Researchers believe that many people risk problems due to their intake. Dr. Clifford Packer says that, “We have every reason to think that it is not rare. With aggressive mass marketing, super-sizing of soft drinks, and the effects of caffeine tolerance and dependence, there is very little doubt that tens of millions of people in industrialized countries drink at least 2-3 liters of cola per day.”

According to Packer, “It follows that the serum potassium levels of these heavy cola drinkers are dropping, in some cases, to dangerously low levels.”
Excessive cola consumption has also been linked with obesity, diabetes and tooth and bone problems.

Dr. Terry Schroeder is the coach of the US Olympic water polo team. He was also the captain and medal winner for the US in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics. He is also a chiropractor and uses his professional abilities both as a coach and a chiropractor to help his team excel. Schroeder was such an amazing athlete himself, that his body was used as the model for the male bronze statue in front of the LA Coliseum.

Merrill Moses is the current goal keeper for the U.S.A. Men’s Water Polo team. In the article, he gives the chiropractic care he received from his coach/chiropractor, Dr. Schroeder much of the credit for the team’s ability to perform. He stated, “I can honestly say that without chiropractic, many Olympic athletes would not be able to perform to their potential. We take such a pounding on our bodies, especially in water polo, because it’s a contact sport. I like to get a chiropractic adjustment everyday just to keep my body healthy.”

In addition to Dr. Schroeder, there were also four practicing Olympic Committee team chiropractors in the Olympic Village caring for the various athletes. Schroeder was inducted into the U.S.A. Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1998. The article notes that he is credited for turning this team around by encouraging teamwork and vigorous training only months prior to the Beijing Olympic Games.

Schroeder drew on both his professional chiropractic knowledge as well as his experience as a two-time Olympic silver medalist and team captain in water polo. “Athletes know that the difference between winning and losing can be a matter of fractions,” says Schroeder. “When looking for that edge, chiropractic often makes all the difference.” He concluded, “I believe that chiropractic is going to continue to be of growing importance in the Olympic world.”

Dr. Schroeder has also been a career role model for Moses the current team goal keeper. The article notes that he plans to follow in his coach’s footsteps by attending chiropractic college and earning his Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree.

When this patient was examined by the chiropractor, he reported achy low back pain and mild diffuse pain throughout his entire neck. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2001 and had chosen not to take medication for the condition. He also reported that he was unemployed due to the effects of the disorder and had experienced 6 or 7 anxiety attacks in the previous two weeks as a result.

Before his first adjustment, he filled out the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) that measures mental and physical status. He scored 57 on his physical status and 16 on the mental status. The norm for each is 50.

The man reported improvements almost immediately after beginning his care. After his third adjustment, he reported that his depression was improving, he now only felt “lethargic instead of suicidal, deep blues.”

Six months after beginning care, his SF-36 mental status score had improved from the original 16 points to 49. The physical score stayed essentially the same at 56. His neck disability fell from 12% to 0% within 2 months and his low back fell from 10% to 4% at the six month mark. To date, the author states the patient still struggles with occasional bouts of depression, he has not had an anxiety attack and reports that his depression continues to improve.

He says that while “this case illustrates the benefits of chiropractic care for one individual, there is a need for additional research” regarding the effects of chiropractic care on bipolar disorder.

Everyone, no matter what their mental or physical state, can benefit from chiropractic care.

In the study, researchers examined the approval of 90 new drugs approved by the FDA between 1998 and 2000. Of 909 separate clinical trials involving the drugs approved, only 43% (394) of the safety studies were published in scientific journals.

The researchers found evidence of “publication bias”. That is, the articles that did get published tended to be the ones that showed the most significant results for the drug being tested. Articles that didn’t get published were the ones that showed non-significant results, such as those that used a larger sample size of test subjects which gives more accurate results.

According to the report, “publication bias harms the public good by impairing the ability of clinicians and patients to make informed clinical decisions, and the ability of scientists to design safer and more efficient trials based on past findings. Publication bias can thus be considered a form of scientific misconduct.”

Sir Iain Chalmers, founder of the Cochrane Collaboration (an independent organization that reviews medical evidence) in Oxford, UK says it is vital that all research on new medicines be made public.

“The people who participate in a trial have a right to expect that their participation and their data will be made available publicly so that people can take whatever decisions seem appropriate in the light of that information.”

The first study suggested that a reason the vaccine did not prevent children from getting the flu was that the strains in the flu vaccines have mismatched the circulating flu strain in past years. MRSA is a drug-resistant super bug that can piggyback on the flu and can cause outbreaks of deadly pneumonia. Secondary infections increase the risk of death from the flu more often than the flu itself

Sources:ABC News October 7, 2008; Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, October 2008; American Academy of Pediatrics

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says it is worried about the way the web has been “used to spread disinformation”. They want to introduce a new system that would give websites a label for trustworthiness or unreliability.

One “damaging conspiracy theory” they want to shut down is the notion that MMR vaccines are harmful. Of course, this “conspiracy theory” stems not from paranoid forum postings and misquoted blog entries, but from scientific research into the mercury based preservative thimerosal.

Thimerosal was developed by Eli Lilly, and Merck is the world’s largest supplier of the MMR triple jab — and it is little wonder W3C considers such information to be “damaging” given that Eli Lilly and Merck are both paid up and approved members of the Consortium! If anyone should be labeled with an “unreliable” rating, it is the WC3.

Sources:Prison Planet September; 15, 2008; BBC News September 15, 2008

Even as bacterial outbreaks have become more high-profile, and the financial fallout from recalls more severe, the government has been handing off many food-safety responsibilities to private industry. Food safety today is a business.

For most Americans, the FDA is still the public face of food safety. But in reality, oversight of farms and food plants has gradually changed hands. There is now a cottage industry of third-party companies calling themselves “food-safety consultants.”

This has created some alarming potential gaps. There’s no certification system for these third-party inspectors. Critics worry that retailers hire these companies not just to ensure food quality — but also as a defense mechanism to help protect their public image in case something goes wrong.

And while tomato and spinach growers are audited heavily because they’ve had so many problems in the past, other crops, such as broccoli and cauliflower, are scrutinized less. Many growers are living in a continuing state of denial about whether they should be doing anything.

There’s also the concern that these efforts could actually be making food less safe. In some cases, a grower needs to pay for audits from six or seven companies just to satisfy the demands of all of its different buyers. The overlapping attention might help eliminate problems, but it’s also costly. For slaughter facilities squeezed by rising costs, surreptitiously cutting out E. coli tests has been one of their money-saving tactics.

To get a further sense of the problem, consider that today about 80 percent of the United State’s seafood and slightly less than half of its fresh fruits are imported from overseas. But the FDA inspects only about 1 percent. Meanwhile, it would cost the FDA more than $3.5 billion to inspect every one of the roughly 250,000 domestic and foreign food facilities just once.

In reality, industry insiders say the FDA is lucky if it gets to the same facility once every three years.

Infertility is defined as the inability to become pregnant after trying for a period of one year. Approximately one third of infertile women are diagnosed with idiopathic infertility, or literally, infertility of unknown origin.

When this patient presented to the chiropractor, she was complaining of infertility (she had been trying to get pregnant), low back pain and occasional numbness in her feet. She had been on birth control pills since she was 17 and after stopping taking them, reported that she only experienced two 1-2 day periods with slight spotting in 3 and one half months.

One month prior to consulting the chiropractor, her gynecology examination revealed all blood work and pelvic ultrasounds were normal.

Upon starting chiropractic care, vertebral subluxations (misalignments of the small bones of the spine) were found in the upper cervical (neck) and pelvic areas.

After two weeks of care, her low back pain disappeared. At 3 and one half months she had a period that lasted 8 days. After 4 months of care, the numbness in the feet disappeared and after 4 and one half months, she reported 3 positive over-the-counter pregnancy tests.

According to the researchers, “during the time this patient was undergoing chiropractic care, no other intervention was reported that could have provided an alternative explanation for the sudden onset of menstruation and eventual pregnancy.”

They go on to conclude “as the research base in chiropractic continues to grow, the evidence gathers that reduction of subluxation leads to an increase in function and health.”

Scientists used a suction device to create minor blisters on the skin of 42 couples in separate sessions, two months apart. After creating those small wounds, researchers monitored conversations between couples, the first about a neutral issue and the latter regarding a contentious issue requiring a resolution.

Then, scientists checked how the wounds healed several times over a number of weeks. Not surprisingly, discussing conflicts slowed down wound healing. In fact, hostile couples took 40 percent longer to heal (two days longer), and they produced less of the proteins needed for healing. Researchers pointed out how devastating these conflicts can be to your health, particularly before a surgery that taxes your body’s ability to heal.

Folks, stress is a key factor in any illness and it plays a major role in the health of nearly every patient I see. To completely eliminate stress from your life is virtually impossible. Yet, if you don’t learn how to deal with stress in a healthy way, a recent study shows how your brain may actually “rewire itself”, altering its connections in such a way so it affects the way the brain functions.

So what can you do about it? The key is not to eliminate the stress itself but rather adjust your body’s ability to tolerate it. And, there’s no questioning the power of prayer either. So many studies have documented it and the science that proves its healing power is very solid. So solid, I believe it’s criminally negligent for physicians not to recommend it.

USA Today March 7, 2005