Health Resources Chiropractic and Naturopathic

The anti-wrinkle drug Botox, derived from a deadly botulism toxin, is often portrayed as entirely safe - but it isn't, says a new FDA report. Botox smoothes facial wrinkles by paralyzing muscles under the skin. The toxin has medical uses as well: Injections of Botox in the legs or neck can be helpful for cerebral palsy patients suffering from sever muscle spasms. But in rare cases, the FDA warns, the toxin can spread from the site of the injection and cause paralysis in other parts of the body. Dozens of negative reactions have been reported, including several children with cerebral palsy who died when the toxin spread from their injected muscles and prevented them from breathing. At least one woman who received Botox for cosmetic reasons was hospitalized after the toxin affected other muscles. "People should be aware there's a potential for this to happen," says FDA neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz. Botox users, he says, should be on alert for symptoms such as difficulty swallowing or breathing, slurred speech, muscle weakness, or difficulty holding up the head.
sited from The Week, February 29, 2008

Teenagers can become addicted to nicotine by smoking a single cigarette, a tobacco researcher has found. By studying adolescents who smoke only occasionally, Dr. Josephe DeFranza examined how nicotine produces dependency. He concluded that for many teens, even one exposure to cigarettes sets up a powerful reward system in the brain. Teenagers in the study who smoked as few as three cigarettes per week could not do without these occasional smokes without feeling strong cravings and irritability. As a result, they kept smoking, if even only occasionally. "Most of these self-described 'social smokers' were addicted to tobacco," he says. For those who smoked more often, of course, the cravings were more urgent. "It's a huge mistake to start smoking," DiFranza says. "If (teens) never start, they'll never have to worry about quitting."
sited from The Week, February 29, 2008

Rats fed a steady diet of sugar substitutes were hungrier and gained more weight than rats that ate sugary food, a new study has found. The study may explain why people who drink a lot of diet soda have higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic problems. Purdue University researchers fed sugar-filled and sugar-free yogurt to groups of rats, and found that rats that got accustomed to artificially sweetened meals were still hungry afterward and went back for more food. Why? It appears that artificial sweeteners confuse the body, which is programmed to associate sweet tastes with calories consumed; when we repeatedly eat something sweet that provides little or no calories, researchers say, we break that connection, and our confused bodies keep seeking more food. Also, the rats that frequently ate sugar substitutes also didn't have the metabolic increase that usually follows eating a meal, so they burned fewer calories, researcher Susan Swithers tells HealthDay. Combine a larger appetitie with a slower metabolism and you have a formula for severe weight gain. "The take-home message," Swithers says, "is that consumption of artificially sweetened products may interfere with an automatic process."
sited from TheWeek, February 29, 2008

It's not enough to worry about what you feed your baby: Now you have to think about what you're smearing on his skin, too. A new study has found that babies' skin can absorb chemicals from lotions, powders, and shampoos. Researchers found that infants who were lathered up with the most cosmetics products were exposed to high levels of phthalates, hormone-altering chemicals that can have effects on a baby's developing reproductive system. When researchers tested the urine of 163 infants, they found surprisingly high phthalate concentrations: All of the babies had detectable levels, and 80 percent were carrying seven or more different variations of the chemicals. "We found that mothers' reported use of infant lotion, infant powder, and shampoo was significantly associated" with the amount of phthalates found in the babies' urine, researchers tell the Los Angeles Times. Phthalates are used to hold in fragrance and color, but they're not listed as ingredients on labels, so it's impossible to tell which cosmetics contain them.
sited from The Week, Feb. 22, 2008

Stiffness in the neck and bad posture can have a major impact on our general health, even on our blood pressure, says New Scientist. Researchers at the University of Leeds in the U.K., studying brain signals in mice, noticed that stimulation of a mouse's neck muscles stimulated the brain area that regulates autonomic nerve functions, such as those relating to heart rate. That means there is a previously unknown neural connection between these muscles and the brainstem. The findings, says neuroscientist Ian Edwards, could expalin why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injuried - through whiplash, for example. Similarly, it's possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure. "The pathway exists for bad posture to really have an effect," Edwards says.
sited from The Week, August 31, 2007

During pregnancy, hormones can induce irresistible food cravings, including cravings for unhealthful foods such as ice cream and French fries. But it turns out that it's not just the mom who may be developing a junk food habit - the fetus could be getting hooked on junk, too. When researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in the U.K. fed pregnant rats junk treats instead of healthful rat chow, the babies were born craving the bad stuff, gorging twice the calories as the other rats. It appears that brain receptors can associate junk food with pleasure even in the womb, so babies whose mothers ate such food during pregnancy are born with a brain primed for junk food addiction, researcher Neil Strickland tells BBC News. "Future mothers should be aware," Strickland says, "that pregnancy and lactation are not the time to overindulge on fatty and sugary treats on the assumption that they are 'eating for two'."
sited from The Week, August 31, 2007

Genetically Engineered Foods May Be Causing Increased Food Allergies. We have seen more food allergies and increased complications in treating patients since genetic engineering has become so common.

Charles Sheehan wrote an article, "Scientists See Spike in Kids' Food Allergies", Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2006. He stated there has been a huge jump in childhood food allergies in the US since the change in American's diet beginning in 1996 when bacteria, virus and other genes have been artificially inserted to the DNA of soy, corn, cottonseed and canola plants. These unlabeled genetically modified (GM) foods carry a risk of triggering life-threatening allergic reactions, and evidence collected over the past decade now suggests that they are contributing to higher allergy rates.

Usually people aren't allergic to a geneticly altered food until they have eaten it several times. So the testing that is being done is inadequate for long term effects. The only real test stated by a former FDA microbiologist, Louis Pribyl, "is human consumption by affected peoples, which can have ethical considerations. And it is the ethical considerations of feeding unlabeled, high-risk GM crops to unknowing consumers that has many people up in arms."

The UK is one of the few countries that conduct a yearly evaluation of food allergies. In March 1999, researchers at the York Laboratory were alarmed to discover that reactions to soy had skyrocketed by 50% over the previous year. Genetically modified soy had recently entered the UK from US imports and soy used in the study was largely GM. John Graham, spokesman for the York laboratory, said, "We believe this raises serious new questions about the safety of GM foods."

Critics of GM foods often say that the US population is being used as guinea pigs in an experiment. But experiments have the benefit of controls and measurement. In this case, there is neither. How could the potential allergen be identified? The Canadian government announcd in 2002 that they would "keep a careful eye on the health of Canadians" to see if GM foods had any adverse reactions, they abandoned their plans within a year, saying that such a study was too difficult. This was reported in "Genetically modified foods, who knows how safe they are?" CBC News and Current Affairs, September 25, 2006.

One postulated understanding of why a GM crop might create new allergies is that the imported genes produce a new protein, which has never before been present. This new protein may trigger reactions. This was demonstrated in the mid 1990s when soybeans were outfitted with a gene from the Brazil nut. While the scientists had attempted to produce a healthier soybean, they ended up with a potentially deadly one. Blood tests from people who were allergic to Brazil nuts showed reactions to the beans. This study was reported by J. Ordlee, et al, "Identification of a Brazil-Nut Allergen in Transgenic Soybeans," The New England Journal of Medicine, March 14, 1996. It was fortunately never put on the market.

If a protein in GM foods is causing allergies, then the situation may be made much worse by something called horizontal gene transfer (HGT). That's when genes spontaneously transfer from one species' DNA to another. While this happens often among bacteria, it is rare in plants and mammals. But the method used to construct and insert foreign genes into GM crops eliminates many of the natural barriers that stop HGT from occurring.

Remember the advertising on TV years ago that said it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Never has this been so true than with GM foods.

There are times in life when we feel sad because of losses or disappointments. But, when we suffer a major loss or change - such as the leath of a loved one, loss of a friendship or death of a pet - we grieve. Everyone experiences grief differently. And, we all have our own ways of coping.

Grief is a normal and healthy response to any loss. When we grieve, we may go through a number of stages. They are helpful in identifying our thoughts, feelings and actions. These stages may include denial, shock, anger, depression and guilt. The length - and order - of these stages will vary from person to person. And, not everyone will experience each stage. Grief is very personal and individualized.

Take advantage of the support around you, including family, friends, co-workers, counselors, or religious or spiritual leaders. Joining a support group can give you a chance to talk with others who have experienced a similar loss.

Health Resources wants to introduce you to Dee Bailey, one of Dr. Irestone's assistants who has training and experience in the area of grief.

Dee Bailey, MA, CPCC, grief specialist, speaker, workshop leader and life coach has been working with adults in transition for over 20 years.

After earning her BA in counseling psychology and MA in Human Development, Dee trained with the Coaches Training Institute in 1997 and holds the distinction of being the first woman in Minnesota to become a Certified Professional Personal Coach.

In her private coaching practice with individuals and groups, Dee integrates alternative approaches to learning and healing from loss and has developed a unique process of literally and figuratively walking her clients through grief.

She also writes a Grief Blog and hosts monthly Grief TeleCafés for grievers and those who wish to support them. Email coachdeebailey@aol.com or call 952-707-6825 for more information.

You can visit Dee’s grief blog at http://hopefulcrossings.blogspot.com.

Following the Second World War, chemical manufacturers were sitting on huge stockpiles of phosphates and nitrates that were initially intended for use in explosives. They discovered that when they spread these same phosphates and nitrates on the soil where plants were growing, the plants grew bigger and looked healthier. Thus began the boom of the fertilizer industry.

During a graduate nutrition course at the University of Minnesota, a professor posed a challenge to the class: Construct a 2000 calorie-per-day diet that at least met the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for vitamins and minerals without the use of supplements. Most of the graduate students thought that this was going to be a simple assignment. After all, we had been told over and over again that people can get all of the nutrients their body needs simply by eating a well-balanced diet. Well, the professor was putting that statement to the test.

To everyone’s surprise, no one was able to come up with a sustainable daily diet that met the minimum RDA requirements. The graduate students discovered that it is impossible to get everything that you need from the food we eat. But how could this be? Certainly people have lived on this planet for a long time and must have been able to get everything they needed from their diet. The answer has to do with modern farming techniques, fertilizers and environmental stresses.

Following the Second World War, chemical manufacturers were sitting on huge stockpiles of phosphates and nitrates that were initially intended for use in explosives. They discovered that when they spread these same phosphates and nitrates on the soil where plants were growing, the plants grew bigger and looked healthier. Thus began the boom of the fertilizer industry.

The problem with modern fertilizers is that they don’t replace soil trace minerals, such as chromium, zinc and copper, as do cow manure and other natural fertilizers. Over time, these trace minerals become more and more depleted from the soil and, consequently, our food supply becomes more depleted as well. The bottom line is that in order to get enough trace minerals in our diet to at least meet the minimum RDAs, it is necessary to take a good quality supplement.

How to Select a Good Multivitamin

All vitamin supplements are not created equal. Supplements are just like anything else— there are some good ones out there and a whole lot of supplements that are not as good. Here a few keys to determining whether a particular vitamin is good:

In general, supplements sold through a health care professionals are top quality. They tend to be a little more expensive than the supplements you find at your local drug store because the ingredients that go into them tend to be of a higher quality.
High quality vitamins have chelated minerals. This makes a huge difference in how well the minerals are absorbed by your body. If you have any questions about specific supplements that you are taking, be sure to ask your chiropractor.
Most high quality vitamin formulations require that you take more than one capsule or tablet per day. This is simply because high quality ingredients, such as chelated minerals, take up more space than their cheaper counterparts.

The Bottom Line

Taking supplements as part of your overall daily health regimen is a simple and inexpensive way to ensure that your body has everything it needs to be healthy. When combined with regular chiropractic care, taking a high quality multivitamin will help to slow the aging process and decrease your risk of a number of degenerative diseases. Be sure to talk to your chiropractor to determine which multivitamin formula best fits your individual needs.