Why a Diabetic Should Cut Back on the Coffee

Posted on February 15, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

Coffee has become a part of our every day in American culture, where there is a
Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on every corner. It has been shown to have health
preventive effects such as lowering risk of heart disease and cancer, possibly
due to the powerful antioxidants that it contains. But daily use of coffee for
someone who is already having health problems, such as a type II diabetic, can
lead to further complications unless the underlying cause is addressed.

Two things make coffee a bad choice for a diabetic patient or anyone who has health concerns.

  1. Caffeine –
    When caffeine is released into the body, it causes adrenal hormones to be released and stimulates the nervous system to give you the perceived benefit of being more alert and awake. The increased release of adrenal hormones stimulates the release of glucose to provide your cells with energy. The pancreas then releases insulin to help process the glucose. Chronic use of caffeine over stimulates the pancreas and causes the body to ‘crave’ caffeine to get more energy. This can put extra stress on the adrenal glands as well.  Most diabetic patients are familiar with the fact that when they are under stress, their blood sugar levels can be hard to control. Adding coffee on a regular basis can put extra stress on the adrenals and increase patients’ need for their medications to control their diabetes.
  2. Acidity
    – Coffee has a pH of 4.0 – 5.5 on a scale where a pH 7.0 is neutral. Any substance that has a pH level somewhere between 1.0 and 6.9 is considered acidic in nature with 1.0 being the most acidic.  Other drinks that are considered acidic are soda with a ph of 3.0 and wine with a ph of 2.0. Stomach acid must have a pH of 1.0 – 2.0 to digest food properly. In today’s world where people constantly suffer from acid reflux, the addition of an acidic substance into your digestive system can cause gastrointestinal issues such as heartburn, bloating, and constipation. This causes your digestive system not to absorb the appropriate nutrients and break down of foods. This can cause systemic inflammation that help to increase blood sugars as well increase the chance of nutritional deficiencies that can lead to trouble in control insulin and blood sugar levels.  Foods that are considered alkaline and can reduce stomach acidity are fruits and vegetables such as spinach, and celery.

So the next time you go for that cup coffee, think about if it would be the right choice for you and your health.  Working with a health practitioner that is aware of how to modify a diet appropriately for a specific condition can increase the successful outcome of treatment.

References:

Coming to a Shore Near You: Acidified water has shown up sooner than we thought.  http://daily.sightline.org/2011/05/26/coming-to-a-shore-near-you/.
Retrieved on December 8, 2011.

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I am Gluten Free, So Now What?

Posted on February 15, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

I work with many patients to change their diet so they can live healthier and happier lives. This means completely changing the way people think and feel about food. At first it may seem as hard as quitting smoking but just like smoking, once you have removed it from your diet, it never tastes the same. But removing gluten from the diet can be the hardest for patients but have the most benefits.

Gluten is the protein that is contained in wheat. Most people think that means that they will never have bread, cupcakes, or pancakes again. This is simply just not true. As the benefits of being gluten-free continue to grow, patients are paying money for these food items and grocery stores are listening.

It used to be that you could never find rice bread that is commonly used as an alternative to regular bread in a regular grocery store. Now, all you have to do is go to about any chain grocery store and you will find an alternative of some kind. Sure, some alternatives may be better than others but it is start. They will also commonly sell rice, tapioca, coconut, and sorghum flour to make anything from bread, pizza, and pancakes at home.

But do gluten free pancakes taste like buttermilk pancakes? No, they don’t and they aren’t supposed to. That is where most people give up. But just because they don’t taste like it, doesn’t mean they don’t taste delicious. They taste different but the biggest benefit is that most people will eat the gluten free pancakes with their maple syrup, butter, and bacon and not have to take a nap immediately after with their antacid. People eliminate gluten to feel better.

Does that mean they can never have a buttermilk pancake again? Only if they are diagnosed with celiac disease, should you avoid gluten entirely due to the inflammatory reaction that they will have upon digestion. People who eliminate gluten from their diet due to inflammation and just good overall health are still able to eat gluten if they so desire, but most people recognize the difference in how they feel once they eliminate gluten from their diet. Most of those who have eliminated the joint pain, fatigue, and heartburn deceases, simply do not want to go back to living that way. And I don’t think you could blame them for it, would you?

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How Gluten and Dairy in Your Medications Can Hurt You

Posted on February 15, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

When people found out that they have a gluten and/or lactose allergy or sensitivity, most people focus on eliminating foods such as bread, milk, and pasta. Few people think that perhaps their every day medication, cold medicine, or supplement could ever have gluten in it.

Here is a list of common over the counter and prescription medications that have been known to contain gluten:
- Benefiber
- Boost
- Claritin
- Ensure Fiber
- Flonase
- Gas-X
- Glucerna
- Halls
- Hydrocortisone cream
- L-Lysine
- Lovastatin
- Metamucil
- Novolog 70/30
- Nutralite – Amway
- Selenium
- Tricor
- Zyrtec
* Source : Glutenfreedrugs.com

Here is a list of common prescriptions medications that been known to contain lactose:
- Allergra
- Actonel
- Viagra
- Lipitor
- Warfarin
* Source: Galactosemics.org

These lists are by no means a complete list but it gives you an idea of products that you may be using that contain the very thing that you are sensitive towards. They could be aggravating your symptoms even if you are being perfect in every other way with your diet. For example, if you are taking Claritin every day for your allergies, you may actually be causing you more inflammation that reducing it. Also, as you eliminate a majority of gluten from your diet, you can become more sensitive to gluten when it is introduce to your system. This could mean an increase in headaches, constipation, and aching sensations. In theory, you could become worse going gluten free in your diet only, if you do not address additional sources.

This is where working with a knowledgeable practitioner can be an advantage to a patient. Someone who has training and knowledge of all possible sources of containments will be able to put together a comprehensive plan for you to eliminate all allergens from your diet. As with all prescribe medications, you should never stop taking them unless it is authorized by the prescribing physician. If you find that your doctor does not know anything about the possible ingredients of your medications, talk with a pharmacist or use reputable sources on the internet. More than likely, there are multiple medications for a specific condition that could be possibly gluten and dairy free.

Other daily products that we use that may contain gluten and dairy can include makeup, lotions, and bath products. Always check the label before buying any product that will be ingesting or coming in contact with your skin.

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The Best Treatment for Your Auto Accident Injury

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin| 1 Comment

Many people experience a car accident at least once in their lives. Unfortunately, injuries as a result of auto accidents are quite common, even when the actual collision seems minor. It is very easy for your head or back to be forced into an uncomfortable position, and that can cause whiplash. Sometimes, the effects of whiplash will go away without treatment, though this is not usually what happens. Most people will find that the pain and discomfort do not ever go away unless you seek chiropractic care. The reason that this is the case is because your spine may be out of alignment.

You might not think that you have whiplash, but if you experience frequent headaches then there could be a problem. Whether you’ve ever been to a chiropractor professional before or not, you may find that they are the only ones that can truly provide you lasting relief. Your first instinct might be to try to control the pain with pain killing medications, but that is really a short term solution. Medications don’t get to the root of your problem and fix it; they simply give you temporary relief. When you visit a chiropractor, you’ll be able to get relief and work towards ultimately eliminating the problem.

When you visit a chiropractor, they will take x-rays of your spine to see what is truly wrong. It is not really possible to tell what is causing your discomfort by looking at you, so it is important for the chiropractic professional to go through all steps and check everything. After taking a look at the x-rays, the chiropractor will be able to tell you what the cause of your headaches or back pain is. They will also be able to tell you about their advanced treatments and which will be able to help you. You’ll find that the modern techniques are extremely relaxing and comfortable.

Most chiropractors accept at least some insurance, but do not ever assume that every chiropractor will.  When calling to schedule your initial consultation with the chiropractor, feel free to ask any and all questions that may be troubling you.  That involves questions about payments and any other concerns you may have.  Most will be very upfront about the payment options and insurances that they accept.  You should feel at ease before you begin any treatments.  Most that do start getting treatments find that they are quite enjoyable.

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The Truth about Chiropractic Care and Auto Accident Injuries

Posted on November 21, 2011 by admin| 1 Comment

Chiropractors use special manipulation techniques to relieve the spine of pressure that can cause aches, pains and even other symptoms. The fact that chiropractic care is considered to be a type of alternative medicine emphasizing on diagnosing, treating and preventing disorders of the spine and muscular and skeletal systems may be a little misleading. Chiropractors are actually primary care medical professionals not unlike other specialists like dentists or ear, nose and throat doctors.

Much of the idea behind why this type of medical care is that the central nervous system is housed in the spinal column and is affected by trauma, injury and stress on the spine. One of the most common causes of spinal injury occurs when a person is in a car crash. It is very common for chiropractors to treat people with injuries due to car accidents.

What you need to know and understand about chiropractors and traditional doctors is that when a doctor in the ER examines you for injuries after an accident and finds no apparent auto injury issue you are sent home with some pain medications just in case. What they don’t tell you is that when your injuries involve your back or neck the issues with this injury will get worse over time. In many cases people have had no problems at all with an injury due to a car accident for years and then the problems begin.

It is very important to your health, well being and in any kind of accident lawsuit to be properly examined and diagnosed. If you settle before a proper diagnosis is provided you will lose money and in the following months or even years you will have problems with your back and spine from the old accident and you will be able to do nothing about it.

One of the most common things that occur in an auto accident is that the spinal column compresses, resulting in pain because the vertebrae of the spine are pushed closer together compressing the soft tissue, also known as disks between them. While this may not cause immediate pain, it will cause pain sooner or later which can range from mild to almost debilitating depending on the damage. This is what happens when you hear about issues with herniated or bulging disks.

What is needed in this case is spinal decompression which is one of the most commonly performed techniques in chiropractor’s offices. This technique stretches the vertebrae out where they should be and provides relief to the patient. More than one session will be required for your spinal health and pain relief. Chiropractors also provide you with information about how to prevent pain and with exercises to help strengthen your back muscles.  So, remember your friendly neighborhood chiropractor the next time you, or someone you love has an auto accident.

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See A Chiropractor For Head And Neck Pain

Posted on November 14, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

For anyone that is experiencing pain with your head or neck, you have probably had ample opportunity to become frustrated with the limited and often pathetic treatment options that are available to you. There is very little that modern conventional medicine can do to aid those suffering. In fact, many of the standard treatments run a high risk of either leaving you addicted to pain medications or suffering from additional injuries sustained during major surgery. For these types of pain, you should instead consider seeking treatment from a chiropractor.

For any of those that suffer from migrane headaches in particular, it is well worth trying out seeing a chiropractor for help. The evidence on how well manipulation of the neck and spine can help this condition is mixed. Some people experience a great deal of improvement, and have fewer headaches, while other people see very little or no improvement. The important thing to note, however, is that there is virtually no risk to attempting this type of treatment for this very painful and potentially debilitating condition. That makes it well worth at least attempting it to see if you fall into the group who will have a better quality of life as a result of manipulation.

A more typical condition for chiropractic treatment is whiplash. This is a form of neck pain caused by a sudden movement the head forwards or backwards, as if in a head on car collision, and people often find that it is helpful to have a skilled chiropractor work on them for this form of pain.

Other common reasons to see a chiropractor are if you have numbness or tingling in your extremities, disc injury or sciatica, and especially if you are experiencing these dysfunctions after an auto accident.  Many chiropractors today also provide services like massage therapy, physical therapy, spinal decompression, nutritional counseling and x-ray machines.  Some of the more hi-tech chiropractors even have digital motion x-ray, where you can see an x-ray come to life.

The most important reason for going to see a chiropractor is the simple fact that the vast majority of people do benefit from the treatments, and the risks are minimal, if not, virtually nonexistent. That means that if you gave it a try for a few months, there is a fairly good chance you may be rid of your migrane headaches, or feeling better from that whiplash.  But you will never know unless you take that first step and schedule your first appointment.

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Trigger Points and Pain

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin| 2 Comments
Trigger points are persistent, localized muscle spasms that can cause a great deal of pain.1,2,3Trigger points alone may be responsible for many cases of neck pain, upper back pain, and lower back pain. This relationship is fairly common knowledge among physicians who treat pain, including chiropractors, rheumatologists, and physiatrists (doctors of physical medicine).What is not generally known is that trigger points may also be implicated in radiating pain into the arm and hand or radiating pain into the leg and foot. In fact, radiating pain due to trigger points may be mistaken for pain caused by a herniated disc, in either the neck or lower back. Trigger point pain affecting the wrist and hand may even be misdiagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome. A patient in whom a correct diagnosis of trigger point pain is missed may lose much precious time and other resources, as she fruitlessly “tries” one doctor after another and needlessly undergoes all sorts of complex and costly testing.

The key to correctly identifying the source and cause of upper or lower extremity radiating pain is to be able to accurately characterize its nature. Radiating pain caused by trigger points is diffuse – the pain broadly covers a region. This diffuse pain is described as “scleratogenous”, meaning that it is pain referred from connective tissue such as muscle and tendon. Radiating pain caused by a compressed spinal nerve (ultimately caused by a herniated disc, for example) is described as “radicular” or “dermatomal”. This pain is confined to a specific area – the area that is supplied by a specific spinal nerve. For example, pain involving the thumb and index finger could be caused by compression of the C6 spinal nerve. Pain involving the outside of the foot and the little toe could be caused by compression of the S1 spinal nerve.

Scleratogenous pain is not specific. A person might complain of pain across the “shawl” portion of the upper back and traveling into the upper arm, experienced “all over” the upper arm. Another person might be experiencing pain across the gluteal region, hip, and upper thigh. Both of these patterns of radiating pain are likely due to several trigger points, localized to the respective areas.
Of course, an accurate diagnosis is necessary to be able to develop an effective treatment strategy. The good news is that although trigger points necessarily represent a chronic muscular process, they may be treated with very good to excellent outcomes using conservative protocols. Chiropractic care is the optimal method for managing trigger point pain. Chiropractic care is a drug-free approach which directly addresses the biomechanical causes of these persistent trigger points and their associated patterns of radiating pain. Chiropractic care improves mobility and restores function, helping to reduce and resolve chronic pain.

1Alonso-Blanco C, et al: Multiple active myofascial trigger points reproduce the overall spontaneous pain pattern in women with fibromyalgia and are related to widespread mechanical hypersensitivity. Clin J Pain Feb 28 2011 (Epub ahead of print)

2Bron C, et al: Treatment of myofascial trigger points in patients with chronic shoulder pain: a randomized, controlled trial. BMC Med 9:8, 2011 (January 24th)

3Renan-Ordine R, et al: Effectiveness of myofascial trigger point manual therapy combined with a self-stretching protocol for the management of plantar heel pain: a randomized controlled trial. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 41(2):43-50, 2011

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Your Body – An Owner’s Manual

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with an owner’s manual? You’d probably begin reading it around the age of seven or eight, and right away you would be able to start taking better care of your precious body. You would learn how you can use your body efficiently and effectively. By learning how to use your body correctly, you’d be ensuring a lifetime of good health and peak performance. You wouldn’t have to play catch up when, after years and decades of uninformed abuse, your once-perfect physical machinery began to systematically break down. In fact, by taking the time to learn sound practices, habits, and techniques now, you could avoid what, for many, turns out to be years or even decades of unnecessary physical pain and mental or emotional suffering. Fortunately, it’s never too late to start improving your life and maximizing your health, and the sooner you get started, the sooner you will start experiencing the benefits.

So, what topics would such an owner’s manual cover? The manual would discuss and describe the usual suspects – good posture1, exercise2, nutrition3, and proper rest – that everyone knows about but almost no one puts into regular, or even irregular, practice. The single greatest benefit of having your own personal instruction guide is that you would be able to learn about these processes without trial and error. The metaphorical horse of good health would not yet have left the barn. Rather than shutting the stable doors after the stalls had emptied – the way most of us pay attention to our health – you would be empowered as to how to actually take care of yourself.

So what can you do? Without the benefit of such an owner’s manual or the lucky acquisition of teachers and coaches who really know what they’re  doing, most of us struggle along. Our posture gets worse and worse, our  muscles and joints get tighter and tighter, and sooner or later (usually sooner) we develop pain that quickly becomes chronic. Fortunately our  bodies are resilient and reparable. Once we find the right person (such  as a chiropractor) who can teach us about good posture and healthful  exercise, it’s possible to start feeling better. A chiropractor is  intimately familiar with the spine and can help you figure out the  secrets to your own body, so that you get all the benefits of having an  owner’s manual without having to do all the legwork yourselfUsing posture as an example, a chiropractor can teach you the secrets that many mentors and coaches impart to dancers, gymnasts, and all other highly trained competitive athletes. You can learn how to balance your weight over the balls of your feet. You can learn how to stand erect and straight, but not rigid. You can learn how to open your chest without straining your chest muscles, allowing your lungs to take in all the air you need to function at your peak. You can learn how to let your shoulder girdles relax, resting them on your rib cage, sitting or standing straight and tall without tightening and fatiguing your neck and upper back muscles. You can learn how to activate and properly use your core abdominal musculature, providing a firm and secure foundation for all your body’s activities. A chiropractor is an expert of the human spine, and has an intimate understanding of how your spine and posture affects how you feel, as well as what you need to do to take care of this precious part of the human anatomy.

If you want to start unlocking the secrets of your own personal owner’s manual, contact your chiropractor and get started on the path to feeling better and improving your health today!

1Vidal J, et al: Effects of Postural Education on Daily Habits in Children. Int J Sports Med March 4th, 2011 (Epub ahead of print)

2Eriksson MK, et al: Quality of life and cost-effectiveness of a 3-year trial of lifestyle intervention in primary health care. Arch Intern Med 170(16):1470, 1479, 201

3Huffman DM: Exercise as a calorie restriction mimetic: implications for improving healthy aging and longevity. Interdiscip Top  Gerontol 37:157-174, 2010

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