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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Disability, Cost, & Acuteness Lowered With Chiropractic Care
- Glucose -> Fructose -> HFCS - Be Informed
Disability, Cost, & Acuteness Lowered With Chiropractic Care - A study
published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine / American College of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine 2011 Apr;53(4):396-404
by Dr Cifuentes MD and Ms Willetts at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute and Dr Wasiak at the United BioSource Corp,
compared occurrence of repeated disability episodes across types of health care providers who treat claimants with new episodes
of work-related low back pain (LBP). Conclusions were that in work-related nonspecific LBP, the use of health maintenance care
provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than with
chiropractic services. Plus acute and notably maintenance care cost was lower with chiropractic care.
The Cifuentes, et al., findings come on the heels of the
Senna, et al., study in Spine that
found chronic LBP patients who received nine months of maintenance spinal manipulative therapy following one month of
acute treatment reported significant improvement in pain and disability. Patients who received only the initial month
of acute treatment reported diminishing improvement over time, with pain and disability scores returning
essentially to pre-treatment levels after 10 months. (Yes, maintenance care is very helpful and necessary for many
conditions, just like our teeth! DrB)
Now for acute pain comes the Chiropractic Hospital-based Interventions Research Outcomes (CHIRO) Study published in the
December 2010 edition of
The Spine Journal. Two groups were compared. CPG [clinical practice guidelines]-based treatment,
including spinal manipulative therapy administered by chiropractors, was given to the "study care" (SC) group, while the
second group got family physician-directed "usual care" (UC group) consisting of care under physician's own decretion. After
24 weeks of care the SC group showed signigicantly greater improvement in condition-specific functioning over the UC group.
Glucose -> Fructose -> HFCS - Be Informed - Which is better, glucose,
fructose, or HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup)? This is an interesting question because for years I always thought that fructose
was best. However the way the body reacts to each, the answer is glucose, fructose and by far the least is HFCS. Unfortunately
the number one source of calories in America is SODA, with processed and pre-packaged meals next. All are sweetened with HFCS
which is responsible for the meteoric rise of obesity and its related health problems. One reason for this is the way the
brain reacts to them. Glucose raises the neural activity around the hypothalamus, which effects appetite control and production
of metabolic hormones, while fructose lowers it. Thus we continue to consume fructose containing foods/drinks without hunger
satisfaction. HFCS is even worse since in liquids it is in "free form" while fructose in fruits and cane sugar is bonded which
results in a decreased metobolic toxicity. Plus HFCS is most often made from genetically modified (GM) corn, increasing the
risk to food allergies and infertility in future generations. If you mix consumption of fructose with glucose, the
latter acclerates fructose absorption.
From Mercola.com comes this summary of health points that are really worth knowing:
- After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
- Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
- The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
- Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
- When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
- The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
- Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
Dr Mercola also suggested limiting total fructose consumption below 25 grams/day (a 12-ounce soda contains 40 grams of sugar with half from fructose!) and fruit to 15 grams. The following fruit table will help keep below this limit:
| Fruit | Serving Size | Grams of Fructose | Fruit | Serving Size | Grams of Fructose |
| Apple (composite) | 1 medium | 9.5 | Kiwifruit | 1 medium | 3.4 |
| Apricot | 1 medium | 1.3 | Lemons | 1 medium | 0.6 |
| Apricots, dried | 1 cup | 16.4 | Limes | 1 medium | 0 |
| Banana | 1 medium | 7.1 | Mango | 1/2 medium | 16.2 |
| Blackberries | 1 cup | 3.5 | Nectarine | 1 medium | 5.4 |
| Blueberries | 1 cup | 7.4 | Orange (navel) | 1 medium | 6.1 |
| Boysenberries | 1 cup | 4.6 | Papaya | 1/2 medium | 6.3 |
| Cantaloupe | 1/8 medium | 2.8 | Passion fruit | 1 medium | 0.9 |
| Cherries, sour | 1 cup | 4 | Peach | 1 medium | 5.9 |
| Cherries, sweet | 10 | 3.8 | Pear | 1 medium | 11.8 |
| Clementine | 1 medium | 3.4 | Persimmon | 1 medium | 10.6 |
| Cranberries | 1 cup | 0.7 | Pineapple | 1 slice (3.5x.75") | 4 |
| Date (Deglet Noor) | 1 medium | 2.6 | Prune | 1 medium | 1.2 |
| Date (Medjool) | 1 medium | 7.7 | Raisins | 1/4 cup | 12.3 |
| Figs, dried | 1 cup | 23 | Raspberries | 1 cup | 3 |
| Grapefruit, pink or red | 1/2 medium | 4.3 | Star fruit | 1 medium | 3.6 |
| Grapes, seedless (gn/red) | 1 cup | 12.4 | Strawberries | 1 cup | 3.8 |
| Guava | 2 medium | 2.2 | Tangerine/mandarin orange | 1 medium | 4.8 |
| Honeydew | 1/8 medium | 6.7 | Watermelon | 1/16 med. melon | 11.3 |
If you must use an occasional sweetener, use a natural herb, Stevia, (not commercially produced or artifically made) or Dextrose (pure glucose). Please stay away from Agave Nectar/Syrup. It is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose and is far worse than HFCS. Obviously we need to watch our diet due to the many things added to modern foods. Let's make wise choices and have a healthier life.
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