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The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis

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Prescription drug abuse is out of control. Every day we hear stories in the news about celebrities, adults, and kids who have experienced the consequences of prescription drug abuse and have either died, been injured, or had to be admitted into some form of rehabilitation center. It is hard to believe that those little pills can grab such a powerful hold on your mind and body and spin your life out of control.

A recent report by the Executive Office of the President of The United States entitled “Epidemic: Responding to America’s Drug Abuse Crisis” revealed that prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem. Nearly one third of people age 12 and over who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began using a prescription drug non-medically.

In Canada, 54 percent of participants in a study reported misusing their prescription drugs at least once. 52 percent diverted the use of their drugs to a non-prescribed usage and 42 percent of the participants deliberately used their prescription with alcohol or another drug.

Drug ads on television, and in every other type of media, do not help the situation. Through beautiful scenery and highly paid actors, the commercials promise relief while disguising the side effects. Have you ever noticed how many drug ads come on during the popular time slots? One after the other we get hammered by them. Listen carefully to the side effects and do extensive homework before you ever put yourself in a position to get hooked. The highly addictive nature of some of these chemicals can own you for a lifetime once they get in you.

Seeing someone who is abusing prescription drugs, or any drug for that matter, is scary. The withdrawal symptoms can turn the calmest person into the image of a wild dog searching for food. A drug filled lifestyle can be dangerous. The side effects are many and are not communicated thoroughly. As time goes on, people often add a second, third, and sometimes many more drugs to their daily routine to offset the side effects of the one that they started with.

Nursing homes are filled with individuals who, over the years, increased the number of prescription drugs that they use and abuse on a daily basis. 45 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are on more than five drugs. If all these drugs were good for us and contributed to greater health and longevity you would think that the statistics would show it. But this is not the case. The World Fact Book ranks the United States 49th in life expectancy and Canada as Number 9.

If you think that you or someone you love is in the middle of a prescription drug crisis then you are probably right and you should trust your instincts. Consult with your doctor and get on a plan to change from a drug-oriented lifestyle to a drug free one. You can do it.

Chiropractic offices everywhere are filled with individuals who have taken charge of their health and made this critical transition. While the purpose of chiropractic care is not to take you off a drug it is very common that when people begin to get adjustments on a regular basis they find their need and dependency on both prescription and non-prescription medication goes down dramatically or disappears altogether.

No wonder more and more individuals and families are taking the drug- free approach to healthcare that chiropractic delivers. Now it is your turn.

Why Stress Affects Everyone Differently

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It is well documented that high levels of stress can contribute to heart disease, cancer, headaches, ulcers, digestive disturbances, backaches and nearly every other condition known to mankind. How can one word cause so many unique and different problems in different people especially since the stress reaction is the same for everyone? The answer may be simpler than you think.

Stress is a nervous system reaction that causes your heart to beat faster, your muscles to be tense, your stomach to tighten, and your hair follicles to stand up, all as a way to prepare your body for an emergency. When you interpret a situation as stressful, whether it truly is or not, your brain triggers this reaction by sending a signal over your spinal cord and nervous system to every cell of your body. In prehistoric times, this would have been the perfect reaction to escape from a hungry dinosaur, but in today’s stress filled world and no Tyrannosaurus Rex, this chronic reaction can cause pain, sickness and disease.

Where your body breaks down from stress may depend on whether or not you have a condition known as vertebral subluxation. A vertebral subluxation is a spinal injury that interferes with the normal function of your nervous system which can affect your health on every level whether you have symptoms or not. If you have this in your spine, your body is already pre-stressed.

Many people deal with stress through deep breathing, meditation, exercise and healthy food choices. These are all very good things to do as part of your lifestyle to counter balance stress, but if your nervous system is pre-stressed, the slightest deviation from the perfect stress management plan can send you into a frustrating, uncomfortable, or painful tailspin. Removing this pre-stress causing subluxation can improve your resistance to daily stressors dramatically.

Research shows that it only takes the weight of a dime to reduce nerve transmission. Additional research has found that nerve compression can exist without pain and can cause deterioration within two weeks.

In this pre-stressed condition, your body becomes more vulnerable to outside stresses while other people may be much more resistant. The location of the subluxation can determine what types of symptoms, if any, you experience. For example, someone with nerve interference in the upper part of the neck might feel headaches, have allergies, or a stiff neck. Because the nerves fibers that come out of the upper neck also go to the entire body, pressure here can literally cause or mimic nearly every symptom or disease you can name.

Interference to the nerve supply in the lower back can cause a backache, leg problems and also affect ovary, prostate, bladder or bowel function. Interference to the nerves in the middle of your back can affect your heart and lungs or cause tension, stomach problems, digestive disturbances and discomfort.

The scary part is that like most serious conditions, vertebral subluxations can cause stress for decades without any symptoms. This is when serious problems occur, many of which could have been avoided by eliminating this pre-stressed condition right away. The birth process, childhood falls, sports injuries and poor lifestyle habits are just a few causes of subluxations. Rather than getting to the cause and removing this underlying problem, many people attempt to chase their symptoms away with drugs, or another type of quick fix, and then wonder why their condition returns. Removing the cause and optimizing the function of your nervous system is a better immediate and long-term plan.

Regardless or your symptoms, a chiropractic examination can locate pre-stressed areas in your spine that may be affecting your health on every level.

Crisis care is one way to deal with stress, only receiving care when you are hurt. A much better option is to remove the subluxation, stress, from your body and keep it out as a part of your lifestyle. This will help you to stress less, live more, and enjoy the quality of life you deserve.

Growing Concerns with Every Shot

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Optimal immune system development is essential for health. Our immune system distinguishes potential threats from non-threats, unhealthy cells from normal, and keeps a long list of tools that it uses to restore internal bacterial and viral balance. We have roughly 10 times more bacteria in our bodies than we have human cells! In addition, bacteria and viruses are encountered every minute of every day, so to having a proper functioning immune system is a key component to living your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle.

There is a growing concern that one of the major threats to the development of healthy immune systems has been the increasing emphasis on artificial immunity through vaccines. As of 2010, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States was recommending 30 vaccinations before the age of 2 years old. At the same time, rates of asthma, autism, allergies, digestive disorders, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and many other chronic conditions are also rising. Many scientists, chiropractors, medical doctors and parents have become alarmed that this massive volume and combination of inoculations is jeopardizing the long-term health of individuals and future generations. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over $2 Billion has already been paid to parents of vaccine-injured children.(1)

Japan, who has one of the highest life expectancy rates and lowest infant mortality rates, has had a voluntary vaccination policy since 1994. The US ranks 38 in life expectancy with a significantly higher infant mortality and has one of the most stringent mandatory vaccination policies in the world.(2)

A vaccine works by combining four major parts: the pathogen (bacteria or virus), an amplifier, a growth material and a stabilizer. A very small amount of pathogen is not likely to cause an immune response from your body, so an amplifier called an adjuvant is added that chemically causes an immune system reaction that puts your body on the “highest threat level.” With this type of stimulation, the immune cells become extremely reactive to anything that seems suspicious, whether it is the vaccine, pollen, a food or even normal human cells.

In addition to these adjuvants, growth materials like egg yolk, rhesus monkey embryo and, in some vaccines, aborted human fetus cells are included as the liquid medium for the pathogen.(3) As these materials are injected at the same time as the adjuvants, they may cause an immune reaction. The final ingredient in a vaccine is a stabilizer like formaldehyde, a known cancer-causing agent for which there is no safe allowable limit for your body.(4) These elements, introduced into your body through the process of a vaccination, can create hyper-stimulation, over-reactivity, and chemical toxicity. There is increasing doubt that the uncertain benefits of vaccines justify the risks.

Living the 100 Year Lifestyle can empower you and your children to develop a healthy immune system naturally. A healthy spine and nervous system, which can be achieved with chiropractic lifestyle care, is essential to a healthy functioning immune system. Factors like exercise, proper nutritional support and mental clarity have been researched and are powerful immune boosters as well. They are essential elements to sustain your health throughout your whole life!

Do your homework before you blindly get another shot or give one to your child. More information can be found on www.nvic.org or www.909shot.com.

References:

1 http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statisticsreports.html

2 http://mothering.com/peggyomara/qpeditorials/voluntary-vaccines-in-japan

3 http://www.immunizationinfo.org/issues/vaccine-components/human-fetal-links-some-vaccines

4 http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm

The Doctor of the Present

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www.100yearlifestyle.com

– Thomas Edison, Health Care Visionary
 – Care of the Human Frame and Diet
 – Your Future is Now

Thomas Edison, Health Care Visionary
The great inventor, Thomas Edison, who produced such amazing patents and technologies including the light bulb, the phonograph and the motion picture camera, was also a health care visionary. Concerned about health care during his day, he made a declaration. In the 1903 publication of The Newark Advocate, in a piece called “The Edison Wizard”, Edison stated, “The doctor of the FUTURE will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

Care of the Human Frame and Diet
Edison believed that it made much more sense to keep oneself healthy and be an educated consumer than to wait for a crisis and then take care of oneself. He understood the age-old saying, “If you wear out your body, where are you going to live?” And, of course, based on his quote, he realized the importance of fueling the body with good food and drink through healthy eating habits. This quote has become the foundation for drugless healing professions who believe in the innate healing capacity and health potential of the human body. Chiropractic has become the number one drugless health care profession in the world.

Edison also understood the importance of avoiding drugs whenever possible. If you have ever watched a drug ad on TV and closed your eyes while listening to the side effects, you certainly can understand why. For example, the manufacturer of one pain relieving drug indicates three times in a thirty-second commercial that the drug can cause death and makes additional cautionary statements while the people in the ad dance happily on a beach. Before you ever take a drug, become educated about it and explore drug-free options first.

“The care of the human frame” means keeping your spine and nervous system aligned, balanced and as healthy as possible beginning immediately after birth and through every phase of life. This will keep your posture straight and strong and keep your joints, muscles and ligaments young and flexible. Most importantly it will keep your nervous system communicating with every cell in an appropriate way to ensure that your body is functioning at its best.

Your Future is Now
It’s 108 years later and Edison’s quote has been updated by Dr. Eric Plasker, bestselling author of The 100 Year Lifestyle, as follows:

“The doctor of the PRESENT will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of DIS-EASE.”

The future is now and, for the sake of prevention, a hyphen has been added to change “disease” to “dis-ease”. Why?

Dis-ease leads to disease. The human body, your body, is self-healing and self-regulating as long as there is no interference to its natural ability to function properly. Interference, called vertebral subluxation when it occurs in the spine, puts the body out of balance which can lead to disease, pain, deterioration and many other health problems. Eliminating dis-ease before it becomes disease, pain, deterioration or other health problems is what prevention, and chiropractic, is all about.

Isn’t it time for you and your loved ones to BE PRESENT in the way you take care of your health? When you apply this new quote to your personal and family health care philosophy, it means that you will no longer wait until your body breaks down then look to drugs or surgery as the solution. You will only utilize them as a last resort and instead, you will adjust your lifestyle, making chiropractic care and the health of, your frame, spine and nervous system your top priority.

How Many Two Weeks is Okay?

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Research by Dr. Videman out of Helsinki, Finland found that even minor traumas to the spine can cause scar tissue formation within two weeks. How many two weeks is okay with you?

Babies and Children
The birth process can be very traumatic to a newborn’s spine and cause pressure on the nerves that affect breathing, digestion, heart rate as well as the muscles and ligaments of the neck. Because additional research has found that nerve compression can exist without pain, this spinal trauma can be asymptomatic for decades. That is a lot of two weeks! How many two weeks is acceptable for you? How about your children?

If you have ever watched a child learning to walk, how many times a day do you think they fall on their bottom? This repetitive bouncing on their bum can cause their spine to become misaligned with pressure on the nerve, subluxations, which can affect their growth and development and lie dormant for decades. This is also a lot of two weeks especially if they live to be 80, 90 or 100 years old. How do you think this will affect their quality of life as they age?

As the famous poet William Wordsworth said, “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” This is absolutely true for the spine. Both major and minor traumas that accumulate over time will affect the way your child’s spine grows.

Seriously, how many two weeks is acceptable for your children? Even more important than the structure of the spine, which is really important, is the impact that these traumas have on the function of the nervous system.

Nerve Pressure and Organ Function
Research shows that the weight of a dime, not a lot of pressure, can reduce transmission. Stretching a nerve as little as six degrees can reduce nerve function up to 70 percent according to Journal of Spine and Joint Surgery.

These traumas that affect the structure also affect the function because of the relationship between the spine and nervous system.

Your nervous system controls and coordinates the function of every cell, tissue and organ of your body. This includes your sinuses, heart, lungs, liver, kidney, stomach, intestines and every other organ as well as your arms, legs, hormonal balance and literally every function that is both conscious and unconscious that your body performs.

Symptoms
As the two weeks accumulate from these traumas, both the function of the spine and the nervous system are compromised. These compromises can be disguised as a myriad of symptoms ranging from allergies, digestive disturbances and attention deficits to headaches, neck pain or backaches.

Unfortunately many of these traumas lie asymptomatic for decades of two weeks until the body can no longer adapt and breaks down with more severe health problems, pain and even contribute to sickness and disease. Dr. Henry Windsor conducted research that found a nearly 100% correlation between the compromised nerve connections in an injured spine and diseases of the internal organs. (The Windsor Autopsies, The Medical Times)

More than 15 million people each year become diagnosed with osteoarthritis, a condition that results from decades of two weeks that influence the joints of the body.

Since deterioration can occur within 2 weeks, many individuals and families make weekly and bi-weekly adjustments a central piece of their healthy lifestyle. Lifestyle Care keeps your spine in balance with no pressure on the nervous system so your body can function at higher levels. Don’t wait until you “feel” it. You may have waited lots of two weeks too long.

Side Effects? Or Direct Effects!

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– The Laboratory Process
– Common Effects of Drugs
– Think Long Term

The Laboratory Process
The most common question that individuals ask before they ever take a prescription drug is, “What are the side effects?” Before you pop another pill, you must understand how medications’ side effects directly affect your body today and in years to come.

Medications are tested in a laboratory until the chemical reaction that they are designed to achieve is reproducible. The direct effects of this lab testing must be consistent before these chemicals are ever tested on animals or people. Once human testing begins, scientists measure the impact of these medications to see if they cause the same direct effects that were induced in a laboratory. If these effects are reproducible, the testing continues to see if any other effects occur. These are called “Side Effects” because they were not present in the laboratory setting and their impact on humans was outside of their intended effect. In actuality, these side effects are direct effects of these drugs on the body. Because we are all unique in our body chemistry, direct effects, labeled side effects, impact people differently, and they are much more common than people think.

Common Effects of Drugs
The direct effects of Lipitor, for example, are constipation, gas, headaches, stomach pain, weakness, rash, hives, itching, difficulty breathing, chest pain, swelling of the mouth or face, bone, joint or tendon pain, change in urination, fever, chills, sore throat, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, muscle pain, tenderness, weakness, bowel changes, skin changes, swelling of the hands or feet, yellowing of the eyes or skin. This “incomplete” list, according to www.drugs.com, shows that while Lipitor may affect cholesterol levels in the body, there can be dozens of other direct effects that impact you in an unhealthy way.

Drug companies prepare a list of side effects for the consumer, while also listing additional side effects that doctors should be aware of. If you go to www.drugs.com and type in any common drug, then select “side effects,” you will notice that the side effects to the consumer take up half a page while the side effects/direct effects for the physician to be aware of might be up to a dozen pages. Most people are unaware of all the effects that medications can cause, and often treat these symptoms with other drugs. This is dangerous because the interactions between drugs can cause even more severe direct effects. Too many people unknowingly go down this road until their body chemistry and health is completely screwed up.

Think Long Term
Additionally, as in the case of Lipitor, there are twelve different listings of side effects/direct effects showing adverse reactions in greater than 2percent of the cases. When you add the numbers of each direct effect, you will notice that nearly 60 percent of cases are experiencing at least one of these effects.

The direct effects of these medications, combined with the reality of our extended life spans to 80, 90, 100 years and beyond, and knowing that drugs only need to be tested for about 8 years before they are brought to market, makes it obvious that living a lifestyle that keeps you independently healthy and free from the need for medications is your best long-term option.

Thomas Edison saw this coming over 100 years ago stating, “The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” The future is now. Our office will help you and your loved ones adjust your lifestyle so that you enjoy good health for a lifetime.