LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

stroke

STUDY ON OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND RISK OF STROKE (08-24-09)

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Prospective Study on Occupational Stress and Risk of Stroke

We all know that stress isn’t good for us. We all have a tendency to stress the MOST about the things we have no control over. So..if we can’t control them, why stress? It’s killing us. Literally. The problem is that so many people seem to get completely caught up in a cycle of stress, with one stressful event giving way to the next event, in an seemingly endless cascade of stress.

Well, in this study we found a doubling of the risk of stroke in men who had the highest stress levels in their workplace.

Read entire article here

RISK OF NEW-ONSET DIABETES MELLITUS (02-23-09)

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A Meta-Analysis of 94,492 Patients With Hypertension Treated With Beta Blockers to Determine the Risk of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus

I remain astonished at the results of this study. Beta blockers are given to patients with high blood pressure to presumably lower their risk of both cardiovascular disease and stroke. However, given the concern that this class of drugs may actually increase progression to diabetes (which would dramatically increase the risk of heart disease and stroke), this study looked more deeply into the question.

What did they find in evaluating studies combining 95,000 patients?? A 22% INCREASED risk of diabetes!! Ok, so they get diabetes, but what about protecting against stroke? How well did that work? A 15% increased risk of stroke. Then, for the icing on the cake, the authors found no change in risk for heart attacks or death. And for this our insurance reimburses the cost???

The bottom line is that, any time we try to artificially mutate a value (like blood pressure) with drugs, there will be a price to be paid. As the wizened turtle in Kung Fu Panda say, “one is likely to meet their destiny on the road they take to avoid it.” Lifestyle is the ONLY answer.

Read entire article here

PRIMARY PREVENTION OF STROKE BY HEALTHY LIFESTYLE – (5-11-09)

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Primary Prevention of Stroke by Healthy Lifestyle

First of all, before you look at these numbers you have to understand that “healthy lifestyle,” in this study, is really very non-specific and generally nothing near the level of what I would consider a truly healthy lifestyle. That being said, we still saw a massive risk reduction for stroke of 79% for women and 69% for men.

This is practically gone when you look at the fact that these were “soft” lifestyle factors used. Despite this, the idea that lifestyle is the singlemost potent weapon against stroke remains a big secret to physicians and the general public.

Read entire article here

JUST HOW GOOD IS CHOCOLATE FOR YOU?

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JUST HOW GOOD IS CHOCOLATE FOR YOU?  By now it should come as no surprise, but sometimes the numbers still surprise me.  In this study, researchers found that those with the highest chocolate consumption had a 39% lower risk of stroke and heart attack.  Even more powerful is the fact that, when looking deeper into the data, the people eating more chocolate had lower intakes of fruits and veggies.  So, despite the less healthy lifestyles, the polyphenols in the chocolate were still strong enough to outperform every drug on the planet.

Now imagine if this was done on dark chocolate covered nuts in the context of a healthy lifestyle???  The bottom line is that higher intakes of polyphenols (non-GMO soy, tea, coffee, esspreso, chocolate, red juice / wine) have consistently shown protection against a variety of chronic diseases.  Check out.

BETTER YOUR LIFESTLYE FOR MIGRAINE TREATMENT

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MIGRAINE TREATMENT HAS TO INCLUDE LIFESTYLE, NOT JUST PAIN MEDICATION.  I have said again and again that the treatments for a migraine have to be body-wide, that the problem is systemic but is manifesting as pain in the head.  That is why patients with migraines are at increased risk of things like heart disease and stroke; in this study over twice the risk.  If all we do is medicate a patient and stop the headaches, we have fixed nothing.  None of the available drugs for migraine lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, so they are obviously not fixing the real problem.

Bottom line is that we HAVE to make the changes and not rely on medications.  Exercise, stress reduction, evaluation and avoidance of environmental toxins, high phytonutrient diet, moving away from diabetes.

CAN A SUPPLEMENT MAKE THIS MUCH DIFFERENCE IN DYING?

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I really hate to beat a dead horse, but this article really surprised me just a little.  Cardiovascular disease remains the #1 cause of death here in the US.  It is heavily lifestyle mediated and can be avoided in almost all cases with the right choices.  But can a single, simple action play a massive role?

Vitamin D is not a vitamin.  It is a hormone.  As I’ve mentioned, vitamins act as cofactors to enzymes to help get work done.  This is important, but it does not actually control what our cells are doing.  A hormone, however, actually works its way down to the DNA in the nucleus of our cells and change the way a cell behaves.  This can be a very powerful action.

Receptors for vitamin D have been found on most of the cells in our bodies.  This means that, contrary to the beliefs as early as a decade ago that vitamin D’s actions were limited to bone only, vitamin D plays a role in most actions in our bodies.  The bottom line is that a deficiency can wreak havoc throughout our body.

One of the conditions that vitamin D has been shown in the research to have a protective response is for heart disease.  At this point, supplementation is a no brainer.  After seeing this study, if you’re not taking vitamin D, then it’s because you’re fully paid up on your life insurance premiums.

Why are these results so striking?  This particular study looked at almost 11,000 patients in Kansas and broke them up into normal (>30 ng / ml) or deficient (<30 ng / ml), keeping in mind that optimal is 60-100 ng / ml.  (FYI–the average vitamin D level was 24 — i.e. deficient)

  1. Only 29.7% were in the normal range (NOT even optimal!)
  2. 70.3% were deficient
  3. Deficiency was associated with hypertension, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, and diabetes
  4. Deficiency was a strong predictor of all-cause death (almost 3 X the risk of dying from anything)
  5. On the other hand, taking vitamin D supplementation lead to a 61% lower risk of dying

61% lower risk of dying.  Go back and read that several more times.  Take some notes.  Mold it in clay in your living room.

It is not common, and by NO means do I advocate a single supplement or lifestyle change rather than a comprehensive lifestyle overhaul, to see any one thing make this much of a striking difference.  But clearly, in this large study, vitamin D supplementation did.

In our office, this means STARTING at 2,000 IU / day.  Practically not a day goes by that some patient does not come in with bone density problems or low serum levels that are told to take vitamin D by some other physician, but that recommendation is almost always at or below 1,000 IU / day.  It is just not enough.

7 FACTORS FOR HEART DISEASE–ARE YOU IN THE 1%?

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By now we can all accept that heart disease is almost entirely lifestyle in origin.  I’m sure there are a few events per year that were entirely mediated by genetics, but, in general, if you have heart disease, it’s because of the choices you have made.  And likely continue to make.

Everyone out there who is looking forward to their first heart attack please raise your hands.  Great…now everyone who has had a heart attack and wants a second, you can raise your hands now.  Lastly, those of you who just can’t wait to have your sternum cracked open with a spreader, your circulatory system put on a bypass around the heart and veins stripped from your leg to re-plumb your heart, go ahead and send both hands up.

Looking around, there is not a single hand in the air.  Imagine that–not a single person has a desire to experience a cardiac event.  Go figure.  NOW let’s ask the important question…

Who is willing to make changes to their lifestyle to avoid the aforementioned events?

Not so many hands, I’m guessing.

Why is that?  It really is that clear cut.  Does society think that medicines will save us from these outcomes?  If so, think again.  You could not be further from the truth.  Medicine is very, very bad at preventing events.  Sure, we run around telling everyone “our numbers are under control,” but this house of cards soon falls after the first heart attack.

Look at this particular study here.  Researchers looked at 7 cardio-protective behaviors:

  1.  Ideal healthy diet
  2. Physical activity
  3. Ideal body mass index
  4. Non-smoking
  5. Ideal blood pressure
  6. Low total cholesterol
  7. Low fasting blood glucose

That’s it.  7 simple factors.  I could easily add another 10 and tighten up what they consider “healthy diet.”   But, overall, pretty basic guidelines.  So, how many people (out of 14,500, aged 20 and above) had all seven of the factors present?

Are you sitting down?

Less than 1%.  That is flat out sickening and extremely disappointing.  There is a massive disconnect in this society between what WILL happen and what we think will NOT happen to us.

Are you in the 1%?  If not, what will happen to those you leave behind?

ARE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE DRUGS KILLING US?

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HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE DRUGS KILLING US?? I hear time and time again an almost identical phrase from patients when I ask about why they mark high blood pressure on their intake form…”It is under control with medication.”  I cringe every time I hear it.  Would you fall into this category?  If so, you need to understand this.

We’ve seen research linking the use of beta blockers to diabetes and stroke (on 95,000 patients!).  So now we see a study of combination of diuretics plus a calcium channel blockers (a common combination) have DOUBLE the risk of a heart attack.  Keep in mind that this is a population already at risk.  Doubling that is a scary thing.  Still think your blood pressure is “under control??”  Bottom line–lifestyle is the ONLY answer that won’t kill you first.  Exercise, high phytonutrient / low calorie diet, stress management..

Read entire article here