August 2010 Newsletter

Spinal Wellness Center Newsletter

Hope you are enjoying this hot summer! Below you will find some great stories from our office and a variety of interesting articles, including commentary from Dr. Mercola on the dangers of statin drugs, and the two important foods not to eat after you exercise. Also check out another great line of barefoot shoes that we found!
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Enjoy!Dr. Pierre

In This Issue

  • Our Featured Practice Member: Jeremy Knout
  • Office Success Stories
  • Practice Member Cal Snow in the News
  • Are You Taking Any of these 11 Dangerous Cholesterol Drugs?
  • In Medicine, the Power of No
  • Don’t Eat This After You Work Out!
  • More Barefoot Shoes
  • No More Bee Stings!
  • Welcome New Practice Members!

Our Featured Practice Member: Jeremy Knout

member-jeremy

Since beginning my care here at the Spinal Wellness Center, I have seen a significant increase in my overall strength as well as flexibility of my spine.

My posture has seen dramatic improvement, as well as surprisingly positive changes to my breathing and cardiovascular strength. I look  forward to seeing what other changes may occur!

Office Success Stories

Chiropractic is the largest drugless health profession in the world. It is used by the large majority of professional athletes and celebrities.

 

It works by removing interference from the communication lines between the brain and the body (the Nervous System). We get to see miraculous changes in people every day we practice. Here are SOME success stories of the past few weeks:

– the 53 year old lawyer whose left arm and neck pain went away

– the 12 year old girl with Tourette’s syndrome whose tics have disappeared

 

– the 68 year old retired engineer with scoliosis, who drives here from 1 hour away. His lower back pain has almost completely resolved. He can walk and do yard work and is much more active. This is after 5 years of trying other alternative therapies!

– the 30-year old former Division I fullback and current police officer who feels so much better after 3 weeks here. This is after 6 months of care at 2 other chiropractic offices.

 

There are many more, but you get the picture! 

 

This type of thing is happening in certified ABC™ offices around the English-speaking world. The science of effectively analyzing and correcting bodies is now available, but it might take another generation to become common knowledge.(see new ABC™ website given below.)  

We are right here in Ithaca. Be a hero to someone you know and forward this newsletter on to him or her. Both of you will be glad you took the time to do so!

Practice Member in the News

It’s happened again! It seems as if it often happens that some great practice member gets featured in the newspaper after they start care.

This time it is Caroline farmer Calvin Snow. Check out this nice Ithaca Journal story on one of our favorite practice members:

 Are You Taking Any of These 11 Dangerous Cholesterol Drugs?  
 

Watch an interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola on this subject:

Are YOU Taking Any of These 11 Dangerous Cholesterol Drugs?


Here are his comments from his free newsletter July 2010: 

Tens of millions of Americans are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs-mostly statins-and some “experts” claim that many millions more should be taking them.
I couldn’t disagree more.

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, that is, they act by blocking the enzyme in your liver that is responsible for making cholesterol (HMG-CoA reductase). The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established-there are now 900 studies proving their adverse effects, which run the gamut from muscle problems to increased cancer risk.

For starters, reported side effects include:

  • Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis (a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition)
  • Anemia
  • Acidosis
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • Immune depression
  • Pancreas or liver dysfunction, including a potential increase in liver enzymes
  • Cataracts

Muscle problems are the best known of statin drugs’ adverse side effects, but cognitive problems and memory loss are also widely reported. A spectrum of other problems, ranging from blood glucose elevations to tendon problems, can also occur. There is evidence that taking statins may even increase your risk for Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Statins currently available on the U.S. market are:

  • Adivocor (lovastatin with niacin) – Abbot
  • Altoprev (lovastatin) – Shionogi Pharma
  • Caduet [atorvastatin with amlodipine (Norvasc)] – Pfizer
  • Crestor (rosuvastatin) – AstraZeneca
  • Lescol (fluvastatin) – Novartis
  • Lipitor (atorvastatin) – Pfizer
  • Mevacor (lovastatin) – Merck
  • Pravachol (pravastatin) –Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Simcor (niacin/imvastatin) – Abbott
  • Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin) – Merck/Schering-Plough
  • Zocor (simvastatin) – Merck

Ninety-Nine Out of 100 People do Not Need Statin Drugs

That these drugs have proliferated the market the way they have is a testimony to the power of marketing, corruption and corporate greed, because the odds are very high- greater than 100 to 1-that if you’re taking a statin, you don’t really need it.

The ONLY subgroup that might benefit are those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes them resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol.

And, even more importantly, cholesterol is NOT the cause of heart disease.

If your physician is urging you to check your total cholesterol, then you should know that this test will tell you virtually nothing about your risk of heart disease, unless it is 330 or higher.

HDL percentage is a far more potent indicator for heart disease risk. Here are the two ratios you should pay attention to:

  1. HDL/Total Cholesterol Ratio: Should ideally be above 24 percent. If below 10 percent, you have a significantly elevated risk for heart disease.
  2. Triglyceride/HDL Ratio: Should be below 2.

I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL.

Your body NEEDS cholesterol-it is important in the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps your brain form memories and is vital to your neurological function.

There is also strong evidence that having too little cholesterol INCREASES your risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson’s disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behavior.

If you take statin drugs without taking CoQ10, your health is at serious risk. Unfortunately, this describes the majority of people who take them in the United States.

CoQ10 is a cofactor (co-enzyme) that is essential for the creation of ATP molecules, which you need for cellular energy production. Organs such as your heart have higher energy requirements, and therefore require more CoQ10 to function properly.

Statins deplete your body of CoQ10, which can have devastating results.

Physicians rarely inform people of this risk and only occasionally advise them to take a CoQ10 supplement. As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure.

Coenzyme Q10 is also very important in the process of neutralizing free radicals. So when your CoQ10 is depleted, you enter a vicious cycle of increased free radicals, loss of cellular energy, and damaged mitochondrial DNA.

If you decide to take a CoQ10 supplement and are over the age of 40, it is important to choose the reduced version, called ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is a FAR more effective form-I personally take 1-3 a day since it has such far ranging benefits.

Optimizing Your Cholesterol Levels, Naturally

There’s really no reason to take statins and suffer the damaging health effects from these dangerous drugs.

The fact is that 75 percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol.

It follows, then, that my primary recommendations for safely regulating your cholesterol have to do with modifying your diet and lifestyle:

  • Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars in your diet. Eat the right foods for your nutritional type, and consume a good portion of your food raw.
  • Make sure you are getting plenty of high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil.
  • Other heart-healthy foods include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for your nutritional type.
  • Exercise daily. Make sure you incorporate peak fitness exercises, which also optimizes your human growth hormone (HGH) production.
  • Address your emotional challenges. My favorite technique for stress management is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
  • Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
  • Be sure to get plenty of good, restorative sleep.

Unlike statin drugs, which lower your cholesterol at the expense of your health, these lifestyle strategies represent a holistic approach that will benefit your overall health-which includes a healthy cardiovascular system.

According to this article in the New York times, figuring out how we can say no to more and more medical testing may be the single toughest and most important task facing the people who will be in charge of carrying out referrals.

Don’t Eat This After You Work Out!

The major “eating mistake” people make after they exercise, which throws their hard work out the window….

Check out this information from Dr. Mercola: Two Foods You Should Never, Ever Eat After Exercise

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Barefoot Running:

Here is another (and more affordable) source for barefoot shoes: 

medicine-picTake the Pain out of Bee Stings!

The Sawyer Extractor is a great, inexpensive way to negate the effects of bee stings (and snake bites!) by suctioning out the venom so it appears on the skin as an amber droplet. No pain, no itching, no redness, and no swelling! Why didn’t we all learn about this years ago?

Every home and school should have one.
They are inexpensive and fantastic. We keep an extra one in the car.

You can order online The Sawyer Extractor

Welcome to our New Practice Members from June and July!

Andi S.Ithaca, NYTyi, M.- Cornell University

Nickie M. –

Referred by AnnMarie F. 

Gita S.-

Referred by Amy J. 

Cal S.Brooktondale, NY

 

Jim H.

– Referred by Marie C. 

Mary D.

– Referred by Amanda F. 

Jeremy K. –

Referred by Nickie M. 

Jean W. – Referred by Jim H.
Dave S.

– Referred by Rebecca S. 

Steve D. Ithaca, NY

Mary S. – Lansing, NY

Bob D. –

Referred by Amanda F. 

Christy L. – Referred by Jason B.
Jim L. –

Referred by Jason B. 

Rick W. – Referred by Peter S.
Sofia E. – Ithaca, NY

 

Lilia, E. – Ithaca, NY
Gary F. – Ithaca, NY

We reach the public through referrals from great practice members like YOU!

pierre-gremaudSincerely,  Pierre Gremaud, DC
Spinal Wellness Center
“If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be bad for the fish and good for humanity” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1841-1935 (Professor of Medicine Harvard University).