Patients Are Powerful

Posts Tagged ‘heart disease’

My patients are powerful and I listen to them. Though I like to think of myself as the Ultimate Chiropractor or the Preeminent Bone Man because I palpate, examine, and adjust bones all day long as part of my chiropractic treatment protocol, I have to say that my patients teach me every day that there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to the human body. Sadly, medical doctors often feel compelled to approach there patients as if there were. Though there are many, many case studies that prove my point, being a Bone Man, I was especially interested a new study that suggests that many women who get screened for osteoporosis (a bone-thinning disease in which bones become fragile and vulnerable to breaks) may not actually need such testing.

“Expert” guidelines suggest that women age 65 or older should get a bone scan, and many women feel that it is better to be safe than sorry. But in this case it’s not the case. There is a “downside” to unnecessarily exposing the body to X-ray. And, in addition, treatment is often given in “borderline” low bone density cases. In these cases medical doctors often feel “compelled” to treat these women, often unnecessarily, with risky bisphosphonate medications, hormones, and other drugs that carry extremely negative side effects such as increased odds of stroke, breast cancer, and heart disease, and in rare cases thigh bone fractures and even bone death of the jaw.

Researchers found that of 615 women who underwent osteoporosis screening at Connecticut clinics, 41 percent did not meet those criteria. Forty-one percent!! As an advanced chiropractor, I am dismayed at that percentage rate!  My suggestion? If you are in a high risk group of women, like those who smoke, ask for a bone scan. But, if you are a women who sees her chiropractor regularly to keep her musculoskeletal system in good shape, and you eat nutritiously with a well-balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, and you get regular exercise, you may be wise to just say “no!” to bone scan that you most likely don’t need.

Technorati Tags: bone scan, breast cancer, chiropractic, chiropractor, heart disease, menopause, osteoporosis, stroke

Chairman of the California Senate’s Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes, Sen. Alex Padilla (the very same Senator who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals), announced on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity. His announcement coincides with the release of a study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, that indicates that 62 percent of children aged 12 to 17, and 41 percent of children aged 2 to 11, drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day. This is certainly a statistic that we, parents, need to contemplate. Overweight children with poor diets, in the past, generally became adults with a variety of weight-related diseases. But, experts say that overweight adolescents are starting to suffer problems that used to plague mainly middle-aged adults — early heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“I don’t think that most parents truly appreciate the role soda pop has in causing weight gain,” Padilla said. “It is unfortunate that soda is actually cheaper than milk and even bottled water in many instances.”  Padilla said California needs to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and to consider its options for reducing soda consumption among children.

Let’s get behind our legislators who have taken a powerful role in helping to tip the scales in a healthy direction for our children.

For more information, go to reuters.com

Technorati Tags: diabetes, heart disease, obesity, sugar-sweetened beverage