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.

Holiday Stress and Immunity

December 5, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Balanced living, Chiropractic, Healing, Immune System, Research, Stress, Wellness Leave a comment  

As we enter the holiday season, I am beginning to see the signs of stress creep into our everyday lives. More and more of the general population is starting to show signs of a weakened immune system. The “symptoms” are out there. How many people do you know who are starting to get the sniffles, sore throats, coughing, and aches and pains associated with illness? During the holiday season it is easy to neglect yourself and become run-down shopping for presents, planning holiday menus, trying to pay bills and stretch a dollar. Balancing your job with your family. All of these things contribute to stress. The first thing to go out the window is your exercise program. You start to not eat right. Maybe you skip your regular wellness chiropractic visit. All of these factors contribute to a decrease in the function of your body’s immune system and resistance to illness.

Stress is the number one cause of a weakened immune system. When your immune system is not functioning properly, you will become sick. The key to health is to have a strong immune system. Certain factors play an important role in the health of your immune system. Naturally, stress reduction is extremely important, as is exercise, eating right, getting enough rest, taking high-quality supplements, and drinking plenty of water.

The most important action you can take for the health of your immune system is to receive a chiropractic adjustment. Research has shown that immediately after an adjustment, there is an increase in white blood cell activity. White blood cells are the blood cells that fight disease. That is why it is so important to get an adjustment when you have cold or flu symptoms. The increase in white blood cells stimulates the immune system to fight the illness immediately.

The chief of cancer research at New York’s Preventative Medicine Institute and professor of medicine at New York University researched chiropractic spinal adjustments and immune system health. He found that people under chiropractic care had a 200% greater immune response than people not under chiropractic care. You can see how important chiropractic care is for keeping you healthy.

So remember to keep up the things which keep you healthy over the holiday season, no matter how stressed you become. Keep up with your exercise program, eating right, getting enough rest, and your chiropractic adjustments. If you have any questions on stress reduction, supplements for colds, or chiropractic research, please contact our office. We will be more than happy to help.. Have a very happy holiday season!


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.


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!


Being Politically Incorrect is Good for You!

May 9, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Balanced living, Healing, Nutrition, Research, Wellness Leave a comment  

“Man can certainly keep on lying… but he cannot make truth falsehood. He can certainly rebel… but he can accomplish nothing which abolishes the choice of God.” – Karl Barth, 20th century Swiss theologian

Why are we getting sicker? Is it the truth that we are unlucky, the victims of bad germs or bad genes? Or is it that we have errors in our current owner’s manual? You know, the book of knowledge on how to be healthy. Things that “everybody knows.”

Let’s focus on diet myths. If you ask someone what a healthy diet is, they most likely will say: Low-fat! No eggs or butter! That is the public health message we’ve been bombarded with for more than 50 years. In those 50 years, have we gotten healthier or sicker? Less obese or more obese? Do our children have better development, or increased developmental delays?

Did you know that before 1920, coronary heart disease was rare in America? At this time, we were eating lots of butter, eggs, and meat from pastured animals. Mid-century, we replaced animal fats with vegetable oils, and we changed our animals’ feed from grass to grains like corn and soybeans. So the chemical makeup of your steak today is completely different from your great-grandpa’s steak! And by the way, you are much more likely to die of coronary heart disease than your eggs-and-bacon-everyday-for-breakfast ancestors. Of course, these facts are politically incorrect.

You are what you eat.

Get this book! Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, 2nd edition, by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD. In the first 70 pages, the book describes the roles of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, milk, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, beverages, and food allergies. The authors did their research. That is, after all, what PhD’s tend to do. They took a global view of what people eat and how it relates to their health. The people who ate local,organic foods based on animal products and produce are unquestionably healthier than the populations who ate low-fat, high-sugar, grain-based (food pyramid, anyone?) diets. This cookbook will show you how to prepare tasty meals while preserving the healing properties of foods.

Truth hurts, but ignorance will kill you. Being politically incorrect is good for you!


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.


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!


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?


Cholesterol, Statin Drugs, and Heart Disease

January 18, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Brain, Digestive Health, Healing, Hormonal Balance, Immune System, Medicine, Nutrition, Research, Supplements, Wellness 1

In 2004, the National Cholesterol Education Program issued guidelines calling for Americans to lower their LDL cholesterol to less than 130 mg/dL. In 2006, a review of the literature found that there was no strong evidence to support the NCEP recommendations. The review noted that dropping LDL cholesterol below 130 mg/dL showed no decreased risk of cardiovascular death in elderly people, and that having high HDL was protective when LDL was around 130 mg/dL.

Every cell in the body needs cholesterol to make the cell membrane flexible and waterproof. Cholesterol is needed for tissue repair. It is the main building block of vitamin D and several hormones which are essential for normal body function. Cholesterol is also a powerful antioxidant.

Statin drugs interfere with the liver’s ability to synthesize cholesterol. There is a sequence of 32 distinct biochemical reactions to produce cholesterol, and statin drugs stop this sequence at the third step. The tenth step produces CoQ10 (ubiquinone), which is an antioxidant that all cells need to produce energy from glucose. The heart, since it beats constantly, has the highest requirements for CoQ10. Heart failure is one of the side effects of CoQ10 deficiency. CoQ10 also maintains the integrity of the cellular membrane, which has recently become known as the true brain of the cell. To offset for this side effect, studies indicate 200-600 mg/day of CoQ10 should be taken with a statin drug. Step 30 of the cholesterol synthesis sequence produces a compound that synthesizes vitamin D from sunlight, so statin drugs keep your body from making its own vitamin D. Statin drugs also inhibit nuclear factor kappa B (NFKB), which is a part of the immune system that helps fight infection and cancer.

There are no studies that prove significant improvements in overall mortality for women, or for people over age 65, who take statin drugs. The statin drug companies distort the statistics on mortality. In a study where 100 patients take statin drugs, 2 will have a fatal heart attack, while 3 of 100 people taking a placebo will die of a heart attack. To prevent a single heart attack, 100 people must be treated with statin drugs. The absolute risk reduction is an unimpressive 1%. The drug companies, however, promote statin drugs according to the relative risk reduction, which is a 33% reduction.

In studies on rodents consuming a similar relative dose of statin drugs prescribed to humans, the rodents developed cancer. Statin drugs raise a person’s risk of polyneuropathy (nerve damage) by 1600%. Signs of polyneuropathy include pain, tingling, numbness, weakness, and difficulty walking. The degree of symptoms is proportional to the duration of statin drug usage. Statin drugs are also known to cause myopathy (muscle damage) which is characterized by muscle wasting, weakness, and fatigue.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be 44% more effective than statin drugs in reducing death from heart attack and stroke. Omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to be 32% more effective than statin drugs in reducing all causes of death.

These facts have been brought to you by the world’s leading medical journals. You want references? We’ve got ‘em!

About the author: Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP, is a wellness-certified family chiropractor at Vital Life Chiropractic in Eagan, Minnesota.


Cheap or Free: The Show-Off Vitamin

December 21, 2011 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Bone Health, Children, Digestive Health, Healing, Immune System, Nutrition, Research, Supplements, Wellness 1

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 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!

We need vitamin D to absorb calcium from our intestines. It regulates more than 200 unique human genes. When vitamin D isn’t preventing cancer, it’s helping our bodies build bones, prevent heart disease, and fight cold/flu bugs. Okay, now vitamin D is just being a show-off. We have two options for getting more D: cheap (less than $10/month) or free (sunlight).

If you like it cheap:  The U.S. RDA for vitamin D intake, 600 IU, is intended to build bone, not to prevent chronic illnesses. It is almost impossible to get enough vitamin D through fortified foods alone. For this reason, we may need to take at least 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3. It’s widely available in tablet or liquid form.

If you like it free: Sunlight produces vitamin D in unprotected skin at a phenomenally high rate. Get 10 minutes of unprotected sun exposure each day in the summer. In Minnesota, we need 20 minutes or more in the winter months, and most of us need to supplement with vitamin D3 (see above).

The most recent research indicates that 40-60 ng/mL is the optimal level of vitamin D in your blood. The blood test for vitamin D may require only a fingerprick and 5 minutes of your time.

About the author: Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP, is a wellness-certified family chiropractor at Vital Life Chiropractic in Eagan, Minnesota.


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