The Healthy Back

This is a reminder that the schedule for this blog has changed. I will be publishing on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month.

Daily Aspirin Is Not For Everyone

As a Certified Chiropractic Wellness Practitioner I believe that all medicines are toxins with one or two good side effects.  There are NO medicines that are preventative.  All medicines work in the body to either enhance or block one of the body’s normal mechanisms for establishing and maintaining homeostasis.  Anything that disrupts homeostasis causes stress in the body and has consequences. So… I always go a little nuts when one of my patients comes in and tells me that they take baby aspirin every day to prevent a cardiovascular event or stroke or lower their cancer risk.  I just think there are better ways to stay healthy and now the medical research is catching up to me!

Nearly a third of middle-aged Americans regularly take a baby aspirin.  New research shows that aspirin is not for everyone, and that in some patients this so-called wonder drug is doing more harm than good.

Researchers in London reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine that they had analyzed nine randomized studies of aspirin use in the US, Europe and Japan that included more than 100,000 participants.  The study subjects had never had a heart attack or stroke; all regularly took aspirin or a placebo to determine whether aspirin benefits people who have no established heart disease.

In the combined analysis, the researchers found that regular aspirin users were 10 percent less likely than the others to have any type of heart event and 20 percent less likely to have a nonfatal heart attack.  While that sounds like good news, the study showed that the risks of regular aspirin use outweighed the benefits.

Aspirin users were about 3o percent more likely to have a serious gastrointestinal bleeding event, a side effect of frequent aspirin use.  The overall risk of dying during the study was the same for the aspirin users and the others who did not take it.  And although some previous studies suggested that regular aspirin use could prevent cancer, the new analysis showed no such benefit.

Over all, for every 162 people who took aspirin, the drug prevented one nonfatal heart attack, but caused about two serious bleeding episodes.

“We have been able to show quite convincingly that for people without a previous heart attack or stroke, regular use of aspirin may be more harmful than it is beneficial,’ said Dr. Sreenivasa Seshaisai of the Cardiovascular Sciences Research Center at St. George’s University of London.

These findings are likely to add to the confusion about who should regularly take aspirin and who should not.

Research shows that among men who have had a heart attack, regular aspirin use can be lifesaving, lowering the risk of a second heart event by 20- 30 percent.  It also reduces the risk of a recurrence among women who have had a stroke caused by a blood clot.

Aspirin works by interfering with the blood’s clotting action.  In blood vessels narrowed by heart disease, fatty deposits can burst, leading to the quick formation of a clot that blocks the flow of blood to the heart or brain.  Regularly taking an aspirin helps prevent the clot from forming. (As an aside – regular exercise helps the body grow new peripheral blood vessels around blocked and narrowed areas.  So, even if you have narrowing of your arteries you can improve your circulation and prevent  catastrophic events. Plus, when you need your normal clotting mechanism, such as when you knock yourself and get a bruise, or cut yourself, it will work.)

Nearly half of current aspirin users , however, don’t have established cardiovascular disease and have never had a heart attack or stroke, and take aspirin in the hope of preventing one.   Many of these people do this on their own without medical supervision.

So basically what this research is saying is that whether you take aspirin or not, the chance that you will die is the same.  People who take aspirin are less likely to die from heart disease or stroke, if they have cardiovascular disease, but are more likely to die by bleeding to death.  People who do not have cardiovascular disease will not die from heart attacks or strokes, but if they take aspirin, they are more likely to die from bleeding to death.

Hmmm.  What do you choose?  There is good research to show that life-style changes in diet and especially exercise have a profound effect on preventing cardiovascular disease and even repairing and preventing a second event.  Wouldn’t it be worth it to eat better food, take a regular walk and pump a little iron to live a little longer?  These changes might not be as easy as popping a little orange pill once a day, but you won’t have to worry about bleeding to death!  And you’ll just feel a whole lot better.

If any of your friends have questions about chiropractic or our office, refer them to our CanPages (Yellow pages online) site for more information about us. www.canpages.ca/page/BC/abbotsford/mccallum-chiropractic-at-the-bay/4270514.html

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.

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.

 NOTICE:  Beginning in February I will be publishing this blog/newsletter twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Thursday.

Reading through the good old New York Times I found this article that I’d like to pass along. I’ve added some comments to the end, so don’t stop reading!

Exploring the Links Between Acetaminophen and Asthma

Is acetaminophen behind a sharp rise in asthma around the world over the past three decades?

Some researchers suspect that it might be, noting that asthmas diagnoses began to take off just as doctors began using acetaminophen more often to treat children with fevers.  Acetaminophen may also provoke inflammation in the airways, as Christie Aschwanden reports in the Science Times:

The asthma epidemic accelerated in the 1980’s, some researchers have noted, about the same time that aspirin was linked to Reye’s syndrome in children. Doctors stopped giving aspirin to children with fevers, opting instead for acetaminophen.  In a paper published in The Annals of Allergy and Asthma Immunology in 1998, Dr. Arthur Varner, then a fellow in the immunology training program at the University Of Wisconsin School Of Medicine, argued that the switch to acetaminophen might have fueled the increase in asthma.

Since then, more than 20 studies have produced results in support of his theory, including a large analysis of data on more than 200,000 children that found an increased risk of asthma among children who had taken acetaminophen.  In November 2011, Dr. John T. McBride, a pediatrician at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, published a paper in the Journal Pediatrics arguing that the evidence for a link between acetaminophen and asthma is now strong enough for doctors to recommend that infants and children who have asthma (or are at risk for the disease) avoid acetaminophen.

(By Anahad O’Connor, December 19, 2011)

It doesn’t surprise me that an unexpected side effect has sprung up from over-use of a common drug.  Now, I know that some of you will say that any caring parent would give their child something to make them more comfortable if they had a fever. When you think about the long term consequences of asthma, as opposed to the short term discomfort of a fever, I’m not sure they would.  I certainly wouldn’t, but I also don’t subscribe to the idea that when you’re sick you shouldn’t feel sick.  Since most childhood fevers are below 104F and are not long lasting, their risk is low.  They shouldn’t be treated at all and in fact when you do you interfere with the body’s excellent, time tested and effective immune system. By all means keep the child comfortable and hydrated. If they feel really hot, you can put them in a tub of cool water, or wipe them down with a cool cloth.  If their temperature climbs above 104F, then you can start getting excited.

The last sentence in the above article is an interesting one.  Since the scientists think that the acetaminophen is what is causing the asthma why would they add the comment “or are at risk for the disease”.  Isn’t giving the drug putting the children at risk?  I think it’s a cover your rear-end kind of comment.  The best thing to do is no drugs for kids – childhood sickness is not caused by a lack of medication.

Although there is no scientific research for what I am about to say, I can attest to it’s clinical effectiveness:  If your child has a fever, get them to the chiropractor and get them adjusted.  Kids almost always begin to improve as soon as they’re adjusted.  They feel more comfortable, their temperature goes down, and although they almost always go to sleep right away, they wake up like their healthy old selves.

 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

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.