Natural Remedy for an Ear Infection

Otitis media (ear infection) is the most common illness affecting young children and infants and it has become the number one reason for pediatric office visits. Chronic ear infections are the second most common reason for surgery in children under two years of age (behind circumcision). 

The typical treatment is a round of antibiotics even though tests are rarely, if ever, done to determine whether the infection is viral or bacterial as antibiotics do not kill viruses. If that does not remedy the infection, another round of antibiotics is given and another and another.  Finally, there is the recommendation for surgery (tubes in the ears). Surgery requires general anesthesia which is never a minor issue when a small child is involved. 

The antibiotic therapy comes with its own trail of destruction. It destroys the good bacteria needed in the gut to create a strong immune system, properly digest food, and synthesize nutrients. Antibiotics also facilitate the genesis of drug-resistant super bugs. 

There are two questions inherent in this prologue.

1. How can we prevent ear infections in our children in the first place?

2. How can we remedy ear infections without using speculative and precarious drugs and surgery?

Fortunately, one answer will apply to both situations.

We must understand that bacteria are living organisms and as such can only live in an environment that supports their existence. That is to say, conditions must be just right for their growth. This is true for all living organisms and is why polar bears live in Alaska but not in Florida, rattle snakes live in Texas but not in Greenland, and palm trees grow in Arizona but not in Canada. Life grows only in conditions that support it.

Dehydration, acidic pH (caused by eating too much pasteurized dairy, sugar, processed carbs, and  industrial red meat), poor nerve stimulation, decreased blood flow, and nutritional deficiencies are the culprits responsible for creating a hospitable environment for bacterial infections (infections of any kind for that matter.) I have also never seen a breast fed baby with an ear infection. All of the cases I have worked on have had an element of baby formula associated with them.

For our tissues to support good bacteria and health they need to be hydrated, alkaline (except for the skin and stomach), and have proper blood flow to remove toxins, deliver oxygen, vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. That’s not to say breast fed babies are immune from other factors that can cause ear infections. It is but one piece of the puzzle.

Perhaps the most misunderstood element to curing ear infections (and I believe the most important) comes from the chiropractic adjustment. Misaligned bones in the upper cervical spine can pull on connective tissue and cause the Eustachian tube to become stretched, stressed, and/or pinched off thereby obstructing proper drainage. There can also be nerve stress which will inhibit normal physiology. Without nerve supply, we have paralysis. With stressed nerves, we have what I call “half-paralysis” or dysfunction. Body parts cannot work properly and be healthy if there is nerve stress involved. And know this; the birth process is more than enough trauma for a child’s delicate cervical spine to become misaligned.

Chiropractic adjustments for infants are far removed from the traditional adult adjustment. They are more akin to pressure than the twisting popping associated with an osseous adjustment. They are very safe indeed. Find a chiropractor with experience in adjusting infants and children. You can do this with a simple phone interview to the doctor’s office or you can go to www.icpa4kids.org and locate a pediatric specialist in your area.

For further investigation on the relationship between chiropractic adjustments and ear infections, I will refer you to www.chiro.org/research/ABSTRACTS/Otitis_Media.shtml where you will find links to a dozen research articles justifying this therapy.

For more blogs on natural health please visit www.theearthismymedicine.blogspot.com

The Simple Genius of a Lemon

Squeezing a lemon wedge into your glass of water is one of the simplest ways to add beneficial nutrition and health to your daily regimen. It contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. It is low on the glycemic index which makes it a better choice for diabetics. The lemon offers vitamins A and C which help with vision and eye health, support the immune system, fight infection, help wounds heal, and prime the heart and arteries. 

Lemon’s puckering ability is due to citric acid. Citric acid feeds the brain helping to sharpen one’s focus. Citric acid is important to a healthy muscle metabolism and efficient energy production. It can help ward off fatigue. As a live food, lemon’s enzymes aid digestion.

A lemon is a powerful anti-oxidant. Vitamins A and C, flavonoids such as carotenes, xanthins, and lutein, and phytochemicals such as naringenin scavenge harmful inflammatory free radicals from the blood and reduce their damaging effects to the DNA in our cells. Free radicals can cause premature aging and degeneration. 

Lemon is also a good source of B-complex vitamins such as pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine (B6), and folate (B12). B5 helps in preparing healthy brain chemistry and is essential to fend of anxiety and depression. B5 regulates cholesterol and helps in controlling the blood pressure. It plays a role in healthy skin and hair. B5 stimulates adrenal hormones, assists liver in metabolizing toxic substances, and it fuels cell division and DNA reproduction.

 B6 prevents blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes. It plays a role in the synthesis of serotonin and norepinephrine and in the formation of the myelin sheath around nerves. Vitamin B6 reduces the level of homocysteine in the blood. Pyridoxine is effective for treating premenstrual syndrome and other problems related to dysmenorrhea. 

Folate (B12) is essential for proper development of a fetus’s spinal cord and brain. It is a vital component in the production of healthy red blood cells. B12 keeps the heart healthy, helps in depression, and has emerged as an important nutrient in preventing colorectal and cervical cancers as exert its power over cancer by helping to prevent damage to DNA.

Lemons have minerals like iron, copper, potassium, and calcium in them. Iron (in the red blood cell) carries oxygen to our cells (especially the brain which uses 20% of the oxygen in our blood) and is vital for muscle health and contraction. Copper has anti-microbial properties, is needed for strong bones, and proper function of the thyroid, adrenal glands, cardiovascular system and the brain. Potassium and calcium play vital roles in muscle contraction, healthy bone formation, electrolyte balance and proper nerve function. 

Though lemons are acidic, they digest leaving an alkaline ash thereby helping to maintain a healthy pH in the body. With all this packed into a lemon, why wouldn’t you squeeze a wedge into every glass of water that you drink? It’s simplicity with incredible pay back. Drink up.You need the water anyway!

Why I am a Doctor of Chiropractic

That spark of life, originating in the hands of God, flowing from above to down and from inside to outside is consigned to the structures we call the nervous system. This very framework enables us to hear the purr of a kitten, view a rose bedecked with dew, and feel the wet sand from the shoreline slip between our toes. It coordinates the senses so we can walk up the stairs, put a spoon to our mouth, and tell us when it is time to go to the bathroom. The nervous system is the greatest magician on earth as it can recast a green pepper into human life by merely tickling the digestive system with action potential. 

This anatomy we call the nervous system is responsible for accepting the Creator’s inspiration for perfection and transforming it into physical existence. We hold this anatomy accountable for directing the orchestra of our lives. It tells the heart to beat, the kidneys to filter, and the blood vessels to constrict and dilate. It tastes the sour berries and feels the warmth of the sun on our faces. It sparks our legs to ambulation. It balances blood chemistry and pressure. The nervous system allows you to swing a bat, catch a ball, and skate on ice. 

The nervous system is responsible for controlling and coordinating EVERY function of our bodies. This precious entity that we call the nervous system is the interface that moves human experience. Chiropractic is a healing art that dances with that part of our anatomy in which the very force of life is transformed into matter. It is our breath, our thoughts, our passion, our life. It is the modality that speaks both languages of spirit and body. Our nervous system is the metaphor that transforms and binds spirit and heaven into matter and earth.  

The chiropractic adjustment is a telescopic connection to the Big Picture. Removing nerve stress by adjusting misaligned vertebrae restores life not by replacing with implants, controlling with machines, or chemically altering with drugs, but rather by allowing, freeing, and innately accepting the ability of the body to regulate itself. The chiropractic philosophy is hopeful of possibilities and pursues what is right within the body, not fearful of probabilities searching for what is wrong within the body. 

Exalting the Hippocratic tradition of “first do no harm,” chiropractic exercises the body’s wisdom in contrast to exorcizing the body’s failures. Chiropractic moves by experience, intuition, and spirit, not by scientific dogma and outdated tradition for the miracle of life cannot be truly explained scientifically. One cannot dissect love, grow the breath in a laboratory, or capture the sunshine in a test tube. Chiropractic focuses on health not disease, the whole body not parts, and promotes life rather than avoids death.  

Why am I a Doctor of Chiropractic? 

Because I honor the inborn potential of everyone to be truly healthy. 
Because I desire to help the newborn, the aged, and those without hope. 
Because I choose to care for the patient with the disease, not the disease. 
Because I wish to assist rather than intrude, to free rather than control. 
Because I seek the cause, not the effect. 
Because I know doctors do not heal; only the body can heal itself. 
Because I have been called to serve others. 
Because I want to make a difference. 
Because every day I get to witness miracles.
Because I know it is right.
 

 

 

Do Your Vitamin Supplements Really Work?

I must first acknowledge that if we lived in perfect stress free world with no high fructose corn syrup, Aspartame, hydrogenated fats, processed, pasteurized, irradiated, or fast food, GMOs, and we only ate 100% organic produce, nuts and seeds, all complementing our grass fed beef, pastured chickens, and fish caught from a clean ocean, we would not need vitamin supplements.  OK…back to reality.

There are two types of supplements: Those made from whole foods and those created in a test tube. “The body doesn’t know the difference” remains the mantra of the synthetic vitamin companies. However, laboratory made, synthetic, lifeless, inert, fractionalized, isolated, chemicals can never be passed off as whole food complexes complete with live enzymes, co-factors, trace minerals, antioxidants, and activators. The wisdom of the human body is infinitely more intellectual and transcendent than man’s finite ego-based book knowledge and very certainly does know the difference. 

Strike one: Synthetic molecules can never function like a whole food complex. 

Ascorbic acid is commonly thought of as vitamin C. It is not. Synthetic vitamins are “pieces” of a once dynamic food matrix. Ascorbic acid is the outer layer of molecules that keeps the inner vitamin C complex from oxidizing.  It is the Tupperware® that keeps vitamin C mosaic from spoiling. Vitamin C is instead is a network of nutrients which includes flavonoids (a complete biochemical matrix in and of itself including rutin, quercetin, epicatechin, flavones, isoflavones, flavins with their own subgroups, and anthocyanidins.) Let’s not leave out tyrosinase, an enzymatic form of organic copper essential for proper adrenal function, as well as P, K, and J factors. Pretending ascorbic acid is vitamin C is classic reductionism (Newtonian physics). It is bad science from an outdated paradigm. The carrot has over 200 known nutrients and phytonutrients in it. Are you satisfied with a synthetic beta carotene laced supplement or would it be a more nutritionally sound choice to have a supplement made from carrots? We can say the same for d-alpha tocopherol posing as vitamin E. 

Strike two: The sources of these lifeless chemicals will make you think twice.

Most synthetic vitamins are petroleum extracts and coal tar derivatives. Other chemicals used to create these imposters include methanol, benzene, ammonia, and formaldehyde. Ascorbic acid is made by hydrogenated corn sugar, acetone, and hydrochloric acid. It’s toxic sugar. Corn products in this country (unless grown organically) are genetically adulterated through Monsanto’s GMO program. Genetically altered food is dangerous and comes with inherent health risks.

The giant pharmaceutical company Hoffman LaRoche, in the mid-1940s, started manufacturing d-alpha tocopherol (synthetic form of vitamin E) from turpentine, acetone, and acetylin. Any relationship of this man-made vitamin E to a natural food based vitamin E was perhaps chemical but hardly biological. Through prestige and power in the marketing industry, they were able to force this bad science through regulatory channels as the chemical industry standard.

Strike three: The molecules that make up a synthetic vitamin are optical isomers

They are mirror images. Because these structures are reversed, a left handed molecule cannot take part in a chemical reaction meant for a right handed molecule. Try as a mad scientist might, he has not been able to create a molecule in a lab that will “spin” in the “natural” direction. Physiologically speaking, these counterfeit pseudo-vitamins cannot work despite million dollar TV commercials.

Synthetic vitamins can only function like all other man-made pharmaceuticals. They alter chemical reactions in the body so we perceive or sense a different outcome. They stimulate and never feed the body. The effect of a synthetic vitamin is palliative at best and never curative. At worst, these counterfeit supplements can impair bodily functions by contributing to biochemical imbalance. When choosing a supplement, be sure the ingredient label reads like a garden and not like a chemical text book.

The Hidden Dangers Inside Energy Drinks

You’ve heard their promises of keeping you alert with no afternoon crash, improving performance and reaction speed, and increasing concentration. They are marketed to all of us who dream of being rock stars or super athletes. Energy drinks are the newest health concern to avoid FDA insight and infect the shelves of every grocery store, corner market, and gas station in the country. So what’s wrong with a little pick-me-up in the afternoon to help get us through the day? Well, those little pick-me-ups are really more like a toxic chemical hurricane wreaking havoc on your brain chemistry, adrenal glands, liver, heart, immune system, and blood pressure.

The deleterious effects processed sugar poses to our health are well documented: It contributes to weight gain and obesity, feeds cancer cells, alters brain chemistry and nerve function, depletes the immune system, creates addiction, taxes the pancreas and insulin production which can create conditions favorable to diabetes, and contributes to chronic adrenal fatigue. Rockstar carries 62g of sugar/16 oz can; the same amount of sugar found in 6 Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnuts. Wow!

Next on the list is caffeine. Consumers of energy drinks, looking for an instant high, may not realize it but the zap of caffeine found inside that aluminum can is the beginning of a rollercoaster ride of jittery peaks and fatigue filled valleys. Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands to turn on and produce adrenaline. Adrenaline gears our body up to face great stress by raising our heart rate, increasing respiration, dilating the pupils, slowing down digestion and allowing our muscles to contract. Adrenaline makes our heart pound when we hear skidding tires or a fire alarm. It brainwashes the passer-by to run into a burning building and rescue a trapped child. All of these changes in our normal physical state prepare us to face danger head-on…which is completely useless while we’re just sitting at a desk. This adrenaline high is short lived as the body discovers that there is no real danger. It quickly wears off leaving us with a headache, confusion, or irritability. Prolonged abuse of the adrenal glands can create chronic fatigue syndrome.

Caffeine is a diuretic. Using energy drinks as a pre-workout ritual will not replace vital electrolytes lost through sweating but will further enhance dehydration. Excess caffeine consumption can create an irregular heartbeat, insomnia, agitation, panic attacks, elevated blood pressure, irritability, and seizures.

The average cup of coffee has approximately 100 milligrams of caffeine, compared to 160 milligrams in a 16-ounce energy drink. Ounce-for-ounce, the caffeine in 5-Hour Energy is 9 times as concentrated as in coffee. Rockstar Punched carries an inconceivable 360mg of caffeine in their 24 oz. can!

If that caffeine wasn’t enough, guarana is also added to these drinks. Guarana seeds are one of the richest sources of caffeine, containing up to three times the amount as coffee beans. The amount of caffeine in guarana doesn't have to be listed on energy drinks so its contribution to the jitters is above and beyond the stated amount of caffeine on the can.

Like other stimulants, guarana may negatively affect the cardiovascular system. The high levels of caffeine in guarana can increase blood pressure and cause abnormal heart rhythms. The fatal dose of guarana is estimated to be 100 g, or roughly 10 g of pure caffeine. Young kids may be at an increased risk for overdose due to their small body weight.

Taurine is our next target. It is an amino acid found naturally in foods and also manufactured in the body from the amino acid cysteine. Since taurine is created naturally in the body, a good diet supplies all you need. The taurine in energy drinks is synthetic which makes it incompatible with the human body. It was initially thought that taurine was a stimulant but new research would suggest that instead of being a pick-me-up, the taurine actually would have more of a sedative effect on the brain. As science is still debating on the effects of taurine, do we trust it as an additive of any kind?

Studies have implicated synthetic taurine in illnesses ranging from high blood pressure to strokes and seizures to heart disease. Now, if I am claiming that these energy drinks are not the best choice to supplement our “down time,” what else can we do? Fresh, filtered, clean water with a lemon wedge squeezed into it will do more for to boost our energy and supplement our health than any chemically laden, adreno-toxic beverage will ever do. A tablespoon of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar in 6 ounces of water will give a kick to the system as well. Green leafy vegetables will produce natural healthy energy so go eat a salad. Chiropractic adjustments are also an accomplice in providing energy. Drop the synthetic chemicals and try natural health. You’ll be glad you did.