Chiropractic Elk Grove

Heart disease is the leading killer for men and women in this country.  For some of you the warning sign will show up after checking your cholesterol.  If you are over the age of 20, you should be checking your cholesterol levels every 5 years and more often if you have had a test come up over 200 mg/dL before/in the past.  You should also check it more often if you are a man over the age of 45 and a woman over the age of 50.  If you have your HDL (”good cholesterol”) under 40 mg/dL you should check it before the 5 years are up and if you have a personal or family history of heart disease and other heart risk factors.  Then you may want to consider checking your cholesterol anywhere from 1-5 years.  Smoking increases your risk to having high cholesterol.  It speeds up the build up of the cholesterol on the inside lining of the blood vessels that will in turn can lead to a heart attack and stroke.  Women going through menopause should watch their cholesterol because it may increase over the age of 50.   If you have diabetes you are more apt to acquiring high cholesterol.  High cholesterol is also attributed to having stress in your life.  We can’t get completely away from stress but you can learn to deal with it better like;  You do know that cholesterol is made by your body naturally, right?  The liver makes it.  It is needed for your body to function.  It is in every cell of your body.  The problem arises when the amount of choleserol is too much or the balance betweent he “good” and “bad” cholesterol has been lost.  So on your next visit to your doctor’s office ask for him/her to check your cholesterol levels.  The first step is knowing.  Then you can help control with diet and exercise. 

Protect Your Heart,

Dr. Munoz

 Avoid Sugar:  Sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately after consumption.  As you likely know, a strong immune system is key to fighting off viruses and other illness.  It is especially imperative to avoid sugar if you feel you are coming down with something.  Keeping sugar out of your diet for the long haul will do wonders for your health and make your body stronger, which will make it harder for the your system to fall suseptible to illnesses.

Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect like ketchup and fruit juice.  In America, the average person takes in about 140 lbs. of sugar.  For all the steps to building your immune system to its peak levels, which is by far the most effective way to avoid the flu, other illnesses and chronic diseases.  Excessive consumption of sugar has been associated with increased incidences of type 2 diabetes, obesity and tooth decay.  Do not think that sugar substitutes are any better for you because they aren’t. 

Definition of corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 

Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose. A series of two enzymatic reactions are used to convert the corn starch to corn syrup. Its major uses in commercially-prepared foods are as a thickener, sweetener, and for its moisture-retaining (humectant) properties which keep foods moist and help to maintain freshness.^[1]

Corn syrup is used to soften texture, add volume, prohibit crystallization and enhance flavour. Because cane sugar quotas raise the price of sugar in the United States^[2], domestically produced corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are a less expensive alternative often used in American-made processed and mass-produced foods, candies, and sodas to help control costs.^[1]

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – called isoglucose^[1] in Europe and glucose-fructose in Canada – comprises any of a group of corn syrups that has undergone enzymatic processing to increase its fructose content, and then been mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose). HFCS is ubiquitous in processed foods and beverages, including soft drinks, yogurt, cookies, salad dressing and tomato soup.^[2]

[edit] Health effects

Critics of HFCS point out a correlation between increased usage of HFCS in foods and obesity rates in the United States over three decades. Some allege that HFCS is in itself more detrimental to health than table sugar (sucrose); others claim that the low cost of HFCS encourages overconsumption of sugars. The Corn Refiners Association has launched an aggressive advertising campaign to counter these criticisms, claiming that high fructose corn syrup “is natural” and “has the same natural sweeteners as table sugar”.^[25] Both sides point to studies in peer reviewed journals that allegedly support their point of view.

Consuming HFCSs is linked to obesity and insulin resistance. HFCSs are found in processed foods such as sweeten jams, condiments like ketchup, and soft drinks.  It is also a favorite ingredient in many so-called health foods.  It was found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control.^[27] Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage;^[28][29]

A study in mice suggests that fructose increases obesity.^[30] Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance.^[31] According to one study, the average American consumes nearly 70 lb (32 kg) of HFCS a year, marking HFCS as a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity in the last generation. ^[32]

In a 2007 study, rats were fed a diet high in fat and HFCS and kept them relatively sedentary for 16 weeks in an attempt to emulate the diet and lifestyle of many Americans.^[33] The rats were not forced to eat, but were able to eat as much as they wanted; they consumed a large amount of food, suggesting that fructose suppresses the sensation of fullness. Within four weeks, the rats showed early signs of fatty liver disease and type II diabetes. Shapiro et al. fed rats a high-fructose diet for six months and compared them to rats that had been fed a fructose-free diet. Although the rats that had consumed high levels of fructose showed no change in weight, when compared to the rats that had consumed a fructose-free diet, levels of leptin in the blood of rats fed a high-fructose diet indicated the development of leptin resistance. When the rats were switched to a high-fat diet, the leptin-resistant rats, those fed a high-fructose diet, gained more weight than those who had not developed the resistance and had been fed a fructose-free diet.^[34]

• Limit processed foods.
• Avoid foods that contain added sugar.
• Choose fresh fruit rather than fruit juice or fruit-flavored drinks. Even 100 percent fruit juice has a high concentration of sugar.
• Choose fruit canned in its own juices instead of heavy syrup.  
• Drink less soda.

^References:

¹⁾^ ^{a b} Knehr, Elaine. “Carbohydrate Sweeteners”. Virgo Publishing. http://www.foodproductdesign.com/articles/463/463_0505CARB_5.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-17. 

So here is the latest and the greatest pill.  Ask for it!  But be forewarned! Below you will see the polypill being referred to as a “shotgun (approach)” but they could have ended the sentence after shotgun. 

It is a pill that does the work of five. A true chiropractic nightmare!  What they aren’t getting and you need to get is that any pill is no taking care of the problem.  The pill is just changing the outcome or results of the tests all the meanwhile damaging your liver and kidney.  So if I am asking you not to take even one drug.  You can imagine what I would say to you about this one.  Don’t take the drugs that you don’t even need in the first place. 

That is like adjusting each and everyone of you the same way when you come in to our office.  We don’t do that.  You are all different individuals and bodies that come in here with different issues, complaints and symptoms. 

This description, out of Wikipedia, the says it all - including the reasons not to take it.  They are now not only having you take one drug but six put into one capsule.  They say the reason for creating this is to reduce the “pill burden” on patients taking multiple medications.  I am not sure this is a good enough reason to make me take a drug for, again, some condition I don’t have!

The combined pill was almost as effective as the individual pills with no increase in side effects.  This is said in all the articles.  It is stated very casually but shouldn’t be taken lightly at all!  Although the side effects are not listed for each individual drug inside the polypill - think of this - most likely there are some same side effects on each individual list that can now compound because you are dosing yourself with more than one drug with the same side effect.  Side effects should be taken seriously.  The possible result of “side effects” just by means of its definition of “side effects” : “The harmful outcome is usually indicated by some result such as morbidity, mortality, alteration in body weight, levels of enzymes, loss of function, or as a pathological change detected at the microscopic, macroscopic or physiological level. It may also be indicated by symptoms reported by a patient. Adverse effects may cause a reversible or irreversible change, including an increase or decrease in the susceptibility of the individual to other chemicals, foods, or procedures, such as drug interactions.  You pick which one you want.  It’s not a risk I would want to take. 

This experiment occurred in March of 2009.  Although the favorable results of the study would seem like taking the polypill is a good idea, I think a lot more trials need to happen before anything can be definitively said about the success of such a pill.  The results were: “The individuals who were given Polycap saw their blood pressure drop from six to seven points for both their systolic and diastolic levels. These reductions in blood pressure could cut the risk of heart disease by 62% and of stroke by 48% based on the results of other studies that showed risk reductions from cutting blood pressure levels.”  Who I am concerned about is the person that is getting extra drug for a condition they don’t have.  The individuals in this trial had at least one heart disease risk factor: diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity, or smoking. 

The participants of the study were given a polycap.  A polycap contains low doses of three blood pressure medicines — atenolol, ramipril and the “water pill” thiazide — plus the generic version of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug Zocor, and a baby aspirin, 100 milligrams.

The polycap was created by Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited of Ahmedeabad, India. 

While researchers have sought to create many different “polypills”, combinations of active ingredients to treat various diseases, a pill targeted at heart attack and stroke risk was long-sought. While the benefits of reducing the number of pills patients would have to take seemed clear, concerns were raised that the shotgun approach would fit few patients, offering many too little of the medication they needed or components that they didn’t need at all, while exposing them to side effects of all the medications included.^[1]

Stay Drug Free,

Dr. Munoz