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!

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)

For anyone who came to our dinner event last March these articles shouldn’t come as a suprise.  Preventative medicine is a misnomer.  It doesn’t actually prevent anything.  You could have a colonoscopy every single day for a year, but doing so would not lower your chances of getting colon cancer.  Preventative medicine is really early detection and screening.  It simply tells you if you already have the problem (this is an important role but it clouds the issue in peoples minds).  True preventative medicine is all about the lifestyle choices you make.  Each one of us has the keys to determine if we develop or don’t develop any of these chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer.  We should be (and do in our office) advocating lifestyle intervention; that is the key to making America (and Germany) healthy, and in the process saving billions of dollars, not costly screening tests.

For this discussion I’m going to leave aside the questions of 1.) whether these drugs are safe and effective (many groups are questioning whether enough studies have been done to determine the long term effects of the drugs), and 2.) do children need to be taking them or is there a better way to help them?

Just like efforts to promote Lipitor for children, we are again seeing drug manufactures attempting to push medicine designed for adults onto younger and younger children.  This time it is a drug that many studies show has no greater effectiveness, or less side effects, then current drugs on the market.  What is the motivation behind this push then?  Well these older drugs were first developed in the 1950s, meaning that they can be bought as generic.  The cost for them is around $100/month.  The newer drugs cannot be bought as generic, they sell for between $300/month and $500/month.  These drugs had combined sales of $14.6 billion last year.  With approval for use in children that number could conceivably double.  My question is what motive beyond money could there be to approve new drugs (that haven’t been long term tested, even beyond 6 weeks) for children, and promote there use over older, known drugs when there is basically no difference in effectiveness between the two?

If these new drugs are approved by the FDA, there are two groups of people I feel sorry for.  The first, of course, is the children who take it, especially if these drugs turn out like so many others who are not properly tested (or are and those test results are buried), and have dangerous long term effects that we don’t know about now.

The second group is the doctors who perscribe these drugs.  In many cases all the information that doctors receive about a drug, its effectiveness, side effects, etc.  are from the manufactures themselves.  Most doctors, especially general practitioners, simply do not have the time to do due diligence and study every single drug they prescribe.  There are too many.  They are forced to rely many times on marketing materials they receive from drug reps, whose job it is to convince the doctors to prescribe their medication, in the case of these psychiatric drugs cost 2-3 times more but show little to no increased effectiveness.  For a more indepth view of the lengths that drug reps go to sell their products check out this article from ABC News.  It interviews a former rep for Eli Lily who sold Zypraxa, one of the drugs we’re discussing here.  He describes the lengths he went to sell doctors on drugs.  In another article a chiropractor from Michigan posts a blog describing his interaction with some pharmaceutical reps.

In the end we all pay the price if these drugs are approved.  The children who take them unknowingly face the unknown consequences of long term use of these drugs.  We, the public, have to pick up the tab on the increased cost of using these medications over the ones currently prescribed.

Update:  The panel voted to OK the psychiatric drugs just a couple hours ago.  The FDA doesn’t have to take the recommendation, but does anyone think that they won’t?  Again, there is too much money riding on it for them not to.  Don’t forget, many of these same folks who determine supposedly impartially determine what drugs get approved eventually leave the FDA to work at the drug companies themselves in high paying positions.  They definitely don’t want to endanger that golden parachute.

In a completely related note, the Wall Street Journal reports another research psychiatrist has been accused of not disclosing the fact that he receives money from the drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, which make the drug Paxil.  He was researching on a NIH grant the effects of Paxil on pregnant women.  /sarcasm| I’m sure that GSK was paying him out of the goodness of their heart and expecting nothing in return in regards to his research, even though it could be worth billions to them if her returns the “correct” outcome. /sarcasm\

Like many conditions there are a numerous ways to maintain the health of your body to prevent low back pain. One simple action, of which their are numerous programs and resources available, is exercise, specifically core stabilizing exercises. These exercises, which can be performed in the home, help to protect the lower back by preventing improper and promoting proper movements of the spine. The savings of this type of exercise are demonstrated in a study by the University of Florida with the Brooke Army Medical Center. It found that soldiers that utilizing a simple low back stabilization program had a 40% less rate of back pain over soldiers not using the program. This resulted in a savings of over 4 million dollars over the 4 year period of the study.

The best way to prevent lower back pain is to maintain the health of the joints and nerves of the spine with chiropractic adjustments. Most of the time back pain is the result of a chronic problem which builds over weeks, month, even years, until it reaches a threshold where pain finally occurs. The problem is there long before the pain starts. By intervening in the early stages of this process we can much more quickly, easily, and cheaply fix the problem, and then address the lifestyle issues that cause it, rather than waiting until it becomes much more serious.

Chiropractic care has been shown to be the treatment of choice for low back pain for both success rate and cost effectiveness. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at the effect of systematic access to chiropractic care on the overall and neuromusculoskeletal specific utilization of health care resources within a large managed-care system. This study found that individual members with chiropractic coverage had a 12% lower annual medical care cost than those without it. The researchers concluded that access to managed chiropractic care may reduce overall health care expenditures through several effects, including (1) positive risk selection; (2) substitution of chiropractic for traditional medical care, particularly for spine conditions; (3) more conservative, less invasive treatment profiles; and (4) lower health service costs associated with managed chiropractic care. Some additional findings included:

• Back pain patients with chiropractic coverage had fewer inpatient hospital stays than did those without chiropractic coverage (9.3 vs 15.6 stays per 1000 patients).
• Patients who had coverage for chiropractic care for back pain had fewer magnetic resonance imaging tests compared with those without chiropractic coverage (43.2 vs 68.9 magnetic resonance images per 1000 patients).
• The rate of lower back surgery among patients with chiropractic coverage was lower as well (3.3 vs 4.8 surgical procedures per 1000 patients).

The key to back pain, like most health conditions, is to take an active role in your health. Don’t wait until you are in pain or are sick, do something to help yourself now!

1. Heart Disease – Estimated Spending $76 Billion
2. Trauma Conditions – $72 Billion
3. Cancer – $69 Billion
4. Mental Disorders – $55 Billion
5. Asthma and COPD – $53 Billion
6. Hypertension – $42 Billion
7. Diabetes – $34 Billion
8. Osteoarthritis – $34 Billion
9. Back Pain – $32 Billion
10. Childbirth – $32 Billion

What do 8 out of these 10 conditions have in common? They are all determined in a large part by your lifestyle! Outside of Trauma and Childbirth (I suppose you could include Childbirth as a lifestyle condition, but I’d say it’s a good one) you have control over your chances of suffering from one or more of these conditions.

What does this have to do with saving money? Over 50% of all bankruptcies in this country are due to medical expenses (and the majority of those are by people who have health insurance). By choosing to eliminate health promoting activities from your life in an effort to save money, you are actually costing yourself money in the long run by increasing the chance you will have one of these super expensive conditions. You can look at it like a retirement account, a little bit of investing in yourself now will pay big dividends in the future.

Over the next few weeks we’ll look at each of these conditions and talk about ways you can approach your lifestyle to prevent them.