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January 18, 2003 Research Update |
James Bogash, D.C. Mesa, AZ
info@lifecarechiro.com
www.lifecarechiro.com
Echinacea
This is a pretty comprehensive review of this popular herb. Personally, I don't ever remember recommending echinacea in my office. Most often, if some is getting sick or is sick, it's more important to pay attention to what we shouldn't put into our bodies, rather than what we should be putting in. In other words, refined carbs and trans and saturated fats can suppress the immune system so avoiding this garbage should be a primary approach to staving off illness. I do often recommend high dosages (1 gram every hour until bowel tolerance is reached--stools become loose or increased gas) of vitamin C if someone is not feeling well.
Echinacea - January 1, 2003 - American Family Physician
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SSRI and Risk of Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Bleeding
I must admit that this is the first time I have heard of this association, but the numbers are a tiny bit concerning....3.6 times the risk alone and a whopping 12.2 times the risk with cconcomitant NSAID use. Considering that counseling has gone the way of the sabre tooth tiger (remember when you used to associate psychiatrists with lying on the couch??) the use of meds has skyrocketed and this is a very, very real concern.
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Psychotropic Practice Patterns for Youth--A 10-Year Perspective
Even before considering the previous article, the idea that utilization of psychotropic meds for youth is closing in on adult levels that drops my draw. Are our children that disturbed? And, even if they were (which I strongly doubt...) would anyone out there like to bet their right arm against the fact that these drugs in no way interfere with proper neurological development? Remember that the brain is plastic--it is constantly regenerating itself. The old adage that killing off brain cells in college never to be replaced is not true. Those new cells being produced are being bathed in meds that we have no true long term studies (unless you consider 3 years long in the life of a child) showing their safety.
Psychotropic Practice Patterns for Youth: A 10-Year Perspective
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CRP as Predictor for Incident Diabetes Mellitus Among Middle-aged Men
It's very nice to finally see the mainstream medical journals viewing inflammation as a factor in many (actually all...) chronic diseases. Much press was given to CRP as an independent risk factor for heart disease and now we see the same association with diabetes. What I do find amusing is the "chicken with their head cut off" mentality looking for drugs to lower CRP. A huge trial is underway to see if statin drugs can lower CRP. Hey...save the money and have patient avoid refined carbs and exercise. That should do it most of the time!!
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Role of environmental estrogens in deterioration of male fertility
Fertility is actually becoming quite big business in Western medicine and more and more of an issue with patients. If a woman is not fertile, their is something with their physiology that is imbalanced--estrogen dominance, polycystic ovaries, anovulation--that needs to be addressed. The medical approach of forcing ovulation on a system that is NOT ovulating because it is not ready for it just stumps me. Fix the menstrual cycle and fertility should return. I had a friend with poor lifestyle habits, including smoking. She had seen fertility doctors and was contemplating treatment. She finally quit smoking and was pregnant in weeks. With male fertility, external influences seem to be a major player--here we seen xenoestrogens affecting fertility. Want scary? Studies in mice has shown reduction in male fertility 3 generations later when zinc was deficient.
ScienceDirect - Fertility and Sterility: Role of environmental estrogens in the deterioration of male factor fertility
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Acne Vulgaris -- A Disease of Western Civilization
Seriously? I thought it was a condition of antibiotic deficiency and was treated with dosing antibiotics for years on end. Wow, you really do learn something new every day. On a more serious note, if you consider the skin as an organ of detoxification, where toxins are pushed out (i.e. sweating) this is no big shocker. So the key to acne is cleaning out your system. Probiotics to restore the additional barrier in our gut between us and the environment, topical application of tea tree oil, avoidance of food allergies such as wheat and avoidance of the many chemicals we take in on a daily basis in processed foods and commerically grown fruits and veggies.
Acne Vulgaris: A Disease of Western Civilization
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Tea tree oil reduces histamine-induced skin inflammation
Speaking of tee tree oil... this substance has been used for hundreds of years as an antimicrobial to be used topically. Here we see a study that also confirms its anti-inflammatory abilities. This would mean that everyone should keep a bottle in their medicine cabinet for mosquito bites, bee stings, hives...
Entrez-PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12452873&dopt=Abstract
Role of microecology in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases
I had a patient come in yesterday that had spent 10 days in bed from a serious case of diarrhea. She went to a GI "specialist" who gave her a drug for colitis that made the diarrhea worse. After she contacted him, he suggested she try it AGAIN!!! Much the same result. Just amazes me sometimes--I really get the feeling that some (if not closer to "many") specialist do not understand the physiology of the organ system they devote so much time to. This patient went back to her PCP because she was sure the specialist was going to kill her. She was put on a course of antibiotics and improved. When she saw me I gave her some probiotics to restore her GI environment to a more healthy state. I'm sure these same probiotics would have been just as effective (if not more) than the antibiotics.
Role of microecology in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases
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Folate and vitamin B-12 and risk of fatal cardiovascular disease
Here is a study that finds and recommends no benefit from supplementation on CVD. At first I was a little surprised, until I looked further into the study. The study did not look at supplementation and yet, in the summary, recommended that routine recommendation not be used until more studies are done. This study checked blood levels of folate and B12. However, we know that one of the main factors about whether supplementation will help is status of the MHTFR enzyme. In about 25% of the population, this enzyme has a difficult time converting folate into its active form 5-methyltetrahydofolate. If you want to find out if this is related, you need to check 5-MHTF levels in the blood and risk of CVD.
bmj.com Hung et al. 326 (7381): 131
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