LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

stroke

Effects of low-dose warfarin and aspirin versus no treatment on stroke – (06-23-03)

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Effects of low-dose warfarin and aspirin versus no treatment on stroke in a medium-risk patient population with atrial fibrillation.

This article touches on what I consider a controversial topic. The chronic use of warfarin in a patient with atrial fibrillation produces a “small beneficial effect” on stroke and major vascular events. The question is, does a “small beneficial effect” justify the continued use of warfarin that would prohibit intake of foods (green, leafy veggies, ginko, ginseng, high dose Vit E, fish oils) that have a huge beneficial effects across the spectrum of multiple chronic diseases? This is a question that only a patient and their prescribing physician can answer, evaluating the risk for other chronic diseases vs ischemic stroke.

Read entire article here

Homocysteine ups risk of heart attack and stroke – (10-24-02)

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Homocysteine and Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke

This meta analysis finds an 11% increase in ischemic heart disease and 19% increase in stroke. While the authors were not jumping up and down about these results, I strongly disagree. First, one single solitary factor raised risk more than 10%. A single, solitary, VERY modifiable risk factor. (As far as cost, my office offers a 2,000 mcg B12 and 800 mg folic acid for about $8/month…that would equal to about $3,840 for forty years’ worth…hardly the cost of diagnosing CVD). Remember, Western medicine rarely gets beyond the idea of “one cause, one cure.” Natural approaches to CVD would attack multiple angles, with efficacy rising with a more broad scope approach.

Lastly, this review accepts what is currently accepted as “normal” for homocysteine levels. It is highly possible (and we see it in many other lab values) that “normal” values are actually too broad. That would result in patients with “high normal” homocysteine that contributes to their CVD but would actually have counted against association.

Read entire article here

Homocysteine and Heart Disease – (11-21-02)

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Homocysteine and CVD: evidence on causality from a meta-analysis

Forty years of cumulative evidence, and we finally have a mainstream medical journal unquestionably recommending certain vitamins to lower risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. This was all in the same month that CRP gained notoriety. What a ground shaking month for cardiologists and clinicians that have not cracked a medical journal in years. Add to this several studies showing no or little benefit from cholesterol lowering medication (especially when compared with CRP and homocysteine!!) and they have to be feeling like a stockbroker two years ago…

bmj.com Abstracts: Wald et al. 325 (7374): 1202 –

Read entire article here

4 Simple Ways To Prevent Stroke

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Heart disease, stroke and cancer remain our #1 killers, and yet each is avoidable.  But, to prevent stroke, you must make a conscious effort to do these things.

We all want our bodies and brains to last about the same amount of time.  However, this does not happen without a conscious effort at protecting both.  Luckily, this is not really all that difficult.

One of the surest ways to rapidly short-circuit the brain is a stroke.  Brain attack.  Transient ischemic attack (TIA).  The end result can vary from full recovery to significant disability to death.

The good thing is that this event is heavily preventable. 

Before we go further, however, I do need to clarify that we are talking about ischemic stroke–the kind that occurs when a blood vessel gets blocked and the brain tissues fed by this blood vessels begin to die off from lack of oxygen.  This is a much different animal than a hemorrhagic stroke, where a blood vessel ruptures and the blood pours into an area of the brain, damaging the tissues affected.  Most of what we know about preventing strokes deals with the ischemic variety.

So what do we know can help prevent strokes?

  1. Diets high in olive oil have been shown to lower the risk of stroke.
  2. Dark chocolate.
  3. A pro-diabetic lifestyle

This list is, of course, much longer.  But I wanted to add a 4th item.

Lycopene.  That red pigment of the carotenoid family found in items like tomatoes, watermelon and grapefruit.

It has already been shown to lower the risk of pancreatic cancer and protect our blood vessels better than a statin drug.

This particular study looked at how much of an effect the intake of lycopene had on the risk of stroke.  Overall, those men with the highest levels of lycopene in their bloodstream had a 59% lower risk of ischemic stroke and a 55% lower risk of all types of stroke.

That’s pretty powerful stuff.  Interestingly, one of the components of the Mediterranean diet that is believed to play an important role is the lycopene content from the tomatoes as well as the olive oil content.  Olive oil, being fat soluble, will help our bodies absorb more lycopene from the diet.  This kind of nicely ties in together several aspects of lifestyle that lower the risk of stroke.

Incidentally, studies have shown that the inclusion of a the tomato peel actually increases the lycopene level in the bloodstream.  Just FYI…

So what’s your favorite way to get more lycopene in your diet?

METABOLIC SYNDROME ASSOCIATED WITH HISTORY OF MI – (01-14-04)

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Association of Metabolic Syndrome with History of MI, Stroke in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

I had a home-health nurse at my house the other day to get a pre-life insurance physical done. I made a side comment about how the “well accepted” risk factors they asked for (I think the lack a waist/hip ratio when all they wanted measured was the waist initiated the conversion) where somewhat arcaic. So of course I brought up Syndrome X which she had never heard about (and she looked at me strange–almost in pity for my foolish make believe disease stories….). How can such a disease state still be unrecognized? I know frequent readers of the Updates hear this all the time, it’s just that I keep waiting for an answer.

Circulation — Abstracts: Ninomiya et al. 109 (1): 42 –

Read entire article here

High Blood Pressure Medication Fails; Die with Better Numbers

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Medicine today is built on a house of cards. We think that if high blood pressure medication lowers our numbers, we’re safe. Not even close to true.

I have covered again and again the fallacy of what is referred to as “surrogate end markers.”

In using surrogate end markers, the idea is that, for Disease X, patients with lower values of Blood marker B live longer or are less likely to get the disease. So, we create a drug that lowers Blood marker B synthetically, thinking that we will have an impact on Disease X. We don’t measure Disease X directly, because that would take too long.

The mistake here is that, what if Blood marker B being low and leading to lowered rates of Disease X is a reflection of the health of the patient, and NOT because Blood marker B itself is low? Time and time again we see that the use of surrogate end markers in research leads to WORSE outcomes when we artificial lower Blood marker B.

The bottom line is that many of us blindly follow our doctor’s advice to take some medication and we think that there is solid research behind this particular use of the drug.

Sadly, this is not often the case.  You may be given this drug because it will make your numbers look better, not because it has been shown to avoid YOUR concern such as a heart attack, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis or dementia.

Which brings us to this particular study done by the Cochrane group.  Before we get into the results, you need to first understand that the what Cochrane Collaboration is all about.  In their own words:

“The Cochrane Collaboration is an international network of more than 28,000 dedicated people from over 100 countries. We work together to help healthcare providers, policy-makers, patients, their advocates and carers, make well-informed decisions about health care, by preparing, updating, and promoting the accessibility of Cochrane Reviews – over 5,000 so far, published online in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, part of The Cochrane Library. We also prepare the largest collection of records of randomised controlled trials in the world, called CENTRAL, published as part of The Cochrane Library.”

In other words, this is THE group that can tear apart the medical research on a topic and filter through the bad study designs and bias that can clog up the true results of a study.

So what did they find out about high blood pressure medications used to lower mild hypertension (systolic blood pressure <160 and diastolic blood pressure <100)?

Not really a whole lot.  In the studies reviewed, there was no evidence of a protective benefit from using high blood pressure medication in these patients.  No lowered rate of heart attacks, stroke or death.

Let’s be clear–this doesn’t mean there is NOT a benefit, it just means there is no research to prove it.  Now that we’ve been clear, let’s be honest…

Millions of dollars thrown into research for drugs to lower blood pressure.  BILLIONS of dollars paid annually for people to take these medications.  I’m thinking that, if there was an data to truly prove that they work, the drug companies would’ve been hoisting the research up on a pedestal for everyone to see.

The sad part is that I don’t think that these recommendations are going to be widely adopted.  Dogma rules in medicine and it takes decades to change behaviors.  It has been almost 4 years since the research linking stroke and diabetes with beta blockers for high blood pressure was published, and yet these drugs are still standard treatment for high blood pressure.

I have previously posted on other side effects associated with hypertension drug use and this can be read by clicking here.

The bottom line is that we should lower high blood pressure with lifestyle, not with drugs.  Only then can you be sure that you’re going to lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and deaths.

So did you do to lower your high blood pressure?

METABOLIC SYNDROME VS FRAMINGHAM RISK SCORE – (01-09-06)

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Metabolic Syndrome vs Framingham Risk Score for Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Just a short gripe and then I’ll go…how can something as strongly predictive as the metabolic syndrome on a large number of chronic diseases continue to go ignored by clinicians interacting with patients every day? I have no rational explanation for the disconnect, and quite frankly, there is no excuse not to educate patients on managing this condition.

Read entire article here

INSULIN RESISTANCE RELATED TO CHRONIC DISEASES – (08-01-05)

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Decreased insulin sensitivity is associated with the extent of coronary artery disease in patients with angina

Would anyone believe that this is only one of about 5 articles in the past few days linking insulin resistance to chronic diseases?  Angina, stroke, liver failure…the list is literally endless.  So why do I have to explain myself time and time again to patients who are clearly insulin resistant?

I know that I say that clinical practice lags the research by about 20-30 years, but is it truly this bad?  Can something as devastating to human health as insulin resistance that is written up in peer reviewed medical journals by the scores still be ignored in clinical practice?  I don’t really have an answer to this one.

Read entire article here