Are you hearing that natural cures don't work?

Recent, well-funded, and very prominent research is making headlines this month about the validity of natural cures; specifically, claiming that their benefit is mainly attributed to a placebo effect. For anyone who has developed a preference for natural cures and homeopathic remedies, this is a frustrating announcement. While the placebo effect may play a role in many cases, there is significant evidence, both subjective and objective, of the positive effects of natural cures. Some food for thought is below, highlighting just how interesting the possibilities of natural cures are. According to this article pulled from Reuters, 70% of current cancer drugs and treatments are natural products or derived from natural products. If we had the funding and the laws to develop research on natural cures and the ability to patent research and results, who knows what could be found or created? (sustainably, of course.)


In Amazon, a frustrated search for cancer cures
Reuters


By Stuart Grudgings Stuart Grudgings – Tue Nov 17, 2:11 pm ET

SAO SEBASTIAO DE CUIEIRAS, Brazil (Reuters) – The task of harvesting the secrets of Brazil's vast Amazon rain forest that could help in the battle against cancer largely falls to Osmar Barbosa Ferreira and a big pair of clippers.

In jungle so dense it all but blocks out the sun, the lithe 46-year-old shimmies up a thin tree helped by a harness, a strap between his feet, and the expertise gained from a lifetime laboring in the forest.

A few well-placed snips later, branches cascade to a small band of researchers and a doctor who faithfully make a long monthly trip to the Cuieiras river in Amazonas state in the belief that the forest's staggeringly rich plant life can unlock new treatments for cancer.

They may be right.

About 70 percent of current cancer drugs are either natural products or derived from natural compounds, and the world's largest rain forest is a great cauldron of biodiversity that has already produced medicine for diseases such as malaria.

But finding the right material is no easy task in a forest that can have up to 400 species of trees and many more plants in a 2.5-acre (1-hectare) area, and in a country where suspicion of outside involvement in the Amazon runs strong.

"If we had very clear rules, we could attract scientists from all over the world," said the doctor, Drauzio Varella, with a mix of enthusiasm and frustration. "We could transform a big part of the Amazon into an enormous laboratory."

As it stands, though, foreigners are barred from helping oncologist Varella and the researchers from Sao Paulo's Paulista University, who are among a tiny handful of Brazilian groups licensed to study samples from the Amazon.

Varella, 66, believes his high profile has helped. He is a well-known writer and television personality who shot to fame in 1999 with a book and subsequent hit movie based on his work as a doctor in a brutal Sao Paulo prison called Carandiru.

But a move by his team in the 1990s to partner with the U.S. National Cancer Institute produced a storm of accusations of "bio-piracy" and for years it has been blocked from the international cooperation and funding that could increase the chances of finding the Holy Grail of a cancer cure.

Their work has also been regularly delayed by bureaucratic demands, once stopping their collections for two years.

In more than a decade of searching, the group has brought back 2,200 samples from this tributary of the mighty, tea-dark Rio Negro (Black River) to its laboratory in Sao Paulo, of which about 70 have shown some effect against tumors. Just those samples have given the team enough analysis work for 20 years, said Varella, a lanky marathon runner whose younger brother died of cancer.

"If we can find 70, imagine what a big university with international resources could do -- they could screen for an absurd amount of diseases," said Varella, who still spends part of his time treating prisoners in Sao Paulo.

"As well as the impact this could have on human health, it could bring resources for preservation and to improve the quality of life of people who live here."

Ironically, it was a foreigner who inspired Varella to begin his search. Robert Gallo, a U.S. researcher and leading AIDS expert who co-discovered the HIV virus, asked Varella during a trip to the Amazon in the early 1990s if anyone was researching the medical potential of the forest.

JIGSAW PUZZLE

Among the natural products being used to fight cancer today is Taxol, a chemotherapy drug that comes from the bark of the Pacific yew tree.

David Newman, head of the Natural Products Branch of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, said several promising cancer drugs derived from natural sources as varied as a deep-water sponges and microbes are currently going through clinical trials. Often the natural compounds are tweaked or mimicked to better fight cancer cells.

"It's a detective story and a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't know how many pieces there are or what the picture looks like," he said. "In one teaspoon of soil from the Amazon, you find over a thousand microbes that have never been isolated."

Out of an estimated 80,000 species of flower-bearing plants in the Amazon, only about a fifth have been identified.

Newman said progress in Brazil has been greatly hampered by the inability of companies to patent a natural product under legislation passed in the 1990s, leaving no incentive to invest in research.

He cited the example of a Brazilian viper snake whose venom proved vital to the development of blood pressure drug captopril in the 1970s, a find that might not have happened under today's laws.

Further analysis of the promising compounds found by Varella's team has been held up while the university waits for access to a nuclear-magnetic resonance machine that can isolate the active elements.

"We're still a long way from discovering an actual medicine that could cure a type of cancer but we have strong signs that some plants have substances that inhibit the growth of tumors," said Mateus Paciencia, a bearded 34-year-old botanist.

Their main hope is that growing concern over the environment and increasing government efforts to slow the destruction of the Amazon by ranchers and loggers will turn the tide in favor of sustainable forest industries, of which they say their work is a prime example.

"There is nothing more sustainable than this," said Paciencia. "We take a kilogram worth of samples from a tree that weighs a ton and get an extract that lasts 10 years."

As he hung from a tree trunk, Ferreira said his relationship with the forest had been transformed by his job. He used to cut down trees with a chainsaw and sell the lumber in the city of Manaus, about 80 km (50 miles) down river from the research site.

"I think we'll find a medicine, and it won't take too long," he said. "If I deforest, I'm killing not just one plant but destroying a lot of other plants as well. So the job we're doing here is much better."

Why is my child sick all the time?

Many parents wonder why their children seem to be sick all the time. After all, the last place you want your child is to be at the doctor’s office or at home sick. Are there ways to improve our children’s health? Or are we helpless?
Decisions we make as parents can make a difference in the health of our children. From before birth until adulthood, parents make the decisions that influence their children’s lives. Mothers choose what their diet and exercise will be during pregnancy. Parents make birth plans and decide who will be their child’s doctor.
After a child is born, one of the main decisions made is whether or not to breastfeed. Many factors play a part in our final decision and often parents write down the advantages and disadvantages of breast milk versus formula. One question that may get asked is how will it affect my child’s health? Breast milk contains many substances, which have bactericidal and antiviral properties. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies are breastfed for at least the first year of life. Research indicates that breastfeeding decreases certain infectious illnesses, ear infections and diarrhea, and may provide protection against allergic diseases, SIDS, and diabetes. As our children grow up their nutritional needs change.
One of the factors that continue to impact our children’s health is their diet. Not only should children have a balanced diet but also we should look at the individual items they eat and drink. Most people have seen milk commercials promoting its benefits. Is milk really that good for you? Robert Cohen, author of “Milk: The Deadly Poison” says milk is responsible for allergies, colic, colitis, earaches, colds, and congestion in young children. Milk contains growth hormones, fat, cholesterol, allergenic proteins, blood, pus, antibiotics, bacteria, and viruses. Research also indicates that the protein found in milk destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas causing diabetes. After knowing this, can we ignore the importance of a dairy rich diet, when we have the knowledge that it can affect our health in many ways other than nutritional value?
What else affects a child’s health? We know that diet and exercise are important as well as proper rest. Another factor that often is ignored is a properly functioning nervous system. Our children have checkups for their teeth, eyes, ears, nose throat, but how do you check the nervous system?
The nervous system is the master controller of the body. Current research states that the nervous system is directly connected to and controls the immune system. If there is an interference with nerve function, this leads to an interference with the body’s ability to properly function. Part of this function is its ability to heal itself. Chiropractors detect and correct interference (subluxations) in the spine. A typical medical birth can cause a subluxation in the baby. Dr. Guntman found that about 80 percent of all children are subluxated during birth. When forceps are used as much as 90-110 pounds per square inch of pressure is applied to the baby’s neck. Also, the home is where the normal slips and falls of childhood occur. On the average before the age of seven, your child will fall about 2500 times and before the age of three will have 3 major falls from a crib, changing table or down steps. All of which can cause subluxations. Which in effect can decrease the proper function of the nervous and immune systems. A study was done which supported the belief that chiropractic care boosted the immune system. One hundred and seven chiropractic patients were evaluated and found to have a 200% greater immune-competence than people who had no chiropractic care. Studies have also been done showing the differences between children who have only had traditional medical care and children who have had regular chiropractic care. The children under chiropractic care had been sick less often and less severely compared to those who had no chiropractic care.
As parents we may also wonder if our children are sicker because there are more chances for our children to get sick. Health experts are indicating that drug resistant diseases have been on the rise. Experts in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that the overuse of antibiotics is causing the increase of these diseases. The World Health Organization indicated that the unnecessary use of antibiotics has created a breed of “superbacteria” which are resistant to standard drugs and which can weaken the immune system. The abuse of antibiotics has been a factor in worldwide epidemics such as Ebola and Aids. Antibiotics are often prescribed for ear infections, sore throats and other health problems even though they are unnecessary and ineffective in treating the problem. It is has been shown that these health problems go away in the same amount of time with or without antibiotics.
As parents, it is up to us to educate ourselves and determine what is best for our children. It is our choices that affect our children’s health and well being. When we ask ourselves questions like “why are our kids so sick?” then it is our responsibility to investigate and find out how we can improve their lives. No one else is going to care more about our children than us.


Moms Speak Out

“My child has been adjusted since birth. Getting sick hasn’t been a household thought.”
T.S.

“As a child, our family always got adjusted. Sickness hardly ever occurred and only lasted a day or two.”
D.F.



For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Check your Fever Facts!

Fever is one of the most common reasons that parents seek medical attention for their children. Parental concerns arise in part because of the belief that fever is a disease rather than a symptom or sign of illness. Twenty years ago, Barton Schmitt, MD, found that parents had numerous misconceptions about fever. These unrealistic concerns were termed "fever phobia."
In a recent study from the Department of Pediatrics out of John Hopkins’ Bay New Medical Center, a total of 340 caregivers were interviewed. Fifty-six percent of caregivers were very worried about the potential harm of fever in their children, 44% considered a temperature of 102 degrees F to be a "high" fever, and 7% thought that a temperature could rise to 110 degrees F if left untreated. Ninety-one percent of caregivers believed that a fever could cause harmful effects; 21% listed brain damage, and 14% listed death. Strikingly, 52% of caregivers said that they would check their child's temperature once an hour when their child had a fever, 25% gave antipyretics for temperatures less than 100 degrees F, and 85% would awaken their child to give antipyretics. Fourteen percent of caregivers gave acetaminophen, and 44% gave ibuprofen at too frequent dosing intervals.
In a study looking at how 161 pediatricians treat children's fevers, researchers found that half tell parents to give both ibuprofen and acetaminophen in alternating doses. According to Dr. Clara E. Mayoral and her colleagues at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York, this strategy could put children at greater risk from the drugs' side effects, which include liver damage. “Parents need to understand that fever is not necessarily a bad thing,” Dr. Mayoral said. “It’s the body’s response to infection. Treating the fever does not treat the underlying cause.” Their report is published in the May issue of Pediatrics. Of the 73% of caregivers who said that they sponged their child to treat a fever, 24% sponged at temperatures less than 100 degrees F; 18% used alcohol. Forty-six percent of caregivers listed doctors as their primary resource for information about fever. Caregivers who stated that they were very worried about fever were more likely in the past to have had a child who was evaluated for a fever, to have had blood work performed on their child during a febrile illness, and to have perceived their doctors to be very worried about fever. Compared with 20 years ago, more caregivers listed seizure as a potential harm of fever, woke their children and checked temperatures more often during febrile illnesses, and gave antipyretics or initiated sponging more frequently for possible normal temperatures. Fever phobia persists.
Tylenol is not in our house. The body heals itself with no interference, and the increased temperature is a process to destroy the bacteria. Chiropractic care allows the immune system to function at 100% thus allowing the body’s defense to work properly. Reducing the fever with drugs allows the bacteria to continue to grow. As I tell each patient, it is your call and decision, just make sure chiropractic care is a part of that decision.

For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Thinking outside the box

New gene therapy halts 2 boys' rare brain disease---and how did they do it? With the HIV virus. No joke--an inactivated virus is introduced for the restorative genes to hitch a ride into the body on, essentially. Pretty neat. What do you think about harnessing the power of a deadly virus for good? How does this fit with your concept of wellness and the body's inherent ability to heal? Read the article below.


New gene therapy halts 2 boys' rare brain disease
AP

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Thu Nov 5, 5:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON – French scientists mixed gene therapy and bone marrow transplants in two boys to seemingly halt a brain disease that can kill by adolescence. The surprise ingredient: They disabled the HIV virus so it couldn't cause AIDS, and then used it to carry in the healthy new gene.

The experiment marks the first time researchers have tried that long-contemplated step in people — and the first effective gene therapy against a severe brain disease, said lead researcher Dr. Patrick Aubourg of the University Paris-Descartes.

Although it's a small, first-step study, it has "exciting implications" for other blood and immune disorders that had been feared beyond gene therapy's reach, said Dr. Kenneth Cornetta, president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

"This study shows the power of combining gene therapy and cell therapy," added Cornetta, whose own lab at Indiana University has long researched how to safely develop gene delivery using lentiviruses, HIV's family.

The research was published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

In 20 years of gene therapy research, there have been few home runs and some headline-making setbacks — including a risk of leukemia caused by otherwise successful gene therapy for another rare disorder, "bubble boy disease." That's a risk that specialists hope a lentivirus-based gene therapy will eliminate.

Best known from the movie "Lorenzo's Oil", adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD, is a rare genetic disease that, in its most devastating form, destroys the coating of nerve fibers in boys' brains. Without that coating, called myelin, the neurological system breaks down. The disease typically strikes between the ages of four and 10, leading to blindness, deafness, dementia and loss of muscle control, and killing them within a few years.

Bone marrow transplants can halt ALD by letting new myelin-forming stem cells take root. But it's difficult to find a matching marrow donor, and the transplant itself is very risky.

So what if stem cells from the boys' own bone marrow could be genetically corrected, eliminating the ALD mutation? To do that, Aubourg's team had to overcome a technical hurdle: Gene therapy works when scientists harness deliver a healthy new gene by attaching to a virus that can harmlessly infect cells. But none of today's so-called gene therapy "vectors" could penetrate enough of the stem cells needed for an ALD treatment to work.

Unlike most viruses, HIV can penetrate stem cells, and it sticks permanently. So Aubourg's team removed the genetic parts of HIV that make it dangerous, leaving basically a scaffolding to carry the new therapeutic gene.

Then they culled stem cells from two 7-year-old boys in the early stages of ALD, and mixed in the healthy gene. The boys underwent bone marrow-destroying chemotherapy and then had their genetically corrected stem cells reinserted.

Two years later, the boys have shown no sign of worsening brain damage and are functioning well with 15 percent of their blood cells producing the healthy protein, said Aubourg, who plans to test the experimental procedure in more patients. An advocacy group, the Stop ALD Foundation, is working to raise money for a similar U.S. study.

___

On the Net:

Science Web site: http://www.sciencemag.org

Our Patients Speak

“Our Patients Speak”

I first visited Dr. Lachuta in April of 2008 after I read an ad for Northgate Chiropractic in the Seattle Times. I had severe lower back pains day and night, and I’d taken codeine pills prescribed by my Medicare doctor for at least 9 years or more.

For the past 10 years, my normal activities were interrupted daily by pain while I worked or relaxed with friends. When I read Dr. Lachuta’s ad in the paper, it moved me to make an appointment. I had tried acupuncture, chiropractic, and medical doctors in the past, but none of the various care worked. The codeine pills resulted in constipation, and only worked for a limited, and were no help really.

Only Dr. Lachuta’s single treatment removed the lower back pain, and I have never had these pains to this day. If I believed in God I could say Dr. Lachuta’s treatments were God-given.

I began to see results from chiropractic care after my first session. It has changed my life to not have lower back pain, and can only be described as miraculous due to the adjustments. I swear to anyone who has lower back pain to see Dr. Lachuta. I have found my God in Dr. Lachuta and I spread my relief to all others; for curative powers, GO TO DR. LACHUTA.

~Florence Gross, 90, MSW (Masters of Social Work- from University of Toronto, ranking amongst top social work in the world).
10/03/2009

HELP BLISS SOAPS!

Our friends, Bliss Soaps on Capitol Hill, have fallen victim to a fraud scheme that has unfortunatly in this tough economy left them unsure of their ability to maintain operating expenses! Help a neighbor out---take advantage of the amazing deal they are offering to boost their immediate sales and a make a turn around that will allow them to keep their doors open! Read below for the full story, and visit the shop at

http://www.blisssoap.com/

or

619 Broadway E
Seattle, WA 98102-5025
(206) 322-7627

10/29/2009

Dear Valued BLISS Soaps Customer;


BLISS Soaps has unfortunately fallen victim to a fraudulent business deal. Many local customers may recall a large soap, lotion, facemask and eye cream order that we were working on as they came to visit the store. The order was made, delivered and distributed to the Cruise-line executives ahead of schedule. Emperors Essentials, the company that commissioned BLISS Soaps to fulfill this contract fraudulently reversed ALL of the payments that were made to us. After researching the company, we discovered that the couple who own Emperors Essentials; Robert Friend, Jr., and Shao Mei Wang operate 4 charities in Gig Harbor, Washington. 1) National Association of Disabled Police Officers. 2) American Veterans Coalition. 3) (Childrens) Cancer Assistance Network. 4) Disabled Firefighters Foundation. All 4 charities are fictitious and an estimated $5,000,000.00 was raised for the charities and around 2 cents per dollar was used as assistance. If you hear of these in the future, DO NOT DONATE.

The devastating to BLISS Soaps came at such a time that we may not recover the funds in time to maintain operations.

In an effort to make this a win-win situation for both of us, we are offering this 4 day only Internet, call-in and walk-in special in an attempt to earn pre holiday revenue.

All orders over $50.00 will be doubled and the next 5 future orders over $50.00 will be given a $15.00 credit.

All orders received in the next 4 days will be filed and a VERY special future offer will be offered to you in our Dec E-mail.

ALL orders place in the next 4 days EVEN orders under $50.00 will be given the Special December offer.

To call in your orders, please call 1-206-322-SOAP 7 days 4-10 Pacific Time
Internet orders, please only order ½ of what you would like as we will simply double the order received.

Thank, you for your past and continued patronage and hope to hear from you soon.
Phil & Chuck
BLISS Soaps

Is chiropractic not covered in your employer-sponsored health plan??

Is chiropractic care not covered by your employer sponsored health plan? Do yourself and your coworkers a favor by starting an initiative to get coverage included on your plan, or a plan that includes chiropractic! Now don't start an uprising, but make an educated pitch to your superiors about why such a change is necessary, or even desired.

-Cost-effective health care keeps workers well and at work!
-Cost-effective health care OPTIONS keep your company from shelling out the major bucks by covering the smaller costs upfront to keep you healthy!

Its a win/win! Use a study like this to support your argument:

Study Finds the Availability of Chiropractic Care Improves the Value of Health Benefits Plans

* Press Release
* Source: Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP)
* On 3:30 pm EDT, Tuesday October 20, 2009

CARMICHAEL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A report, prepared by a global leader for trusted human resources and related financial advice, products and services, finds that the addition of chiropractic care for the treatment of low back and neck pain will likely increase value-for-dollar in US employer-sponsored health benefit plans. Authored by Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD, and Arnold Milstein, MD, the report can be fully downloaded at: Full Report.

Executive Summary:

Low back and neck pain are extremely common conditions that consume large amounts of health care resources. Chiropractic care, including spinal manipulation and mobilization, are used by almost half of US patients with persistent back-pain seeking out this modality of treatment.

The peer-reviewed scientific literature evaluating the effectiveness of US chiropractic treatment for patients with back and neck pain suggests that these treatments are at least as effective as other widely used treatments. However, US cost-effectiveness studies have methodological limitations.

High quality randomized cost-effectiveness studies have to date only been performed in the EU. To model the EU study findings for US populations, researchers applied US insurer-payable unit price data from a large database of employer-sponsored health plans. The findings rest on the assumption that the relative difference in the cost-effectiveness of low back and neck pain treatment with and without chiropractic services are similar in the US and the EU.

The results of the researchers’ analysis are as follows:

* Effectiveness: Chiropractic care is more effective than other modalities for treating low back and neck pain.
* Total cost of care per year:

-For low back pain, chiropractic physician care increases total annual per patient spending by $75 compared to medical physician care.

-For neck pain, chiropractic physician care reduces total annual per patient spending by $302 compared to medical physician care.

Cost-effectiveness: When considering effectiveness and cost together, chiropractic physician care for low back and neck pain is highly cost-effective, represents a good value in comparison to medical physician care and to widely accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds.

These findings, in combination with existing US studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, suggest that chiropractic care for the treatment of low back and neck pain is likely to achieve equal or better health outcomes at a cost that compares very favorable to most therapies that are routinely covered in US health benefits plans. As a result, the addition of chiropractic coverage for the treatment of low back and neck pain at prices typically payable in US employer-sponsored health benefit plans will likely increase value-for-dollar by improving clinical outcomes and either reducing total spending (neck pain) or increasing total spending (low back pain) by a smaller percentage than clinical outcomes improve.

Accordingly, this report was commissioned by the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (www.f4cp.com) to summarize the existing economic studies of chiropractic care published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, and to use the most robust of these studies to estimate the cost-effectiveness of providing chiropractic insurance coverage in the US.

Gerard Clum, DC, spokesperson for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress and president of Life Chiropractic College West, says, “While some studies reflect cost efficiencies and others clinical efficiencies, these findings strongly support both for chiropractic care of neck pain and low back pain.”

About F4CP

A not-for-profit organization, the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) embraces a singular mission to promote positive press for the profession in national, regional and local media. Through effective and ongoing initiatives, the Foundation’s goal is to raise awareness to the many benefits provided by doctors of chiropractic. The F4CP relies upon strategic marketing campaigns that span prominent spokespersons, monthly press releases, public service announcements, and advertisements in high-profile media outlets. To learn more about the Foundation, please visit us on the web at www.foundation4cp.com or call 866-901-f4cp.

Contact:

For Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP):
Stephen Mittler, 201-641-1911 x35
smittler@cpronline.com

Swine Flu--Why Shouldn't You Vaccinate?

Why Shouldn’t I Vaccinate?
Flu vaccines are created to target the specific strains of flu determined by the government to be a prevalent health concern for the season. Not all strains are included in the vaccination, and you are not protected from exposure to a different strain than what you are vaccinated for. This is why there is a separate vaccine for H1N1 this year, because it came on the radar too late to be included as a strain in 2009 seasonal flu vaccination. But, getting vaccinated does not guarantee you will not get sick from any strain.
If you are concerned over the “Swine Flu” hype, educate yourself. The hype is due to the lack of immunity to this new strain; more people will likely catch the flu this season than average. But, swine flu is still just a seasonal flu with seasonal flu symptoms and should not be considered drastically more dangerous that “regular flu,” depending on who you are. These target groups are described by the CDC as people who are more likely to catch the disease: pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, healthcare and emergency medical services personnel, persons between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old, and people 25 through 64 years of age who are at higher risk for 2009 H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems. If you fall in one of these groups, protecting yourself against the flu may be more of a challenge this year than last. But before you decide to vaccinate, consider the following.
According to the CDC, the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccines being approved by the FDA will be manufactured in several formulations. Multi-dose vials will contain thimerosal as a preservative. Multi-dose vials of seasonal influenza vaccine will also contain thimerosal to prevent potential contamination after the vial is opened. Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that was used for decades in the U.S. in vials containing more than one dose to prevent the contaminating growth of microorganisms. Concern and outrage in the 1990’s over the effects of thimerosal on general health and the speculation in it’s contribution to autism led the CDC and FDA to continually evaluate new scientific information about the safety of vaccines. However, according to the CDC website, “People have a right to expect the vaccines they receive are safe and effective. The CDC and FDA also hold vaccines to the highest standards of safety. Since 2001, no new vaccine licensed by FDA for use in children has contained thimerosal as a preservative, and all vaccines routinely recommended by CDC for children under six years of age have been thimerosal-free…” Except for the influenza and H1N1 vaccines, the website admits.
Why Should I Vaccinate?
To be fair, vaccinations can be a calculated risk. If you care for others or are a healthcare provider, you are a “gateway” to spreading seasonal flu. Or, if you fall into one of the categories most likely to be at risk of coming down with the flu, and also are at risk of developing more health-threatening side-effects or complications, you may want to discuss vaccination with your doctor.
This article serves to aid awareness about the use of vaccines. Research is the best way to keep yourself informed! Visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention online to learn more about season flu and H1N1, and read their detailed Q&A about vaccinations. Make a good choice for yourself! http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Write Us a Review!

Hi Friends and Patients,

If you've appreciated our service, do us a favor by helping us pass the word along! Write us a review on Yelp so others may find us for care, too!

-Go to www.yelp.com/seattle
-Type "Northgate Chiropractic" into the Search tab
-Click on Northgate Chiropractic
-Click on "Write a Review"
-Please create a profile (if you do not have one)

Thanks for your continued support!!
Northgate Chiropractic

A Statistic You Can Understand

Well, we harp constantly about the dangers of prescription drug overdose. We cite news articles, reference scientific research, and throw all kinds of numerical statistics around. But what do those numbers really mean? Do we actually have an understanding of what X number of deaths, Y amount of cost, or Z cases of side-effects actually mean relative to our place in healthy (or sickly) society?

But finally, new research has put the dangers of prescription drug use in terms we can understand...and hopefully at a level that will enlighten the public of a need for change.

Everyone knows that automobile accidents are the number one cause of death in the United States. Now, drug-related deaths have usurped that title in a number of states. While automobile accidents remain the number one killer in the United States, drug-related deaths are the leading cause of death in 16 states and counting, as of 2006, up from 8 states in 2003.

While this is devastating, there may be a silver lining. Hopefully the appropriate attention will now be garnered on the dangers of prescription drug use, and a stronger message will be sent to the public. Read the article below, from the Seattle Times local news, for more information.



Drugs causing more deaths than cars in Washington

In 16 states and counting, drugs now kill more people than auto accidents do, the government said Wednesday.

By MIKE STOBBE

AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA —

In 16 states and counting, drugs now kill more people than auto accidents do, the government said Wednesday.

Experts said the startling shift reflects two opposite trends: Driving is becoming safer, and the legal and illegal use of powerful prescription painkillers is on the rise.

For decades, traffic accidents have been the biggest cause of injury-related death in the U.S., and they are still No. 1. But drug overdoses are pulling ahead in one state after another.

"People see a car accident as something that might happen to them," said Margaret Warner, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But as for death from a drug overdose, "maybe they see it as something that's not going happen to them."

The drug-related death rate roughly doubled from the late 1990s to 2006, according to the most recent CDC data.

The number of states in which drug-related deaths have overtaken traffic fatalities has gone from eight in 2003 to 12 in 2005, and 16 in 2006. They are: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

It's not clear why those states have seen such a shift, but experts said certain drugs may be more of a problem in some states than in others.

While cocaine and heroin continue to be significant killers, most of the increase is attributed to prescription opiates such as the painkillers methadone, Oxycontin and Vicodin.

From 1999 to 2006, death rates for such medications climbed for every age group. Deaths from methadone alone increased sevenfold, according to the CDC.

It's not all black market stuff, either.

About half of the opiate medication deaths in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, involved people who got their drugs through legal prescriptions, said Caleb Banta-Green, a University of Washington research scientist.

"There has been a dramatic change in how doctors prescribe opiates," Banta-Green said.

advertising

In the 1990s, he said, doctors began recognizing that chronic pain was undertreated. The prescribing of painkillers escalated after that. Today, about one in five U.S. adults and one in 10 adolescents are prescribed an opiate each year, he said.

"The pendulum swung in the other direction," he said.

Using death certificate data, CDC researchers counted more than 45,000 U.S. deaths nationwide from traffic accidents in 2006, and about 39,000 from drug-induced causes.

About 90 percent of those drug fatalities are sudden deaths from overdoses, but the count includes people who died from organ damage from long-term drug use or abuse.

In Massachusetts, there were more than 1,000 drug-related deaths in 2006, double the number of traffic deaths, according to the CDC. Michigan had about 500 more drug deaths than vehicle fatalities, and New York had 350 more.

Nationally, the death rate from traffic accidents fell by about 6.5 percent from 1999 through 2006 - from 15.3 deaths per 100,000 people to 14.3 per 100,000, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The decline in road fatalities is "considered one of the great public health triumphs" of the past few decades, the CDC's Warner said.

--

On the Net:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/NCHS

Fall Seasonal Aches & Pains

With Summer winding down and Fall around the corner, many of us are rushing to complete annual fall chores in preparation for the winter rainy season. Raking leaves, clearing brush, unclogging gutters, repairing leaks and gaps in housing foundation, and adding a protectant coating to your deck are all common and necessary activities that can leave even the most fit participants sore and tense, and sometimes worse. Follow the suggestions below from the CDC and Yahoo HealthDay to prevent injuries do to falls and general strain!


In 2008 in the United States, about 617,000 people suffered injuries caused by rakes, other outdoor garden supplies and ladders, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission noted.

So to help avoid becoming one of those statistics, the AAOS offers the following autumn chore safety tips:

* Warm up for at least 10 minutes with some stretching and light exercise before beginning work in the yard.
* Use a rake that's comfortable for your height and strength. You can prevent blisters by wearing gloves or using a rake with a padded handle.
* Make sure that hats or scarves don't block your vision, and watch out for large rocks, low branches, tree stumps or uneven surfaces.
* Vary your movements and alternate your leg and arm positions often. When picking up leaves, bend at the knees, not at the waist.
* Wear shoes or boots with slip-resistant soles.
* Don't overfill leaf bags, especially if the leaves are wet. You should be able to carry bags comfortably.
* Don't throw leaves over your shoulder or to the side. That kind of twisting motion places undue stress on your back.
* Inspect ladders for loose screws, hinges or rungs, and make sure it is free of mud, dirt or liquids.
* Make sure all ladder legs rest on a firm, level surface. Don't use ladders on uneven ground or soft, muddy earth.
* Always face a ladder when climbing and descending.
* Confirm that the ladder is fully open and locked before you climb it.
* Angle ladders about 75 degrees from the ground.
* Don't sit or stand on the top of the ladder or on its pail shelf.
* Use the right ladder for the job. Step stools or utility ladders are good for working at low or medium heights, while extension ladders should be used outdoors to reach high places.

And remember, even the general strain caused by these activities can cause adverse reactions to your body! See your chiropractor after strenuous activity to ensure that your alignment is adequate as your fatigued muscles heal!

Our Patients Speak

September 23, 2009

Dear Dr. Lachuta.

I am writing to tell you how much you have helped me since I first started seeing you for chiropractic treatments. Beginning with my first appointment, I have experienced much improvement in my physical condition.

In addition to the improvements in my spinal alignment, which I expected, I have brought some things to your attention which you treated with fine results. For example, one time I mentioned to you that I had been experiencing some spasms in my left arm. What you did that day resulted in no more spasms in that arm.

I also told you about my toes seeming to be "curling" and possibly becoming "hammer toes." You have been treating that, as well as other conditions. My toes, too, are much more straight.

In general, I know that the professional skill and expertise you have and have been using with me have benefited my body health very significantly. I thank you very much for all you have done and I look forward to seeing you to maintain the good results and to correct any future problems which may occur. Thank you again.

Very truly yours,

Mary Anna Mohrman


(reprinted with permission)

Controversial Vaccines: To Flu Shot or Not?

Vaccination is a very controversial and emotional issue today. It is not a chiropractic issue, nor has it ever been. It is a freedom of choice issue. You as the parent have the ultimate responsibility for your child’s health and well-being, and you, not your doctor, state, or federal health officials, will live with and be responsible for the consequences of your decision. Vaccines are portrayed as being indispensable and somehow better at disease protection than our innate biological defenses and nutritional resources have accomplished for thousands of years.
The Anthon reports that medical experts with financial ties to the vaccine manufacturers heavily influence the government’s decisions endangering the health of innocent children to enhance profit. In the U.S. alone, they estimated that over $1 billion is generated each year from profits.

“Although I administered them myself during my early years of practice, I have become a steadfast opponent of mass inoculations because of the myriad hazards they present.”
Robert Mendelson, M.D.

“Immunizations promote certain types of chronic diseases. And far from providing a genuine immunity, the vaccines are actually a form of immunosuppression…I could no longer bring myself to give the injections to children even when the parents wished me to.”
Richard Moskowitz, M.D.
“Isn’t it ironic that we require or recommend immunizations in order to start school only to, in some cases, compromise some of the children by the very method we are using to supposedly protect them.”
Mark Thoman, M.D.

Not only are vaccinations not able to completely prevent us from contracting a certain disease, but they also have many ingredients that have known reactions in the body. These ingredients include: Ethel Glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde (preserving-bodies), acetone (finger nail polish remover), aluminum phosphate (carcinogens), mercury (cancer causing agent), phenol (carbon acid – disinfectant), and Thimerosal (carcinogen). On average before the age of six, your child will have been vaccinated 34 times. Many childhood diseases have declined steadily due to the increases in technology, such as improved sanitation, nutrition and health care, but not because of vaccines. In a whooping cough outbreak in Cincinnati in 1993, 80% of those under the age of five who got whooping cough had been fully vaccinated. Every year 8 cases of Polio occur as a result of the vaccine. There has not been a naturally occurring case of Polio since 1979. Vaccination promises protection against a select number of chronic diseases that, for some mysterious reason, our own immune system and natural health resources cannot deal with effectively on their own. The common side effects that have been documented after vaccinations include chronic
immunological and neurological disorders such as autism, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, allergies, cancer and other conditions. These diseases barely existed 30 years ago before mass vaccination programs.
Reactions to vaccinations can consist of persistent screaming, a high-pitched unusual cry, a state of unresponsiveness, fever with or without seizures or convulsions, excessive drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, nausea or apparent dizziness. If any of these symptoms occur any time, you should contact your physician, but this is especially important after a recent vaccination. It is estimated that physicians report less than 10% of vaccine damage and 97.5% vaccine related deaths go unreported. The U.S. pays more than $11 million each year in settlements and paid a total of $750 million in damages presently.
CHIROPRACTIC IS THE #1 SOURCE FOR A PROPERLY FUNCTIONING NERVOUS AND IMMUNE SYSTEM
Chiropractic is a natural, simpler and holistic way of improving your child’s immune system. Chiropractors look directly for a SUBLUXATION; this is a misalignment of a bone that is putting pressure on a nerve creating an interference or dysfunction in a body. There are three ways that a child or an adult gets a subluxation: Trauma – birth process (Dr. Towbin states that 80% of all children are subluxated at Birth), slips, or falls, stress – emotional, family dynamics, chemicals or drugs – antibiotics, vaccination, sugar, NutraSweet, 2nd hand smoke, and pollution. Chiropractors are the only health care professionals who can detect and correct your child’s subluxation. Chiropractors look for the cause of your son/daughter’s weakened immune and nervous system. In a recent study, children under chiropractic care can get sick less often and less severely, and they will rarely miss days from school. Recent studies show that they have fewer emotional and learning disabilities and other neurological problems connected with childhood. Chiropractic Kids also have less need for antibiotics, less occurrence of ear infections, tonsillitis and the immune system strength is doubled.
It is clear that American health care consumers are not going to win the right to make informed, independent health care decisions, including vaccination decisions, for themselves and their children unless they actively push for a change in state mandatory vaccination laws and support large scale reform of the mass vaccination system.


MOMS SPEAK OUT

“I feel the body’s own immune system is far better than injecting an unnatural substance. Most common childhood diseases are not life threatening. Once the child has the disease he/she is immune for life.”
S.G.




For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Bed Wetter?

Wet linens and a child both physically and emotionally uncomfortable – this is the picture of bed-wetting to millions of children. Nocturnal enuresis, simply stated, is bed-wetting past the usual time a child is potty trained. It is estimated that one out of five children wets regularly. This means that 20% of 5-8 year olds wet their bed. Imagine what this does to a child’s self esteem. Incidentally, the oldest patient that I have ever seen with bed-wetting was a 15 year-old high school student. Over a time period, various reasons have been proposed as a cause of bed-wetting – is it psychological, habitual, behavioral, trauma, etc.? Many methods have been used to treat this affliction. Alarm systems in the bed, hypnosis, psychotherapy, electric shock, drugs, waking the child, etc. However, none of these have had much effect.
Bed-wetting occurs when there is improper function of the valves (sphincters), which control the flow of urine to the bladder. One of these sphincters is under voluntary control, which means you go whenever you want. The other is on autopilot, or is automatic, in other words, the child has no voluntary control over this particular valve. The function of these two is controlled by the child’s nervous system, which keeps both in check and balance.
Beware of ads suggesting that it is okay that children wet the bed, because now there are school age diapers available. These ads seem to suggest that some children’s bladders have not developed properly, so a diaper is the answer. Nonsense! This is called marketing.
Early in my practice, I found (as have most chiropractors who deal with kids) that children who are bed-wetters have responded very well to chiropractic care. The reason is actually quite simple.
One mom said, “My ten-year-old son was fearful of sleeping over his friends house because of his bed-wetting. After six weeks of adjustments, the sheets were dry and my son was able to sleep over without being afraid of wetting the bed.”
Chiropractic deals with removing any interference of the normal functions in the nervous system. Applying this concept to a child with bed-wetting problems can have amazing results.
Remember, 10% of your nervous system controls pain and 90% controls functions like breathing, eating and eliminating wastes. When the spine becomes misaligned, or subluxated, the nervous system becomes short-circuited and does not function properly.


For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

The hits keep coming...

Conveniently the same week we began to build our case against ibuprofen and other NSAIDS, the American Chiropractic Association monthly News magazine decided in their new issue to target that other common medicine cabinet companion to ibuprofen--acetaminophen--in an article provokingly titled "Poison in the Medicine Cabinet". Dr. William Morgan makes the case against acetaminophen based largely on objective and statistical grounds....can't argue with the facts! Read on to learn more and discover if you too are guilty of unintentional overdosing like so many Americans.

Overdosing on acetaminophen leads to serious health complications. In fact, it is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. and Great Britain, with 50% of all acute liver failure in the U.S. attributed to acetaminophen. Even adhering to the proper dosage recommendations listed on the bottle has been linked to causing liver damage, liver failure, and deaths. Some numbers attributed to acetaminophen consumption per year:
56,000 = liver injuries requiring emergency treatment
26,000 = hospitalizations
458 = deaths

The problem is, acetaminophen is such a popularly used drug that unintentionial overdosing is easier than it seems. Acetaminophen tops the ingredient list for the household staple Tylenol, but it also appears in small amounts in dozens of common over the counter products, including head and backache pills, cold and flu remedies, and sore-throat medications. Now imagine when you are sick--can you see yourself taking a Tylenol or two for a fever? Something to soothe the cough? A decongestant for the sinuses? How about one of those flu pills to curb any symptoms? Without a thought, a patient can easily overdose. Account for the added risk of fasting, alcohol consumption or genetic predisposition to liver disease, and it becomes easy to destroy your own liver.

In response to developing awareness of the potential damage caused by this potent drug, the FDA in 2002 recommended stronger warning labels for acetaminophen products. (This is probably when awareness of acetaminophen usage guidelines appeared on your radar.) In 2009, the FDA made a second recommendation, that the standard dosage be lowered.

On paper, chiropractic care for pain management may seem at a heightened cost compared to "usual and customary care", or, use of acetaminophen, ibruprofen, and other analgesics or NSAIDS. But when you look at the long term cost, both financial and in personal health, of caring for liver dysfunction or failure, transplant or even death, then chiropractic care becomes the much more valuable option.

Some exceptional risk factors for Acetaminophen poisoning are:
-Fasting (either intentionally or in response to illness or pain)
-Dieting
-Alcohol Consumption
-Mixing Medications
-AIDS
-Liver Disease
-Malnutrition
-Anorexia
-Kidney Disease

According the Morgan, "Make no mistake about it: This medication can be dangerous, and the consequences for its adverse effects are grave. Surprising is the fact that we really do not have a firm grasp of how acetaminophen works or what the appropriate dose is...Chiropractic, as a profession, remains committed to wellness and avoiding the unnecessary use of medications. It is our responsibility to share this information with both our patients and their medical providers. Acetaminophen should be used sparingly, if at all."



You can read the full article "Poison in the Medicine Cabinet" by William Morgan, DC, at The American Chiropractic Association online at http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=3549

Now what do we always tell you about IBUPROFEN!?

Finally! Some evidence from the exercise physiology community to support what we've been telling you all along about popping painkillers! It may seem harmless to take a couple ibuprofen daily, but what are you really taking it for? Is it really helping what you think it will? Does it prevent your pain throughout the day? How do you know? Take a look at this article from the New York Times Online Health page from September 1, 2009. As you read, think about how the physiological principles of ibuprofen use documented apply to YOUR use of painkillers in prevention of daily perceived back pain.

Phys Ed: Does Ibuprofen Help or Hurt During Exercise?

By Gretchen Reynolds

Several years ago, David Nieman set out to study racers at the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile test of human stamina held annually in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The race directors had asked Nieman, a well-regarded physiologist and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus, to look at the stresses that the race places on the bodies of participants. Nieman and the race authorities had anticipated that the rigorous distance and altitude would affect runners’ immune systems and muscles, and they did. But one of Nieman’s other findings surprised everyone.

After looking at racers’ blood work, he determined that some of the ultramarathoners were supplying their own physiological stress, in tablet form. Those runners who’d popped over-the-counter ibuprofen pills before and during the race displayed significantly more inflammation and other markers of high immune system response afterward than the runners who hadn’t taken anti-inflammatories. The ibuprofen users also showed signs of mild kidney impairment and, both before and after the race, of low-level endotoxemia, a condition in which bacteria leak from the colon into the bloodstream.
These findings were “disturbing,” Nieman says, especially since “this wasn’t a minority of the racers.” Seven out of ten of the runners were using ibuprofen before and, in most cases, at regular intervals throughout the race, he says. “There was widespread use and very little understanding of the consequences.”
Athletes at all levels and in a wide variety of sports swear by their painkillers. A study published earlier this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that, at the 2008 Ironman Triathlon in Brazil, almost 60 percent of the racers reported using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers (or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen) at some point in the three months before the event, with almost half downing pills during the race itself. In another study, about 13 percent of participants in a 2002 marathon in New Zealand had popped NSAIDs before the race. A study of professional Italian soccer players found that 86 percent used anti-inflammatories during the 2002-2003 season.
A wider-ranging look at all of the legal substances prescribed to players during the 2002 and 2006 Men’s World Cup tournaments worldwide found that more than half of these elite players were taking NSAIDS at least once during the tournament, with more than 10 percent using them before every match.
“For a lot of athletes, taking painkillers has become a ritual,” says Stuart Warden, an assistant professor and director of physical therapy research at Indiana University, who has extensively studied the physiological impacts of the drugs. “They put on their uniform” or pull on their running shoes and pop a few Advil. “It’s like candy” or Vitamin I, as some athletes refer to ibuprofen.
Why are so many active people swallowing so many painkillers?
One of the most common reasons cited by the triathletes in Brazil was “pain prevention.” Similarly, when the Western States runners were polled, most told the researchers that “they thought ibuprofen would get them through the pain and discomfort of the race,” Nieman says, “and would prevent soreness afterward.” But the latest research into the physiological effects of ibuprofen and other NSAIDs suggests that the drugs in fact, have the opposite effect. In a number of studies conducted both in the field and in human performance laboratories in recent years, NSAIDs did not lessen people’s perception of pain during activity or decrease muscle soreness later. “We had researchers at water stops” during the Western States event, Nieman says, asking the racers how the hours of exertion felt to them. “There was no difference between the runners using ibuprofen and those who weren’t. So the painkillers were not useful for reducing pain” during the long race, he says, and afterward, the runners using ibuprofen reported having legs that were just as sore as those who hadn’t used the drugs.
Moreover, Warden and other researchers have found that, in laboratory experiments on animal tissues, NSAIDs actually slowed the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligament, and bones. “NSAIDs work by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins,” substances that are involved in pain and also in the creation of collagen, Warden says. Collagen is the building block of most tissues. So fewer prostaglandins mean less collagen, “which inhibits the healing of tissue and bone injuries,” Warden says, including the micro-tears and other trauma to muscles and tissues that can occur after any strenuous workout or race.
The painkillers also blunt the body’s response to exercise at a deeper level. Normally, the stresses of exercise activate a particular molecular pathway that increases collagen, and leads, eventually, to creating denser bones and stronger tissues. If “you’re taking ibuprofen before every workout, you lessen this training response,” Warden says. Your bones don’t thicken and your tissues don’t strengthen as they should. They may be less able to withstand the next workout. In essence, the pills athletes take to reduce the chances that they’ll feel sore may increase the odds that they’ll wind up injured — and sore.
All of which has researchers concerned. Warden wrote in an editorial this year on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine that “there is no indication or rationale for the current prophylactic use of NSAIDs by athletes, and such ritual use represents misuse.”
When, then, are ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory painkillers justified? “When you have inflammation and pain from an acute injury,” Warden says. “In that situation, NSAIDs are very effective.” But to take them “before every workout or match is a mistake.”

Growing Pains

How many of you have experienced the heartbreak of having your little one cry at bedtime with what seems to be indescribable pains in her/his legs?

You have probably tried all the standard parent remedies: wet towels, walking, reading to your child, cuddling, massaging the legs, all to no avail. The pain still persists. Eventually, your child finally falls asleep out of sheer fatigue and you simply dread this same event occurring tomorrow. Your heartstrings and nerves have had it! Finally, out of pure frustration, you seek professional help only to be told that “it’s simply growing pains” and that your child will eventually “grow out of it.” You can’t wait.

Worried parents often hear such comments. You have probably been told that your child’s legs hurt because the bones, ligaments, muscles, etc., are growing and therefore “stretching,” so it is perfectly normal that they should hurt. This has traditionally been explained away as a normal part of childhood. Does this sound all too familiar?

Many concerned parents believe this theory, for on the surface it seems sound. When you really think about it, however, those explanations simply do not make any sense. After all, when did it ever hurt to grow? And why only the legs? Don’t the arms, the nose, the fingers and other body parts also grow? Why don’t they hurt?
The vast majority of children with “growing pains” are in the very active, physical years. The sudden bumps, jolts, and stresses of vigorous play often produce vertebral subluxations (misalignments) of some of the spinal bones. These vertebral subluxations affect the way nerves control the function of your child’s legs and knees. In adults, this is called sciatica: pain in the leg.

Many parents are surprised to learn that most of the problems I see in adults can be traced to some childhood incident, which caused a vertebral subluxation. Consider this: those of you who are bothered by low back and/or leg pain today (as adults), most likely also experienced “growing pains” when you were little. You may not realize that having your subluxations corrected when you were a child, may very well have eliminated the difficulties you are experiencing now!

If your child is experiencing pain in the legs, or “restless legs,” a visit to a chiropractor with pediatric experience should be a priority.


For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Stress...what does it mean for us?

Stress is the rate of wear and tear on the body as a result of anxiety, worry or exhaustion from a difficult or challenging situation. If the source of the stress isn't found and corrected, it may irritate or damage a person's nervous system, which leads to a wide variety of health problems.
How many people actually understand the origins of stress? And, how many actually understand its influence on their daily lives? Very few people actually understand the destruction that is taking place, not only in their lives, but also to their body.
Dr. Mason in his book The Guide to Stress Reduction states, “Stress is directly or indirectly related to 80-90% of all diseases.” High blood pressure affects at least 15% of the adult population in the U.S. and results in 6,000 deaths per year. It is rarely caused by any single condition, but can be related to emotional and physical factors, such as stress. Hans Selye, leading researcher of the effects of stress upon the body, documented the three stages a person goes through in response to stress:
1. Alarm -- where the body's fight or flight mechanisms are activated;
2. Resistance -- where the body adapts to stress or successfully fights it, returning the body to normal;
3. Exhaustion -- due to prolonged stress, low resistance or malfunction.
These cause the body to secrete adrenal hormones, causing the body to lose its ability to digest. Circulation to the heart is decreased, the body's immune defenses are reduced, and the amount of oxygen carried to cells is limited. The body begins showing signs of dysfunction and is more susceptible to infections and disease, which causes wear and tear on the body. Many people aren't aware of stress until they are confronted with the pains of the symptoms: headaches, fatigue, pain and tension in the neck, shoulders and low back, irritability, allergies, sinus, digestive and sleeping problems.
According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2000 Omnibus "Sleep in America" poll, 67% of adults get fewer than the recommended eight hours of sleep a night; 43% report the lack of sleep interferes with daily activities.
On-the-job stress accounts for some of this worker exhaustion. According to a survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, 46% report their jobs are stressful at least some of the time. Two out of five say that they are always or often stressed by work.
Stress is a part of your life, which cannot be avoided despite the common misconception that it can. All we can do is minimize its implications by knowing how to manage the effects our jobs, money, relationships, children -- and even foods and drugs -- have on our lives. Exercise, meditation and eating properly will also help you manage and deal with stress more efficiently.
Chiropractic adjustments correct the subluxations caused by an overload of stress, which alter posture and the shape of the spine and disrupt the normal function of the body. Correcting subluxations, or misalignments, reduces tension and eliminates the source of stress not only in the spine but also throughout the body and nervous system.
Stress is a good thing and we all need it to survive, but you’re body’s inability to deal with it is what makes it bad. Regular chiropractic adjustments will allow your body to deal with every day stress more efficiently.

For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Thoughts to Digest...

....terrible pun.

BUT, remember how you're always hearing about chiropractic philosophy stemming from belief in the body's inherent capabilities of self-healing? Here's more proof that you body actually carries these powers!

New research suggests that our most famous long-time labeled "vestigial organ," the appendix, may in fact serve a very vital function. This function? It has been recently suggested that "the appendix still served as a vital safehouse where good bacteria could lie in wait until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea. Past studies had also found the appendix can help make, direct and train white blood cells." If this is the case, the appendix, long deemed functionless by past and modern medicine, actually carries a hefty healing and repair responsibility. Who would have thought!

Read up!


The Appendix: Useful and in Fact Promising
LiveScience.com


Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
livescience.com – Mon Aug 24, 10:30 am ET

The body's appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation.

Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. Not only was it recently proposed to actually possess a critical function, but scientists now find it appears in nature a lot more often than before thought. And it's possible some of this organ's ancient uses could be recruited by physicians to help the human body fight disease more effectively.

In a way, the idea that the appendix is an organ whose time has passed has itself become a concept whose time is over.

"Maybe it's time to correct the textbooks," said researcher William Parker, an immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. "Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a 'vestigial organ.'"

Slimy sac

The vermiform appendix is a slimy dead-end sac that hangs between the small and large intestines. No less than Charles Darwin first suggested that the appendix was a vestigial organ from an ancestor that ate leaves, theorizing that it was the evolutionary remains of a larger structure, called a cecum, which once was used by now-extinct predecessors for digesting food.

"Everybody likely knows at least one person who had to get their appendix taken out - slightly more than 1 in 20 people do - and they see there are no ill effects, and this suggests that you don't need it," Parker said.

However, Parker and his colleagues recently suggested that the appendix still served as a vital safehouse where good bacteria could lie in wait until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea. Past studies had also found the appendix can help make, direct and train white blood cells.

Now, in the first investigation of the appendix over the ages, Parker explained they discovered that it has been around much longer than anyone had suspected, hinting that it plays a critical function.

"The appendix has been around for at least 80 million years, much longer than we would estimate if Darwin's ideas about the appendix were correct," Parker said.

Moreover, the appendix appears in nature much more often than previously acknowledged. It has evolved at least twice, once among Australian marsupials such as the wombat and another time among rats, lemmings, meadow voles, Cape dune mole-rats and other rodents, as well as humans and certain primates.

"When species are divided into groups called 'families,' we find that more than 70 percent of all primate and rodent groups contain species with an appendix," Parker said.

Several living species, including several lemurs, certain rodents and the scaly-tailed flying squirrel, still have an appendix attached to a large cecum, which is used in digestion. Darwin had thought appendices appeared in only a small handful of animals.

"We're not saying that Darwin's idea of evolution is wrong - that would be absurd, as we're using his ideas on evolution to do this work," Parker told LiveScience. "It's just that Darwin simply didn't have the information we have now."

He added, "If Darwin had been aware of the species that have an appendix attached to a large cecum, and if he had known about the widespread nature of the appendix, he probably would not have thought of the appendix as a vestige of evolution."

What causes appendicitis?

Darwin was also not aware that appendicitis, or a potentially deadly inflammation of the appendix, is not due to a faulty appendix, but rather to cultural changes associated with industrialized society and improved sanitation, Parker said.

"Those changes left our immune systems with too little work and too much time their hands - a recipe for trouble," he said. "Darwin had no way of knowing that the function of the appendix could be rendered obsolete by cultural changes that included widespread use of sewer systems and clean drinking water."

Now that scientists are uncovering the normal function of the appendix, Parker notes a critical question to ask is whether anything can be done to prevent appendicitis. He suggests it might be possible to devise ways to incite our immune systems today in much the same manner that they were challenged back in the Stone Age.

"If modern medicine could figure out a way to do that, we would see far fewer cases of allergies, autoimmune disease, and appendicitis," Parker said.

The scientists detailed their findings online August 12 in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Food for Thought

An interesting article pulled off the New York Times Website today... think what you will about the reliability and validity of the test, or the comparison of rat results to humans and so forth... but its still an interesting (and maybe not shocking) concept.


The New York Times--Health
August 13, 2009, 1:00 pm
Fatty Foods Affect Memory and Exercise
By Tara Parker-Pope

Eating fatty food appears to take an almost immediate toll on both short-term memory and exercise performance, according to new research on rats and people.

Other studies have suggested that long-term consumption of a high-fat diet is associated with weight gain, heart disease and declines in cognitive function. But the new research shows how indulging in fatty foods over the course of a few days can affect the brain and body long before the extra pounds show up.

To determine the effect of a fatty diet on memory and muscle performance, researchers studied 32 rats that were fed low-fat rat chow and trained for two months to complete a challenging maze. The maze included eight different paths that ended with a treat of sweetened condensed milk. The goal was for the rat to find each treat without doubling back into a corridor where it had already been. The maze was wiped down with alcohol, so the rat had to rely on memory rather than sense of smell.

All of the rats studied had mastered the maze, finding at least six or seven of the eight treats before making a mistake. Some rats even found all eight on the first try.

Then half the rats were switched to high-fat rat chow (comprised of 55 percent fat), while the remaining rats stayed on their regular chow (which had 7.5 percent fat). After four days, the rats eating the fatty chow began to falter on the maze test — all of them did worse than when they were on their regular chow. On average, the rats on the fatty diet found only five treats before making a mistake. The rats who stayed with their regular food continued the same high level of performance on the maze, finding six or more treats before making a mistake.

Half of the rats had also been trained to run on a treadmill. After only a few days on the high-fat diet, the rats performed 30 percent worse on the treadmill. After five days of testing, the treadmill performance of the rats eating fatty foods had declined by half. The study results appear in The Faseb Journal, which is the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

“We expected to see changes, but maybe not so dramatic and not in such a short space of time,’’ said Andrew Murray, the study’s lead author and a lecturer in physiology at Cambridge University in Britain. “It was really striking how quickly these effects happened.’’

Although the human data aren’t yet published, the researchers have also performed similar studies of high-fat diets in healthy young men who then performed exercise and cognitive tests. Dr. Murray said he is still reviewing the data, but the short-term effect of a fatty diet on humans appears to be similar to that found in the rat studies.

It’s not clear why fatty foods would cause a short-term decline in cognitive function. One theory is that a high-fat diet can trigger insulin resistance, which means the body becomes less efficient at using the glucose, or blood sugar, so important to brain function.

Fatty foods appear to have a short-term effect on exercise performance because the body reacts to high fat content in the blood by releasing certain proteins that essentially make the metabolism less efficient. “It’s thought to be a protective mechanism to get rid of excess fat,’’ Dr. Murray said. “But it was making muscles less efficient at using oxygen and fuel to make the energy needed to run.’’

The findings are particularly relevant to people who may not worry about binging on fatty foods because they exercise regularly.

“Exercise is a good way of burning it off, because you’re burning the calories off,’’ Dr. Murray said. “But in terms of actually trying to put in a good time if you’re running, it will limit your performance.’’

Relieve Sinus Pressure with Chiropractic Care

For all of my life I have lived in Central Canada. Mold, Pollen and Ragweed are abundant everywhere. I have found that Winnipeg is the greatest place that you can live if you want sinusitis. In the Winnipeg region, one out of every two people has sinus problems on a regular basis. So why is it that the other person doesn’t have sinuses. Well, in my opinion, it comes down to several very important areas. The first is the bodies ability to process and eliminate pollutants and irritants in our environment, second is the foods you eat and most importantly the health of the nervous and immune system. Current research states that the immune system is controlled and regulated by the nervous system. The nervous system is the master controller of the body and all functions are controlled by the nervous system. Your sinuses are controlled by the nerves that supply them. If the nerve that supplies the sinuses (there are 8 of them) is pinched or irritated, then the sinuses will not eliminate mucus and irritants properly. This will cause mucus buildup and constant inflammation and blockage.
I have also found that diet has a huge impact on the health of your sinuses. The average American diet is very high in dairy products with minimal amounts of water. But are dairy products good for my bones? Minimal amounts of dairy are okay, but soy products have a greater nutritive value than dairy with no added chemicals. Today’s dairy products have high amounts of antibiotics, steroids and growth hormones that farmers use to continually keep the cows producing large amounts of milk and reduce infection. When they give the cow these chemicals, it is passed on in the milk. That is why we are told not to take drugs when we are pregnant or breast-feeding.
So what does chiropractic care have to do with my sinuses? Chiropractic care restores the body’s natural ability to eliminate and expel these irritants without drugs or medication. This is done by a chiropractic adjustment. In a research study, significant relief of symptoms was achieved after the adjustment was performed.
Here is what several patients had to say about their health.
“I was also diagnosed with chronic sinusitis, and you can imagine what that was doing to my ears. After two weeks, my nose was almost completely clear, and no more caked, green nose. Mom is happy and I’m a better boy. We have also avoided allergy testing completely! Allergy testing would have been very painful to mom and me with a more than $400 bill just to see what I’m allergic to.”
Another patient of the office stated “I have taken sinus medication for years with minimal relief, but after consistent adjustments, my sinuses are 95% better with no medications or side effects. The side effects from the medications were a mile long. I would recommend chiropractic to everyone in the Seattle.”


For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Your Chiropractic Future

The Following except is taken from Gerard Clum, D.C., President of Life Chiropractic College West and is published at http://www.lifewest.edu/myfuture.html. Take a moment to read his comments on the need for your voice in the push for chiropractic care to be a focal point in the current healthcare reform.




My Future-Your Future-The Nation’s Future



Colleagues,

Over the past few months we have all heard and read a great deal about national health reform. We have all felt a bit frustrated in trying to enter the debate or to respond to proposals because so little detail has been available. At this point in the game, that is changing by the hour and it is time to enter the fray!

It appears that there are two windows of opportunity between now and the end of the year for health care reform legislation to be brought forward in Congress. The first is as a part of the budget process at the end of the summer and the second is as a part of Medicare-related tidying up at the end of the year. Either way, the time to get involved is now.

President Obama got elected in large part due to the Internet and social networking opportunities. In the discussion of health care reform it is easy to throw up your hands, assume the big players of pharma, medicine and hospitals will have their way, and the opportunity for input by the average citizen-consumer or citizen-provider will be lost in the shuffle.

Mr. Obama tells us it isn’t going to be that way and that each and every one of us has the opportunity for input, the opportunity to be heard. We can choose to defer to those who will speak up, or we can speak up. I am asking you, pleading with you and begging you to speak up.

Let’s use the tools that got the president elected to speak to him and our elected officials and their staff members who will be penning the language that will shape the future of health care in America. Lest you think that nothing is happening, consider that on June 18, Senator Hatch offered an amendment to Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee of the Senate to include chiropractors in community health centers. At the same time in the House Armed Services Committee language was put forward that expands chiropractic services for the military. Both measures were accepted and are moving forward as part of larger legislative packages.
Getting Involved--The ABC’s

First and foremost, YOU need to write a letter to Mr. Obama, your representative and your senators.

What to say: Make it short and sweet. More than one page is wasted. Let them know that inclusion of chiropractic services as an essential service on a direct access basis in health reform will increase efficiency, lower cost and increase safety in health care—especially for neuromusculoskeletal problems. This will be accomplished because chiropractic care is high-touch, low-tech, offers an option to medication and the related side effects and offers higher levels of patient satisfaction than other forms of care.

How to send it: The best mode of transmission is by fax to their Washington offices, next is by U.S. post to their local offices, next is by e-mail.
Note: Legislators are not 20-somethings; they appreciate e-mail but they understand a stack of mail better. Mail sent by U.S. Post to Washington, D.C. is redirected to a security clearance center and is delayed by weeks. Don’t send mail to their Washington, D.C. addresses

Where to send it: For the local address of your member of the House of Representatives visit www.house.gov; for your Senators visit www.senate.gov; for the President, address your letter as follows:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Before you send it: Use your spellchecker, make sure it is less than one page, leave your life’s story out of it, politely tell them what you want and say thank you!
Second step

We all need to think strategically. We all need to leverage our relationships to impact this situation. Stop for a moment and think about the spheres of influence in your life—your family, your church, your neighborhood, your civic organizations, your classmates, your friends, your Facebook and Twitter contacts. One of the goals for you will be to bring the urgency of this message to all of them.

After you have identified all the sub-worlds within your world, think about how you can best contact them and enlist them in this effort. Some will be people you need to speak to and then follow up with an e-mail or a tweet, others will be Internet-oriented contacts you can address electronically. Consider customizing your contact in a way that will maximize their response.

Send them a copy of the letters you sent to your Representative, Senators and the President. Encourage them to do the same. Send them the URL for this page www.lifewest.edu/myfuture.html and encourage them to get involved. Their involvement can be for all sorts of reasons, to protect their own access to chiropractic care, to protect your access to chiropractic care, to protect your career, to ensure fairness and freedom of choice in health care, to make you happy, or to get you to stop e-mailing them about whether they have followed through as you requested. Then keep following through with them and ask them to confirm that they have written their elected officials as well.
Third step

Lend your support to centralized efforts in the profession to bring our message to our elected officials. Visit the ICA’s website at www.chiropractic.org or go directly to www.adjustthevote.org/cdd/subscribe Visit the ACA’s website at www.acatoday.org or go directly to www.chirovoice.org and sign up to be a part of their efforts.

Background and Briefing Materials:

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA), the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations (COCSA) and the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) have all agreed upon a “white paper” to address government on a unified basis with respect to health care reform. A copy of this 28 page report can be accessed at: www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/summitreport.html

President Obama recently addressed the annual meeting of the American Medical Association on health care reform. A copy of his remarks can be found at www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/ObamaAMA.html

A Recent Time/CNN article on health care reform identified 5 key roadblocks to the achievement of health care reform. A copy of the Time article can be accessed at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1902708,00.html

The New Yorker Magazine recently ran an article that Mr. Obama cited as detailing “the problem” and “what we need to fix in health care”. A copy of that article can be found at:
www.lifewest.edu/myfuture/newyorker.html

“On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the Door of victory, sat down to wait, and waiting—died.”

Gerard Clum, D.C.
President
Life Chiropractic College West
25001 Industrial Blvd
Hayward, CA 94545
gclum@lifewest.edu
(510) 780-4500 ext. 4550

Dr. Stephen Lachuta is a graduate of Life Chiropractic College West. For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Feeling the Effects of your Summer Sports Activity??

The MOST IMPORTANT piece of golf equipment is YOUR SPINE!

Professional golf instructors estimate that 80-100% of golfers' swing problems begin from faulty posture. Therefore, having a Chiropractor evaluate your posture should be the first and most important step toward building an optimal golf swing. Most postural faults are caused by muscle and connective tissue imbalances that pull a golfers body out of alignment, or a misalignment in spinal bones. The result of an unbalanced or asymmetrical standing posture will always be unbalanced and decreased performance. If the golf instructors are correct, a poor posture, when addressing the ball, will result in a poor and/or inconsistent golf swing. Moreover, sooner or later, golfing with a poor posture and swing motion will cause injuries. Research states that 80% of the population has lower back pain.

An onlooker may assume that the never-ending quest to put the little white ball into the cup calls upon little of the athleticism required by other warm-weather sports such as tennis or cycling. Not true. Many avid golfers contort their bodies into oddly twisted postures, generating a great deal of torque-the twisting force that opens a bottle cap-on the back. Couple this motion with a bent-over stance, repeat 90 to 120 times over three or four hours, add the fatigue that comes with several miles of walking, and you've got a good workout-and a recipe for potential lower back trouble.

As America's love affair with the game continues to grow and are playing in a big tournament, chiropractors advocate taking a proactive approach that will prepare your body for many years of pain-free play. "Most golfers go until they are in pain, then look for immediate relief. Northgate Chiropractic advocates a different approach-by helping patients look at what they can do right now to reduce the likelihood of future injury.” We want people to be able to play without pain and have the greatest potential for a lifetime.

If you take this approach, you're in good company. As a chiropractor I have found the direct connection between the spine and performance. Nerves control every muscle in your spine. A pinched nerve will decrease performance. Stan Sheppard states, “The difference between winning and losing could be just one stroke.” Many professional golfers such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Tom Watson rely on chiropractors to increase their performance. To find out if chiropractic could increase your performance in golf please call our office to schedule an appointment at (206) 367-2224.

Here Comes Allergy Season!!

Has the quick shift in weather got your allergies acting up early?

A healthy immune system means high resistance to disease and infection, an enhanced ability to deal with environmental stresses, and greater health and well-being. The immune system is one of the most complicated, sensitive, and mysterious systems in the body. It is influenced by our neurological and hormonal systems, by our diet, and even by emotional and mental stress. Science's understanding of it is in its infancy, yet many believe it holds the ultimate key to life and health.

Thus we can see that if the immune system were to malfunction we could be in very serious trouble. The most common disorder of the immune system is one that is a lot less frightening: the allergy.

Substances that cause an allergic reaction are called allergens. An allergic reaction (sensitivity) occurs when the immune system overreacts to an allergen and produces too many neutralizing chemicals (especially histamines) to counteract it. Some examples of allergens are dust; pollen; medicines; dog or cat dander; dairy; soaps; detergents and other kitchen chemicals; and even foods like strawberries or chocolate (heaven forbid!).
A common example of an allergy is hayfever. Although most people who breathe ragweed pollen aren't bothered by the microscopic bits of plants that constitute pollen, some have an immune system that overreacts to it. The runny eyes, irritated mucus membranes, redness, pounding in the head, fullness in the sinuses - are produced by the neutralizing chemicals.

The cause of allergies and immune system disease has not been conclusively determined. However, there are those who attribute the proliferation of allergies and other immune system diseases to the mass vaccination campaigns of the past few decades.

Medicine has no cure for allergies, only treatment. According to Robert Mendelsohn, M.D “You can depend on most doctors to largely ignore the cause and instead rush madly to treatment.” Unfortunately, the treatment is often worse than the disease, especially since the relatively safe folk-measures of yesteryear have been replaced by the sophisticated, dangerous drugs of modern medicine.

Overreaction to allergens causes the body to release the chemical histamine (as well as other chemicals) that cause inflammation
and other symptoms. Antihistamines are often prescribed to counter these effects. In most cases the antihistamines dry up the nasal passages and decrease the discomfort from itching, but do not correct the immune system overreaction.

Antihistamines, steroid hormones, and long-term desensitization all carry significant negative side effects.

Regarding allergy shots (desensitization), Dr. Mendelsohn states, "Although millions of patients have received the shots over the past 60 years, there are no, good, long-term studies to determine possible neurologic or other consequences of this treatment." Also mentioned was "a striking incidence of positive 'rheumatoid factors' in allergic children receiving shots.” Clinical studies have shown that breast fed babies have fewer allergy problems than formula-fed babies. Although chiropractic is not a treatment for diseases, allergies included, it does, by permitting the nervous system to function with less stress, permit the immune system to function more effectively - and this is something all allergy sufferers need.

Many studies have revealed the effect of a healthy nervous system on immune system health. Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of cancer prevention research at New York's Preventive Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University, measured the immune systems of people under chiropractic care as compared to those in the general population and those with cancer and other serious diseases.

His study found that chiropractic patients have a 200% greater immune competence than people who had not received chiropractic care. Allergies can make people's lives miserable. The standard medical approach may give short-term relief but is controversial and dangerous, and its long-term effects are untested. Common sense tells us to explore the safest, most natural means of dealing with problems before resorting to more extreme measures. A two-fold approach to allergies is often recommended: first, the avoidance of those substances that cause severe reactions and, second, correction of the basic cause - a malfunctioning immune system.

As one authority states, “A healthy body is capable of neutralizing these toxic substances and a body which has malfunctioning defense mechanisms cannot. The emphasis on allergies must be on building a healthy body, not on trying to use evasive tactics by eliminating all the allergens."




For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Facebook!

Northgate Chiropractic on Facebook

Eat.Taste.Heal-An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living

Check out our new favorite read:

Eat Taste Heal-An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living

The website describes the book as follows:

Eat • Taste • Heal: An Ayurvedic [Guidebook and]Cookbook for Modern Living provides modern applications of Ayurveda, humankind’s most ancient system of healthy living. A complete guidebook and cookbook in one, Eat • Taste • Heal offers every reader an individualized blueprint for achieving vibrant health. Fulfilling the adage, “Let Food Be Thy Medicine,” Eat • Taste • Heal offers recipes that are inviting to both the kitchen novice and master chef.

..The authors are a unique trio: physician, patient, and chef. Dr. Thomas Yarema M.D., director of Kerala Ayurveda, [created an integrative dietary program] rooted in common sense.] Daniel Rhoda, [an Ayurvedic practitioner] who found healing through Ayurveda, demystifies the ancient science that helped restore his health. Chef Johnny Brannigan, an internationally trained Ayurvedic chef, has created more than 150 recipes to empower individual healing through the exploration of taste.

Eat • Taste • Heal is the recipient of 7 National Awards.

A personal favorite of Dr. Stephen Lachuta, Eat, Taste, Heal has been one book he's found on ayurvedic health and diet that actually makes sense for both those familiar and unfamiliar with Ayurvedic Medicine. And the recipes are good too!

Visit the Eat, Taste, Heal website at:
http://www.eattasteheal.com/index.html
to learn more not only about the cookbook (guidebook), but to explore and learn about Ayurveda, digestion and toxin accumulation, determine your Dosha, discover which foods will balance your dosha, and some good detox tips.

This book comes with a great recommendation from Northgate Chiropractic!

8 Simple Steps to a Better Nights Sleep!

8 Simple Steps to a Better Nights Sleep!

Ten to fifteen percent of Americans suffer from chronic insomnia. Do You? Most of us experience an occasional sleepless night, but prolonged bouts of insomnia can lead to decreased mental function, frazzled nerves, and lowered immunity. The good news is that you don’t have to pop a pill of count sheep: Just follow these simple, natural steps to get more Z’s.

- Exercise Regularly, but don’t exercise within six hours of your bedtime. Physical activity speeds up your heart rate and metabolism, making it difficult to wind down at night. Try to schedule your workouts in the morning, so you can benefit from that extra energy during the day.
- Avoid caffeine after noon. Caffeine is a stimulant found in coffee, tea, cola, and chocolate. Some people clear caffeine from their bodies slowly (you know who you are). These people should avoid caffeine completely.
- Avoid alcohol. Many people find that alcohol helps them relax at night. Although it may help induce sleep initially, alcohol disrupts your normal sleep patterns, leaving you groggy and tired in the morning.
- Keep regular sleeping hours. Your body likes routine and will respond better to a consistent bedtime.
- Don’t work on the computer or watch television for at least one hour before going to bed. These activities stimulate your mind at a time when you should be preparing for rest.
- Avoid eating large, late evening meals. Do eat a light snack a couple hours before retiring to avoid low blood sugar levels in the middle of the night, which can wake you up.
- Decrease light in your bedroom. A dark environment is necessary for the production of melatonin, a hormone that encourages a healthy sleep cycle.
- Try yoga or meditation to clear your mind and help prepare your body for sleep. Like regular sleeping hours, a steady practice will yield the greatest benefits.

In addition, if your insomnia is caused or made worse by aches and pains at night, it may be time for a new mattress and/or pillow—and a visit to your doctor of chiropractic. Your sleeping surface should support the entire body—including the spine, neck, head, and limbs—evenly, with no gaps. For recommendations tailored to your specific needs, talk to your doctor of chiropractic. Chiropractic can also help promote better sleep by correcting imbalances and tension in the body, so that you can relax completely.

*Fun Fact*
The bullfrog is the only animal that never sleeps!