Wednesday, March 24, 2010

English Scones, Not Fry Bread

Here's an article based on an interview the Provo
Daily Herald did with me a few weeks ago.

Ned McArthur, 40, of Pleasant Grove, likes Utah scones and fry bread. But he also makes English scones, which are more of a cookie bar or shortbread.

Ned, who is a chiropractor, says he starts with a basic English scone recipe, then adds chocolate chips and a sugar glaze for the top -- to Americanize it. "It's my creation," he says. "The secret is having the dough the right moisture. It should be moist but not overly wet." His wife, Nancy, loves his English scones and also his homemade pizza.

He became interested in cooking and baking because he "likes to eat." Ned even dons a black apron with white lettering that says: "Caution: Extremely Hot," and quips, "What happens when you fall in love with a pastry chef? He butters you up, then 'desserts' you!"

Weekends are when Ned takes over the kitchen. He enlists his four children ages 8 to 14 to help. They mix ingredients and measure things, but usually end up putting things away. Cleaning is Ned's least-favorite part of food preparation. "I'm a fanatic," he says. "For some reason, the kitchen needs to be in order."

Outside of the kitchen, Ned plays tennis and runs marathons in St. George and Logan. Ten years ago, he completed the Squaw Peak 50-mile trail run up Provo Canyon. "It's fun being around the mountains," he says.

When Ned bakes his scone recipe, he says, "I've found these to be better anywhere from hours to a day later. Put them in Tupperware and eat later."

Chocolate Chip Scones

• 4 cups flour

• ½ cup sugar

• 2½ teaspoons baking powder

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup butter, cold

• 2 cups chocolate chips

• 2 cups buttermilk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl stir together dry ingredients. Cut butter into pieces and blend into flour mixture with pastry blender. Stir in chocolate chips. In separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture. Mix until dough comes together.

Transfer to floured surface and gently knead into large ball. Using a sharp knife, cut into four evenly sized parts. Take one of the four parts and pat or roll into rectangular shape that is º-inch to ½-inch thickness.

Cut into strips or "fingers" that are approximately 2 inches in length. Place strips on parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue with the other three parts.

Brush with the following: 2 beaten eggs mixed with 2 tablespoons milk.

Sprinkle with combination of 4 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

Bake 15-20 minutes. Scones should be lightly golden on top.

Once scones are out of oven, frost with the following sugar glaze: 3¾ cups powdered sugar, ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon milk, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla.

Cool, then enjoy.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Back Pain NOT Associated With Spinal Degeneration & Why Healthcare Costs Are Out of Control

Back Pain NOT Associated With Spinal Degeneration & Why Healthcare Costs Are Out of Control


The March 2010 journal of Spine printed an article that suggests that back pain is NOT associated with low back pain. When I first read this I thought, “Wow! This is huge!”

The reason this is so huge is because it suggests that our current model of back pain isn’t correct.

Here is the typical flow of a person with back pain. Usually start with some kind of self-care, i.e. heat, ice, OTC pain relievers, stretching and taking it easy for a few days. If that doesn’t work then the person may try massage, chiropractic, physical therapy or their family doctor. Eventually, if a person is unable to get relief and the pain is bad enough, they will end up in a surgeon’s office.

In another article I read today entitled Why US Healthcare Costs Are Out of Control: Two Insiders' Perspectives one of the authors wrote “In one New York institution, salaried staff surgeons were ordered to increase their admissions and operations by 20% or face a cut in salary. Because most surgeons normally operate on all patients who have appropriate indications for such aggressive treatment, the only way these surgeons could possibly increase their operative load was to perform procedures that were not indicated.”

In 2004 back pain costs were over $100 billion annually. In Europe back pain cost $240 billion euros in 2009, which equals just under $330 billion in US dollars. Let’s just say back pain is expensive.

So this entry has kind of taken a turn I didn’t expect when I began. Do you see the big idea though?

Our back pain model is incorrect; surgeons are being required to perform costly and sometimes unnecessary procedures that cost billions of dollars every year.

So this is where I step in. If you’ve read, listened to or watched any of my media you’ll know that I present a totally unique perspective on back pain – Brain Based back pain. The concept is this: one of the most important things our brains do is to inhibit pain. The brain is requires food, oxygen and appropriate stimuli to be effective. When it lacks any of these three things it loses its ability to inhibit pain.

So when a major medical journal comes out and says back pain is not caused by the things we thought it was, I’m not surprised. If you, as the healthcare consumer, will consider that chronic back pain may have a brain connection, you’ll get appropriate therapy, get better faster and save money.

For more info on this topic go to
www.AskDrNed.com
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To learn more about me to to
www.Facebook.com/askdrned
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Do you experience fibromyalgia, headaches & migraines,numbness, sciatica, neck & back pain, dizziness, insomnia, restless leg syndrome or been in a car accident?

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE I HELP.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Medically Caused Death in America

Leading experts argue that medical procedures really are the leading cause of death. This study only included properly prescribed medicines, not mistakes. Doctors were proven ten years ago to be the third leading cause of death in the United States, published in JAMA, 7/26/2000 by Dr Barbara Starfield. This interview of Dr Starfield, the author of that frightening research finds if anything, the situation is WORSE today.

This is vital information for patients and doctors to be fully familiar with, as only by knowing the dangers of mainstream medicine can patients form a fully informed consent to use Alternative or Advanced Medicine, as I call it. If they know how serious the side effects of proposed mainstream medicine is they will realize how “doctored” the claims for its benefits are. In other words, just like for mild to moderate depression antidepressants are virtually useless, still they carry serious potential for harm. Yet patients that we treat really improve and have virtually no downside, except there is no insurance coverage in USA for natural medicine, only for toxic medicine that can kill, while the drugs simply mask symptoms, never treating causes, but at least it is “covered”.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Health Plus Letter Vol. 8, No. 5
The Health Plus Letter
February 16, 2010 Vol. 8, No. 5
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher

Medically Caused Death In America: An Exclusive Interview With Dr. Barbara Starfield By Jon Rappoport

On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock to the system, when one of its most respected and honored public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America.

The landmark Starfield study, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:

Every year in the US there are:

12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;
7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;
20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;
80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;
106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.

The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000. This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.

The Starfield study is the most explosive revelation about modern healthcare in America ever published. The credentials of its author and the journal in which it appeared are, within the highest medical circles, impeccable. Yet, on the heels of Starfield’s astonishing findings, although media reporting was extensive, it soon dwindled. No major newspaper or television network mounted an ongoing “Medicalgate” investigation. Neither the US Department of Justice nor federal health agencies undertook prolonged remedial action.

All in all, it seemed that those parties who could have taken effective steps to correct this mind-boggling situation preferred to ignore it.

On December 6-7, 2009, I interviewed Dr. Starfield by email.

What has been the level and tenor of the response to your findings, since 2000?

My papers on the benefits of primary care have been widely used, including in Congressional testimony and reports. However, the findings on the relatively poor health in the US have received almost no attention. The American public appears to have been hoodwinked into believing that more interventions lead to better health, and most people that I meet are completely unaware that the US does not have the ‘best health in the world’.

In the medical research community, have your medically-caused mortality statistics been debated, or have these figures been accepted, albeit with some degree of shame?

The findings have been accepted by those who study them. There has been only one detractor, a former medical school dean, who has received a lot of attention for claiming that the US health system is the best there is and we need more of it. He has a vested interest in medical schools and teaching hospitals (they are his constituency). They, of course, would like an even greater share of the pie than they now have, for training more specialists. (Of course, the problem is that we train specialists—at great public cost---who then do not practice up to their training---they spend half of their time doing work that should be done in primary care and don’t do it as well.)

Have health agencies of the federal government consulted with you on ways to mitigate the effects of the US medical system?

No.

Since the FDA approves every medical drug given to the American people, and certifies it as safe and effective, how can that agency remain calm about the fact that these medicines are causing 106,000 deaths per year?

Even though there will always be adverse events that cannot be anticipated, the fact is that more and more unsafe drugs are being approved for use. Many people attribute that to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is (for the past ten years or so) required to pay the FDA for reviews---which puts the FDA into a untenable position of working for the industry it is regulating. There is a large literature on this.

Aren’t your 2000 findings a severe indictment of the FDA and its standard practices?

They are an indictment of the US health care industry: insurance companies, specialty and disease-oriented medical academia, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries, all of which contribute heavily to re-election campaigns of members of Congress. The problem is that we do not have a government that is free of influence of vested interests. Alas, [it] is a general problem of our society—which clearly unbalances democracy.

Can you offer an opinion about how the FDA can be so mortally wrong about so many drugs?

Yes, it cannot divest itself from vested interests. (Again, [there is] a large literature about this, mostly unrecognized by the people because the industry-supported media give it no attention.

Would it be correct to say that, when your JAMA study was published in 2000, it caused a momentary stir and was thereafter ignored by the medical community and by pharmaceutical companies?

Are you sure it was a momentary stir? I still get at least one email a day asking for a reprint---ten years later! The problem is that its message is obscured by those that do not want any change in the US health care system.

Do medical schools in the US, and intern/residency programs in hospitals, offer significant primary care” physician training and education?

No. Some of the most prestigious medical teaching institutions do not even have family physician training programs [or] family medicine departments. The federal support for teaching institutions greatly favors specialist residencies, because it is calculated on the basis of hospital beds. [Dr. Starfield has done extensive research showing that family doctors, who deliver primary care—as opposed to armies of specialists—produce better outcomes for patients.]

Are you aware of any systematic efforts, since your 2000 JAMA study was published, to remedy the main categories of medically caused deaths in the US?

No systematic efforts; however, there have been a lot of studies. Most of them indicate higher rates [of death] than I calculated.

What was your personal reaction when you reached the conclusion that the US medical system was the third leading cause of death in the US?

I had previously done studies on international comparisons and knew that there were serious deficits in the US health care system, most notably in lack of universal coverage and a very poor primary care infrastructure. So I wasn’t surprised.

Has anyone from the FDA, since 2000, contacted you about the statistical findings in your JAMA paper?

No. Please remember that the problem is not only that some drugs are dangerous but that many drugs are overused or inappropriately used. The US public does not seem to recognize that inappropriate care is dangerous---more does not mean better. The problem is NOT mainly with the FDA but with population expectations. Some drugs are downright dangerous; they may be prescribed according to regulations but they are dangerous.

Concerning the national health plan before Congress—if the bill is passed, and it is business as usual after that, and medical care continues to be delivered in the same fashion, isn’t it logical to assume that the 225,000 deaths per year will rise?

Probably---but the balance is not clear. Certainly, those who are not insured now and will get help with financing will probably be marginally better off overall.

Did your 2000 JAMA study sail through peer review, or was there some opposition to publishing it?

It was rejected by the first journal that I sent it to, on the grounds that ‘it would not be interesting to readers’!

Do the 106,000 deaths from medical drugs only involve drugs prescribed to patients in hospitals, or does this statistic also cover people prescribed drugs who are not in-patients in hospitals?

I tried to include everything in my estimates. Since the commentary was written, many more dangerous drugs have been added to the marketplace.

106,000 people die as a result of CORRECTLY prescribed medicines. I believe that was your point in your 2000 study. Overuse of a drug or inappropriate use of a drug would not fall under the category of “correctly prescribed.” Therefore, people who die after “overuse” or “inappropriateuse” would be IN ADDITION TO the 106,000 and would fall into another or other categories.

‘Appropriate’ means that it is not counter to regulations. That does not mean that the drugs do not have adverse effects.

Some comments from the interviewer:

I’m aware there are reports, outside the mainstream, which conclude far more than 225,000 people in the US die every year as a result of medical treatment. For example, see the work of Carolyn Dean, Trueman Tuck, Gary Null, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio, Dorothy Smith.

This interview with Dr. Starfield reveals that, even when an author has unassailable credentials within the medical-research establishment, the findings can result in no changes made to the system.

Yes, many persons and organizations within the medical system contribute to the annual death totals of patients, and media silence and public ignorance are certainly major factors, but the FDA is the assigned gatekeeper, when it comes to the safety of medical drugs. The buck stops there. If those drugs the FDA is certifying as safe are killing, like clockwork, 106,000 people a year, the Agency must be held accountable. The American people must understand that.

As for the other 119,000 people killed every year as a result of hospital treatment, this horror has to be laid at the doors of those institutions. Further, to the degree that hospitals are regulated and financed by state and federal governments, the relevant health agencies assume culpability.

It is astounding, as well, that the US Department of Justice has failed to weigh in on Starfield’s findings. If 225,000 medically caused deaths per year is not a crime by the Dept. of Justice’s standards, then what is?

To my knowledge, not one person in America has been fired from a job or even censured as a result of these medically caused deaths.

Dr. Starfield’s findings have been available for nine years. She has changed the perception of the medical landscape forever. In a half-sane nation, she would be accorded a degree of recognition that would, by comparison, make the considerable list of her awards pale. And significant and swift action would have been taken to punish the perpetrators of these crimes and reform the system from its foundations.

In these times, medical schools continue turning out a preponderance of specialists who then devote themselves to promoting the complexities of human illness and massive drug treatment. Whatever the shortcomings of family doctors, their tradition speaks to less treatment, more common sense, and a proper reliance on the immune systems of patients.
The pharmaceutical giants stand back and carve up the populace into “promising markets.” They seek new disease labels and new profits from more and more toxic drugs. They do whatever they can—legally or illegally—to influence doctors in their prescribing habits. Some drug studies which show negative results are buried. FDA panels are filled with doctors who have drug-company ties. Legislators are incessantly lobbied and supported with pharma campaign monies.

Nutrition, the cornerstone of good health, is ignored or devalued by most physicians. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to attack nutritional supplements, even though the overall safety record of these nutrients is good, whereas, once again, the medical drugs the FDA certifies as safe are killing 106,000 Americans per year.

Physicians are trained to pay exclusive homage to peer-reviewed published drug studies. These doctors unfailingly ignore the fact that, if medical drugs are killing a million Americans per decade, the studies on which those drugs are based must be fraudulent or, at the very least, massively incompetent. In other words, the whole literature is suspect, unreliable, and impenetrable.

At the same time, without evidence, doctors off-handedly tout their work with great confidence. Some years ago, a resident at a major New York hospital harangued me about the primacy of controlled studies. She boasted, in passing, that the hospital’s heart-bypass surgery team was considered the best in the city, and one of the best in the country. I asked her for a reference. Was her statement a combination of folk-wisdom and rumor, or was there a proper study that confirmed her opinion? A bit chagrined, she admitted it was hearsay. I was sure she would repeat her tune, however, many times.

Claiming evidence where there is none, and denying the evidence that the medical system does great harm, are apparently part of the weave of the modern Hippocratic Oath.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Access the FACT website: http://promed.gordonresearch.com/factforum/welcome.html


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Hearing Loss & Analgesic Use

The American Journal of Medicine

Volume 123, Issue 3, Pages 231-237 (March 2010)

Analgesic Use and the Risk of Hearing Loss in Men

Sharon G. Curhan, MD, ScMaCorresponding Author Informationemail address, Roland Eavey, MDb, Josef Shargorodsky, MDac, Gary C. Curhan, MD, ScDad

Abstract

Background

Hearing loss is a common sensory disorder, yet prospective data on potentially modifiable risk factors are limited. Regularly used analgesics, the most commonly used drugs in the US, may be ototoxic and contribute to hearing loss.

Methods
We examined the independent association between self-reported professionally diagnosed hearing loss and regular use of aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and acetaminophen in 26,917 men aged 40-74 years at baseline in 1986. Study participants completed detailed questionnaires at baseline and every 2 years thereafter. Incident cases of new-onset hearing loss were defined as those diagnosed after 1986. Cox proportional hazards multivariate regression was used to adjust for potential confounding factors.

Results
During 369,079 person-years of follow-up, 3488 incident cases of hearing loss were reported. Regular use of each analgesic was independently associated with an increased risk of hearing loss. Multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios of hearing loss in regular users (2+ times/week) compared with men who used the specified analgesic <2 times/week were 1.12 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.20) for aspirin, 1.21 (95% CI, 1.11-1.33) for NSAIDs, and 1.22 (95% CI, 1.07-1.39) for acetaminophen. For NSAIDs and acetaminophen, the risk increased with longer duration of regular use. The magnitude of the association was substantially higher in younger men. For men younger than age 50 years, the hazard ratio for hearing loss was 1.33 for regular aspirin use, 1.61 for NSAIDs, and 1.99 for acetaminophen.

Conclusions
Regular use of aspirin, NSAIDs, or acetaminophen increases the risk of hearing loss in men, and the impact is larger on younger individuals.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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Brain Based Rehabilitation For Pain, Dizziness & Insomnia

Previously we’ve discussed what brain lateralization is, how it happens, and how to identify it. Today I will introduce Brain Based Rehabilitation and how it addresses Brain Lateralization and which common conditions it has the best results with.

In my office there are primarily 10 different conditions that I treat. Back pain, Car Accident Injuries, Dizziness, Fibromyalgia, Headaches & Migraines, Insomnia, Neck Pain, Numbness, Restless Leg Syndrome and Sciatica.

As an example let’s use headaches. How many different things will cause a headache? You can probably think of 10 – 20 based on your experience. The same would be true for all of these other conditions. I treat people with headaches because their brain isn’t working right. If you’ve done the tests I described for you last time and you noticed a problem while doing them I can help you. If you’ve got headaches and you didn’t notice any problems while doing those tests I’m probably not the right choice for you.

So the first stage of care in Brain Based Rehabilitation is identifying where in the brain is the malfunction. This is vital because treatment will vary based on where the malfunction is. I not only identify where your malfunction is, I also identify how bad of a malfunction it is. This too is vital because it determines what intensity treatments can be done. For example there are varying degrees of being “out-of-shape.” If you are REALLY out of shape you don’t start by running a marathon. You start with easy walking and build up. The same goes with Brain Based Rehabilitation. I start your therapy at a level that is appropriate to your brain function.

Let’s say you’ve got something like . . . back pain and let’s say we’ve identified your problem as a left cerebellar malfunction. Cerebellar lesions will usually produce cortical problems on the opposite side. So how would Brain Based Rehabilitation address this condition? I would start by taking your blood pressure, seeing how well you can balance with your eyes closed and how tight your hamstrings are. Then I would give you vibration therapy to stimulate the cerebellum. Because this is a pain condition I would give you heat. Pain and temperature nerves travel together and if you give the nerve enough temperature stimulation it can’t transmit pain and therefore you don’t feel it. I believe it is this fact that produces an improvement after using ice or heat and not something that one of those does to the tissues.

I would also do an adjustment to the low back, the ribs, neck, shoulder, elbow and wrist on the left. After doing this I would do those three tests again: blood pressure, balance with eyes closed and check the tightness in your hamstrings. If my diagnosis was correct we would see an improvement in one or more of those three things. By doing testing before and after treatment we can see how your body has responded to treatment. There are three decisions I need to make after seeing the results after treatment. Did you respond the way I expected? If yes, we’re right on track. If no, did I treat the correct side? Did I give you too much stimulation? You see, based on how your body responds to care we may modify the modality, the location or the intensity.

When we are giving you the right therapy, in the right location and in the right intensity you’ll see improvements in those tests right away and that’s when we are affecting your brain in such a way as to make lasting changes. That’s when pain goes away for good, when you get a great night sleep, have tons of energy and do all the things you want to do in life.

Other therapies I routinely use for cerebellar stimulation would be the upper body cycle; oxygen therapy; eye exercises; squeeze a tennis ball repeatedly; muscle stretching; inner ear stimulation by spinning, warm air or water into the ear or holding head to the side and forward.

When we stimulate the cerebellum we also stimulate the opposite cortex of the brain. Other therapies more specific to the brain I would use sounds in one ear; smells in one nostril; have a person wear rose colored glasses; do mazes or word searches; play the game concentration as well as others.

Remember the brain controls everything that happens in your body and improving brain function you can improve any other function in your body.

If you would like more information on how I have a greater than 93% success rate in eliminating back & neck pain, dizziness, fibromyalgia, headaches & migraines, insomnia, numbness, restless leg syndrome, sciatica and car accident injuries go to www.AskDrNed.com. There you will find videos, articles and audio files.

You can also connect with me at facebook.com/askdrned & twitter.com/askdrned.

If you would like to schedule a no cost / no obligation introductory visit call my office at 801-225-1311.
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Do you experience fibromyalgia, headaches & migraines,numbness, sciatica, neck & back pain, dizziness, insomnia, restless leg syndrome or been in a car accident?

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