Antibiotics and your tendons and joints

Interesting article that talks about a strong antibiotic of Anthrax fame and how it damages tendons and can cause serious inflammation or tendon injury. You will find this interesting but no suprise. Please read when you get a chance.

Increasing Fiber is Good.. but Not Too Much

I thought this article explained nicely how fiber helps keep our colons moving. I have always felt that a healthy amount of fiber in the course of ones food supply is a good thing. Of course we have made an industry out of fiber pills, drops, mixes etc. I do believe you can have too much of a good thing.

Many people use fiber continuously to get their bowels to stay mobile. I think people get to this point because there is something else wrong with the digestive tract that is keeping peristalsis from occurring normally. Continuing to use fiber to stimulate peristalsis in the lower digestive tract will not solve the original problem but only mask it. All the while overstimulating cell wall change in the colon that could lead to the usual problems with increased cell turnover that becomes unhealthy (we call this cancer among other things)

What would be better to do is look at your gut pH and diet and see what is causing your gut to shut down. There are plenty of ways to do this (too long to detail here). We can help with this at our office. It is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Remember if your digestive tract is not working correctly, it will eventually cause all the other problems you have or cause them to be worse.

Yeast Free Diets... Extremely Important

This brief listing will tell you all you need to know. If you are having any sort of digestive problem and you have not been able to find the cure start here. Eventually digestive problems can cause literally any other problem in the body. I work extensively with patients in my office who have digestive imbalance. Often times starting with pharmaceutical medications/drugs that mask the symptoms of digestive problems make diagnosis more difficult.

I suggest that those who have digestive problems in my practice find other alternatives besides drugs to combat their digestive issues. Only when you remove the common drugs such as nexium, prilosec, protonix and the like can you really see what started your digestive health challenge. At least look at this list and begin to work at rooting out the biggest offenders.

More Medication Woes

Here is the latest on those nasty medications. Its looking worse and worse for the medication generation as I call them. They are officially called generation Y and they are now increasingly becoming the most drugged generation going. Please consider other options if you are a parent. Ask what you are tellling your child if you put them on medication. You are saying alot that you might not be aware you are saying.

Asthma and The Immune System Connection

This article is great. Of course I like it because I have been saying this for years. That children and adults who have asthma/allergies also have immune system problems. More accurately, often times those who have asthma and allergies have them secondary to a primary depression of the immune system caused by repeated antibiotic use and gut destruction in childhood.

Someday this connection will be proven when it is advantageous to the pharmaceutical/medical community to prove it. Until then we will continue to prescribe antibiotics by the truckload all the while watching incidence of immune compromised patients and patients with allergies/asthma continue to rise. Hopefully you will remember this post and when someone wins the Nobel prize for this connection you will say nope, heard it first on Dr. Clouthier's website.

Steve

Chemotherapy... Maybe not as helpful as once thought

This post relates the serious negative effects of chemotherapy especially on the young breast cancer patient. I posted recently about mammograms and the fact that in women that have genetic and other predisposing factors that the mammograms appear to increase the risk of developing breast cancer.

Please read this post and consider the many natural options that are available to treat breast cancer and other related diseases. Remember chemotherapy does not cure cancer but can only proclaim that it prolongs life. Maybe we should consider other options that would help cure breast cancer or even heal it.

This is a hoot :)

I appears that we should be cautious of getting prescription drugs without consulting carefully and thoughtfully with a medical doctor. What is interesting is many patients that I see in my office have had adverse reactions to medications there trusted health provider did prescribe. Looks like it happens both ways. What is somewhat more laughable is that sometimes a more detailed consultation or even survey on the internet or phone can be much more detailed than what typically is happening in a doctor's office these. Many patients are not even being examined and drugs are being prescribed with a quick flip through the PDR or online.

Have to wonder what the motivation for this needle in a haystack article was .

Circumcision decreases AIDS risk in men

circumcision is once again in the news. Please read this article before you decide not to circumcise you really want to educate. If you circumcise (and I hope you do) please consider doing the circumcision on the 8th day. There is a reason why Jewish culture uses the 8th day. It appears that the blood clots better on this day and that the children seem to be less sensitive to pain. I have not found the studies that show this but I believe they are out there as I remember hearing at a theologic conference about this. What I have not found is a study that shows that circumcision leaves men scared for life from the trauma.

If you are in the Houston area, Dr. Max Mintz on antoine blvd, is a pediatrician and rabbi and has performed thousands of these. My son Spencers came out pretty good if I do say so myself :)

Soft Drinks.. Obesity ... Sugar substitutes

This is a great article to read and it gave me the opportunity to comment on thoughts regarding this topic. I also believe soft drinks are also directly correlated to the increasing incidence of type II diabetes and metabolic disorder that we are seeing today. Rule of thumb for you soft drink drinkers

1. Go Clear where possible: avoiding some of the coloring agents and additional calories and sugars is nice although I am not sure you are thinking about this when you drink soda anyway
2. Don't go diet: All that sugar you are avoiding is being replaced by chemicals, preservatives and artificial sweeteners that are worse than the original things you were trying to avoid.
3. As an alternative, try combining a juice drink and carbonated water or tonic water to replace the soda that you are trying to quit.
4. Make a demand on yourself that you are not allowed to drink another soda until you have had at least 16 ounces of water. This will do a few things. One, fill your stomach which will give you a sensation of fullness and decrease your food intake which will hopefully decrease weight. Two, will decrease the total number of cans of soda or glasses you have during the day.
5. Have snacks at snack time and drink sodas with meals.
6. There are only two sweetners I would consider using besides sugar. I have included links to them below.

Stevia and Sugar in the Raw

Another Nod for Organic Farming and Eating

Looks like another study suggesting that pesticides, herbicides and any other ...cides you want to use are bad for you. Especially in this study the men get effected. This is a little bit different since often times the studies point to these chemicals having a more damaging effect on the female hormone system than the male. Anyhow, what is important is that you try to eat as organically as possible to avoid some of these damaging effects. Start with your meats first and then try to incorporate your fruits organically. I would recommend specifically that you never eat strawberries, raspberries and grapes that are not organic as these tend to be the most highly sprayed fruits going.

If you are not familiar I would become familiar with the tenets of organic farming and eating. You and your family will be glad your did your research.

Peggy

I have a friend Peggy who is dying of cancer right now. She needs prayers, positive thoughts and whatever else you do that sends energy her way. She is a wonderful Mom and daughter but she is tired of battling breast cancer for 14 years. She has been a warrior but the end I believe is in sight. Please pray for her family. She has a son who is in college and a daughter who is a sophomore in high school. They need to be filled up with love and peace as they help their Mom make this passage. They know God will provide but they are young and scared.

If you can pass this to others I know this family will feel the power of your prayer.

Raising Smarter Children

This article is extremely interesting to me. As a parent I am always thinking about how my children will fair in the world at large, in school and in their future careers. While it is hard to predict all these things ahead of time it appears there are some tangible things we as parent can do. I won't list the things this article recommends. You can read that on your own by clicking on the link. Once again breastfeeding makes the list. I disagree with the author that you can get the same nutrients from formula. That would imply that we know all of what breast milk contains at any one time which we do not. Also the bonding and emotional stability and nurturing that breastfeeding gives is nor can be quantified.

Another good book on the idea is Raising an Optimistic Child by Martin Seligman. Seligman is the father of the idea of learned optimism and gives very practical tools for raising well adjusted and optimistic children. Parents can start here. I believe many times our society believes that giving children all the material things they never had as children will be the difference. Not so say the previous two authors. Check it out.

Please question antibiotic prescriptions

There are many reasons not to take routine antibiotics as they are prescribed regularly in the U.S I will list a few below and this article will give you one or two more

1. It gradually creates a spiral of weakening immune system function
2. It disrupts normal gut flora balance where 60-70% of your immune system is located
3. They never allow your immune system to build a full scale immune system reaction to a bacteria or virus so you never fully charge the immune system against that virus or bacteria and you can be susceptible to getting the same one again
4. Imbalances of the digestive tract following antibiotics, if repeated often enough will start to create other metabolic imbalances
5. It will give someone a reason for why your child has ear infections and needs to have tubes placed
6. Increased risk of breast cancer in girls/women that were exposed to high number of doses of antibiotics before the age of five
7. Poor quality of life
8. No effect on viruses which is often what they are prescribed for without even culturing the offending pathogen
9. Etc Etc Etc.

If you need help stopping this treadmill, call my office, we can help 281-419-9104

Pot and Pregnancy a Bad Combination

It appears that pregnancy and pot don't mix. Now you are probably saying that this is just plain common sense. Well, not always so. Many people know and acknowledge that cigarette smoking is just plain damaging to a developing baby, but ignore the effects of less talked about inhalants and drugs such as pot and alcohol.

Take a read of this article in case you have forgotten why these things are bad.