LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

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Can We Stop Allergies Before They Start In the Womb?

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Allergies can be characterized by an imbalance in the way that our immune system reacts to things.  We need balance in our immune system, but this balance is trained; it is not hard wired.

On one side, we have the cell-mediated immune cells, referred to as the Th1 cytokine profile.  Too much of this arm of the immune system leads to autoimmune disorders where the body tries to attack itself.  On the other side we have the Th2 cytokine profile, also referred to as humoral immune system.  This is responsible for keeping things out of the body.  Too much of this system leads to allergies and asthma.

These systems are present in your body early as early as the womb and remain with you throughout your life.  The balance between the Th1 and Th2 systems is constantly in flux.  Get an infection?  Your Th1 system kicks in to fight off the invader, be it a virus, bacteria or fungus.  Dust storm kicked up in Phoenix?  Your Th2 system will kick in to deal with the dust coming in through the respiratory system.

This is how it is designed to work.  At least in a perfect world that isn’t subject to the manipulations by mainstream medicine and our Westernized lifestyle.  Antibiotics, sterile lifestyles, vaccinations and unhealthy diets all contribute.

But just how early do the dietary factors kick in?

According to this particular study, they may begin as early as in the womb.

Healthy fats play a strong role in the function and balance of the immune system.  In a study that was originally designed to look at fish oil supplementation (DHA and EPA) on depressive symptoms in pregnant women, the researchers looked at the cytokine balance (Th1 / Th2) in the cord blood of these babies born to the mothers in this study.  Here’s what they found:

  • Omega-3 supplementation during pregnancy resulted in immune balance consistent with less allergies.
  • Even more surprising, C-section delivery was associated with an immune balance consistent with more allergies.

Pretty interesting information, especially considering that we already know that C-section births lead to a higher risk of allergies in the child.  Personally, I have always felt that this finding was due to the difference in bacterial exposure from not passing through the birth canal, but I’m always open to new ideas.

The bottom line is that the balance, or imbalance, of the immune system begins as early as the womb.  Mom’s dietary and supplementation choices, as well as the method of birth, can begin to influence the development of the immune system in the  as of yet unborn child.

Migraines in Children: How Well Do Meds Work?

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Few things are as difficult as seeing your child in pain. I remember when Keegan broke his leg and how much it hurt me knowing he hurt.

Headaches in children can be just as unbearable for a parent, but with the added concern of whether something more ominous is causing the headaches. While misguided, most parents will present to his or her pediatrician for evaluation and some type of answer. This usually prompts imaging of the brain despite the absence of red flags.  MRI if you are lucky, CT scans if your pediatrician wouldn’t recommend a medical journal if he or she got whacked upside the head with it.

Side note: In the absence of red flags, advanced imaging is not recommended.  Even when imaging should be done, it should be an MRI (with the single exception of looking for a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is much more likely to occur in the elderly population). The radiation exposure with a CT scan is extremely high and has been linked to some 29,000 cancers per year.

So everything comes back normal, but your little baby is still having nightmare headaches. It’s nice to know there is nothing “real” going on, but this doesn’t take care of the migraine headaches. Your pediatrician’s only answer at this point is medication.

It is unfortunate, but a referral to a chiropractor is rarely undertaken before the medication. Many of the kids who come into our office for treatment of his or her headaches have already tried everything including medications. Most often we are able to help in a very short period of time, although there have been cases over the years that treatment in our office was not able to help and we just became one more therapy in a long list of failed attempts.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that we do extremely well with headaches. However, our comprehensive approach (manipulation, soft tissue work, diet, stress management) to migraines in children has not been studied in any type of clinical trial that I’m aware of, so maybe I could understand a pediatrician’s reluctance to refer out to a chiropractor. After all, we don’t want to subject our children to anything that has no research to back it up, right?

Which, of course, brings us to this particular study.  Basically, researchers looked across multiple studies to see which medications have been shown to be effective for the treatment of migraines in children. Here’s what they found:

  • Topiramate (Topamax) led to 0.7 less headache days per month.
  • Trazodone was slightly less effective at 0.6 less headache days per month.
  • Drugs with no benefit included clonidine, flunarizine, pizotifen, propranolol, and valproate (Depakote).
  • A single trial of fluoxetine for chronic daily headaches found it ineffective.
  • However, kids given placebo experienced an almost 50% drop in headache days (down 2.7 days / month).

Basically, the evidence sucks for the use of most medications for treatment of migraines in children.

Placebo, on the other hand, plays a far, far stronger role in slashing headache frequency in the children in these studies. Something to consider strongly should your pediatrician recommend medications (with a long list of side effects) to help control migraines in children.

It also brings us back to the use of a comprehensive chiropractic approach to the treatment of headaches in children. Our care is extremely safe when compared to any medication, and, at least according to this review, it certainly couldn’t be any less effective!

Still Taking Aspirin for Your Heart? You Better See This…

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We love to shoot for the low hanging fruit when it comes to chronic disease management and prevention.  Don’t avoid processed foods high in sodium–just by the same junk in a “low sodium” version.  Don’t exercise too hard–a light 30 minute walk around the block is enough.  Don’t avoid refined carbohydrates–just eat more whole grains.

You get the idea.

We seem fixated on the idea of making “easy” to make changes that have a really small impact on chronic disease.  Can’t lower your cholesterol through lifestyle?  This class of drugs will lower your risk of heart attacks by 1%.  High blood pressure?  Forget lifestyle, just take a beta blocker–you won’t lower your risk of stroke (actually increases risk) but you’ll have a better looking blood pressure to tell your friends.

Just how good is aspirin at preventing heart attacks?  Treat 1,000 people with aspirin for 5 years and you prevent 2.9 heart attacks, although 2.8 of you will suffer a major bleeding episode as a result, leading to a net benefit of .1 person for every 1,000 treated.  Or, for those of you who haven’t had a math class for several decades, you have to treat 10,000 people for 5 years to prevent a single heart attack.

Sounds like the only person the recommendations to take aspirin for your heart benefitted was Bayer.

So it’s a little money out of my pocket.  At least there are no dangers associated with aspirin use.  Unless, of course, you count these:

  1. Increased risk of pancreatic cancer
  2. Asprin use may make you more susceptible to gluten allergies.
  3. Increased risk of esophageal lesions and cancer

The list is probably longer, but these are a few of the studies I’ve reviewed over the years.

Thanks to this particular study, now we can add a new one.

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration.  Almost 246% higher risk in regular users of aspirin.

So, if you’re one of the lucky 1 in 10,000 that avoided a heart attack by regular use of aspirin, then congratulations.  If however, you’re in the group with everyone else, just hope that your eyesight is still intact as a result of taking a daily aspirin for a perceived lowered risk of having a heart attack.

If you are still taking aspirin to lower your risk of having a heart attack, is this choice because your doctor has recommended it, or because society general thinks that this will protect your heart?

Sometimes, Going to Work Just Doesn’t Pay – (08-30-02)

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Sometimes, Going to Work Just Doesn’t Pay

Some people like to “tough it out” and come to work every day, regardless of how under the weather they feel; however, this might not be the best idea: Employees who work while sick are often less productive than healthy employees. Research is showing that in some instances, this slowdown in production – known as “presenteeism” – may cost a company more than if an employee stays home for the day.

Researchers tried to estimate the losses in productivity caused by common health conditions such as allergies and headaches, and compared that estimate with other costs associated with the condition. The estimates were based on about 375,000 employees, including claims for medical care and disability over a three-year period.

The analysis showed that for many conditions, the costs of presenteeism were greater than other health care costs, such as absenteeism or health benefits. When other costs were added to losses from presenteeism, absenteeism, health benefits and disability benefits, the most expensive condition for employers was high blood pressure ($392 per employee per year), followed by heart disease ($368), mental health problems ($348), arthritis ($327) and allergies ($271).

If you’re an employer, consider examining your company’s sick-time policy and adjust it if necessary so employees don’t feel burdened to come to work when they are sick. As an employee, take the day off the next time you are sick. Toughing it out will likely prolong your illness, and you’ll be less productive and end up costing your company money in the long run.

To learn more about how to stay healthy – on the job and off – talk to your chiropractor and click here.

 

Long-range destruction of Der p 1 using commercially available ionizers – (11-07-02)

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Long-range destruction of Der p 1 using commercially available ionizers

I’ve been consiering buying the new style of air cleaner, such as the Quiet Breeze from Sharper Image, but have been concerned as to their effectiveness. This article seems to support the fact that they do have a positive effect for removing allergens from the air. Synergy Abstract – Click here for more information.

Migraines in Children: Do Meds Work? Are They a Good Idea?

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When ANY child has headaches, something is wrong.  They don’t just happen and they darn sure aren’t because that child is deficient in some medication.  And yet, we seem to think this is the case because the administration of medication seems to be the treatment of choice in mainstream medicine.

Even if a medication controls the headache for that moment, it has in no way, shape or form fixed what was causing the headache.  As a parent, it is your job to NEVER accept anything less than an answer.

Most often, the answer is not immediate.  I find that stress in children is a major contributor to headaches.  Even if you initiate stress management approaches (meditation, biofeedback using the Resperate, relaxation CDs, massage) these will take some time for the benefits to be noticed.

If the problem is structural, very commonly from carrying backpacks that are too heavy for the child, then they need structural work from a chiropractor that focuses on this aspect of treatment.

I cannot begin to describe the frustration we’ve had with patients here in the office.  We recently had a cheerleader who had several falls and had high stress levels and a “challenging” diet.  Despite a year of headaches and seeing virtually every other type of provider (including a neurologist at Barrow’s) there was never a suggestion of seeing a chiropractor.  After the first first, she didn’t have a headache for a week and they have been getting better managed since.  The patient is, needless to say, very pleased after just 4 visits.

I have another patient that was recently put on a triptan medication to manage his headaches.  He’s a very intelligent 11 year old boy, but he clearly stresses heavily over school.  There has not been any discussion about managing his stress.  It’s all been about medication.  Our office is working with his mother to get something type of relaxation program for his iPod and I’m very confident this will help greatly with his headaches.

Since I brought up the triptan class of medications (nice, segue, huh?), we should look at this particular study.

Researchers looked at multiple studies on the use of triptans for migraine headaches in children.  Here’s the catch:

The children’s placebo response rate was incredibly strong, with pain relief at 2 hours ranging from 53% to 57.5%.

Basically, because of this, none of the medications were more powerful than placebo in these trials.

So what does this mean?  It means that the brain is a powerful tool in managing migraine headaches–at least as powerful as commonly used medications.  This all points back to the ability of mind based therapies like meditation or biofeedback to control or eliminate migraine headaches in adolescents.

If this type of approach is NOT recommended in the care of any child with migraine headaches, I would personally pack up and run the other way.  If stress is a major contributor to headaches and this aspect is not addressed, the long term health consequences are going to be grave.

Medicine is NOT supposed to be about controlling the symptoms.  Medicine is finding the cause of a problem and fixing that cause so that the long term health of the patient is preserved.  Anything less is deficient.

If your child experienced migraine headaches, what did you find was the best therapy for them?

 

Risk Factors for Heart Disease: Diabetes Tops the List

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If queried, many would name high cholesterol as one of the major risk factors for heart disease. Not even close. Many wouldn’t think of a condition 50% of us have.

I was giving a short presentation last week and one of the participants asked about diabetes and heart disease.  I had mentioned that, for me, there is little difference between the two, and this appeared to be something she had not heard before.

While not surprising, this fact is very true.  84% of diabetics die of cardiovascular related complications (heart disease and stroke combined).  So it would seem to me that every diabetic needs to work on protecting his or her heart.

Here’s the good news: improving your lifestyle to protect or improve diabetes and improving your lifestyle to protect your heart are one and the same.  Good luck trying to find something to avoid or improve your diabetes that doesn’t have a protective effect on the heart.  Exercise?  Both.  Stress management?  Both.  Avoiding BPA in plastics?  Both.  Nuts?  Both.

You get the idea.

So why does this concept seem to be a secret?  Maybe it’s because primary care doctors or endocrinologists manage diabetes and cardiologists manage heart disease.  Sad to think this way, but it seems to fit.  The closest we seem to come to managing both conditions is to make sure that diabetics are taking his or her diabetic medications or that diabetics are taking their Lipitor.  No one seems to take into account that these two conditions are caused by the same lifestyle choices, rather than being two separate entities needing to be managed with distinct tools.

This particular study drives this concept home.  Researchers looked at HbA1c levels and how they related to the risk of heart disease.  HbA1c is a marker to see how well you have been managing your blood sugars over the past 3 months or so.  HbA1c is actually a protein in red blood cells that gets damaged by blood sugar when it goes up.  So, higher blood sugar = more damage to the proteins in your body.  EVERY protein, not just this one.  So lower is always better.  Higher means that every protein in every cell of your body is being damaged more.  Not good.

Here’s the problem: elevations in HbA1c do not just occur in diabetes.  Basically, it’s a spectrum, with lower numbers being better and higher numbers getting worse.  Whether or not you are diagnosed with diabetes, higher HbA1c numbers are not good, and in the study, elevated HbA1c levels were associated with heart disease regardless of whether or not the person had been diagnosed with diabetes (yet).

The bottom line is, regardless of whether you are diabetic or prediabetic, your heart is in grave danger.  Luckily, you don’t need to pick which condition you want to make lifestyle changes for.  My recommendations can be found here.

Are you at risk?