Doctors Told to Curb Use of Ritalin in Hyperactive Children

According to new British health guidelines, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be treated with drugs such as Ritalin only in severe cases and never when they are younger than 5.

There is widespread concern that such medication is used too freely to calm hyperactive children. The new policy is that most children with ADHD should instead be offered psychological therapy to improve their behavior, backed up by training to support their parents and teachers.

Up to 3 percent of school-age children in Britain may be affected by ADHD, but only about a third to a quarter of these would qualify as severe cases. The symptoms of ADHD include an inability to concentrate for long periods, hyperactive and restless behavior, and impulsive actions.

Source:
The Times Online

Doctors Told to Curb Use of Ritalin in Hyperactive Children

-Dr. Dave

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Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

Blind Man Can See Now

Here is an amazing video about a man who's vision returned following a chiropractic adjustemnt.

-Dr. Dave

For more information about chiropractic go to Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

Chiropractic for High Blood Pressure?

Check out this cool video on Good Morning America demonstrating how chiropractic can lower blood pressure in some people. New research is coming out all the time showing the far reaching effects of the chiropractic adjustment on the body.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTzKwvNbP0


To determine whether or not chiropractic can help you call 910-395-5066 for a complementary consultation.

Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

Asthma Study on Benefits of Chiropractic

Asthma has become a large health concern for children in recent years. Over the past 20 years the incidence of asthma has doubled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that in 1998, approximately 17,299,000 people in the United States, or 6.4% of the population, with cases among very young children up 160%. As reported in the June 16, 1999 issue of JAMA, the CDC also noted that between 1980 and 1994, the number of people self-reporting asthma grew 75%.



In a study conducted in 1996 by the Michigan Chiropractic Council (MCC), a panel of doctors performed an out-come assessment study to test the qualitative and quantitative effectiveness of chiropractic care on children with asthma. The high demand of parents seeking alternative care for pediatric asthma was shown by the overwhelming interest in the study. More than 500 parents called the MCC seeking to get their child involved in the chiropractic study.

The study, which took place during May and June of 1996, examined the chiropractic effectiveness in correcting the cause of asthma in patients from birth to age 17. The average age of the participant was 10 years. "After 30 days of chiropractic health care, patients averaged only one attack, whereas prior to the study they were experiencing more than four attacks," said MCC Dr. Bob Graham, who directed the study.

"Medications, which can be costly, were decreased by nearly 70 percent. Finally, patient satisfaction was rated 8.5 on a scale of 10." More than 70 chiropractors from 62 cities in Michigan studied more than 80 children suffering from asthma.

http://www.chiropracticresearch.org/NEWSasthmastudy_chir.htm

This study has HUGE implications for asthma sufferers worldwide. Please forward this on to anyone you know who may benefit from this article.

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Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

Overeating Triggers “Master Switch” of Inflammation in Brain

Scientists are finding that obesity is a complex issue, and as they continue to search for clues to its causes, much focus has been placed on a small but vital region of the brain—the hypothalamus. Referred to as the "head ganglion of the autonomic nervous system" by the great Oxford neurophysiologist Sir Charles Sherrington, this almond-sized region of the brain organizes and controls an immense number of bodily functions such as body temperature, circadian cycles, feelings and moods as well as all motivational states including thirst, hunger and appetite, food intake and the body’s energy balance. However, despite some promising studies and experiments involving the hypothalamus, none yet has produced a breakthrough in the obesity battle—until now. Scientists believe they have discovered a “master switch” of inflammation in the hypothalamus that could not only explain overeating and obesity but the “entire family of modern diseases” induced by them.

This “master switch”—called IKK beta/NF kappa B—is usually dormant, but is triggered by overeating. In lab tests on mice, researchers based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, San Diego used “chronic over-nutrition” (essentially a high-fat diet) to turn on the dormant switch. With that master switch turned on, the mice gained weight and became resistant to insulin, which is a hormone that helps convert food into energy and controls blood sugar, and leptin, a hormone involved in regulating appetite. In other mice, the scientists used genetic engineering to turn the switch off. Those mice were “significantly protected” from becoming obese, despite the high-fat diet, the researchers wrote. Although the study was conducted only in mice, the study authors believe the findings will also hold true for humans.

“We discovered a very general disease pathway in the hypothalamus, a structure in the middle part of the brain which functions to regulate appetite, feeding behavior, energy and therefore body-weight balance and metabolic processes,” said Dr. Dongsheng Cai, senior author of the study. “Persistent stimuli from excessive amount of calories can trigger this response before the overt onset of obesity, and this response when induced can promote overeating, contributing to increased levels of caloric overconsumption. So, this process can be like a vicious cycle.”

“The brain is receiving more and more attention from the field…but nobody knows whether and how the hypothalamus could be responsible for the increasing occurrence of energy imbalance and obesity under today’s environment typical of over-nutrition,” Dr. Cai explained. “The first important thing to understand is how the dysregulation of the brain is processed. The study we just did provides a new pathway. It’s the opening of a new direction.”

Dr. Cai said this “pathway” could possibly be used in anti-obesity drugs. “The ultimate goal will certainly be to identify a selective and effective suppressor of the pathway to target related neurons.”

The study findings were published in the October 3 issue of Cell.

http://www.healthnews.com/nutrition-diet/weight-loss/overeating-triggers-master-switch-inflammation-brain-1908.html

To find out more about how inflammation may be impacting your health and what you can do about it give us a call at 910-395-5066 or check out our website at Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

Fish Oil Proven More Effective than Ritalin for ADHD

The behavior of children in a recent study vastly improved when they were given 6 capsules of fish oil per day, even more than children being prescribed Ritalin. Restlessness and school performance improved significantly from omega-3 supplementation and concentration improved by 33%! Even after 30 weeks of taking fish oil supplements, the children continued to show increasing improvements, suggesting that taking fish oil even longer would have had even greater benefits.

This is great news because fish oil does not have any of the negative side effects that Ritalin does, including insomnia, suicidal thoughts, personality changes and heart disease. Ritalin has even been cited as the cause of strokes and heart attacks that have killed several children. Hopefully this fish oil news will serve to reverse the ongoing medicated-children epidemic, as there are 330,000 new prescriptions for ADHD drugs every year!

Your body has a wonderful pharmacy inside of it and given the right tools it can, more often than not, heal itself. Given the terrible side effects associated with Ritalin I wonder if parents were truly informed about it if they would continue to chemically lobotomize their children. Ritalin is classified as an amphetamine, a Class II controlled substance putting it in the same category as cocaine. There are many natural alternatives to medication for ADD/ADHD and I beleive that all other avenues need to be exhausted before resorting to medication.

Check out the following links for more information.

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/chiro.htm
http://www.sitochiropractic.com/add.html
http://www.jvsr.com/abstracts/index.asp?id=304
http://www.beinghealthynaturally.com/childrenbabyhealth/addandadhdnaturalcare.htm

For more about this contact Dr. Dave at 910-395-5066
Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center

The Chiropractic Solution to Neck Pain

Neck pain is quite common, and most people simply carry on with their activities of daily living. However, about 5 percent to 10 percent of people develop debilitating symptoms.

Unfortunately, even among those folks who do not have disabling pain, the majority find their neck pain is stubborn and recurrent to some degree.The renewed interest in neck disorders among clinical researchers hasspurred some interesting studies. In the March/April issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT), Canadian scientists have shown that arthritis in the neck might affect balance. This could mean that in cases of poor balance or repeatedfalls among the elderly, treatment of the cervical spine might havevalue. This could represent a "top down" strategy, which is a bit different from the "bottom up" approach to balance training morecommonly utilized in rehabilitation. In the February issue of JMPT, a complementary study by New Zealand and Canadian researchers suggested spinal manipulation of the neck can relax muscles in the arms and could be useful in relaxation of the whole body. This implies anything causing tightness in the neck joints also might cause muscle pain in the arms or elsewhere. Since manipulation and manual therapy are primary treatments for neck problems, a doctor of chiropractic should be among the first providers consulted for this type of pain.

So, how fast can a patient with neck pain expect to feel better with chiropractic care? By chance, in the same March issue of JMPT, British authors studied which neck symptoms might respond the quickest to hands-on treatment. Overall, considering all possible neck area complaints, about 70 percent of patients reported immediate favorable responses to manipulation. However, if patients complained about more specific things like headaches, shoulder or arm pain, reduced arm or neck movement, neck pain, or upper or middle back pain, the percentage of those who reported immediate improvement in pain rose to an incredible 95 percent!

The moral to this story is clear: If you're experiencing neck pain and haven't scheduled an appointment with a chiropractor, you're missing the perfect opportunity to resolve your pain.For more great pain solutions visit Russ Chiropractic and Wellness Center.