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

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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.

The #1 Cause of Disability

March 5, 2013 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Chiropractic, Medicine, Spine, Stress Leave a comment  

Globally, the top cause of disability is low back pain. This symptom is what most people think of when they hear the word “chiropractor,” and it is one of the main reasons that people consult our office. We have seen excellent results with people with low back pain, and other symptoms like heartburn will improve. Chiropractic care has whole-body effects because it improves the function of the nervous system. But let’s focus on low back pain.

NPR News reported today that low back pain is the top source of disability in the world, and medicine is not finding new methods to help, like they are with cancer and heart disease. Some people choose to undergo multiple back surgeries, without significant relief. What if the problem is not just in the low back? The part that hurts is not always the true source of the problem. Most of us know that a heart attack can make your jaw or arm hurt.

Health care providers sometimes overlook the physiology behind low back pain, so let’s review basic human physiology. Pain and movement signals from the low back to the brain must travel via the spinal cord, which runs down the center of the spine. The spinal cord is laid out like a fiber-optic cable, with different wires carrying information from different body parts. Information from the low back is carried on the rear edges of the spinal cord. Spinal misalignments (subluxations), especially in the upper neck, can irritate the spinal cord, distorting the signals and creating pain symptoms that the brain reads as “low back pain.” This is why the entire spine must be analyzed if someone has low back pain.

We often see leg and low back symptoms improve without having to perform heavy manual adjustments to the low back and pelvic joints. Our specific, low-force chiropractic technique restores normal function to the nervous system. Many of our patients have found relief from decades-long problems that they decided to stop tolerating. If you are having low back pain, be sure to get an examination from a chiropractor with a reputation for being thorough and effective.


The Story of the Deaf Janitor

November 14, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Bone Health, Chiropractic, Healing, Medicine, Spine, Wellness Leave a comment  

Over one hundred years ago in 1895, in a small town in Iowa called Davenport, a tremendous discovery was made. It was at this time that a man by the name of Daniel David Palmer discovered the science, art, and philosophy of chiropractic. D. D. Palmer had a patient come into his office who had been deaf for the past eighteen years. The many’s name was Harvey Lillard. Mr. Lillard reported that, eighteen years ago, he injured his neck at his custodial job while lifting a heavy object. Mr. Lillard heard a “pop” in his neck and felt what he thought to be a lump. He gradually lost his hearing, and had been deaf ever since.

D. D. Palmer examined the man and felt what he thought to be a misaligned bone in his spine. He decided that the popping sound must have been the spinal bone moving into the wrong position. D. D. later used the term “subluxation” for misaligned vertebra. D. D. decided that if the man could hear prior to becoming subluxated, then Mr. Lillard should be able to hear again if the subluxation was corrected. D. D. Palmer then proceeded to give Harvey Lillard the first chiropractic adjustment.  After three such adjustments, Mr. Lillard’s hearing was completely restored.

As you can see, the first chiropractic patient did not have neck pain or back pain. The discovery of chiropractic was based on the princile that the nervous system controls all the functions of the human body. When the nervous system malfunctions, the body malfunctions. In the case of Harvey Lillard, nerve interference to the ears was the cause of his deafness. When that interference was corrected, his hearing was restored.

What D. D. Palmer discovered was a non-duplicating, unique form of health care. Chiropractic is not the same as medicine, nor does it try to duplicate it. The medical approach to Harvey Lillard’s condition might have been drugs or physical therapy to treat the symptoms of the injured neck. Maybe even surgery. My point is that Mr. Lillard could have been given all the drugs and therapy in the world, but if his nerve interference was not corrected, he would still have been deaf. Thus chiropractic’s uniqueness. Chiropractors are the only health care professionals whose purpose is to correct vertebral subluxations, thus allowing the nervous system to function properly, and the body to be healthy.

During the next thirty or forty years following D. D. Palmer’s first adjustment, chiropractors helped thousands of sick and dying patients by improving the function of the nervous system. In the beginning, chiropractors were not known for taking care of neck pain or back pain. Chiropractors were known for taking care of sick people who had tried every form of treatment available at the time, but had little hope left. Many of these patients achieved incredible results and went on to live long, productive lives.

I hope you now have a better understanding of chiropractic’s beginnings. Another famous chiropractor, B. J. Palmer, D. D. Palmer’s son, said, “If they knew what we knew they would do what we do.” Please use chiropractic for the right reasons; it will help you to be your best.


Raising Healthier Children

November 7, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Babies, Balanced living, Children, Chiropractic, Medicine, Research, Wellness Leave a comment  

I would like to review a paper titled “A Comparative Study of the Health Status of Children Raised Under the Health Care Models of Chiropractic and Traditional Medicine.” This study was printed in the summer 1989 issue of the Journal of Chiropractic Research.

Two hundred pediatricians and two hundred chiropractors were surveyed as to the health of their children. The results of this survey indicate a clear correlation between chiropractic care and superior health. According too the study, the pediatricians’ children had an ear infection rate of 80%, while chiropractors’ children only had an ear infection rate of 30%. As far as tonsillitis was concerned, 43% of pediatricians’ children and 26% of chiropractors’ children were affected. Regarding antibiotic usage, 89% of pediatricians’ children and 50% of chiropractors’ children had ever been on antibiotics.

In my opinion these results are by no means a surprise to anyone who understands basic chiropractic principles. Every function of the body, including the immune system, is under control of the nervous system.. This statement is fact, based on pure anatomical science, plain and simple. If there is any interference in the nervous system, the body cannot function at 100% The further below 100% function, the less healthy a person is.

A chiropractor’s job is simple: remove nerve interference by adjusting the spine. How do you know if you or your children have nerve interference? The obvious answer is when you are sick and your body is not functioning properly. But what if you are not sick and do not have any symptoms? The only way to know if you have nerve interference is to be checked by a doctor of chiropractic. Many offices now have technology called computerized infrared thermal scanners. These instruments conduct a completely harmless, non-invasive test that assesses the body for nerve interference.

Remember this, a body with nerve interference is like an unplugged refrigerator filled with food. On the outside, everything looks just fine. But on the inside, the food is starting to spoil. Please avoid letting your insides spoil by getting regular chiropractic wellness adjustments.


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!


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!


Growing Healthy Kids

March 28, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP ADHD, Asthma, Babies, Children, Chiropractic, Digestive Health, Immune System, Medicine, Research, Spine, Wellness Leave a comment  

Every parent wants to grow a happy, healthy child that lives up to their potential. But the stresses of life can keep this from happening. Many problems in children and teenagers can be traced back to a difficult birth process. If a newborn’s head is pulled or twisted during delivery, they can develop spinal misalignments. This distorts the infant’s nerve system function, resulting in motor control issues like torticollis, or digestive issues like acid reflux, colic, and constipation. These issues often clear up after a course of gentle chiropractic care.

Nerve system malfunction (subluxation) frequently results in chronic ear infections. In preschool or elementary school, subluxation can cause problems like asthma, ADHD, emotional difficulties, and learning difficulties. The goal of chiropractic care is to treat nerve system malfunction so the body can return to normal function. Ideally, children will never develop the health problems that held back their parents and grandparents. Childhood should be spent enjoying life, not managing chronic health conditions.

In 1989, a survey of the children of chiropractors and medical doctors showed striking differences between the two health care approaches. Chiropractors’ children showed stronger immune systems than medical doctors’ children. Regarding ear infections (otitis media), 80% of medical doctors’ children suffered from this problem, while only 21% of chiropractors’ children had ear infections. For medical doctors’ children, 88% had taken antibiotics, but only 51% of chiropractors’ children had.

It is easier (and cheaper) to grow healthy kids than to fix damaged adults.


Chiropractic vs. Medical Education

February 22, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Chiropractic, Medicine, Wellness 5 Comments

Subject

Chiropractic Schools

Total Hours*

Medical Schools

Total Hours*
Anatomy

456

215
Biochemistry

161

100
Microbiology

145

145
Neurology

149

171
Physiology

243

174
Pathology

296

507
Psychology

56

323
Radiology

271

13
Orthopedics

168

2
Diagnosis

408

113
Obstetrics/Gynecology

66

284
Total Hours

2,419

2,047

*Based on a comparison of 18 chiropractic colleges and 22 medical schools – from the book Discover Wellness: How Staying Healthy Can Make You Rich, by Dr. Bob Hoffman and Dr. Jason Deitch, 2007.

Chiropractic education takes a minimum of 7 academic years. Before admission to chiropractic college, a student must take two years’ worth of basic science courses, including anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physics, English, and psychology. A typical chiropractic curriculum is five academic years or ten trimesters, with a total of 4800 hours in lecture, laboratory, and clinical experience.

The first year provides a broad background in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and pathology. The second year focuses on clinical diagnosis, spinal analysis, diagnostic imaging, and chiropractic and therapeutic techniques for the spine and extremities. The third year includes specialty classes like nutrition, pediatrics, women’s health, and geriatrics. At Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota, students complete a two-year clinical internship before graduating as a doctor of chiropractic. During this time, interns provide chiropractic care for patients of all ages under the supervision of licensed chiropractors.

In addition to receiving a D.C. degree from their chiropractic college, students must pass a series of standardized national board exams to be licensed to practice. Chiropractors can also undertake postgraduate training to specialize in sports performance, rehabilitation, orthopedics, radiology, internal diagnostics, occupational health, neurology, pediatrics, nutrition, and wellness.


Sick Children Should Stay Home, and Do What Exactly?

February 15, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Balanced living, Children, Healing, Immune System, Medicine, Wellness 1

One of our biggest delusions about health is that if you have a symptom, you should suppress it. If you’ve ever had food poisoning, your body was doing its darnedest to protect you from harm. The results were not pleasant, of course. But think about the alternative. Would it have been better to shut down your digestive system completely and keep poisonous food inside you?

What about a fever? It doesn’t feel good to be feverish, and no parent wants to see their child suffering. But the increased heat during a fever has a purpose: to destroy bacteria and viruses. If the body is forced to cool down, infections take longer to clear. Putting the brakes on the immune system forces it to become hypersensitive in order to continue its activities of surveillance and destruction. Would you prefer an unbalanced immune system, or a well-balanced immune system?

The fact is, a healthier body is more expressive. If you encounter tainted food or a germ that needs to be destroyed, you won’t feel fantastic. And that is okay. There is a euphemism in our office to describe this: “expressing health in an unpleasant way.”

Do you expect that you will never experience discomfort? That you should never go to bed early “just because” you feel like you’re coming down with a cold? How disconnected we are from ourselves! The spark behind this post was a TV ad for a children’s fever reducer. The little girl was at home sick, but because of her fever-reducing medication, she was able to play, read, and be active all day. Common sense tells us she would be better off sleeping, to let her body’s natural defenses work. Instead, we are exposed to the lie that even children are “too busy” to take time for healing.


Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Vitamin D

February 9, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Babies, Balanced living, Bone Health, Brain, Children, Healing, Medicine, Nutrition, Research, Supplements, Wellness 3 Comments

Would you trust a nutrient with 3000 cancer studies under its belt? In 2009, a very ambitious research team reviewed these studies. Here’s what they found: we could prevent 100,000 people worldwide from developing cancer every year, if we increased our vitamin D intake. They identified ten different ways that vitamin D fights cancer. What a productive little multitasker!

Everyone should know these things about vitamin D:

  1. About 70 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. “Deficiency” means a blood level less than 30 ng/mL, which is based on preventing bone disorders like rickets.
  2. Vitamin D deficiency has no typical symptoms. Like blood pressure, you need to have it measured.
  3. Many chronic illnesses are connected to vitamin D deficiency: heart disease, Alzheimer’s, depression, Type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, chronic colds and flu, and several types of cancer.
  4. Your skin produces vitamin D from cholesterol if you are exposed to sunlight, but sunscreen will stop you from making vitamin D.
  5. The most recent preventive medicine studies suggest that a blood level of 50-80 ng/mL is associated with much lower risk of chronic illness.
  6. In the northern United States, it is almost impossible to get enough vitamin D from sunlight and foods alone.
  7. Children can easily take vitamin D supplements in liquid form.
  8. You need vitamin D to get calcium from food into your blood, and you need vitamin K2 to transfer calcium from your blood into your bones.
  9. You can request a vitamin D test at your annual physical.
  10. Vitamin D can also be measured in a 5-minute appointment, taking two drops of blood from your fingertip.

Our office carries the world’s premier vitamin D supplement with 3000 IU per serving of vitamin D. The formula also includes vitamin K2, vitamin A, and a blend of immune-supporting, anti-inflammatory ingredients such as turmeric, beta glucan, and grape seed extract. We also provide fingerprick testing for vitamin D.

What gets measured gets managed. How are you managing your family’s plan for creating wellness?


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