When I attended chiropractic school in the late 1970s, we were taught (as were all other health professionals) that 120/80 was the down-the-middle normal for blood pressure and that high blood pressure (hypertension) was defined as readings above 140/90. In the intervening years, the numbers have been creeping downward, to the point where it is [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Lower Blood Pressure Targets Offer No Benefits
Posted in Uncategorized on July 13, 2009 |
8 Ways The Food Industry Encourages Overeating
Posted in Uncategorized on July 11, 2009 |
David Kessler, M.D., FDA commissioner under Bush I and Clinton, has been writing and speaking about food industry strategies to get us to eat more and more and more. He goes straight to the heart of key aspects of the current obesity epidemic. Most of the foods served at restaurants combine tempting amounts of sugar, [...]
Major Crops Now Mostly Genetically Modified
Posted in Uncategorized on July 10, 2009 |
In my view, this is a massive experiment, the full results of which may not be known for generations. As of now, 90% of soybeans and 60-70% of corn and cotton are GMO. Click here for the newly released USDA data. If you prefer not to eat GMO foods, organic is the way to go. [...]
House Passes Bill Expanding Chiropractic Access for Active-Duty Military
Posted in Uncategorized on July 10, 2009 |
The Senate will consider this later, so it’s not law yet. From the American Chiropractic Association: The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a directive that orders the Pentagon to make chiropractic care a standard benefit for all active duty military personnel. The legislation is contained in HR 2647, a bill authorizing defense programs in [...]
Chiropractic Expands to 11 More Military Bases
Posted in Uncategorized on July 9, 2009 |
An important program grows larger and expands overseas for the first time. Beginning this fall, 11 additional military hospitals and clinics will provide access to chiropractic services for active duty military members, reports the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). Included in the list of sites tentatively scheduled to open on Sept. 30, 2009, are military treatment [...]
Vegetarians Have Lower Cancer Risk
Posted in Uncategorized on July 9, 2009 |
Oxford researchers, whose study is published in British Journal of Cancer, report that vegetarians have lower risk of cancer than meat eaters. This is true across the board but is most pronounced with blood cancers, where vegetarians have a 45% lower risk than meat eaters. Vegetarians are 12 percent less likely to develop cancer than [...]
Prostate Cancer as Test of Real Health Reform
Posted in Uncategorized on July 9, 2009 |
When a new form of treatment costs 30 times as much as an equally effective approach, should the insurance company (or government) pick up the tab? An excellent New York Times essay frames the problem quite well: So let’s talk about prostate cancer. Right now, men with the most common form — slow-growing, early-stage prostate [...]
A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity
Posted in Uncategorized on July 7, 2009 |
A thoughtful essay by a cardiologist struggling to balance the competing pulls of business and healing. The rising commercialism, driven in part by increasing expenses and decreasing reimbursement, has obvious consequences for the public: ballooning costs, fraying of the traditional doctor-patient relationship. What is not so obvious is the harmful effects on doctors themselves. We [...]
Federal Government’s Preventive Moves on Food Safety
Posted in Uncategorized on July 7, 2009 |
Better to stop it before the food reaches the stores. Under the new rules: Egg and poultry producers will have to follow new standards designed to reduce salmonella contamination, including increased testing and refrigeration for eggs. The Food Safety Inspection Service, the Agriculture Department agency that inspects meat, will increase sampling of ground beef ingredients in [...]
Obama USDA Starts to Restore “Organic” Integrity
Posted in Uncategorized on July 3, 2009 |
Today’s Washington Post reports on internal changes at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which appear to be moving toward restoring the integrity of the organics program. Since 2002, higher-ups at the USDA have overruled professional staff recommendations on numerous occasions, bending organics standards to allow increasing amounts of adulteration of foods labeled “organic.” The government’s turnaround, from [...]
