FUNCTIONAL FOODS

Push a cart down the aisle of any local supermarket and you might start believing in miracles – well – miracle foods, anyway.

Let’s see, there’s grape juice for your heart, frozen carrots for your eyes, vitamin-packed water for your immune system, probiotic yogurt for your insides and milk for your bones and brain.

Down every aisle there are foods and drinks to help your heart, lower your cholesterol, trim your tummy, and coddle your colon.  Use these foods and you might feel better, you might even live longer.

Or not.  The question is, are these products really healthy, or are they just hype?

Read the labels on these foods carefully and you’ll notice something.  The manufacturers of these foods don’t actually claim that their products prevent or cure diseases.  Such declarations go against consumer laws.  Instead they promote these “functional foods” as having health promoting or wellness maintaining properties.  Such claims are perfectly legal, provided they are backed up with some credible science.

So, when you see heart-healthy red hearts on your box of Quaker Oats cereal or that can of Planters Peanuts and that happy-colon yellow arrow on the tub of Activia Yogurt, it’s just part of the marketing of functional food.

Beware – many packaged foods that scream health on their labels are no healthier than many ordinary brands and government officials have been cracking down on products that make dubious or exaggerated claims.

Shoppers are being bamboozled by slick marketing.  Read your labels.  Many people grab products with healthy claims on the front of the package and overlook crucial nutritional information, like calorie counts and what the food actually contains.

For example.  Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal, made by the Quaker Oats Company has a label that proclaims in large print “Oatmeal helps reduce cholesterol!”  This is true and generally

, nutritionists and other scientists agree that the fibre in oatmeal can be beneficial for cardiovascular health.  When you read the fine print, though,  you’ll notice that one serving of this cereal contains about a third of the soluble fibre needed daily to help reduce the risk of heart disease.  In other words, you may have to eat three bowls of cereal daily – 630 calories’ worth, without milk, to benefit.

How about this one?  Welch’s 100% Grape Juice.  The label is emblazoned with a red-heart certification from the Heart Association and it says it contains no fat.  Well, of course grape juice doesn’t have any fat, it is naturally fat free. What isn’t clear is if grape juice has any other properties that make it inherently healthier for hearts.  What we know for sure is that an eight-ounce glass has 36 grams of sugar; a regular sized Snickers, by comparison, has 30. And we also know for sure that too much sugar is deadly for your cardiovascular system and heart.

2,500 years ago Hippocrates said “Let food by your medicine and medicine by your food.”  We’ve always know that some foods are better for us than others. However, a little science and a lot marketing has turned this concept into a multibillion dollar industry.

Today, companies promote all kinds of processed foods that have been loaded with vitamins and nutrients, or contain a potentially beneficial ingredient, as wellness aids.  For many, these healthified foods have become the new health food.  Many people are willing to pay a premium for ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat and on-the-go foods that seem to promise shortcuts to healthier living.

No matter how clever we get at processing food and packaging it the truth is that there are no short-cuts to nutrition.  The bottom line is; eat food.  The closer to the source the better.  That means,  the less processing, the less packaging, the more the dirt clings to it, the better.  The better for you, your local food producers and the environment.  I personally think it’s crazy to live in a house with a lawn and to grow no food in your yard. I don’t think you need to grow acres of potatoes to last all winter, but at least some herbs. Anyone with a balcony can grow a salad.

If you’re looking for a holistic chiropractor Abbotsford is the place to look!  Dr. Dorothea McCallum has been practicing drug free, surgery free, hands on chiropractic for over 20 years. Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP) and Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Visit our office on-line by seeing our video on CanPages!  New Patients always welcome www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Car Accidents are a Pain in the Neck (No… Really!)

If you’ve ever been in a car accident – especially a rear-ender – you more than likely have become intimately acquainted with neck pain.  Often the terrible thing about this kind of neck pain is that there are no visible signs – no blood, no scars, no bulges or ugly changes in skin pigmentation.  All there is is a persistent, often unrelenting, gnawing sensation that is not relieved by stretching, posture correction, heat, ice or even distraction.  You try everything to get rid of this pain; pain medication, massage, physio, chiropractic, exercise, anti-inflammatory crèmes, acupuncture, etc and while you may get some temporary relief, it just never goes away.

What’s happening and why won’t it go away?  This pain is not the same pain as when the accident first happened. Acute pain is often burning, sharp and happens when you turn your stiff neck too fast. It takes a while to go away, but can often be relived with ice, heat, massage or pain pills.  The cranky, gnawing pain that happens later is much harder to treat and to deal with.  It usually sets in a couple of months after the accident occurred.  The tissues and acute inflammation have healed so how can healed tissue hurt?

Another unfortunate aspect of this kind of pain is that it gets some very unhelpful labels.  Treating physicians and other health care providers will sometimes call this kind of pain “psychometric”, “nonogenic”, “biosocial”, “secondary gain”, or other nonsense as if the patient is making the pain up, has developed a mental condition or wants to make money from the accident and is not really hurting at all.  The injuries are often described as “self-limiting” and “only soft tissue” (which is ridiculous when you consider that all the tissues in your body, including your brain, and except for your bones, are soft tissues.)  This is a kind of “blaming the victim” for the injury and is happily endorsed by insurance companies.  Since people have been driving into each other and other objects since cars were invented one would have thought that the issue of diagnosis of chronic neck pain arising from motor vehicle accidents, especially rear end collisions, would have been settled many years ago.

Fifteen years ago in 1997, Dr. Grauer and associates from the Yale University School of Medicine published a cadaver study in “Spine” (the most respected scientific journal about (what else?) the spine) which completely transformed the medical community’s understanding of the dynamics of the biomechanics associated with rear end motor vehicle accidents.  The study concluded:

(a)     In the first 50 – 75 milliseconds following a rear end collision, the cervical spine forms an “S” shaped configuration with flexion of the upper cervical spine and simultaneous hyperextension of the lower cervical spine; (this is an entirely unnatural configuration)

(b)    The tissue distortion during the “S” configuration is capable of injuring the patient; and

(c)     The “S: configuration occurs so rapidly that the muscles of the cervical spine have insufficient time to react and protect the cervical spine joints.

Two years later, Kanoeka reached the same conclusions in a study performed on live human volunteers. (Yikes, why would you volunteer to get a sore neck?)  All articles regarding whiplash biomechanics since 1997 – 1999 assume the validity of these early studies.

Nikolai Bogduk,MDPhD is acknowledged as the most accomplished clinical anatomist of our time. He has been involved in some 216 academic research articles on the topic of whiplash biomechanics.  Dr. Bogduk concludes that Koneoka’s study fills in a critical gap in the story of cervical facet pain (which is what chronic neck pain following an MVA is all about).  It provides the missing biomechanical link and as a result of the study there is direct demonstrable evidence of the mechanism of injury in whiplash.

Along the same lines, a study in October of 2007 by Scofferman, published in the Journal of American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons concluded that “the cervical facet joint is the most common source of chronic neck pain [more than half of cases] after whiplash injury, followed by disc pain.”

Recently Dr. Bogduk authored or co-authored three papers in the December 2011 edition of Spine. In these articles, he states that all the research into whiplash biomechanics confirms that:

(a)  Most people who have chronic pain following a rear end car accident have sustained injury to the cervical facet joints.

(b)  Some of these people have disc lesions, with or without facet joint injuries.

In real people language what the scientists are saying is that facet joint injury (those are the small joints on each vertebra that allow movement up and down, side to side and in a twisting motion) causes chronic pain and that it generally doesn’t heal completely. There is inevitably nerve damage when this injury occurs.  The nerve damage means that even normal movements and activities stimulate pain generation and that is why even though the tissues are healed, the patient still hurts.  This is a long lasting, difficult to manage condition that causes pain and suffering long after the accident occurred and may never heal completely.

In terms of treatment of facet joint pain, Dr.Bogduk states that:

(a)   The most effective treatment for facet joint injury is radiofrequency neurotomy which involves coagulation of neurofilament proteins in the nerves innervating the facet joints. A cruder way of saying the same thing is that the nerves are selectively destroyed by burning.

(b)  Candidates for neurotomy are those who report successful pain relief with diagnostic blocks of the medial branch of the posterior rami performed on two separate occasions.

(c)  70% of those who receive neurotomy will report pain relief from the procedure.

(d)  The pain relief will last an average of 400 days, at which time it will have to be repeated.

Now remember, this is Dr. Bogduk’s opinion of the best way to treat this kind of pain, but also remember that he is an anatomist.  The thing to be cautious about here is that you are treating the pain by destroying a part of the nervous system, so that can have risks associated with it and because the body is a self repairing organism, the reason it has to be repeated is because the nerves heal.  Since we don’t know the long term outcomes from such treatment, we don’t know what happens when this is repeated every 13 months for the rest of your life.  How will nerve healing respond to that?  We do know that nerve tissue can regenerate, but is accompanied by a proliferation of nociceptors that when stimulated produce pain, even with normal movement and activity.

If you have neck pain following a rear end motor vehicle accident and the neck pain persists for more than six to eight months after the accident, despite appropriate therapeutic intervention, it is more likely than not that you have an injury to the cervical facet joints .

We do know that other  more standard treatments don’t provide complete, satisfying long term relief.  So, no matter what kind of care you opt for , always take into consideration what the side-effects are and if you are willing to risk living with them.

Moving June 1st

Please note New Hours at the New Office:

MON  &  WED 9:00 – 6:00

SAT                      9:00 – 2:00

604-859-6781

                                venturachiropractic.ca                                         mail@venturachiropractic.ca

In the Abbotsford chiropractic office of Dr. Dorothea McCallum, you’ll enjoy expert care that goes beyond sore backs and headaches.

Visit our office on-line by seeing our video on CanPages!  New Patients always welcome www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks,32900 South Fraser Way,Abbotsford,BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

We’re Moving, June 1, 2013

Dr. Dorothea McCallum

McCallum Chiropractic @ the Bay

Is moving to Ventura Chiropractic

101-32920 Ventura Avenue

Abbotsford, BC  V2S 6J3

604-859-6781

I am happy to announce that the office will be moving – but only about three blocks.  The new location is in Ventura Chiropractic, on Ventura Avenue between Bourquin and Gladwin.

The other chiropractors in the office are Drs. Rob Cormack, Rob Turner and Daryl Munro.  If I’m traveling for Board Work, or at my other office, or you have an emergency, you will always have somebody who can take care of you until I’m back.

Please note New Hours at the New Office:

MONDAY  &  WEDNESDAY             9:00 – 6:00

SATURDAY                                                9:00 – 2:00

604-859-6781

venturachiropractic.ca

mail@venturachiropractic.ca

I’ll be keeping a redirect on my old number for a year, so if you forget, or can only find an old card, you can just phone the old number.

I will still be working at the Surrey Office on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

The office is really lovely, with lots of windows and easy parking.  After the move, you won’t be able to wander through the Bay shopping, but think of the money you’ll save!

Don’t wait until June to get a check up just so you can check out the new office.  Maintenance care always pays because when you’re spine’s in line, you feel fine!

I just got back from Toronto, where I completed the Chiropractic Run/Walk for Chiropractic Education and Research.   If you haven’t donated to this great cause, it’s not too late!

It was great to see the students who are about to graduate and embark on their new careers.  It’s always great to get together with colleagues.

The next trip I’m taking is June 5 – 9th for my 25th Chiropractic College Reunion!

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

We’re Moving, June 1, 2013

Dr. Dorothea McCallum

McCallum Chiropractic @ the Bay

Is moving to Ventura Chiropractic

I am happy to announce that the office will be moving – but only about three blocks.  The new location is in Ventura Chiropractic, on Ventura Avenue between Bourquin and Gladwin.

The other chiropractors in the office are Drs. Rob Cormack, Rob Turner and Daryl Munro.  If I’m traveling for Board Work, or at my other office, or you have an emergency, you will always have somebody who can take care of you until I’m back.

We are still working out details regarding hours, so I’ll keep you posted on this blog and at the office.  I’m also working on arranging call forwarding from my old phone number and will be keeping my webpage and blog, so you’ll always be able to get ahold of me.

The office is really lovely, with lots of windows and easy parking.  After the move, you won’t be able to wander through the Bay shopping, but think of the money you’ll save!

Ventura Chiropractic

101-32920 Ventura Avenue

Abbotsford, BC

V2S 6J3

604-859-6781

venturachiropractic.ca

mail@venturachiropractic.ca

Don’t wait until June to get a check up just so you can check out the new office.  Maintenance care always pays because when you’re spine’s in line, you feel fine!

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

SHINSPLINTS

Shinsplints are painfully familiar to many people who like to run, dance or play team sports. It’s medical name is medial tibial stress syndrome, and it’s an overuse injury, generally thought to be caused by painful irritaiton of the tissue connecting the muscles of the lower leg to the shinbone (tibia.)

Chiropractors have a slighly different take how that overuse occurs, which I’ll discuss later in the article.

For some people, switching athletic shoes and adding cusioned insoles reduces the risk of developing shinsplints. Increasing mileage slowly and training primarily on grass or other relatively soft surfaces also may help.

But many people develop shinsplints no matter what.

The good news is that one of the best treatments for shinsplints is to stretch the muscles of the lower leg.

A good start is to sit in a chair and straighten your sore leg; reach down to your toes and gently pull them back toward your body. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds or so and repeat five or six times. Then reverse the motion and gently push the toes down for 30 seconds or so and repeat five or six times.

Another way to stretch the lower leg and improve balance is to stand on the balls or your feet on a step, facing up the stairs. Hanging onto the rail, gently lower your heels below the level of the step and hold for about 30 sec. Then, raise your body up onto tiptoes and hold for 30 seconds.

For a more intricate stretch, sit on the floor with your feet planted against a wall, heels on the ground, knees straight and palms flat against the floor. Using your hands, walk your body toward the wall, leaning into the wall. This motion stretches the calf and shin muscles.

Shinsplints usually don’t hurt much while walking, so if your usual activity is running, cut back on training and walk. Do one or all of the above stretches after your walk. If the pain persists, you may need to be checked for stress facture.

Once you’ve recovered, ramp up your training cautiously. The most common risk factor for shinsplints is, unfortunately, having had shinsplints before.

While the symptoms of shinsplints generally occur in people who run, or do other activities that involves a lot of lower leg movement, from a chiropractic perspective, there may be a good reason why it happens in some people who don’t. Altered pelvic mechanics from restricted sacro-iliac function and pelvic stabilizing muscle inbalances affect how your feet, ankles, knees and hips all work. It affects toe-off and toe clearance while walking and running and can stress the muscles in the calf. Because these muscles are bound tightly in tough connective tissue compartments in the lower leg, overuse can cause inflammation and irritation even with regular daily activities. Chiropractors often see shinsplints resolve in a course of pelvic and low back adjustments.

Shinsplints have an inflammatory component that is often helped with a good Omega 3 supplement high in EPA and DHA. Check the label on any supplement you buy.

Finally, many people with shinsplints have altered foot mechanics. This can be assessed by your chiropractor with a foot and gait analysis. Over pronation, flat feet, hammer toes, bunions and calluses anywhere on the toes and bottoms of the feet are indications that the feet are under stress and would benefit from custom orthotics. Good orthotics not only support the arches, but assist in proper weight distribution, movement and balance during all activities.

If you’ve been helped by chiropractic and are looking at your estate planning, consider supporting chiropractic. Chiropractic care is safe, cost effective and helps keep people get and stay well – it keeps them working when they are injured, and with back pain and back injuries being one of the biggest time lost injuries in our society, you will be helping keep people and the country stronger.

Remember, to Donate go to:  www.cmcc.ca/dorotheamccallum

Every donation helps, and help ME achieve my goals for fund raising. I know you get lots of pleas for your money, but our overhead is low and we always use your money wisely.

Thanks

Dr Dorothea

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

Sugar – Not So Sweet   -   Part 3

Until the government does something about food regulations, food processors are going to continue to add sugar to all kinds of things, because it makes things taste good, helps preserve texture and color.

You can do a whole bunch of things though:

If you buy canned, frozen, partially prepared or cooked foods, read the labels.  I was shocked and surprised when I went to buy some packaged, organic chicken stock.  When I read the label and saw caramel for color from organic cane sugar I couldn’t believe it.  I’ve never added sugar, caramel or otherwise, to stock.  Just because it was organic sugar didn’t make it any better!  Don’t worry if you didn’t take organic chemistry in school.  Just look for words ending in ose – that means sugar – as in glucose, fructose, lactose, etc.

Can, and better yet, freeze your own food.  We live in one of the most bountiful and food rich places in the world with varieties of vegetables and fruits available from early summer until late fall.  When these foods are at their peak, buy them and freeze them.  If you are going to can, make sure you take a class because most of us weren’t paying attention when our Moms and Grandmoms were doing it and proper technique needs to be followed.  If you are going to can fruit, look for sweet alternatives like pear juice and honey for sweetening instead of sugar (yes, I know honey is sugar, but just go to Campbell’s Gold or the Honey Bee Place for a lesson on the benefits of honey and the difference between it and sugar).

Change what you think a good snack is.  If you aren’t hungry enough to eat an apple, are you really hungry enough for a donut?  Or a cookie?

Look for hidden sugar.  Not all sugar is “sugar”.  Grains, even whole grains, but even worse, refined white flours, are essentially sugar in another form.  They are concentrated carbohydrates and your body converts them into sugar that is metabolized exactly the same as sugar.  When I was growing up (and I know I’m getting old and starting to sound really old when I say that) baking was a treat.  Bread should not be considered a food group or the basis of a meal, but cakes, cookies, treats, squares, etc need to be eliminated as a food group and designated as something like an edible party treat.

This article is about diabetes and the toxic influence of sugar that creates it, but sugar and simple carbohydrates that convert into sugar is responsible for even more disease.  I’m going to start researching metabolic syndrome and give you an even bigger scare because this information is important.

If you want to live to a HEALTHY old age without all the infirmities that go along with diabetes and other diseases of old age (and lately not so old age), read labels, eat real food and stop eating sugar.

If you’ve been helped by chiropractic and are looking at your estate planning, consider supporting chiropractic. Chiropractic care is safe, cost effective and helps keep people get and stay well – it keeps them working when they are injured, and with back pain and back injuries being one of the biggest time lost injuries in our society, you will be helping keep people and the country stronger.

Remember, to Donate go to:  www.cmcc.ca/dorotheamccallum

Every donation helps, and help ME achieve my goals for fund raising. I know you get lots of pleas for your money, but our overhead is low and we always use your money wisely.

Thanks

Dr Dorothea

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

Sugar – Not So Sweet   -   Part 2

The key point in the article is this:  “Each 150 calorie/person/day increase in total calorie availability related to a 0.1 percent rise in diabetic prevalence (not significant), whereas a 150 calorie/person/day rise in sugar availability (one 12-ounce can of soft drink) was associated with a 1.1 percent rise in diabetes prevalence (which is significant).”  Thus for every 12 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverage introduced per person per day into a country’s food system, the rate of diabetes goes up 1 percent.

This is as good (or bad) as it gets; the closest thing to causation and a smoking gun that we will see. To prove “scientific” causality you’d have to completely control the diets of thousands of people for decades.  It’s as technically impossible as “proving” climate change or football-related head injuries or, for that matter, tobacco-caused cancers.  And just as tobacco companies fought, ignored, lied and obfuscated in the ‘60s  – and into the 90s, the pushers of sugar will do the same now.

This study is proof enough that sugar is toxic.  Now it’s time to do something about it.

Most important for you to know is something that a number of scientists have been insisting in recent years – all calories are not creased equal.  By definition, all calories give off the same amount of energy when burned, but your body treats sugar calories differently and that difference is damaging.

Obesity itself is not the cause of our dramatic upswing in chronic disease.  Rather, it’s metabolic syndrome, which can strike those of “normal” weigh as well as those who are obese.  Metabolic syndrome is a result of insulin resistance, which appears to be a direct result of consumption of added sugars.  This explains why there’s little argument from scientific quarters about the “obesity won’t kill you” studies; technically, they’re correct, because obesity is a marker for metabolic syndrome, not a cause.

The take-away from the article is this;  it isn’t simply overeating that can make you sick, it’s overeating sugar. 

If you’ve been helped by chiropractic and are looking at your estate planning, consider supporting chiropractic. Chiropractic care is safe, cost effective and helps keep people get and stay well – it keeps them working when they are injured, and with back pain and back injuries being one of the biggest time lost injuries in our society, you will be helping keep people and the country stronger.

Remember, to Donate go to:  www.cmcc.ca/dorotheamccallum

Every donation helps, and help ME achieve my goals for fund raising. I know you get lots of pleas for your money, but our overhead is low and we always use your money wisely.

Thanks

Dr Dorothea

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

Sugar – Not So Sweet   -   Part 1

If you don’t make a conscious decision to get and stay healthy, you are making an unconscious decision to get sick.

Even though our bodies are self healing, staying healthy depends on choices we make about the environment we put ourselves in, our activity levels, relationships, and many other things, including the food we eat.

Many people honestly don’t believe that what they eat has much effect on their health, because it doesn’t kill them right away.  But that doesn’t mean that what we are eating isn’t toxic.

Here is some information from Mark Bittman, one of my favorite writers from the New York Times.  He is actually a food writer, not a science writer but he is a thorough researcher of the scientific literature.  Much of what he writes about is what I studied when I did the Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner training and what I read in the research review service I subscribe to.  Here’s the latest scoop on Sugar.

Sugar is indeed toxic.  It may not be the only problem with the Standard American Diet, but it’s fast becoming clear that it’s the major one.

A study published in the Feb 27 issue of PLoS One links increasing consumption of sugar with increased rates of diabetes by examining the data on sugar availability and the rate of diabetes in 175 countries over the past decade.  And after accounting for many other factors, the researchers found that increasing sugar in a population’s food supply was linked to higher diabetes rates independent of rates of obesity.

In other words, according to this study, obesity doesn’t cause diabetes:  sugar does.

The study demonstrates this with the same level of confidence that linked cigarettes and lung cancer in the 1960s.

The study controlled for poverty, urbanization, aging, obesity and physical activity.  It controlled for other foods and total calories.  In short, it controlled for everything controllable, and it satisfied the longstanding “Bradford Hill” criteria for what’s called medical inference of causation by linking dose (the more sugar that’s available, the more occurrences of diabetes); duration (if sugar is available longer, the prevalence of diabetes increases); directionality (not only does diabetes increase with more sugar, it decreases with less sugar); and precedence (diabetics don’t start consuming more sugar; people who consume more sugar are more likely to become diabetics).

Stay tuned until next week when we explore this topic further.

If you’ve been helped by chiropractic and are looking at your estate planning, consider supporting chiropractic. Chiropractic care is safe, cost effective and helps keep people get and stay well – it keeps them working when they are injured, and with back pain and back injuries being one of the biggest time lost injuries in our society, you will be helping keep people and the country stronger.

Remember, to Donate go to:  www.cmcc.ca/dorotheamccallum

Every donation helps, and help ME achieve my goals

for fund raising. I know you get lots of pleas for your money, but our overhead is low and we always use your money wisely.

Thanks

Dr Dorothea

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Our office (inside the Bay) can be viewed on our CanPages site: www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

I’m always prowling around looking for interesting information about health and nutrition, medicine etc.

Here is some interesting

information about overused medical tests.  Have you had any of these lately?

In the States last week, 17 major medical specialty groups recommended that doctors greatly reduce their use of 90 widely used but largely unnecessary tests and treatments

The list of “don’ts” builds on 45 recommendations made last April, under a broad initiative by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, in partnership with the magazine Consumer Reports.

In the past, these tests were supported by the scientific medical literature, but are not any longer.  Some of the recommendations reinforce existing guidelines, but other aggressively go after procedures that have little evidence of benefit and may cause harm, yet are still practiced on a daily basis.

For example, the American Society of Echocardiography recommended against using echocardiograms before or during surgery for patients with no history or symptoms of heart disease; doctors routinely perform this test.  Without a history or symptoms, the test provides no useful information that will benefit the patient.  The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging urged physicians not to perform routine annual stress testing using a nuclear heart scan after coronary artery surgery.  This is also a routine test, and it exposes the patient to radiation equivalent to 2,000 chest X-rays.  The risk here is that although your heart might not kill you, you’ll probably get cancer.

Many of these tests are wasteful and they could put patients in danger of harm without any benefits. The goal of the recommendation is to change attitudes both from the public and the physicians that sometimes less is better.

The new list includes recommendations against inducing labor or performing a Caesarean section before a woman’s 39^th week of pregnancy, unless it is medically necessary.  Scheduled Caesareans and inductions are commonly performed for convenience, but delivery before 39 weeks is associated with increased risk of learning disabilities, respiratory problems and other risks to the baby.  I often hear young women say that their doctor is going to do a C-section before 39 weeks because the baby isn’t in the correct position – but babies often turn right at the last minute.  And if the baby isn’t head down, it’s probably because Mom has a sit down job and baby hasn’t had enough room, for long enough during the day to move.

The AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics urged doctors not to automatically use computed tomography, or CT scans to evaluate children’s minor head injuries.  According to the report, approximately 50 percent of children who visit hospital emergency departments with head injuries undergo a CT scan, exposing them to radiation.  Other groups also called for reductions in the use of CT, PET and MRI scans for a variety of ailments.

Several physician groups recommended against prescribing antibiotics for common respiratory illnesses, including sinusitis, sore throat and bronchitis.  The vast majority of these illnesses are caused by viruses, not bacteria, making antibiotics pointless.  Over-prescribing of antibiotics leads to digestive problems by killing off normal gut bacteria and makes antibiotics less effective if you do run into a serious infection. The pediatrics group also said not to treat children under 4 years of age with cough and cold medicines. Studies have shown that these products have little benefit and may cause serious side effects in children.  While it may be uncomfortable to watch your child suffer through a cold, a snotty nose causes no harm (except to spread  the cold around!)

The American Geriatrics Society recommended against using feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia.  These patients should be fed orally.  Tube feeding is associated with agitation, increased use of physical and chemical restraints and pressure ulcers.

Other notable recommendations include:

• Don’t use opioid or butalbital treatment for migraine except as a last resort.  Frequent use of these drugs can worsen headaches.
• Don’t routinely treat acid reflux in infants with anti-reflux therapy.  There is emerging evidence that it may be harmful to infants in certain situations.  As a chiropractor, I can tell you that an adjustment is a safe, effective treatment that will not cause harm.
• Avoid routine preoperative testing for low-risk surgeries without clinical indication.  Most pre-op tests turn up nothing unusual and don’t lead to better outcomes.
• Avoid using medications to achieve tight control of glucose levels in most adults aged 65 and other with Type 2 diabetes. Moderate control is generally better.  Education about diet is the best medicine in this case.
• Don’t use benzodiazepines or other sedative hypnotics in older adults as a first choice for insomnia, agitation or delirium. Studies consistently show a doubling of risk of car accidents, falls and hip fractures in older adults taking these mediations.  Older people don’t sleep as well through the night, so prescribe naps instead.  Sleeping aids usually leave the taker with a “hangover” that can lead to injury and harm.
• Don’t perform annual Pap tests in women 30 – 65 years of age who are not at high risk for cervical cancer. The Pap test should be performed every three years in women aged 21 to 30 and very 3 – 5 years for women aged 30 – 65.

There are lots more tests not mentioned here, so when you visit your MD, make sure you ask lots of questions about what the test is for and why the doctor wants to do it.  It’s your body, and it’s perfectly alright to ask what risks the test may pose.  Just because its a test, doesn’t mean it safe.

Dr. McCallum’s office is located upstairs in the Bay SevenOaks, 32900 South Fraser Way, Abbotsford, BC.  Call 604-864-8232 to book an appointment.  We love helping people regain and maintain their good health.

When you need chiropractic adjustments Abbotsford is the place to be.  Dr. Dorothea McCallum provides General Chiropractic Care for people of all ages, Pre and Perinatal care for Moms and babies – Webster Technique Certified, Wellness Care and Coaching – Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner (CCWP), Custom Corrective Orthotics.

Someone you know needs a Chiropractor?  No problem.  Tell them to use CanPages to see our on-line video and get more information about McCallum Chiropractic www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

Please Support me in the Run/Walk for Chiropractic Education and Research.  I’ll be walking and I’ll really appreciate any donations you can make to my campaign.  Just go to: www.cmcc.ca/dorotheamccallum