Welcome to March

The long winter is nearly over and it is time to focus forward to Spring.  Soon the flowers will be blooming and our world will be green again. See, I'm trying to be cheerful!

I did have a difficult time writing this issue of ENews. It was hard to investigate topics, hold my focus and bring you relevant information because there is just so much negativity in the media, print and even in published literature.  It seems like everyone in the world is mad at someone else for a supposed wrong done to them, even if it isn't true!

Too many people in our society are ignoring their responsibility to themselves and others.  Greed has always been an issue within the human mind, but I think that there is more to it than that.  I wonder, if in our attempt to make everyone and everything equal, we have lost sight of what makes us and the things in our world unique?

Healthcare is no different and it is  reflective of society as a whole.  We think that it is okay to steal designer's ideas and products and wear rip-offs as though they were real, and not expect any intervention or penalty.  Why then should we be surprised that 'artificial' healthcare degrees are handed out like candy and inferior health products are promoted as 'real'?  

As I sit at my computer, I can enroll in a correspondence college, easily get an artificial Ph.D., and then promote myself as legitimate.  Heck, unless questioned by the right people, I could probably get away with it!  I am surprised at how easily we allow ourselves to be duped and then try to justify those actions as legitimate. 

My first article talks about the inaccuracies of aromatherapy.  Just because something smells good to us, does not make it an effective therapy.  I wonder why aroma products have colors if the only thing that is important and beneficial is the smell?

Medicine has been using nasal-based therapy for many years, and on many fronts, they are getting close to cures for several diseases.  Serious research is slow, however, because we demand accuracy in our medical products and we file lawsuits if a product is not exactly what we want it to be, even if it helps millions!

In that same vein of distrust, I felt it appropriate to bring you the very real inaccuracies of food labeling.  If you are a label reader, this information may be surprising to you.  My goal is to make everyone a smarter consumer and by doing so, you will be a healthier person.

The final article applies to all of us, not just the seniors.  Structure and function are the two words I preach every day.  Structure and function is not just for injury recovery, but how we move around in the world and perform our normal daily tasks.  Ignoring our body structure and function during our working years, insures that we will have problems as we age, that are distinct and separate from disease.  It is a must read!

Eileen, as always, has brought you a simple and delicious treat.  I have enjoyed this dish on several occasions and I think that you will enjoy it as well.

Enjoy this issue of Enews,

Dr. Frisch

p.s. I think that next month's ENews will include only fun topics!

Aromatherapy...Hip or Hype?

It is surprising how little effort is needed to convince people of something, even if there is little evidence to support that idea.  It seems that when an individual wants to believe something, little evidence is needed to actually build a belief system.  I suspect that terms like, "Well everybody knows..." and "How do you not know that", take the place of, "Here's why this is true and why I believe what I do".  If you listen to people's daily conversations you will be able to pick up inconsistencies of thought, based on a value system.

To not know about something is called ignorance.  Ignorant people aren't dumb, but rather, they are simply uniformed..  Once they learn the topic or procedure, they are no longer ignorant because they are informed.  To know the truth about a topic or procedure and still be in denial is called stupidity.  Intelligent people will often make stupid decisions because they want to believe in something so badly that they are willing ignore the obvious or the truthful.  This is often the case when money is involved in a decision making process. Financial compensation, somehow, eases the emotional pain of an untruth!

Healthcare has many avenues for distrust and untruths.  One of these is 'Complementary Health Care'. Complementary Health Care groups are those people and organizations that piggy-back on established medical models, like Medicine, Chiropractic, Dentistry and even Optometry.  They claim to 'compliment' health outcomes and speed recovery of injury, illness or disease.  Unfortunately, complimentary avenues often have little evidence that supports their claims.  A lie told often enough may seem to have a ring of truth because we have heard it over and over from many people.  We may even be surprised when we find out that what we thought we knew was completely false!

In that light, I would like to touch on the topic of aromatherapy.  Aromatherapy is now just beginning to come under scrutiny for health claims made, regarding plant and flower essence oils.  Aromatherapy has expanded into the  'anything that smells nice is therapeutic' arena. Too many vendors and retailers have 'piggy-backed' onto the essence oils for profit, and aromatherapy has become a generic market with very little credibility.  For that reason, aromatherapy is coming under the strict eyes of the research world.

In the past 5-6 years, legitimate research has found very limited benefits with aromatherapy! A study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience (2002),¹ used brain EEG wave patterns to determine that when exposed to lavender and rosemary, participants did tend to shift to the left brain hemisphere (increased approach with less depressed affect), but no actual 'chemistry affect' occurred. This would suggest that a person's mood may improve when exposed to lavender or rosemary, but no physiological or healing events occurred!

A 2003 a British study², again, looked at rosemary and lavender in an attempt to determine alteration of mood and memory in response to herbal stimulation. They were able to determine that lavender actually impaired functional memory and reaction times for memory when compared to the control group. Rosemary enhanced the quality of memory, but again, impaired the speed of memory when compared to the control group. Cognition (mood) was found to be reduced in the lavender groups, but enhanced slightly in the rosemary group. This study would indicate that memory was negatively affected by both lavender and rosemary, with the exception of 'quality' for rosemary, and that mood was not enhanced with lavender (even though that's what retailers claim) and rosemary only improved mood slightly.

A study published in the Journal of Chronobiology International³ (2004) found that lavender was NOT a relaxing aroma during the study, but rather, it made depressed individuals angry!  Another study published in the respected Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology⁴ (2008) found that while lemon essence could induce an elevated norepinephrine level under a cold stressor, neither lemon nor lavender had any altering affects on Interleukin levels, salivary cortisol, heart rate, blood pressure, skin cellular repair or pain ratings following a controlled cold stressor.  In fact, the study's authors stated: "Despite aromatherapy's popularity, efficacy data are scant and potential mechanisms are controversial." 

In plain English, these studies indicate that aromatherapy, at best, has limited benefits for the human body.  True 'healing properties' are not supported when actually tested according to research standards.  Any mood improvement is likely attributed to our feeling better about trying to do something good for ourselves.  Current research, however, has shown that aromatherapy may actually compound or make our problems worse.  I do not want to beat up on aromatherapy too badly because, I too, like things that smell good.  I think we all need to use common sense, however, and really evaluate 'New Age' therapies that really can't support their claims and may actually be bad for us!

"Enjoy the smell, but don't expect much more!"

1. Sanders, C., Diego, M., Fernandez, M., field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Roca, A. 2002. EEG asymmetry responses to lavender and rosemary aromas in adults and infants. International Journal of Neuroscience. November; 112(11): 1305-20.

2. Moss, M., Cook, J., Wesnes, K., Duckett, P. 2003. Aromas of rosemary and lavender essential oils differentially affect cognition and mood in healthy adults. International Journal of Neuroscience. January; 113(1): 15-38.

3. Goel, N., Grasso, DJ. 2004. Olfactory discrimination and transient mood change in young men and women: variation by season, mood state and time of day. Chronobiology International. July; 21(4-5): 691-719.

4. Kiecolt-Glaser, J., Graham, J., Malarkev, W., Porter, K., Lemeshow, S., Glaser, R. 2008. Olfactory influences on mood and autonomic, endocrine, and immune function. Psychoneuroendocrinology. April; 33(3): 328-39. 

Real Aroma Therapy

I have said many times, that just because we can do something to the human body, should we?  We can inhale and swallow substances that are not needed for direct nutrition, but should we?  Does the body really need it and can it even use it for anything other than filler to be excreted at a later date?  The human organism is such a remarkable and ‘closed system’ that often we are fooling ourselves when we think that the body needs our nutritive help!

After I wrote the last article, working over 'traditional aromatherapy', I was curious about real aromatic therapies that could be activated through the nasal passages and, which actually had measurable benefits within the human body.  I found a massive amount of data.  Medical research is loaded with inhalation studies because the nasal passages are a fast way to both the brain and the bloodstream.  Medicine, however, is not reckless in research and it take a long time to prove effectiveness of a therapy.  We all like to beat up on drugs and the companies that make them, but the fact is, they have probably saved each of us several times during our life!

True aromatherapy should include, at least 2 distinct components. First, the ingested substance should be non-toxic to the human organism and second, the end-result should be a predictable resolution or lessening of a disease-state or a degenerative condition.  With that mindset, let’s look at a few instances of real aromatherapy.

For the past decade, researchers have been aggressively looking at resolving conditions like asthma and cystic fibrosis, both of which can be fatal.  Several published studies ^1,2,3,4 have indicated that a real cure may be attainable for these conditions by cellular alteration and interleukins.  Interleukins are signaling molecules that were first seen to be expressed by white blood cells, but are actually produced by a wide variety of body cells. The proper function of the immune system depends on interleukins and deficiency responses can result in disease. 

When inflammation processes (like that found with allergies, asthma and CF) are present, interleukins can actually be altering mucous production and lead to a worsening of the condition.  They learned this by inhaling interleukin-9 and others to evaluate the response in the human body.  Because of this testing, it was found that other factors like epidermal growth factor (EGF) and trefoil factor family (TFF) peptides help and support healthy mucosal processes.  Future treatment of asthma, allergic reactions and cystic fibrosis may be dependent on aromatherapy that interrupts the overwhelming and inflammatory interleukin family. This is real aromatherapy because it is a delivery system designed to stop and correct an imbalance within the body!

Another form of real aromatherapy is that of insulin resistance and corticosteroid inhalants. Past and present testing has shown it possible to lower insulin hypersensitivity when asthmatic and controls are administered different steroidal inhalants.  This type of research may also lead to improved treatments and possible cures for both asthma and diabetes. 

I think that we do need to respect, rather than condemn medicine, and realize the benefits that it has brought to all of our lives.  We should not confuse pseudo-treatment with real, effective treatment.  People often think that they are ‘curing themselves’ with home remedies and supposed ‘natural cures’, when they are often just making a treatable problem worse.  A considerable part of my day revolves around giving patients advice on health topics.  With the advent of the internet, unfortunately, I now spend just as much time each day correcting poor advice and harmful practices, 'that they read about' on-line!  We all need to be smarter about what we read and accept as truth. 

We only have one life and we should be respectful of what non-essential substances we put into our body!

1. Louahed, J., Toda, M., Jen, J., Hamid, Q., Renauld, Q., Levitt, R., Nicolaides, N. 2000. Interleukin-9 upregulates mucus expression in the airways. American Journal of Respiratory Cell & Molecular Biology. June; 22( 6): 649-56.

2. Rose, M., Piazza, F., Chen, Y., Alimam, M., Bautista, M., Letwin, N., Rajput, B. 2000. Model systems for investigating mucin gene expression in airway diseases. Journal of Aerosol Medicine. Fall;13 (3):245-61.

3. Hoffmann, W. 2007. TFF (trefoil factor family) peptides and their potential roles for differentiation processes during airway remodeling. Current Medicinal Chemistry. 14 (25):2716-9.

4. Baraniuk, K. 2007. Neural regulation of mucosal function. Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Jul 17

Food Labeling

How many times have you picked up a product, read the label for a healthy ingredient that you were concerned about, and then put the item in your shopping cart with ever giving it another thought?  I don't think that I would be wrong in stating that it is usually what we all do.  I am curious, however, if anyone ever thinks about how ingredients get placed on the label in the first place, and no, it's not because its in the product!

The FDA regulates food and dietary supplements and labeling according to 3 'statement categories' ¹:

• Health Claims

• Structure/Function Claims

• Nutrient Content Claims

Health claims require a 'significant scientific agreement' by experts (who are they?) that the claims of the health benefits are true. If there is not enough significant evidence to support a health claim, the product may have to put a qualify statement on the label about 'their strength of evidence' to support their claim.

Structure/function claims are required to describe an effect that the product is supposed to have on the body and the claim is to be truthful and not misleading.  The only problem is that manufacturers are not required to have 'pre-market' scientific review or analysis!  This seems to me like any claim can be made on any product until someone can disprove it!

Nutrient content on a label must describe the level of a nutrient in a food or supplement.  If they say that 'X amount' of potassium is in a drink then that amount needs to be in there.  This sounds truthful, but what if the potassium is an inferior substance OR bound to another substance that makes is unusable in the human body? The label doesn't describe the usability of the nutrient, only that it is in the product!

I hope that you can easily see how manipulated and inaccurate food and supplement labels can be.  It is always a good idea to be skeptical of health claims made by retailers, resale vendors and, especially, infomercials!.  When the end-goal of a product is sales, rather than real health, the American public will be duped every time.  If a product sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

A simple example of this was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2006.  Claims were being made that ingesting lutein and zeaxanthin proved beneficial in reducing the risks of aging, macular degeneration and cataracts.  The claims were already being made when the FDA had to finally step in, call their bluff, and make them cease making false health claims.  

This is not an isolated event and we as consumers need to step back, take a deep breath and realize that apples, oranges, beets, carrots, grains and water are not produced with a label because they don't need one!  They are natural and bio-available in a form that our bodies need and can use.  When our nutrition is simple and complete, we do not need a lot of extra additives.  

Remember:

"The larger the 'required' label, the less natural and usable a product will be!"

1. Turner, R., Degnan, F., Archer, D. 2005. Label claims for foods and supplements: a review of the regulations. Nutr Clin Pract. February;20 (1); 21-32.

Senior Health

We as Americans take our health for granted.  We actually feel that we have an entitlement to good health.  We have had it battered into our heads, especially by politicians who would promise anything for a vote, that health is a ‘right’.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

Health is not a right; it is a privilege that we give to ourselves.  The better that we care for our body throughout life, the healthier and more productive we will be as we age. We are aging everyday of our life.  The important thing is to slow the aging process as much as possible.  I have written in earlier issues of ENews that people who receive Chiropractic care during their lifetime will live a longer and more productive life than those who do not use Chiropractic care.

To say that Chiropractic is new, unknown or unproven is a joke.  Chiropractic has been in place and actively caring for Americans longer than any of us have been alive!  In fact, unless someone is 113 years of age or older, there is not a time when Chiropractic wasn't a part of your world!  I sometimes feel like being cynical and sarcastic when I hear people make ridiculous, uninformed, negative statements about Chiropractic, all the while, preaching what they think they know to be true!  Rather than saying something like, “You can’t really be that stupid, can you?”, I usually hold my tongue and try to explain the neurodynamics of the body and how to stabilize and recover from trauma.  I have found over the years, that the people who make the most foolish comments, usually, know the least about their own body and how to care for it properly.

If my last paragraph got your attention, it was meant to do just that!  As we go through life, we get to make the choices that we want.  We are a free nation and that gives us the right to make foolish and sometimes, fatal mistakes.  The old adage, “With age comes wisdom”, couldn’t be truer.  Sometimes, however, the truth is that we really messed up and we can’t go back to fix our mistakes.  One thing that we can’t ‘redo’ is our health, especially as we age.

After a lifetime, the elderly don’t just worry that they may suffer from cancer, heart disease or diabetes.  They have something more serious to worry about on a daily basis and that is FALLING.  A simple fall may result in a fracture, uncontrolled bleeding or a closed-head injury resulting in death.  The elderly, however, don’t just fall because they ‘tripped’ on a rug or step.  The most common reason that seniors fall is structural and neurological imbalance.  It is not uncommon for a senior to fall when trying to stand, sit or bend over to pick something off of the floor.  Simply walking down a hallway, unaided, can result in a fall.  

In 1998, a 2-year study of 482 seniors in a controlled setting, found that 61% of the people had suffered significant falls in that time period (53% of men and 65% of women). ¹ The falls were attributed to age, history of fracture, low physical health, and cognitive status.  I am concerned why this study did not use a control of exercise, Chiropractic or supervised care!  Adults who do not exercise, use functional care therapies and keep their mind active, will age faster, have weaker bones, poorer health and mentally decline sooner than they should.  This insight is research-supported.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a paper this year (2008) in which they stated, “Each year, an estimated one third of older adults fall, and the likelihood of falling increases substantially with advancing age.”  (Boy, they went out on a limb on that one!)  The CDC estimated that in 2006 alone, more than 5 million people fell during a 3-month test period.  They did not elaborate any more than to suggest that the falls were age related, women fell more than men, it affected the senior’s quality of life and that we need… “broader use of scientifically proven fall-prevention interventions”  

Chiropractic is already THE scientifically proven fall-prevention intervention for the aging senior!  Just ask any senior who receives care!

It is up to each of us how we want to live our golden years.  We can’t rely on anyone else to physically and mentally prepare us for our 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and beyond.  Our health is our responsibility, and not the responsibility of a politician, employer or insurer. As young and middle-age adults, we are free to ignore our future health, but that youthful ignorance may have us meeting the pavement in a few short years!  Chiropractic screening should begin early in life and care should be appropriate for our stages of aging!    

Have a good month,

Dr. Frisch

1. Vellas B, Wayne SJ, Garry PJ, Baumgartner RN. 1998. A two-year longitudinal study of falls in 482 community-dwelling elderly adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. July; 53(4) M 264-74.

Eileen's Corner

"Here is a treat for those of you who love Paula Deen like I do!  Asparagus are in season and they are fabulous, so eat up!"

Asparagus with Lemon Butter

• 5-6 spears of fresh asparagus per person, thin stalks preferred

• Salted water

• 4 Tablespoons of butter

• Juice of 1 lemon

• Olive oil

• Kosher salt, to taste

Directions:

 Wash asparagus and line them up on a cutting board with the tops even across. Even up the bottoms all at once and cut off the tough ends.  (Another way to do it is take each asparagus spear and bend it.  It will break at just the right point. no need to worry about a 'tough end'!)

Bring a skillet filled half full of salted water to a boil.  Dump in the asparagus all at once.  When the water returns to a boil, cook the asparagus 1-3 minutes, depending on your preference.  Remove from the pot and drain well.

Return the asparagus to the hot pan, squeeze lemon juice over the top.  Fry with olive oil and a little butter, be careful not to overcook.  Add kosher salt to taste and serve immediately.

To make a sauce, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk in lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Eileen