Take the pressure down

image from here

Did you know that a specific Chiropractic adjustment can significantly lower blood pressure? The effect of an adjustment on the C1 vertebra (the very first one that holds up your head) is just as effective as taking not one but TWO blood pressure medications at the same time and the bonus? No nasty side-effects (such as fatigue, dizziness, depression, impotence, respiritory distress or kidney damage) like those high blood pressure drugs! Not only can a qualified Chiropractor administer this adjustment but they can also point you in the right direction to modify your diet and exercise to help you get more out of your life. See? Not just back pain...

Pain killers, help or harm?

image from here

A Swiss literature review has found that people who take painkillers regularly, such as those who take it for chronic pain of conditions such as arthritis,  double or even treble their risk of heart attack and stroke.
In response to these findings Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, was quoted as saying:

"This confirms what has been known for some years now: taking non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs on a regular basis increases heart attack or stroke risk. However, some patients with debilitating joint pains may consider the small increased risk worthwhile when set against the improvement in their quality of life that these drugs bring." 

Not so sweet

image from here

The other night I flipped over to Food Additives: An Edible Adventure on SBS, a documentary hailing the wonders of food additives. Difficult though it was to hold myself back from screaming at the television (mental note: sell tv) I did watch the full episode and would be interested in seeing others in the series. Even though Stefan Gates did gloss over a huge amount of not so glowing evidence about food additives, he did touch on one very interesting piece of evidence about artificial sweeteners. The brain and body can tell the difference between artificial sweeteners and sugars.This is because although the artificial sweeteners bind to the same receptors on the tongue, they do not stimulate the same reward centers in the brain and sugar does. Also when artificial sweeteners are broken down by the body they do not release the same amount of energy as sugar does. The body is very smart, when we eat something sweet the brain expects there to be a sudden burst of energy, but alas, with artificial sweeteners there is none. So what does the body do? It must seek this energy from somewhere else and thus your body will make you more hungry so you will consume more food to get that extra energy it feels it has been deprived of. Add this to the detrimental health effects of artificial sweeteners and a case "for" artificial sweeteners seems a little thin. Mother nature 1, Scientist: 0.

Sweet Tooth

image from here

Sugar isn't good for you, but do you know what's worse? Artificial Sweetners. Aspartame (a common  artificial sweetner) is used in “sugar-free” products such as diet soft drinks and chewing gum. Since its discovery is 1965 it has been shown to cause several serious diseases such as: brain tumors, headaches, memory loss, seizures, liver disease, hearing loss, dizziness and cancer. It also worsens or mimics the symptoms of diseases and conditions such as fibromyalgia, MS, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue and depression. Such a dangerous chemical, yet it is found in so many processed foods on our shelves today. Yet another reason to read those ingredient lists carefully.

Dairy and Calcium

image from here

"If I don't eat dairy, how will I get Calcium for my bones?"
A common question I get asked.
Now a small amount of organic dairy is not too bad for you, for example I would choose real butter over margarine any day (I trust cows more than I trust scientists) but too much of anything (other than green vegetables) is not good for you.
But lets look at dairy and its claims to being so benificial to health.

Carbohydrates

image from here

Now that I have explained the problems behind the modern day food pyramid, I wanted to answer some of the questions I get asked about the food "pie" I advocate to my patients.
First up is Carbohydrates. Or more correctly, Complex/Produced/Starchy Carbohydrates. Lots of vegetables such as carrots have a decent amount of carbohydrates as well, but I'm not so concerned about them.

Tales of the misunderstood: Low Fat Diets

Image from here

Low Fat, is there any other word combination I hate more? I think not. The idea of decreasing your fat intake is based on the lipid hypothesis which states that a high fat diet is the major contributor to cardiovascular disease. This idea was based on poor scientific evidence from the start and in recent years has been heavily criticized (for an informative and funny look at the situation, watch the documentary Fat Head).

Tales of the misunderstood: The Food Pyramid

Few things erk me as much as the Food Pyramid does. There are so many things wrong with it, yet it is advocated as the "gold standard" in nutrition and the path to healthy living.
So what's my beef with this type of diet?
First of all, let's look at how the pyramid came about. It was first published in 1978 in Denmark, but in 1992 the United States Department of Agriculture adopted it. That's right, it wasn't put together by doctors or nutritionists, but a government department who's aims are to meet the needs of farmers and promote agricultural trade and production determined what we should be eating.

Thoughts on Health Care

image from here

I was reading one of Dr. Chestnut's books the other day and he brought up an interesting point.
He said:

If you want to be happy, you study happy people,

If you want to be rich, you study rich people,

If you want to be healthy, you study health people

Chiropractors study Anatomy, Physiology, Psycology, Neurology, Nutrition; they study health.
Medical Doctors study Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology; they study sickness and disease.
So Medicine and Chiropractic are totally different. Medicine in sick care, Chiropractic is health care.
So you need to pick your practitioner for what you require. If you need an expert in sickness and disease, you need a Medical Doctor, but if you need and want an expert in HEALTH, then what you need is a Chiropractor. You wouldn't get a plumber to wire up your house, he wouldn't have the right tools, so why would you get a sickness expert to fix your health?

Missed me?

image from here

Sorry posting has been a bit light on lately, Mr. Ox and I just got back from a week in London.
I have a confession to make...I hate London, well I DID hate London, until this trip.
This was my 6th trip to London and finally I found things to like about the city. To me its always seemed gray, dirty, cold, expensive with more Australians than Australia. But it has it's good points like:

Funny 'cause it's true

A Chiropractor friend of mine posted this on Facebook from this Chiropractic Clinic. It had this caption with it:

FDA approved, prescription drugs are the 3rd leading cause of death right behind heart disease and cancer. All three of which are largely preventable

 I laughed at it, but the sad part is that this is too true for so many people. I think it's time to take a step back and look at our daily routine. Are we doing things that make us sick? Have we forgotten the true power of the human body to heal? Do we really believe that health comes in a bottle from a pharmaceutical company? Or are we just too lazy to care for our greatest asset, our health?

Tales of the misunderstood: Cholesterol

When talking to my patients, one thing they that constantly comes up in conversation is cholesterol. "My GP says I have high cholesterol" and 9 out of 10 times, they've been put on cholesterol lowering medication. But why? Research suggests that there is no link between cholesterol and heart disease, and a new study even shows that people with low levels of cholesterol are more likely to die than those with higher levels. Now I could go on and on and on about the twisted logic behind this but there are many smarter people who have already done this, so I won't. But I will leave you with this thought, if cholesterol lowering medications kill more people than they save, why are so many people on them? There's no correct answer to this, but it comes down to a few key things: