Archive for January, 2009

Blood Pressure.

31 January 2009

Do you wonder why your doctor takes your blood pressure everytime you go to an appointment? Do you know what your optimum number for blood pressure should be, or even why there always two numbers each time it’s taken? Are both numbers of equal importance?

High blood pressure increases your chance (or risk) for getting heart disease and/or kidney disease, and for having a stroke. It is especially dangerous because it often has no warning signs or symptoms. Regardless of race, age, or gender, anyone can develop high blood pressure. It is estimated that one in every four American adults has high blood pressure.

Once high blood pressure develops, it usually lasts a lifetime. You can prevent and control high blood pressure by taking action. But what is blood pressure?: Blood pressure (BP) is the force exerted by circulating blood on the walls of blood vessels, and constitutes one of the principal vital signs. The pressure of the circulating blood decreases as blood moves through arteries, arterioles, capillaries, and veins; the term blood pressure generally refers to arterial pressure, i.e., the pressure in the larger arteries, the blood vessels that take blood away from the heart.

For each heartbeat, blood pressure varies between systolic and diastolic pressures. Systolic pressure is peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the beginning of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are contracting. Diastolic pressure is minimum pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the end of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are filled with blood. An example of normal measured values for a resting, healthy adult human is 115 mmHg systolic and 75 mmHg diastolic (written as 115/75 mmHg, and spoken (in US) as “one fifteen over seventy-five”). Pulse pressure is the difference between systolic and diastolic pressures.

Hypotension (low blood pressure):systolic <90 or diastolic <60
Normal: systolic 90-119 and diastolic 60-79
Prehypertension (pre-high blood pressure): systolic 120-139 or diastolic 80-89

High blood pressure can cause congestive heart failure (CHF), kidney failure, blurred or loss of vision, hardening of the arteries, and in the case of very high pressure it can cause a break in a weakened blood vessel, which then bleeds in the brain. This can cause a stroke. If a blood clot blocks one of the narrowed arteries, it can also cause a stroke.

Prevent high blood pressure by adopting a healthy lifestyle. The best prevention is to strive to maintain a healthy weight; stay physically active and follow an exercise plan, even if it is just a 30 minute walk each day; follow a healthy eating plan, and ensure that plan emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and lowfat dairy foods; reject pre-pakaged products as they are often high in  sodium and focus on choosing and preparing foods with less salt and sodium; and, if you drink alcoholic beverages, enjoy only in moderation. Despite everything you may have heard about red wine and its health benefits, in one study red wine drinkers had a 2.5 increase in their systolic blood pressure. If you are already borderline and at risk of prehypertension this small jump can increase your risk of the negative effects of HBP.

Make an adjustment: Stay Healthy ~ Be Happy!
Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

Vision and your children.

29 January 2009

Vision problems can cause a magnitude of problems for our children; it is sometimes the case that when children gets labeled disruptive or learning disabled they are actually having problems with their vision. Like all skills children learn, vision can be trained and advanced through toys and games.  It is estimated that 10 million children fail in school due to mis-diagnosed vision problems.

If you think there is any chance your child has a vision problem consult a trained pediatric optometrist. The optometrist will give careful consideration to your child’s emerging visual abilities. In the event that they evaluate your child’s vision as significantly different from their peer group, your optometrist will guide you through further testing and examinations and develop a plan on how best to proceed from the initial examination.

All children are recommended to see a vision specialist at 6 months, 2.5 years, beginning kindergarten and every year thereafter.  The Optometric Extension Program Foundation Inc. (OEP)is a non profit foundation for education and research in vision, and recommends the following: 

Vision tracking goes further than just testing what the eye is seeing. It also incorporates general motor and bilateral development. After all a child who can not see properly will likely have cordination issues as well, including problems with both fine and gross motor skills. The idea is to increase a child’s vision success by continually challenging both the visual and motor skill combinations as they develop. Starting from as young as a new-born infant, you can work with your babys visual skills. For a child 0-3 playfully move your baby’s arms and legs, separately at first, and then in various combinations. Raise and lower your child while you gaze in each other’s eyes.

Play with your baby every single chance you get, bounce them on your knee and enjoy a gentle massage with baby lotion to keep both a close connection with your baby and also to get familiar with how they move and how their bodies feel.

To encourage visual focusing place a picture of a face 20-40 cms from the baby’s eyes. The face should be approximately 18 cms in diameter and the eyes in the face should be about 2 cms in diameter. Place the face on one side of the bassinet and change sides regularly until the age of about two months. Then hang it from the middle of the bassinet. Make sure you place the face so that the baby has the opportunity of looking towards each side of their body. Provide multi-colored objects for your baby to look at.

Place them in various positions within baby’s view, giving opportunities to look in different directions. Make sure your baby doesn’t face one side of the bassinet or a wall, using one eye all the time. Change the position of your baby, or that of the bassinet occasionally.

Between 4 and 8 months keep up with training your baby’s vision progress. For general motor and bilateral development place a kickable mobile at the end of the bassinet. Also, place a plastic, non-sharp, mirror in a place where your baby will catch a view of themselves. Roll a ball backwards and forwards to your child, play games like peek-a-boo and hide a rattle under blankets and make it reappear. This is fun for your baby and good for their visual development at the same time.

Between 9-18 months play games such as creeping through, around, over and under a family furniture obstacle course, this will keep the general motor skills and bilateral development on track. Encourage them to make small jumps and hops over very low objects. Enjoy playing games like pat-a-cake and other simple clapping games, and make it easy for your child to develop his/her gross motor skills by climbing objects such as stairs and steps.

Encourage eye-hand coordination by playing with stacking cups, blocks and other objects that stack, or fit inside each other, including simple puzzles.

As your child reaches pre-school age start making regular appointments with a vision specialist once a year. Vision problems caught at an early age, like most developmental issues, can sometimes be resolved, even without surgery.

Make an adjustment: Stay healthy ~ Be happy.
Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

Fever.

24 January 2009

Fever – when to worry and when to let it go.

Fever in children can be frightening, especially as they usually occur later in the day or evening after the doctor’s office has closed. But not all fevers should be feared.

If your child has a fever of less than 100.2 there is usually no reason to worry, unless the child is younger than 3 months old. For children younger than 3 months it is advisable to call the doctor if the baby’s rectal temp is a few degrees higher than the 98.6 normal body temperature, as it may be an indication of an infection.

Why does our body generate a fever? The hypothalamus is responsible for regulating our temperatures and it’s thought that as our body is invaded by bacteria or a virus our body produces a fever in response.

So, why does the hypothalamus tell the body to change to a new temperature? Researchers believe turning up the heat is the body’s way of fighting the germs that cause infections and making the body a less comfortable place for them. It also usually means your body is fighting the infection on its own.

If your child is responding fairly well and acting normally despite the fever it is advisable to let whatever it might be run its course. Make your child comfortable with loose clothing, limit physical activity and feed plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration and your child should be fever free within 24 hours. If the fever lasts more than 3 days it would be prudent to call and check-in with their doctor.

When should you call the doctor for a fever?  Children whose temperatures are lower than 102° typically only require medication if they’re uncomfortable. There’s one important exception to this rule: If you have an infant 3 months or younger with a rectal temperature of 100.4° or higher, call your doctor or go to the emergency department immediately. Even a slight fever can be a sign of a potentially serious infection in very young infants. It is not adviseable to administer the ‘usual’ over-the-counter medications to children this young without first speaking with your doctor.

If your child is between 3 months and 3 years old and has a fever of 102.2° or more, call the doctor to see if he or she needs to see your child. For older kids, take behavior and activity level into account.

Watching how your child behaves will give you a pretty good idea whether a minor illness is the cause or if your child should be seen by a doctor. The illness is probably not serious if your child:

• is still interested in playing
• is eating and drinking well
• is alert and smiling at you
• has a normal skin color
• looks well when his or her temperature comes down

Don’t worry its quite normal if your child refuses to eat, lack of appetite is common in reaction to an infection that might cause the fever. Just watch how much fluids go in and out. Ideally your child will produce tears when crying and urinate about once every 4 to 6 hours.

Sadly, despite the severity of a fever it’s hard to judge exactly how sick your child might be. High fevers in the 102-104 range can be caused by anything from a simple cold to some other viral infection, but again this doesn’t necessarily indicate a serious problem. More problematic is that sometimes a serious infection may cause no fever or may even result in an abnormally low body temperature, especially in infants.

As your child’s fever rises and falls, they might experience chills as the body tries to generate additional heat as its temperature begins to rise. The child may sweat as the body releases extra heat when the temperature starts to drop. This is quite typical.

Children with a fever often breathe faster than usual and may seem to have a higher heart rate. You should place a call to your doctor if your child is having difficulty breathing, is breathing faster than normal, or continues to breathe fast, especially if it continues after the fever comes down.

Call your doctor immediately if your baby or young child has any of these warning signs that may indicate something more serious than just a common cold or viral infection.

• Breathing problems, including wheezing
• Consistent vomiting or diarrhea
• Dry mouth
• Earache or an indication of ear pain
• A fever of several days duration
• Abnormal crying (hysterical or high-pitched)
• Is easily irritated, or very irritable
• Pale
• Seizures
• Severe headache
• Skin rash
• Sore or swollen joints
• Sore throat
• Stiff neck
• Stomach pains
• Swelling of the fontanel
• Unresponsive and / or limp, lethargic
• Whimpering and in constant obvious pain

Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at Fontana Chiropractic 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com
Make an adjustment: Stay Healthy ~ Be Happy!

Osteoporosis and Chiropractic management of the disease.

21 January 2009

Osteoporosis.

What exactly is osteoporosis and who should be concerned by it?

Millions of Americans are diagnosed and suffer from osteoporosis every single year. This is technically a bone disease not a disorder and starts with osteopenia, which without treatment will result in full-blown osteoporosis. This disease is a product of the body failing to form enough new bone, and either/or when the body absorbs to much of the old bone. Few people know that as we age the calcium and phosphate that forms our bones may be reabsorbed back in to the body. This makes the bone tissue weaker resulting in brittle and fragile bones, which are then susceptible to fractures, even without injury.

Getting enough calcium during your life, but especially in your formative years, is a great way to prevent osteoporosis.  The most cases of osteoporosis occur in women of menopausal age when a drop in estrogen in women causes the disease to advance (or around the same age, a drop in testosterone for men.) More women than men over the age of 50 will be diagnosed with this disease.

Menopause is just one cause of osteoporosis, other causes include a long term illness confining a person to bed, bone cancer, Cushing syndrome, hyper- and hyperpara- thyroidism and excess corticosteroid levels from extended pharmaceutical use for asthma, some forms of arthritis, skin disease and chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD).

Sadly, osteoporosis starts at a very young age and there is no cure, only management for the disease. Chiropractors.org has this to say about the disease: “There is no cure for osteoporosis, so treatment methods are intended only to bolster bone density and either prevent the condition from occurring or slow its progression. There are various medications available that can help slow down or prevent bone loss.

Ongoing chiropractic care can also help alleviate pain associated with osteoporosis or help treat an osteoporosis-related injury. Also, the treatment can help you increase or maintain mobility and range of motion, which can help you protect yourself from falls and fractures. Be sure to notify your chiropractor of your condition before you begin, so he or she can tailor treatment to your needs. …”

Prevention is the key to this disease, the University of Maryland Medical Center  estimates there are 10 million people who currently have osteoporosis and 18 million are at an increased risk for developing it, based on bone density testing.

If you already are suffering from this disease, if you have been told you are at risk, or better yet are showing no signs of this disease and wish to keep it that way, most experts suggest not just taking a supplement but eating a diet high in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and fruit and vegetables. It is also important to ensure you are getting an adequate amount of strength training exercise, as it may help prevent further or continued bone loss. With osteoporosis, prevention is the key! Ensure sure your children or young teenagers reduce the amount of calcium leaching soda (animal studies show that phosphoric acid, a common ingredient in soda pop, can deplete bones of calcium) they drink and keep eating lots of healthy, calcium packed fruits and vegetables.

For further information and advice on osteoporosis management and continued care, call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

Make an adjustment: Stay Healthy ~ Be Happy!

Shopper’s Guide to Safe Cosmetics.

17 January 2009

How do we navigate the plethora of products on the market that now proclaim themselves “all natural” or declare “non-toxic ingredients”?

Often buying a “natural’ product does not provide protection from toxic or just plain obnoxious chemicals.  The text on a bottle of shampoo I purchased advertised “Herbal, Daily cleansing, herbal extracts to naturally purify and cleanse hair”, there is even Nature right in the product logo. So what exactly did I buy?

The ingredients [are] as follows: Water, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sufonate, Cocamide DEA, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Leaf extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricara) Flower extract, Lavandula Augustifolia (lavender) extract, Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) leaf extract, Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme) Extract, Prunus Serotina (wild cherry) bark extract, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Polyquaternium-10, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Butylene Glycol, Glyceryl Undecylenate, Phenoxyethanol, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance. So what’s not to love?

That’s the question we all have when shopping, especially for personal care products, and although I am beginning to get good at recognizing the worst offenders, I was delighted when I found a shopper’s guide to safe cosmetics that would fold up into my wallet. No more carrying my books around with me and researching as I shop, a thankless task with two under 5’s. At the Environmental Working Group website you can discover that due to loopholes in federal law companies can hide all kinds of things in your personal products. EWG to get your personal shopper guide.

On the shopper’s guide the EWG recommends avoiding DMDM hydantoin and Imidazolidinyl urea: toxic contaminants. Fragrance and dyes – will cause allergies, cancer, nervous system problems. Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone: problems with allergies and nervous system issues. Parabans or “-paraban” negative effects on your hormones. “Peg” and “-eth”: toxic contaminants. Sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate: Skin damage, toxic contaminants. Triclosan and triclocarban: Thyroid and environmental concerns. Triethanolamine (TEA): Allergies, toxic contaminants.

Products to avoid include: Anti-aging creams with lactic, glycolic, AHA and BHA axids, Hair dyes with ammonia, peroxide, p- phe-nylenediamine, diaminobenzene; all permanent dark hair dyes. Liquid hand soaps with triclosan, Nail polish and removers with formaldehyde and skin lighteners with hydroquinone.

Remember the skin is the largest organ in the body. Whatever you put on your skin, will quickly sink in and reach all your other organs, take care to find the right products and avoid the toxic ones to maintain your best health.

Make an adjustment, stay healthy ~ be happy.

Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com

Depression

10 January 2009

What is the cost to an idividual and society? Before it was replaced with the inexpensive generic versions, Prozac typically sold for $247.47 for a bottle of 100. But according to the U.S. Department of Commerce the actual cost of the ingredients used to make it was 11 cents. This translates to a mark-up of 249,973% (It also helps explain why Big Pharma can afford to pay for three lobbyists for every lawmaker in Washington, DC.)

Contrast the cost of Prozac to a bottle of 100 gelcaps of 2000 mg of vitamin D3, which is an effective treatment for depression. The bottle of vitamins is available for a fraction of that cost, around $7.47. This is $240.00 less than the Prozac. Or compare a bottle of cod liver oil or other omega-3 source, also shown to be an effective treatment for depression. Again, the cost difference is astonishing.

The same inexpensive vitamin, D3, has been found to help protect us against a remarkable assortment of problems, including: asthma, skin disorders, bone loss, muscle weakness (which can lead to falls in the elderly, and the many problems that follow), and cancer.

Research shows that omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) and St. John’s wort can be used to treat moderate depression. And another inexpensive supplement, chromium picolinate, has been shown to be effective for the most common form of depression.

Offices and schools designed to provide natural sunlight have shown that productivity increases and illness is reduced because sunlight enables our bodies to create vitamin D3. The value of exposure to sunlight is another good reason for schools to be sure that recess is a part of the school day.

Drugs and surgery are not the solutions for most of our health issues; they are an acknowledgement that current methods have failed.

New research with animals suggests that the onset of Alzheimer’s disease can be delayed by giving patients vitamin B3. The emotional and monetary costs of addressing Alzheimer’s is staggering. Vitamin B3 can also help patients with a history of heart disease, at a fraction of the cost of statin drugs, and without risky side effects.

Of course another way to increase the intake of important vitamins and minerals is to consume a healthier diet. A simple first step is removing the worst of the additives and gradually upgrading one’s food choices; the Feingold Association has been teaching people how to do this for more than three decades.

Reprinted from Pure Facts, the newsletter of the Feingold Association of the United States. Feingold.org

Drugs for kids increasing.

7 January 2009

A new study published in the November issue of Pediatrics shows that between 2002 and 2005 there was a dramatic increase in the percentage of children being given prescription drugs for diabetes, asthma, and ADHD. This adds the risks for side effects, as well as huge costs to an already overwhelmed health care system, particularly since these drugs are intended to be used for a lifetime.

Obesity, leading to drugs for diabetes, was a major factor in the rise. Many of the doctors who were consulted by journalists commented on the need for obese children to adopt a healthier lifestyle, including eating better foods; but none of them mentioned the fact that school lunches are among the worst offenders. Unfortunately, the doctors also recommend giving babies low-fat milk, further restricting their intake of healthy fats, and introducing BHT (a preservative) which is often hidden in reduced-fat milks.

Reprinted from Pure Facts, the newsletter of the Feingold Association of the United States. Feingold.org

As we start a new year we should resolve to make a plan to feed our children better quality food. If their school is failing at lunchtime, pack their lunches, especially if they are in a school that does not provide any resource for healthy lunch options.

1. Teach them to start the day of right, try to eat an adequate breakfast with them before they leave for school, and make sure to include healthy protein such as eggs, not simply a waffle or toaster tart.
2. Switch their sugar laden soft drinks for water. Many studies have shown that children who drink acceptable amounts of water have far more energy and work harder and smarter in school than children who never choose water as an option.
3. Finally even out their evening meal and provide smart snacks for after school or mid-morning breaks, choose cheese sticks, apples, carrot sticks, whole grain organic graham crackers with peanut butter or something similar. Getting adequate protein will give them more energy to get outside and play!

Make an adjustment: Stay healthy ~ Be happy!

Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at 303.674.1500 or email office@fontanachiro.com