A Daydreamer

Persistence in Resistence

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:55:07 +0000

Call me a daydreamer, but I can’t give up hope that “modern medicine” will finally realize that “overkill” drugs that seek to wipe out viruses, bacterium, and parasites, more often than not only embolden these life forms and cause them to become “drug resistant.” As an alternative doctor for health I believe in the balance and harmony of Nature, and in natural cures if needed. All life forms are opportunistic, from human beings right down to microscopic organisms. So, I wasn’t surprised to read recently that the malaria parasite has developed resistance to the medicines most commonly used to fight it; not only that, but several mosquito species that host and transmit the parasite have become resistant to insecticides. I rest my case!

But, the good news is (despite the seeming ignorance of most of medical science when it comes to disease control), researchers at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences are studying and testing plant extracts that have been used in traditional African medicine to fight malaria. Their study is to assist them in an effort to develop supplements and replacements for the conventional (and increasingly counter-productive) malaria medicines of today. And, leave it to Mother Nature to provide the simplest remedy; the plants used in the traditionally natural African remedy may not only affect the malaria parasite, but the mosquitoes that spread the parasite!

I doubt that this new discovery will thwart conventional medicine’s mindless efforts to find a way to eradicate all that ails human kind, not by helping humans to live healthier lives that are more in balance with Nature, but by eliminating “opportunities” for illness. I can hope, even dream, that one day soon the powerful pharmaceutical industry will realize that if they help to kill off the people of planet earth by creating drug-resistant super bugs, they will have irretrievably eliminated their customer base!

Technorati Tags: drug-resistant parasite, malaria, traditional African medicine for malaria

Some People Are “Dreaming” When It Comes to Their Health

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:26:41 +0000

Have you seen the comedy, “The Castle”? In it, the lead character likes to buy odd things and keep or resell them, and when something is ridiculously overpriced, he exclaim, “He’s dreamin’!” As a chiropractor, I unfortunately meet a lot of people who are dreamin’ when it comes to their health. They keep hoping that a new drug, or a new combination of old drugs, will finally make them healthy again! But, new medical “breakthroughs” can’t reverse years of health abuses. And, often, the “mix and match” approach to “symptom relief” is often quite dangerous. A case in point, a new study has found that older adults on blood pressure drugs known as calcium channel blockers could suffer dangerous drops in blood pressure if they are given certain antibiotics like erythromycin (brands like E-Mycin) or clarithromycin (Biaxin).

I say that it’s important to take good care of one’s health in general, lose the weight and get exercise to lower blood pressure, so that if and when there is a “true emergency” like an infection, taking it won’t lead to needlessly dangerous results!

Source: Reuters

Technorati Tags: antibiotics, blood pressure, good health, healthy lifestyle, pharmaceuticals

Food For the Hungry Teen Brain

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:33:04 +0000

As a concerned chiropractor I am not only interested in the health of the musculoskeletal system of my patients’ bodies, but in the overall health of their entire body. After all, despite the best efforts of some in the medical community to focus on “body parts,” as if the human body were an automobile, the human body is, in fact, an elegant, holistic system. In order for individuals to be maintain health and wellness, it is important that they eat right, move right, and sleep right, the “trifecta” for good health, so to speak. Over the years, I have noticed that the last one, i.e., getting enough sleep, can show up more quickly in a variety of poor health conditions, than the other two. Why is sleep so important, and why is the lack of it so detrimental to a person’s health? Well, for one thing sleep is “food for the brain.” During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur.

Human beings of every age require sleep, though recent research is finding that as we age, we need slightly less. Seniors often have trouble sleeping often as the result of the aging process. They want to get a good night’s sleep, but can’t seem to most of the time. However, it’s those who can sleep, and need sleep even more than their elders, that I am writing about here: Those wonderful, energetic, daydreaming, sleep-skipping teens!

Teens who skip slip look bad, feel moody, and perform poorly in school, in the classroom and on the field. Not getting enough sleep can limit a teens ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems, and to forget important information like names, numbers, his or her homework, or even a date with a special person. In addition, teens who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to get sick, have an accident, or get injured. A brain that is “hungry” for sleep will get it, sometimes when least expected. Drowsiness and falling asleep at the wheel cause more than 100,000 car crashes every year.

It is important for parents and teens to make sleep a priority. Naps can be a good “pick me up,” and help a teen to work (and play) more efficiently, but naps that are too long or too close to bedtime can interfere with regular sleep. Remember, no pills, vitamins or drinks can replace good sleep. Furthermore, consuming caffeinated drinks, such as coffee, tea, carbonated beverages, and chocolate close to bedtime can interfere with restorative sleep.

So, daydreaming is great. It’s what teens do best! But, remember, they need to get around 9 hours of sleep each night in order to stay healthy and safe enough so that those daydreams can come true!

Technorati Tags: teenagers and sleep

More Time For Daydreaming As We Age

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:33:10 +0000

A recent study suggests that healthy older adults need less sleep than younger adults and, of course, far less sleep than babies. I have a theory about why that is and my thoughts are not just as a chiropractor, but as a baby boomer. I think that the “older and wiser” adage applies: As we get older we realize that our time on the planet is limited, so why would be want to waste any of it sleeping beyond what we need, just because some folks continue the ole “eight hours a night!” mantra. Even if the urge is solely subconscious, we seem to want to stay awake and enjoy as much of life as we can…or at least get as much done as we can. Young adults often live in the kind of “magical thinking” that keeps them from saving money, for instance, or living a healthy lifestyle, and they have no problem sleeping ’til noon when they can. They think that they have “all the time” in the world, but we, boomers, know how quickly all that time passes!

The study, published in SLEEP (the official journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society), revealed that out of eight hours in bed, the time spent actually sleeping declined progressively and significantly with age. Adults aged 66-83 slept 20 minutes less than 40-55 year-olds who, in turn, slept 23 minutes less than young adults aged 20-30.

Okay, you’re probably thinking that a few minutes a night isn’t really going to give you all that much more time to do things. But, the interesting thing is that even though deep ( slow-wave) sleep, which is thought to be the most restorative phase of sleep, decreased with age as well, and even though older adults slept less deeply and less overall, and their sleep was less continuous than their younger counterparts, they also showed less need for a nap during the day.

Add those extra minutes at night to the time saved “not napping” and it adds up to a whole lot of time to not only daydream, but to live those dreams!

Technorati Tags: baby boomers, healthy older adults, sleep

Could Chiropractic Treatment Be The Answer to Affordable Healthcare?

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:03:51 +0000

Call me a daydreamer if you want to, but as a chiropractor I am looking forward to the day when alternative medicine isn’t considered “alternative.” With today’s high costs for conventional medical procedures, as well as the exorbitant insurance premiums charged to cover them (when they do), and with the expanding health problems of aging baby boomers, it seems to me to be a good time to look at the non-invasive, drug-free, natural approach to health that chiropractic brings to the healthcare bargaining table.

Unlike surgery and the long rehabilitation process that it often requires, chiropractic treatment can help individuals to get out of pain and back into their daily activities (such as working) much faster. And, unlike pharmaceuticals that carry dangerous side effects that can actually end up costing whole lot more than the original condition they were supposed to improve due to the fact that previously “healthy” body parts become inhibited and diseased, there are no unhealthy or dangerous side effects with chiropractic treatments. But, there are side effects…positive ones, such as enhanced circulation, elimination of lactic acid, easier travel of oxygen and nutrients within the body, more flexibility, much less general pain and soreness, faster recovery time, and a more tranquil feeling.

Chiropractic: A gentle, natural, and cost-effective way to get healthy and stay that way!

Technorati Tags: chiropractic, chiropractor, conventional medical procedures, healthcare costs

The Value of Daydreaming

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:59:41 +0000

I am a chiropractor who often must sit with patients and look them directly in the eyes contact while explaining my findings after a lengthy physical. During these times I’m often fascinated to observe who is actually listening and who has gone off to “the Bahamas,” as I often think it. Though I can see the effects of losing a person’s attention, I can never quite pinpoint when that shift takes place. Is there a precise “moment” when our minds shift from attention to wandering into the realms of possibility and potential? A new study on “mind-wandering” indicates that there is.

The study was recently published in PNAS by a group of scientists, led by Kalina Christoff of UBC and Jonathan Schooler of UCSB. They used fMRI to capture the moment of daydreaming. The subjects were given an extremely tedious task and, when their mind started to wander, the changes in their brain activity were recorded in the scanner.

The results suggest that mind-wandering may evoke a unique mental state that may allow otherwise opposing networks in the brain to work in cooperation. In recent years scientists have demonstrated that daydreaming is such a fundamental feature of the human mind that it’s frequently referred to as the “default” mode of thought. Daydreaming, scientists argue, is a crucial tool for creativity. Instead of focusing on immediate surroundings, the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. (Not good news when a patient needs to hear a diagnosis, a child needs to pay attention in class, or someone driving a car needs to be fully focused.) And, as a result, we’re able to imagine things that don’t actually exist.

“If your mind didn’t wander, then you’d be largely shackled to whatever you are doing right now,” says Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “But instead you can engage in mental time travel and other kinds of simulation. During a daydream, your thoughts are really unbounded.”

I’m all for “unbounded” thought, but unfortunately the mind of many of us appears to “free” itself, unexpectedly, and when it needs the boundaries of focus. Not all daydreaming is productive or creative, but it may be necessary. Maybe we all need “daydreaming breaks” throughout the day to allow our mind the freedom (and safety) to roam.

For more on this study, go to scienceblogs.com and read more. Jonah Lehrer is an excellent writer

Technorati Tags: creativity, daydreaming, mind-wandering, research

Do You Sleep Like a Dolphin?

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:33:20 +0000

Do you sleep like a baby or do you sleep like a dolphin? Baby’s sleep deeply with their muscles relaxed and their mind at ease. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? When was the last time you slept that way? Unfortunately, most of us sleep like dolphins, which is to say not completely asleep and not totally awake. Dolphins turn off half their brain and close one eye, allowing them to be partly asleep and partly awake at the same time. Stress from our day-to-day life can keep our muscles tense at night and our mind on “repetitive stress mode,” reliving the day’s events. That’s why I have a biofeedback therapist in my chiropractic clinic who teaches our patients how to breathe like a baby, and how to help relax both body and mind, so that they can sleep like a baby at night.

Technorati Tags: biofeedback, dolphins, good night's sleep

What Are Your Dreams Made Of?

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000

What’s in a dream? To Freud, dreaming provided a playground for the unconscious mind. To Jung it was a stage where the psyche’s archetypes acted out primal themes. To newer psychologists, dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though current problems, like divorce and work frustrations. To chiropractors, dreams simply mean that their patients are sleeping at night!

What if the primary purpose of dreaming isn’t psychological at all? Weird concept? Well, in a paper published in the October issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard, argues that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. Whoa! Physiological? Now, that’s right up a chiropractor’s philosophical alley!

Dr. Hobson believes that the brain is actually warming its circuits in anticipation of the sights and sounds and emotions of waking. “It helps explain a lot of things, like why people forget so many dreams,” Dr. Hobson said in an interview. “It’s like jogging; the body doesn’t remember every step, but it knows it has exercised. It has been tuned up. It’s the same idea here: dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness.”

Drawing on work of his own and others, Dr. Hobson argues that dreaming is a parallel state of consciousness that is continually running but normally suppressed during waking (except, perhaps when we’re “daydreaming”? -admin).

“Most people who have studied dreams start out with some predetermined psychological ideas and try to make dreaming fit those,” “What I like about this new paper is that he doesn’t make any assumptions about what dreaming is doing,” said Dr. Mark Mahowald, a neurologist who is director of the sleep disorders program at Hennepin County Medical Center, in Minneapolis.

The paper has already stirred controversy and discussion among Freudians, therapists and other researchers, including neuroscientists.

For more on this story, go to: nytimes.com

Technorati Tags: dreaming, research

Pain: A Daydream or A Nightmare?

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:39:20 +0000

If pain is “real,” why do placebos work sometimes? Good question! As a chiropractor, I treat a lot of people who are in a lot of pain. I have worked with people who were experiencing excruciating back pain and I’ve treated people who “should have” felt a lot of pain considering the condition of their spine, who weren’t. Pain tolerance differs greatly between people, and that is why I always ask my patients to pinpoint the level of pain they are feeling on a scale from 1 to 10. Could it be that pain may be “all in our heads.? A recent study appearing in the journal Science has revealed that the “placebo effect” goes right down to the spine, i.e., the spine is capable of regulating pain by dampening pain signals.

Through the use of fMRI, German researchers studied changes in spinal cord activity when individuals believed that they had been given an anesthetic rather than a placebo. They found that simply believing a pain treatment was effective actually dampened pain signaling in a region of their spinal cord, called the dorsal horn, suggesting a powerful biological mechanism was at work.

Traditionally, experts have viewed the effect of placebos as psychological, but the new research is the latest study to show evidence that there is an important physical component. The researchers found that the placebo effect is particularly strong when treating central nervous system conditions, like depression and pain.

For more on the researchers and their fascinating study, go to: reuters.com

Technorati Tags: back pain, pain, placebo effect

The Whole Person Phenomenon

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:40:31 +0000

Fifteen years ago when I was attending chiropractic college near Atlanta, Georgia, a fellow student shared with me that had doctor had discovered a small tumor in one of her breasts. I asked her what she intended to do about it. After all, we’d just spent two years studying the amazing powers of chiropractic treatment, but there was nothing in what we’d learned that indicated that it had any efficacy in eliminating tumors. She said, to my surprise, that she’d decided to “leave it alone for now,” even though her doctor told her that she was “dreaming” if she thought that the tumor would just disappear. So, a recent paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association, and reported in the New York Times online, was particularly exciting for me. The paper noted findings, over a period of two decades, that indicated that many small tumors would likely not be a problem if they were left alone, undiscovered by screening. It stated, in fact, that many of these small tumors were destined to stop growing on their own or shrink, or even, at least in the case of some breast cancers, disappear.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that cancers require more than mutations to progress,” said Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health. “They need the cooperation of surrounding cells and even,” he said, “the whole organism, the person.” He said that the immune system or hormone levels, for example, can squelch or fuel a tumor.

Cancer cells and precancerous cells are so common that nearly everyone by middle age or old age is riddled with them, according to Thea Tlsty, a professor of pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. She said that that fact was discovered in autopsy studies of people who died of other causes, with no idea that they had cancer cells or precancerous cells. They didn’t have large tumors or symptoms of cancer. “The really interesting question,” Dr. Tlsty said, “is not so much why do we get cancer as why don’t we get cancer?”

For much more on these exceptional findings, go to nytimes.com. My friend, by the way? She’s a happy, healthy chiropractor in Los Angeles, California, these days, and the mother of a beautiful two-year-old girl!

Technorati Tags: breast cancer, prostate cancer, research