergy this severe?

I’ve written before about using drops for allergies (referred to as subligual immunotherapy, or SLIT).  The process is pretty simple: after some simple in office allergy testing, a solution is prepared that the child would put under his or her tongue daily.  That’s it.

This has been shown to be effective for several problems, including dust mite allergies.

This particular study tackles the use of drops for allergies for those with peanut allergies.  More importantly, this is one of the first studies to evaluate the effectiveness of allergy drops in toddlers.  Here’s the details:

  • The study was done on 41 children aged 16- to 37-months-old, with treatment lasting up to 3 years
  • In the first 12 children who were able to tolerate 5 grams of peanut protein, subsequent blinded oral challenges 1 month apart were successful in all 12
  • Allergic reactions using the sub-lingual drops for allergies were cut 44%.

A couple things to consider.

First, this was not published in a peer reviewed journal because it is the early stages of the study.  Rather, this was a presentation at an annual conference (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, 2013) by one of the study authors.

Despite this, these results are consistent with other studies done in non-toddler populations on the use of drops for allergies.  Given the major impact of potential anaphalactic reactions and the safety of sublingual immunotherapy, the future for natural allergy relief like this is bright.