Facebook – Dairy Sensitive People can THRIVE on AMASAI!

This is a facebook message that I thought you would like to hear.  This is what I have been saying in my Daily Sprouts, but here very conversational.

BEYOND ORGANIC

 

UPDATED POSTS

Jeri Grove
Kevin….just to be clear on something? If someone is very lactose sensitive while using conventional dairy they should be able to tolerate easily BYO Amasai and Suero…right? It’s the culturing process plus the different casein content?
Like · · Follow Post · about an hour ago
2 people like this.
Raul Hiteshew If i may answer that. Yes, BO Amasai and suero are loaded with probiotics and digestive enzymes! Pasteurized milk has all the enzymes stripped away, specially the fat free kind. My mom can smell cheese and get an upset stomach lol.. yet, she drinks a whole amasai and absolutely nothing happens.. well.. extreme happiness does occur.. ( amasai side effects).. u know
about an hour ago · Like · 3
Jeri Grove Thanks guys..your probably all rock star Life students! Just trying to really get it here!haha
about an hour ago · Like · 2
Jeri Grove Love that answer Raul…thanks!
about an hour ago · Like
Raul Hiteshew Haha just saying! anytime!
about an hour ago · Like · 1
Paul Barnwell Just to second Raul, lactose based allergies and casein based allergies should be great. Whey allergies might cause an issue and is best to ask a doc before chugging a case of amasi and chasing it with suero 🙂
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
Jeri Grove Thanks Paul…good to know!
about an hour ago via mobile · Like

Do Vegan Studies really mean you should avoid meat?

I recently had an article shared with me by one of my patients about vegan living, and a book that supports veganism as the healthiest choice.  The idea of being free of animal products has been around a long time, and over the years the research that I have seen has always supported a life of meat products, being a healthier life.
In addition, I have (for many years) taken the Biblical perspective on health.  Which is basically, “If they ate it in the Bible, then it must be good.”  Meat, cheese, milk, all seem to be approved according to Biblical standards.  The evidence that I seek points in the direction of animal products being a good part of life.  Here are some excerpts from the ARTICLE which is an ABC News article.
Mikaela Conley
April 19, 2012
The cover of Ruby Roth’s children’s book, ” Vegan is Love,” is adorned with whimsical animals, but the book takes on controversial issues surrounding veganism, food manufacturing and distribution, along with how our dietary decisions affect our world. Roth said the book is meant to introduce kids to a lifestyle of “compassion and action.”

…Roth. 29, is a mother of two and raises her children on a vegan diet. Roth became a vegan in 2003, when her husband challenged her to a “health experiment.” She said her health and energy “thrived so quickly” that she never went back to a non-vegan lifestyle.

Studies continue to link animal products with chronic disease, including diabetes, obesity and asthma, but these issues “are practically non-existent in the worldwide vegan population,” she said.

…Nevertheless, Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, said children should be exposed to plants and animal foods at an early age so they can understand the healthy variety that is available to them.

“Any time you limit the variety of healthy foods, you chance limiting the nutrients they get, ” said Ayoob. “Over time, that can catch up with them.”

Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Center, said a vegan diet is “fine” for kids: “As long as any nutrient shortfalls are addressed, a vegan diet is certainly apt to be better for most kids than than the typical American diet they have now.”

A vegan diet not only excludes meat, fish and poultry, but does not use other animal products and byproducts, including eggs, dairy, honey, leather, silk and wool. The nutritional elements are centered around fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, seeds and nuts
– This article actually does a perfect job of opening up the door to discuss why a Vegan diet is not the best choice, but to also point out why it is a better choice than the typical American diet.  Here is the one BIG point, are you ready for it?  Here:

Pro-Vegan research has never taken into account the quality of Animal Based Nutrition, it only compares Veganism to a Cultural diet.

Yep, that is the whole answer.  But lets look further at some of the points above.  Follow the italicized lines above.  First one says that animal diets are linked to diabetes, obesity and asthma, which is false.  Perhaps a study here and there, but when compared to the thousands of studies that link diabetes, obesity and asthma to excessive grain intake and sugars (completely vegan foods), then you really shouldn’t throw those conditions in this list.  Asthma can be associated with milk intake, but this is the traditional milk, and cheese, not the stuff that we promote… not the stuff that inhabited the earth 2000 years ago.

I have seen that most people living a vegan lifestyle, our missing very important nutrients, including healthy fats and proteins.  If living a vegan lifestyle, it takes very specific effort to insure that you are getting everything that you need.  Without watching the diet very closely, deficiencies can slowly develop causing disease.  What is key here, is that if you go from cultural living to vegan, you will feel better in the short run, but over time you can pick up more issues slowly.

The next bold line in the article is true.  If you are watching for nutrient deficiencies, it is WAY healthier to eat a diet completely devoid of the typical grain fed beef, arsenic supplemented chicken, and genetically modified grains that rule the market.  So Vegan OVER Culture… healthy animal products OVER vegan.

Legumes and whole grains.  Both sound great, however both are loaded with lectins.  Small inflammatory proteins that can damage the intestine.  I believe that anybody has the potential to eat lectin rich foods with no issue, but that is if they are in moderation, and your gut is a fully healed gut in the first place.  Which means nobody who has come from straight cultural living should be eating legumes and grains.  You should heal your gut first.

Bottom line.  Most of you should go vegan over what you are doing now.  It is that much better than eating conventional meat products.  BUT, you can go one step further by making the move to healthy meat products.

Be well, Be blessed, and be shocked… its good for making you move!

Dr. E

The Benefits of Grass Fed Beef

We are quickly approaching cut-off day for the grass fed beef order through our office at Indian Creek Angus.  After that, you will need to go directly to a source, or continue buying it from a local store.  I do believe that it is worth it to splurge on hot dogs from Beyond Organic if you like eating hot dogs once in awhile (to purchase, go online to our site, click daily sprout, go to this article, and click the link above).

They have no nitrates or nitrites, they are loaded with everything that I am about to write about… Joy and Love!  Seriously though, for about $1.50 a hot dog, these are worth every penny.  I personally wouldn’t touch a hot dog out in the world unless it was a desperate move.  Funny thing, neither would my girls.

– Brooke at Busch Gardens “What is the hot dog made of?”
– Counter Lady “meat”
– “What kind of meat”
– “pork and beef”
– “oh” ………….  “thats not good.  I want the salad”

So you really shouldn’t eat grain fed beef unless you are in a situation where it is all they have, or a special dinner and you are out at a restaurant and that is all you can get.  I honestly mean you shouldn’t touch it.  The grain fed beef has been shown to be deadly in all studies.  As you look at documentary films like “forks over knives” have torn apart the animal product world.  And they are true… when you consider the meat the traditional, conventional raised chicken (arsenic), beef (inflammatory heart disease causing fats), and fish (farm raised in toxic environments with toxic additives and no beneficial fat).

Dr. Newport has quickly popularized the idea that coconut oil will reverse Alzheimer’s Disease when she began to understand the mechanism of the disease, and realized that CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) was the key.  She summed it all up with this statement:

                    “It appears to be a type of diabetes of the brain and it’s a process that starts happening at least 10 or 20 years                                    before you start having symptoms and it’s very similar to type 1 or type 2 diabetes in that you develop a problem with insulin,” she explained.

Everything we have taught regarding diet for the last four years has been focused on this relationship.  And now, we have come so far that we have seen diabetes reversed in many.  CLA – it benefits the brain, it benefits the fat burning ability of the body, increasing leptin sensitivity, and it up-regulates a TUMOR SUPPRESSING GENE – PTPRG, thus having anti-cancer benefits that might just be more scientifically accounted for than any other anti-cancer food out there.   I will definitely continually strive to eat more CLA in every place I can get it.

But I won’t supplement it.  Many suppliers have come to market providing the CLA that you want, in a supplement form.  BUT, a quick Google search yields these shopping results for CLA.  The cheapest one (I don’t ever recommend cheap, as it usually involves China, and I would never involve China with something I am ingesting), tonalin, has a total of 90 gelcaps providing a total of mg of CLA.  At $10-20 at different online retailers, I am getting a fat equivalent to an estimated 18 grams of CLA.  It is estimated that I can get 8 grams of CLA from one pound of grass fed beef.

In addition, grass fed beef is RICH in Omega 3 fatty acids.  AKA – Fish Oil!  Over the last year, I have slowly reduced my fish oil supplementation to now only occur on days that I do not eat a significant combined proportion of:
1. Grass Fed Beef    2. Cheese from Grass Fed Cows   3. Milk Products from Grass Fed Cows (AMASAI)  4. Pasture Butter (from Grass Fed Cows)

If I eat enough of those, I save the fish oil pills.  If at the end of the day, I fell short (three servings total, minimum), then I take my fish oil.  This is a great way to insure I am rich in Omega-3 fats, without wasting a ton of money.  Grass Fed beef is CHEAP in comparison to supplement shopping, and if it can be CLEAN as well, then we are on the right path.  Indian Creek will treat a sick cow with antibiotics, but they don’t butcher those that have been recently treated, and they do not treat routinely.  They have a ton of land, with beef just grazing freely.  Beyond Organic is similar, yet they take any antibiotic treated cow, completely out of production.

The biggest step up that beyond organic gives, is that freedom from eating an animal ever treated.  Both locations promise a 100% green-fed cow.  Never grain finished, never grain started, but always grazing.  This dietary change alone will change your life.  And when you buy into a cow share through us, you will get the whole beef price, for less than a whole beef.   At a 1/4 – 1/2 a beef, you will get an ample supply of steaks and roasts, ground beef and ribs.  This is the way to go to get your name in the game of grass fed!

At the end of the month (assuming our shipment comes in) we have a ton of Beyond Organic hot dogs coming in.  And we plan on having our Beach Party Healthy Spine Day with a hot dog cookout.  We will be letting you sample the B.O. hot dogs on April 30th.  Please take advantage of the $25 cost to get a friend in to have their spine checked.  It is an awesome way to reach out to the world about health!

Be well, be blessed, and have a great weekend!  – Dr. E

Ode to Ralph

Ralph Logan was a good friend to me.  He was a patient, and our relationship did not extend too far past him getting adjusted, me asking him how his exercise was coming, and him making a joke.  Well, he occasionally sent me an email with a political bent or some “church humor” as I call it.  Ralph was in hi mid-70’s, and he was a joy.

When he came to see me, he told me that his shoulder pain was his key complaint.  Shoulder being his trap muscle area, at the base of the neck.  His history with the complaint was sad, but all too common.  He had gone to an orthopedic for the complaint, the doc identified some degenerating discs in his neck, and convinced him that he should have a fusion on his neck.  When Ralph told me this, he concluded “you would think they would have told me ahead of time they didn’t expect it to help my symptoms!”

Sure enough, it wasn’t until a followup appointment that Ralph shared his continued discomfort that the doc told him it (the surgery) wasn’t likely to help his symptoms.  “So why did we do it then?”  Because it needed to be done was the likely response.  Ralph approached these matters and others with shock, but with a somewhat whimsical demeanor.  Not to be bent out of shape by something that he could no longer do something about.  He was surely a pleasant man.

I don’t know much about his other involvements.  He was an incredible singer according to those who heard him sing (senior choir at First Baptist Church of Woodstock).  I also know he was a passionate leader in the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), though I am not sure of all he did, I know he put forth effort to help grow this group.  He was an ardent reader of Dr. Mercola’s material, and though I don’t always agree with Mercola, Ralph always wanted to know as many details as he could about why, so that he could ascertain who he wanted to trust on particular issues.

So what happened to Ralph?  Why is he gone?  Well, that is tough to answer.  When he came to see me, he had already battled with some areas of heart disease.  With a pacemaker with defibrillator in his chest, it was obvious that it wasn’t just something mild.  In a sort of funny (not funny when it happened, but funny afterwards) story.  Ralph went to my gym for some free sessions during the 40 Day Body By God Challenge (this was one about two years ago).  Ralph was doing some sit-ups, and hadn’t warned the coach of his defibrillator.  Nor had he paid attention to when it assumed he was in fibrillation, and thus gives a shock.

Well, as soon as his heart beat got high enough, the pacemaker thought he was in fibrillation, and it sent a shock through his system, and to his heart.  BOOM! He yelled, and grabbed his chest.  BOOM!  It hit again!  He was fine after that, and as his heart rate dropped, all was well.  However, Ralph had joked ever since that I had plotted to have some fun at his expense!

The thing is, his heart disease was advanced, and beyond what I would call wellness reversal… that point where you are truly well again because of healing.  Though it hadn’t seemed like there was too much happening with his hear lately, he was recently, very quickly hit with some significant weakness, which was traced back to his aorta, and a level of insufficiency in the valve.  Surgical repair was suggested.

Ralph had approached me with this news, questioning my opinion.  He demonstrated a concern over the surgery, and an equal concern for living without doing something to change.  As we spoke over two weeks, we came to the conclusion that I was of little value in this, and that it would be up to him to find peace in an answer.  When he told me that he was going to do the surgery, he also told me he wasn’t at complete peace with the decision, but he also felt as though he needed to do it.

Did he need to?  Did he not?  I have no idea.  I don’t think his decision was either good or bad, not then and not now.  Risks are risks, and they existed on both sides.

Sadly, Ralph never woke up from his surgery.  As his wife Wanda sent out updates, I found myself pleading more and more with God to give him a chance here, but in the end, he went home to his Savior.  Sadness and Joy.  The two emotions I feel when a friend passes, but who is destined to go home.

His surgery was the same day I separated my shoulder.  He died this past Sunday.  Nearly three weeks he held on asleep.  On sedation for the first twelve days or so, but then still too weak to awaken.  It is always a risk to go into a cardiac surgery, but the benefits can outweigh the risks.  Sadly they did not in this case.

So what do I want you to take away from this?  Ralph was an awesome guy, who will be missed dearly.  But he was also a motivated changer.  He dropped a number of medications after coming to see us, and he gained more health in many ways.  He lost about 30 lbs if memory serves me, maybe even 40.  He came to Body By God, and other workshops we have held.  One point that I want to make, is that Ralph wanted more health.  Had he known about the information that we teach ten years earlier, this might have never come to this point.

At 70+ years old, Ralph was taking it all serious, pushing for health.  Learn from this sweet man’s objectives, and push for health as well.  Honor God with your body… do it for Ralph.

Be Well, Be Blessed – Dr. E

 

A funny way to cure an injury?

Coming into this weekend I have been dealing with several injuries.  Yet, I chose to race in a 10 hour adventure race in the Blue Ridge Mountains, even so.  Wise?  Probably not, but I made some changes to my usual race plan to reduce the risk of injury (taped the shoulder real well, purchased a new pair of pedals that are really easy to un-clip to  reduce the risk from a fall, and simply planned to not be in a position of too much risk).

The interesting thing, is that not only did my shoulder feel OK in spite of a separation just 18 days prior, but I have also been rehabilitating a hip injury, and that felt good.  So I want to discuss the hip.  It really started in September of 2010, when I was doing some yoga as a warm-up for a workout.  I was pushing to gain a position that looked really easy to the instructor, and ended up being painful for me.  Over the ensuing week, it got worse and worse.

Since then, I have been able to get it to a good state at times, usually followed by a re-injury from something I would think would have little effect on it.  I bet you have all experienced something like that.  A nagging back ache, that seems to follow no pattern of well, or ill.  You do something so small that you would have never expected it to hurt you,  but it results in weeks of pain.  Well, that has been my hip.  Annoying for someone who doesn’t like to rest.

Recently, my hip has gotten to a point of full on aggravation, primarily because I was doing something that would aggravate it.  You know, I can teach a lot better than I can follow.  Anyways, in the last five weeks, I have had pretty significant pain at times.  Then, I hurt my shoulder, and would you believe in an attempt to perform a workout that would not hurt my shoulder, I over aggravated my hip, and brought the pain level up another notch (this probably looks like a lesson in stupidity by now).

So now we arrive at the real point of my writing.  How do you heal a hip?  How do you make a separated shoulder feel better?  The very unlikely choice of racing on it for 10 hours, might just be the answer.  When you do an adventure race, you never know exactly what to expect, which is why they call it an adventure.  We canoed and ran and biked (mountain) as we expected, but we had some unexpected terrain along the way.

When I run, I tend to run more on my forefoot and toes than I do on my calves.  This style of running is called pose, or chi, or primal, etc.  The idea is that we were made to strike on the front of our feet, because we naturally do that when barefoot.  If you add a fat heel pad to a shoe, then we alter our stride to strike the heel.  BAD.  So the motion of running could actually be therapeutic to a bad hip, if running correctly.

So here is the outcome.  At 6:00am, I was stretching my hip aggressively, trying to loosen the muscles along the front of it, so that it wouldn’t bother me.  At 8:00am the race started, my hip was tight, and I was shivering in the cold morning.  While my teammate ran up a mountain for the race prelude, I leisurely set up our canoe for his return.  We jumped in the canoe, and my last memory was hip tight (my shoulder was aching a little at this point, but nothing unusual for my injury).

At 8:45am, we were swimming for our first of three times.  This happens when you canoe down a river full of small rapids, without knowing the river perfectly.  We had just commented on how well we were doing for not having any issues yet, and boom.  We later commented on how we probably should have been “thankful” for not having hit anything to big, vs. the self praise that we used.  Oh well.  The water was freezing, but on the first two we only went in thigh high.

Our third swim was a little more significant.  We both went head under for a bit (life jackets on), and had to fight the current in order to get ourselves to the side of the river to right the canoe, and re-secure our belongings.  When we finished the canoe leg, we had to run several (5-6) miles of trails and woods to collect six checkpoints.  At some point during this run, I realized my hip wasn’t hurting.  Later on, as we biked up incredible hills, I noticed my hip wasn’t hurting.  As we pushed our bikes up even more ridiculous hills (we probably pushed about 5 miles total in this race), I realized my hip wasn’t hurting.

Running the correct way, following an ice bath, had a significant therapeutic effect on my hip.  It has felt fine ever since the time before getting in the canoe.  Will it stay that way?  We’ll see.  But it proves a point to me… activity will always be more beneficial than you can expect.  Their is a time to rest, and a time to move.  Too many times we find ourselves in a place where we are stuck not moving out of fear.  Be sure you don’t spend too much time doing that.

So.  My shoulder did well.  I never fell, though the new pedals and shoes did allow me to get out of the clips really easily, the shoes tore up my heels, so I will be wearing flip flops and walking funny for a bit.  All in all, I gained a lot of value out of the race.  I pray that my hip continues to be well, and that you will learn something from my experience.  Be well and blessed, Dr. E

PS – if you are interested in the correct footwear to run the way I described and looking into Chi running, check out Natural Strides in downtown Woodstock.  They have shoes that are good for walking correct too.   And if you want to look at Paleo Running or Pose Running, be sure to check out The Garage.

Learn From a Patient’s Story

I recently had a patient who went through a very traumatic experience.  They have not given permission to discuss this, so I will keep names and gender secret.

They were in a hot yoga class for 90 minutes (I have done these in the past, very intense).  So in this 90 minute session, they sweat, a lot.  And drank water, a lot.  Now for most people, at most times, this is not going to be a bad idea.  But there can be a number of mild factors that come into play that could make this a bad idea.  Why?  Because sweating causes you to lose electrolytes too.

Back to the hot yoga thing.  We are talking about a room that the temperature is set to 105 degrees.  Humidity is usually around 40%, which feels like 123 degrees.  So we are talking really hot, and sweaty, and draining the body of its minerals (electrolytes).  So they felt bad.  Later that night they felt so bad they went to the hospital, where a series of slow analysis, and slow action on the hospital staff led them to a place of being very ill.

My patient went into shock after passing out and vomiting.  When the doctors finally realized the need for electrolyte replacement, their condition was significantly worse, to a point of concern. Sodium and potassium were added to an IV drip and they were back on track, but not without a few moments of serious concern.

So why share this short but important story?  Because electrolyte replenishment is so very important.  I like Suero Viv for it, I like coconut milk for it, basically I like any clean food that can replace electrolytes.  Drinking water without electrolytes, can actually worsen the situation once you get to a place of electrolyte deficiency, as the water actually flushes the electrolytes even more.  Again, this doesn’t happen in all circumstances, but it can in some, and it can worsen a condition fast.

While the weather starts to uptick to hot, please consider keeping some basic, healthy, electrolyte replenishment available nearby.  When you are sweating excessively, you really want to be ready to act. You don’t want to pass out when you are all alone in the back yard.  Trust me.

Be well, be blessed, have a great weekend! Dr. E

Aiden Gets his Iron Up…

I have a 19th month old son named Aiden who has been under Dr. Eric’s care since he was 3 days old.  While we’ve never given him medication or vaccinations, we still take him to his well check appointments.  At our 15 month well check, they tested his blood and found that his hemoglobin level was low.  The pediatrician suggested an iron supplement and wrote a prescription for it because she thought his hemoglobin level was too low to simply add iron-rich foods to his diet.   Although they gave me a list of iron-rich foods, Aiden’s diet already consisted of foods largely from that list, such as green vegetables, grass fed beef, etc.

Immediately, I knew that the iron supplement would not be our first mode of attack.  We left the pediatrician’s office and went to Healthsprout to get adjusted and talk to Dr. Eric.   Because of Aiden’s diet, we decided his low hemoglobin was most likely caused by his body was not absorbing iron efficiently.  We began giving him Juice Plus and probiotics mixed with applesauce each morning.

At his 18 month appointment, the pediatrician tested his blood again.  She was hoping for a small increase in his hemoglobin level.  Instead of having a small increase, Aiden’s hemoglobin level had risen to normal.  At that moment, I was more thankful than ever for the education about health and nutrition that I’ve gotten at Healthsprout.  Whenever a “medical issue” arises, I know to ask questions about the causes of the issue instead of just accepting treatment for the symptoms.  Aiden is healthier because he didn’t take an iron supplement that has potential digestive side effects, as well as others.  Rather, his body is absorbing iron from his food … the way it was meant to!

Dr. Eric – what is funny, is that Juice Plus has no Iron in it.  So the medical docs would always treat a low X by giving X, a high Y by giving something that reduces Y.  But if we consider Aiden’s diet, it was not at all deficient in iron.  He has eaten a “Paleo” diet since birth.  So increasing what was already prevalent in his diet was not necessary.

The answer was in getting his iron processing up.  And in most children his age with his diet, it would have been, but for some reason, he needs a little more active enzyme function in his body to absorb everything.  Juice Plus provided that.  In some cases, we can adjust someone and see these improvements.  There is always a cause, and it is not always the same, but the cure is.

Pursue health in ALL ways.

Aiden used to cry like crazy the moment he saw me…. “oh no, that guy is going to start pushing on my back again”… now he loves being adjusted, and I love adjusting him.  Be well, be blessed, get your family’s health up as high as possible.  It truly is the most valuable thing you can control on this planet.  – Dr. E

Destructive Adaptation

It is likely that close to 99% of us have some level of destructive adaptation happening in our bodies by the time we are 15 years old (my theory only).  This means we have something that is no longer on the “normal” path, and thus that thing is now becoming more and more upset from that normal path.  The question why and how to best control this adaptation is what I want to discuss.

First however, lets look at a more complete description of Destructive Adaptation?  Basically, as the name suggests, it is adaptation of your body to a stress or stressors, that is destructive.  A simple example is scar tissue buildup following an injury.  That scar tissue is designed to support normal healing by limiting the amount of continuous damage that can be done to an area while it is healing.  Scar tissue is secondary to inflammation, but when it builds up excessively (and fails to break down normally from use following healing) it causes significant functional limitation, and can lead to pain and further damage to an area.

The spine is another area where destrcutive adaptation is common, and sadly the secondary damage is beyond significant.  I decided to write about this because of my visit to see Winter, the dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale, in which the movie  sensationalizes the events that led up to this dolphin receiving a prosthetic tail.  Recalling from the movie as Harry Connick Jr. is telling his daughter and the boy who had found Winter, “Their spinal chords are just like ours, they control everything in their body, so if damage continues to the area, well…”  The boy comes to the conclusion, “so you are telling us that Winter is going to die from this?”

They were talking about damage to the spinal chord coming from Winter having adapted her swimming technique from an up and down porpoising technique, to a side to side (more like a shark swims) technique.  This was in response to her having lost her tail from an entanglement injury with a crab trap.  Without the tail fluke, she is able to generate motion by side to side swishing of her body, but the unusual movement is damaging her spinal chord.  After seeing her, I would guess that she will die early from this injury.  She is young, but the adaptation has only worsened since having the prosthetic, as she is unable to wear it all the time.

The prosthetic allows her to swim in her usual up and down motion, but you can’t take an animal that has learned an adaptive technique, and provide a prosthesis  expecting the animal to adapt ‘back’ without issue.  Winter currently wears the tail several times a day, and is worked with by a trainer performing “therapy” to regain the strength to be able to wear the tail more often.  She is currently on her 18th tail, as she grows, as well as they improve it.  But as I was saying, her tail is so curved under (they referred to it as scoliosis, but I would liken it to kyphosis – the deepening of the curve between your shoulder blades, such as due to forward head carriage).  She is currently on a path to die from this condition.

I have shared with some of you that kyphosis is one of the most aggressive degenerative changes in the spine, leading to spinal chord impingement from secondary stenosis (narrowing of the spine) which occurs because of adaptation to a posture that no longer supports itself.  In other words, destructive adaptation.  It is known as a law, Wolfe’s Law, that bone will appear/develop/grow, where it is needed to afford support to other bony structures.  What this means, is that if you have a mild scoliosis in your spine and lean to the right, then you will slowly (at first) develop more bone to the right side.  It will increase its rate of development, and will eventually impinge nerve tissue from that side, leading to dysfunction and early death.

If it is forward slouching posture, then it will create bone spurs along the front of your spine (no really big deal), followed by secondary spurs along the back of the vertebral body (ok, these are not so good) and again, leading to narrowing of the spinal canal and spinal chord impingement.  All destructive adaptations.

Why?  Because there is no other choice.  The body needs to find a way to adapt to movement, and will sacrifice long term health for short term mobility.  Just like Winter is sacrificing her life span for mobility.  We cannot just lay down and die, and I wouldn’t ask you to.  But I would tell you to follow these rules:

1. Be sure to know your spine.  If you haven’t been checked out by someone who is focused on long term correction, then do it.

2.  If you have scoliosis, poor posture, etc.  And you work out, be sure you are actively doing things to help your spinal misalignment.  Putting excessive forces through the spine without working to balance it, will cause you to increase the rate of damage.  See a corrective chiropractor (us, or use Maximized Living to find one, to know that you are working on the right path towards health.

3.  Perform daily spinal hygiene, no matter what.  Simple stretches to aid in your normal posture, and to upset the damage from forward only activities (most people in our culture have their arms reached out in front of them for the bulk of their daily activity, shortening the range of motion, and leading to forward posture.

I learned a lot about the natural process of adaptation by watching Winter.  The biggest thing was to get hit with that understanding that the desire to “do”, will override any other protective thought.  You cannot just stop yourself from doing, thus, destructive adaptation will come.  Be sure to do what you can to combat it.  Be well, Be blessed, Dr. E

Antidepressant drug sales plummet as patents expire and patients flee to safer alternatives

Tuesday, April 03, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer for Natural News

(NaturalNews) The market for antidepressant drugs is quickly drying up as patents on long-time blockbusters like Lexapro, owned by Forest Laboratories, and Seroquel, owned by AstraZeneca, continue to expire. And because they are unable to develop new multi-billion-dollar blockbuster drugs to take their places, many drug manufacturers are ditching the antidepressant business altogether, especially as studies continue to emerge showing that antidepressants are largely useless and cause more harm than good.

A recent Reuters report appears to bemoan the fact that development of a new antidepressant drug ceased after it was discovered that the drug was ineffective. Highlighting an overall trend of failure in this area of drug development within the drug industry, the report actually positions drug companies as victims that will stand to lose billions of dollars in profits as a result of their collective failure to come up with new drug options.

According to projections compiled by Thomson Reuters Pharma, worldwide sales of antidepressant drugs are expected to drop by more than half in the next four years. While antidepressant drugs raked in $15 billion in 2003, they are expected to fetch less then $6 billion by 2016 — and there is no indication that this downward trend will slow any time soon.

Drug-makers also appear to be abandoning research and development of new antidepressants because an increasing number of patients are waking up to the ugly truth about their deadly side effects, and ditching them for safer alternatives. One such reminder of this disturbing truth came in the form of a 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA), which found that antidepressants are basically useless for the vast majority of people who take them (http://www.naturalnews.com/028498_antidepressants_clinical_trials.html).

Antidepressants are also exceedingly dangerous, as they can lead to suicidal or homicidal tendencies in some patients. A study conducted by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), for instance, revealed last year that its own antidepressant drug Paxil actually make patients worse off mentally, as they are more prone while taking the drug to attempt taking their own lives or the lives of others (http://www.naturalnews.com).

So rather than feel sorry for the drug industry which will have to “suffer” by taking in a few less billion dollars every year, the mainstream media and the public should be chiding Big Pharma for peddling these dangerous drugs in the first place, all the while having exploited the public all these years by charging obscene prices for them.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com

http://www.utsandiego.com

http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com

http://www.investorplace.com

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035444_antidepressants_drug_sales_alternatives.html#ixzz1r4cmAUWE