LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Echinacea

Importance of vitamin C – (01-18-03)

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Echinacea

This is a pretty comprehensive review of this popular herb. Personally, I don’t ever remember recommending echinacea in my office. Most often, if some is getting sick or is sick, it’s more important to pay attention to what we shouldn’t put into our bodies, rather than what we should be putting in. In other words, refined carbs and trans and saturated fats can suppress the immune system so avoiding this garbage should be a primary approach to staving off illness. I do often recommend high dosages (1 gram every hour until bowel tolerance is reached–stools become loose or increased gas) of vitamin C if someone is not feeling well.

Echinacea – January 1, 2003 – American Family Physician

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Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Echinacea – (12-07-00)

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Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Echinacea

So now we have research outlining the safety of echinacea in pregnancy. It still amazes me that the safety was in question despite hundreds of years of safe use. On the other hand, with only several years of use of many pharmaceuticals that have shown some potential for damage in pregnancy, the “risk vs benefit” idea is used to justify their use. Another good example is vitamin A and pregnancy. Everyone knows to avoid high dose vitamin A during pregnancy (greater than 10,000 IU/day), and yet the number of recorded birth defects from vitamin A (not including retinoic acid) is a mere handful.

Pregnancy Outcome Following Gestational Exposure to Echinacea: A Prospective Controlled Study

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HERBAL MEDICINES MORE EFFECTIVE IN RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS – (03-15-04)

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Effectiveness of an Herbal Preparation Containing Echinacea, Propolis, and Vitamin C in Preventing Respiratory Tract Infections in Children

Are you sitting down for this one?? I’m being a little dramatic because I’m SURE you heard about a natural and safe method that lowered episodes and severity of respiratory infections BY HALF all over the news. Front page, no doubt. Headline story on the 10:00 news. CNN broadcasts…

Arch Pediatric Adolesc Med — Abstracts: Cohen et al. 158 (3): 217 –

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FOOD ELIMINATION ON ANTIBODIES RELATED TO IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME – (10-04-04)

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Food elimination based on IgG antibodies in irritable bowel syndrome

Sometimes we really want to focus on long, complicated approaches to chronic diseases. This applies to both natural and conventional approaches. But, sometimes something as simple and inexpensive as an elimination diet can yield truly powerful results. I can use the analogy of goldenseal and echinacea. Many people take “immune boosting” formulas when they feel they’re getting sick. But, they neglect to avoid refined carbs/hydrogenated oils–two things known to depress the immune system.

They would be better off not putting the junk in that adding something to the mix. An elimination diet really hits home with this concept. There are many, many patients (if not all to some degree) in whom a portion or all of their symtoms are a result of allergens in their diet. Avoid them, and symptoms can improve dramatically. I remember a case years back. A patient came in at her mother’s urging. She was experiencing a weird skin rash and called herself the “dermatology poster child” at a major AZ university teaching hospital. After parading her in front of countless interns and residents, and multiple ineffective drug therapies, including severe swelling after steroid therapy she had enough. I started her on an elimination diet. I was wheat. Skin cleared up within days and returned with the re-introduction of wheat.

Food elimination based on IgG antibodies in irritable bowel syndrome: a randomised controlled trial — Atkinson et al. 53 (10.. –

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