Posts Tagged ‘medical’

Antioxidants…TOO Much of A Good Thing May NOT Be A Good Thing.

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Popular belief is that antioxidants prevent heart, Parkinson’s And Alzheimer’s Disease. Some research shows that too much may cause one of these dreaded diseases. It’s a very popular and believable theory, mainly because it makes sense.  It has also given hope to many people in search of ways to enhance and extend their lives naturally.  And let’s not forget, it’s profitable for many professionals. Patients regularly ask us at the chiropractic office at New Century Spine Centers in San Diego which supplements to take.

What we are referring to is the belief that taking antioxidants is good for you.  Many believe they can prevent such diseases as heart, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.  A study published in the August 10th issue of Cell sheds new light on this claim. It says that too much of a certain antioxidant may even cause heart disease in the long run.

Understanding how antioxidants are thought to work is very important. Heart, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other deadly diseases are associated with oxidative stress, in which “free radical” molecules are produced in reaction to oxygen intake. Free radicals travel through the body, triggering chemical reactions that damage proteins causing them to form aggregates. It is believed that antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E offer health-promoting benefits by protecting against damaging free radicals that damage the body. That’s why many people take antioxidants to prevent heart and other protein-aggregate diseases in many.

A study was done on laboratory mice in the University of Utah. Researchers found that an overload of natural antioxidants could actually lead to heart failure. This study had some very important findings.

Excessive levels of reduced glutathione can cause reductive stress. Glutathione is one of your body’s most powerful antioxidants. When your cells work properly, they produce just the right amount of reduced glutathione. This is healthy for your body. In some people, a mutated gene can disrupt the fine balance. This causes the cells to produce too much glutathione.

There was a study done with laboratory mice with failing hearts caused by mutant alpha B-Crystallin. Researchers found increased activity of the biochemical pathway leading to high levels of reduced glutathione in the animals. Glutathione is regulated at multiple steps. It is primarily regulated by the G6PD enzyme. To establish the connection between reduced glutathione and heart failure, the researchers mated mutant alpha B-Crystallin mice that carried too much G6PD with mice that had far lower levels.

The resulting offspring had normal levels of reduced glutathione and did not get heart failure. The researchers found that by lowering the level of reduced glutathione in mice with failing hearts, they were able to increase their rate of survival dramatically. Lowering the level of reduced glutathione dramatically changed the survival of these mice. The researchers stated that basically they prevented them from getting heart failure. The researchers also added that although many people take antioxidants to prevent heart and other protein-aggregate diseases, there actually is scant evidence to prove they work.

This field of medicine has not appreciated reductive stress and its influence on disease. This is about balance needed in the environment of the cells in our body. It can have profound consequences on the treatment of heart disease and other grave disorders.

This just shows how too much of a good thing can possibly be a bad thing. This is a concept that is misunderstood by most of the population. This probably leads to many health problems in many individuals. Many have a skewed concept of how the body functions and what exactly optimal performance or optimal health truly is.

Let’s consider performance for example.  Many athletes are constantly trying to boost performance with supplementation and vitamins.  Some use natural legal products. Some use other synthetic and possibly illegal substances such as anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. Some athletes take anabolic steroids to boost performance.  These are steroids such as testosterone which help build muscle, strength and reduce recovery time. And they naturally occur in your body for these and many other purposes.

Naturally occurring steroids are also good for you.  If naturally occurring steroids do these good things for you, logic has it that increasing their levels will do more good things for you. And it is true in many instances. Athletes that take the right steroids, increase their athletic performance.  And it increases it a great deal.

However, this is not considered to be OPTIMAL performance.  This is a PATHOLOGICAL performance. Here is why.  Optimal performance is when your body is functioning at the highest level for your given genetic potential.   Anything beyond that is considered abnormal.  It is considered to be pathological.

It’s the same old saying that too much of a good thing may be bad for you. And, it’s the same as far as antioxidants are concerned as well. It makes complete sense that the proper level of antioxidants is good for you.  And they probably help fight disease such as heart, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  But too much can be bad.

There is a perfect balance in your body where everything functions at 100% of your genetic potential.  More is not better – it is worse. And as the study mentioned in this article demonstrated, too much of a good thing can be Poison! Too many approach the use of natural supplements like the athlete approaches the use of steroids. If a little is good – a lot is better.

This is why choosing and taking supplements (of any kind) is much more involved than going into GNC and aimlessly picking a bunch that are popular  or sound good. The old (and uneducated) belief that supplements can’t hurt you because they are natural is bologna. Snake venom is natural.  So is mercury.  Some of the most dangerous substances in the world are natural. The supplements you take should depend on your diet and particular needs. Clearly, it’s all about finding YOUR perfect balance. To find out more, visit New Century Spine Centers in San Diego.

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Posted in Health, Nutrition | 3 Comments »

Can Sunscreens Be Causing Cancer?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

For many years, we have known two things to be true. First, the sun is bad for you, and therefore, exposure should be limited. Most people don’t know this, but the sun has three types of “rays,” not just two. The first is ultraviolet C light, also known as UVC. This ray usually does not reach our planet’s surface and this is good because it is believed only brief exposure to UVC rays is fatal. Next is ultraviolet B, also known as UVB rays. These have long been considered the “tanning rays.” They are strongest during the summer months when the Earth’s orbit is closest to the Sun. UVB rays are what produce a “sun tan.”

For many years, sunblocks and sunscreens only attempted to block UVB because science was unaware of the effects of UVA rays (the third type of sun ray) on the body. UVA was believed to be the safe ray in the 1980s, which spawned the growth and popularity of the artificial sun bed industry – some dermatologists even backed this artificial tanning! But, science now believes UVA rays actually do more damage than UVB rays! UVA rays are not dependant on how far the Earth is from the Sun – so the effects are the same all year round. What’s more, UVA penetrates light clothing and car windshields… even many hats.  Over-exposure to the sun has been linked to premature aging and even deadly skin cancer.

This brings us to the second so called truth which is limit exposure to the harmful rays of the sun by using high SPF sunscreens and sunblocks. For years, the sunblock industry has been booming with the promise their products protect you from the sun’s aging and cancerous rays. But, research now says these “truths” may not be so “true.” For example, there is no consensus whether sunscreens prevent skin cancer. According to the Environmental Working Groups’ (ewg.org) finding, “The Food and Drug Administration’s 2007 draft sunscreen safety regulations say: FDA is not aware of data demonstrating that sunscreen use alone helps prevent skin cancer.” (FDA 2007). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) agrees. The IARC recommends clothing, hats and shade as primary barriers to UV radiation and writes “sunscreens should not be the first choice for skin cancer prevention and should not be used as the sole agent for protection against the sun” (IARC 2001a). Even worse, there is evidence emerging that sunscreen may actually increase the risk of skin cancer!

Researchers speculate the cause or causes may be lack of UVA protection by most sunscreen for over 30 years, improper usage, staying in the sun longer with sunscreens and some of the ingredients. One big problem is the SPF (sun protection factor) myth. In 2007, the FDA published draft regulations that would prohibit manufacturers from labeling sunscreens over 50 SPF. The FDA stated that anything over 50 SPF was “inherently misleading.” Even an SPF of 50 can be misleading because of the way most people use sunscreen.

In the real world, tests show people apply only one-half to one fifth of the amount used when testing the sunscreen. A person using one-fourth the amount of sunscreen with an SPF of 30 only actually gets an SPF of 2.3. The same person using a sunscreen with SPF 100 ends up with only SPF 3.2.

Then, there are the potential problems with the ingredients found in sunscreens. For example, oxybenzone, a common ingredient, is a known hormone disruptor. Retinyl palmitate (a form of Vitamin A also commonly used in sunscreens) may increase the risk of skin cancer. According to Environmental Working Groups, “The publicly available data from FDA’s new study suggest that when used in sun-exposed skin care products, retinyl palmitate and related chemicals may increase skin damage and elevate skin cancer risk instead of protecting the skin.”

Also, according to Environmental Working Groups, 41% of all sunscreens contain retinyl palmitate. All of this may be surprising but what’s even more shocking is that the FDA first issued draft sunscreen regulations in 1978 and last updated the draft in 2007. The regulations are still not final, despite multiple announcements of impending completion. Until the agency formally issues its rules, companies are not required to verify their sunscreens work, including testing for SPF levels, checking waterproof claims or providing UVA protection. Nearly one in eight sunscreens does not block UVA rays. Many carry the seal of “The Skin Cancer Foundation.” According to the Environmental Working Groups, “The Skin Cancer Foundation (SCF) lends its logo to hundreds of sun protection products. SCF approval is easy, just document that your product has an SPF of at least 15 and provide results of basic tests (for SPF, skin reactions and water and sweat resistance, if such claims are made).

Confused? If you are, then you are not alone. Here’s something that will make the most of the confusion Disappear. Since sunscreens are probably not as safe as once thought, the best thing to do is stay out of the sun during its peak hours (10:00am – 2:00pm) and whenever possible, wear protective clothing instead of chemicals. Don’t forget, some sun is absolutely necessary for Vitamin D production and proper health. The amount of sun you should get depends on your skin type but you should NEVER burn.

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Posted in Health | 4 Comments »

Heart Surgeons Get Wake-Up Call On Common Procedure

Monday, August 9th, 2010

On May 15th, 2007, the Commonwealth Fund issued a report entitled, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care.”

The results were not good. In fact, here’s what the first sentence of the report had to say: “Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. Are you Shocked?  You shouldn’t be.  Why?  This is because this is nothing new at all.

According to the report: “Among the six nations studied—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2006 and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror. Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last on dimensions of access, patient safety, efficiency, and equity. The 2007 edition includes data from the six countries and incorporates patients’ and physicians’ survey results on care experiences and ratings on various dimensions of care.”

Overall, Germany and the UK topped the list, with Canada and the United States bringing up the rear. Also worth noting here is that America spends close to three times as much for its mediocre approach to health per capita ($6,102) annually than does New Zealand ($2,083), and almost twice as much as Canada ($3,165). Even worse, American doctors are the slowest to change when it comes to technology, again, with the lowest numbers in relation to using electronic medical records or keeping up with the latest treatments via the Internet.

Now here is something that you will probably find interesting, even puzzling.  According to the report, “the area where the U.S. health care system performs best is preventive care, an area that has been monitored closely for over a decade by managed care plans.”

It’s always been abundantly clear that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For example, the May 9th edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had an article entitled: “Cardiologists Get Wake-up Call on Stents.” According to the article, “Patients with stable coronary artery disease treated with stents and optimal medical therapy fare no better than those who receive optimal medical therapy alone, according to new findings from a large clinical trial.”

For many cardiologists, the results serve as a wake-up call that they need to reevaluate how frequently they offer stenting (which has slight risks associated with the intervention itself, as well as stent-associated thrombotic events) as a first option for relief of stable angina. The data comes from the Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive Drug Evaluation (COURAGE) Trial, reported here in March at the annual conference of the American College of Cardiology.

It seems like research is simply confirming what many thought to be true all along.  Prevention is far superior to invasive “crisis” procedures after years and years of neglect.  It is abundantly clear you cannot abuse or neglect your body and health and have the wonders of modern medicine save you.

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What Every Parent Should Know About Ear Infections, Antibiotics And Sudden Infant Death Syndrome!

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

If you have children, then reading this may be the most important thing you do to make sure they grow up happy, healthy and to their genetic potential. Two thirds of U.S. children suffer middle ear infections, or otitis media, by the age of 2. The infections usually follow a viral respiratory infection. At first, they cause a red and swollen eardrum, pain and fussiness in infants and toddlers. Sometimes fluid accumulates in the middle ear, behind the eardrum, where it can remain for weeks or months and may impair hearing.

So, you come home from work next week and your little Johnny has an ear infection. What do you do? Well, let’s separate fact from fiction so you can make an educated decision that may have a drastic impact on your child’s life for the rest of their life because the treatment you choose could have a drastic effect on the rest of your child’s life. The first thing you must understand about ear infections is that they are not as dangerous as you may think. Here’s what a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Southern California/RAND Evidence-based Practice Canter (EPC) found: nearly two-thirds of children with uncomplicated ear infections recover from pain and fever within 24 hours of diagnosis without antibiotic treatment. Over 80% recover within 1 to 7 days.

Approximately 93% of children treated with antibiotics recover within 1-7 days. Researchers also found that the newer and more costly antibiotics, such as cefacior, cefixime, azithromycin, or clarithromycin, provide no additional benefit to children than amoxicillin. The EPC also found no evidence that short-duration (5 days or less) versus long-duration therapy (7-10 days) made a difference in the clinical outcome for children 2 years of age.

More than 5 million cases of acute ear infections occur annually, costing about $3 billion. In the November 26, 1997 issue of the Journal of The American Medical Association, experts say the routine use of antibiotics against pediatric ear infections produces little health benefit while contributing to the spread of drug resistant bacteria.

They point out that children whose previous ear infections were treated with antibiotics have a rate of amoxicillan resistant bacteria that is three times higher during subsequent ear infection episodes. In extreme cases, deaths from drug resistant meningitis have been linked to built-up antibiotic resistance traced to previous treatment for ear infection.

What’s more, Dr. Joseph Mercola, MD, from Johns Hopkins University states: “The treatment of ear infections is a huge problem. MOST of the chronically sick children I see were given antibiotics frequently for recurrent ear infections. The sad tragedy is that nearly all of these are preventable.”

Do you understand what this means? Not only does using antibiotics for many cases of ear infections possibly not help, it may lead to chronic illness! Now that you have the bad news, what’s the good news? The good news is there are natural ways to help prevent and stop ear infections without the use of harmful antibiotics.

A study was performed comparing the health of two hundred pediatrician’s children versus 200 chiropractor’s children. The results will shock you. The study found that 80% of the “medical” Children Suffered Ear Infection versus only 31% of the “chiropractic” children! And “pediatricians were more likely to feel that every child would have been on a course of antibiotics at least once, and the occurrence of infectious diseases was significantly less among the latter sample.” The study went on the say, “This study has shown that children raised under chiropractic care are less prone to infectious processes such as otitis media and tonsillitis, and that their immune systems are better able to cope with allergens such as pollen, weeds, grasses, and more as compared to children raised under allopathic (medical) care.”

How could this be? What could be the difference that made the chiropractic children healthier? Could there be one thing, above all others, that gave these children superior health and… a better chance for success in life? I think there is. Your nervous system controls every function in your body. Your brain sends electrical impulses down your spinal cord and nerves to all your organs and cells. It tells your heart to beat and your lungs to breath. It controls the whole show.

These electrical impulses can get altered as they exit your spine, in between your spinal bones by misaligned or malfunctioning spinal joints. When this happens, your body doesn’t function the way it should. Your immune system doesn’t function the way it should. So when the germs responsible for an ear infection or any other disease enter your children’s body, the immune system doesn’t fight it off like it should and the result is an ear infection. Normally, without any interference from the spinal joint, the germs could have been defeated.

Medical researcher Dr. G. Gutmann, after examining over 1000 infants concluded that approximately 80% had imbalances, many from the top bone in the neck. Abraham Towbin, MD, Neuropathologist Harvard Medical School, found that 7 out of 8 autopsies he performed on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) died from a spinal cord injury from the birth process or soon after.

Let’s get one thing crystal clear: The birth process is not a walk in the park. The infant is usually grabbed by its head and it is pulled and twisted out with great force. And remember, your baby’s neck is very delicate. It has been living in fluid for the last nine months and has never even had to hold up the weight of its own head.

The bottom line is that every child should receive a complete chiropractic spinal check-up to insure they grow up happy and healthy. After all, Medical researcher Dr, Gutmann found that 80% of the infants he examined had spinal imbalances. Do you think your child is any different? Make sure you contact New Century Spine Centers in San Diego our office to find out how all of your children can get a free spinal trauma evaluation. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s free. And it may change their life.

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Posted in Chiropractic, Health | 8 Comments »

Winning Health The Natural Way Through Chiropractic Care

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Choosing between good health and great wealth is usually a simple answer. Most people would pick good health. However when asked to define “health,” many would have trouble putting into words what this concept means to us. For some of us health might mean lack of illness, disease and pain. Sometimes to some health means being symptom free. For other individuals good health might mean a greater positive state of being, including strong bones, good posture, white teeth, great body and eyes, strong muscles, appropriate weight, and much more.

We all want want great health. This is very important. Unfortunately, this goal at times is very difficult to reach with a health care system focused primarily on treatment of disease as opposed to prevention of illness. Focusing on symptoms is not the key to health. Though we have extensive research about the illness of the body and therapy of signs and symptoms, we should be focusing on prevention.

In the study of heart patients for example, heart bypasses and angioplasty generally do not address the underlying cause of the heart condition or problem. Many surgeries generally treat the existing problem which can return if the person doesn’t also make a lifestyle change in their daily activity. When patients make comprehensive lifestyle changes consistent with a healthy heart and overall wellness, most patients have a good chance of improving their overall health.

Often times someone is hospitalized with an end-stage disease that has taken years to develop. During previous years the person has eaten unhealthy foods every day. Often a patient may say, “What’s wrong with me, Doctor?” The doctor replies, “I don’t know, we’ll have to run more tests and procedures.”

You can examine the whole person and his or her lifestyle over many years, and the disease will be seen throughout their entire body in various findings. It would generally make more sense to study what causes the body to be healthy as opposed to being ill. In reality, only twenty percent of today’s research is spent on preventative health care and most is spent on the study of disease and illness. Part of the problem might be that it is less lucrative to study prevention than it is to study treatment for illness. There is less money to be made on prevention.

Research examines the factors that help keep the body healthy are becoming increasingly certain of the significance of the mind/body connection as a critical component in health care. This factor is an important reason why many patients are turning to chiropractic health care by chiropractors as part of their health building strategies as opposed to medical care that treats the disease.

Doctors of chiropractic work directly with the mind and body connection for optimum health. The brain contains all the information to run the body correctly and naturally. The entire nervous system is a channel of nerves from the brain to each tissue cell in the body. All functions are controlled by the nervous system. Similarly, the spinal column covers and protects the nervous system from outside damage.

We know that brain functions can be affected unless we keep it safe and free from severe injuries. The same is true for the spinal column and proper nervous system functioning. When the spine is seriously damaged and the spine cord becomes clipped, the body can become paralyzed because the brain can no longer communicate properly with the rest of the body. This principle also applies when damage to the spine is on a lesser scale, resulting in misalignment of spinal bones and pressure on nerve function. Spinal vertebral misalignment results in a partial communication breakdown leading to a partial as opposed to full connection between the mind and body. When this happens, the body loses much of its ability to maintain health and proper functionality.

In addition, lifestyle factors are important in building optimal health. Most of us understand that we need proper rest, proper nutrition, exercise and a positive mental attitude. Unfortunately we may not fully understand the importance of a properly functioning nervous system and spinal column. Building health from within the body is the ultimate path we all must discover for ourselves. It is not something a doctor can give us especially when they are focusing on disease. It is something we give ourselves because healing and health are natural states, and we have the power to control our decisions regardless of the rest.

It was once said by the developer of chiropractic BJ Palmer, “In the future, chiropractic will be valued for its preventative qualities as much as for relieving and adjusting the cause of many problems.” The future is now because chiropractic care is no longer an alternative care but the mainstream choice of millions who have turned to chiropractic doctors for natural health and wellness care. Many chiropractic doctors including the best chiropractors at New Century Spine Centers of San Diego are now covered by many insurance companies.

Doctors of chiropractic are committed to educating their patients about healthy lifestyle and their patients express appreciation for it. To learn more, those interested in getting a special report can go to www.SanDiegoBackPainTreatment.com for more information. We need to be involved with our health by asking the right questions and beginning our own quest to discover just what “good health” truly is.

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