"In Good Hands"

New Study Finds Possible Breast Cancer Link To Antibiotic Use…Are You At Risk? Virginia Beach - If you have taken… or… frequently take antibiotics… a recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association may make you think twice before filling your next prescription. Here's why: Let me start by saying the discovery of antibiotics has proven to be one of the most important medical discoveries of all time. When used properly, they have saved countless lives. But, when they are used improperly… they put the entire human race at undeniable risk. That's no exaggeration. We all know about the emergence of "super bugs" that are antibiotic resistant… and could… someday… threaten our very existence. These "super bugs" become antibiotic resistant by improper and overuse of the antibiotics themselves. It's a little game of survival of the fittest that's being won by the germs. The more we try to kill them with antibiotics… the faster they mutate… like cockroaches… leaving our drugs helpless against them. How do they become "super bugs?" Bacteria are highly adaptive. They can actually "teach" one another to resist antibiotics. When one develops resistance to an antibiotic, it can pass that resistance to similar and even unrelated strains. They do this by passing plasmids, which are DNA-containing organisms, from one to another. Some researchers have suggested this is the reason some microbes that once caused diseases only in animals are now also infecting and killing humans. Here's a scary statistic: As much as 80% of the total antibiotic production in the U.S. is used in agriculture. That's not just dairy animals, but on every type of livestock and poultry. What's crazy is a large percentage of it is not even used for illness, but to promote growth. A University of Maryland study released last spring supported the conclusion that agricultural antibiotic use may be introducing new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria into the human population. Now it seems like antibiotic use has a bigger… more immediate and devastating problem… Causing Breast Cancer Here's the story: Four years ago, a study in Finland reported a link between breast cancer and antibiotics. This study spurred researchers at the University of Washington at Seattle to examined data collected on more than 10,000 women enrolled in a large health plan in Washington State to further investigate this link. Two groups were studied. One group consisted of 2,266 cases of women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Almost 8,000 subjects made up the second group of randomly selected women with no breast cancer. Researchers used the health plan database to determine the number of antibiotic prescriptions for each woman, as well as the total number of days that each of them used antibiotics over an average period of 17 years. The Results Were Clear: The risk of breast cancer was doubled among women who received 25 or more prescriptions for antibiotics of any variety, when compared to women who took no antibiotics at all. The group of women who received between 1 and 25 prescriptions increased their risk by one and a half. And a high rate of cumulative days of antibiotic use was associated with a sharply increased risk of death due to breast cancer. According to the Washington researchers, this does not prove that antibiotics cause breast cancer. There are many other factors to consider such as the possibility that the inflammatory diseases the antibiotics were used to treat may have been the cause. While more research is needed to accurately prove or disprove this link… one thing is certain… Doctors And Patients Must Re-Think Their Usage (Over Usage!) Of Antibiotics For many years, patients have been demanding… and… doctors have been prescribing antibiotics like candy. Most prescriptions for antibiotics are taken for conditions they do not even help. Many times they are given casually and repeatedly as "insurance" against possible infection. This practice has not only brought us "super bugs," but now the possibility of doubling a women's rate of breast cancer. The logical question is… What's Next? What devastating disease will researchers discover is being caused by the overuse of this one-time miracle drug? Will they find antibiotics are causing an equally tragic condition in men? One can only wonder. What Can You Do To Avoid Unnecessary Antibiotic Use? The key here is "unnecessary." Everyone (both men and women) should not be demanding antibiotics for every little sniffle. The harsh truth is: antibiotics don't work for most of the illnesses you get (such as the common cold) and time is often the best healer. When your doctor does prescribe you antibiotics… question him or her. Ask why they should be taken. I recently spoke with a patient that had a pretty bad "bug" with ear infection in both ears. When he went to his doctor, he was given a steroid inhaler and a prescription for antibiotics. My astute patient asked his doctor how long it would take him to get better with the drugs. The doctor replied 7-10 days. Next, he asked his doctor how long it would take WITHOUT the drugs. The doctor paused, looking a little puzzled, and said sheepishly… 7-10 Days! My astute patient threw out the prescription and steroids and was fine. His ears were clear in less then 3 days. Bottom line: Find out if you really need to take antibiotics before you do. If you need them… and sometimes you do… then… by all means… take them. But, they should not be used repeatedly for "insurance" purposes. The real answer is to live a healthy lifestyle and boost your immune system naturally before you get sick. Simple measures can go a long way, such as eating properly, getting adequate sleep, reducing stress, exercising, taking natural supplements to boost the immune system and yes, routine Chiropractic care. The days of abusing yourself and then taking the "magic" pill are long gone. Health care must enter a new era of natural prevention or we will face the consequences down the road. As we are finding out… that road is not as long as we once thought. The answer is not scurrying to research and find new and more powerful antibiotics to stay ahead of the "super bugs." That will only lead to more powerful and serious side effects. The answer lies your body's inborn ability to produce the most powerful and natural antibiotics… and…fight off sickness and disease all by itself. All you have to do is take care of it before you get sick… step out of the way… and let it work. Did You Know? • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. • A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue. • A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours. • A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. • A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. • A snail can sleep for three years. • All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill. • Almonds are a member of the peach family. • An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. • Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. • Butterflies taste with their feet. • Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10. • "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt". • February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. • In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. • As an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights. • Leonardo DaVinci invented the scissors. • Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. Success Story of The Month (Names And Details Have Been Changed To Protect Privacy) "How Those Secret Micro-Printed Messages On $1 Bills Can Change Your Life…" Most American currency contains micro-printed messages to prevent counterfeiting; for example, on the $1 bill, there is an owl in the upper left hand corner of the numeral "1" and a spider hidden in the upper right. Get out a $1 bill and take a look. Pretty interesting… huh? Well, guess what? There are two important reasons why 99% of all Americans never see those micro-printed messages… even though they handle… and look at… several $1 bills each and every day. 1. Most people spend their money so fast… it's usually gone BEFORE they actually receive their paycheck. It goes through their hands so fast… there isn't time to examine it for detail. You know how the old saying goes: "in one hand, out the other." 2. Second, and most important, is the fact that most people simply do not take the time for details. Life has become way too fast paced and "hustle bustle." Faster computers, faster service, faster everything. Important details are often glanced over in favor of some shortcut. When it comes to your health… this "microwave" approach can be devastating. Here's a little story that demonstrates exactly why: Many moons ago when I was a Chiropractic intern (too many to mention here!), I met Dr. Scott. Dr. Scott was a great guy, loved helping people… and… helped me become a better Chiropractor. He really cared about his patients. One day, I went to see Dr. Scott and his office was empty… and he was visibly shaken up. He looked pale and his eyes were red… like he had been crying. I didn't know what else to say, so I asked him if he was okay. Dr. Scott looked at me, with tear filled eyes and said… something terrible happened today and… It's All My Fault He said he cancelled all his patients for the day and sat down next to me in the waiting room. What he told me next is something that shook me to the very core… and… drastically changed the way I looked at my new career. Dr. Scott said a new patient came in a couple months ago with neck pain and tingling in both of her arms, hands and fingers. She had had it for quite some time and tried many things to get rid of the pain… except Chiropractic. The doctor said she needed neck surgery and it was scheduled in three weeks… but… one of her friends told her I might be able to help. I said I didn't know… but I would take a look at her and let her know. After a complete examination, I told her she had classic signs of malfunctioning bones and joints in her neck that could… very likely… be causing the problem. I had seen… and helped… many cases like that before. I told her the next step would be to take an x-ray, so we could really see the area in question. If everything looked okay on the x-ray… we could begin treatments. Since she had already scheduled surgery, I asked her to just… Give Me Three Weeks If we weren't getting any results by then, go ahead with the surgery. But, I was pretty sure I could help her. Deep down… I knew I could. She said she had to go home and talk to her husband before we took the x-ray. It was $150 and she had to clear it with him first. I was a bit puzzled that she had to ask her husband for permission to spend such a trivial amount of money on such an important thing. After all, she was facing major neck surgery in three weeks… Why Didn't He Come With Her To My Office? Who knows. All I know is, she called the next day and said her husband didn't want to spend the $150 and have her go through several treatments with me. He thought it would be quicker and easier to fix the problem with surgery. I was kinda shocked… but let it go at that. I just found out this morning that something went wrong with her neck surgery and now she lost all the feeling on the right side of her body. And, it's all my fault because I didn't try harder to get her to at least give my treatments a try. If I would have convinced her to give it a try… this wouldn't have happened to her. This tragic story taught me a very valuable lesson. To put it very bluntly… Look Very, Very, Very Closely Before You Leap Investigate things thoroughly (especially health issues) before you try to take the easy way out. Look into procedures… in detail… before you say yes to anything. Know the good, the bad, and all the possible side effects involved. This is not to say all neck surgery is bad. Quite the contrary. When it is necessary… surgery can save your life. But, you must be aware of the risks… and… if your condition can be helped by more conservative means… that should be your FIRST option. Not your last. Next time you have to make an important decision, pull out a dollar and think about those micro-printed messages…and… this story. Tip of The Month: "3 Ways To Jump Start Your Energy And Feel Great This Spring!" No matter where we live, winter takes a pretty big toll on all of us. We all get sluggish, stop exercising as much as we should, spend more time indoors (with your big behind parked on your couch) and eat a lot of junk food. After all, many of the fruits and vegetables are out of season and next to impossible to get. After several months of borderline "abuse," your body and mind often need a little nudge in the right direction to get started and feel energetic again, and here's how to do just that: 1. The first thing to do is clean up your diet. The old saying, "you are what you eat" can't be more true. The more junk food or food with limited nutritional value you put in your body, the more sluggish you get. You also start to crave more food because your body doesn't have any good fuel. So, you eat more junk food get more sluggish then eat more junk food. It's time to break this vicious cycle. Make a point to start eating right TODAY. Sit down and make a simple meal plan for the next week. Seven days shouldn't be too difficult should it? Of course not! On the seventh day, reward yourself and make out your plan for the next seven days. Attack it in these small chunks with goals every 7-10 days. The next thing you know, your energy level will be substantially boosted. 2. As soon as you start eating right and giving your body the energy sources it needs, start moving! If you've exercised in the past, start back on your old plan slowly! And this time, write down small, frequent goals for yourself, just like your eating plan. Have that "just make it through the next seven days" attitude. If you have NOT exercised in the past START! It can be as simple as going for walks 3-4 nights a week. The important thing is that you get started and get moving. Your body thrives on movement. The more you move, the more energy you get 3. Reassess all your goals. Go through what's important in your life and what you want to achieve over the next few months. Write everything down and spell out in nauseating detail the steps to achieve them. Come up with a 3-4 month "action plan." The act of writing down your goals stimulates your subconscious mind to start working and achieving those goals immediately. Taking the time to actually write down your goals can work like magic! 4. Lastly, start something new. Find something that interests and challenges you either mentally, physically or both. Learning new things stimulates your nervous system, gives you renewed energy and keeps your mind sharp.