Children, ADHD, and Sensory Disorders


It is any parent’s greatest wish to see their children happy and healthy. There is nothing more joyful than seeing a carefree, innocent smile light up your child’s face. Read more

Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disorders


Your gastrointestinal system is an incredible design. It contains endocrine (hormonal) and immune system cells. It cooperates with beneficial bacteria to break down food and protect against harmful pathogens. Read more

••

Heart Health and Inflammation

March 21, 2013 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Medicine, Nutrition, Research, Wellness Leave a comment  

You should be aware of two studies on heart disease produced by the Cochrane Collaboration in the past 6 months. These good folks comb through medical research studies and look at the combined evidence. In fall 2012, they reported that for people with mildly elevated blood pressure, drug therapy had no impact on heart attack, stroke, or death. In fact, “about 9% of patients treated with drugs discontinued treatment due to adverse effects.” It appears that for people with systolic blood pressure 140-159 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure 90-99 mgHg, blood pressure-lowering drugs offered more harm than benefit. In early 2013, the Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 18 research trials and found that “of 1000 people treated with a statin for five years, 18 would avoid a major CVD event.” This means that less than 1% of people on statins received a great benefit. For many of us, drug therapy has limited results.

Yet we cannot afford to get sick! Every 30 seconds, someone files for medical-related bankruptcy. Our top killers are heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. We’ve seen almost no change in cancer death rates since 1971 (New York Times, Apr 2009). Chronic illness is 70% of medical expenses, but it is also about 75% preventable! This is great news! Cancer does not develop purely by dumb luck. Five fail-safe mechanisms have to break down.

Understanding inflammation is key to understanding chronic illness. According to Time magazine (Feb 2004), “Toxins, diet and infection can cause inflammation directly, or by triggering a gene that sparks your immune system to attack itself and drive chronic inflammation.” In the short-term, inflammation is a normal part of the healing response. Chronic inflammation contributes to disease by damaging cell membranes so fewer nutrients get in, wastes accumulate, and cells can’t “hear” hormones. This places us in a state of hormone resistance: Type 2 diabetes, thyroid disease, or weight loss resistance. Chronic inflammation has also been linked to heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, and autoimmune diseases. Our main sources of inflammation are bad fats (trans/hydrogenated and inflammatory fats like seed oils), sugars, and toxins (heavy metals, plastics, pesticides, and household cleaning products).

Your Heart Health To-Do List!

  1. Switch to good fats: Grass-fed organic meats, olive oil, coconut oil, and butter. Supplement with high-quality EPA/DHA “fish oil.”
  2. Cut way back on grains & sugars. Ideally, have 1 serving of whole grains daily (brown/wild rice, quinoa). Replace sugar with stevia & xylitol.
  3. Reduce toxicity in your home and your food. Switch to cleaner household products. Drink only spring or reverse-osmosis filtered water. Re-evaluate your use of personal care products.
  4. Get 21stcentury health testing, so you know what’s going on inside your body.
    1. Vitamin D, available as a fingerprick test. For optimal health, you need 50-80 ng/mL.
    2. Lipid peroxidation (Meta-Oxy) to measure oxidative stress and cellular damage.
    3. Nerve system testing to identify body malfunctions caused by accumulated stresses.

Top 3 Diet Changes to Make: 2 of 3

January 16, 2013 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Digestive Health, Healing, Nutrition, Wellness Leave a comment  

Last posting outlined the top three diet changes to make:

1. Eat less sugary foods.

2. Change the meats you eat.

3. Replace bad fats with good fats.

Let’s cover the second diet change this week.

Change the meats you eat. Many studies link commercial meats with cancer and heart disease. This is not because eating animals is unhealthy, but because we have changed what these animals are made of. Cows are genetically designed to eat grass. Grass-fed cows have a healthier range and amount of fatty acids, like omega-3 fatty acids. Commercially raised cows are fed grain instead of grass because they put on weight faster. Coincidentally, the same thing happens to humans who eat too many grains.

It is a widely held belief that saturated fats are bad and cause heart disease. But it is not the meat, it is what humans have done to it. Certain saturated fats are essential for brain function and cell function. Between 2009-2010, several Harvard studies showed that higher levels of vegetable oils contributed to atherosclerosis. The same studies also showed that consuming more meat actually reversed atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes.

AVOID: commercial meat, eggs, and poultry

CHOOSE: grass-fed meat, wild game, organic eggs and poultry

Natural food stores will carry healthier meat and animal products, but they do cost more in the store. In the Midwest, it is easy to find a farmer who will sell their products directly to the consumer, at a significant cost savings. Go to eatwild.com or americangrassfed.org for directories.

Next posting will cover the third dietary change to make: replacing bad fats with good fats.


Top 3 Diet Changes to Make: 1 of 3

January 9, 2013 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Digestive Health, Healing, Nutrition, Wellness 1

If you’re making New Year’s resolutions, consider these three diet changes. It is easy to get bogged down with thinking you have to do everything perfectly. This can trip people up when they commit to a diet, slip off-track, and declare their attempt a failure. First of all, if you did something differently, even for one day, it is not a failure! Congratulate yourself on making positive changes, no matter how long they last. That being said, if you’re going to make changes in your diet, start with these three things. They are very high-value changes that give you the biggest benefit.

1. Eat less sugary foods.

2. Change the meats you eat.

3. Replace bad fats with good fats.

Let’s start this week with the first change, eating less sugary foods. Sugar is a life-sapping anti-nutrient when taken in at typical “American diet” levels. High sugar intake is linked to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. These diseases are our main killers. Sugar elevates insulin, which leads to premature aging and degenerative diseases. Sugar actually takes more from the body than it gives. In other words, to convert sugar into energy requires vitamins and minerals, which refined sugar lacks. That is why it is an anti-nutrient.

AVOID: white bread, white pasta, white rice, fruit drinks, soda, flavored yogurt, ketchup, sucrose, glucose, fructose, rice syrup, corn syrup, maltodextrin

CHOOSE: whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, sprouted grains, stone ground grains, brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, whole oats (not quick-cooking), stevia sweetener

On average, each American consumes 120 pounds of sugar per year, compared with 5 pounds in the early 1900′s. It is ideal to limit grains to 1-2 servings per day. Many of us are “addicted” to sugary foods. Cutting down significantly on refined sugars will likely produce headaches, shakes, fatigue, stomach trouble, and mood swings. These symptoms should dissipate in one week. For most of us, easing away from sugary foods is more practical. Start by having one grain-free meal every few days, then increase to one grain-free meal daily.

Children will benefit from this change in diet by having less sickness, improved behavior, better sleep, and potentially better grades. Adults will notice steadier energy levels, better concentration, and improved ability to lose weight.

We’ll address the second and third dietary changes, meats and fats, in future postings.


Insights on Fibromyalgia and Chiropractic

December 12, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Brain, Chiropractic, Healing, Spine, Stress Leave a comment  

It’s not in your head! This condition can be truly debilitating. Women are ten times more likely than men to suffer from fibromyalgia. Aside from widespread pain and the presence of “tender points,” fibromyalgia often involves morning stiffness, fatigue, sleep disturbances, headaches, and irritable bowel symptoms. Fibromyalgia is often associated with car accidents or other whiplash-type neck injuries. Damage to the neck increases an enzyme called NMDA. NMDA increases inflammation, which creates more NMDA. You can see that this can develop into a vicious cycle. The result of this chronic inflammation is increased sensitivity to pain, which is a key feature of fibromyalgia.

Essentially, fibromyalgia is considered a malfunction of muscles, connective tissue, and nerves. Understand that muscles do not malfunction due to bad luck or random chance. Muscles receive their commands to contract or relax from nerves. Like muscles or any other body part, nerves do not malfunction solely due to bad luck, bad genes, or random chance. Nerves malfunction when there is an overload of physical, mental, and chemical stress. The symptoms can appear as chronic muscle tension, headaches, digestive problems, or persistent back pain.

 

But wait – we are missing a step here. What happens to transform stress overload into chronic health symptoms? The body suffers from a loss of its inherent self-healing, self-regulating powers. Often, stiffness and fatigue appear. Mental focus decreases. The person feels like they are aging faster. It’s like their power is slowly being drained. What they are feeling is exactly what is happening, from a clinical perspective. The person’s nervous system is malfunctioning and losing power due to an overload of stress. We name this condition of nervous system interference “subluxation,” which literally translates into “a condition of decreased light.”

Fibromyalgia can be a disheartening, life-limiting condition. Many people find only a bit of relief from drug treatment, or they prefer a drugless approach to improving their health. For these people, natural chiropractic care may be a safe and effective form of relief. Balancing and strengthening the nervous system through chiropractic care can be accomplished using precise, gentle forces, without the need to twist the spine or create noise in the joints.

Treating subluxation is known to improve flexibility, decrease muscle spasm, and normalize pain response. As a result, people notice that they feel like they are standing taller, have more stamina, and their thinking becomes sharper. Ultimately, they feel more capable of responding positively to life’s everyday stresses and trials. This is the benefit of having a balanced nervous system.


Acid Reflux: A Power Problem?

July 19, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Bone Health, Chiropractic, Digestive Health, Healing, Medicine, Nutrition, Spine, Stress, Supplements, Wellness 1

Acid-stopping medications are intended to provide short-term relief of heartburn and acid reflux symptoms.  Medications interfere with your stomach’s acid-producing mechanisms, or they neutralize acids that have already been produced. Over the long term, suppressing stomach acid can contribute to chronic illness. Strong stomach acid is required to break down proteins, fry pathogens like bacteria and parasites, and ionize calcium so it can be absorbed and made into bone. Medical journals have noted that long-term use of acid-stopping medication increases the risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures, parasitic infections, and pneumonia.

In most cases, the root cause of heartburn and acid reflux is low stomach acid, not stomach acid overproduction. When stomach acid is low, food sits in the stomach and ferments. This produces more acids, which then back up into the esophagus, causing heartburn symptoms. A major overlooked cause of digestive problems is the available power to the digestive tract. Your digestive tract is a muscular tube that contracts rhythmically to mix food and propel it from end to end. Muscular valves, such as between esophagus and stomach, need to contract at the right time, with the right strength, to keep food digesting efficiently. If nerve disturbance is present, it can prevent the muscles of the digestive tract from doing their job. Chiropractic care corrects nerve disturbance and strengthens the body so it can follow its innate program for health. Your body knows how to work properly, once normal nerve function is restored.

We have been told that stress makes our stomachs pump out too much acid, causing heartburn and ulcers. Yet any physiology textbook tells us that when we are overstressed, the digestive process is suppressed in favor of an adrenaline-fueled “fight or flight” response. Your body cannot be in a state of repair and regeneration while it is in a defense mode. Chronic stress prevents the lining of the digestive tract from regenerating itself. We cannot digest well when we are stressed! Holistic health practitioners understand that if your digestion is weak, the foundations of your health and well-being are compromised. Being unable to digest food is not a normal part of growing older – it is a serious malfunction that must be addressed!


Normal aging, or better aging?

July 11, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Athletes, Balanced living, Bone Health, Chiropractic, Posture, Spine, Stress, Wellness 2 Comments

I was researching arthritis and found a simple explanation on an orthopedic surgeon’s website. It’s caused by normal wear and tear, apparently. They were referring specifically to osteoarthritis, which is the abnormal bone growth and spurring that causes motion restriction and nerve damage. As a chiropractor, I’ve seen a lot of X-rays. When there’s evidence of spinal osteoarthritis, it’s almost always in one of two places: the base of the neck (spinal segments C5-7) and base of the low back (L4-S1). These two spots are predictably where people  have surgeries and fusions, which are rather pricey and time-consuming. Now why is it that there are dozens of healthy spinal segments and only a handful of degenerated segments? They are all the same age. Isn’t gravity pretty much a constant force on us, unless we spend a lot of time on roller coasters? But osteoarthritis predictably affects the same parts of the spine.

Both of these people (they are facing to the right) are 50 years old. All you need to know is that green is healthy, and red is very unhealthy.

If you knew how to prevent osteoarthritis, would that help you age better? Note that you don’t want to age “normally” anymore, you want to age as best as you can! Check this out: your low back and the base of your neck are vulnerable points in the spine. An accumulation of physical and emotional stresses causes these body parts to malfunction and wear out more quickly. For example, car accidents, hockey, and football make people susceptible to osteoarthritis and accelerated aging. But there is a solution to this problem. If you choose regular chiropractic care to keep your spine and nervous system healthy, you can decrease the likelihood that you will age with “normal wear and tear.” So avoid being diagnosed with a chronic, degenerative condition like:

  • Osteoarthritis
  • Degenerative disc disease
  • Degenerative joint disease
  • Stenosis
  • Sciatica, radiculopathy, myelopathy, and all the other terms for “my body is literally getting on my own nerves”

 

If you ignore your body, it will predictably decline faster than necessary. If you take care of your body better than you do your car (yes, better!), your body will predictably age slower than everyone around you. Don’t be normal, be better than average!

 


Shine Brightly in Your Golden Years

May 30, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Chiropractic, Healing, Medicine, Research, Wellness Leave a comment  

Want your golden years to shine brightly? Read on. A 2007 study looked at a managed care plan that used doctors of chiropractic as the primary care providers. The goal of the study was to compare the outcomes of this new managed care plan to those of the traditional HMO. After analyzing 7 years’ worth of data, the authors found that hospitalizations and surgeries decreased by 60 percent and pharmaceutical costs dropped by 85 percent.

For older people, chiropractic care is associated with a higher quality of life. In a 3-year study of health outcomes for people over age 75, chiropractic users “were less likely to have been hospitalized, less likely to have used a nursing home, more likely to report a better health status, more likely to exercise vigorously, and more likely to be mobile in the community. In addition, they were less likely to use prescription drugs.” For those under chiropractic care, the relative risk reduction for hospitalization was 50 percent, and for admission to a nursing home the relative risk dropped by 80 percent.

These findings are worth repeating! Chiropractic users are likely to experience the following:

  • 60% fewer hospitalizations and surgeries
  • 85% lower pharmaceutical drug expenses
  • 50% less likely to be hospitalized over age 75
  • 80% less likely to go to a nursing home

At any age, these are benefits worth pursuing!


Could It Be Your Thyroid?

May 16, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Digestive Health, Healing, Hormonal Balance, Supplements, Wellness Leave a comment  

Fatigue, weight gain, and memory loss. Constipation plus cold hands and feet. Puffy eyes, dry skin, and hair falling out. How old does this person sound? If you think they are elderly, you may be right. Or they may be middle-aged and have a malfunctioning thyroid gland. Thyroid disorders are the most common malfunction of the hormonal system, much more prevalent than diabetes. Did you know that you can suffer from the classic symptoms of hypothyroidism and still look good on paper? In other words, you can have all of these symptoms, but your blood tests come back normal. So your diagnosis may be that you’re getting older, or you’re depressed. But your gut instinct tells you there’s a better explanation for your troubles.

Your thyroid gland makes thyroid hormones that control metabolism, which indirectly affects most body functions but is most obviously related to weight loss and gain, as well as your energy level and stamina. Here are some things you should know to protect this critical hormonal system.

You need a healthy digestive tract and liver. Most of the thyroid hormone in your blood is inactive. When your body needs the power of active thyroid hormone, conversion happens in the digestive tract or the liver. Inadequate conversion means your thyroid gland produces more inactive hormone, to create more active thyroid hormone through sheer volume. This can lead to an imbalance of thyroid hormones that, if given enough time, can become apparent on lab tests. Foods rich in vegetable fibers and probiotics, for example, are essential for a properly functioning thyroid gland.

High levels of estrogen-like compounds interrupt thyroid function. This applies to men as well as women. Pesticides, environmental pollutants, plastics, BPA, and pharmaceuticals can mimic estrogen and should be minimized. Choose organic produce when possible, and store foods in glass or ceramic containers.

Remove the competition! Not ultimate-fighting style, but from a biochemistry perspective. Iodine is a key component of thyroid hormone, but it can easily be replaced by more reactive elements like bromine, chlorine, and fluorine. These elements can replace iodine and create an ineffective thyroid hormone. For example, fluorine is in non-stick coatings on cookware, in the compound PFOA. In 2010, the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives reported that people with the highest blood levels of PFOA were twice as likely to have thyroid disease. For this reason, use cookware made of ceramic, glass, cast iron, or stainless steel. Also, choose reverse-osmosis-filtered or spring water instead of tap water, which has added chlorine and fluoride.

Recovering from a hormonal imbalance like thyroid malfunction requires work and dedication. There is no single solution, and we’ve only discussed a few of the lifestyle changes that you can take on at home.

 


Pathways to Health

April 11, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Chiropractic, Healing, Wellness Leave a comment  

How do we get to health? We are all born with an innate INTELLIGENCE that maintains and heals our bodies. This intelligence must be TRANSMITTED throughout the body by the nervous system. If the body’s pathways of intelligence are blocked, we are unable to express health to our highest potential. RESTORE the body’s pathways of intelligence, and we restore health and healing. In practical terms, that could mean fewer aches and pains, better digestion, more energy, and/or increased mental focus.

The expression of life through chiropractic care is based on these three principles, in this specific order:

1. Intelligence (always there, ready to be expressed)

2. Transmission (can be blocked by accumulated lifestyle stresses)

3. Restoration (a direct function of transmission)


One Skipped Dessert

March 14, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Bone Health, Chiropractic, Healing, Immune System, Research, Spine, Wellness Leave a comment  

What do these things have in common?

  • 30 sit-ups
  • A chiropractic adjustment
  • One skipped dessert

They are… all positive choices? Yes! Part of a healthy lifestyle? Yup! Instant fixes that will give you six-pack abs and the results you want? Nope.

Clients sometimes ask me, how much longer do I have to keep getting adjusted? My answer is, as long as you want to be your best. When are you “done” with eating nutritious foods? Done with exercising? Done with brushing your teeth, getting haircuts, washing your clothes, and taking showers? Okay, if you decide to do that, you won’t need to tell anyone, we’ll all figure it out from 50 feet away.

When a client gets their nerve system checked using Torque Release Technique (TRT), my job as the clinician is to have a conversation with that client’s nervous system. Is there nerve interference that is sapping their potential for fully expressing life and healing? Or, since they are taking good care of themselves, do they have a nerve system functioning with no sign of distortion, and are they “clear” at that point in time?

TRT uses objective measures of detecting nerve system interference (subluxation), so we can determine a client’s ideal frequency. Most people need to be checked and adjusted once per week to counteract the effects of accumulated physical, chemical, and mental stresses. When clients get off schedule, they often report feeling less “with-it,” getting sick more often, and generally feeling out of balance. Try eating healthy for 2 months, then eat edible-foodlike-substances-thru-a-car-window, and you’ll know what I mean!

Research from Clinical Biomechanics journal informs us that once-a-month chiropractic care is not an ideal “maintenance” schedule. Videman and colleagues noted that after two weeks of joint immobilization, irreversible degenerative changes occurred. These changes included breakdown of cartilage, hardening of bone, and formation of bone spur. Put those things together, and you have common conditions called osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease. That’s called accelerated aging, which is not normal and I recommend my clients do everything possible to avoid.

Most people would agree: your life is too important to have a random, scattershot approach. So keep making choices that serve you best. When your body works better, your life works better!


1 2 3 4 5   Next »