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Issue X - July 2007
As you can see, we have a new look! We decided after 4 years in practice, it was time to update the website and we hope you love it as much as we do!
Welcome to our office's Chiropractic newsletter.
We'd like to entertain you, inform you (and even inspire you a little).
Eat well, drink in moderation, and sleep sound, in these three good health abound.
- Latin Proverb
Most over-the-counter and almost all prescribed drug treatments merely mask symptoms or control health problems or in some way alter the way organs or systems such as the circulatory system work. Drugs almost never deal with the reasons why these problems exist, while they frequently create new health problems as side effects of their activities.
- John R. Lee, M.D.
The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
- Thomas A Edison
And last, but not least, as we fly up on the 4th of July...
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
- Benjamin Franklin
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Healthy Use of Microwaves
Healthy Use of Microwaves
Study: Microwaves Kill Kitchen Germs
By LiveScience Staff
Sponges and kitchen scrub brushes can be loaded with disease-causing viruses and bacteria.
So microwave them, scientists say.
Researchers soaked sponges and scrubbers in a disgusting brew of raw wastewater containing fecal bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and bacterial spores, including Bacillus cereus spores-known for being very hard to kill with heat, chemicals and even radiation.
Zapping at full power for two minutes killed or inactivated 99 percent of living pathogens. It took 4 minutes to destroy the B. cereus spores.
"People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave," said Gabriel Bitton, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida.
The study was announced today and was detailed in the December issue of the Journal of Environmental Health.
Other studies have shown that sponges and dishcloths are common carriers of pathogens from uncooked eggs, meat and other food. Damp objects help them thrive.
The researchers suggest wetting the objects-water being heated by the microwave seems to play a role in the sterilization-before zapping them every other day or so.
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Born Into Boot Camp
Born Into Boot Camp
Is too much pressure ruining our kids' lives?
By Matt Issacs
Allegra Cabellon, a senior at Miramonte High School, stands out from her peers when we chat on a bright January day near the rolling hills of the Moraga Country Club. While her friends rattle off their visions of the future, Allegra speaks soberly, encumbered with the present. Combing her black bangs out of her eyes, she recites her many accomplishments with the enthusiasm of a shopper reading a grocery list: president of the senior class, president of the lacrosse league and captain of the school team, director of the Goats of Denmark, the school’s theater company. Oh, and homecoming queen.
Allegra appears to derive little joy from all she has achieved. "I feel like I’m doing this for my parents," she says. "I’m a series of titles."
As Allegra continues, her friends’ chatter stops, and they nod in agreement at what she is trying to express. Many of their activities are chosen with an eye toward their college applications. They feel pressured to perform practically every waking moment. Even if some of their discomfort can be attributed to typical adolescent struggle, their situation seems genuinely difficult. Allegra’s friend and senior class vice president, Ariel Chin, says she, too, concentrates on trying to please her parents. "I feel like they’d be disappointed in me if I didn’t do well," she says. "I know they wouldn’t, but I’d feel bad."
Allegra’s mother, Barbara, says she never pressed Allegra to be the best in any of the myriad activities her daughter has chosen to pursue. She says she praises Allegra for her efforts and, if anything, often tells her daughter to give herself a break. The stress Allegra feels, her mother says, suffuses the environment at Miramonte, where the college destinations of all the seniors are published in the school newspaper and the yearbook.
At the same time, Allegra’s mother admits she falls victim to the fear-inspiring message pounded home by the counselors at college night, who warn the students that their "greatest competition isn’t coming from a kid at some other school but the one sitting in the next desk." Barbara has attended the gathering every year, even after Allegra’s applications were submitted, "just so I could flagellate myself a little more."
As she talks about it, her voice rises with anxiety. "I left the meeting one year asking Allegra if she was doing enough community service," she says. "I suggested she could work a few hours at the local hospital, before Allegra pointed out that she was already doing so much. And then I could see it. I was caught up in the same angst."
Regardless of where the girls’ stress originates, it takes its toll. Last year, Allegra found herself grinding her teeth so loudly that her brother could hear it in the next room. She now has painful jaw problems. She and her classmates talk about a crushing sense of pressure. Each one has experienced tearful meltdowns. "Suddenly, everything will happen at once, and I’ll panic," Ariel says. "I start asking myself, ‘What if I don’t have good enough grades? What if I don’t get into college?"
Allegra says she has actually considered hurting herself, although she insists she would never follow through on her dark thoughts. "It’s not like I’m about to go slit my wrists in the bathroom," she says. "I don’t mean to be all ‘emo,’ but I have felt like checking out."
Expectations are higher, and the resulting pressures on kids far more intense, than they were a generation ago. Back then, we needed straight As to get into Berkeley. Today, however, perfect isn’t good enough for the elite schools. The schools demand better-than-perfect grade point averages, superhuman extracurricular schedules, and test scores to make an admissions officer weep. Even beyond the stress attributable to the college admissions process, kids in affluent areas such as ours grow up with the bar of achievement and attainment raised sky-high. When kids don’t do even better than their high-achieving parents, there’s a tendency to ask, why not?
As a result, perfectionism pervades the culture of parenting, says Madeline Levine, a psychologist and author of The Price of Privilege, a book released last year that got a lot of parents in the 24-680 corridor talking about how best to raise their kids. In a recent interview, Levine described the time her eldest son, a model student, came home after receiving a B on a paper. He was devastated, she says. Levine was surprised, reminding her son that she had never expressed any concern about his grades. Her son laughed, flitting his hand about their spacious kitchen, and without his saying a word, she got it. "Nobody had to say anything," she says. "The air he breathed was about achievement."
Levine says affluent parents, often operating in settings where there is little genuine community, may confuse their child’s academic success with their own self-worth. So they push harder, spending money on experts to help their kids with schoolwork, with testing, with college applications, with throwing a perfect curve ball. The Acalanes Union High School District recently introduced Blackboard, an online portal where students—or their parents—can track their grades quiz by quiz. Consumed by such striving, a parent can lose sight of a son or daughter, a unique individual with strengths and weaknesses.
This laserlike focus on accomplishment, Levine says, can be psychologically debilitating for a young person still forming an identity. Eager to please, a kid tries to become perfect; anything less is seen as failure. Levine refers to "the child who can’t sleep, who throws up, or who feigns illness because he is anxious about a test." Such cases, she writes in her book, are often linked to depression and suicide. According to a 2005 study by S. S. Luthar published in Advances in Child Development, 22 percent of young women from affluent families suffer from depression. Luthar also shows that 30 to 40 percent of wealthy adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 suffer troubling psychological symptoms.
At the local level, the Discovery Counseling Center in Danville has seen its adolescent clientele increase by 35 percent in the past three years, while the number of adult clients has expanded by only 10 percent. The overwhelming majority of the adolescent clients are being seen for depression and anxiety, counselors say.
The kids Diablo spoke to say they get sick from stress. They lose sleep. They cut corners and cheat on tests. They play it safe writing their essays, rather than taking chances. Several spoke of breaking down in tears the first time they spoiled their perfect grade point averages.
Crystal Tarazi, another student at Miramonte, says she knows kids who miss five days of school a month simply because they can’t take the pressure. Others, she says, cut class, not to goof off or simply to rest but to catch up on their schoolwork. She can relate. A strain in her leg has recently kept her out of dance and soccer. "I’m glad I’m injured," she says.
Again and again, these young people say they aren’t living in the present, much less enjoying it. Every move is made with an eye to university admissions, this imposing, gilded gate to adulthood. Levine doesn’t buy into that approach. "It’s a myth that a prestigious college will have an enormous impact on your life," she says. "There is no correlation to how much money you’ll make, and certainly no correlation to happiness."
In 1999, Princeton economist Alan Krueger and Stacy Berg Dale, of the Andrew Mellon Foundation, released a study that challenged the idea that attending an elite college is crucial to being successful in life. They looked back at students who were accepted at Ivy League or similar schools but who chose instead to attend "moderately selective" schools. As it turned out, these students had the same average income as those who had chosen the absolute top-tier schools.
Carol Kitchens, the principal at Campolindo High School in Moraga, closes the door behind me as she welcomes me into her office. "I pride myself on an open-door policy," she says, smiling, "but for this we’ll keep it closed." A busy woman, Kitchens returned my call almost immediately when she learned I was writing an article about the struggles of affluent young people. The pressures felt by her students, she says, have made the issue a crucial one for her. "I see it more and more," she says. "The parents are living through their children. I see them marching their kindergartners through here to check out the school."
Levine’s book, she says, named something that has been on Kitchens’s mind for a long time. And it appears she isn’t the only one. After Levine read at Moraga Library last September, her book sold roughly a hundred copies at Orinda Books, placing it in the category of a "best-seller" for the shop. The Orinda Library had a waiting list of more than 100 people who wanted to check out one of 15 copies.
For all of the affluence concentrated in the East Bay, Orinda might come closest to Levine’s target audience. The median family income hovers around $132,000 a year, and almost 35 percent of the overall population holds postgraduate degrees, according to the Orinda Chamber of Commerce. The Acalanes Union High School District, which encompasses Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, and part of Walnut Creek, ranks second statewide in the Academic Performance Index. The majority of parents in the district attained advanced degrees and launched their successful careers by knowing how to play the game. Many would be insulted to be called anything less than overachievers. It would seem only natural that they should expect the same striving from their children.
The problem, Kitchens says, is that many of her students are driving themselves to exhaustion to please their parents, rather than to please themselves. And that’s a recipe for trouble. The principal has spent 33 years in education and concedes that things are different today. "A good student used to be able to get into UC Santa Barbara," she says. "Now you have to be a great student."
Bill Miller, the headmaster at Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek, says the mentality has shifted as well. He compares parents today to curlers in the winter sport, sweeping the ice path before their wobbly, college-bound kids. Parents have surplus income; why not hire some outside tutoring help? Parents today frequently fill out their child’s college applications; some heavily edit the entrance essays.
As more parents parrot Vince Lombardi—if winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?—others must raise their game just to remain competitive. Victory becomes the only option. "These days, it’s not about ‘I feel really great about what I wrote in my essay,’ " Miller says. "It’s about the grade, and that bankrupts the whole thing."
Levine stresses in her book that although parents ought to be available to help their kids if they want help, the most important thing is teaching children to set their own goals. "Sometimes parents understand how this process works, and sometimes, in spite of the best intentions, we don’t. We worry that without our constant intervention and vigilance, our kids will not achieve, and unwittingly we set the stage for their failure."
Rita Trumbo, a mother of three kids, one graduated and two still at Miramonte High School, has rushed from her daughter’s basketball practice to meet me for coffee. She wears a sweater draped over her shoulders against the cold and an ornate jeweled necklace outside her white turtleneck. We’re talking about Brad, her eldest son, a "kinesthetic learner" who struggled in an environment geared toward academics. Trumbo says she tried everything to help him catch up, until she finally simply let go. "I had to step back," she says. "It wasn’t about me here. It wasn’t me living his life. I had to back off being the driver and become the support."
A career coach by day, Trumbo volunteers as the parent representative in Miramonte’s Stressed Out Students, a program started at Stanford University that is devoted to changing the competitive culture. The program begins, she says, with parents learning to see their children as unique individuals rather than superkids.
When looking toward college, Brad told his parents he wanted to go to Santa Barbara City College; Trumbo resisted because she thought of it as a party school. But after hearing her son’s case, she came around and says Brad is happy there. "By giving him voice, letting him speak about what’s important to him, he’s making good decisions. He has increased his self-confidence, increased his passion for learning. He’s excited about school. Committed to doing his best. And it’s all being motivated from within him."
In her book, Levine says parents can be "over-involved in the wrong things and under-involved in the right things, both at the same time." Parents become over-involved when they grow emotionally attached to the achievements of their progeny. Neither elation nor devastation is an appropriate emotion to exhibit when reviewing a report card. At the same time, parents often fail to make meaningful connections with their children. They forget to listen. Too often, they respond with an agenda rather than with empathy. "Can you see him with clear glasses?" Levine asked rhetorically when we spoke, "rather than what you want him to be?"
Margie Ryerson, a local therapist and author of Appetite for Life (2005, Universe), a book about eating disorders, describes a former teenage client who starred on a girls soccer team. The young woman enjoyed the sport but had other interests as well, which conflicted with her father’s dreams of seeing her play on a traveling team—maybe even receiving a college scholarship. He demanded she practice every day, long after the game became a chore for her, her talent a curse. The girl wanted to please her father yet found herself suffocated by his ambitions. Like so many kids, Ryerson says, the young woman turned it on herself and felt guilty, as though she had done something wrong. "Often, when a child is good at something, a parent wants to parlay it into something for college admission," Ryerson says. "Of course you want the best for them. We want every door open for them … which comes out in pressuring the children."
Levine cites a lack of community as one source for the rising state of panic among parents. Many families belong to spiritual communities, she says, but overall, there is more isolation than in the past. "The priest or rabbi doesn’t stop by to see how we’re doing," she says. In wealthy families, one parent, often the father, might work excessively long hours, adding to the sense of remoteness. Mothers can become human people-carriers, carting their kids here and there, dipping into one superficial conversation then another, never truly connecting with anyone. In such cases, a kid can become the receptacle for a lifetime of hopes and dreams.
An important question in all of this is, are kids who are being subjected to intense pressure to perform ending up doing things that are related to their real passions? Meeting with local teenagers, it’s clear that the lifetime aspirations they allow themselves are different from the aims of previous generations—a tempering, perhaps, to square with a society increasingly focused on quantifiable measures of success.
Growing up, I wanted to be a writer. My friends wanted to be artists or entrepreneurs. But in the many hours I spend with this new crop of dreamers, I seldom hear of similar dreams.
I meet with a group of young people in the journalism room at Las Lomas, where I went to high school 20 years ago. I, too, wrote for The Page and find it somewhat unnerving to be here, speaking with these younger variations of myself. They are juniors and seniors, mostly editors, articulate but guarded. Typical journalists.
We talk about the future, a topic that never strays far from their minds. Jeremy Erickson, a pale math whiz, is aiming for MIT to study engineering, not because he particularly cares for the subject, but because he thinks he might be good at it. "I want to maintain the standard of living of my parents," he says. "The right school will help with that."
Similarly, such concerns were high in the minds of Miramonte students,who said they ruled out jobs that weren’t high paying.
"I don’t think you’ll hear very many kids around here say they want any kind of low-paying job," 16-year-old Christina Vidal had said, her voice turning sarcastically earnest as she added, "I want to be a teacher!"
Back in the journalism room at Las Lomas, student Sydney Koliha, a young woman who seems precociously self-aware, declares her own conflicted desires to get a good job, "to live the American dream." For a long time she wanted to be a movie director. "But then I thought about it," she says, "and realized, I can’t do that. How am I going to live?"
"Who’s to say you can’t make it as a director?" I ask Sydney.
"Yeah," she says, brightening at the encouragement. But a moment later, she retreats to a more practical reality, where becoming the next Sofia Coppola isn’t the goal, where filmmaking is more appropriately viewed as a side project. "Maybe just not a big one."
Matt Isaacs is a freelance writer based in the East Bay.
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Sleep to Lose Weight?
Women who sleep only five hours a night are one-third more likely to weigh substantially more—up to 30 pounds over the course of a study following 68,000 women for 16 years—than those who sleep seven hours a night.
While the women who slept less also ate less, researchers suspect that two hormones (ghrelin and leptin) may cause weight gain. A recent Stanford study finds that men who slept less than eight hours a night had lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin and body fat than those who got enough sleep.
Research also links less sleep with high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, while people with severe sleep apnea (a disorder that repeatedly disrupts sleep) have more than twice the risk for stroke than those who get a good night’s snooze. While just how sleep impacts health remains unclear, it’s as critical to disease prevention and healthy weight as a nutritious diet.
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A Natural Insect Repellent: Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus
With Spring arrives many things: warmer days, flowers, cookouts, and... well, bugs. If you live in a part of the country where people joke that the state bird is the mosquito, you need a good insect repellent. Due to several years of news stories on West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, and Lyme disease, there is more concern now than ever about mosquitoes and ticks. However, for many people, and particularly for parents of young children, the synthetic insect repellents that are most available can raise health concerns of their own.
For example, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), it is recommended that infants under 2 months of age not use DEET. The AAP also states "It is generally agreed that DEET should not be applied more than once a day." They note that one should avoid products that combine DEET and sunscreen or sun block, as these are often reapplied throughout the day and "may increase the potential toxic effects of DEET."
The good news is that there are natural and effective alternatives. Of particular note is the oil of lemon eucalyptus (E. citriodora). A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that repellents made with oil of lemon eucalyptus were the most effective of all the herbal repellents they tested. In addition to this finding, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded that products containing oil of lemon eucalyptus offered several hours of protection from mosquitoes. This is equivalent to repellents with lower concentrations of DEET, the current standard for use on children.
In 2005, the CDC reported that the main active ingredient in oil of lemon eucalyptus, PMD, is one of only three products recommended to protect against West Nile virus (the other two being DEET and picaridin). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also acknowledges PMD as being effective at repelling mosquitoes, biting flies, and gnats.
Oil of lemon eucalyptus--in fact all plant oils used as insect repellents--are deemed by the EPA to have no adverse effects on humans. Many of these same oils are found in common foods, and many are approved as food flavorings by the Food and Drug Administration. However, it is always prudent to test your reaction to any new body care product on a small patch of skin before spreading it all over your body! This can be done by applying a small amount to a test patch on your inner forearm and then waiting a day to see if there is any reaction. If not, you can apply the oil of lemon eucalyptus to your skin as needed for protection from insects.
Oil of lemon eucalyptus offers a safe and effective natural alternative to synthetic repellents. So go and enjoy the outdoors with protection, compliments of the lemon eucalyptus tree.
Sasha DuVerlie has worked for a natural body care manufacturer for 6 years.
SELECTED SOURCES • “Follow Safety Precautions When Using DEET on Children” by the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health, AAP News, 6/03, • “Updated Information regarding Mosquito Repellents” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov, updated 4/18/06 • "Comparative efficacy of insect repellents against mosquito bites” by Fradin MF, Day JF, New England Journal of Medicine, 2002 • “Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus as an Insect Repellent” by Alexandra Connelly Frost, PhD, Alternative Medicine Alert , 8/05 • “p-Menthane-3,8-diol (011550) Fact Sheet” by the US Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov, updated 7/28/06 • “Plant Oils Fact Sheet” by the US Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov, updated 11/14/06
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The Backpack Dilemma
The Backpack Dilemma
How Heavy Is Too Heavy?
By Dr. Claudia Anrig
Lugging a backpack stuffed to the brim with heavy books, binders and school supplies can lead to headaches and neck, shoulder, and lower back pain. Is your child’s backpack doing them more harm than good?
Chiropractors, pediatricians and orthopedic surgeons all agree that backpacks are a problem for a child’s spine. While a backpack alone may not cause major problems, overloading and improper carrying of a backpack can lead to headaches, neck, shoulder and lower back pain. According to an article published in the medical journal Spine, "Of the 1,122 backpack users, 74% were classified as having back pain, validated by significantly poorer general health, more limited physical function, and more bodily pain."
How Heavy Is Too Heavy?
While health care professionals do not agree on the exact weight, the consensus is that a child burdened with more than 10 percent of their body weight risks back and neck pain; and the majority of health care professionals agree that a child carrying more than 15 percent or more of their body weight can suffer from severe back, neck and shoulder pain, headaches, and other spinal discomfort; not to mention aggravate pre-existing spinal conditions such as scoliosis.
How heavy is too heavy? A 60-pound child should be limited to carrying no more than 9 pounds; the 80-pound child, about 12 pounds; and the 100-pound child, no more than 15 pounds.
Time to Lighten the Load
It’s important to weigh your child’s backpack at least once a week. If it exceeds the "15 percent rule" of your child’s weight, think of ways to "lighten the load." A backpack stuffed with that "extra" book, binder, electronic device or water bottle easily can add an unnecessary 10 pounds.
The general consensus is that a backpack exceeding 10 percent
to 15 percent of a child’s body weight can inflict
physical damage over time.
Parents need to show their children the importance of loading and carrying their backpacks appropriately. The heaviest items should rest against the back, which means loading them first and attempting to distribute the weight evenly.
While children may think nothing of carrying their backpack slung over one shoulder, the truth is that this fashion statement is damaging to the developing spine. When carrying a pack on one side only, one shoulder is required to carry a burden that both shoulders and the back should be sharing equally. The only proper way to carry a backpack is with both straps over the shoulders and the backpack resting against the lower back.
Function vs. Fashion
The first priority in purchasing a backpack is to select function over fashion. This recommendation may be easier said than done, but it’s an important one. Years of wearing a backpack in the "fashionable" way will undoubtedly lead to improper spinal alignment, poor posture, and eventually pain, for your children.
Here are a few criteria to consider when choosing a safer, more functional backpack for your children:
- The backpack should fit properly (not too long or too short).
- It should have wide, padded, adjustable straps (for proper positioning on the shoulders and back).
- A backpack with a hip strap or lumbar pillow provides additional protection. The hip strap, when used, can distribute a portion of the weight to the hips, easing the load on the spine and shoulders. The use of a lumbar pillow will provide the necessary back support to the lumbar region, where the greatest portion of weight is being carried.
The bottom line: When shopping for a backpack, consider that the more support features on the backpack, the less spinal stress your child will carry.
Think Twice About Roller Bags
Are roller bags the solution? Although one might think a roller bag would be the answer to the problem – by taking weight off your child’s spine and shoulders – it should be noted that an empty roller bag may weigh up to 80 percent more than an empty backpack. Furthermore, these bags run larger, inviting your child to overload the extra space as much as 50 pounds. Although these bags will be rolled, don’t forget that a child (and their developing spine) is still at risk when lifting the bag up or down stairs, or retrieving it from the back seat of the car.
So remember, with the current school year coming to a close and a new one just months away, remember that when it comes to choosing a backpack, think function before fashion. Your child’s health depends on it.
Claudia Anrig, DC, practices in Fresno, Calif., specializing in pediatric chiropractic care. She is the author of Textbook of Pediatric Chiropractic (1997).
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What Does Your Pain Tell You?
What Does Your Pain Tell You?
By Burl Pettibon, DC, FABCS, FRCCM
Pain means something is wrong. Migraines, muscle cramps, backaches and other troubles are often warning signs of a bigger problem. But too many people ignore their pain or take medications to mask the symptoms. Find out what your pain is trying to tell you.
According to Ben Franklin, "In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes." Unfortunately, you can add one more troubling reality to that list: pain. We all experience pain at some point in our lives, and we all want to avoid it, of course. If we are in pain, it usually means something bad is happening to our bodies. Pain is nature’s signal to tell us, "Pay attention. Your body is being damaged. You need to make an adjustment to heal this damage and prevent it from happening again."
It’s All Relative
When trying to evaluate the level of pain you are in, keep the frog story in mind. What is the frog story? If you drop a frog into boiling water, it will immediately jump out of the pot. However, if you place a frog in a pot of cold water and heat the water gradually, the frog will remain and literally allow itself to cook to death. Perhaps a bit gruesome, but true.
The same can be said for human beings. A person who is normally not in pain may come into their doctor’s office and report they have an ailment with a pain level of "9" on a scale of 1-10. A person who has been dealing with a chronic problem for years may come into the office and report a pain level of "4," even though clinically, they are much worse off than the person claiming to be a "9" and have sustained much more damage to their body. Like the frog, if pain comes on gradually and gets progressively worse, a person may not realize the degree of their physical dysfunction until it’s a serious health issue.
You’ve Got Pain – Now What?
One option far too many Americans race toward to deal with pain is over-the-counter and even prescription drugs. There are several reasons for reconsidering this option. First of all, as mentioned earlier, pain is a way for our bodies to tell us, "Hey, you need to fix something; you are harming your body." If you take a drug to temporarily mask the pain, you are ignoring this message and allowing the damage to continue.
Unfortunately, too much of mainstream health care offers solutions that address the symptom, rather than the cause. Not to mention that any pharmaceutical solution comes with a host of potential side effects. There’s no getting around this reality – just read the warning label or insert that accompanies any medication. What’s worse, some people get into a harmful cycle of taking pain pills and then taking additional drugs to cover up the side effects of the original drug!
In a sense, taking a pill is the easy way to avoid dealing with the pain. It requires no effort whatsoever. Unfortunately, too many people in America find the easiest solution the most attractive. In the real world, that’s rarely the best approach.
Why Are You Hurting?
If you have pain, your first task is to try to discover what your body is telling you. There are many potential sources of your pain. Assuming you aren’t suffering from an acute injury (for example, a muscle strain or tear that occurs while working out or lifting a heavy box, etc.), here are some potential pain sources to consider:
- Toxic Pain. Your headache may be caused by an increased level of sugar in your bloodstream or some other toxic situation. For some people, red wine does it. Don’t just assume it’s pain you can learn to ignore.
- Poor-Posture Stress. If you have chronically poor posture, you are going to have additional stresses on your joints and muscles that will result in pain. Your posture also can be compromised when you sleep. Poor mattresses and pillows could be the culprits. Poor posture during waking and sleeping hours can cause pain in your head, neck, shoulders, back, hips and legs.
- Nutritional Deficiencies. Research studies suggest most people don’t get all of the nutrients they need from the food they eat. This is partially due to the processed nature of our diets and the poor menu choices many of us make. Your pain, particularly if it is chronic, could have its roots in a nutritional deficiency.
- Muscle Strain. You use your muscles every day. Sometimes, you use muscles you haven’t used in years. Mild muscle strain can occur on occasion, particularly if your muscles aren’t getting the exercise they need. If you aren’t exercising regularly, you are allowing your muscles to slowly weaken and atrophy. The consequence: You can expect to suffer more frequent muscles strains.
- Musculoskeletal Pain. Your spinal column and all of your joints are designed to move in specific ways. They also enjoy a certain amount of elasticity that allows them to extend beyond their normal range of motion, providing flexibility, stability and shock absorption. Injuries or abnormal movement patterns can create points of restriction or "subluxations" that can cause pain and ultimately reduce your mobility.
How does this pain impact your daily living? If it’s causing you to have discomfort every day of your life, your quality of living has to suffer. Most chronic pain is just that: chronic. That means it took awhile to create the physical circumstances that caused it, so relieving that pain could take time. But you can make serious and significant progress toward correcting your problem in a matter of a few weeks, with the proper guidance from your health care provider.
Address the Cause
Your pain’s cause may not be what you assume. A health care professional whose orientation does not focus on administering drugs, such as a doctor of chiropractic, will be better able to find out the core cause of your pain.
Your doctor may need to examine your posture, diet, muscles, nutrition intake and musculoskeletal system in order to clearly determine the cause or causes of your pain. But don’t expect a "quick fix." Chances are your pain could have multiple causes that will take a little time to address.
Remember, you are a vital component of your overall, long-term wellness. That means your doctor can’t be the only one responsible for your health. It’s up to you to take accountability for your condition. Yes, it requires more effort than taking a pain pill, but it is far superior and more essential to your quality of life.
Consider your wellness and pain-free existence like scoring a touchdown for a football team. If your health care provider is your coach and trainer, you represent the star player. How successful you are depends not only on the direction you receive from the coach (doctor), but also on the effort you yourself put forth. So take responsibility and do your part for your overall wellness.
After all, it’s your body.
Burl Pettibon, DC, FABCS, FRCCM, has practiced chiropractic for more than 40 years. The developer of a well-known chiropractic technique, he is a popular lecturer, author and researcher.
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Antibiotic Use in Infants May Up Asthma Risk
The drugs might kill off bad and good bacteria, study suggests
By Serena Gordon, HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) -- Giving antibiotics for a non-respiratory tract infection to an infant younger than 1 greatly increases the odds that the child will develop asthma, according to new research.
The study found that the risk was highest for those infants who received multiple courses of antibiotics and those who received prescriptions for broad-spectrum antibiotics. Broad-spectrum antibiotics tend to kill a wide range of bacteria -- both good and bad.
"Asthma is a multi-factorial disease, and we've found evidence of an association with first-year-of-life antibiotic use and asthma," said the study's lead author, Anita Kozyrskyj, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.
One hypothesis, Kozyrskyj added, is that broad-spectrum antibiotics are killing off too many good bacteria.
"It may be that you need the presence of good bacteria during the first year of life for the immune system to develop normally, and the antibiotics are killing off some of the natural microflora in the gut," she said.
The study findings are published in the June issue of the journal Chest.
Each year, about 4 million American children have active asthma, resulting in about 14 million missed school days, according to the American Lung Association. Because asthma can't currently be cured, only controlled, researchers are focusing on factors that may play a role in the initial development of the lung disease.
For the new study, Kozyrskyj and her colleagues followed almost 14,000 children from birth in 1995 until 2003, when all of the children had reached 7 years of age. Data came from the Manitoba Health Services Insurance Program and included information on physician visits, prescriptions, hospitalizations and health diagnoses.
Additionally, the researchers linked this data to data on the mothers of these children to see if there was a maternal history of asthma. Parents also completed surveys on home and environmental exposures.
All of the children were from Manitoba. Half were male, and 57 percent lived in urban areas. One-quarter of the children were from low-income families; 90 percent had siblings; 5 percent had a maternal history of asthma, and 6 percent developed asthma by age 7, the researchers found.
Two-thirds of the youngsters had received at least one antibiotic prescription during their first year of life, many of them for broad-spectrum antibiotics, according to the study. And, the more antibiotics received, the greater the risk of asthma.
Kids who received one to two courses of antibiotics had a 21 percent increased risk of asthma; those given three to four courses of antibiotics had a 30 percent rise in risk; while youngsters given more than four courses of antibiotics had a 46 percent increased risk of asthma.
Children given antibiotics for non-respiratory tract infections, such as urinary-tract infections, were as much as 86 percent more likely to develop asthma than those treated for respiratory infections.
Other factors that increased the risk of asthma included a family history, living in an urban area and being male. Having a sibling conferred a slight protective effect, as did having a dog for children who received multiple courses of antibiotics. In kids who had more than four courses of antibiotics before age 1, having a dog decreased the risk of asthma by 28 percent. However, in kids who received fewer antibiotics, that protective effect wasn't there.
Dr. Alan Khadavi, a pediatric asthma specialist at New York University Medical Center, said that prevention of asthma isn't a reason to get a dog. "If you already have a dog, that's fine, but the studies are conflicting about whether they're helpful or harmful," he added.
As for antibiotic use, Khadavi said, "If your child under 1 year is sick, have him or her evaluated. Don't push for antibiotics. But. on the other hand, if it's a serious infection that needs to be treated, I wouldn't worry too much about the asthma risk. If it's a mild infection, a watch-and-wait approach won't be harmful if they're under a physician's care."
Dr. Sai Nimmagadda, an attending physician in the division of allergy at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said this study points to the need for "more judicious use of antibiotics, especially broad-spectrum antibiotics in kids under a year."
"Once wheezing has developed, it's difficult to alter the course of asthma, so now we're looking back to see if there are any risk factors we can change," he said.
Kozyrskyj recommended that physicians start by prescribing narrow-spectrum antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, for their youngest patients, and then if necessary, try a broad-spectrum medication.
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Humor
The Birth Order of Children:
Your Clothes:
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?
Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.
Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.
Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing,and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.
Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.
At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.
Swallowing Coins:
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!!
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