Hardwired For Health

The Essential Ingredients for Health

2012-01-18T13:49:00.000-05:00

The Essential Ingredients forHealth

Ultimately, making a pie is a pretty simple chemistryproject; follow a recipe of a handful of ingredients and a few steps.

Use the right ingredients and follow thedirections and shazzam, you have a delicious pie.

Alter the ingredients (leave one or more out,increase/decrease the amount of some, add a few things,

etc.) and modify the directions (skip a step,change the temperature/time, etc) and everything

changes…no delicious pie.

That's pretty straightforward; most people get it and few, if any,would argue it.

Now, imagine the ingredients andrequirements to build and run the complex and precise biochemistry of the humanmind/body.

What happens when you leave out someessential ingredients (nutrients), add other toxic ingredients (processedchemical foods, additives, pharmaceutical drugs, chemically laden body/bathproducts, inhaled pollutants, etc), don’t bakeit long enough (induced labor/planned c-section), etc.?

For most, understanding this is notas straightforward; most people don't get it, and worse, they don'tcare.

The simple point is: you can’t even bake a piewithout the right ingredients.

Howcan you expect to create and have a healthy mind/body without putting in the rightingredients (nutrients) while adding a plethora of toxic chemicals?

Answer:You can’t; you can't create a healthy baby or a healthy you.

Your DNA has species specific nutrientrequirements to make you and support good health.

Thosebasic essential ingredients include:

Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds; more towards organic, locally grown, raw (when possible), and in season.

Meat/poultry/fish:more towards wild/free range, grass fed, organically raised, anti-biotic free

Water

Sunlight

Exercise

Essential supplements include: Omega3 fish oils, Probiotics, and Vitamin D.

Atthe same time we need to stop poisoning the system with:

Processed, chemically-laden foodsand drinks

Chemically-laden personal hygieneproducts

Pharmaceutical drugs

Sedentary, in-door lifestyles

Etc.

YourDNA is programmed ONLY for survival, and health is nature’s most basic survivalmechanism: ie..you are programmed to BE healthy. Supply your DNA/body with what it needs, andstop poisoning it, and it will maximize your potential for health.

2012-01-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

OCCUPY YOUR LIFE II : you will smile watching this!

(double click on video for full screen)

Occupy Your Life

2011-12-19T11:13:00.003-05:00

Occupy Your Life

If it were up to me the word of the year for 2011 would be Occupy, consistent with Time Magazine's designated Person of the Year: The Protestor.

I fully support and embrace The Occupy Movement and have written my own manifesto of grievances and demands, excerpted below:
Of this we are certain:

1. The system is broken and corrupt and the fix will NOT come from those who created these problems.
2. The status quo will only guarantee and accelerate our demise and as such, is unacceptable.
3. The fix requires a new paradigm; one that values people over profits, and sustainability of life on the planet over unsustainable corporate growth/profits.

Goal:

We are part of a global movement. It is our responsibility, as American and World Citizens and patriots, to reclaim our democracy and restore world peace, social and environmental justice.

Solutions:

As environmentalist/activist Paul Hawkin said: “The solution will be found in diversity. This movement is humanity’s immune response to resist and heal political disease, economic infection and ecologic corruption caused by ideology.”

Fixing the daunting problems we face will require that we work both within and outside of the system.

(For the purpose of this blog, Occupy Your Life, I will skip to the relevant changes at the personal level that I deem necessary to facilitate and create the global change we need.)

The single greatest thing we can do outside of the system is to unite in our vision, cause efforts, and voice.

Along the way to the revolution, we too have to change. It would be hypocritical to believe and act otherwise. We cannot do business as usual and expect different results and things around us to change. As Gandhi said: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Things we can do:

1. Make your health a top priority; take personal responsibility for your life and health, to the extent that you are able.
2. Become a critical thinker: actively resist and then analyze ALL information and the source (i.e.: follow the money), rather than passively accepting and absorbing whatever you hear, from whatever source.
3. Learn more and raise your standards of what you demand of yourself.
4. Make your family and your children a top priority; spend time with, and educate, your children.
5. Turn off the TV. Stop listening to the propaganda and fear mongering.
6. Create, or join, an employee union.
7. Become a political activist; find and join causes that support humanity and our planet.
8. VOTE! And, vote out all career politicians (more than 10-15 years in office).
9. Socialize: find reasons to unite with people to find commonality.
10. Buy local: support small local businesses and farms.
11. Go green.
12. Plant your own garden and learn how to cook good food. Minimize eating of all crap processed foods.
13. Vote with your dollars. Do not support any corporation or financial institution that undermines our personal and/or financial health and new our world order of We The People.
14. Repeatedly and relentlessly, call and lobby your politicians, at every level, to represent the interests of We the People…and inform them of the consequences of their failure to do so.
15. Generally,as best possible, spend less and save more. Buy within your means. Buy less of whatyou want, and focus on what you need.

If not me, then who?
If not now, then when? Hillel

A Doctor's Touch

2011-12-16T10:52:00.013-05:00

A Doctor's Touch

One of the most important things in life anyone can have is a caring and competent medical doctor, the likes of Dr. Abraham Verghese, the doctor in this video.

His call for touch, while foreign to medical doctors today, is routine to chiropractors. In fact, it is the origin of the word (from the Greek: cheir- referring to the hand, and praktos, meaning done....ie; done by hand).

As a chiropractor I have always been honored and moved by the doctor-patient relationship; the histories and emotions patients share; the trust they place in me, and that they let me touch them, to examine and treat them.

Sadly, for many people, I may be the only other human contact they have that, or any other, day. And, the importance of caring human touch/contact, in our culture, is way undervalued and poorly understood. I know, and am acutely aware, that I too, benefit from that very human contact and connection with my patients.

In early childhood touch could actually be considered a vital nutrient. ”Failure to thrive is a medical condition where an infant/child fails to grow or gain weight appropriately over a consistent period of time. In orphanages, the number one cause of Failure to Thrive is simply a lack of touch, stimulation and love. A child may even die due to missing these essential requirements for growth.”

I would suggest that older children and adults also fail to thrive without contact and touch. In fact, research indicates that even owning a pet (which implies contact and touch) helps the elderly live longer. That’s how important touch is!.

Recall the rush of holding the hand of someone you love; the healing touch of your mother's hand when you bumped your head or hurt yourself; the energy that passes between two people in a caring embrace.

We are electro-chemical--energy beings and what passes between us in a touch with good intentions, has very nurturing and healing properties.

It is more than obvious that working with patients goes beyond technology and absolutely requires a healing touch. I feel privileged to be licensed to speak with and to touch people in the context of helping them reclaim their lives by reclaiming their health.

Another Deadly Medical Fraud Exposed

2011-11-22T13:13:00.006-05:00

Another Deadly Medical Fraud Exposed

Oops! The medical science/pharmaceutical industry, as enabled by doctors, has perpetrated yet another massive fraud that, once again, has cost untold numbers of lives while generating astronomical profits for their industry and doctors.

We live in a for-profit-at-any-cost, corporate-created, media-perpetuated delusional world; a world in which so-called scientific research shows that only natural things such as the sun, our own genes, natural remedies, even natural drugs like marijuana, etc., can cause us harm, create cancers, and kill us. But somehow, inexplicably, in the realm of corporate-sponsored non-sense non-science, chemically and known carcinogen laden processed foods, personal care body products, pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, etc., are safe, and even good for us…nothing to fear there.

In this delusional world doctors used science to promote cigarettes as “smooth and soothing to the back of your throat”…Oops, a cancer epidemic! Doctors used science to scare us away from natural animal fats, in favor of chemically synthesized trans-fats. Oops; skyrocketing increase in heart disease and death! Sorry! And, most recently and ongoing, doctors use science to make us afraid of the sun, having us opt instead to coat our bodies, from infancy and throughout our lives, with chemically laden sun-screens. Unsurprisingly, oops and more deaths, yet again!

Recent research published in the British Journal of Dermatology shows that garbage science and rampant misdiagnosis, NOT the sun, are responsible for the statistical rise in rates of melanoma, the deadliest from of skin cancer. They wrote: “We conclude that the large increase in reported incidence is likely to be due to diagnostic drift, which classifies benign (non-cancerous) lesions as stage 1 melanoma.”

In fact, there is good scientific evidence that appropriate exposure to the sun prevents skin and other cancers, while rates of melanoma are rising among indoor workers with less sun exposure!

It defies common sense, let alone good science, to believe that after tens of thousands of years, within the last 75 years, our genes have gone haywire and are now killing us; that naturally occurring foods and remedies are more dangerous than their synthetic chemically altered versions; and that the sun, the source of life on our planet and many documented health benefiting and protective properties, has recently and suddenly turned against us.

What has changed in the past 75 years are:

1. The industrial revolution, including the industrialization of our food supply, and the concomitant rise of pervasive highly toxic pollutants and carcinogens in our air, soil, water, and foods

2. The corporate sponsored scientific revolution in which our carefully cultivated unquestioning belief in what is largely corrupt and self-serving science is used against us.

3. The rise of corporate medical care that emphasizes profits over patient lives and thrives on creating and perpetuating diseases rather than cures. Its nemesis is health!

Our trust in nature has been severely undermined. Nature has imbued all life forms with an adaptive code for survival. Nature’s most basic survival mechanism, hardwired into that code, is health. We have been given a miraculous gift and personal responsibility to nurture and safeguard our own health. The more we accept that responsibility, the more we optimize our own genetic potential for health throughout our lives.

Ergonomics: Computer Workstation Set-up

2011-10-26T10:59:00.006-04:00

Ergonomics: Computer Workstation Set-up

The basics of health are simple, seemingly too simple for most people to believe.

We are, as all living things, hardwired for one thing only; survival. And, health is nature’s most basic survival mechanism. Health is nature’s default or set-point.

Nurturing our own health means taking active steps to optimize our own specific genetic potential for health. The foundation of health is based upon the daily and consistent lifestyle choices we make, throughout our lives, in terms of how we think, what we choose to eat, and how we use our bodies.

Each of these broad categories can be broken down into smaller sub-categories. For instance, how we think includes how we handle all stress, how we cope with life’s challenges, the caring relationships we have with family, friends and co-workers, etc.

What to eat is best summed up by Michael Pollan: “Eat real food (not processed crap), not too much, mostly plants.”

Biomechanics refers to how we use our bodies. Biomechanics is based on using ideal body posture at all times: sleeping, sitting, during exercise, in all work and play activities, etc.

Ergonomics has to do with how we use tools and set up our workstations to support good posture; to minimize unnecessary and harmful chronic and/or repetitive strain to our bodies.

Biomechanics and ergonomics all begin and end with good posture.

The following video is a great tool to help with computer workstation setups.

The Placebo Effect...cont'd

2011-10-10T14:29:00.003-04:00

The Placebo Effect....cont'd

Here is a nice film that gives an interesting perspective.

All About LENS: 1 Hour Interview

2011-10-01T12:06:00.006-04:00

All About LENS Neurofeedback

The following links are to a 1 hour radio interview on local radio station WBTN (am 1370) from Bennington, VT. The interview was with John Hearst, MD., on his show Natural Instincts.

Enjoy! And, I welcome your feedback.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24522478/01%20Track%201.mp3 part 1

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24522478/02%20Track%202.mp3 part 2

Or, if you are more visually oriented, you can watch a 1 hour tv interview at the link below. After you link to the site, type: smile with b-mile into the show search, and then scroll down until you see my name (show ID 15691, 08-08-2011).

http://www.pittsfieldtv.net/Cablecast/Public/Main.aspx?ChannelID=1

*Important Note: After watching the tv interview I decided that I have a great face for radio!!

Placebo & Research

2011-09-05T17:48:00.010-04:00

Placebo & Research

It has been my experience that two of the most common questions asked of alternative health practitioners are:

1. What is the research?

2. Is it placebo?

These are excellent and appropriate questions. But, with that said, these questions are ingrained in us, like knee-jerk responses, to ask of all alternative therapies, serving as tools/weapons used by the prevailing medical paradigm to undermine alternative treatments and distract from the dangers of allopathic medicine.

Let me explain.

First, and most obviously, I am reasonably sure that most patients are not asking these same questions of their doctors about all prescribed drugs and recommended courses of care; from statins to anti-depressants, from chemotherapy to radiation, from cardiac catheterization to bypass, from mammograms to prostate screens, and on-and-on. It is assumed that the research exists and supports the treatment, and that treatment is, not only, not placebo, but better than placebo.

In the same way the knee-jerk response has been ingrained to ask alternative practitioners, it has been ingrained into us to trust medicine, and specifically not ask doctors.

Throughout their history, the AMA and its extension, the FDA, have suppressed and persecuted alternative treatments that challenge medical dominance. One of their most powerful tools has been controlling and denying funds to research alternative therapies. Their consistent justification has been: ‘just by looking at it gives it a level of credibility we don’t want to promote.’ The self-serving result has been their mantra ‘there is no research to support... (fill in the alternative therapy).’ How convenient?

At the same time, the quality and reliability of medical research and its peer review have been totally corrupted by their highly profitable incestuous relationship with BigPharma. It is corporate science, plain and simple. And, it has emphasized research on dangerous pharmaceuticals and invasive medical procedures to the willful exclusion of the empirical and scientific evidence of natural remedies that work.

In what I believe is one of the most damning statements ever made, in September 2001, the editors of the 12 most prestigious medical journals published a unified message titled Sponsorship, Authorship and Accountability:

“We are concerned that the current intellectual environment in which clinical research is conceived, study subjects are recruited and the data analyzed and reported (or, not reported) may threaten (scientific) objectivity….In light of that truth, the use of clinical trials primarily for marketing makes a mockery of clinical investigation and is a misuse of a powerful tool.”

And yet, they continue to print and disseminate what they know to be fraudulent research that results in widespread use of unsupported and lethal treatments. At the same time they propagate skepticism, doubt and fear about alternative therapies.

As for the dreaded placebo…

The fundamental principle and underlying effect of placebo is as a catalyst that activates the mind/body’s innate capacity for self-regulation and self-healing. Placebo pills alone have been 30 to 90% effective. And, the placebo effect for successful outcomes has been estimated to occur in 30 to 70% of all therapeutic treatments. That is, that the patient got better because of the placebo effect, and not the specific treatment. In addition, “A paper published in the October 19 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine – entitled “What’s In Placebos: Who Knows?” calls into question the foundation upon which much of medicine rests (comparative testing to placebo), by showing that there is no standard behind the standard – no standard for the placebo.”

It is sad and emblematic of the major problem of the medical model that it denigrates the placebo effect and uses it in a pejorative manner to undermine and cast doubt on other effective forms of therapy, up to and including alternative treatments for cancer. And while patients routinely ask alternative practitioners whether or not their treatment is placebo, the patients are distracted from asking their medical doctor critical questions regarding their medical treatment:

1. What are my absolute risks verses benefits of treatment?

2. What is the NNT? the number of patients needed to treat to see the outcome you are saying?

Bearing in mind that hospitals are killing 12,000 patients per week (624,000/year), as a result of the care they received and not because of what brought them to the hospital in the first place, one can see the supreme importance of these questions!

In my opinion there is no better treatment than placebo to activate the mind/body’s life-force capacity to heal itself. The question then becomes not if the therapy is placebo, but (with, or without, supporting research) how often does it succeed in improving the health of the patient?

DEFINE BETTER

2011-08-20T17:42:00.007-04:00

DEFINE BETTER:

I can't say it any better than this!

"Psycho/pharma spends billions of dollars a year marketing mental 'disorders' & drugs for kids -- yet these drugs are documented by international drug regulatory agencies to cause mania, psychosis, hallucinations, suicide, violence, homicidal ideation, heart attack, stroke and death. What's more, they are being prescribed for psychiatric disorders that are simply a checklist of behaviors."

Watch these compelling videos! (double click on video for full screen)

There is a better way:

1. Love

2. Safety

3. Respect

4. Education

5. Wholesome Food

6. Hope

7. LENS Neurofeedback

LENS Neurofeedback: It Isn't Magic, But It Is Miraculous!

2011-07-30T19:52:00.008-04:00

LENS Neurofeedback: It Isn't Magic, But It Is Miraculous !

I continue to be amazed at the quickly-realized and profound changes patients are experiencing in their lives with LENS treatments.
The principle of healing that underlies LENS is consistent with that of chiropractic and other holistic forms of therapy. That is; that the true miracle of the body is that it is self-regulating and self-healing, that the mind/body is genetically hardwired for homeostasis (balance), and wants
to be healthy. LENS taps into that potential, using 'small doses of brain wave biofeedback carried on wisps of electromagnetic fields', to catalyze change, inviting the brain to restore and optimize its function.

A healthy, balanced and regulated central nervous system (CNS) produces the right brain wave, in the right amount, at the right time, for any given circumstance. Scientists believe that the brain's defense against significant stressors and trauma creates neural gridlock and CNS dysregulation. C
ommuication within the brain and brain wave production are impaired creating constellations of symptoms, manifesting as a variety of chronic functional neurological problems.

These include: (The Healing Power of Neurofeedback, by Stephen Larson, pg. 84)

1. Mood disturbances: emotional lability, depression or anxiety, irritability, anger, explosive behavior.

2. Energy depletion: lethargy, chronic fatigue, or fibromyalgia

3. Chronic pain: localized or generalized, including headaches and muscle spasms.

4. Sleep disorders: from sleep onset to nocturnal awakenings, to daytime sleepiness.

5. Cloudy Sensorium: mental fogginess; the world seems inaccessible/far away

6. Memory Problems: forgetfulness, short and long-term disturbances.

7. Cognitive Problems: regarding clarity, focus, planning, sequencing, and/or organizing.

8. Problems initiating behavior and pursuing to completion, procrastination, indecision.

LENS treatment is not diagnosis-based, but is effective in treating the symptoms described above, as associated with a dysfunctional, dysregualted brain. It has a more broad-spectrum effect. For instance, it doesn't treat Autism, ADHD or Tourette's, but can be very effective in decreasing or removing any accompanying anxiety, depression, irritabililty, insomnia, anger, etc., which, in turn, can dramatically improve the patient's life and, in some cases of Tourettes, ADHD, PTSD, OCD, and more, seemingly resolve the problem.
In addition to functional brain problems, LENS can help in cases of structural brain problems as well: cases where the patient has incurred physical damage to the brain itself. I have seen dramatic progress in a case of massive aneurysm, read about success in cases of TBI (traumatic brain injury), and I have worked with a patient with an anoxic brain injury; showing slow, but steady improvement.
Clearly, these cases take more time and progress can be slow, but for some there is help and hope.

As best I can figure, Len Ochs, the creator of LENS, has figured out how to speak to the brain in its own electromagnetic language, using the energy of the brain itself to optimize its own function. As a practitioner, my experience has been that LENS isn't magic, but it is miraculous!

LENS Neurofeedback- David Dubin, MD

2011-07-18T10:30:00.006-04:00

LENS Neurofeedback

I have known Dr. Dubin since junior high school. We have had a lifetime of many shared adventures as close personal friends. He has been, and continues to be, a powerful force and influence in my life.

In October of 2010, after many months of cajoling, he got me interested in, and then, with significant training by LENS creator, Len Ochs, got me certified as a LENS Neurofeedback practitioner.

LENS has changed my life, and has given me a new, and powerful, tool to help patients reclaim their health and improve their lives.

Dr. Dubin is on a mission: to "get LENS out to the public, to help as many people as possible," with this incredible, life-altering treatment technology.

The following is Dr. David Dubin introducing you to LENS Neurofeedback:

(double click on video picture for full screen)

The Goal is Health

2011-07-04T16:01:00.007-04:00

The Goal Is Health

As a chiropractor and health coach I routinely ask patients a few simple questions

Do you want to be healthy? Or, do you want to be sick?

How much do you value your health?

It’s a no-brainer! Everyone says they want to be healthy, and that they value their health.

And yet, so many of us are so sick; struggling with a host of daily symptoms, aches, pains, fatigue and stress, spending huge sums of money and innumerable hours and days of our lives in doctors' offices, hospitals and pharmacies, and even more time wrestling with insurance companies; living lives propped up on, and clouded by, a multi-pharmacy of lifetime medications. Not to mention, the time, money and effort spent caring for other sick family members. There are many reasons for this which I will expand upon in future blogs, but for now, let’s start at the beginning.

So, if everyone says they want to be healthy, and that they value their health, the real question is why are we so sick?

The bottom line is that we have lost sight, and understanding, of the real goal. How so?

What is your definition of health?

If you are like most of my patients, and the many health professionals I have asked, you are struggling with an answer to this simple, and most basic, question. I encourage you to ask others, especially your doctor.

The most common responses being:

1. the off the cuff answer: “feeling good.”

2. the dictionary answer: “the state of mental, physical and spiritual well being.”

3. the medical answer: “the absence of disease.”

None of these answers, least of all the medical one, define health. If anything, they describe some of the positive 'side-effects' of being healthy.

Lack of a clear definition almost certainly puts the goal out of reach. After all, one can 'feel good,' and be very unhealthy; a ticking time-bomb. The 'absence of disease,'..that merely indicates a sub-clinical condition, without overt symptoms, but not remotely robust health. Again, a ticking time bomb. 'A state of well being;' closer, but really only substitutes the words well being for health, and skirts the definition.

The more clearly a goal is defined and understood, the more likely it will be achieved.

Health is your body's innate capacity to maintain homeostasis (balance), and adapt to chemical, physical and emotional stressors that challenge that balance. Health, in other words, is your genetically hardwired set-point. You do not get healthy. You become sick. Disease is the absence of health!

Understanding this simple truth changes the paradigm. We can move away from our current failed disease-based , sickness care, so-called prevention oriented medical model as providers of health to a wellness model in which we nurture our innate capacity for health through informed and healthy daily lifestyle choices and actions.

After all, what's more important for, and will have a greater impact on, your health; worrying about your blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar and your weight, and taking a lifetime of multiple daily medications? Or, actively living a lifestyle that promotes health?

The question isn't so much; Do you want to be healthy? Or, do you value your health? as it is:

What are you WILLING TO DO, to change your life to nurture health verses create disease?

Featured Blogger

2011-06-26T20:01:00.007-04:00

Featured Blogger

Blogging:

"Never before have so many people written so much to be read by so few." (Katie Hafner, NYTimes)

I have been in communication with EverydayHealth.com, and if all goes well, I may be one of their featured bloggers.

Below is my intro and first submission. I will keep you posted.

Introducing: Hardwired4Health

I am writing this blog to help me express, and share, my evolving understanding of human health.

My opinions and original articles are based on my 25 years working as a chiropractor and health coach to thousands of patients and are supported by the literature I have read including articles, books, printed and on-line news, etc., and the information I have learned in the many seminars I have taken over the years.

As a holistic health practitioner, I see myself primarily as a health coach; as a guide to better health. It is my mission to help transform the lives of my patients by educating, motivating, coaching and successfully treating them so that they can live full, active and healthy lives.

My goals in writing this blog are simple:

1. To provide information to motivate you, and more importantly, to ignite positive action for you, to reclaim your health and the health of your family.

2. To expose and explode perpetuated medical misperceptions, mythologies and lies that distract us from our goal of health, undermine our instincts, and disarm us from taking personal responsibility for our health and living healthy lives.

How to BE healthy is no mystery, and is within grasp for most of us. After all, health is our set-point, our birth-right. Or, as the author/activist Michael Pollan so eloquently states, “Nature’s default is health.” Why so few of us believe that, and why health eludes most of us, is the bigger mystery.

The key to unraveling that mystery begins and ends in examining the sources and content of our beliefs that drive our habits. The bottom line is that health, for the most part, is a lifetime, lifestyle habit.

My blog may be challenging. I am honest, direct and blunt, and I will support my writing with links to respected sources.

As Morpheus says to Neo in The Matrix: “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing else.” And, as they say, the truth isn’t always pretty. But, knowing the truth, and acting on it, is the only way forward.

Men's Brains vs Women's Brains

2011-05-30T19:28:00.002-04:00

Well Done and funny!

Fraud: Plain $ Simple

2011-05-13T17:28:00.003-04:00

FRAUD: Plain $ Simple

Let's say you went to a car dealer and bought a new car that included a CD player that you paid for, as listed on the spec sheet. When the car was delivered there was no CD player.

Mistake, or fraud?

Let's say that this happened not just this once, and not just to you...but, that car dealers were doing this 10 million times per year.

Mistake, or fraud?

Now, let's imagine that in some bizarre way the car dealers not only kept the money, but blamed their customers for this problem. What do you think would follow? I'm thinking national news and prosecution for fraud.

Where's this going? Hold that thought, and read on....

--------------------------------------------------------------

10 Million Women Who Lack a Cervix Still Get Pap Tests

NYTimes By GINA KOLATA
Published: June 23, 2004

As many as 10 million women who have had hysterectomies and who no longer

have a cervix are still getting Pap tests, a new study finds.

The screening Pap test looks for precancerous cells in tissue scraped from a woman's cervix and can prevent what would otherwise be a common and deadly cancer. But testing most women without a cervix makes little sense, leads to false positives and wastes money.

The women in question do not include the 1.1 million who had a hysterectomy and still have a cervix, which is at the base of the uterus, nor the 2.2 million who had their uteruses and cervices removed because they had cancer or precancerous cells in their cervix. In both of these groups, Pap tests are warranted.

These women are being screened for cancer in an organ that they don't have.

No professional organization recommends Pap tests for most women without a cervix. The screening guidelines ''either have not been heard or have been ignored,'' the investigators wrote. No one is suggesting fraud or mendacity on the part of the doctors or laboratories (WHAT? WHY NOT? This isn't only unmitigated FRAUD, but also malpractice, and sexual assault!). Instead, Dr. Sirovich and others say,the situation seems to reflect doctors' habits (what about standards of care?!) and women's expectations.(Say what?! = blaming the patient!!)

When a woman does not have a cervix, a doctor scrapes cells from her vagina instead, sending them off to be examined. And that, cancer experts say, is problematic.

Vaginal cancer is exceedingly rare, and tests of vaginal cells are much more likely to result in false positives than they are to find vaginal cancers. A result is unnecessary vaginal biopsies that can result in their own false positives. As a result, women can end up having vaginal tissue removed to treat a cancer that is not even present. (Not to mention unnecessary procedures causing adverse events, psychological harm, and death!)

Dr. Alfred Berg, the former chairman of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which issues medical practice guidelines, said Pap tests in women without a cervix has been a longstanding issue. Since 1988 (23 years of fraud, and counting!), Dr. Berg said, the task force has issued more and more adamant statements against it, to little avail. (charge the docs with fraud, and it would stop tomorrow!)

''We're all fascinated as to why this should be,'' Dr. Berg said. In part, he said, it might be because the American public is convinced that cancer screening is an unmitigated good, making women and their doctors reluctant to give up a test as simple and popular as the Pap.

''We have a thing in this country about cancer screening (A thing? Medical disease screening, of all types, is their largest recruitment tool for care.) ,'' Dr. Berg said. ''It has a deep social value, and when evidence points in another direction (BS! There never was ANY evidence supporting the use of Pap tests in women without a cervix!) , people are very skeptical.''

Another possibility, Dr. Sirovich said, is that evaluations of doctors and health care systems count the percentage of women who have Pap tests, giving little incentive to advise against the tests. (treating the wallet and not the patient)

Gynecologists are also puzzled.

Dr. Kenneth Noller, an author of the cervical cancer screening guidelines issued by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which does not recommend Pap tests for most women who have had hysterectomies, said he suspected that a reason the test was being done in these women anyway was that doctors were used to it.

''It's a relatively cheap (at about $100 per test x 10 million/year = $ 1 billion dollars. That ain't cheap.)and easy procedure,'' he explained. ''It's sort of become a habit.'' (They're kidding, right? FRAUD: pure and simple, and generating big $$$)

Dr. Alan Waxman, another author of the obstetricians and gynecologists' guidelines said women expected the test. ''Many women equate the Pap test with the pelvic exam,'' Dr. Waxman said. ''So they come in every year for their Pap test even if they don't need it any more.''(Blame the patient! Who's in charge here?!)

Instead, he explained, doctors worry about the consequences for themselves if they counsel against a Pap test for the rare woman who turns out to have vaginal cancer. ''If the doctor didn't do a Pap test, then there's the litigation threat,'' he said. (Not true: the standard of care does NOT recommend a PAP test for women without a cervix)

Dr. Noller said he tried to dissuade women who do not need Pap tests. ''I will present the facts to them,'' he said. ''I will try to talk them out of it.'' But, he said, ''if they still insist, I would probably do it.'' (Say What?!! What self-serving nonsense and bad medical judgment! If they insisted on a leg amputation or kidney transplant, would he just go ahead and do it?)

Beyond Neurofeedback

2011-04-21T14:12:00.003-04:00

The following is a brief, and fascinating, glimpse into the future of brain imaging and neurofeedback

The Irony of Alternative Health

2011-04-12T14:01:00.004-04:00

The Irony of Alternative Care

As a chiropractor and LENS neurofeedback practitioner for many years, I have observed an interesting, and bizarre, irony related to many patients making a first time foray into alternative health. Fed up with years of invasive medical testing and procedures, unsuccessful care, and a plethora of drug cocktails (and their side effects), they enter the office apprehensive and skeptical.

And therein lies the first bit of irony.

I embrace their apprehension and skepticism, and wonder why it didn’t kick in years ago relative to their ongoing complaints and years of failed medical care; not to mention the more significant risks they accepted associated with that care.

But the real irony lies in their expectations of alternative care. They tend to hold alternative care in very low esteem (hence its last resort status), but at the same time, they expect it to fix them quickly; as in a matter of days, at most. In short, they expect a miracle. This always makes me wonder…if they thought it would help them that quickly, why didn’t they try it first?!

However, the ultimate irony, as I see it, must be from the patient’s perspective because a large number of them, with these chronic complaints, respond extremely well to a short course (within 4-6 weeks for chiropractic patients, and 4-6 visits with LENS patients) of non-invasive, extremely low risk conservative care in combination with practical self-help measures (with acute cases, most often, responding faster)....and leave wondering: "why didn't I try this a long time ago?"

Pure Joy!

2011-03-21T06:59:00.005-04:00

Pure Joy, A Magical Moment in Life...My beautiful daughter got married!

April May & Eric Schwarz

It doesn't get any better than this!

Optimizing the Brain

2011-03-06T09:51:00.003-05:00

LENS: Optimizing the Brain

The following is an article from the Berkshire Eagle:

Optimizing the Brain: process goes after negative effects of mental illness

By Amanda Korman, Berkshire Eagle Staff, Feb 28, 2011

The brain is a complicated country, the tools for treating its maladies always in rapid evolution. One man here has been utilizing a "low-energy" neurofeedback system, or LENS, since October to treat patients with mental illness. The apparently simple program of receiving frequencies to "correct" the brain's negative patterns, gaining ground in the medical community, has also yielded largely positive patient response.

North Adams practitioner Peter May said that LENS is applicable to problems including attention deficit, autism, migraines, insomnia, brain injury and anxiety.

"The brain sometimes gets stuck in maladaptive patterns," said May, a chiropractor by training. "[LENS] acts as a catalyst to activate your brain's self-regulatory capacity to optimize brain function."

May wields the LENS computer program and series of sensors that attach to the patient's earlobes and around the skull over a series of treatments.

Dr. Mary O'Malley, a psychiatrist at Berkshire Medical Center who has trained in neurofeedback, said LENS has a good reputation in her field. Its practitioners need not be physicians, she added.

"These [neurofeedback] are potent tools, and it's great to see that they're getting more use out in the medical system and elsewhere," she said.

O'Malley explained the process simply: "It looks at how the brain is a little bit stuck ... then asks the brain to shift out of being stuckusing low-impulse frequencies."

LENS won't help everybody, May said, but out of the 60 or so people he's treated since he started in October, only about 10 percent haven't seen improvements.

O'Malley pointed out that LENS is often used in conjunction with other clinical diagnosing techniques -- which May doesn't do. However, she said, even just the technology itself can be helpful.

That said, not all those who work with the brain feel as confident in LENS's potency on its own.

Beth Adams, a neuro-trauma rehabilitation specialist in Salem, is more circumspect that neurofeedback alone could create lasting change in a patient with a brain injury, which is one of the ailments May lists as being able to treat.

Adams, who is also on the board of directors for the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, wasn't familiar with LENS specifically, but said that a combination of therapy, medications and neuro-psychological evaluation are methods that could better facilitate brain-injury healing.

"If somebody is wanting to facilitate neurofeedback, look at the big picture to encompass all types of therapies," she said.

May feels that the patient responses speak for themselves.

May's patient Ashley, 17, who requested not to have her last name printed to protect her privacy, came to May for LENS treatment after years of poor luck treating ADD, depression and anxiety. She dropped out of high school after her junior year because of emotional problems that medications like Wellbutrin and Paxil weren't ameliorating.

As of this week, Ashley has received four LENS treatments, and her mother said her improvement in mood was almost instant.

"She used to say, ‘I just want to know what's wrong with my brain,'" her mother said. "When we left his office [the first time], she said, ‘I feel like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders."

At May's request, patients write a record of their feelings after treatment, and the compilation has a litany of stories like Ashley's -- the somber, difficult child who suddenly is willing to rake leaves with his siblings; the parents who stop yelling at their children; the depressive kid who begins to take an interest in a sick relative. People also reported negative effects, like spikes in anger, which May believes is the brain's way of beginning to address its dysfunction.

"This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen," May said, gesturing at the book of comments he keeps in his office. "I could read this forever."

Ashley's mother said she is still somewhat dubious of the method. However, she pointed out, the price of treatment -- $160 the first time; $60 after that -- is on par with what she'd spend on her daughter's medications anyway, and May never promised her instant healing.

In short, it doesn't seem like a gimmick, she said -- that, and it seems to be working.

"I was very skeptical, and I still am," her mother said. "But I can honestly say that I have seen a change in [Ashley] since we started the program."

Ashley said that her anxiety is gone, she's more comfortable in social situations and is having an easier time concentrating while working toward her GED and looking for a job. She's still seeing her psychiatrist but is off all her medications, her mother said.

"This has helped me more than any medication or any therapy session has in my entire life," Ashley said.

O'Malley, the BMC psychiatrist, said that LENS and neurofeedback is a treatment alternative that she views as a useful tool in the difficult terrain of mental illness.

"In general, I think people should be their own judge and not look to this as a panacea, obviously," she said. "But very plausibly it could be a better solution to existing problems if they haven't gotten relief elsewhere."

LENS: Up Close & Personal

2011-02-20T14:36:00.002-05:00

LENS: Up Close & Personal

I continue to be amazed at the results I am getting with patients using LENS (Low Energy Neurofeedback System).

Most recently, I am most amazed by my own experience.

In early October 2010, I was trained and certified as a LENS Practitioner. It was also the last time I was treated. Since then patients in my office often ask; “Were you treated with LENS? And, what did it do for you?”

Up until recently, my response has been:

“Personally, I am sleeping much better. I had been waking up every 90 minutes throughout the night. Since LENS, I wake only 1-2 times a night. My dreams have become incredibly vivid to the extent that when I do wake at night, I can go back to sleep and pick up my dream where I left off…and, there is nothing better than me as an action hero, in tights, all night long. Also, my reading retention has improved.”

That’s all well and good, but nothing compared to some of the profound life-changing results many of my patients are experiencing. It’s almost the more dysfunctional the brain is, the more ‘like-wow!’ the response to LENS.

My improvement, like that of my patients, has been consistent after treatment, with one new, quite shocking, personal realization.

In the past 4-6 weeks I have encountered a major life stressor. For several reasons, I had to close my practice in Northampton, MA. As you would imagine, deciding to close, facing up to my decisions and choices, confronting co-tenants, and walking away from a big investment were all very stressful. About two weeks into the close/move, I realized something remarkable. I was going through the process without any of the anxiety and insanity that have characterized me in the past in similar stressful situations. No second guessing, anxiety, or depression about my decision. No bolting awake at night. No minor panic attacks, cold sweats or nervous stomach. And, no irritability, or acting-out, at home.

It took me ‘hitting a wall of stress’ to unveil my personal ‘like-wow’ experience, to realize the profound ways in which LENS has helped me.

Tribute to Jack LaLanne

2011-01-29T17:43:00.007-05:00

My Tribute to Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne, ‘the founder of the modern fitness movement,’ died at the age of 96. He was a showman and a salesman. He was passionate in his message, and his message was spot on correct. It was a message of health.

In 1936 Jack LaLanne “opened the prototype for the fitness spas to come — a gym, juice bar and health food store — in an old office building in Oakland. The Jack LaLanne Show made its debut in 1951 as a local program in the San Francisco area, and then went nationwide on daytime television in 1959.”

Had Americans heeded his advice back then, and ignored the advice of their doctors and the AMA, we would have been a much healthier nation and tens of millions of lives would have been spared the devastation and death of the chronic lifestyle degenerative diseases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and more.

According to Jack LaLanne, “the doctors were against me — they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive.” Oops. What an amazing, glaring, costly (in terms of disease, death and money) and self-serving ignorance of health that turned out to be a financial bonanza for the medical-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial complex.

And this was far from the first, or last, time they have been so wrong. In fact, I refer to it as ‘creating the next generation of users’ (of medical/pharmaceutical care and insurance).

“Back in the 1930’s, the AMA played a role in establishing cigarettes as a popular product. The AMA helped develop, and then accepted in its journal, advertisements that made cigarettes appear to be a physician endorsed product.” In fact, in the 1940’s, cigarette makers regularly used ‘science’ and physicians in their ads to sell cigarettes. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” "cool and soothing to the back of the throat"…fueling the rise of lung disease and death from emphysema and cancer. Oops.

The 1950’s brought the cholesterol scare. The combination of food industry and medical science and doctors began to scare people away from eating natural animal fats in favor of the synthetic trans fats vastly contributing to the rise of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and death over the subsequent decades. Oops.

And now, doctors are scaring people out of the sun in favor of the full-body application of chemical sunscreens for life, creating a pandemic of vitamin D deficiency. “Individuals with low levels of vitamin D appear to have a higher risk of death from all causes, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.” Oops.

Why is none of this surprising? What would you expect from an industry that focuses on, and profits from, disease and disease care; generating $2.6 trillion dollars in 2006 ($86,000/second), projected to be $4.3 trillion ($136,000/second) by 2017?

Jack LaLanne was a chiropractor. His message was/is the message of chiropractic health; that health is the innate set-point and possible throughout our lives if we safeguard and nurture it with proper exercise and nutrition…a simple, elegant, and irrefutable message. Why is it so hard for people to believe?

Worth watching. As they say, it harks back to a more innocent time.

Lies & Illusions

2011-01-16T08:33:00.006-05:00

One of my missions in my practice is to help patients reclaim and improve their lives by understanding and reclaiming their health.

My other mission is to respond to all fraudulent, irresponsible and misleading stories about health in the media that distort the truth and perpetuate medical mythology.

The following is another letter to the editor about an AP article that appeared in my local papers.

--------------------------------

“Statistics are most often used as a drunk uses a lamppost, more for support than illumination.” So it is with your story “Alternative Meds Can Harm Children,” supporting the false notion that natural and alternative therapies are dangerous and medical procedures and drugs are safe. This article is misleading in that it lacks perspective.

An article in JAMA: Vol 284, No 4, 07/26/2000 by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, of Johns Hopkins, shows that medical errors may be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

“There are 2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery; 7000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals; 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals; 80,000 deaths/year from infections in hospitals; 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications - these total up to 225,000 deaths per year in the US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as the # 3 killer. More than two million American hospitalized patients suffered a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) within the 12-month period of the study and, of these, over 100,000 died as a result. Over 75 per cent of these ADRs were dose-dependent, which suggests they were due to the inherent toxicity of the drugs rather than to allergic reactions. The data did not include fatal reactions caused by accidental overdoses or errors in administration of the drugs. If these had been included, it is estimated that another 100,000 deaths would be added to the total every year.”

Shockingly, all medical adverse events are reported voluntarily; estimated at only 1 to 10% of the real problem. So, the actual number of doctor-induced deaths is a multiple of that reported. And, there is no way to know how many of those who die are children.

Anything can harm children, and many things do. It is wrong to scare people away from natural treatments. In many, if not most, cases they are superior to, and less dangerous than, medical approaches in that they rely on the body’s innate capacity for healing. On the other hand, good parenting acknowledges the important role of medical care in emergencies and life-threatening illness.

My Year (2010) in Quotes

2011-01-02T11:51:00.006-05:00

As I speak with patients, sometimes I am surprised what comes out of my mouth. The following are what I believe to be original quotes:

Life is an Education: So Live and Learn, and Learn to Live

To become the person you want to be, you first have to know the person you are.

The fountain of youth is health.

If you don’t put your health first, at some point everything else will be second.

Your life is a work in progress. If you are willing to do the work, you will see the progress.

Health is a lifetime, lifestyle commitment.

If you are not in control of your health, someone else is.

Intuition is hardwired.

How can we expect to have a healthy planet, when we don’t understand how to create health within ourselves?

How can we expect responsible corporations and government, when we ourselves are irresponsible?

How can we expect honesty from others, when we are dishonest with ourselves?

How can we have respect for a higher power, when we so disrespect the miraculous gifts we have been given in our health, our life, and our world?

The Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

My Platinum Rule: Take personal responsibility in all aspects of your life.

Depressed Fish

2010-12-23T14:33:00.010-05:00

Depressed Fish

I recently came across this quote from an article titled: Advances in How to Think About and Treat Depression.

“A new way to identify medicines that might make it into the clinic is to use fish to screen rapidly through chemicals that act like existing antidepressants. When placed in stressful situations, zebrafish displayed *depression-like behavior, which was reversed when the fish were given Prozac. This finding not only shows that stress can lead to *depression even in fish, it provides a new model to test anti-depressants.” (*notice the bait-and-switch in language from depression-like behavior to the definitive, depression)

This study clearly also supports the practice of flushing medications down the toilet so they can enter the ground water, rivers and streams. Apparently, fish need Prozac too. Have you ever seen a depressed fish? They look all glossy-eyed and green around the gills.

Suicide among depressed fish is way up. Many are knowingly swimming into fisherman’s nets, or taking the bait to get caught. The larger depressed fish, and some fish-like mammals, are even purposefully beaching themselves in large numbers. This has to stop. Now that we know fish display ‘depression-like behavior,’ it would be unethical to deny them anti-depressant drugs.

This begs several hard questions

1. What are the fish depressed about? Global warming? The BP oil spill?…the same stuff as us?

2. What is harder: to diagnose depression in fish, or depression in children as young as 2?

3. If fish are taking anti-depressants, do they still need to see their shrink?

4. Is Prozac alone enough, or should depressed fish also be taking Abilify as an ‘add-on to treat their depression?’

5. If anti-depressant use among Americans has doubled, is there a corresponding increase in use among American fish?

6. If fish suffer from depression, do they also suffer from Erectile Dysfunction? Restless Fin Syndrome? Overactive Bladder?

7. Would Ritalin help young fish do better in their schools?

8. Do fish abuse drugs in the water, or just drink them ‘as-needed’?

9. Where does PETA stand on all of this?

They call this ‘Advances in how to think about and treat depression’! Yikes.

Insanity, garbage science, and kidding aside, if you want the low-down and truth on the treatment of depression and ‘mental illness’ in America, Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker is a must read.

“We cannot trust psychiatry, as a profession. For the past twenty-five years, the psychiatric establishment has told us a false story. It told us that schizophrenia, depression and bipolar illness are known to be brain diseases, even though it can’t direct us to any scientific studies that document this claim. It told us that psychiatric medications fix chemical imbalances in the brain, even though decades of research failed to find this to be true. It told us that Prozac and other second-generation psychotropics were much better and safer than the first generation drugs, even though the clinical studies had shown no such thing. Most important of all, the psychiatric establishment failed to tell us that the drugs worsen long-term outcomes.

Psychiatry told us stories that protected the image of its drugs, and that storytelling has led to harm done on a grand and terrible scale. Four million American adults under the age of sixty-five years old are on SSI or SSDI today because they are disabled by mental illness. One in every fifteen young adults (eighteen to twenty six years old) is functionally impaired by mental illness. Some 250 children and adolescents are added to the SSI rolls daily because of mental illness. The numbers are staggering, and still the epidemic-making machinery rolls on, with two-year olds in our country now being treated (drugged) for bi-polar illness.”

Coming of Age

2010-12-15T20:24:00.003-05:00

Coming of Age

My son, Max, got his driver's license today!

At the age of 12 he stood before the North Adams City Council, a hostile group of elders, and asked for the impeachment of George W. Bush.

On that day, he became a man. Today, he can drive.

Counterpoint to Medical Mythology

2010-12-12T15:16:00.004-05:00

Personal responsibility key to health

Letter to the Editor

Sunday December 5, 2010

The Nov. 25 article "Family history key to health" is misleading. While the family history can contribute to understanding the clinical picture and, in some cases, may help guide diagnostic and treatment decisions and protocols, it far from 'the secret to great health and longevity.'

This article strongly contributes to the outdated and false notion that "you are your genes," a notion that undermines the far more important, and true secret to health, personal responsibility in lifestyle choices. It has been estimated that genes account for only 25-30 percent of your health destiny, while lifestyle choices and exposures account for 70-75 percent.

The article falsely implies that "numerous health scourges, including cancers of the colon, breast and uterus; early coronary and vascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, arthritis" and more are genetic diseases, when in fact they are not. They are chronic degenerative diseases associated with lifestyle choices. Their strongest link with family history has way more to do with growing up in the family home, adopting the same family lifestyle choices (eating and exercise habits and coping skills), and having the same environmental exposures.

Way too often inaccurate and false media stories such as this perpetuate medical mythologies that support widespread public misconceptions and fears about health. Misguided beliefs, such as genetic pre-determinism, undermine health by short-circuiting personal responsibility and the positive actions people can take to optimize their health.

The fact is that genetic diseases are rare. The fact is that you have the ability to maximize your genetic potential for health by the decisions you make on a daily basis about what you choose to eat, how much exercise and sunlight you choose to get, and how you choose to think, interact and cope with people and your world.

PETER D. MAY

North Adams

Understanding The Brain

2010-11-28T17:41:00.003-05:00

Understanding the Brain

Over the past several years I have read many fascinating books about the human brain, including: The Brain That Changes Itself, The Accidental Mind, Evolve Your Brain, Mapping the Brain, The Other Brain, The Mind and the Brain, Phantoms in the Brain, The Synaptic Self, and more. But, there is no better, more comprehensive, and concise summary of the structure and function of the human brain than that given here.

Looking at LENS

2010-11-15T09:05:00.003-05:00

Looking @ LENS Neurofeedback

I’ve been a chiropractor since 1986. Using the powerful combination of chiropractic and good advice, I have seen, and will continue to see, many wonderful and amazing patient responses and results with a wide range of body aches and pains.

I’ve been a LENS practitioner for about a month. I have never seen anything like it, in terms of how quickly, dramatically, and profoundly results are realized, often starting after the first treatment.

I can’t say it better than the patients themselves.

51 year old female: problem list: ‘post-traumatic stress, anxiety, grief, fibromyalgia, insomnia, vertigo, trouble organizing thoughts.’

Day after treatment: ‘no insomnia, slept through the night.’

Next day: ‘accomplished many errands in the morning, managed to pack for the weekend and leave at 1pm in order to drive an hour to the train station (on time)! This is a huge improvement for me because I’m a procrastinator and always running late. I even stopped in at my mom’s house for a visit.’ That night in NYC: ‘slept soundly all night. Next night in NYC ‘more difficult falling asleep, windows were open and city noises were disturbing. I sat up in bed to read and write—lots of creative ideas to get on paper---then fell asleep for the rest of the night.’

37 year old female: problem list: long term history ‘post-traumatic stress, anxiety, anger outbursts, no energy.’

Day after treatment: ‘less anger-that anger or anxiety knot that was in my stomach all the time seems to have went away….breathe much easier.’

29 year old male: problem list: confusion, general anxiety, being worried a lot to the point of frustration (behavioral outbursts), putting problems off…lifetime anxiety medication.

Day of 1^st treatment: ‘tired/relaxed, calm, more clear thinking.’

Next day: ‘slept well, very energetic all morning and day…accomplished a lot around house/yard, still felt calm and clearer thinking. Wife was sick, so I took care of all the house/kids…played more with them and still was calm, quiet. In a situation late afternoon my friend did something to my wife (grabbed her arm)…in a matter of seconds I got angry..I went from a 1 to a 10 in seconds and back to a 1 and got it under control myself very quickly.

2^nd day: very similar results…calm, quiet, sleeping well, getting more alert.

After 2^nd treatment: as soon as I left Dr. May’s office for about 3-5 hours I felt so much laughter and humor it was unreal…the most I have felt in years. More confidence in self decisions and overall feeling more confident. My worriedness and anxiety have been great. The treatment has given me more confidence and less thinking time about decisions in my life, making it overall easier and much better to handle stressful conditions in work and home life.’

Next day:’My boss at work noticed changes in me…calmer and more focused. My kids have noticed changes.’

After 3^rd treatment: ‘a more balanced lifestyle/mood..also my daily meds have become more stabile…my medication usage is minimal since I have been treated. I feel that my mind and thoughts are normal and balanced.’

60 year old female: problem list: chronic pain, fatigue, forgetfulness, restless leg syndrome

After 1^st treatment: ‘I had decrease overall pain. I felt more aware, brighter.’

After 2^nd treatment: ‘Pain continues to decrease.’

After 3^rd treatment: ‘Pain still improving. Increase energy level.’

42 year old male: problem list: ‘problem falling asleep and sleeping, memory, fatigue, concentrating’

After 1^st treatment: ‘I fell asleep with no problem 6 out of 7 nights. If I woke up, I was able to fall back to sleep with no problems. This has not happened in a very long time. No leg shakes at night.’

50 year old male: problem: Lyme Disease: ‘chronic muscle/joint pain and tightness, especially neck, shoulders and entire left side of body and knees…inconsistent energy levels and sleep patterns.’

After 1^st treatment: ‘first 48 hours less pain and tightness in shoulders/neck….also, my body felt lighter. Muscles have mostly returned to previous patterns. Perhaps over time and with additional sessions, these changes will hold. 80% less pain and inflammation in right knee. This change has held to date.’

16 year old male: problem list: ‘anxiety, nervousness, OCD about appearance.’

After 1^st treatment: ‘I felt more alert, easier to put thoughts together and more apt to do work in school…less rages of anger, but instead, rages of happiness. For some reason I haven’t thought about my neck pain as much and haven’t had any typical things that would put me in a bad mood over almost nothing. I stayed more focused on school work than normal. I woke up feeling alert.’

While there have been a few people with little, to no, response to LENS, these dramatic, life-changing results in most patients is an incredible beginning!

Certified LENS Neurofeedback Practitioner

2010-10-24T21:36:00.008-04:00

Dr. Peter D May, Certified LENS Neurofeedback Practitioner

MINDbody Health

Dr Peter D May has completed training and is now certified as a LENS Neurofeedback practitioner.

LENS Neurofeedback is a revolutionary treatment. Whereas other forms of traditional neuro and biofeedback require active patient learning, and use some form of sensory feedback to specifically train the brain, LENS Neurofeedback’s remarkable success is based on a passively applied subtle, imperceptible low energy signal that frees the brain to fix and optimize itself.

Neuroscientists believe that the brain’s defenses against stressors, trauma and functional problems can create neural blockages, like traffic jams going from five lanes to one. The Low Energy Neurofeedback System’s (LENS) signal is so subtle that it can work around these defenses. Addressing the brain in its own electromagnetic language, LENS seems to open the way, getting traffic flowing again, allowing the brain to restore itself, and optimize function. This, almost routinely, results in patient reports of increased energy, focus and clarity in thinking.

Because LENS addresses and helps correct brain dysfunction, it works very well for a wide variety of conditions. LENS is very effective in treating the affective/emotional component related to anxiety, depression, insomnia, (PTSD) post-traumatic stress, impulsive or explosive behavior, anger, fatigue, and lack of motivation, among other things. It also helps with cognitive problems associated with ADD/ADHD, stroke, (TBI) traumatic brain injury, some learning disabilities, and more. It is also helpful in decreasing pain in brain-generated pain syndromes including some types of fibromyalgia and migraine headache.

Many people see broad improvements very quickly, often within the first 2 to 4 sessions: especially related to better focus, increased energy level and improved mood. Anxiety and depression lift. Insomniacs sleep better. ADHD kids regain focus. Athletes perform. Artists create. And, because the brain wants to be balanced and functional, once shown the way, the improvement, in most patients, is enduring.

For more information, a free consultation, and to receive introductory rates, call Dr. May at: 413.664.9050, or email at, docmay@gmail.com. Dr. May has offices in Northampton and North Adams.

Note: portions of the above have been used and modified (with permission) from a LENS brochure written by David A. Dubin, MD

My Journey Into LENS Neurofeedback

2010-10-08T12:12:00.008-04:00

My Journey Into LENS Neurofeedback

In December of ’09 I began investigating LENS (Low Energy Nerve Stimulation) Neurofeedback by going to LA to shadow my friend, Dr David Dubin. He has been working with neurofeedback for over four years, and LENS, specifically, for the past two. His enthusiasm and stories of dramatic and fast results in treating patient with significant problems piqued my curiosity. And so, my journey into LENS began.

I followed-up my first trip with a second. Between trips I read two books, The Healing Power of Neurofeedback and The Symphony in the Brain. I also downloaded and read everything I could find on LENS. The more I read the more intrigued I became. I recall saying aloud; ‘If half of this is true, it is incredible.” The results far surpasses any medical, psychiatric, psychological and alternative treatments for conditions that are difficult to treat at best, and often remain refractory to all care; all, without drugs and barely with any active participation on the part of the patient.

How could that be?

On both trips I interviewed Dr Dubin’s patients. It was hard to believe, but 100% reported positive improvement in a very short time with problems that had been longstanding and resistant to a whole spectrum of lifetime therapies. I also interviewed two psychotherapists who referred patients for LENS. One even caught herself saying; “I guess I could say that I lost a long-term patient to David, as he got better.”

So, here I am in LA to begin my training, with Len Ochs, PhD himself (the creator of the technology) to become a certified LENS Neurofeedback practitioner. I really could not be more excited about the possibilities I will have to help people improve their lives by reclaiming their health.

This seems like a natural next step for me as my interest and reading, for the past 2-3 years has been focused primarily on the brain. And, while I am in awe of the human body as a whole, the brain is, perhaps, the most wonderful and extraordinary achievement of evolution.

While it is astonishing and fascinating for instance, that the stomach specializes in digestion and the lungs in oxygen exchange, the mechanisms are easily understood in terms of anatomy and physiology. The brain, on the other hand, composed of over 100 billion neurons with trillions and trillions of connections is far from easily understood, It is essentially ‘a three pound gelatinous hunk of thinking, conscious, loving, dreaming meat,’ the source of our humanness.

The brain undergoes a miraculous embryological development in only 9 months to a level of structural and physiological complexity that boggles the mind. Combined with its role in basal survival mechanisms, its capacity for limitless conscious and sub-conscious interpretations of its interactions with the environment and other beings, and its vulnerability to injury, it is nothing less than amazing that we’re not all dysfunctional. Perhaps we are, but to varying degrees.

As such, we can all benefit from LENS.

Redefining Quackery II

2010-09-19T12:06:00.002-04:00

Re-Defining Quackery II

First it was Extreme Makeover, and now we have BridalPlasty; the marriage of medicine and reality TV. As hard as this is to believe, I am not making this up.

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E! orders plastic surgery bridal competition

EXCLUSIVE: 'Bridalplasty' contestants vie to be 'perfect bride'

By James Hibberd Sept 16, 2010, 01:19 AM ET

In one of the most shocking reality TV ideas yet, E! has ordered a new series that crosses a wedding competition with extreme plastic surgery.

The network is set to announce "Bridalplasty," where brides-to-be compete in wedding-themed challenges to win extensive surgical procedures.

Each week, a group of women competes head-to-head in such challenges as writing wedding vows and planning honeymoons. The winner receives the chance to choose a plastic surgery procedure from her "wish list." She's given the procedure immediately, and results are shown at the start of the following week's episode.

One by one, the women are voted out by their competitors and, according to the show's description, "possibly walking away with nothing and losing [their] chance to be the perfect bride."

The last bride standing will receive a "dream wedding," where she will reveal her new appearance to friends, family and the groom. "Viewers will witness his emotional and possibly shocked reaction as they stand at the altar and he lifts her veil to see her for the first time following her extreme plastic surgery," E! said.

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Could medicine debase itself more? Unnecessary medical care for entertainment is beyond quackery. It’s repugnant! What does this say about medicine, and what does it say about our American culture?

I think the article comments say it best:

Laura comments: I think this is awful, but I'll still totally watch it. Like a car crash.

Disgusted comments: Please tell me this is an Onion article. Wow, what a horrible idea.

bildungsroman comments: I used to have a teeny, tiny bit of faith in humanity. It's gone now.

unbelievable comments: What a terrible show this will be!! A complete low. Ha

C comments: Where is the Pride?

aney comments: This show is an all time low. How embarrassing.

Jesus comments: I wept.

And my personal favorite:

steve comments: No wonder terrorists hate us

When I think about it for a moment, I guess I am not all that surprised. After all, drug commercials that pervade television are nothing more than a fusion of medicine and entertainment posing as infomercials: actors portraying doctors, scripted and quoting corporate sponsored studies which amount to nothing more than science-fiction.

What’s next, medical family theme parks? I can see it now:

The Abilify (bi-polar) roller-coaster

The Pepsid (upset stomach) bumper cars

The Toviaz (overactive bladder) water slide

The Viagra (erectile dysfunction) tunnel of love

The Prozac (anti-anxiety/panic attack) house of horrors

The Alli (weight reduction) hall of mirrors

And, the Lunesta (sleep disorders) family rest areas

Toxic Chemicals, A New Evolutionary Pressure

2010-09-08T12:54:00.007-04:00

Toxic Chemicals; A New Evolutionary Pressure

Never having read Darwin in depth, I can only offer my simple summary of evolution as ‘natural selection and adaptation/descent with modification’ over long periods of time.

I recently finished reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.

My primary walk-away point:

Nothing is solid, especially human epithelium; the layer of cells that line the cavities and surface structures throughout our bodies. The epithelium, in its protective role, is more of filter than a barrier, and not a great one at that.

The cornucopia of chemicals, many of them toxic, that we are routinely exposed to; that we inhale, ingest (chemical foods, pesticides, etc, and drugs), touch (chemical fire retardants and stain protectors in furniture, household cleansers, laundry soaps, etc), and apply to our bodies (personal hygiene products) are absorbed by our bodies and enter our blood. We all, including newborns, have circulating levels of toxic chemicals in our blood; including mercury (from fish), BPA’s (from plastics and linings of canned products, etc.), phthalates (in shampoos, shaving gels, household products and children’s toys, etc.), and more. As the authors succinctly say, “We’re all marinating in chemicals every day.”

One part of the book I found fascinating had to do with the ubiquitous chemical, triclosan.

We live in a germ-phobic world and any fear can, and usually is, exploited for profit: create and build fear and sell the antidote. In this case, triclosan is the chemical industry’s Holy Grail anti-bacterial. As such, and as you would imagine, chemical companies are putting it everywhere, from hand soaps and toothpastes, to toothbrushes.

The simple point being that the daily use of normal household and personal hygiene products result in personal pollution that spikes the body’s blood levels of triclosan, and other chemicals.

When the author asked a scientist if he should be worried about the extremely high levels of triclosan in his urine the response was: “It shows that your body is working properly in removing triclosan. It is high for the moment. But, you should know that the human body usually adapts in the metabolism of triclosan.”

Whoa!

The authors go on to say: “The concept that our bodies need to adapt to synthetic chemicals is an interesting one. Given that triclosan is a human creation, the metabolic pathways necessary to break it down and excrete it are indeed things that our bodies need to learn how to do.”

The authors continue” The huge number of synthetic chemicals that surround us every day of our lives is creating a new kind of evolutionary pressure, a new kind of natural selection every bit as powerful as the process that resulted in human populations developing lighter or darker skin pigments in response to prevailing climatic conditions. Because of the increasing evidence that many human illnesses—including fatal ones like cancer—are linked to exposure to chemical pollution and because some people’s bodies are better able to adapt to and cope with these new environmental stressors than others , perhaps the human population is being culled by toxic chemicals.”

Whoa, and whoa again!! This is the essence of evolution, adaption and descent with modification; that some of us are ‘genetically predisposed to deal with the daily assault of toxic chemicals and some are not.’

The idea of genetic adaptation, modification and selection for toxic chemical hardiness or ‘immunity’ for survival is mind bending. That this survival mechanism of evolution has been ‘built-in’ since the first life forms, to adapt to an ever-changing environment, is the epitome of perfection.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one: and that whilst this planet has gone on cycling according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species.

Tainted Eggs and Scrambled Tubing

2010-08-27T09:14:00.012-04:00

Tainted Eggs and Scrambled Tubes

Two recent news stories caught my eye. Both are fairly common stories of public health hazards, but the results and reaction to both are stunningly different. Where do the real dangers lie? You decide.

Headline #1: AP:Associated Press, updated 8/20/2010

Recall expands to more than half a billion eggs

“Investigation of nationwide salmonella outbreak expands to 2nd Iowa farm

A half-billion eggs have been recalled in the nationwide investigation of a salmonella outbreak that Friday expanded to include a second Iowa farm. More than 1,000 people have already been sickened and the toll of illnesses is expected to increase.” (so far, no deaths)

How many times have we heard this story of a ‘nationwide salmonella outbreak; be it hamburger meat, tomatoes, spinach, and now eggs? In any event, the response to this public health hazard, where occasionally a few people die and many are made ill, is swift, decisive and far-reaching. The meat-packing plant and/or farm producer is shut down, and there are massive nationwide recalls of the suspected tainted animal or plant product.

Headline #2: NYTimes 08-20-2010, by Gardiner Harris

U.S. Inaction Lets Look-Alike Tubes Kill Patients

“Thirty-five weeks pregnant, Robin Rodgers was vomiting and losing weight, so her doctor hospitalized her and ordered that she be fed through a tube until the birth of her daughter.

But in a mistake that stemmed from years of lax federal oversight of medical devices, the hospital mixed up the tubes. Instead of snaking a tube through Ms. Rodgers’s nose and into her stomach, the nurse instead coupled the liquid-food bag to a tube that entered a vein.

Putting such food directly into the bloodstream is like pouring concrete down a drain. Ms. Rodgers was soon in agony. They soon learned that the baby had died…And then Robin Rodgers — 24 years old and already the mother of a 3-year-old boy — died on July 18, 2006, as well.

Their deaths were among hundreds of deaths or serious injuries that researchers have traced to tube mix-ups. But no one knows the real toll, because this kind of mistake, like medication errors in general, is rarely reported(*1). A 2006 survey of hospitals found that 16 percent had experienced a feeding tube mix-up.

Experts and standards groups have advocated since 1996 that tubes for different functions be made incompatible — just as different nozzles at gas stations prevent drivers from using the wrong fuel. But action has been delayed by resistance from the medical-device industry and an approval process at the Food and Drug Administration that can discourage safety-related changes."

How many times have we heard this story of doctor/treatment-induced (iatrogenic) patient death; be it from unnecessary surgery, to hospital-acquired infections, to adverse drug reactions, and medical tubing mix-ups, among others?

However, contrary to salmonella outbreaks where many are sickened and few, if any die, medical mishaps, which are ‘rarely reported,’ are killing people, an estimated 800,000 people per year, and are, by far, the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S. To be fair, ‘to err is human,’ and many presenting patients are seriously ill requiring drastic measures that raise all risks. However, even if 800,000 deaths per year is a gross exaggeration by a factor of four, 200,000 (*2) deaths per year by medical error would still be one of the leading causes of death.

There just is no comparison between illness and death caused by salmonella and those caused by medical error.

However, unlike the reaction to a salmonella scare, the response to chronic widespread, systemic medical mishaps is dismissal, denial and obstructionism by the AMA, the pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of medical devices, and the FDA.

They have us afraid of the wrong things.

------------------------

Important Notes:

(*1) "More than 250,000 side effects linked to prescription drugs, including injuries and deaths, are reported each year. And those "adverse-event" reports by doctors and others are only filed voluntarily. Experts, including Strom, believe the reports represent as few as 1% to 10% of all such events. "There's no incentive at all for a physician to report [an adverse drug reaction]," said Strom, who has documented the phenomenon. "The underreporting is vast."

(*2) JAMA. 12-21-1994 Error in medicine: "180,00 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury, the equivalent of three jumbo-jets crashes every 2 days." This is what was acknowledged in 1994. In light of note (*1) above..."the under-reporting is vast," 180,000 represents only a fraction of the problem, perhaps as little as 1% to 10%. And, the problem has only gotten worse since then.

Redefining Quackery

2010-08-09T20:20:00.005-04:00

Redefining Quackery

“Medicine is the science and art of healing . It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness.” A noble standard, if only it was true.

Medicine, like so much in our society, has lost its way. And, in its wake, like that of the financial institutions that rig the markets and steal, and corporations that pollute our environment and our bodies, there is a very human toll.

But medicine, a business purportedly centered on ‘maintaining and restoring human health,’ as such, and unlike financial institutions and corporations, requires higher standards.

But, sadly, so much of its practice has devolved into pure ‘quackery’ (to borrow a word so often brandished by the AMA, in their never-ending war for market dominance).

“Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. The word "quack" derives from the archaic word "quacksalver," of Dutch origin, meaning "boaster who applies a salve." In the Middle Ages the word quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares on the market shouting in a loud voice.”

On TV, on any given evening, on any channel, the drug companies are ‘boasting’ their life-saving health elixirs that promise anything from safe 3+hour erections to thicker and longer eyelashes; from legal uppers and downers, to sleep aids, from prescription skin rejuvenators to prescription fish oils, to fast-acting pre-meal heartburn and upset stomach pills that encourage us to eat whatever we want, especially foods our bodies would otherwise reject.

All of these elixirs and more have several things in common: little, to nothing, to do with ‘restoring health or preventing disease’, all have side-effects, ranging from mild to lethal, all are generating huge profits for Big Pharma, and all require a prescription and a visit to the pharmaceutical companies’ sanctioned retailers and legal drug dealers, doctors.

Add to that medical quackery in the form of cosmetic surgery: lip and breast augmentations, vaginal labia reductions, hair implants and laser hair removal; not-to-mention, abdominal implants and ‘sketching’ for men.

Clearly these are drugs and procedures in search of markets and have virtually nothing to do with medicine, ‘as the art and science of healing.’ It is all part of a far broader problem, the medicalization of life: the expanding of diagnoses and narrowing of the definition of normal, using constant repetition and playing on our fears and insecurities, to convince us that our bodies are inadequate, and that every possible symptom, from headache, to shyness, sadness to stomach ache, anything and everything, are conditions that require cure, instead of say, introspection and change.

Combine all of that with the fact that only an estimated 15% of everything that doctors do is backed by hard scientific evidence. Most of the rest is supported by anecdotal evidence, perpetuated mythology (ie: chemical imbalances in the brain, cholesterol), or self-serving, fraudulent corporate-sponsored science fiction. Consider only the field of invasive cardiology: “the data from clinical trials are clear: Except in a minority of patients with severe disease, bypass operations don’t prolong life or prevent future heart attacks; nor does angioplasty.” And yet, as of 2005, cardiologists performed about 400,000 bypass surgeries and over 1 million angioplasties per year. In fact, the evidence, by far, supports lifestyle changes of a healthy diet and exercise to significantly decrease the risk, not only of heart attack, but of all diseases. But, doctors, hospitals and drug companies do not make money on patient health.

A model of health that shamelessly promotes disease and passive medical consumerism, creating lifetime career patients, is not only quackery; it is dangerous to our health, producing untold numbers of patient victims of that care.

First Do No Harm

2010-07-26T21:57:00.006-04:00

First Do No Harm

On August 24^th, 1987 US District Court Judge Susan Getzendanner ruled that the AMA (American Medical Association) and its officials “instituted a boycott of chiropractors. The purpose of the boycott was to contain and eliminate the chiropractic profession. This conduct constituted a conspiracy among the AMA and its members and an unreasonable restraint of trade in violation of Section I of the Sherman (Anti-Trust) Act.”

Does this represent an isolated case of the AMA’s persecution to ‘contain and eliminate’ a competing profession and/or effective alternative treatment outside of the medical drug paradigm? No way!

Case closed: has the AMA stopped this type of persecution? No way! It is woven into the very core of their history and their ongoing mission; a medical-pharmaceutical monopoly.

The history of the AMA is a compelling read of personal and political power and corruption entwined with corporate interests, profits and greed; the usual suspects.

In 1909, Abraham Flexner, a teacher ( with no other qualifications), backed by the corporate interests of the Carnegie Foundation, with personal family ties to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Education, issued The Flexner Report. This superficial and prejudiced opinion paper launched a kind of “paradigm coup. It declared and established an orthodoxy of healing dominated by the medical, allopathic, model based in modern chemistry and the prescription of drugs by doctors.

All other modalities were to be shunned (and labeled as quackery), especially the vitalistic approaches that talked about working with the energy or structure of the body, rather than its chemistry. From the manipulations of chiropractors or osteopaths, to the use of energy devices in connection with the body, any healing approaches based on physics were rejected. In the new medical realm, chemistry was king.” (HP of LENS 335)

The goal was to eliminate the competition.

Along the way it inextricably linked medical practice and research, for better and worse, with corporate-sponsored science. Together, they made medicine/health-care an ‘industrial mass-market phenomenon’ and empire.

Along the way they betrayed their Hippocratic Oath: First, Do No Harm by subverting, in so many ways, any other possible effective treatments, or even cures, for anything from back pain to depression to cancer, sacrificing untold numbers of lives.

But the irony of it is laughable. Modern medicine uses the body’s energy and physics in almost all realms of diagnosis, including x-ray, CT, MRI, EKG, EEG, Ultrasound, functional MRI, PET Scans, chromatograpy, lasers, the electron microscope, etc,. At the same time, they continue to condemn, marginalize, and ridicule any treatment or modality that uses the body’s own energy/physics to restore homeostasis and health. All but one that is; the rather medieval EST (electroshock therapy) now known as ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). That one they like. It fits their paradigm that treatment requires ever more potent and powerful interventions; that the body needs to be shocked, drugged or operated on; that more subtle energy techniques could not possibly work.

They deny funding for research into other healing modalities, supporting their claim of the absence of evidence. Yet, of all they do in diagnosis and treatment, it is estimated that only 15% has the standard of scientific evidence that they hold all other alternative treatments to. Not to mention that ‘the absence of evidence is NOT evidence of absence. The fact that there are few rigorous studies of an idea doesn’t mean the idea isn’t powerful; it may mean that science refuses, for whatever prejudices, to study the concept.’ (symp p xii)

This is not meant to condemn all of medicine. Some drugs, emergency and surgical interventions approach the miraculous. It is simply a condemnation of their arrogant quest to maintain a disease-oriented, chemical-based medical monopoly at the expense of other efficacious health-nurturing, physics-based alternative therapies such as chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, bio and neurofeedback, among others.

Swallowing Statins; Hook, Line & Sinker

2010-07-05T17:46:00.006-04:00

Swallowing Statins: Hook, Line and Sinker

ABC Good Morning America: June 29, 2010

NewsFlash: “Nearly two years ago, a study known as the JUPITER trial hinted at a new era in the use of statins -- one in which the cholesterol-busting drugs could be used to stave off heart-related death in many more people than just those with high cholesterol.”

This study ‘changed the treatment guidelines;’ opening the floodgates for doctors to prescribe statins, such as AstraZeneca’s Crestor, to adults who do not have high cholesterol, and begin prescribing them to children as well.

Is it surprising to anyone that a study audaciously named JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention), a study funded by a drug company (AstraZeneca), performed by researchers with strong financial incentives and ties to the drug company, a study in which “the sponsor collected the trial data and monitored the study sites,” concluded the use of statins in primary prevention is justified?

That would be like believing BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, etc., have realistic contingency plans for deepwater oil spills.

Both are examples of self-serving, inhumane, corporate profit-driven science.

A second look at this study (2 years and multi-billions in corporate profits later),”turned up no evidence of the ‘striking decrease in coronary heart disease complications’ reported by investigators behind JUPITER.”

No surprise there!

This isn’t a 2010 newsflash. I wrote about how flawed and corrupt the JUPITER study is back in November of 2008 (Holy JUPITER Batman!), two weeks after the study was released!

The short of it is:

High blood cholesterol is not a disease. While it can be secondary to many other diseases, it is mostly associated with poor lifestyle choices: poor diet and lack of exercise.
“According to Framingham Heart Study, people with an age greater than 50 years have no increased overall mortality with either high or low serum cholesterol levels.”
Half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol. That said, how can anyone ‘justify’ lowering cholesterol in any group to ‘normal?’
The results of JUPITER were underwhelming: “the proportion of patients with hard cardiac events-cardiovascular death, MI, and stroke-was reduced from 1.8% in the placebo group to 0.9% in the statin group. That represents an absolute reduction of only 0.9%.” Stated another way; ‘the data actually means that 120 people would need to take Crestor daily for 2 years to (possibly) prevent 1 heart attack or stroke. At a cost of $3.45 a day, that’s $300,000 for Big Pharma to (possibly) prevent one problem.‘

The red flags here are numerous and ominous.

Drug companies are constantly creating new diseases and marketing their drugs as cures, seeking FDA approval for ‘cradle-to-grave’ blockbuster drugs. They are getting close to that goal with statins.
Corporate profit-driven science is corrupt and cannot be trusted.

3. Medical treatment guidelines are being developed by doctors/researchers with financial ties to corporations. These guidelines determine ‘standards of care’ and doctors’ prescribing habits with legal ramifications. Stated another way: drug companies are writing guidelines that require physicians to prescribe their drugs or be open to malpractice suits.

4. For us to believe that we all need to take statins, or any other drug, to stave off disease, is to believe that we all inherently suffer from some drug deficiency syndrome. It disarms us from taking personal responsibility for our health and making simple lifestyle changes that, better than any drug, can help us reclaim our health.

Wicked COOL!

2010-06-19T20:38:00.001-04:00

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

The Drug Pipeline

2010-06-14T11:12:00.007-04:00

The Drug Pipeline

Kudos to the county-wide Pain Management Project for their efforts in curbing the ‘illegal use of legal drugs’ and addressing the human toll they take.

However, the bigger picture appears to be eluding them. Their efforts, while worthwhile, distract from fixing the real problem at the source. It’s like washing off oil soaked pelicans, as we allow the unregulated oil companies to continue deep water drilling to quench America’s insatiable addiction to oil.

Perhaps the only thing Americans are more addicted to than oil, is drugs. We are a nation of drug addicts: the legal use of prescription and over-the counter legal drugs, and the illegal use of both legal and illegal drugs. We are a sickness and drug culture, spending $80,000 per second on disease care, supporting America’s largest industry: the medical-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial complex.

We routinely and mindlessly pollute our bodies with chemically-concocted, pesticide-laden and genetically modified foods and apply gallons and pounds of chemical body ‘care’ lotions and potions, all creating internal ecological environmental catastrophes. And then, we run to the doctors who write 3 billion prescriptions per year, an average of 12 prescriptions for every man-woman and child, at a cost of $414 billion dollars. And, we automatically reach into our personal polypharmacies of drugs in our ‘triple wide’ medicine cabinets to self-medicate whatever ails us for an illusion of health.

We are taught from the earliest of ages of the ‘miracles’ of drugs; drugs to improve our brain and physical performance, help us sleep, lose or gain weight, stop smoking, improve our sex lives, relieve tension, stress, anxiety, sadness, and depression, control our blood chemistry and our hearts, and to counteract our excesses of food and drink…and on and on and on.

Just say ‘Yes’ to drugs, unless, of course, they are illegal, and then just say ‘No’.

To most of us, and sadly, to our doctors, taking drugs equates with health. We have no personal responsibility other than to remember to take the pills doctors routinely prescribe. We have, in fact, created a “Generation RX, a generation of young people who think all prescription drugs are always safe and legal.” By the time our kids are 18 months old most have received 64 scheduled vaccinations. At home and in school we give them drugs, and they trade them like Halloween candy.

And somehow, we are shocked to see a 448% increase in prescribed doses (3,168,000) of opiods such as OxyContin in Berkshire County (population of 129,288), the equivalent of 25 doses per person. And because this class of drugs is addictive, as if the others aren’t, we have criminalized behaviors associated with their use, even though there is no greater motivator of human behavior than pain, and the desire to remove it. Pain of some sort, after all, is the reason we take all of the other drugs as well.

The magnitude of this problem and its fix does not lie in addressing the addictions of the end users, or even putting people in jail. Helping addicts reclaim their lives is a noble endeavor, but it is pure pretense to believe it will curb use. It is no less of a fantasy, and will experience no more success, than the so-called war on drugs.

On the personal level the answer lies in breaking our addiction to our disease promoting lifestyles, and our belief in drugs as cure-alls.

The real answer lies in curtailing the use of all drugs. That means going after the cartels; in this case, the drug companies, and to hold their ‘dealers’ (the doctors) more accountable for creating health rather than medicating symptoms.

The most important step we can take as a nation to curtail the use of all drugs, including the illegal use of legal drugs, is to immediately ban all direct to consumer advertising by the drug companies.

It’s like putting a shut-off valve in a pipeline.

Lies, Damned Lies and Advertising

2010-06-01T11:29:00.011-04:00

Lies, Damn Lies & Advertising

Every word that I hold dear, as a chiropractor and health coach, has been misappropriated and destroyed by the marketing interests of corporations.

Words and phrases such as:

health, wellness, health care, heath screen, wellness fair, employee wellness-program, health care, health care reform, health insurance, etc. In our medical-pharmaceutical-insurance dominated world, the more accurate and truthful descriptions would substitute the word disease everywhere corporate marketers use the words health & wellness.

In short, marketing has destroyed our understanding and concepts of health and wellness, and thus, our actual health and wellness, for corporate profit.

Vis a vis: the photo. I took that photo at a Rite-Aide Pharmacy in New Jersey.

As if the word wellness even belongs in a pharmacy, let alone plastered above the words and products Tobacco on the left, Cigarettes on the right with their 'Stop Smoking Center' wedged in between. It is beyond a mixed message. It is subliminal advertising relating tobacco and cigarettes to wellness.

I guess the epitome of Wellness+ to them would be more kids like the one in this video. If they could do it here, they would.

Two-Year Old Toddler Smokes Cigarettes - Watch more Funny Videos

Do You Believe In Magic?

2010-05-27T10:02:00.008-04:00

This past weekend I went to the wedding of one of my closest friend’s daughters; Bekah, the beautiful 28 year old bride.

How well does anyone know their friend’s kids, especially when they live 3 states away? What I know of her is what her father, Larry, has told me over the years.

But roll the clock back about 20 years…when she and her family came to visit. We had a house full of parents and kids. I announced that I was going to the local spring for water and asked if anyone wanted to join me. Without missing a beat, Rebecca chimed: “I’ll come with you,” a bold move for an 8 year old, to hang out with an adult.
In that ½ hour, or so, that we had together I felt that we bonded, that I had a peephole view into who she was becoming as a person…a free-spirited, strong-willed, determined and outgoing young lady.

What gift do I buy this bride that I really don’t know?

One day in March, I left my wife’s store and I was struck by an urge to enter another store on Main Street, SunCatcher which had been there for about 7 years but I had never once visited. The owner, an artist named Anna Kronick, does spectacular Judaic paper-cut art. For whatever reason, I was immediately struck with the idea that this would make a perfect wedding gift for Bekah. Not only that, a particular picture spoke to me.

I called her parents to find out if she was remotely interested in Judaica, and I called my other close friends to see if they thought this a good gift and would share in the cost. The store closed 2 weeks later.

While I focused on the one work, I was uncertain that I alone should make the choice. So, I brought 3 works to NJ for my friends to help choose. You know how difficult it can be to get people to agree. Ultimately, I prevailed and stuck with my original choice. We wrapped it, and off to the pre-wedding event we went.

The free-spirited Bekah had planned her wedding her way; a traditional Jewish wedding in a non-traditional, outdoor setting.

The chuppah, symbolic of the home the wedding couple will make together, was a quilt made by Donna, the bride’s mother. It was the tree of life with over 100 leaves, adorned, inscribed and decorated by the guests. At the bottom of the quilt was the phrase “I am my beloved, and my beloved is me.”

The Jewish papercut work that I chose is the tree of life, with the bride and a bearded groom on either side, just as they stood at the wedding, with the Hebrew inscription…”I am my beloved, and my beloved is me.”

The Nose Knows

2010-04-17T17:46:00.004-04:00

I am reading another amazing book....Nature Via Nurture...and I just read an incredible thing.

(paraphrasing pgs: 138-9 )

The story begins in 1856 when a Spanish medical doctor did an autopsy on a 40-year-old man who had no sense of smell, a small penis and very small testes.

Anyway, many years later, it turns out, embryologically speaking, that the primitive cells for smell send axons to the area of the brain that will form the olfactory lobe. On their way, they lay down, and travel along, fascicles/rails to get there. If anosmin is not present the axons derail, and the rails do not get laid down....hence anosmia.

Amazingly, the cells for sexual development in males begin in the nose, in the vomeronasal organ. They neuronally migrate along the rails/fascicles laid down by the developing olfactory axons. In the absence of anosmin and the rails, the cells never reach their target to trigger the release of gonadotropin releasing hormone. In the absence of gonadotropin releasing hormone, the pituitary is never stimulated to release leutinizing hormone… hence the small penis/testes.

Gentlemen, you know who you are.

Go figure…evolution; incredibly efficient, and funny too!

I gotta go… I smell something in the other room that requires my immediate attention.

Creationism Is Not Science

2010-04-11T14:12:00.011-04:00

Creationism, also known as Intelligent Design, is not a scientific theory. There is nothing scientific or factual about intelligent design. It is a Christian fundamentalist-Biblical-faith-based view that rests solely on a subjective inference of design. Their supporting scientific evidence consists of the Bible and a diorama exhibit of Noah’s Ark, at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, depicting their 6000 year old Earth view with humans and dinosaurs living side by side.

Evolution theory, on the other hand, is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence, data and facts; from fossils, to brain development, to genetic/DNA evidence within the genomes, etc. “Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts extending, testing, and refining evolutionary theory are published each and every year, but there aren't any calling the basic premise of the theory into question. “

Unlike the story of creation, evolution, as a scientific theory, “can be falsified by particular findings, such as a hominid skeleton dated to the Jurassic Era,” or a dinosaur skeleton 6000 years old (i.e.: evidence that humans and dinosaurs lived together). Such a finding would also serve to justify creationism. Obviously, none exist, or have yet to be discovered.

Even the Vatican has weighed in on this, stating: “that the scientific consensus model of evolution is valid but that it explains only the biological part of humanity, not the spiritual mystery.” In his address to the Pontifical Academy of Science, October 23, 1996 Pope John Paul II said: “A theory is a meta-scientific elaboration distinct from the results of observation but consistent with them. By means of it, a series of independent data and facts can be related and interpreted in a unified explanation. A theory’s validity depends on whether or not it can be falsified. It is continually tested against the facts; wherever it can no longer explain the latter, it shows its limitations and unsuitability. It must then be rethought.”

Evolution theory does not strike at the heart of faith or belief in God. And, unlike creationism, it does not demand one choose between faith/religion and reason/science. It does however strike at the heart of fundamentalist belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible, as the word of God.

Let us not forget the condemnation of Galileo in 1610 by the Catholic Church, for defending the Copernican observation that the earth revolves around the sun. The Inquisition called this “false and contrary to scripture.” The brilliant “father of science” spent the rest of his life under house arrest. But that was then, and this is now.

I respect Christian Fundamentalists’ freedom to believe as they choose. However, the leader’s within the fundamentalist churches, the Discovery Institute, and Christian Reconstructionism strategy is to position creationism as a scientific theory, equal to and competing with the scientific theory of evolution, to achieve a theological and political agenda. Their ultimate goal is for America to fulfill its destiny as a Christian nation, and that begins with teaching Christian dogma in our schools. By labeling intelligent design as scientific theory, seemingly separate from religion, they hope to evade any court ruling that would uphold and enforce the separation of church and state.

This challenge to science is not benign. It cannot be taken lightly or shrugged off. Their strategy is working.

Many politicians, including the White House under George Bush, have weighed in, in the name of fairness and academic freedom: “Both sides ought to be properly taught…so people can understand what the debate is about.” And, Christian conservatives have been working, hard and successfully, to build their presence on the Boards of Education to influence the content of school textbooks across the country, to include Creationism and revisionist history.

I read somewhere that a little bit of science may bring you away from God, but that a lot will bring you right back. I might add that no science leaves one with only faith, limited understanding and simplistic explanations.

There are few things more compelling and awe inspiring than reading with understanding about the embryological development, anatomy and physiology of the human body and brain, and the evolutionary development that created it. It is enough to make one believe in a “Genome Organizing Device".

Obesity in America: A Growing Problem (Part 2)

2010-03-28T16:17:00.019-04:00

Why are 70% of Americans overweight and obese?

The simple answer is we eat too much and exercise too little (Note: hours in front of the television/computer is one of the best predictors of overweight). These are our choices and personal responsibility.

So, what’s changed?

Have we just become too careless and lazy when it comes to our own health? It certainly appears so. Again, personal choices and responsibility.

Don’t we care about our health and the health of our kids? If we do, then why are one third of our kids overweight or obese?

The irony is that we are a nation obsessed with health (gym memberships, home gyms and work-out equipment and dvd’s, diet books/plans, diet foods, and ‘health foods,’ vitamin sales, etc.). We spend trillions of dollars pursuing or medically trying to restore ‘health,’ yet we are the sickest nation in the world.

What could cause us to go so far astray?

Simple, corporate profits.

The primary mission of pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies and so-called health-care delivery systems, is current profits and annual growth. This system feeds on disease.

“The primary mission of food companies, like that of tobacco companies, is to sell products. Food companies are not health or social agencies, and nutrition becomes a factor in corporate thinking only when it can help sell food.” This system creates disease.

As always, one need only to follow the money along the trail of corporate power through government influence, as supported by corporate ‘science’ and the purposeful obfuscation of the public by the media.

What has changed is what we eat and how much of it. And that is precisely what has been manipulated by the food industry. To generate sales, the food industry, by what it makes and how it markets, has encouraged Americans to eat more cheap, but highly profitable, processed calorie-dense/nutrient-deficient chemical foods (high in fats and sugars /total calories) and less of the less profitable whole natural foods (nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables).

In short, the profit margin on food is small. Therefore, the marketing imperative of the food industry is to get people to eat more cheap foods.

Marketing, in the food industry, concerns four key factors:

1. Palatability: how food engages all of our senses (taste, aroma, texture, visual appeal, mouth-feel, swallow-ability and. for fast-food dining, a clean, fun, family atmosphere). The precise sugar-fat-salt content has all been engineered to increase the amount that we eat, and how quickly we eat, chew and swallow it so that we can move on to our next bite asap. Nothing is left to chance.

2. Costs: government agribusiness subsidies (corn, soy, sugar, cattle and chicken) and the processing of these cheap ingredients into chemical foods keeps their prices low compared to unsubsidized farming and sales of unprocessed whole natural foods.

3. Convenience: creating and selling food products that can be consumed quickly and with minimal preparation. Nearly half of all meals are consumed outside the home (fast foods, snacking)

4. Public confusion on dietary/health advice: the language of the food industry exploits dietary recommendations to sell food products. A chemical processed food is promoted and sold using sales-driving pseudo-health claims so that a vitamin C and calcium fortified, omega-3and fiber enhanced Twinkee prevents cancer and is heart-safe as it is low-fat, has no cholesterol, no triglycerides and no trans-fats. Verses, say, an apple, a tomato, a pear, etc, which have no loud packaging or repetitive flashy marketing to honestly make those claims.

Marketing works, or the food companies would not spend $33 billion dollars annually to do it. Plain and simple. We have been so brainwashed by their incessant and pervasive ads and dominating presence in our schools and government that we no longer know what FOOD is. We believe that food comes from fast-food restaurants and in fancy packaging in the center ailes and frozen food sections of the supermarket and convenience stores. Our kids can no longer identify basic foods, and have no taste for natural foods.

The result has been astoundingly successful and profitable for both the food and medical-insurance-pharmaceutical industries, and completely disastrous for public health. We are sicker than ever, and we are poisoning and killing our kids at increasingly younger ages.

I strongly encourage you all to watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on ABC and to support First Lady, Michelle Obama’s, initiative (Let's Move Campaign) to change the way we eat. Your life and the lives of your children are at stake.

Hallelujah! They Passed Health Care Reform!

2010-03-22T15:59:00.003-04:00

The bill is far from perfect, but doing nothing was to let the insurance and pharmaceutical companies continue their reign of terror unabated. This bill is a decent beginning...100 years in the making.

If, for no other reason, it was a crushing defeat for the fear-mongering, lying, and self-serving antics of the GOP leadership!!

A Speech From the Heart..."Bound To Be True"

2010-03-21T09:55:00.007-04:00

This is a wonderful speech and worth listening to, in its entirety. It is inspiring and gives me hope.The vote is today. Keep your fingers crossed

“Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obesity in America: A Growing Problem (Part 1: The Stats)

2010-03-06T19:13:00.012-05:00

Obesity In America: A Growing Problem (Part 1)

70% of Americans are overweight, and 32% of them are obese. The numbers, and the people, are only expanding.

By 2015, at this rate, 75% will be overweight, 41% obese.

Lifestyle diseases related to obesity, including: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are the top killers, and account for a huge portion of overall disease care costs.

These are preventable diseases.

The 15 leading causes of death in 2006 were: (Bold = obesity related disease deaths)

1. Diseases of heart (heart disease) 631,636

2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 559,888

3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 137,119

4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 124,583

5. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 129,599

6. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 72,449

7. Alzheimer’s disease 72,432

8. Influenza and pneumonia 56,326

9. Kidney disease 45,344

10. Septicemia 34,234

11. Intentional self-harm (suicide) 33,000

12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis

13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension)

14. Parkinson’s disease

15. Assault (homicide) 17,034

USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions

Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
In 2008: 19.6% of children ages 6-11 obese
In 2008: 18.1% of children 12-19 obese.
33% of African American and Hispanic children overweight in 2001
78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
In 2002, 38% completely Sedentary
76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990
Surge in Childhood Diseases

New study suggests one in four overweight children is already showing early signs of type II diabetes (impaired glucose intolerance). Of children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese
70% of obese youth already have one risk factor for heart diseases
As overweight and obese young people get older, they will require earlier medical intervention and management, and health care costs will soar.
As overweight and obese young people get older the average lifespan of an American will get shorter.

At Last!

2010-02-25T13:19:00.004-05:00

I could not have said this better myself.

Oh, that's right...I have been saying this all along ("The Republican Party is a fully owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.")...but this is a live broadcast to the American people on the so-called health care debate, out of the mouth of NY State Representative Weiner.

Now, if only President Obama will take the same strong stance something could be done.

(Note: It is worth watching the full 7 minute clip)

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2010-02-24T11:41:00.016-05:00

What’s wrong with this picture?

Question:

What is the fastest growing market for cosmetic surgery in men…for the second year running?

Hint:

What is the #1 cosmetic surgery performed on women?

That’s easy, breast enlargement.

Any guesses for the men?

Sadly, and unfortunately, way too graphically…it is male breast reduction.

This bizarre and unnatural dichotomy of breast reduction in men and breast enlargement in women reminds me of joke told by comedian Stephen Rice.

“I bought a humidifier and a de-humidifier and I put them both in a room, closed the door, and let them fight it out.”

I wonder how that would work?

--> --> --> --> --> --> -->

In any event, is any of this aesthetic surgery really practicing medicine?

Robin Hood Tax

2010-02-14T10:53:00.003-05:00

Another great idea. Do we have the will to make it happen here?

from HuffPo:

A coalition of British organizations calling itself the Robin Hood Tax campaign is proposing a new tax on banks to fund global anti-poverty and anti-climate change initiatives. The idea is to skim about 0.05% off of all speculative banking transactions, which proponents say would raise hundreds of billions of dollars each year and forge "a new deal between banks and society":

"It sounds complicated, but actually it isn't. A tiny tax on bankers has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year - giving a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty - as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world."

In an ad for the campaign, British actor Bill Nighy, who will star in the next installment of the Harry Potter films, plays a haughty banker who's forced to admit the tax would barely phase the finance industry.

One Skeptic to Another

2010-02-08T09:12:00.008-05:00

One Skeptic to Another

Note: the following blog is in response to an article that appeared in my local newspapers

---------------------------------------------

Professor Pasachoff is a skeptic, as am I…to the extent that one of my guiding precepts is: ‘the quality of your life and your understanding of the world will be determined by the quality of the questions that you ask.’

I suspect that Professor Pasachoff and I would agree on many things, specifically that critical thinking seems to be underutilized, at best, and undermined, at worst, in our society.

But, he and I are at odds when he targets chiropractic in his skepticism. He crossed the line from skepticism/doubt into dogmatism with his label of pseudo-science. So, how do I, as a chiropractor and a skeptic, reconcile this? Quite simply, I welcome Professor Pasachoff’s skepticism, questions and scrutiny, as I do that of my patients. I would ask him what personal research he has done to make this broad denouncement? Or, in this instance, might he be wanting in critical thinking skills?

There is a plethora of scientific evidence supporting both the physiological effects and efficacy of chiropractic adjustments for the treatment of acute neck and low back pain of mechanical origin.

In fact, in 1989, the US government established the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research “to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to these services.” Because of the prevalence, the first guideline developed was for the treatment of acute low back pain. “This guideline was developed by an independent multidisciplinary panel of private-sector clinicians and other experts convened by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR). The panel employed explicit, science-based methods and expert clinical judgment to develop specific statements on acute low back problems in adults.”

The panel concluded: “Surgery has been found to be helpful in only 1 in 100 cases of (all) low back problems. In some people, surgery can even cause more problems.” Furthermore, scientific, evidence-based research supported only three “Proven Treatments” for acute low back problems: NSAIDS (oral anti-inflammatories), the use of ice or heat and, remarkably…42 studies supported the use of (chiropractic) spinal manipulation of the low back.

Were these guidelines implemented? No! Why? Because citing the efficacy of conservative approaches and recommending non-surgical treatments for low back pain, drove back surgeons wild. They organized and lobbied congress and effectively stripped the AHCPR of its power, halting the development of all future guidelines. Incidentally, the number of spinal fusions continued to rise dramatically, over 127 percent between 1997 and 2004.

Perhaps Professor Pasachoff’s skepticism would be better directed at the machinations of the medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex. After all, in terms of risks verses benefits, the risks and deaths associated with medical/pharmaceutical care far exceed those of any he labeled as pseudo-science. Why aim so low?

It has been estimated that only 15% of what doctors do is backed by the type of hard scientific evidence Professor Pasachoff seeks: ie: that ‘there is little to no evidence that many widely used treatments and procedures actually work better than various cheaper alternatives.”

While there is significant evidence that corporate-backed science has infiltrated and undermined virtually all aspects of medical research for the purpose of marketing drugs.

In September of 2001 the editors of 12 of the world’s most prestigious medical journals issued an unprecedented and chilling alarm titled: Sponsorship, Authorship and Accountability. They wrote: “We are concerned that the current intellectual environment in which clinical research is conceived, study subjects are recruited and the data analyzed and reported (or, not reported) may threaten scientific objectivity…In light of that truth, the use of clinical trials primarily for marketing makes a mockery of clinical investigation and is a misuse of a powerful tool.”

In a world where medical journals have become an extension of pharmaceutical companys’ marketing strategies, skepticism, critical thinking and questioning are not only important, they can save your life.

A Threat to Our Democracy

2010-01-24T12:59:00.009-05:00

A Threat to Our Democracy

I have long held that the most important political issue in

America

is not the banks, the economy, jobs, poverty, the environment, ongoing wars, health care, etc. It is campaign finance reform, to remove corporate influence over our politicians and their crafting of our policies and laws.

The Supreme Court decision this past week is the antithesis of campaign finance reform. It expands, exponentially, corporate influence and power.

In 2000, the US Supreme Court’s unilateral anointment of George W. Bush as President of the United States, legitimized and secured a coup d’etat, that signaled the corporate takeover of America.

Last week the same Supreme Corporate Counsel unabashedly made public their inextricable links and allegiance to corporate America in a decision that is a crushing blow to democracy and the American people. The US Supreme Corporate Court is in session.

This decision allows for unlimited funding for political advertising and marketing by corporations, both in support and opposition to, individual politicians (current, or campaigning) and policies. Their timing and intent to influence the upcoming mid-term elections is transparent.

It is not hard, nor farfetched, to imagine an American political landscape of corporate-funded, sponsored and elected politicians, passing corporate-friendly legislation. It will be, in fact, just an accelerated evolution of what currently exists.

The Corporate Executive Branch (President & CEO) meets behind closed doors to broker deals with corporations, ensuring that no programs or initiatives will, in any way, interfere with corporate profits or growth. At the same time, they explore ways to secure and expand corporate interests, at home and abroad, both covertly and overtly (wars).

The Corporate Legislative Branch (the Board of Directors), guided by their corporate sponsors, writes the laws and secures taxpayer funding effecting policies that maximize corporate benefits and interests.

The US Supreme Corporate Court oversees and rules on the corporate laws of the land.

Wake up America! The government is no longer doing the work of the people, but rather the bidding of corporations. Our docility, aided and abetted by our profligate greed and consumerism, has enabled the transition from democracy to corporatocracy.

We have given away our governance, and with it we have surrendered our power, our security, our wealth and the future of our children and grandchildren.

Of this I am certain, the fix will NOT come from our corrupt corporate controlled government.

Reclaiming and restoring our democracy, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, will demand that we unite, as a people, in our vision, cause and effort (vis a vis: the Vietnam War & Civil Rights Movements) to oppose the expanding power and oppression of the corporations.

Until then:

I pledge resistance to the flag

Of the United Corporations of America

And to the corrupt government for which it stands

One nation, under-educated

With insecurity, inequality and injustice for all.

(Democracy: RIP Jan. 2010)

sew the seeds of civil disobedience now