NMR Lipoprofile—the Most Important Test to Determine Heart Disease Risk

This is a great article on Mercola.com.  And it is much more comprehensive than we could report here so read it on their site.  I love having the conversations about cholesterol, and the profit mongering system that follows it.  This is the reason why anyone with cholesterol concerns should think twice.  Be sure to follow the link to Merocola’s site to read it all!

The Article in its ENTIRETY

 

By Dr. Mercola

The incorrect idea that high cholesterol causes heart disease has led to the demonization of entire categories of extremely healthful foods (like eggs and saturated fats), and cholesterol has been falsely blamed for just about every case of heart disease in the last 20 years.

Fat and cholesterol are commonly believed to be the worst foods you can consume. Please understand that these myths are actually harming your health.

Not only is cholesterol most likely not going to destroy your health (as you have been led to believe), but it is also not the cause of heart disease.

Chris Kresser, L.Ac., an acupuncturist and a licensed integrative medicine clinician, has investigated risk factors for heart disease and promotes the use of a relatively novel way of assessing your heart disease risk based on your LDL particle number.

He’s currently writing a book about this topic for the Paleo ancestral health community. His interest grew from losing his grandfather to heart disease several years ago. His grandfather’s case was badly mismanaged, which spurred Kresser to learn more about what really causes heart disease.

A few years later, while in graduate school studying integrative medicine, he did a semester-long research project on the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease.

Since then, he’s read about 750 peer-reviewed studies, consulted with numerous experts in the field, and has challenged everything he thought he knew about the role of cholesterol in heart disease.

Over the last several years, he’s been sharing that information on his blog, in his podcast, and in educational seminars and programs.

 

The Problem with the Conventional Approach, in a Nutshell

For the past 50 years, you’ve been told that eating saturated fat and high-cholesterol foods will raise cholesterol serum levels. However, research published over the past 10 or 15 years suggests that neither of those statements are true.

Furthermore, the typical cholesterol tests your doctor prescribes, which are supposed to measure your risk for heart disease, don’t actually do a very good job of predicting your risk.

You can have low or normal LDL or total cholesterol and still be at high risk from heart disease. Alternatively, you can have high or normal total or LDL cholesterol yet be at low risk. Subsequently, many are not getting enough treatment, and others are getting too much.

“We’ve learned a lot about what causes heart disease over the past 10 years,” Kresser says. “But unfortunately, that knowledge hasn’t really trickled down into the mainstream yet. So, your average general care physician, primary care nurse, or even science writer that’s writing for the mainstream media is still operating on information from the old paradigm.

The other issue is that the current dietary guidelines that are offered for how to reduce your risk for heart disease are based on this information that’s still 30 to 50 years old. And they’re clearly not working. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer. One out of every three deaths is due to this cardiovascular disease, and it affects about 65 million people in the U.S. alone.”

The INTERHEART study, which looked at heart disease risk factors in over 50 countries around the world, found that 90 percent of heart disease cases are completely preventable by modifying diet and lifestyle factors. As Kresser points out, we clearly need a new approach that’s based on more current evidence.

“The problem, of course, that we face is that the old paradigm is so entrenched. The idea that cholesterol and saturated fat are bad for us is so deeply engrained in our society that a lot of us don’t even question that anymore.

One of the main problems there is the massive conflicts of interest in the medical profession. We have a situation where two-thirds of medical research is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. Eight out of nine of the doctors who are on the National Cholesterol Education program that write the guidelines for cholesterol receive money from pharmaceutical companies,” he says.

 

Beach Day!

Remember – Monday, 4/29, is our Beach Themed Healthy Spine Day.  So why do we do Healthy Spine Days?  Well, we have been for about seven or eight years now.  So that is one good reason!  I recall one time we had 26 new patients in one day, and that is the other reason.

I honestly have to fight my desire for relaxation now.  Those of you who know me, well, that might sound crazy to you.  Always working on something, growing something, building something… but I really enjoy relaxation, and comfort as well.  The problem is, my spirit won’t let me.

Last Thursday, I drove home after my Doctor’s Report at 10:15pm… thinking about some of the patients I used to serve.  I was actually wondering about the joke I made that night about turning into a seizure treatment office only.  I was daydreaming a bit, and I was thinking about how many patients we have helped get off their seizure meds.  But then, my thoughts went to two patients who I am actively taking care of, who have recently started having seizures.  One who had been taking meds for years, and now recently started having seizures again.

This patient has been under my care for four years, has had miraculous

reversal of kidney disease, and in general has an incredible positive health story in the last four years, but has recently had some stressful events, and has reversed in their seizure situation.  The other, has had two seizures total.  My point for thinking about them, was not “what do I need to do different, what are we missing, what could we improve?”  I have already had those internal dialogues.

 

My thought was, “I wonder if these two, just like Dillon, could have been safeguarded from seizures had they been corrective care chiropractic patients before the arthritis development in their spines was as advanced as it is now?”  If you remember Dillon’s story from a doctor’s report, he is the child who was adjusted at 36 hours of age, and stopped having seizures immediately, after having multiple seizures over the first day and a half.  He is the “what if” story.  The one that pulls me from complacency.

So now it is your turn to be pulled from complacency.  What SIGN does your friend have of deeper neurological damage?  Migraines?  They could definitely be a precipitating factor for seizures.  Ringing in the ears?  Yeah, that too.  So the next time somebody tells you they have either of those… refer.  We are here, and could possibly change a life.

Asthma?  Especially in a child, get them in here.  We have had too many cases reversed.  It takes work, I adjust the rib heads every time, we adjust C1 and C2 as often as necessary, and we build towards a nervous system that can function very well in spite of the prior diagnosis.  And if there are strong allergies, all of these same areas will reduce them.  The reality is however, allergies to pollen, in this state, are hard to overcome.  Reduction is a great goal though… ask around at the office.

My point in all of this.  I sometimes think it would be nice to stop pushing so hard to maintain our practice size.  It would be nice to sit back some and relax.  Enjoy the CrossFit gyms, the Garage Games, the Firebreather Challenge… from a passive place.  And adjust a few hundred people a week.

But then, I hear about someone in need of health, or a strong memory comes to me from a patient past.  And my spirit comes alive, that we need to change this ridiculously over medicated world.  300 prescriptions stopped in 2008.  Man, blessed to be used in such a way, humbled to realize we did so little to make it happen, and inspired to perhaps beat the number in the future.

Do I believe the chiropractic lifestyle is a viable one for health?  Yeah, pretty much sold out there.  I have gone so far as to tell nearly one hundred new parents that we are the only pediatrician they need til further notice.  Yep, I believe it.

So Beach Day?  Well, we’ll be dressed up in beachy attire, having fun in the office.  Not just another day, but a really fun day.  And a chance for you to invite anyone in to be checked out.  $25 gets them their first day.  We take it from there, and let me tell you… if you are the reason why someone takes a step that eventually changes, or perhaps saves their life.  You will be glad you did.

Here to humbly and faithfully serve.  Be blessed and Be well!  – Dr. E

770-517-2240, info@healthsprout.com – we’ll take someone later this week if they call today.

Referrals, Referrals, Referrals, oh yeah!

Real simple.  We have been blessed with an office that has been able to effect change in many lives.  2008… the year of the anti drug.  We had 300 “lifetime prescriptions” among our patients that were stopped that year because of pursuit of health!  That was under a shocked doctors care in most of those situations, they didn’t just stop, but their MD said “Wow, I don’t think you need these any more”!

Why, because of adjusting spines, and patients following through with care.  It is what we do.  We have found over 70 scoliosis cases that DID NOT KNOW they had it, and reduced or corrected scoliosis in about 80% of them.  This has been our mission, our life.  We have had patients who were getting adjusted once a week or so, and ended up moving up to two times because of an issue, and they got well.

In other words, we have seen great things… and all these things are because of the healing that God has bestowed in you.  When it is working, it is ON FIRE, when it is not working, it is dismal.  We want to help insure that your friends and family are right where you want them to be.  So we are pushing through May to help you find ways to refer to our office.  All of the details are available at the office, but we have some special things in store for you this May!

Be well and Be blessed!  Remember – there is nothing more valuable than a peak performance nervous system!

– Dr. E

Children today receive more than 12 times as many vaccine doses than in 1940

As I share my children’s health plan, I always realize that the first point of contention for most, is that I have given no vaccines.  My major reason not to, was the result of about fourteen months of hard research looking for the value of a vaccine.  I had come to realize that everyone assumes vaccines are of value.  Most of the people saying “don’t vaccinate” were spouting risks, and those saying “do vaccinate” were opposing the risks.

The point is, neither side said anything about reward.  I found myself asking the question, “why does nobody talk about the value of vaccination?  If the proponents are so hard core, shouldn’t they be spouting stats about how nobody with vaccines gets the disease, and that diseases were eradicated by vaccines?  I know people assume it, but why don’t they say it?”

After that fourteen months I came to the conclusion, vaccines boost immune titres to disease, they do not immunize, that word is a public relations word only.  And as I was digging through incidence reports on infectious disease, I found that most diseases that occur today that are vaccine ready diseases, occur in populations who have been vaccinated, so it seemed to me, there is MINIMAL benefit from vaccines, hence we don’t have any.  People don’t focus their arguments on benefit and value, because they have actually done NO studies on the long term efficacy of vaccine.  That was really interesting to me.

Is your MD just totally wrong?  Well, yes.  But not because of them.  They have simply been fed the party line, and they don’t ever get the research to explore that calls them into question, they just see it as disease is gone, must have been vaccine.  Yet, when you review the prevalence charts for infectious disease, you’ll notice that most were rapidly disappearing BEFORE the vaccines were ever made.  Polio has the strongest pro-vaccine argument, but honestly, I could probably win that debate 7/10 times.  Anyways, my point for today is to share this article, not just put my own spin, so read this from Natural News:

children

(NaturalNews) It is a fact that children today are far less able and free to develop their own natural immunity through proper nutrition and normal childhood development. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of them, at least in the industrialized world, are bombarded with an obscene onslaught of vaccines before they are even old enough to attend kindergarten. Data compiled by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) reveals that children today receive as many as 49 doses of 14 vaccines before they reach age six, which is roughly 12 times higher than the number of vaccines administered to children back in 1940.

Since 1995, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued yearly revisions to its official childhood immunization schedule, typically adding an increasing amount of vaccines to every new revision. Prior to 1995, CDC issued only periodic updates to its official vaccine schedule, which were typically released every five or six years. But in recent years, the number and frequency of vaccines on the yearly-revised schedule has increased dramatically, as have the number of combination, or multivalent, vaccines being recommended for children.

“Our children are among the most highly vaccinated children in the world, and they are among the most chronically ill and disabled,” explains NVIC in a powerful infographic outlining the current vaccine schedule. “Today, the Centers for Disease Control admits that 1 child in 6 in America is developmentally delayed. During the past quarter century, the number of children with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma and diabetes has more than tripled … (and) the number of doses of vaccines that pediatricians give babies and children under age 6 has more than doubled.”

Dramatic rise in brain injuries, neurological damage linked to uptick in vaccines

Interestingly, twice as many children today also suffer from chronic brain and immune system dysfunction compared to the number of children in the 1970s, when roughly half as many vaccines were administered to young children. And the overall percentage of brain-injured children in the 1940s was lower still, as only a few primary vaccines were administered to children at that time. The close connection between the rise in the number of vaccines on the vaccine schedule and the number of brain-injured and neurologically-impaired children, in other words, is difficult to deny, and represents a serious cause for concern.

“Vaccine excipients or ingredients in trace or larger amounts depending on specific vaccine (include) lab altered viruses and bacteria; aluminum; mercury; formaldehyde; phenoxyethanol; gluteraldehyde; sodium borate; sodium chloride; sodium acetate; monosodium glutamate (MSG); hydrochloric acid; hydrogen peroxide; lactose; gelatin; yeast protein; egg albumin; bovine and human serum albumin; antibiotics; (and other) unidentified contaminants,” adds the NVIC infographic.

Not only are these detrimental vaccine ingredients a cause for concern, but many of today’s vaccines are also given in multiple doses and all at the same time, which was never the case during the 1980s and prior. Children typically received only one, and maybe two, vaccinations during a single visit, and came back on subsequent days to receive the others. Today, however, children sometimes receive up to five vaccinations during a single doctor visit, which exposes them to exponentially higher levels of toxic vaccine components.

You can view the complete NVIC infographic covering the CDC childhood vaccine schedule here:

http://www.nvic.org/downloads/49-doses-posterb.aspx

You can also view an infographic created by the group Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children here:

http://doublethink.us.com

Sources for this article include:

http://www.nvic.org/downloads/49-doses-posterb.aspx

http://doublethink.us.com

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/past.html

http://www.naturalnews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/040042_vaccine_schedule_immunizations_children.html#ixzz2RLDe0klc

Angel among us.

Well, I would expect a very pregnant Angel (one of our Chiropractic Assistants for over seven years now), will be a bit emotional over this one.  But it will be worth it, and I think I can find some teaching in here as well 🙂

So Angel Pittenger-Morris came to us, looking for a job that would help her on her way with a move from Florida to Atlanta (Woodstock).  She had some chiropractic experience, and though she came off as not necessarily being completely confident in the role, she did have what I desired for the position above anything else, a happy demeanor.

Angel was married last fall, and after a little more than a month, she became pregnant.  Cool, especially because she has voiced her desire to have a baby over the years, and has used that desire as a driving force behind her health decisions.  Though “perfection” in her diet has not been the greatest accomplishment, she has easily come further in her dietary changes than anything else.  But there is one thing that has stood out to me about Angel over the years, and this one thing is what I can teach on.

An overwhelming interest in others.  I will say however, very quickly, that she does not multi task well.  So if there has ever been a time where you have felt like she ignored you when you were in need of something, or she seemed to walk by you without saying hi, you need to forgive that as simply being focused.  But when she stops to say hi, she will notice a minute change in your hair, or your posture.  She is quick to see something different in someone, and to bring out the positive of it.  It was only six months into her time with HealthSprout, that I noticed many patients stopping to talk to her on their way out of the office.

This trait is the key to community.

com·mu·ni·ty  

/kəˈmyo͞onitē/

 
Noun
  1. A group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership: “a community of nuns”.
  2. All the people living in a particular area or place: “local communities”.
 
Synonyms
society – commune – public

Community, the definition above (1) sums up what I want to talk about.  Common owership.  Common focus, common beliefs, common objectives.  All of these are what I consider to be community, and it has been so obvious to me over the last seven years, that in order to develop community, you first start with a trust.  A trust that something important to you, would be important to someone else who you are in community with.  And that trust starts with taking notice.

How many times have you seen the same person at the grocery store checkout, and have you gotten to know that person?  I have about five people at Trader Joe’s who I know, well.  Well, in that they know what I do, they know what I believe, I have a sense of how they spend their free time, I know that they are career TJ’s employees, and not just passing through.  I am in community with these people, and in most cases, because they have taken notice of me!  Not vice versa.  So where does that leave me?  Blessed I guess.

Which begs the question, “WHO AM I BLESSING?”

So, I hope it is you.  I like to take notice of where you are going on vacation, when you are, who you are going with, why you are going.  When you haven’t gone, why not?  Is it financial, or are you too busy?  How is your career, are you interested and engaged by it?  What does your life call you to do?  I have gotten better and better at this thought process, by watching others, and one of those others has been Angel.

“Dude, your hair looks awesome!  I love it!  I love the way the color blends along the side, and the cut wraps your face so perfectly!”  – No, I don’t know how to say things like this.  But I have heard Angel complement so many people on subtle changes to their appearance.  It has been a joy to hear these things.

So now, however.  Angel will be leaving us.  Her last day is this Wednesday morning.  After that, she and her husband Brian will be moving out to the Eastern side of Atlanta to get closer to his job, and there they will be prepared to raise their baby boy.  I will miss having Angel around, and I will surely look to make sure that we work hard to fill that gap in complementing that will be left behind.  Her spirit is one of care and love, and that is the best thing we can possess.

May God bless her and her family, and may you find a way to bless someone else who you are in daily community with through observation and complement.  It is well worth the effort.

May God Bless you! – Dr. E

Cauliflower Love!

Why cauliflower?  I hated this smelly vegetable for most of my life.  If it was cooked, the whole house smelled of this stench.  If it was raw, it was surely going to give you gas and make you want to hide alone somewhere.

But now, well now, as I have come to understand the beauty of one of the lead vegetables in the cruciferous family, I have come to enjoy it for its taste, as well as its health benefits.  This vegetable provides a pretty significant nutritional punch, but it is more of a specialist food, so understanding that is why you might want to enjoy it more often.  Perhaps the most compelling reason however, is its versatility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauliflower

 

The cruciferous family delivers a detoxifying punch for any woman in the room.  Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) is the most fantastic chemical in the cauliflower plant in my mind.  I was turned onto this years ago when one of the docs who worked for me, became the greatest salesman of indole-3-carbinol who walked the planet.  This, because of the number of women facing menopause in our practice, and the increasing evidence that high levels of I3C reduced those symptoms.  Of course my simplistic approach has primarily been to eat more of the foods that provide it.

I3C is also a chemical of DNA repair, and has been shown in studies to have a positive effect on prostate and breast cancer risk.  Though ingestion of the chemical as a supplement may have other potential side effects in large doses.  Which is why, once again, I say eat the food, don’t take the concentrated supplement unless you find really good reason to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole-3-carbinol

What to go with it?

I think the coolest thing about cauliflower is that you can grate it into a “rice” and it can be used just like rice would, yet it has none of the ill consequences of the grain.  From that grated state, you can turn it into a dough, and make crust for a flatbread or pizza, and it is simply awesome that way.  Of course you can mash it into “mashed potatoes” without the blood sugar bomb that comes from the potato.  

http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/02/cauliflower-pizza-crust-with-bbq.html

The two ways that I have come to enjoy it are as a soup, and simply baked in the oven.  First, the soup.  Steam a head of cauliflower, throw it in a vitamix for about seven minutes, add salt and pepper and other spices to taste along the way.  Eat a bowl of hot soup straight from the blender.

Next, the bake.  Baking can be done in so many ways, but this one is tasty!  Break a head off into small pieces.  Mix the cauliflower in a ziplock bag with 1/4 cup of coconut oil (or to taste) and a tablespoon of curry spice (or to taste).  Shake it up real good then bake at 400 until mildly browned.  AWESOME!

So go out there and become a warrior for new healthy foods!  Be well and Be blessed!  – Dr. E

How the “OTHER SIDE” is always wrong.

Dr. Levi passed this on to me back in February.  A bit of a gem of a find.  Before we get to the gem, lets look at what we know now.  Well, let’s first look at what we teach, contrary to what “those people” know.  This, by the way, goes perfectly with the film “Doctored”, coming up next Monday night (4/22) at 7pm in our office.  Doctored is a bit of a “set you on fire” film.  Sign up today, and bring a friend, the world is depending on you, seriously.

OK.. first, we are major proponents of the eat healthy saturated fat often… such as coconut oil.  Second, we are proponents of the eat omega 3 fatty acids often, and avoid omega 6 fatty acids other than those present naturally in foods (mostly vegetables – hence vegetable oil).  If you wonder why you should avoid vegetable oil, its simply that the oil comes from an awfully large pile of vegetables to fill a bottle.  Stay away.

OK, so that is what we believe.  This is what they believe.

Avoid fat, all of it, especially saturated fat, if you have to eat fat, it should be vegetable oils, omega-6.  The FDA will support this in every way possible, providing open territory for shelf stable fats and fat by-products, such as trans fat, olestra (remember that one) and anything else that might reduce the likelihood of saturated fat consumption.

I am sure if you have read anything on the dietitian’s guide to nutrition, you would have heard at some point, “STAY AWAY FROM COCONUT OIL”.  This has been a hallmark of wise eating, yet now, things have changed, and not just from our side of the fence.  Here is the “other side” of the fence story now.

As you glance this abstract, notice the design is based on recovering data from 1966… data that would have changed the world if it had been reviewed properly then, and used.  Was it lost?  Yes, but most likely on purpose. 

http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.e8707

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of replacing dietary saturated fat with omega 6 linoleic acid, for the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and death.

Design Evaluation of recovered data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study, a single blinded, parallel group, randomized controlled trial conducted in 1966-73; and an updated meta-analysis including these previously missing data.

Participants 458 men aged 30-59 years with a recent coronary event.

Interventions Replacement of dietary saturated fats (from animal fats, common margarines, and shortenings) with omega 6 linoleic acid (from safflower oil and safflower oil polyunsaturated margarine). Controls received no specific dietary instruction or study foods. All non-dietary aspects were designed to be equivalent in both groups.

Outcome measures All cause mortality (primary outcome), cardiovascular mortality, and mortality from coronary heart disease (secondary outcomes). We used an intention to treat, survival analysis approach to compare mortality outcomes by group.

Results The intervention group (n=221) had higher rates of death than controls (n=237) (all cause 17.6% v 11.8%, hazard ratio 1.62 (95% confidence interval 1.00 to 2.64), P=0.05; cardiovascular disease 17.2% v 11.0%, 1.70 (1.03 to 2.80), P=0.04; coronary heart disease 16.3% v 10.1%, 1.74 (1.04 to 2.92), P=0.04). Inclusion of these recovered data in an updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed non-significant trends toward increased risks of death from coronary heart disease (hazard ratio 1.33 (0.99 to 1.79); P=0.06) and cardiovascular disease (1.27 (0.98 to 1.65); P=0.07).

Conclusions Advice to substitute polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats is a key component of worldwide dietary guidelines for coronary heart disease risk reduction. However, clinical benefits of the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid, omega 6 linoleic acid, have not been established. In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats.

 

Our Conclusion, in lay terms… We Were Right… but before we even knew we were right, their research said we were right, and before they had research that said that we/they were gonna be right… your grandma knew.  So she made everything with lard, and ate a lot of animal fat, and was actually a lot healthier than we are today.  But the beauty, was that the animals were in a pasture, and they were eating grass, and they weren’t drugged, and they were happy in their lives so they had less stress hormone in their meat.  Eat clean fats, and eat natural ones.  The Earth was made to provide you with all that you need if you choose wisely.  This is the truth, and this truth shall set you free.

Be well, be blessed, and be prepared to eat some healthy fat!  – Dr. E