LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

diet

DIET AND EXERCISE STABILIZES STRONG GLUCOSE CONTROL – (02-11-07)

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Activation of Oxidative Stress by Acute Glucose Fluctuations Compared With Sustained Chronic Hyperglycemia in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

It frustrates me that most diabetics do not get the real information that they need.  I still have patients that have gone through several diabetes “education” classes and have no idea what a refined carb is.  Quite frankly, that is unacceptable.  Enough rambling…

This article finds that frequent glucose fluctuations may actually cause more damage to the body than focusing on a lower HbA1C measurement. I can tell you that medication CANNOT effectively achieve this.  Only diet and exercise can have the stabilizing effect that is needed for strong glucose control.

Read entire article here

ARE YOU AWARE OF THE RISK FACTORS OF DIET SODA? – (02-04-08)

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Soft Drink Consumption and Risk of Developing Cardiometabolic Risk Factors and the Metabolic Syndrome

While the results of this study should be no surprise, many were surprised that diet soda was also a risk factor. This whole artificial sweetener deal is really starting to upset me. We KNOW it messes with the appetite. It is also present in a huge number of products and has been for several years. Yet we are only seeing increases in diabetes and obesity. Wouldn’t common sense tell you, if nothing else did, that switching to diet everything isn’t working?

Read entire article here

FOOD ADDITIVES AND HYPERACTIVE BEHAVIOUR IN CHILDREN – (04-28-08)

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Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community

While none of this should come as a surprise, it still has not been widely accepted as a factor in addressing hyperactivity disorders. And there is NO downside to feeding your children less processed foods, so the idea of trying every child with some degree of hyperactivity on a less processed diet should be mainstream.

Read entire article here

COMBINED IMPACT OF LIFESTYLE FACTORS ON MORTALITY -(08-24-09)

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Combined impact of lifestyle factors on mortality

This is definitely one of those “How much did we spend on THIS” studies. The conclusion is that more should be done to reduce cigarette smoking, increase physical activity and improve our diets. What an altogether shocking conclusion!

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Seizure, Epileptic Drugs Not Working? 4 Places to Start Healing Your Brain

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From the traditional medical approach to seizures and epilepsy, the foundation of the approach is anti-epileptic drug therapy (AED).  This foundation is added to by brain surgery or the use of a vagal nerve stimulator implanted in the chest.  That’s pretty much the armamentarium.  And pretty much disappointing when you look at just how effective these approaches are.  But they all leave one important thing out.

Read the entire article here

WHAT YOUR CARDIOLOGIST ISN’T TELLING YOU WILL HURT YOU.

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WHAT YOUR CARDIOLOGIST ISN’T TELLING YOU WILL HURT YOU.  Research has shown that lifestyle change has a very powerful effect on risk of first and subsequent heart attackes.  Most times lifestyle is much more powerful (and safer) than medications.  However, it seems our focus is not on the right things for those patients who have had a heart attack.  Basically, most patients were somewhat compliant with their meds for the 30 day follow up, but fewer were compliant with the needed lifestyle change (diet, exercise, quitting smoking).  However, for those who made the right choices, their risk of having another heart attack was cut in half.  For those not smart enough to get it (kept smoking, no diet chanes and no exercise), they had 3.8 times the risk of another heart attack.

Bottom line is that lifestyle changes are more powerful at protecting our heart, but patients don’t seem to follow recommendations.  There are two reasons this might be happening.  First, patients are too dumb and stupid to understand they are more likely to die if they don’t make the right choices.  OR, the cardiologists are not adequately expressing just how powerful lifestyle changes are…  So, if you’ve had a heart attack already and haven’t made the needed changes, which scenario fits you?

DIET LEADS TO MORE AGGRESSIVE CANCER

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DIET LEADS TO MORE AGGRESSIVE CANCER. For years now, we have understood that diet strongly drives how much inflammation our bodies have. This mean joint pain, headaches, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, autoimmune conditions like RA, Lupus, psoriasis…did I miss any?

In the human body, I consider inflammation as a giant domino setup. To the left is a large number of dominos all aiming towards one single gold domino. To the right expands out more dominos. Knock down one of the left dominos, and ultimately the gold dominio goes. Knock the gold domino down and you start the cascade of other dominos we know as inflammation. Rows out to the right are where our drugs come in–AFTER the gold domino has fallen. To the left is lifestyle. Preserve these and the gold domino stands. This gold domino has a name and plays a role in : NF kappa B.

Read entire article here

TEENS’ DIET IMPROVES HAPPINESS?

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Many in the mental health world do not lend much credence to the power of lifestyle changes to impact psychological health.  The default complaint is that, while they may be effective, a severely depressed patient will not have the motivation to do the necessary changes.  What if you could head the problem off at the pass?

 There is absolutely no question that the nutrients we put into our bodies can help us achieve optimal brain function.  A diet that is not rich in phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals just does not support the full range of neurological function that is needed.  Our nervous system is the greatest utilizer of energy (in the form of ATP) in the body.  It is very sensitive to deficiencies in many nutrients.

The other side of the coin is to make sure that we are not doing anything to inhibit to brain functions of our children.  This means creating a healthy, loving environment, restricting the use of toxins they might be exposed to (such as in toothpastes, cleaning supplies, plastics, bug sprays, suntan lotions, flame retardant bedding and cushions, etc…) and making sure they get lots of outdoor time to play.

This particular article demonstrates the payoffs.  In a study of over 3,000 adolescents, there was a clear relationship between the diet quality and their psychological quality of life.  Improvements in diet led to improvements in mental health.  Declines in diet led to deterioration of mental health.  Does it get any clearer?

So starting out early with good health habits can have a clear benefit on your child’s long term health.  If they remain psychologically healthy from the start, the argument about whether they would have the motivation to make healthy changes becomes moot.