Health News -Fall‘02   Prepared By Burdi Chiropractic & Massage Group    (Dr. G. Burdi, D.C., Q.M.E. & Sherree’ Burdi, M.T.)

Welcome to our health newsletter. We want to entertain, inform, and even inspire you to help yourself and others. In fact show your caring side by forwarding this info to your friends and relatives.

Good Old Broccoli - Remember those days when you use to hear "eat your broccoli, it is good for you". Well, it truly is. This published research said that a compound present in it and the sprouts is highly toxic to helicobacter pylori, a bacterium implicated in stomach ulcers & cancer. The compound, sulforaphane, killed the bacteria at levels achieved by eating reasonable amounts of the vegetable. The study done in lab mice will be repeated soon using human volunteers. (1)

Knee Surgery Fails - The published a study concluding that 2 popular arthroscopic knee surgeries, debridement & lavage, are basically worthless for the effects of arthritis. 180 knee arthritis patients either had one of the surgeries or a superficial incision as a placebo. Over next 2 years the placebo group reported less pain, though the differences was not significant. The surgical group never fared better than the placebo patients. (2)

Want to be healthy your whole life? If you answered "YES!", get chiropractic checkups. A study of men and women 75 years and older revealed that those visiting chiropractors had better overall health and a higher quality of life. Chiropractic patients reported fewer chronic conditions and fewer days spent in nursing homes and hospitals. They were also more mobile in their communities and were less likely to use prescription drugs than non-chiropractic patients. In fact, 87% of chiropractic patients described their health as excellent compared to just 67.8% of non-chiropractic patients. "Study associates chiropractic with better health in the elderly." (3)

Chiropractic and Spinal Research - SIDS - Working with coroners, 74 newly dead infants (from all causes) were x-rayed in a specially designed structure that put their spines through a range of motion. In this triple-blind study, atlas inversion (subluxation) into the foramen magnum was observed in the majority of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) deaths. (4)

On A Vacation And Live Longer - If you've taken a summer vacation, that's great! If you haven't, it's still not too late. We want you to live a long time and vacations appear to help. For example, over 12,000 men enrolled in a heart health study were followed for over nine years. Those men who took vacations in most years were 20% less likely to die from any cause than those who did not take regular vacations. Those who vacationed regularly were also 30% less likely to die from heart disease. The benefits of vacations affected people from all classes, irrespective of income, education, and health. (5)

Athletes Finding The Edge - During the Tour de France race Cyclist Lance Armstrong received twice daily chiropractic adjustments from his chiropractor, Dr. Jeff Spencer. The doctor traveled to France with the cyclist and adjusted the entire US team. More and more world-class athletes have personal chiropractors to keep their bodies working at their peaks. (Armstrong covered 2,032 miles through the mountains and flatlands of rural France in 82 hours, 5 minutes and 12 seconds, approximately the distance between Los Angeles, CA and Atlanta, Georgia.)

The Benefits of Symptoms - Fever, runny nose, rash, skin  eruption, aches, diarrhea, and the many symptoms we can experience when ill are uncomfortable, yet they serve a purpose. For thousands of years healers have observed that disease symptoms are a necessary part of the healing process; they are the way the body externalizes or gets rid of poisons or toxins. By interfering with symptoms - lowering fever, suppressing skin conditions, drying sinuses, preventing diarrhea or vomiting - we may be interfering with the healing process and driving disease deeper into the body, paving the way for chronic illness. The "Father of Medicine" Hippocrates said: "Diseases are crises of purification, of toxic elimination. Symptoms are the natural defenses of the body. We call them diseases, but in fact they are the cure of diseases." 

In more recent times medical authorities have observed the consequences of symptom suppression:

• "The greatest part of all chronic disease is created through suppression of acute disease by means of drug poisons and through the destructive effects of the drugs themselves." Sir William Osler

• Cancer, TB, Bright's Disease, & all chronic diseases were once innocent colds", J.H. Tilden, MD.

• Childhood diseases have been similarly recognized as having a beneficial effect on the long-term health of children. Harris Coulter, Ph.D. one of the world's premier medical historians writes: "Contracting and overcoming [childhood] diseases are part of a developmental process that actually helps develop a healthy, robust, adult immune system able to meet the challenges that inevitable encounters with viruses and bacteria will present later on." (6)

Recently British researchers have verified Dr. Coulter's statement when they found that asthma, hay fever, eczema and other allergies are on the rise in industrialized nations because children's immune systems aren't challenged enough. In the August 2002 issue of Biologist, scientists from the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London found that adults who were given antibiotics when they were children were more likely to suffer from allergic disease." (7)

Starting young to have regular chiropractic care along with allowing exposure to mild illnesses encourages a stronger immune system to protect those serious ones!

Replacement Therapy - Premarin Trial Halted - Risks Outweigh Benefits! The largest and best-designed studies of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was halted because women taking the hormones after menopause had a greater risk of invasive breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes and blood clots than those who did not take the drugs. The trial involved over 16,000 women aged 50 to 79 who still had their uterus. Such women are given a combination of estrogen and progestin, since estrogen alone can promote cancer in the lining of the uterus. The new findings do not apply to the health effects of estrogen alone, which is being looked at in a separate study by researchers at the NHLBI. The original Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) study found that women taking hormone therapy were up to 3X more likely to develop blood clots than those taking a placebo. Hormone therapy was also associated with a higher risk of gallbladder disease. Together, the findings argue that hormone replacement therapy should not be recommended for postmenopausal women with heart disease. Premarin is perhaps the most prescribed drug ever in the US. Last year Premarin generated more than $2 billion in sales for Wyeth.(8)

Give ‘em health - Want copies of this newsletter? Stop by the office or email us. We can add those you care about to our mailing list. Plus do remember your spinal checkups.

References:

1. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, PNAS, 5/28/02.

2. New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM, 7/11/02.

3. Today's Chiropractic, November/December 1996

4. Journal of Chiropractic Research and Clinical Investigation Vol. 7, No. 2, July 1991, "Atlanto-Occipital Hypermobility In Sudden Infant Death Syndrome", Schneier M, Burns R.

5. Gump BB, Matthews KA. Are vacations food for your health? The 9-year mortality experience after the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trail. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2000;62:608-612.

6. Coulter H., Vaccination, social violence and criminality. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. 1990.

7. Health Scout News, http://health.yahoo.com/search/healthnews?lb=s&p=id%3A26631, 8/9/02.

8. JAMA July 17, 2002; 288:321-333. 

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