Pain Relief Chiropractic

Dr. Michael F. Roizen

Co-Author of 4 #1 NY Times Bestsellers including: YOU Staying Young.

The Owner’s Manual For Extending Your Warranty (Free Press)

Our basic premise is that your body is amazing.  You get a do over. It doesn’t take that long, and it isn’t that hard if you know what to do.  In these notes, we give you a short course in what to do so it becomes easy for you, and for you to teach others. We want you to know how much control you have over your quality and length of life.

In these articles, we’ve repeatedly recommended a multivitamin (“multi”) as an insurance policy against deficiency from an imperfect diet.  Now, there is an even more important reason.  But first, let’s deal with our premise that a multi is an insurance policy against an imperfect diet. Since only 190,000 of the over 26 million people who have taken the full nutrition program at RealAge (it’s free at RealAge.com) get the right amount of vitamins and minerals from diet alone, we believe that taking half a multi twice a day is exactly that, an insurance policy against a less than perfect diet.

But, it is more than that.  A headline randomized controlled study (the gold standard of studies) from this October’s Journal of the American Medical Association indicates a daily multi prevents cancer.  That’s big! A daily multi (actually half a multi twice a day) decreased non-prostate cancer by 12%. Prostate cancer was equal in the placebo and multi group. (The data came from the Physicians’ Health Study-II, a long-term study of the health of male Physicians over the age of 50.)

50 to 87% of Americans are short of vitamin D in published studies and you need it to help fight cancer (see below), to keep arteries young, and to aid brain function. So, make sure you get it measured and take what is needed to keep its level normal. Also, vitamin D3 is essential for calcium absorption and incorporation into bone.  Why ½ of a multivitamin in the morning and half in the evening?  You pee out the water soluble vitamins in 8 to 16 hours so you need it twice a day.

When you think about it, much of what we do and use for our health really boils down to protection. For example, we wear helmets to protect us from an accidental brain smoosh and running shoes to protect us from shards of glass. Perhaps the greatest protector of all is the one that you can’t buy in any store or order from any online discount warehouse (though there’s an idea). It’s the p53 tumor suppressor gene, which has the job of recognizing when your cells are at risk of developing into cancer and doing what it can to put a stop to it. Its job (that of biological guard dog and computer spell-checker rolled into one mean gene) is to protect your body. Do you know what is essential to turn on your p 53 gene? It seems it is something in that multi.  In that randomized study of a multi or placebo, the individuals less likely than usual to get cancer were those physicians with 1/5th the smoking rate of the general population, exercised more than usual, took a daily aspirin more than the population as a whole, and were thinner.  Thus, a 12% reduction in all non-prostate cancers (what the multi had) was a very big deal.  A big enough deal for me to take the multi for that reason alone.  Even though I eat 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day on average, I also need a multi as an insurance policy against an imperfect diet.

Thanks for reading.

Young Dr Mike

NOTE: You should NOT take this as medical advice. 

This article is of the opinion of its author.

Before you do anything, please consult with your doctor.

You can follow Dr Roizen  (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories  of the week) on twitter @YoungDrMike. 

Feel free to continue to send questions to youdocs@gmail.com. You can follow Dr Roizen on twitter @YoungDrMike (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories of the week).  The YOU docs have a new web site: YOUBeauty.com  and its companion BeautySage.com the only site we know of where you can find skin products proven to meet the claims (opened for business on June 1st, 2012), and a new book: YOU: The Owner’s Manual for Teens.

Michael F. Roizen, M.D., is chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. His radio show streams live on http://www.healthradio.net  Saturdays from 5-7 p.m . E-mail him questions at YouDocs@gmail.com.   He is the co-author of 4 #1 NY Times Best Sellers including : YOU Staying Young and YOU: The Owner’s Manual. He is Chief Medical Consultant to the two year running Emmy award winning Dr Oz show– The Dr Oz show is #2 nationally in daytime TV.  See what all the fun is about, and what he, The Enforcer, is up to. Check local listings or log onto DoctorOz.com for channel and time. And for more health info, log onto youbeauty.com anytime.

Dr. Michael F. Roizen

Co-Author of 4 #1 NY Times Bestsellers including: YOU Staying Young.

The Owner’s Manual For Extending Your Warranty (Free Press)

Our basic premise is that your body is amazing.  You get a do over. It doesn’t take that long, and it isn’t that hard if you know what to do.  In these notes, we give you a short course in what to do so it becomes easy for you, and for you to teach others. We want you to know how much control you have over both the  quality and length of your life.

5 Steps to Turn a “Dud” Check-Up Into a Get-Younger Plan:

Just showing up isn’t what makes a doctor visit valuable. The value is in actually getting a plan to stay healthy, and then following it to live a longer and happier life. You can transform that all-too-often rushed doctor’s appointment to make sure you’re not in the 50% of patients who walk out not knowing what to do next. We believe in a plan.

Step one:  Partner up with your doc. We docs love it when you become the world’s leading expert on you, your body, and your health. Knowing as much as possible about any health conditions you have, and about treatment options, helps you make smarter decisions.

Step two: Come prepared. Bring along a list of the drugs, supplements and remedies you take, extra medical info (like X-rays or reports from other docs), all your health insurance information, and a note pad and pencil (maybe a tape recorder and/or a friend or relative).  Write down in advance any special questions you want answered.

Step three: Set health goals with your doctor. Do you need to quit smoking? Lose 15 pounds? Lower blood pressure or LDL cholesterol by 20 points? Spend 10 minutes a day chilling out to ease stress? Set a real target, with a “done by” date. (Need to start exercising? Not ready to walk for 30 minutes today? If you can get out the door, down to the corner and back in 15 minutes, start there and do it every day for a week. Next week, add a couple minutes. Get a walking buddy, or go to http://www.EnforcerECoaching.com—there is a charge.)

Step four: Find out what to do at home. Would a home blood pressure monitor, a new blood-sugar meter, a smart phone app that tracks your fruits and vegetables, or headphones help you reach your goals?

Step five: Schedule a follow-up visit. It’s good to see how you are doing on your plan and make midcourse corrections to your plan as indicated.  You want to get to 5 “normals” as a minimum (blood pressure, weight for height, LDL cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, and absence of tobacco use) all with or without medications,whatever it takes for you to hit your plan goals for this and each year. That’s the real value of the yearly check-up with your doc.  That check-up isn’t just to get a blessing (no cancer, whew), it is to set targets and then ensure you have enough support to hit ‘em.

Reducing Colds With Bacteria:

Lurking in the 20-plus feet of your intestines are trillions of bacteria, some good, some bad, and none good looking! In fact, they make up between 40% and 60% of what you excrete (if you’re typical) every day.

But don’t let that bug you! You have more of these friends (we hope), 10 trillion, than you have of your own cells.  These microscopic creatures make up your microbiome, the inner world of bugs (bacteria really) that swirl through your digestive system in a sometimes friendly, sometimes adversarial tango to promote immune strength, protect you from infection, help you control your weight (or send it up, up, up), and ease digestive woes. And yes, they battle the common cold too.

The one billion colds that afflict North Americans every year may have met their match in the gut-dwelling bacterial duo Lactobacillus rhamnosus (also in yogurt) and Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. B12 (in fermented milks, infant formula) and maybe in other probiotics.

When college kids (notoriously susceptible to colds because of close living quarters, lack of sleep, and high levels of stress) were given a daily supplement packing 1 billion of each of those bacteria for 12 weeks, their colds were shortened by 2 days and they felt 34% better than kids who didn’t get the gut-strengthening buggers. So, opt for probiotic supplements in hard-shelled capsules – they make it through your stomach acid and bug that cold away!

Thanks for reading.

Young Dr Mike

NOTE: You should NOT take this as medical advice. 

This article is of the opinion of its author.

Before you do anything, please consult with your doctor.

You can follow Dr Roizen  (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories  of the week) on twitter @YoungDrMike. 

Feel free to continue to send questions to youdocs@gmail.com. You can follow Dr Roizen on twitter @YoungDrMike (and get updates on the latest and most important medical stories of the week).  The YOU docs have a new web site: YOUBeauty.com  and its companion BeautySage.com the only site we know of where you can find skin products proven to meet the claims (opened for business on June 1st, 2012), and a new book: YOU: The Owner’s Manual for Teens.

Michael F. Roizen, M.D., is chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. His radio show streams live on http://www.healthradio.net  Saturdays from 5-7 p.m . E-mail him questions at YouDocs@gmail.com.   He is the co-author of 4 #1 NY Times Best Sellers including : YOU Staying Young and YOU: The Owner’s Manual. He is Chief Medical Consultant to the two year running Emmy award winning Dr Oz show– The Dr Oz show is #2 nationally in daytime TV.  See what all the fun is about, and what he, The Enforcer, is up to. Check local listings or log onto DoctorOz.com for channel and time. And for more health info, log onto youbeauty.com anytime.

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”  ~ Albert Pine

Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a ban that would stop restaurants, delis, movie theaters, food carts, and stadiums from selling certain sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces as a way to help combat obesity in the city. As you can imagine, there was enormous public and political backlash.

Eventually, an appeals court ruled against the proposed ban just before it could go into effect, citing that it was an overreach of executive power. While it may not be Mayor Bloomberg’s place to tell you or your children not to drink sugary drinks, research has tightly linked sugar-sweet beverage consumption to weight gain among older children.  But what about younger children?

New research published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, studied 9,600 children from birth to age five.  The researchers found correlations between sugary drink consumption by children as young as two years old and weight gain in later years. The drinks examined in the study were sodas, sports drinks, and any other sugar-added beverages or juice drinks that were not 100 percent juice.

Because of the study’s size and length of follow-up, many experts believe the information to be very valuable.

According to Dr. Dyan Hes, Medical Director of Gramercy Pediatrics in Manhattan, who has been lobbying for public policies like soda taxes that would make these drinks less attractive to families, “It’s a fantastic study because we need more evidence… We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are the greatest contributor to increased obesity in young children because they’re cheap. It shows that by giving your children sugar-sweetened beverages by age two, you’ve already set up habits that are very hard to break.”

Here’s what is really important about this study: The study did not find that two year olds who drank at least one sugar-sweetened drink to be any heavier than other two year olds.  But, drinking just one sugary drink per day did set those toddlers up for weight gain in the near future.  In fact, the children who drank at least one sugary drink per day were already heavier by the age of five.

According to Scientific America: In fact, they were 1.43 times more likely to be obese than preschoolers who consumed sugary drinks less than daily, even after accounting for other factors that could influence weight gain.  Mark DeBoer, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia, says the findings support the hypothesis that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has a cumulative effect over time. “We were struck by this data that even at a very young age, the sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to weight gain… and we wanted to put this information out for pediatricians and for families to help them make healthier choices for their children.”

Why Do Sugary Drinks Cause

So Much Weight Gain?

The answer to that question is most likely two-fold.  First, is simple caloric intake.

Sugary drinks are full of “empty calories.”  In other words, they contain very little (if any) nutritional value but are high in calories.  These calories, because they are liquid, do not make you feel full. So someone drinking all these empty calories will still need to eat solid food to feel full, increasing the total amount of calories consumed in a day. The second reason is how your body chemically reacts to sugar.  These types of drinks are usually loaded with fructose. Fructose can be harmful to your body by setting up the conditions for not only obesity, but also diabetes.

This “junk sugar” unstabilizes blood sugar levels and makes your pancreas work overtime.  Your pancreas is the organ responsible for secreting the hormone insulin so the sugar in your blood stream can be absorbed by cells.  After years of sugar consumption, the pancreas may “wear out” and an individual could become a type 2 diabetic.

Many type 2 diabetics start taking insulin injections when the better solution for many may to manage their blood sugar levels may simply be proper diet and exercise.  However, the best solution is to prevent the condition altogether by limiting consumption of bad sugar, such as sugary drinks (along with a proper diet and regular, moderate exercise).

Here Is Something Disturbing…

A UCLA study published in the Journal of Physiology is the first to show how a steady diet high in fructose can damage your memory and learning.

Researchers investigated the effects of high-fructose syrup. It’s similar to high-fructose corn syrup, a cheap sweetener six times sweeter than cane sugar which is used in most soft drinks, processed foods, condiments, and even many baby foods.

They fed rats a fructose solution instead of clean drinking water for six weeks. Then, they tested their ability to remember the way out of a maze.

The results were quite shocking.  The rats fed fructose syrup struggled to negotiate the maze, demonstrating significant impairment in their cognitive abilities.  They were slower and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity.  Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats’ ability to think clearly and recall the route they’d learned six weeks earlier.

Additionally, the fructose-fed rats showed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls your blood sugar and synaptic function in your brain.

Researchers concluded that a high-fructose diet negatively affects the way the brain functions. According to Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a Professor of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, “Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think… Eating a high-fructose diet over the long-term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information.”

Don’t forget, if you ever have any questions or concerns about your health, talk to us. Contact us with your questions. We’re here to help and don’t enjoy anything more than participating in providing you natural pain relief.