Hi Everybody
Here area a few new tidbits for you…
SYNTHETIC CALCIUM BAD FOR YOU- There is so much hype on Calcium supplementation that it is hard to separate fact from fiction. There are people who seem to do very well on Calcium supplements, and those that get little results or may even do badly with them. Just like with everything else, individuality seems to account for a lot. However, one area that has proven to be certain is that taking Calcium in unnatural ways seems to be bad for you.
When you are obtaining Calcium from natural means like the Calcium in foods or water, your body knows what to do with it and utilizes it correctly. But when you ingest Calcium in ways unnatural to a human, the Calcium seems to do bad things. By unnatural means, we mean Calcium in the form of rocks or shells. Our ancestors did not eat rocks, they ate food.
New research in the journal Heart confirmed the findings of two earlier studies from the British Medical Journal last year- that consuming 500 mg of calcium from bone or shell increased the risk of heart attack or stroke by quite a bit. Evidently, inorganic Calcium is laid down in the arteries and calcifies those areas.
LIKE GOING TO A BARBER- People of the orient have long been known for having longer life-spans than most of the rest of the world. The Okinawans are especially noted for this distinction. The reason for this seems to be their overall lifestyle and attitude towards health. They eat better and exercise more than most of the rest of the world, but they also visit their health care practitioner regularly.
In fact, they see their acupuncturist or acupressurist like people in the West see their barber. Instead of waiting for a problem to develop, or like we do in the West, wait for the problem to develop, grow and become disabling before seeking help, they utilize preventative care regularly, like clockwork. They even have a saying that waiting for a problem to develop before seeking care is like waiting until you are thirsty before digging a well.
For better health, try the prevention route. One simple thing you can do is making Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Acupressure, Massage or some other body therapy a part of your overall preventative game plan. Most people brush their teeth and change the oil in their cars. Maintaining the structure of the body is just as important.
PROSTATE SCREENING CONTROVERSY- Recently, the US Preventative Services Task Force has recommended men not to get their PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) checked on a routine basis. The PSA test has been used for years to detect prostate cancer.
The problem with the test is that it is inaccurate. Just because the PSA is high does not mean you have prostate cancer. If the PSA is high, further and aggressive testing is typically done right away which can cause some pretty bad side effects, some of which are permanent. In addition, most Prostate Cancers are very slow growing and not aggressive. Most men with Prostate Cancer will die of old age or another cause before the Prostate Cancer gets them. This is not always the case, of course, but it often is. The US Preventative Services Task Force found that the aggressive approach to further testing a possible Prostate issue was causing much more harm than good, especially noting how often the test gave inaccurate results. Legions of men have evidently become impotent or developed urinary difficulties from the invasive diagnostic procedures only to find out the test had been wrong.
The flaws of the PSA screening have been known for years, so its good to see something being done about it. Still, we believe the PSA screening is a good test for older men. However, we don’t think you need to aggressively go in with invasive procedures at every high PSA reading. Instead of banning the test, we think a better approach is to ban invasive procedures at the first sign of a high reading; it would seem more appropriate to monitor the changes in PSA over the years. If the PSA changes very quickly and keeps going up, it may warrant an invasive procedure to make sure it is not one of the rare, aggressive Prostate cancers. Otherwise, it may be best to leave it alone. Of course, always discuss these concerns with your doctor.
Hope this helps,
Dr Matt and Dr Robin
http://barneschiropractic.wordpress.com (newsletter archives)
This week’s bit of Useless Information: If a surgeon in ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off.
This email is courtesy of Matthew Barnes, D.C. and Robin Barnes, D.C. Neither this nor any of our emails are intended to be medical advice and should not be taken as such. They are opinion and are for informational purposes only. None of the nutrients discussed here are meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.