“I’m Mad as Hell and Won’t Take it Anymore!!”

The quote is from the 1976 movie, Network. But is should be about how patients feel about our health care system.

Latest news: In Vitro fertilization, which patients tell me costs $30,000+ per attempt is 8% effective. 8%? How much hope can you give a couple with those odds?

Tylenol is considered a staple of the family’s arsenal for their children, safe for most.  Read below – it’s not (especially for teens).  And its in many products including cold medicines, cough syrups and other pain and fever relief products.

Latest news: A huge study published in England conducted on 330,000 teens in 50 countries gives the increased risks with Tylenol (acetominophen) usage. MODERATE usage is considered ONCE PER YEAR, HEAVY is ONCE PER MONTH.  (Do you know anyone using more than once per month?)

For “heavy” use the risks for teens increase as follows:

• 151% increased risk of asthma
• 118% increased risk of allergies
• 87% increase risk of eczema

MORAL: Don’t trust our health care system.  Its taken decades to find out that Tylenol is not safe even in low doses, especially for teens. What else are we doing that has awful side effects over the long-term?  Think before putting ANY chemicals in your body.

Does the FDA have a drug problem? No duh!

Time Magazine has an article this week about the FDA approving the diabetes drug Avandia in 1999 despite the awareness of cardiovascular side effects.  Jump ahead to 2010 and despite study after study by the FDA and others Avandia is just being reconsidered to be taken off the market.  According to their own estimates 47,000 people have suffered stroke, heart attack or death from Avandia.

47000?  Yes ! Doesn’t that sound like the kind of numbers used in a genocide in an African country? Or victims of a flood. Or vehicle recall? NOT injuries done by FDA approved drugs??  Surely noone would PAY for a product, let alone be authorized to USE something in our modern society that could injure, maim or kill 47000 people.  IS THIS NOT A PROBLEM???

These statistics are AUTHORIZED and PAID FOR in the name of better health.  As sales climbed above $2 billion per year for drug conglomerate Glaxo Smith Kline, Avandia was making big profits while injuring people.

Now there are suits and settlements but the drug companies remain the most consistently profitable companies in the world.  The costs of litigation are reported in the  Time article (GSK is short for Glaxo Smith Kline):

Now GSK  has other financial concerns. In March the company put aside $3.5 billion for “legal and other disputes.” In May it paid $60 million to settle 700 Avandia civil cases; in July it reportedly offered to pay $460 million to settle civil cases claiming the drug caused heart attacks.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2010028-3,00.html#ixzz0x5tkor6D

But they have averaged over $1 billion in sales annually since before 2000 and the product is still on the market.  Seems like they can afford the legal expenses.  Note to self: 47000!!

This the classic story of “sell it anyways” and “deal with the lawsuits when they come”.  Yes, they got caught but like other other drugs (remember Vioxx? Celebrex? and others) THE FDA KNEW FROM THE GITGO.

There are countless stories of what is wrong with the FDA. Their own self-study, which I have written about describes problems from top to bottom, the worst in my opinion being that the FDA docs have their hand in the pockets of the drug companies. A recent article about the reflux drugs: http://topnews.co.uk/25357-fda-cautions-fracture-peril-acid-reflux-drugs causing fractures.

People need to get that ALL drugs have side-effects, that the effects may be lethal, and the drug companies do NOT want you to know or take them too seriously.  Not until they have made their profits… then its OK. And one more thing – IT MAY TAKE YEARS TO SHOW!  Examples abound:

• remember Thalidomide (for morning sickness) and children with shortened limbs?
• remember di-ethylstilbestrol (also for morning sickness) that did not affect the mother taken it. Her FEMALE offspring had incomplete uterus formation and had to be sewed up to have a baby.
• remember that margarine was said to be OK for about 20 years… a corn product made by Monsato, Dow and other conglomerates that are corn overproducers because of government subsidies.  They invented margarine to use more corn, told us it was safe… until we learned the truth alot later.
• here’s a list on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_withdrawn_drugs

The bottom line – THERE ARE NO QUICK FIXES when it comes to health.  You can change the physiology of the body… for a while. Maybe even years with medicine, but eventually it has to be processed by the body, filtered by the kidneys and… bites you in the figurative rear end.  THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES, some that take decades to show.

It is much harder to take responsibility, to commit to wellness, to make better choices each day, than to use a “quick fix”.  Our office is devoted to those committed to the tough road, the healthy road, the natural road to optimal health and healing.

Antibiotics – read the fine print!

One of my senior female patients had severe Achilles tendon pain for months.   She limped around, went to the experts, had all kinds of casts, medicine and therapies without help.

Time passed and with a recent episode of bronchitis, doctors put her on antibiotics (CIPRO) for the condition. Her granddaughter noted that she was barely able to move again and like the last time had severe heel pain.

A quick search of the internet will show that a known side effect of the CIPRO is listed (from WebMD):

Fluoroquinolones, including CIPRO®, are associated with an increased risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture in all ages. This risk is further increased in older patients usually over 60 years of age, in patients taking corticosteroid drugs, and in patients with kidney, heart or lung transplants …

You get the idea.

Chiropratic Moral: Surely supporting the immune system and staying well is more sensible than putting yourself at risk for “tendon rupture”!

Birth Defects Linked to UTI Antibiotics

For most of us the health of our children is one, if not the most important things in our lives.  I know I see the most distraught patients when family members are ill.   Sometimes they can do something about it, take family to doctors.

But birth defects is something that no one can do much about except perhaps repairable defects like cleft palate.  The recent research findings published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine report brain, heart, limb and cleft palate deformities from commonly used medications for urinary tract infections (UTI). Here is the article:

Birth Defects and UTI antibiotics article

While there is questions about the exact connections to the medicine and the  suggestion that more research is needed there is an underlying moral to the story:

• medicines can do injury to the fetus
• sometimes it take decades to be determined
• less foreign substances in the body are better even if prescribed
• natural treatments are available. Seek them out first.

For UTI common alternative treatments include:

1. Increase water intake
2. Add a tablespoon of cranberry concentrate to 8oz of water to acidify the urine.  The benzoic acid in cranberries is not converted to a sugar like citric or other acids.
3. take acidophilus to support the natural bacteria that keep the pH balance protective in the urinary tract
4. decrease refined sugar intake.  Some women become pre-diabetic with pregnancy and sugar spills over in the urine making it an easy place for bacteria to breed.

This topic hits home.  My brother is two years younger than I and brain-damaged at or before birth.

-Dr. Miller

Note:  Discuss any treatments with your doctors.

Vaccinations – are they good for us?

There are issues with vaccinations – not everyone wants them or likes them, particularly immigrants to the U.S.  (like me!)  Some of the varied concerns:

• our hygiene has improved we don’t need them
• it messes with the immune system
• too many too often and more on the way
• not enough long term research
• its state mandated isn’t it?
• its proven to work, what’s the big deal?
• my kid got vaccinated, but I got sick
• don’t viruses mutate?
• they go directly into the body

That’s a short list. For a longer discussion I have a couple of links which give you a broad perspective from the standard medical mandate to those highly opposed:

Wikipedia gives a well-referenced extensive discussion of the vaccination controversy: link.

A well referenced “against vaccination” article: link.

Wellness philosophy vs. disease: Going back a few steps do you believe we are designed to exist, or co-exist on the planet with the various disease entities? I do, maybe because my undergraduate degree in zoology swayed me.  In nature the strong biological specimens survive and the strongest human immune systems can survive even epidemics like the plague.  But we don’t view ourselves as part of “biology” so we try to change the playing field.  We tend the sick (animals don’t) and attempt to reduce suffering and disease.  This is the human condition.

However, as much as we try, nature is still at work and the old saying “you can’t mess with Mother Nature” is still true.  Viruses and bacteria mutate as part of their process.  We cannot keep up with it easily on a global scale.  WE CREATED MSRA (resistant  bacteria) by using too much antibiotics too often thinking it would work; for it time it does on some people.  But some bugs survived and flourished and that generation is stronger.

Wellness triad: My philosophy,a wellness philosophy, the chiropractic philosophy is that the body has all it needs to cope with disease processes and medicine is in the back pocket for emergencies.  This entails a preventative pro-active mandate through life on three fronts: structural, chemical/nutritional and mind/spiritual.

Whichever way you approach it, the spinal structure and nerve control must be optimal, the fuel sources and detoxification must be optimal and the mental activity and spiritual self must be whole for WELLNESS.  Not, absence of symptom.  When symptoms are absent there are numerous activities to support the continued wellness and longevity of each of us.  And given this triad working optimally there is an expectation of a highly functioning immune system and less need to consider a vaccination model, indeed to expect to get sick.

Questioning the sickness model: Vaccinations assume we and our families will get sick from birth.  It ignores the immunity passed to the baby from the mother in utero, from breast milk and the support of the immune system by the Thymus gland in children.  Our health care system assumes we will get sick from birth on.  Pregnancy itself is considered a sickness not celebrated as a miracle of life.  Health, wellness, prevention and longevity are not on most people’s radar screen so they act accordingly making poor choices that will lead to illness.

I encourage my patients to change their thinking first.  To consider themselves strong, vibrant and to take care of what they have to live in the rest of their lives – their body.  Just the intention of wellness will improve their health. Followed up by action can lead to better and better health. Going for a walk during the first half of a football game is better than spending the whole day on the couch.  Saying “no” to sodas, prepared foods, trying chiropractic, meditation, yoga and long walks as regular activities leads to healthier choices vs. fast food, TV and taking pills.

My patients don’t expect to get the bug that is going around – they fight it by keeping warm, gargling if they get the start of a sore throat, making soups, having tea with some honey.  They should not expect a single perfect solution to improving their immune system using Airborne, excess synthetic Vitamin C or Tamiflu; easier but not the way the complex body operates.

The golden years should be golden: Many seniors spend far too much energy on doctor visits, prescriptions, surgeries etc. If one doctor visit takes up half a day, a few specialists can wipe out much of a week.  Our societal paradigm is that we “fall apart” after 60, or 50 or even 40 depending on what you have been told.  And we believe it!  In some cultures the seniors are revered and respected the older they become.  In these cultures botox and silicone are not king.

Once seniors start acting healthy, taking responsibility for being active, thinking younger, many can respond.  For some its too late.  But for those who can respond, feeling better, having increased energy, taking trips and enjoying family activities gives them a new lease on life… and ramps up their immune system.

The vaccination question revisited:  Drug companies say vaccinations are safe, work and they have statistics to prove it.  I’m not sure we should trust them implicitly with their history of finding out sometimes a generation later what their products can do to us.  My patients that have had children with severe reactions to vaccination and other medications can warn you there is another side, an ugly side to vaccinations.

However, if you are not going to do anything different for your health from the status quo you may have to go that route.   But I suggest at least the consideration of the alternative, to support your body in health. Do something healthy every day, learn about healthy living, healthy eating and options for avoiding illness.  Hopefully, your family like mine can decline vaccinations confidently, live long and vibrantly.

– Dr. Miller

Understanding the Body in Balance

The principle of Chiropractic and alternative health is that you help the body do what its supposed to do.   Some examples:

• it makes its own steroids
• its balances its own blood thickness
• it heals cuts and wounds
• it replaces itself constantly cell by cell

And its INTELLIGENT 24/7 even while you are sleeping it keeps on working and keeps things in BALANCE or homeostasis.  You get it hot, its sweats to cool.  You get cool, you shiver – it knows, its automatic. Truly amazing.

Body in Balance – Homeostasis: If you want to make a change from the outside, let’s say “thin the blood a little bit” or “add steroids to reduce inflammation” or “take pills to stop headaches” the body does not sit back and accept the chemicals without a response.  As soon as they are imbibed the body tries to reverse and rebalance the changes in chemistry back to the prior state – the kidneys and liver try to detoxify the body until the original balance is maintained.

This rebalancing can be demonstrated on a graph showing the setpoint, that returns once the balancing mechanism, the homeostatic mechanism of the body is engaged and eventually rebalanced at the point  just above the X on the axes.

• if the setpoint is blood glucose and the environmental disturbance is lunch, we call the chart “normal”
• If the setpoint is blood glucose and the homeostatic mechanism does not kick in and the levels go up and up , we call it “diabetes.”
• If the setpoint is body temperature and the environmental disturbance is going for a run the homeostatic mechanism could be sweating, again “normal”
• If the set point is body temperature and it keeps going up and does not come back down, we call it “heat stroke”.

How the body rebalances a disturbance in homeostasis

Overriding homeostatis – medicine: To affect change to the body’s chemistry,  medicine has to be added continually to keep the body off its own balance. In the graph the goal would be to change the setpoint above or below.  If the body did not try to back to its balance you could take one aspirin and never need another.  An addict would get high, and never need another fix.  While the medicine continues to be added to produce a wanted effect, side-effects, unwanted effects demonstrate unwanted changes in chemistry occur at the same time.  The graph is overly simplistic.

The advantage of alternative health, of eating better foods, of chiropractic is that these methods only support what the body is already trying to do.  If your nerve system is working better it should make the changes that are best for the body at the pace the body can handle WITHOUT side-effects.

Blood Pressure – an example:  Take blood pressure.  The body regulates its own.  If you are out of shape, or getting older, or stressed, the body raises the blood pressure.  Heck, you can even think about something and if it’s the wrong thing, the blood pressure goes up.

There are medicines to take it down.  And they work for a bit so you have to take more to get the blood levels up.  And if they become ineffective you may need another one or a stronger one.  Some don’t work so well so you might have to take several to get the numbers where the doctor wants them.  That’s the easy fix.  And as I said, the liver and kidneys work overtime to eliminate that medicine.

For every pound of extra fat, (someone must have measured it – thankless job) its  said there are 30 miles of blood vessels so if you are overweight, blood pressure tends to be up to get the blood through it.  Its a natural response.  As arteries are less elastic as we age, or thicken with plaquing, your body puts blood pressure up.  If you live a busy city, just that alone might put your blood pressure up vs. living in a thatched hut in Tonga.

Some people have higher blood pressure because the need it. Yes NEED it, either genetically or to keep their tissues perfused with blood and oxygen to stay alive.  I’ve seen cases where feet went black and gangrenous when patients were on blood pressure medication. The blood could not get through without a higher than normal pressure – I’m not sure losing feet was a price worth paying for “normal” blood pressure.  Often our body knows best exactly what is right for us.

Baroreceptors that control blood pressure

Control of blood pressure, indeed control of all body mechanisms is by the brain and runs through the neck.  Sensors for blood pressure (called baroreceptors) are in the neck.  In our society with vehicular impacts i.e. whiplash, rough delivery as babies, contact sports etc. necks get lots of injuries.  On top of all the other issues related to blood pressure, nerve system control from the neck is a big one, and based on my practice may be as big or bigger than all the factors we see in the news.

It’s possible to be the perfect patient and have high blood pressure if the neck receptors, or neck function is not correct.  You can have normal weight, perfect diet, be fit as an athlete and still have high blood pressure.  On the contrary, patients that don’t do much of what I ask can still have better blood pressure with just chiropractic alone.  The nerve system is a powerful modifier of body function.  .

The Tipping Point: The mechanisms for homeostasis, for keeping the body in balance, can only go for so long – life takes it toll and if not life our vices.  The alcoholic eventually wears out his liver; Type II diabetes occurs when the body is at a certain weight; blood pressure can show up very quickly and without symptoms.  We don’t know where that tipping point occurs; it’s a dice throw we would prefer not to lose.  I don’t condone ignoring healthy living –  I work on my weight, my fitness and my diet but like the rest of America, I lead a spoiled life with weight and too much good food.

So the wellness approach to make constructive effort before the body is out of balance, to not take a chance at rolling the dice.   We don’t know how little exercise, how bad your diet can be, how much plaquing you have to have, how bad your neck can be before the body cannot balance your blood pressure or other symptoms.  Some patients don’t get a warning with dire if not fatal consequences.