Over the last few weeks we had been working with this patient (we will call him AD), for symptoms similar to acid reflux.  Now, as most of you should know, we don’t treat symptoms or conditions, but we had been making good progress removing subluxations at C1, T1, and T5 – all areas with important nervous system connections to the stomach and esophagus, as well as working with him on adding food (and supplements) to his diet designed to increase his stomach acid.

Note:  Acid reflux isn’t caused by too much stomach acid, it’s caused by not enough!  When we don’t have enough stomach acid we are not able to break down food properly, leading to the condition we know as reflux or GERD.  Taking antacids to block acid production, while providing some short-term relief, actually makes the problem worse!

The one symptom that AD had that was persisting was a sensation, when swallowing, of a catch in the throat – like food was caught there and not going down.  I decided to recommend to AD that we have his throat taken a look at by an ENT just to make sure that there wasn’t a growth or other structural reasons for his symptoms.

After a long wait for an appointment, AD went in for his consult for on Friday.  The visit started off poorly as the Dr. was running very late, seemed rushed, and had poor bedside manner [not everyone can have the sunny dispositions that Dr. M and I have I guess ].  The good news was that, following the scope, there was no cancer or other blockages in the throat.  The diagnosis was, drumroll please, acid reflux.

Now, all of this is what I expected would happen, even the prescribing of some medication – that is what an ENT does for acid reflux, tries to mask the symptoms.  What happened next is what blew my mind.  After AD explained that he really didn’t want to take the meds (as a great patient of ours he knew that they weren’t the answer), the Dr. reiterated that he should try them and that if they didn’t work he would go ahead and prescribe some anti-depressants!  Apparently a tickle in the throat can be caused by being sad (the impact of the prescription is greatest when you actually know AD – the guy has a great family with a baby on the way, takes great care of himself, and is probably the last person I would think would need an anti-depressant)!

Back in January of 2006, in one of my first ever posts to this blog, two months after I joined the practice here at McKinley Chiro, I wrote a blog article entitled – Anti-Depressants Depress Me.  In it I highlighted a couple of recent (at the time) articles about anti-depressant use:

• A study in the Annuals of General Psychiatry (as described here by NPR) details that more Americans, including children, than ever are being prescribed multiple psychiatric medications.  The authors found that patients are commonly prescribed untested combinations of drugs, where the efficacy and possible side effects of the combos are unknown.  The study did not find an increase in the number of people with severe mental illness, rather more Drs are writing more presciptions.
• A second article, published in JAMA. The authors found that for people with mild to moderate depression, medications was no better in treating these symptoms than placebo.  You’re better off taking a sugar pill than Paxil, you’ll get the same benefits without the risk of serious side effects including suicide.

Is there any wonder that the numbers as reported by NPR in 2006 were skyrocketing (and I doubt that they have slowed down with the economy and all)?  All for drugs that, for the majority of people, don’t work and bring on tons of serious side effects!

In AD’s case we have a ENT prescribing anti-depressants.  According to Wikipedia, ENT is a “branch of medicine and surgery that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ear, nose, throat, and head and neck disorders.”  No where in that description does it say “mental and/or emotional” disorders.  Yet he is recommending medication that plays with the very chemistry of the brain.  This is one (or many) areas that I feel the FDA does a poor job of regulating prescription meds in this country.  Any MD, regardless of specialty, is allowed to prescribed (almost) any medication – whether it not it is within their area of expertise.  Would an orthopedic surgeon prescribe medication for use in the eye?  How about a podiatrist prescribing heart medication?  Of course not….yet, for some reason, all sorts of Drs prescribe anti-depressants.

This is where the drug culture in our society has led us astray.  For many diseases we’ve stopped looking for the actual cause – we are so focused on repressing the symptoms, on making ourselves feel good.  And the natural extension of that is to start giving people who have, as in AD’s case, minor pains or inconveniences, drugs that forces them to not have negative emotions.  Why fix it when we can just make you happy instead?

In the end AD’s case illuminates one the difficulties that Dr. M and I have in practice.  We want and need to be able to refer people to medical doctors in order to have things checked out that we can’t do ourselves.  But at the same time I need to be sure that my patient isn’t going to walk out with anti-depressants for a throat tickle.  We are lucky that we have some great MDs that we have great working relationships with (unfortunately ENT wasn’t one of them).  But this is also why we work so hard to educate our patients with Case Reviews, articles on our blog and in our office, dinner parties, etc – so that when you are faced with a situation likes AD’s you will have the knowledge to recognize recommendations that go against how the body actually works and have the courage to do just what AD did – say “I’m getting a second opinion” and walk out.

PS:  Anyone know a good ENT guy?

 Many of you, since being members of our practice, and experiencing health in a completely new perspective, may have been looked at or called CRAZY when discussing your experience with friends and family, mainly because they are defending their own lack of knowledge or due to surprise, when finding out the truth, but still too new to accept philosophically.  You see, when you say to someone, “Hey Joe, are migranes the result of a lack of Tylenol or Aspirin in your blood?”  Joe (the typical American Mindset) would say “What do you mean?”  Well, Joe, you take either Tylenol or prescription strength IMITREX for your migrane headaches, which your M.D. prescribed you, so since the solution is to take these drugs, then the cause must be a lack of those chemicals in your body.  You could say the same thing for a child with recurrent otitis media (ear infections).  Since the answer from the M.D. is generally going to be ANOTHER round of anti-biotics, then the problem must have been a lack of anti-biotics in the bloodstream.  Now of course, with good logic, most people would read this and start to see how CRAZY that sounds, but the funny thing is THAT is what most people do for their healthcare, or should I say SICKcare.  It is simply a matter of perspective to see truth come out of a previously CRAZY or STRANGE idea.

 In the USA, we are not a healthy nation by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact we currently rank 37^th amoung industrialized nations ranked by the World Health Organization’s quality of health report.  37^th You ask?  Is it really that surprising?  We live in increasingly stressful times, where we barely have time to get home from work to have dinner with the family, in which the dinner probably doesn’t have any vegetables, and if it does they have been sprayed with pesticides and genetically modified.  (Is it any wonder cancer is the second leading cause of death?)  Who has time for exercise, unless they have had a heart attack, and were lucky enough to live, then they May make time.  Then there is the toxicity from drugs: it starts with Tylenol, antibiotics, and if you’re an American, twice as many vaccines as any other kid on the planet (did I forget to say we rank 37^th) , then birth control drugs, Ritalin, Aderol, well-butin and others as tweens and teens, then recreational drugs, then paxil for life stress, Ambien to help sleep, then estrogen replacement therapy….whoops I guess they already figured out that was a bad idea, then Lipitor, BP meds, meds for your bones, and all the other over the counter Dayquill, Nyquills, Afternoonquills, allergy meds, inhalers… should I stop?

Look, when the 3^rd leading cause of death is the side effects to medications, you may start to see that trying to live without medication is NOT such a CRAZY idea afterall.  But how do you do that you may ask?  Well, its not as easy as popping a pill, but it can be done, and a few Americans are doing it, by learning to understand the innate healing ability of the human body, and facilitation its function, rather that taking the batteries out of the alarm with drugs when something is producing a SYMPTOM.  This is why Dr. Arthur and I come to work everyday; to teach how to facilitate healing as well as to remove interference to healing with chiropractic adjustments that restore normal nerve connection.  If you don’t have a good nerve connection, the light bulb doesn’t shine as bright and you are less likely to adapt to stress in a healthy manner. In a society where most are sick, I want to be considered CRAZY in my view;  if I don’t then that means I’m in the norm, which means I’m probably sick too.  They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a DIFFERENT result.  I’d rather be CRAZY than insane!

 Much Love,

Dr. McKinley 

 PS – please forward this to loved ones you know need to hear it, without your voice, NOTHING will CHANGE!

It is so prevalent that it has worked its way into all aspects of our culture.

Asthma (or the diagnosis of asthma) is an exploding epidemic in this country and in the developed world.  Since 1980 asthma rates in the U.S. have almost quadrupled.  There are a number of reasons for this:  vaccine recommendations per child in the US has tripled in the same time frame (vaccines change the way our immune system works, leading to sensitization of and inflammation in airways), lack of exposure to bacteria due to antibiotics and antibacterial soaps, pollution, the increase of pro-infammatory foods such as grains, sugars, and milk in our diets, the increasing lack of activity and exercise in our lifestyles, and poor posture related to the increase in TV, video game, computers, and other sitting activites in both children and adults.  (A comparison between asthma rates in the US (very high) and under-developed countries (very low) demonstrate these reasons nicely.  Underdeveloped countries (and even developed countries such as those in Europe and Japan) don’t mandate nearly as many vaccines as the US, live a much more active lifestyle, don’t each nearly as many processed foods, and are typically exposed to bacteria and dirt in much more natural ways.)

There are good news though.  Both research and our clinical experience have demonstrated that it is possible to help people with asthma throw away their inhalers and take back their lives naturally.  Its for this reason that we have decided to declare March Asthma Awareness Month here in our office.  We have set a goal of helping at least 25 people overcome their asthma and start living their lives again, start running, and playing, and stop living in fear.

We need your help!  Each and everyone of us knows someone with asthma who could benefit from our help.  Simply give them our information, or even better yet, make them an appointment with Sarah or Monica.  There are no prizes, gifts, or giveways for doing so.  Just the joy in knowing that you have helped someone change their life!

At this last conference there was a break from normal arrangement of speakers, typically doctors, health and wellness experts, motivational gurus, researchers, etc.  In the midst of all the science, technology, health and wellness came out a gentleman who had never even been in a chiropractic office.  He was visibly nervous, he wasn’t a professional speaker.  Yet for the next hour he held the audience captive as he told the tragic story of his son, Wyatt.

Wyatt’s story sums up the reason that we come to the office everyday.  Every day thousands of kids and millions of adults are prescribed medications that are unnecessary.  In Wyatt’s case, the use of an antibiotic goes against the American Academy of Pediatric’s recommendation for ear infections.  (In fact, the chiropractic adjustment is a better, safer alternative to antibiotics! (Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics 1997 (Oct);   2 (2):   167–183).)  It is the nature of drugs that we don’t know when a reaction like Wyatt’s will occur.  The FDA, the CDC, and the drug companies themselves give us stats as to the safety of medications.  Why they don’t say is that, due to the bottom line and the almight dollar, they are willing to live with 1%, 5%, even 10% adverse reaction rates.  They call these drugs safe.

Unfortunately knowing that amoxicillin is “safe” is no comfort to Wyatt’s family.  When, as a society, we condone and prescribe millions upon millions of drugs every year, the shear numbers, even with only a 1% “bad” reaction rate, ensure that we have thousands of cases like Wyatt’s every year.  We don’t hear about them, they’re not published in the media or in the official stats.  Reactions to prescription drugs (not overdoses or accidents) are the 3rd leading cause of death in this country.  The only things that kills more people are heart attacks and cancer.  Yet we have no pink ribbons, or weekend walks, or yellow bracelets for it.  In the eyes of the medical/pharmaceutical industries it is simply the cost of doing business. 

I don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t have medications.  Yet I never want to have to take a medication and I never want any of my patients to have to take them either.  This is why we do what we do!  It is life or death!  Please, the next time you think about popping a little pill for a head ache, or a back pain, or a runny nose…..think about the consequences.  It is vitally important.  If you are on a medication, don’t stop.  Come talk to us about how we can work with your doctor to put together a plan for you to safely stop.

What you don’t hear from big pharma or the media is that while these are great marketing strategies that make a ton of money for those involved – they don’t actually stop you from getting sick or getting the flu.  And this isn’t me talking, and this isn’t new, breaking research, we’ve known this for a while.  Take a look at some different groups and try to see who it helps:

• Not babies: In a review of more than 51 studies involving more than 294,000 children it was found there was “no evidence that injecting children 6-24 months of age with a flu shotwas any more effective than placebo. In children over 2 yrs, it was only effective 33% of the time in preventing the flu. Reference: ”Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2 (2008).
• Not children: A study 800 children with asthma, where one half were vaccinated and the other half did not receive the influenza vaccine. The two groups were compared with respect to clinic visits, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations for asthma. CONCLUSION: This study failed to provide evidence that the influenza vaccine prevents pediatric asthma exacerbations.  Reference: “Effectiveness of influenza vaccine for the prevention of asthma exacerbations.” Christly, C. et al. Arch Dis Child. 2004 Aug;89(8):734-5.
• Not children again:   “The inactivated flu vaccine, Flumist, does not prevent influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma…In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than children who do not get the vaccine.“ Reference: The American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference, May 15-20, 2009, San Diego.
• Not adults:   In a review of 48 reports including more than 66,000 adults, “Vaccination of healthy adults only reduced risk of influenza by 6% and reduced the number of missed work days by less than one day (0.16) days. It did not change the number of people needing to go to hospital or take time off work.“ Reference: ”Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy adults.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 1 (2006).
• Not the Elderly:   In a review of 64 studies in 98 flu seasons, For elderly living in nursing homes, flu shots were non-significant for preventing the flu. For elderly living in the community, vaccines were not (significantly) effective against influenza, ILI or pneumonia.  Reference: ”Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly.” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.3 (2006).

The crazy thing is that there are safer, more effective ways to prevent the flu.  For example, a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that Vitamin D supplements are more effective than vaccines for preventing the flu in children.  Yet we continue to push unproven, possibly unsafe vaccines for kids!

Don’t be a wimp.  You’re body has the tools and ability to fight the flu – you just have to train it to be strong.  Vitamin D is one way, there are others.  We are the personal trainer for your immune system.  Talk to us today about what you can do to make you and your family strong!

Ok, first off, of all primary care physicians, chiropractors have the lowest malpractice premiums (malpractice rates are based on the chance of something bad happening).  I personally pay about $100 a month for mine; ask your MD what they pay. Second, chiropractic has been a profession for over 100 years.  During that time there have been approximately 10 cases of serious adverse advents possibly attributed to the chiropractic care.  This is out of billions of adjustments.  Does that mean I should scare all the members of our practice by discussing every possible negative outcome, regardless of how miniscule the chance of it happening might be?  I might as well warn them that they might get struck by lightning or get robbed during their adjustment too.  In fact, our office has been robbed twice during the last eight years (outside of office hours), so this is your fair warning.  We have never been struck by lightning though.  I’m sure you are getting my point in this sarcastic commentary, but let me put another nail or two in this.  SINCE SIDE EFFECT to PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS ARE NOW ONE OF THE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH, CAUSING 100,000 DEATHS A YEAR IN THE U.S., does your M.D. inform you of this VERY REAL statistic before handing you the scrip?

There is still an incredible amount of faith being put into our antiquated medical system and its primary medicinal/surgical approach to remove symptoms and not problems.  For example, why did we have to wait until 2007 to put black box warnings on Zoloft and Paxil acknowledging that they cause suicide in 4 out of 100 kids who are prescribed to take them?  They’ve known about it since 1990!  Remember VIOXX? That powerful pain reliever killed more people than the Vietnam war before they pulled it.  Does your pediatrician inform you that your child has a 50% greater chance of developing asthma each time an antibiotic is prescribed?  Lipitor is the King of the prescription drugs, the amount of profit it earns makes Columbian drug lords look like corner hustlers.  Lipitor is supposed to help lower the risk of Cardiovascular disease, instead, it’s just causing a lot of muscle ache and a lot more VIAGRA, since another side effect is lowered testosterone production.  Oh, and by the way, mercury is a neurotoxin, but please take the next HINI or R2D2 flu vaccine because, even though we haven’t tested its safety, kids and old people need it?  Is it just a fluke that now 1 in 100 kids are autistic?

We just keep buying into this crap, and I’m wondering when it will end.  Well, I know it’s closer, because people aren’t laughing anymore, they generally get angry.  That is how new thoughts conquer old paradigms.  First those new ideas are seen as laughable, then anger, ridicule, and opposition forms, and finally acceptance is achieved.

While I by no means want to live in a society without medicine, I do want to live in a society that uses medicine appropriately.  We are not tapping into the natural healing ability of the human body enough.  This is what the chiropractic lifestyle is all about.  Remove the interference and let the body do its thing.

Much respect,

Dr. M

Another day, another drug company covering up deadly side effects caused by its precription drug.

An FDA panel (comprised of doctors and researchers, many of whom have financial ties to drug companies) is deciding today on whether to pull the diabetes drug, Avandia off the market due to concerns that it causes heart attacks.  Avandia is not a new drug – it has been on the market for decades (its patent will expire in a few years).  In fact this isn’t a case of drug manufacturers rushing the drug untested to market, or promoting off-label, untested uses for it.  Avandia has undergone numerous human clinical trials.  In this case, its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, knew that it increased the risk of heart disease but they covered up the data.  Documents released by a Senate Financial Committee include several emails that record GlaxoSmithKline officials suggesting that certain unfavorable studies concerning the drug “never see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK.”

Avandia’s safety was first publically called into question in 2007 when an analysis by Nissen found that those on the drug had a 43 percent higher risk of heart attacks and a 64 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease.  Though the drug has lost more than half of its sales since the 2007 study (as doctors try to switch to other “safer” medications), it still generated more than $1 billion in revenue and was prescribed to 2.6 million Americans in 2009.

While this story isn’t new, it’s just another example of why better health through better chemistry doesn’t work!  Type II diabetes is a completely preventable disease.  No one has to get it and no one needs to subject themselves or their loved ones to the risk of taking these medications.  If you are currently taking this or any other medication that is for a lifestyle disease please talk to us about how to make a change so you can get off these medications.  You have the power to be health, you are born with it, you just have to do something about it.  Remember, if we don’t change our behaviors we can’t expect our lives to change.  Start today!!!

One of our favorite patients, Meliza (whose testimonial video you can see under Success Stories), brought us in an article today from the Mayo Clinic talking about Integrative Medicine.  For those who don’t know the idea behind Integrative Medicine is to combine traditional medicine with “alternative” treatments to give patients better care.  We find this thought amusing because while Integrative Medicine may be a new buzzword in Allopathic medicine, chiropractic has been practicing it for over 100 years. We combine the best of all “treatments” including adjustments, exercise, nutritional change and supplementation, etc. in order to build up the whole person in health and wellness, not just treat the symptom. In fact, that is where allopathic “Integrative Medicine” fails.  Even though they are using different tools such as acupuncture, deep breathing/yoga, exercise, nutrition, even spinal manipulation  to treat symptoms, they are doing just that, treating symptoms.  The philosophy behind treatment (even though the treatment may have less side effects than medication) is still the same, and for that reason it will ultimately fail in promoting health and wellness.

What really struck me in reading the article was its closing paragraph.  The article basically tried to describe and sum-up a number of so-called “alternative” therapies including homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture, nutritional supplemention, Reiki, Chiropractic, and others.  In talking about Integrative Medicine the article states, ” It’s not a question of using either conventional or complementary medicine.  It’s about using both the best of conventional medicine and the best of evidence-based complementary medicine.”  Two things about this sentence stand out to me.  One, the qualifier “evidence-based” in front of complementary medicine, and, two, the implication that conventional medicine is evidence based and therefore better (hence the use of the word complementary).

I want to speak a moment about evidence based medicine.  The definition of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) as defined by Sackett in the British Medical Journal is “”Evidence based medicine is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients…,” “integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research…,” and “the more thoughtful identification and compassionate use of individual patients’ predicaments, rights, and preferences in making clinical decisions about their care”.  EBM speaks to the clinician’s (doctor’s) decision making in regards to making care recommendations, by these definitions chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other “alternative” practitioners can be and are evidence based.

The implication in the article is that all medicine is evidence based and that all medical practitioners used EBM methodology in making their recommendations.   This is simply not the case.  One-fifth of all medications prescribed and one-half to three fourths of all children’s medications are prescribed off-label, meaning they have not been tested for the condition for which they are being prescribed.  Unfortunately, in most cases parents are not informed that this is happening.

It ultimately comes down to your doctor.  Is he or she approaching your health holistically, taking a look at your whole person, looking to find the ultimate cause of your disease or symptom, and is working with you to promote the in-born ability of your body to heal?  Or are they taking a “medicine by numbers” approach, treating just your symptoms or the number on your blood or lab work, and sending you on your way?  From our perspective one of these two choices is the true, integrative, evidence based approach and one is not.  Which one would you prefer?

We’d love to hear your comments on this article, please click below!

Fish Oil

As many of you know one of the dietary supplements that we are constantly reminding our patients of the importance of is Fish Oil – Omega 3 Fatty Acids. A number of new studies have come out that re-enforce this view (my comments in italics):

• “Fish oil may help prevent onset of psychosis” – Archives of General Psychiatry
Omega-3 fatty acids make up a large portion of your nervous system including your brain and the coverings of your nerves. It makes complete sense that people who are lacking in Omega 3, and thus need supplementation, are prone to psychotic disorders.

• “Mercury, Fish Oils, and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction” – New England Journal of Medicine,

Conclusions: The toenail mercury level was directly associated with the risk of myocardial infarction, and the adipose-tissue DHA level was inversely associated with the risk. High mercury content may diminish the cardioprotective effect of fish intake.
• Association of Marine Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels With Telomeric Aging in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease – Journal of American Medical Association

Conclusion: Among this cohort of patients with coronary artery disease, there was an inverse relationship between baseline blood levels of marine omega-3 fatty acids and the rate of telomere shortening over 5 years.

• Cholesterol Drug Lowers LDL-C Levels But Again Fails to Show Clinical Benefit – Journal of American Medical Association

These studies support the idea that cholesterol levels do not determine risk for heart disease – the inflammatory state of the body does. People with high levels of blood Omega 3 fatty acids benefit from their anti-inflammatory properties – they prevent damage to blood vessel walls. If those walls aren’t getting damaged then cholesterol deposition and plaqueing doesn’t occur. While people with heart disease tend to have high cholesterol, that correlation doesn’t equal causation. This is the reason that the drug doesn’t affect heart disease rates even though it lowers cholesterol levels, yet the fish oil supplements work – the fish oil addresses the true cause, a pro-inflammatory state in the body, while the drug doesn’t. Be sure to comment or talk to us in the office if you have any questions on how to pick the right fish oil supplement for you!

Medical Ethics

• Antipsychotics, Nursing Homes and the Feds’ Case Against J&J from WSJ.com: Health Blog

The feds say J&J paid kickbacks to a big nursing-home pharmacy company to get the company to prescribe more of its drugs, including the antipsychotic Risperdal. The allegation isn’t a huge surprise: The pharmacy company, Omnicare, paid $98 million last year to settle allegations that it had solicited and received kickbacks from J&J in exchange recommending the company’s antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

• “FDA More Pro Industry Than Any Time in 35 Years” By MERRILL GOOZNER, THE HEALTH CARE BLOG
So says Jim Dickinson, editor of FDAWebview, an industry newsletter that closely follows enforcement issues at the agency.

• Feds Accuse Doc of Faking Research On Pfizer & Merck Drugs by Wall Street Journal Blog

Federal prosecutors accused Reuben of health-care fraud for allegedly faking data that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Merck’s Vioxx and Pfizer’s Bextra and Celebrex, the Justice Department said yesterday. The Justice announcement said he faces as much as a 10-year sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Remember, health care is big business, in fact it is the biggest business. While most doctors want the best for their patients, corporations such as health insurance companies and big pharmaceutical firms have as their sole motivator the bottom line. The ties between government and these businesses run deep. For example, as we talked about in our Good, Bad, Ugly workshop, the most recent head of the CDC, the person who spearheaded the effort to mass vaccinate against the swine flu, recently left to take a position as the head of vaccination for Merck. Is she being rewarded for her efforts? Efforts that made vaccine companies billions as governments were scared into buying vaccines for a “pandemic” that never really materialized. This is why it is best to take your health into your own hands, be proactive, and live a healthy lifestyle so you don’t need to take Vioxx, or Celebrex, or Phen-Phen, or any of the hundreds of other drugs that we find out are ultimately not safe.

Finally to end on a positive note: Here’s a link to five healthy salad recipes to start you on your way! (Note: Those of you on detox/purification will need to modify these to meet your program parameters)