Health Tips

January 22, 2004

Health Tips Newsletter Archives

Russian Conjoined Twins Provide Strong Evidence for Chiropractic Benefits

This amazing "accident of nature" has revealed a truth about health and disease and the importance of the nervous system. It also helps answer the question: "Do germs always cause disease or do they first need a fertile soil to grow in?"

Our story begins on January 13, 1950 in the former Soviet Union. The young mother enters the hospital to deliver twins but when she awakens from anaesthesia she is told that her baby girls died at birth. They lied. At that moment the girls were being spirited away to an institute near Moscow to be studied. This was the fate of "Masha" & "Dasha," one of the most unusual sets of conjoined twins ever born.

Because their circulatory systems were interconnected, they shared blood; germs in one twin's blood would soon be seen in the blood of her sister. Yet surprisingly, illness affected them differently. One would have measles, for example, while the other would not. The measles "bug" was in both of their bodies, in their collective bloodstream; so why didn't both get measles at the same time? This phenomenon was seen over & over again with the girls as flu, colds and other childhood diseases were all experienced separately. Evidently, there is more to getting an infection than having the bug. If germs alone had the power to cause infectious diseases, why would one be disease-free while the other was ill? What was it in their makeup that differentiated them?

Although Masha & Dasha had common circulatory, digestive, excretory, lymphatic, hormonal & lymphatic systems (they were joined at the hips), they had separate spinal columns & spinal cords: this was the only significant anatomical difference between Masha and Dasha. It leads one to conclude that the nervous system is of major importance in resistance to disease.

For over a century chiropractors have observed that the health of your nervous system can determine whether you have high or low resistance to disease and, if you are suffering from disease, the health of your nervous system will play a decisive role in whether or not (& how rapidly) you will recover. By keeping your spinal column & nervous system free from subluxation stress, chiropractors keep you in a higher state of health.¹
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Chiropractic is for Children, too!

The chiropractor in the picture is much better looking than I am, but some of you will remember me doing something very similar to your child.  If you toss a packet of seeds on the living room floor, you wouldn't get flowers, because they need a fertile environment.

Don't listen to someone who says that germs don't cause disease - of course they do.  But if your nervous system is functioning then the germs in your system won't find a fertile environment to flourish in.

Why not bring your little ones in for a gentle and enjoyable treatment?
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Sixty Kids Vaccinated Against the Flu Die of the Flu

In the January 10, 2004 NY Times, medical writer Lawrence Altman reported that of the 93 children who died from the flu this season in the US, 60 had received the flu shot. As writer Jon Rappaport comments, "the whole vaccine campaign is called into doubt."

Research reveals that after a person is vaccinated there is a "negative phase" where their immune system is weakened and they are more vulnerable to infectious disease. This is one of the reasons why so many people report coming down with the flu (or other illnesses) after receiving the flu shots. How many of the 33 children who died of the flu (and who did not have the flu shot) had lowered resistance because they had received childhood vaccinations or were on antibiotics, steroids or other immunosuppressive medications?
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Words of Wisdom

"Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?" – Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
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Chiropractic Questions and Answers

Can a Person Who Had Back or Disc Surgery See a Chiropractor?

Yes. Many people who have had various kinds of spinal surgery often discover a return of their pain or problem months or years later and are told they need more surgery. There are so many of these people around that the condition has a special name: "Failed Back Surgery Syndrome." These people can usually receive chiropractic care without undue worry. The chiropractic care may save them from future operations. It's best to check with your chiropractor on a case-to-case basis.

Can Chiropractic Prevent Back Surgery?

In a majority of cases the answer is a resounding "yes"!
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Supplements are Helpful - How to Choose the Right Supplements to be Healthier and Save Money

Before we get too deep into what inflammation is why we need a better balance in our diet, I want to talk about supplement quality.

If I tell you about EPA and magnesium you might go out and buy inferior stuff.  The long and short of the vitamin and herb industry is that most of it is no good.

For instance, fourteen different companies that produced Glucosamine were studied.  Only 6 of the companies produced a product that met the label claim and several contained only 25% of what the label said it contained!  In the same study Chondroitin was purchased from 32 separate companies and 26 of them didn't have as much as was claimed.  16 had less than 50% of the label claim.  Not a single one that cost under $1 a day had even 10% of the label claim.²

Another study group purchased 10 different Goldenseal root products and found that only 5 of them contained any goldenseal root at all!³

A third study was performed on Echinacea.  (When I first started taking echinacea it was not in vogue and was called purple coneflower.  My sister ridiculed me relentlessly for turning my back on my redneck roots and becoming a hippie flower child.)  This study tested 59 echicacea only products from different companies.  6 of them had no echinacea whatsoever, 31 met the label claim.  21 were labeled standardized which is a better form of manufacture, but only 9 actually met the quality standard.⁴

So, the reality of the supplemental situation is that you should assume that what you are taking is garbage until proven otherwise.  The FDA is proposing regulations and stated that out of the approximately 1000 companies making supplements, only 80 - 100 of them will probably not have to make changes.  I don't want the FDA to get involved.  I want you to get involved.  I have asked two major multi-level vitamin makers for labratory assays that prove what is contained in the bottle and they can't produce them.

Let me clear here: testimonials don't mean the product is good, doctors and scientists on staff don't mean the product is good.  The product is good if they test every batch on a gas spectrometer and only distribute it if it contains 97 - 103% of what the label states that it contains.  Even studies that show good results from the product don't mean that what you bought is good.  If they are not testing every batch then what you buy may not be as good as what was used in the study.

Please buy good quality supplements, you're worth it!
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Chiropractic and Spinal Research

Remember, all people can benefit from chiropractic care. Feel free to forward these studies to others.

Asthma, ear infections and antibiotic use

In a survey of 100 chiropractors' families and 100 pediatricians' families, it was revealed that the children of chiropractors had a lesser incidence of asthma, ear infections and less antibiotic use than the "medical" children.⁵

Panic attacks

A 52-year-old female diagnosed with long-standing panic attacks had used prescribed antidepressants and tranquilizers, underwent counseling and relaxation training - all to no benefit. Chiropractic examination revealed areas of upper and mid cervical, upper and mid thoracic and right sacroiliac subluxations. The patient's blood pressure was 182/102, pulse rate 120 beats/minute during an attack, however her BP would drop to 140/80 and her pulse to 76 beats/minute four minutes after an adjustment. After beginning chiropractic care she had been free of panic attacks for more than two months which is the best she had been in years.⁶

Failure to thrive

"The child should be examined for vertebral subluxation as a source of physiological dysfunctioning."⁷

Low back pain and urinary incontinence

In a medical orthopedic practice 16 patients with low back pain had urinary incontinence. Chiropractors would suggest spinal adjustments however the medical approach in this case was surgery which reduced low back pain in 11 of 12 patients. The MDs noticed that the patients' urgency incontinence was cured or improved. (Note: Most low back pain surgery fails and within a year or two the patient has their pain back and may be told they need a second (or third) surgery. Too bad they didn't first refer their patients to a chiropractor.⁸
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Sunlight may prevent cancer

For those of us who stay indoors this time of the year, it's a fitting reminder that some of the most important things for our health are obvious: water, fresh air, exercise, good food and sunlight. Too much sun burning has been linked to skin cancer, but proper sunlight - especially ultraviolet light - can prevent cancer.

Researchers examined cancer mortality in the United States. Deaths from a range of cancers of the reproductive and digestive systems were approximately twice as high in New England as in the southwest, despite a diet that varies little between regions. An examination of 506 regions found a close inverse correlation between cancer mortality and levels of ultraviolet B light. The likeliest mechanism for a protective effect of sunlight is vitamin D, which is synthesized by the body in the presence of ultraviolet B.

Dr. William Grant says northern parts of the United States may be dark enough in winter that vitamin D synthesis shuts down completely. While the study focused on white Americans, the same geographical trend affects black Americans, whose overall cancer rates are significantly higher. Darker skinned people require more sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. "There are 13 malignancies that show this inverse correlation, mostly reproductive and digestive cancers," said Dr. Grant. "The strongest inverse correlation is with breast, colon, and ovarian cancer."⁹ Other cancers apparently affected by sunlight include tumors of the bladder, uterus, esophagus, rectum and stomach.¹⁰

What to do? Take walks in the sun and use full-spectrum lighting in your home and office and make sure your diet has plenty of vitamin D.
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Feel free to forward this to as many people as you'd like, and call me today for a check-up!

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