Category: Integrative Healthcare

As chiropractors, we’re already well-versed in the human body’s remarkable self-healing power and the pinnacle role of the spine and nervous system in the body’s overall health and proper functioning. We’ve educated our patients about proper spine maintenance and how we can help them improve the operation and nerve flow that supports their health. Although the majority of our patients may be coming to see us to simply reduce immediate back and neck pain or headaches, many may not realize that chiropractic treatments can provide support for a wide range of problems that can help them realign their bodies and also help them start cleaning out their medicine cabinets.

In the nature of our work, we have before us a great platform on which to incorporate alternative approaches to the use of prescription drugs in our treatment regimens and patient counseling. The ability to reduce or even eliminate the need for prescription drugs provides our patients with a two-fold benefit: less stress on their pocketbook, and less stress on their physical system. Even in cases where we cannot fully eliminate their need for medication, there may be valuable space available to provide treatments that support their body’s ability to fully benefit from those needed prescriptions.

In our effort to decrease our patients’ dependence on conventional and often invasive methods, it’s providing a certifiable result that is the key to creating a successful bond between our patients and alternative treatments. Using accurate documentation and employing effective software tools facilitates your ability to create successful treatment plans and track results effectively. Software that applies interconnectivity within your office helps to ensure the transfer of next steps to your front desk staff in real-time, so that your patients remain invested in their alternative care and aligned on the road to health before they step back outside your office doors. By tracking the different health conditions and treatment plans experienced by your patients, you can obtain a broader view of the support and treatment that is best received and, thus, start formulating effective game plans going forward.

Whether a patient buys supplements and seeks additional care from your office or not, dietary changes, massage, and other health management methods should be mindfully tracked and included in your patient’s journey to better health. Track improvements with outcome assessments and keep up-to-date notes so that you can discuss any improvements or concerns at each upcoming treatment session. Employ a system of automated alerts to remind you to discuss ongoing treatment options with your patients on a periodic basis. Accurate management of alternative treatment plans can help harness the body’s natural healing ability and record your patient’s response to alternative treatments. Over time, as patients see previously undiscovered health improvements under your hands that reduce their dependency on conventional drugs and maintenance, these results will continue to enforce the bond between chiropractor and patient.

We represent a large and unified alternative to prescription medications, costly injections, and invasive surgery. As we work to educate our patients on how our treatments, paired with dietary assessments and supplements, can help improve their overall health, we’re reaching beyond the singular relationship we have with each of our patients. We’re developing an alliance for a healthier, more natural future…redesigning the perception of treatments, and redefining our true alternatives. If we are mindful and accurate in tracking the way our alternative treatments are being received, and we help our patients fully realize the benefits they’re experiencing under our care by providing solid, visible proof, we can begin to enhance what our patients take away from our treatment plans and send them along (and ourselves) with a better understanding of the value of our services.

Are Osteoporosis Drugs Safe?

by Dr. Howard F. Loomis, D.C.

Millions of Americans are at risk for osteoporosis—even more will probably suffer from bone loss. Many of your patients are taking prescription drugs in the belief they will prevent bone loss. How many have you identified in your practice? This is an important part of every patient record because the drugs they are taking may be doing more harm than good.

Continue reading “Are Osteoporosis Drugs Safe?”

The Insanity Continues—Statins for Children

by Dr. Rodger Murphree, D.C.

The over-hyped, pharmaceutical fueled, disease known as hypercholesterolemia has now reached an all time level of insanity.

Insanity. In-san-i-ty. Function: noun. a: extreme folly or unreasonableness b: something utterly foolish or unreasonable.

Continue reading “The Insanity Continues—Statins for Children”

Swimming in a Sea of Green

by Dr. Rodger Murphree, D.C.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PRMA), the industry’s trade association, recently announced new voluntary guidelines concerning direct marketing to physicians. Under the new guidelines doctors won’t be getting pens, pads, mugs, and other gifts that drug makers bombard doctors with on a daily basis. Under the new guidelines these items and other freebies will be forbidden. In order to squelch the groundswell of public distrust for drug company tactics, the PRMA has been cowed into action.

“What took so long?” you might ask. There are millions of reasons that come to mind—all of them green with former presidents on the front of them. The medical institutions and doctors themselves have become addicted to the pharmaceutical industry’s largesse; it’s hard to imagine they can break their addiction.

But, please be aware that these are voluntary guidelines. And they provide no definite limit on the millions of dollars spent on speaking and consulting arrangements that drug makers have forged with tens of thousands of doctors. Nor do they ban the bribing of office staff through office breakfasts and lunches. Nor do they ban the common practice of inviting and paying doctors to attend educational dinners at fancy restaurants.

In 2005, drug companies paid hundreds of millions of dollars and provided for 60 to 80 percent of the costs of doctors’ continuing-education classes.¹

These classes have now become nothing more than a “my drug is best,” brainwashing sales-pitch. Medical doctors routinely receive expense-free trips to vacation destinations for these seminars. Many are paid handsomely to speak on behalf of the drug companies at these conferences. We’re talking $750 to $2,000 for a thirty-minute speech.

For instance, drug companies paid the American Psychiatric Association $60,000 for each of its 50-plus yearly industry-sponsored symposia. Pharmaceutical companies paid an additional $200,000 to $400,000 in expenses to host each of these events.²

Pharmaceutical companies often fly doctors to annual
meetings in exotic locations—free of charge—where they dine on gourmet meals in four-star resorts.

“I’m not that hopeful for any real change,” says Dr. Marcia Angell, past editor of The New England Journal of Medicine and author of The Truth About Drug Companies. “They have bought politicians and doctors. They’ve looked at everyone and anyone who could stand in their way and they’ve thrown money at them.”

Drug companies have lined the pockets of politicians, universities, and the medical profession (as a whole) for so long and with so much money that real change isn’t even on the radar. In fact, drug companies spend more money on lobbying than does any other industry. There are now two lobbyists for every member of congress.³

Through the promise of increased wealth, the drug companies continue to persuade (bribe) and brainwash the majority of medical doctors about the newest “great” drug. As reported by Melody Petersen in her book, Our Daily Meds, Dr. Martin Keller, the chief of the psychiatry department at Brown University, earned more than $500,000 in consulting fees, mostly from companies whose drugs he touted at medical conferences and in published reports.⁴

And bottom-line results clearly show that free samples, vacation “workshop” retreats to posh resorts, and free educational “classes” over gourmet dinners do, in fact, sway the opinion of doctors. Profits are soaring for drug companies. The top ten companies reported combined profits of $35.9 billion dollars in 2002. That was more than the remaining 490 Fortune-500 companies put together ($33.7 billion) for the same year.⁵

“The result of all those attractive women in short skirts armed with pseudo-science invading the practices of doctors is that Americans are over-medicated, taking far too many drugs, most of which they don’t even need, and they are paying too much for them,” says Jerome Kassirer, another former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Americans now spend over $250 billion a year on prescription drugs. In fact, Americans spend more on drugs than do all of the people in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom combined!⁶

Spending on drugs continues to increase by an average of 12 percent each year. Drugs are now the fastest growing part of the staggeringly high American health-care bill, and over $400 billion is spent on prescription drugs worldwide.⁷

Drug companies must aggressively market their wares, lest the public and gullible doctors learn the truth about the drugs they peddle. First, they’re often ineffective. Second, they’re quite dangerous. Drugs aren’t the “magic bullets” that the TV ads would like for you to believe. Far from it, they are often no better than a placebo. Dr. Brian Spear, a scientist at Abbott Laboratories, reviewed the effectiveness of drugs used to treat fourteen different diseases and found that the recommended drugs worked for as few as 25 percent of those who took them.⁸

Dr. Allen Roses, a top executive at GlaxoSmithKline, has reported that some 90 percent of drugs work in only thirty to fifty percent of the people who take them.⁹

Drug companies definitely don’t want you to know that prescription drugs—taken as directed—claim the lives of 300 Americans a day.^10,11

Nonetheless, drug companies are all too happy to provide us with an abundance of synthetic, often worthless, and potentially dangerous drugs for everything that might ail us.

While I applaud the PRMA’s new voluntary guidelines, I don’t think much will change. Doctors will still be paid to attend free seminars at posh resorts while their peers on the drug company payroll deliver highly manipulated data promising what they most likely can’t deliver—a safe and effective treatment. The American Medical Association and the other drug-company influenced associations have been swimming in a sea of green for so long, it’s hard to imagine their coming ashore.

Dr. Murphree is a board certified nutritional specialist and chiropractic physician who has been in private practice since 1990. He is the author of 5 books for patients and doctors, Treating and Beating Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Heart Disease What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You and Treating and Beating Anxiety and Depression with Orthomolecular Medicine. To contact Dr. Murphree or for more information about his Doctors VIP One-on-One Nutritional Coaching Program, visit www.Essentialthera.com or call 1-888-884-9577.

References:

1. Relman A., “Defending Professional Independence: ACCME’s Proposed New Guidelines for Commercial Support of CME,” JAMA, May `14, 20003, 2418.2. Relman A., “Defending Professional Independence:ACCME’s Proposed New Guidelines for Commercial Support of CME,” JAMA, May `14, 20003, 2418.3. Public Citizens Congress Watch, “The Other Drug War 2003: Drug Companies Deploy an Army of 675 Lobbyists to Protect Profits,” June 2003 (www.citize.org).4. Melody Peterson, Our Daily Meds, Sarah Crichton Books, New York, NY 2008, pg. 25.5. Public citizen, “2002 Drug Industry Profits: Hefty Pharmaceutical Company Margins Dwarf Other Industries, “Congress Watch (June 2003), http//www.citizen.org/congress/reform/drug_industry/corporate/articles.cfm?ID=9923.6. Melody Peterson, Our Daily Meds, Sarah Crichton Books, New York, NY 2008, pg.5.7. Public citizen, “2002 Drug Industry Profits: Hefty Pharmaceutical Company Margins Dwarf Other Industries, “Congress Watch (June 2003), http//www.citizen.org/congress/reform/drug_industry/corporate/articles.cfm?ID=99238. Spear, et al., “Clinical Approaches of Pharmacogenetics,” Trends in Molecular Medicine (May 2001).9. Connor, “Glaxo Chief: Our Drugs Do Not Work on Most People,” The Independent (December 8 2003).10. Haley D, “The Other Drug War,” Alt Med Mag, Sept. 2001 Issue-3.

11. Gary Null et al., “Death by Medicine,” Life Extension (March 2004 web special), http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag/2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.hym.

Narrow Your Focus to Expand Your Business

by Dr. Rodger Murphree, D.C.

Here’s no way to sugar coat it, the economy has tanked. Businesses are suffering as the economy continues to nose dive. Like most businesses, chiropractors are feeling the pinch and are seeing fewer new patients, returning patients, and ancillary sales. People are guarding their money, if they have any, and are looking at ways to save money. All unnecessary services and or products are being postponed or forgotten.

However, some businesses have positioned themselves to weather and, in some cases, grow in this stormy economic climate. How, you ask? They found a growing niche market and have become the undisputed experts at filling the needs of this market.

A niche market is a focused, targeted and segmented portion of a larger market. You can think of a niche market as a specially defined group of potential customers.

Companies large and small often carefully target market segments in order to maximize the effectiveness of their sales. For instance, Proctor and Gamble found a niche market, people with dry scalp and dandruff, and filled it with their product Head & Shoulders. There are literally hundreds of shampoos to choose from. Head & Shoulders was marketed to the niche market of people with dry scalp and dandruff. Without this “unique” property, it would have been lost among all the other shampoos crowding the aisle.

So how do you, as a chiropractor, weather the doom and gloom economy?

Find a growing, profitable niche, become the expert, and provide great products or services to fill this niche’s needs. Natural oriented healthcare is too broad a niche. Instead, think lumbar herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fascitis, or attention deficit disorder.

People don’t think nutritional supplements when they think about chiropractic. They think of you as a specialist in helping those with musculoskeletal complaints, primarily low back. It has been my experience that it’s not enough and is a waste of time and money, to market your clinic as a wellness center or whole health center—one that uses or sells nutritional supplements. However, if Joe who has high blood pressure knew you specialized in treating high blood pressure with nutritional therapy, then you’d have a chance of getting his attention.

The trick to capitalizing on a niche market is to find or develop a market that has customers who are accessible, are growing (even in an economic downturn), want or need your service or products, and that are either not being serviced appropriately or can be dramatically served better by you.

Ten years ago when I opened my integrative medical practice, I realized that I was good at and liked the challenge of treating patients with FMS. Fibromyalgia patients fit all the criteria for a successful niche market—those with FMS are easy to find (and market to), the number of those with FMS continues to grow and traditional medicine has failed them. I own FMS because I became an expert at treating and beating it.

In helping yourself find your niche, ask yourself, “What type of patients do you like to treat? What illnesses have you had success with? What health condition do your patients complain about the most: high blood pressure, attention deficit disorder, fatigue, low thyroid, chronic headaches, diabetes, mood disorders, digestive disorders, etc.? Is there an opportunity to become the local (or national) expert for this particular illness?”

Once you establish a niche you’ll find that marketing your specialty becomes easier and easier. Please keep this in mind when you establish your niche market:

1. Focus on the market’s unique needs. The products, services, and benefits you offer must have special appeal to your targeted niche market. What can you provide that’s new and compelling? Identify the unique needs of your potential audience, and look for ways to tailor your product or service to meet them. Start by considering all the product or service variations that are already being offered. Then, seek to find ways to stand out of the crowd—be the best in your market, own it.

2. Speak your patients’ language. Know what they are going through, what they want and need. Know what makes them happy, and supply it without fail. In other words, you should understand the market’s “hot buttons” and communicate with the target group as a member—not an outsider.

3. Test your new market. Before moving ahead, assess your direct competitors that operate in the new market niche and determine their strengths and weaknesses. Make sure you enjoy and can become the expert in your chosen niche market. It makes no sense to choose a particular type of patient or case that you don’t enjoy or aren’t good at helping.

Put your raincoat and waders on, because 2009 will be stormy. However, you don’t have to be a casualty of this economic storm. Find a niche, own it and sail on into 2010 safe and dry.

Clinical Efficacy of  Systemic Enzyme Support

by Joseph J. Colins, R.N., N.D

Linical observations and literature review both affirm the conviction that systemic enzyme support is an essential component for successful management of inflammation disorders and other conditions with immune system dysregulation due to its high degree of clinical efficacy. In addition to improving clinical outcomes in conditions with overt inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis, thrombophlebitis, pyelonephritis, prostatitis and psoriasis, systemic enzyme support is also effective in conditions with covert inflammation, such as osteoarthritis, angina, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarctions, and diabetes, to name a few. The adjuvant properties of systemic enzyme support have also been observed and documented for a number of cases including adnexitis, arthritis, papillomas and various forms of cancer. This article will familiarize clinicians with the therapeutic benefits of systemic enzyme support and review pertinent findings related to this treatment modality.

Enzymes maintain optimal function of the various body systems. The immune system depends on proper systemic enzyme function for regulating inflammation. Cytokine activity, and the clearance of excessive inflammatory cytokines, is regulated by proteases, systemic enzymes which degrade proteins. Systemic enzyme support can promote the clearance of proteins and peptides damaged by inflammation, reduce concentrations of advance glycation end-products (AGE’s) and protect cells by decreasing their receptor (RAGE’s) activation. Systemic enzymes can also down-regulate adhesion molecule activity in both inflamed and malignant cells.

Chiropractic physicians are quite familiar with the five cardinal signs of inflammation: redness, heat, swelling, pain and loss of function—classically referred to in Latin as rubor, calor, tumor, dolor and functio laesa. These cardinal signs of inflammation diminish patients’ quality of life and may be a harbinger of serious disease. Clinically evident inflammation is recognized as the body communicating an inability to control proper cellular processes.

During inflammation, laboratory tests may reveal elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), circulating immune complexes (CIC’s), and some immunoglobulins (IgG, IgE, IgA and IgM). Excessive fibrin activity and increased amyloid beta-peptide are also noted with inflammation. Increases in cytokines demonstrate the immune systems involvement in inflammation.

Cytokines are signaling proteins and glycoproteins involved in cellular communications that play a dominant role in maintaining the normal inflammatory processes. Cytokines such as interferon-gamma (INF-γ), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and interleukins (IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10) are produced de novo (on demand) in various cells as a direct response to stimulation of the immune system. They are produced by a wide variety of cells and are typically subdivided into two categories, Th1 and Th2. A balance between Th1 and Th2 responses is best for optimal health.

Th1 cytokines tend to produce the pro-inflammatory responses involved in antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal responses. Excessive Th1 responses can lead to uncontrolled tissue damage and may perpetuate autoimmune responses. A relative excess in Th1 is also observed in acute inflammation.

Th2 cytokines tend to produce anti-inflammatory responses and can counteract the Th1 mediated microbicidal actions. Excessive Th2 responses are associated with allergies and atopy (asthma, eczema, allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis). A relative excess in Th2 is also observed in chronic inflammation.

Excessive cytokines removal is mediated by α-2-macroglobulin, a naturally occurring high molecular weight plasma glycoprotein. Endogenous proteases bind with α-2-macroglobulin to create α-2-macroglobulin-protease complexes^1,2 and transform the α-2-macroglobulin from its native form into the active form. Systemic enzyme support increases endogenous proteases and increases the activation of α-2-macroglobulin.

The newly activated α-2-macroglobulin-protease complex has increased binding capacity for certain cytokines,³ as well as other proteins and glycoproteins. The activated α-2-macroglobulin also binds to, and eliminates proteins damaged by oxidative stress or heat⁴ as well as amyloid beta peptide (A beta), a major component of senile plaques in Alzheimer’s patients.^5-10

The α-2-macroglobulin-proteinase complexes also activate receptors to increase their own endocytosis. Therefore, these complexes, as well as the cytokines and damaged proteins, cellular debris, and unwanted peptides (such as amyloid beta peptides) that they carry, are quickly removed by macrophages and hepatic cells expressing α-2M-receptors.^5,11,12 Increased endocytosis of these complexes and cytokines normalizes cytokine levels,^13-16 and is responsible for the beneficial decrease and normalization of ESR,^17-22 CRP,^23-25 CIC’s,^26-35 as well as IgG, IgE, IgA and IgM.^36-38 Excessive fibrin activity^39,40 and increased amyloid beta-peptide^41-46 are also normalized by this process.

Since excessive cytokines are involved in auto-aggressive inflammatory processes, the removal of cytokines by the activated α-2- macroglobulin proteins controls the progression of autoimmune diseases.

The clearance of excessive cytokines, the clearance of proteins and peptides damaged by inflammation, the inactivation of advance glycation end-products, and the inactivation of adhesion molecules in inflamed and malignant cells are all increased by proteolytic enzymes. A balanced immune system—immunostasis—can be manifested by using systemic enzyme support, which provides the essential proteolytic enzymes. Systemic enzyme support can be defined as a treatment modality which uses oral administration of exogenous proteolytic enzymes of animal origin (trypsin) and plant origin (bromelain) and rutoside in the form of enteric-coated tablets for supporting healthy and normal inflammatory processes in the body.

Systemic enzyme support (SES) which uses clinically validated formulations of enzymes from both plants and animals is able to influence immunity to reduce pain, swelling, inflammation, edema and lymphedema, and increase fibrinolysis, and the clearance of harmful immune complexes that are a result of antibody reactions. SES assists the body’s various regulatory and communications systems and supports the function of tissues at a cellular level and has application for degenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases, and as an adjuvant to improve efficacy of anti-infectives.

Joint health is profoundly improved by systemic enzyme support. It is an effective and safe alternative to NSAID’s in the treatment of painful episodes of osteoarthritis of the knee and hip.^47-49 Systemic enzyme support protects and preserves joint cartilage significantly better than NSAID’s in rheumatoid arthritis.^50-60 Gout therapies are significantly improved by the addition of systemic enzyme support.⁶¹ The addition of systemic enzyme support improved both articular signs and extra-articular manifestations in the majority of the children with juvenile chronic arthritis and was able to help limit the use of corticosteroids in some children. In addition to osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthridities, and juvenile arthritis, systemic enzyme support has also been shown as effective in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis. It is fair to say that systemic enzyme support could be used in any form of arthritis.

Sports medicine is another area in which systemic enzyme support excels. Sport and exercise related muscle pain and inflammation provoked by a strong physical tension, excessive training and heavy competition rate are decreased with “excellent results” due to the selective interferences of enzymes with the pathophysiologic mechanisms of exercise induced inflammation.⁶² A prophylactic administration of systemic enzyme support in top athletes who are at risk of injury results in significantly reduced duration of injury symptoms and in absence from training and work due to such injuries. Systemic enzyme support also improves recovery from sprains, as well as shortened recovery from sport injuries severe enough to also require surgery.^63-66

In addition to the benefits to the musculoskeletal system, systemic enzyme support also improves the health of other body systems, including the cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, urinary, reproductive, and endocrine systems. Cardiovascular conditions that were notable improved with systemic enzyme support including angina pectoris⁶⁷ myocardial re-infarction,^68-70
thrombophlebitis and postthrombophlebitic syndrome^71-74 as well as lymphedema in both upper and lower extremities.^75-81

Systemic enzyme support can result in decreased number and duration of attacks in multiple sclerosis,^82-84 decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease,^85-90 and decreased frequency and severity of respiratory tract infections.^91,92 Other conditions that are significantly improved with systemic enzyme support include psoriasis,⁹³ eczema,⁹⁴ urinary tract infections, recurrent kidney stones, diabetic nephropathy and pyelonephritis.^95-99

Women using systemic enzyme support had decreased autoimmune and alloimmune infertility,^100-102 chronic pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), acute adnexitis^103-104 and fibrocystic breast disease.^105-107 Bacterial and abacterial prostatitis, as well as associated sexual dysfunction^108-110 were improved in men taking systemic enzyme support. Autoimmune thyroid disease treated with systemic enzyme support resulted in a significant decrease of TSH, anti-TG and anti-TPO, and allowed the lowering of L-thyroxine dosages.¹¹¹

Systemic enzyme support is an effective treatment for the management of inflammation disorders and conditions with immune system dysregulation. It improves clinical outcomes of diseases which are difficult to manage and has an excellent tolerance and superior safety when compared to some conventional anti-inflammatory therapies.^112-116 Published international literature describing the clinical efficacy of systemic enzyme support is based on formulations made by a Germany pharmaceutical company; Wobenzym^® PS, a professional strength systemic enzyme formulation that is available through chiropractic physicians and other healthcare professionals.

Clinical observations and literature review both affirm the conviction that Wobenzym^® PS is an essential component for successful management of inflammation disorders and other conditions with immune system dysregulation due to its high degree of clinical efficacy. More information can be found at www.SystemicEnzymeSupport.org, a non-commercial health education and wellness promotion website dedicated to teaching the clinical efficacy of systemic enzyme support.