MDs and Pharmacists Take a Stand Against NSAIDs
NSAIDs are pain relievers that reduce pain and swelling at the site of injury. About twenty NSAIDs are available with a doctor’s prescription. Three of these, ibuprofen, naproxen, and ketoprofen, also are available over-the-counter. The over-the-counter versions of some of these drugs are better known by names like Advil®, Motrin®, Aleve®and Orudis®. The only difference is that prescription versions are a higher strength than those purchased over-the-counter. Other examples of NSAIDs include products with aspirin that are available over-the-counter, like Bayer®and Excedrin®. NSAIDs also can be found in common cold and flu medications such as Advil Cold and Sinus®, Dimetapp Sinus®, Motrin IB Sinus® and Aleve Cold and Sinus®. (Look for aspirin, naproxen or ibuprofen on the box or bottle to find out if your medicine contains an NSAID.)
Newer NSAIDs include meloxicam (Mobic®) and a class of drugs known as COX-2 specific inhibitors. Examples of these drugs include celecoxib (Celebrex®), valdecoxib (Bextra®) and rofecoxib (Vioxx®). These newer NSAIDs are available only through a doctor’s prescription and may be safer for the stomach.
Why are NSAIDs harmful?
NSAIDs are intended for pain relief in most cases for no longer than 10 days. Unfortunately many people use NSAIDs to treat chronic conditions and continue to take them much longer than the recommended time period.
The extended use of NSAIDs leads to stomach problems ranging from mild stomach upset to stomach bleeding and ulcers. These problems occur because NSAIDs stop a substance in the body that protects the lining of your stomach from damage. At the same time, NSAIDs prevent the body’s normal ability to stop bleeding.
What is the REDUCE campaign?
The REDUCE campaign was created by American Gasteroenterological Association and the American Pharmacists Association to educate patients on the risks of NSAIDs.
To find out more about the REDUCE campaign visit their website at www.2reduce.org
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Understanding Autism
Even though Autism is more prevelant than many well-known pediatric conditions such as diabetes, spina bifida or Down syndrome, most people have little or no understanding of the disease. Autism affects 1 in every 166 births in the United States, and boys outnumber girls 4 to 1. Little is known about the cause of Autism and less is known about the treatment. Each child with Autism is very different, which complicates the treatment. What works for one child might not work for another.
In order to create an awareness around Autism, Robert Wright, the chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, founded Autism Speaks in 2005 for the purpose of finding a cure for autism, according to the Web site. The website contains a video that provides a unique perspective of the difficulties families face when coping with autism. The site also provides a lot of information for those eager to learn more about autism.
For more information about Autism and to view the video - Autism Speaks
For the full Article : CNN.com
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Obesity More Detrimental to Women’s Health
Dr. Peter Muennig of Columbia University in New York and colleagues calculated the amount of illness due to overweight and obesity in the United States. They found that overweight cost U.S. women 1.8 million years of perfect health, compared with just 270,000 years lost for men. Obesity cost women 3.40 million years of perfect health, compared to 1.94 million years for men.
Most of the years of health that women lost to overweight and obesity were due to poor health-related quality of life and later-life mortality, the researchers note in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
Death rates among overweight and obese women were lower than for men up until age 45; after age 45, women’s mortality was far higher than men’s.
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
The Healing Power of Music
Do you have a favorite band that you would like to duplicate? Do you wish that you could find another musical group that is similar to your favorite group?
You might wonder what a post about a music site is doing on an alternative medicine website. Well, here is a link to a study from the American Psychological Association that shows the health benefit of music - Click here
The Music Genome Project has developed a website where you can enter your favorite group and you will be provided with audio examples of groups that have similar muscial styles. If you find a group that you like, click the “thumbs up” icon. The website keeps track of the groups and styles that you prefer.
You can access the Music Genome Project at www.pandora.com
Enjoy listening yourself to great health!
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Get Rid Of Your Sleeping Pills…Now!
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found cognitive behavioral therapy to be superior to sleeping pills.
For six weeks subjects either participated in 50-minute weekly counseling sessions, took a drug called xopiclone, or took a placebo.
Those who received therapy increased the time they spent in bed actually sleeping from 81.4 percent to 90.1 percent.
Those who received zopiclone had a decrease in sleep efficiency, from 82.3 percent to 81.9 percent.
Therapy participants spent more time in the deepest stages of sleep and less time awake at night than those who received zopiclone or placebo.
Full Article : Forbes
Never To Old To Exercise
You’re never too old to live healthy. Changes in diet and the addition of exercise into your lifestyle can make significant differences to your health and overall wellness.
In a study published in the Journal of Aging and Health and conducted at the University of South Florida School of Aging, Professor Ross Andel and co-researcher Robert Simons, executive director of the Bonsai Holistic Spa and Wellness Center in Largo, Florida, demonstrated a noticeable increase in body strength, flexibility, balance and agility in study participants. The 64 volunteers, ranging in age from 66 to 96, were divided into a walking group, a resistance training group, and a control group that did not exercise. In the training group, warm-ups, stretching and flexibility exercises were followed by workouts on resistance training equipment.
The walking and resistance training groups both benefited from the study, suggesting that physical activity can offset physical declines that come with aging and preserve functionality among seniors. Your doctor of chiropractic can tell you more about the benefits of consistent exercise and help outline a program suitable to your needs. For more information on senior health, www.chiroweb.com/find/tellmeabout/senior.html.
Vegan diet reverses diabetes symptoms, study finds
People who ate a low-fat vegan diet, cutting out all meat and dairy, lowered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet, researchers said this week.
They lowered their cholesterol more and ended up with better kidney function, according to the report published in Diabetes Care, a journal published by the American Diabetes Association.
Participants said the vegan diet was easier to follow than most because they did not measure portions or count calories. Three of the vegan dieters dropped out of the study, compared with eight on the standard diet.
Full article - CNN.com
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Fish Oils Improve Good Cholesterol Better Than Medication
A study has shown that fish oils are more effective than the statin drug Lipitor in positively affecting the levels of HDL (”good”) cholesterol in obese and insulin-resistant men. HDL cholesterol protects against atherosclerosis by removing excess cholesterol from arterial cells, and low HDL levels can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly for those who are obese or insulin resistant.
In the six-week study, fish oils and Lipitor were given to 48 men, both separately and combined. Fish oil and Lipitor together greatly lowered plasma triacylglycerols and raised HDL cholesterol levels.
But only fish oil also influenced HDL cholesterol by altering the production and catabolism rates of HDL apolipoproteins (catabolism is the breakdown of complex molecules metabolically into simpler ones). Lipitor did not increase this effect when combined with the fish oils, and did not produce a similar effect on its own.
Mercola.com
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition July 2006; 84 (1) 37-43
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Magnesium prevents asthma attacks in children and adolescents.
A new study from Brazil suggests that magnesium supplements may protect against asthma attacks in children and adolescents. Researchers recruited 37 young people (between the ages of seven and 19) and divided them into two groups – those in one group took 300 mg of magnesium daily; those in the other received a placebo. Since this was a double-blind study, neither the researchers nor the kids knew who was getting the magnesium. All were allowed to use their asthma inhalers if needed.
After two months, the researchers found that the kids in the magnesium group suffered 28 percent fewer days with asthma attacks than those in the placebo group. What’s more, those who supplemented with magnesium reduced their use of salbutamol, an inhaled drug used to stem attacks, by almost 40 percent. The researchers didn’t check to see if any of the kids were magnesium deficient before the study, but in the United States many adolescents fail to get the RDA of 420 mg of magnesium. The Brazilian study was published in the June 21, 2006, online advance issue of European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic
Teenagers getting high on what?
The 18-year-old French woman was hospitalized with scaly skin on her legs and hands, appearing unsteady and mentally sluggish, doctors said.
They found the condition puzzling, especially since the woman’s twin sister displayed similar, but less severe, symptoms and there was no family history of the problem, the doctors reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine that
Several days later, doctors discovered the cause: a bag of mothballs stashed in her hospital room.
The teenagers had been using the mothballs to get high, inhaling air from the bag for about 10 minutes a day because classmates had recommended it. The sicker of the young women also had been chewing half a mothball a day for two months.
The doctors described the high as “dangerous” and most likely under-reported in medical literature.
The teenager told the doctors that she continued to use the mothballs during her hospitalization “because she thought her symptoms were not related to her habit,” said Lionel Feuillet at the Hospital of Timone in Marseille, France.
Mothballs, used to prevent moth larva from getting into clothing, contain paradichlorobenzene, a substance also found in air fresheners and insect repellents that can cause liver and kidney failure, and severe anemia.
Full article: Yahoo Health
Dr. Bryan Bingham
Highland Chiropractic