LifeCare Chiropractic

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EPA

Toss the Prozac and Try This for the Kiddos

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Without dredging up horrid memories of high school, do you remember that our cells are made of a lipid bilayer?
That means that the outside of our cells are formed of two layers of fats sandwiched together.  For cells to function properly, a message needs to pass through this sandwich layer.  It works out that the healthier the fats in this sandwich, the better a message gets into or out of a cell.  Things just work better.
So, healthier fats = better messages.  Unhealthy fats = messages get lost.
Consider this in the brain.  Would you want the message to get to where it’s supposed to?  Of course.  So, better fats = better sandwich = better messages.
This can translate to neurotransmitters like serotonin or epinephrine or dopamine getting from one cell to another.  So, of course we would expect to see psychological problems like depression get better with higher intakes of healthy fats.  Seems pretty simple, huh?
Which leads us to this particular study, where researchers looked at the relationship between dietary fish intake and depressive symptoms in over 6500 Japanese children who were between 12 and 15 years of age.  Here’s what they found:
  • In boys, higher fish intake was linked to 27% lower risk of having depressive symptoms.
  • EPA intake had the strongest effect (29% for EPA, 21% for DHA).
  • Looking at omega-3 intake (and not specifically fish intake), there was a 28% lower risk.
  • The protective effect was limited to boys.

Should You Take Fish Oils? Only if You ALSO Do This

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The concept of omega-3 fatty acids and the benefits for cardiovascular disease originated in the 1970’s with Dyerberg and Bang’s study on the Inuit Eskimos.

Since then, the research on the relationship of omega-3 fatty acids (most popularized by fish oil supplements) has exploded.  Protective effects on cancer rates, seizures, diabetes and heart disease have been demonstrated.  However, lately, research has not been quite as favorable and the most recent study found not effect of fish oil supplements on heart diseae (fish in the diet, however, was still protective).

The are several situations where the benefits of fish oil may not be fully realized.  Here are my thoughts:

  1. Highest on the list is likely that the dosage that many people are taking is generally not high enough (I’ve covered dosage in a previous blog article that can be read by clicking here) and this can definitely affect the benefit.
  2. First, much like anything else, supplements are not designed to work in a vacuum.  In other words, a crappy, processed lifestyle loaded with omega-6 fats will not be counterbalanced by any amount of fish oil supplementation.
  3. The processing of fats in our bodies is complex and requires balance between omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids.  Mother Nature provides the best balance.  Make sure your fish oil supplement contains the omega 6 GLA (black currant, borage oil or evening primrose).  If not, you may generate inflammation rather than protect against it.
  4. Fish oils can become oxidized in our bodies if we are burdened by oxidative stress from a poor quality lifestyle.  A diet loaded with protective phytonutrients from a large array of fruits, veggies and spices will help protect the fats that you take in, whether from a supplement or fish.

With that being said, this particular article just adds additional insight to #2 above.  Researchers looked at the relationship between the levels of EPA + DHA (the fish oils) and physical activity and the ability of the fish oils to lower multiple cardiovascular risk factors.

Not surprisingly, only those who were regularly active got a benefit from higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids in his or her blood.

Hate to use this as a push to be more active, but I’m going to.  Overall, the bottom line is that you HAVE to lower your risk of heart disease and stroke through a comprehensive program.  Singly taking fish oils or singly exercising is not going to give you the bang for your buck that a combination is going to.  And this is yet another reason why mainstream medicines’ approach to heart disease prevention (i.e. “a single pill will fix it all”) is such a failure.

 

NVIC Says IOM Report Confirms 1999 FDA/EPA Order for Mercury-Free – (10-08-01)

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NVIC Says IOM Report Confirms 1999 FDA/EPA Order for Mercury-Free

If just seems interesting that chiropractors have been warning about the dangers of vaccines for decades and been called heretics, unscientific and worse for this belief. And yet, as time progresses, we see more and more stuff arising about the dangers of the mass-immunization practice here in the US. How could anyone ever have considered mercury as safe to use at any level? The whole concept to me seems unfathomable. Now we see much backpeddling on the part of the governement agencies–thimerisol is safe, but we still need to spend millions getting rid of it. See any dichotomy here???

The nation’s oldest and largest vaccine safety advocacy organization, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), today called the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report evaluating whether mercury preservatives in vaccines have caused developmental delays in children a “confirmation” that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were justified in ordering drug companies to take mercury out of childhood vaccines in 1999. Although the IOM’s Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded there is not enough evidence to prove or disprove the hypothesis that mercury-containing vaccines have caused children to develop learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, the IOM Committee found enough evidence that mercury can damage the human brain to recommend that mercury preservatives be removed from all vaccines and over-the-counter consumer products.”This IOM report confirms the obvious: mercury is bad for you and we shouldn’t be injecting our babies with it. Even though there have been too few controlled studies to confirm the relationship between mercury-containing vaccines and various kinds of brain dysfunction, the bottom line is that drug companies should have come up with a non-toxic way to preserve the stability of vaccines a long time ago. Now we need a comprehensive analysis of the potential toxicity of all other vaccine additives, starting with aluminum,” said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of NVIC.NVIC has recently joined with SAFEMINDS, founded in 2000 by parents who believe their children were harmed by mercury in vaccines, in calling for the removal of all mercury-containing childhood vaccines from the market in the United States and for doctors to warn pregnant women that the flu vaccine contains mercury.

EPA Says US Children Face Environmental Health Threats – (01-22-01)

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EPA Says US Children Face Environmental Health Threats

I don’t mean to diminish the importance of maintaining a clean environment. It is unquestionable that we have toxins in our environment that negatively impact our health. The best way I can illustrate my concern is with a conversation I had with an asthmatic’s mother recently. The mother had done everything she could think of; got rid of the cat, uses air filters, covers on the mattress and pillows, etc… But she never once considered attacking the problem from inside. By improving her daughter’s health. The rates of asthma are increasing, and I’m afraid we are going to blame it all on the external environment, and not claim any personal responsibility for the internal environment.

(article) Fewer US children now live in counties with heavily polluted air, but children face other growing environmental health problems such as asthma, the US Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. Outgoing EPA Administrator Carol Browner used the report to highlight concerns of the Clinton administration, which has fewer than 2 weeks left in office. “The Clinton-Gore administration has made the protection of children’s health one of its highest environmental priorities,” Browner said in a statement. “We especially are concerned about such issues as exposure to lead and pesticides and rising incidence of childhood asthma.” The report showed there has been some progress in curbing environmental health threats to children. For example, data showed a decline from 28% in 1990 to 23% in 1998 in the percentage of American US living in counties where one or more of a half-dozen key air pollutants exceed national air quality standards. Those pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead. The EPA also noted a decrease in the percentage of homes with both a tobacco smoker and a child under age 7. That fell from 29% in 1994 to 19% in 1999, the study said. Another improvement occurred in the availability of safe drinking water for children. The percentage of children living in areas that logged violations of drinking water standards fell from 19% in 1993 to 8% in 1998. But other trends are worrisome, according to the EPA, which found that environmental health problems are consistently higher among low-income families. Poor black children have a higher rate of asthma than children in other racial groups and income groups. Also, the prevalence of asthma among all children in the US increased from 5.8% in 1990 to 7.5% in 1995, the agency said. The EPA said that its report could not offer any quick fixes to the health issues, and instead it outlined how the federal government needs to develop better measurements and data to address children’s environmental health issues. The EPA separately announced that it will require companies to make public more information about their lead emissions into the air, water and land. The new rules will require companies that annually use more than 100 pounds of lead and lead compounds to provide information to the EPA under the agency’s consumer right-to-know program. Previously, reporting rules applied to users of more than 10,000 pounds annually.

 

Could Anti-Inflammatories Be THE Enemy? 3 Steps to Take

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This is certainly not the first time I’ve written about the hazards of using anti-inflammatories at the first sign of a twinge.  But this one is going to take it from a different viewpoint.

I think we could all agree that the process of inflammation is a natural one.  After all, why would the human physiology have a process in place that is useless?  It wouldn’t.  Inflammation serves several purposes.  One key purpose would be the prevention and management of infections.  Your immune system (the system responsible for the inflammatory response) gears up to fight off an invader, and, should that invader break through, it will gear up an attack on that invader, be it a virus, bacteria, yeast or even a tumor cell.  Another key purpose is the clearing out of damaged tissue and subsequent repair of the damaged region.

Each of these actions of the immune system needs balance and control:

  1. Too much protection against an invader and you get allergies and asthma.
  2. Too strong of a reaction against an invader and you could go into shock.
  3. Too strong of a response to an injury and undamaged tissue gets taken out in the process.

But these are all on the upswing of the inflammatory response and controlling this side of things is a good thing.  But can our society’s obsession with anti-inflammatories be affecting the natural history of this process?  You bet!

Consider inflammation as pushing a boulder uphill.  Once you get it over the top, the going’s easy from there.  Anti-inflammatories may, in the initial stages, make the hill smaller.  But the initial stages of inflammation are supposed to end–after a few days with an infection (hopefully) and within 24 hours with an injury (depending on severity of the injury).  We used to think that inflammation, once started, would resolve all on its own.  We now know this is not true.

The resolution of inflammation is not a passive process.  The body has to actively end inflammation.  And there are some critical factors needed for this process.

Namely, our old friends, DHA and EPA from fish oils.

Specifically, DHA and EPA are required to make a class of compounds referred to as Resolvins and Protectins (I know, but I didn’t come up with the creative names…).  If you’re a biochemistry nerd, you can read more about them in this particular review.

This begins to explain the many benefits we see from essential fatty acid supplementation on a long list of chronic disease.  More importantly, you can begin to lay out some “to do” things on your journey to control and resolve inflammation in your own body.  These include:

  1. Increasing your intake of healthy fats found in such foods as wild caught fish, olive oils, raw nuts, seeds and avocados.
  2. Decreasing your intake of less healthy fats found in hydrogenated oils and vegetable oils.
  3. Avoiding anti-inflammatories.  With the exception of aspirin, which may help the process, other anti-inflammatories actually slowed or stopped the ability of EPA and DHA to halt inflammation.
  4. If inflammation from an autioimmune disorder or chronic pain is a concern, consider supplementing UP TO 3 full grams of omega-3 / day (this does NOT mean 3 capsules per day).

So, next time you think about curbing inflammation with drugs, shift your thinking.  Think about how you are going to RESOLVE your inflammation instead.

 

How Much Would You Pay for 2.2 More Years of Life?

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Interesting question and would likely generate a wide range of answers depending upon where in the life cycle you are. But an even more important question would be, what would you be willing to DO for 2.2 more years of life?

This answer requires action and not wealth.  Quitting smoking (or never starting).  Exercising.  Eating a diet without processed foods.  Cutting back on stress.  All changes that you can (and should) make that have a solid foundation of research for increasing longevity.

But many times it is not merely about quantity of life.  Quality becomes a much more important factor when it comes to life.  Who wants to live to 90 but spend 5 years infirm in a bed on oxygen, your life little more than existing?

No one would opt for this end to his or her life, although I could argue that lifestyle is a conscious choice done during life that will lead to this end of life, essentially meaning that you DID choose this course.  But what if the choice was much easier than actually exercising?

Before we get into the longevity-inducing intervention highlighted here, I need to make something clear.

Pharmaceutical interventions are typically one-cause / one cure approaches.  That means that we use a statin to lower your risk of having a heart attack and hope for the best (which, as you are all aware of by now, this “best” is a 1% lower risk of having a heart attack with statin use).  And you can’t pile up 20 drugs to give you a 20% lower risk of having a heart attack.  Drugs just aren’t cumulative like that.

Lifestyle, on the other hand, IS cumulative.  Exercise CAN work with eating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables to dramatically lower your risk of a heart attack or death.  This is where the power of lifestyle comes in.

So, with this in mind, this particular study looked at how much of a difference healthy fats in the blood made on longevity in this large group of study participants.

To raise your blood levels of the healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, you can eat raw nuts, wild caught fish, use olive oil and more seeds.  Supplementation with fish oils is a good idea to augment what you get from your diet.

Here’s what the researchers found:

  1. Higher omega 3-PUFA led to a 27% lower risk of death from all causes.
  2. Specifically, EPA was 17% lower, 20% lower for DHA.
  3. The greatest protection was on heart deaths.
  4. Overall, those with the highest levels lived an average of 2.22 more years after age 65 years.

Given that good quality fish oils in our office run about $15 / month, 2.2 years would cost you $390.  Pretty economical, if you ask me…

So, would you pay $390 for 2.2 more years of life?

Effects of Ethyl-Eicosapentaenoate in Patients with Ongoing Depression – (11-21-02)

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Effects of Ethyl-Eicosapentaenoate in Patients with Ongoing Depression Despite Apparently Adequate Treatment With Standard Drugs

1 gram/day of EPA shows a dramatic improvement in depressive ratings for patients in this small study with no side effects. This is not the first trial to show a benefit for essential fatty acids and psychological health.

A Dose-Ranging Study of the Effects of Ethyl-Eicosapentaenoate in Patients With Ongoing Depression Despite Apparently Adequate….

Read entire article here

Low seafood in early pregnancy as risk factor for preterm delivery – (02-27-02)

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Low seafood in early pregnancy as risk factor for preterm delivery

There is now a wealth of evidence pointing to the importance of essential fatty acids, most notably DHA and EPA in normal brain development. This article looks at the benefits from another angle. However, always remember that, when choosing your source of fish to stick with cold water deep fish to lower risk of exposure to heavy metals and other “junk” that is filling our waters. I personally always try to stay away from fresh water fish and eating canned tuna more than every few weeks.

bmj.com Abstracts: Olsen and Secher 324 (7335): 447

Read entire article here