Health Newsletter - December '05

Prepared By Burdi Chiropractic & Massage; Dr. G. Burdi, D.C.
Celebrating 26 Years Of "Light-Force" Adjusting, Massage & Wellness

Work Injuries - Many changes have been made by CA legislators in an attempt to curtail the high Workers' Comp costs. Unfortunately the focus has been not on the high cost of unsuccessful surgeries, but on conservative care. Now injured workers are suffering due to limited acute and future medical/chiropractic care. The new 24-visit limit on chiropractic or physiotherapy acute care along with kindly allowing one visit per month for future care is discouraging the injured worker from care. Who wants to fight "city hall". Well, if we don't the worker will suffer. Yes, studies in Canada show chiropractic care is cost effective. Sit down and write now your governor and congressmen. State your successful treatment stories and urge them to support cost effective chiropractic care. Workers need your support.

Water Needed! I am still noticing patients not drinking enough water so again I point you to a fascinating book, "Your Body's Many Cries For Water" by F. Batmanghelidj, MD, illustrating how vital drinking 2-1/2 quarts of water each & every day helps many diseases. He points out that: Morning Sickness is a fetus’ way of telling mom she/he is thirsty! To reiterate, by the time our mouth gets dry, severe dehydration has occurred. With aging the dry mouth tendency for telling us the body is thirsty decreases. Alzheimer's disease may begin because an older person loses the sensation to drink water and their brain dehydrates, misfires, and shrivels up with harmful chemicals concentrating in our system. Dry skin can also result from lack of water. The brain takes 20% of the water you drink for it's own purposes. The rest of the body is on a priority basis. The heart and circulatory system have a higher priority for water than say our skin. Drinking soda or coffee gradually leaches water out of your system. Look at all the sodas people drink! This is not "food" for thought, but water for life! Drink up! (Changes our patients have noticed in just two weeks: Elimination is smooth and easy; skin is no longer dry, but very soft; and bumpy pimply skin on back of arm has disappeared. Try it and be prepared to urinate frequently in the beginning until the body realizes you are serious about having enough water.)

Sleeping Pills Harmful? Study reported in British Medical Journal 11/11/05 reviewed 24 trials that encompassed almost 2,500 subjects aged 60 or older who were treated either with sedative hypnotic pills, or with inactive placebo pills, for at least five consecutive nights. Effects were modest improvements in sleep quality and total sleep time, however adverse effects were more common with sedative hypnotics than with placebo, including:

Daytime fatigue (not wanting to walk and exercise!)
Thinking difficulties (more senior moments)
Risk of falling (primary cause of hip fractures)

The review concluded that behavioral therapies may be a better option than drugs for older people with insomnia. (It's hard enough to grow old with increased memory loss, so also try exercise!)

Diabetes & Children - Study in Pediatrics, Vol. 116-5, 11/05, announced that more children are developing adult diabetes (Type 2 - inability to produce enough hormone insulin), based upon data from 915 youngsters participating in a 1999-2000 national health survey. This disease is strongly linked to being overweight and inactive, which it appears that more children are. Dr. Francine Kaufman, head of the diabetes center at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, said about 25 percent of the diabetic children treated there have type 2 diabetes, compared with just 4 percent a decade ago. (Have them play outside!)

Flu Shot and Alzheimer's Disease - Hugh Fudenberg, MD, a renown immunogeneticist and biologist, has been quoted as saying that an individual having five consecutive flu shots increases chance of getting Alzheimer's disease ten times higher than with one, two or no shots because of the presence of mercury and aluminum (also present in under arm deodorants) toxins in flu shots (and many childhood and RhoGam shots). Since childhood these toxins build up in the brain eventually causing cognitive dysfunction. (No wonder Alzheimer's disease is becoming so prevalent.)

UPDATE - The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Vol 12, Issue 1, Pages 36-44, January 2012, publication of "Efficacy and Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccines" summarizes with "Influenza vaccines can provide moderate protection against virologically confirmed influenza, but such protection is greatly reduced or absent in some seasons. Evidence for protection in adults aged 65 years or older is lacking. LAIVs consistently show highest efficacy in young children (aged 6 months to 7 years). New vaccines with improved clinical efficacy and effectiveness are needed to further reduce influenza- related morbidity and mortality." With all the side effects from these shots, ask yourself - Is it worth the risk of all the know side effects to possibly not contact the flu?

WORK/PERSONAL HEALTH CLASS REMINDER - Dr Burdi is available for health or ergonomic presentations to clubs and companies. Ask your boss to request these informative slide presentations!

Tylenol Problem - Researchers, reported in Hepatology, 12/05; 42(6): 1364-1373, examined the case histories of almost 700 liver-failure patients over a six-year period. They found that:
1. Cases of acute liver failure blamed on acetaminophen use rose sharply from 28 percent in 1998 to 51 percent five years later.
2. More patients overdosed unintentionally on acetaminophen (48 percent) than did so intentionally (44 percent)
3. Sixty-three percent who accidentally overdosed used a prescription acetaminophen compound while 38 percent had been taking two acetaminophen meds at the same time.
4. Some patients took less than 4 grams of acetaminophen daily before their livers failed.

The data suggests that consistent use of as little as 7.5 grams of acetaminophen a day may be hazardous. Rather than resulting in chronic illness, acetaminophen injury has a threshold of safety that, when exceeded, can have immediate and devastating results! Even though Tylenol is effective for discomfort due to inflammatory and non-inflammatory pain, there are other ways to treat any inflammatory pain without harming your health. Examples reported on Dr Mercola's website are : Ginger, Boswellia, (this is a favorite working well with rheumatoid arthritis patients) Fish Oils, Bromelain (can be found in fresh pineapple), Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO) (oil found in fish and raw butter, which contains Wulzen anti-stiffness factor, highly effective in reversing arthritis and protects against calcification of joints), Evening Primrose, Black Currant, and Borage Oils (contains essential fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), useful for treating arthritic pain), and Cayenne Cream (spice from dried hot peppers alleviates pain by depleting the body's substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to the brain)

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