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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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?


The Fires Within: Inflammation

January 25, 2012 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Balanced living, Digestive Health, Healing, Hormonal Balance, Immune System, Wellness Leave a comment  

Let’s talk about inflammation. In the short-term, inflammation is your body’s intelligent healing response to an injury. The pain and stiffness associated with inflammation after you stub your toe forces you to protect your foot from further injury while the tissues heal. When inflammation becomes systemic and chronic, it damages your body. In 2004, Time magazine published a special issue about inflammation. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, thyroid disease, autoimmune conditions, even brain conditions like depression and Alzheimer’s disease have all been linked to chronic inflammation.

Why is chronic inflammation bad? It damages your cells. Chemical signals created during the inflammatory process are called cytokines. When cytokines are elevated, they interfere with normal cellular communication. They can go even further and damage your cellular membranes, which starts you down the path to organ dysfunction and illness.

Would it surprise you to know that what we think of as a “healthy diet” is pro-inflammatory? Doctors, magazines, and websites typically recommend avoiding saturated fat and cholesterol, eating pro-inflammatory polyunsaturated seed oils, and eating grains. Grains, even “heart-healthy” whole grains, contain the pro-inflammatory sugar amylose. In fact, an excess of sugar drives inflammation, which plays a part in developing type 2 diabetes. Sugar is known to feed cancer cells, and it is the damage from high levels of sugar in blood that causes plaque to form in the arteries. So we should really get the message to focus on eating low-sugar, not low-fat!

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


The math on prescription drug benefits

September 19, 2011 Dr. Barbara Kaiser, DC, CCWP Aging, Bone Health, Medicine, Research, Safety Leave a comment  

Here is something you and your medical doctor may both be unaware of: the math on prescription drug benefits. If you see a drug advertisement, the numbers sound impressive: 45% or 50% reduction in heart attack, stroke, or bone fracture. That’s what the drug companies tell medical doctors, too. But these numbers are misleading because they are relative, not absolute. Let’s explain this important difference in reporting the math.

Let’s say we study 100 people for 5 years and tally the number of heart attacks. If four people have heart attacks, the absolute risk is 4%. If a second group of 100 people of similar age and lifestyle take a drug for 5 years and three people have heart attacks, the absolute risk has dropped to 3%. The absolute risk reduction from the drug intervention is 1%. However, the relative risk reduction has gone from 4% to 3%, which is a 25% drop in heart attacks. This 25% is what the drug companies broadcast in the news media, in medical education courses, and directly to you as a consumer. But what they are truly hanging their hat on is a 1% benefit, and a 99% chance that the drug will be useless.

Now let’s say you really want to be that one person out of 100 that is able to avoid a heart attack through drug therapy. As an informed consumer, you need to consider the risks of long-term drug therapy. Do the risks outweigh the benefits? For example, is there a 1% chance of developing a chronic illness like diabetes?

Let’s stop using hypothetical numbers. What is the math from medical research journals? Here it is: of people without known heart disease who took statin drugs for 5 years, 98% saw no benefit. The most recent literature suggests a 0.6% risk of developing diabetes as a result of long-term statin drug use. For every 20 people who avoided a heart attack or stroke, 6 people developed diabetes, which carries its own set of cardiovascular risks, plus kidney, visual, and neurological disabilities.

If health truly came in a bottle, Americans would be dying of old age.

 

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