The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast

The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, with your host, Dr. Marc Dupuis, board certified chiropractic sports physician: Where we discuss tools & strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family!

Unnecessary Surgery and the Watch Analogy 08/27/2023

Unnecessary Surgery and the Watch Analogy Unnecessary Surgeries + The Watch Analogy The Green Book Series Today I want to apply some common sense, straight line thinking to a problem that is plaguing all “health care systems” worldwide, especially here in the United States. That problem is unnecessary surgeries. This has been an issue for over a century! Dr. BJ Palmer, the world’s most pioneering chiropractor wrote about this for years. Sadly, his warnings about this topic have fallen on deaf ears as the prevalence, cost and damage to patients done by unnecessary surgeries has skyrocketed! Nevertheless, his words of wisdom are as prescient today as they were back then which is why I would like to share them with you today! But first, let’s add some context to this discussion. This is an excerpt from the International journal of clinical practice in 2014: “US health care expenditures per capita far exceeds that of ANY other nation in the WORLD. Indeed, over the last 15 years, the USA has distantly surpassed most countries in the developed world in total healthcare expenditures per capita with the USA now spending over 17.4% of its gross domestic product on health care ($7960 per capita) compared with only 8.5% of GDP in Japan ($2878 per capita) a distant second. Such spending growth rates are unsustainable, and the system would soon go broke if not corrected. The drivers of these spending growth rates in US healthcare are several and varied. In September of 2012, the Institute of Medicine reported that US healthcare squandered over $750 billion in 2009 through UNNEEDED care.” Now, with all that spending, surely we have the best outcomes right?..... WRONG, dead wrong in fact. A 2022 report by The Common Wealth Fund revealed we rank 38th in the world in life expectancy, which is LAST for all major developed nations, there are 3rd world countries with higher life expectancies! If that was not bad enough, did you know of all countries in 2020, The United States possessed the HIGHEST infant mortality rate which is markedly higher than Norway which was the top country in the world for having the lowest infant mortality rate. This was reported in The American Journal of Managed Care in January of THIS year, 2023. This is from the Journal Patient Safety In Surgery in 2017 Title, “Why do surgeons continue to perform unnecessary surgery?” Please listen very closely, what you are about to learn will likely be quite shocking.. “This unrecognized problem has escalated so far that medical errors currently rank as THE 3RD leading cause of death in the United States. Strikingly, in the 21st century, we still have to come to terms with the absurd reality that it is significantly safer to board a commercial airplane, a spacecraft, or a nuclear submarine, than to be admitted to a US hospital!” Let me repeat, medical errors account for the 3RD leading cause of death in the US, over 440,000 people die in the US per year! Shouldn’t that be a headline on the news?? Keep in mind that data is from 2013, all indications suggest the current number of deaths caused by medical errors are EVEN higher! Many of those deaths are due directly or are related to complications from unnecessary surgeries. What is unnecessary surgery? They define it as follows: “Any surgical intervention that is either not needed, not indicated, or not in the patient’s best interest when weighted against other available options, including conservative measures.” That last part is extremely important, they included conservative measures being something that should be done if it can benefit the patient over surgery. Chiropractic is such a measure, which in many cases should be used first BEFORE resorting to surgery. Notice I said in many cases. Of course, there ARE TRUE surgical emergencies and a number of conditions where surgery IS what SHOULD be done. In these instances, surgery can be absolutely lifesaving and or life changing. Thank god we have skilled surgeons & modern techniques for THOSE instances! However, those true surgical cases are NOT our focus today. Today’s focus is on unnecessary surgeries. If you are wondering: Just how many surgeries are performed in the US, each year, the numbers are staggering: In the US there are 40-50 MILLION surgeries performed each year! According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 16% of all surgeries may be unnecessary: that would mean in the US there are between 6.4 and 8 MILLION unnecessary surgeries performed each year! In 2020 In the US alone over 700,00 arthroscopic partial knee meniscectomies are performed every year. Recently, a randomized, double-blind, sham controlled trial (highest level of evidence), revealed NO benefit for patients from the surgery at the 12 month follow up vs. those that did not have surgery. This study, The Finnish Degenerative Meniscal Lesion Study” certainly ruffled some feathers amongst the surgical community, however, sadly, meniscus surgery rates do not seem to have changed, at least not yet..” So now you know how big of a deal unnecessary surgery is, especially in the United States! Now lets dive into Dr. BJ Palmer’s thoughts on this, perhaps it may shift how you think about things moving forward. The ideas and thoughts conveyed could have been written today! Please keep in mind the following: The writing style is not modern, I will add my own edits as it was written in 1917, in the book, The Science of Chiropractic. Page 74, heading: “Sensible Suggestions” “If you should let your watch fall, To summarize: Our bodies are the most complex, self-regulating, self-monitoring, self-healing machines in the entire world. We are made up of over 70 trillion cells, each individual cell is capable of 100,000 functions per second! We cannot even comprehend that! Call it what you want, Nature, God, Source, did not put anything in our body that it does not need. And, no matter what a doctor tells you, no matter how often a particular surgery is performed, No surgery is routine. Ever. In some ways we ARE like a delicate time piece or classic watch, yet SO much more complex as a watch does not have the ability to self-heal! So, when it comes to health challenges, make sure that Surgery is ALWAYS the last resort. Are there times when it IS appropriate, Absolutely, just make sure you have done EVERYTHNIG possible to try and allow the body the time to heal on its own. This is where Chiropractic comes in. What most people do not know is this: In the first 80 or so years after Chiropractic was discovered, it had nothing to do with back pain or neck pain. It was not until the modern insurance industry started covering chiropractic for back pain, neck pain and headaches, that many people began to think that that is what Chiropractic is for. True Chiropractic focuses on one thing and one thing only. If you have a health challenge that you are not overcoming, is there any interference to the body’s innate healing response which is limiting your recovery. And often, that is indeed what is hindering a person’s healing response. It really is that simple: Chiropractic’s ONLY job is to analyze, detect and correct vertebral subluxations which can directly interfere with the brain’s communication with the body and the body’s communication with the brain. Virtually all people and ALL doctors recognize that your brain & nervous system control Everything. Because the brain & nervous system control Everything, that includes ALL Healing. The brain and body need to be in constant communication to be able to optimally monitor, regulate and repair any tissue, organ or gland. Therefore, your spinal cord is literally your lifeline, serving as the superhighway connecting brain and body. Vertebral subluxations, small misalignments of individual vertebral or regional displacements of the spine like forward head carriage increase tension on the spinal cord (TEXT NECK) causing interference between brain and body. Of all the stresses that can be applied to nerves, tension negatively affects nerve health the most! This is why Chiropractic care should Always be considered for those with ANY health challenge! It is really quite simple. Chiropractic care is Not designed to fix or cure ANY single disease, rather it is a NON-invasive way to help the body perform better. Period. This is why it CAN help with so many types of health challenges. Now for the best part. Especially for those that practice Corrective Chiropractic like we do at BTHC,: Corrective chiropractic care is the most research supported chiropractic technique available and study after study confirms exactly what Dr. BJ Palmer proposed over 100 years ago. Vertebral subluxations cause nervous system interference which can negatively affect organs, tissues and or glands. For you science geeks out there or medical professionals who want to learn more, a breakthrough study, out THIS Week in the Journal of Clinical Medicine is a great start: Title: Does forward head posture influence Somatosensory Evoked Potentials and Somatorsensory Processing in Asymptomatic Young Adults? In other words, does subluxation, even in a person without any symptoms, cause interference with their nervous system? The Answer… YES, IT DOES! In short, this study demonstrates that regional subluxation in the cervical spine, as what occurs when the head is shifted forward, like in TEXT Neck, caused disturbances in key functions of the nervous system! So, there you have it, a straight-line thinking approach to dealing with the topic of unnecessary surgery. I hope you find this thought provoking. Please share this episode especially with those dealing with unresolved health challenges! /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/27859029

Improvement in Autistic Behaviors Following Chiropractic Care: A Case Series 04/24/2022

Improvement in Autistic Behaviors Following Chiropractic Care: A Case Series Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today we are going to discuss a 2011 Case Series titled, Improvement in Autistic Behaviors Following Chiropractic Care. This case series was published in the Journal Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health, in December of 2011. As many of you are all too well aware, the rate of Autism is rising at an extremely alarming rate. In the United States, as of 2021, 1 in 44 children are being diagnosed with Autism! In the 1990’s the rate was 2 out of 1000 children and in the 1980’s it was 10x’s less than that, just .1 - .4 children per 1000 were being diagnosed with autism! We need all hands on deck to tackle this massive health issue. Today’s discussion is NOT focused on the likely causes of this massive increase, rather I want to focus on a case series that showed improvement in autistic behaviors following chiropractic care. As noted in the introduction in this paper, Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by abnormal social interactions and communication concurrent with repetitive behaviors and mannerisms. From the paper’s Abstract, Methods & Outcomes sections: Clinical Features: This case series involves two case studies. Case one involves a 20-year old autistic male who displays aggressive behavior towards others. Case two is a 17-year old autistic female who abuses herself. Intervention and outcome: Both patients received a trial of chiropractic care for 5 and 4 months respectively with visit frequency of once per week. Both patients responded favorably to chiropractic care with the male patient decreasing in aggressive behavior and the female patient decreasing in self-abuse and improved socialization. For the case involving the male, he attended a total of 20 chiropractic visits and was adjusted using a low force Activator adjusting tool. He began showing signs of improvement after his 4th adjustment that involved being more co-operative, having a longer attention span and he even began to watch tv which he had not previously done. For the case involving the female, she attended a total of 16 office visits and was adjusted using a combination of low force Activator tool adjustments and drop table adjustments. She began to show signs of improvement after her third visit in the form of sleeping through the night, which was unusual and she demonstrated less self-abuse. Conclusions: Each had favorable results after undergoing chiropractic care. This case series provides supporting evidence that individuals with autism may benefit from chiropractic care. More research is warranted in this area. Now let's talk about the likely mechanisms behind chiropractic care and the results from this case series. As we discussed recently in another neurodevelopmental disorder and chiropractic paper summary, the MAIN goal of chiropractic care is to improve brain-body, body-brain communication. We do that by analyzing the spine for abnormally positioned or abnormally moving spinal segments, known as vertebral subluxations. Vertebral subluxations are corrected by specific chiropractic adjustments. Because vertebral subluxations, by the stress caused to the surrounding spinal cord and nerve roots, cause nervous system interference, it should make sense that correcting vertebral subluxations reduces nervous system interference and therefore could help those suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders. I will cover the more technical aspects of exactly how this works but first; It is very important to note: people alway ask, does chiropractic cure this or can chiropractic fix so and so conditions? The answer is no, chiropractic is designed to do one thing and one thing only: correct vertebral subluxations which enables the body to better do what it was designed to do! Of course, by helping the body to better do what it is designed to do, this results in improved health & healing which explains why so many health challenges and perhaps why the two individuals with autism as described in this case series responded well to chiropractic care! Now, to get technical about how chiropractic care improves brain-body, body-brain communication. The authors describe one likely mechanisms of action: Recent research has demonstrated that spinal adjustments to vertebral subluxations can lead to neural plastic changes in the central nervous system (As demonstrated in the 2010 paper Haavik, Taylor, Holt, Murphy, Exploring the neuromodulatory effects of the vertebral subluxation and chiropractic care in the Chiropractic Journal of Australia). Plastic changes in the brain can alter the way the brain synthesizes and releases neurotransmitters. This may be significant as abnormal levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin have been found in individuals with ASD. Serotonin has been shown to play a role in social and emotional behavior. If chiropractic adjustments alter serotonin levels this may in turn cause changes in autistic behaviors. I will add one more paragraph that discusses another possible mechanism behind chiropractic care helping these two individuals. This comes from the conclusion of the 2015 paper, Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Chiropractic: A Systematic Review of the Literature: If we consider the new research that shows chiropractic adjustments having a direct effect on neural plasticity of the central nervous system (as demonstrated by the breakthrough research paper by Haavik-Taylor published in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology in February of 2007) and other research linking abnormal stimuli to plastic changes within the central nervous system along with the case studies herein which show associated benefits from chiropractic treatment with regards to neurodevelopmental disorders. The mechanisms by which this could happen appears plausible. Further advances in neural plasticity research may yet reveal stronger connections to chiropractic treatment. So as you can see, there are multiple mechanisms that may explain the positive results these two individuals with autism had following chiropractic care. Therefore, I want to wrap up today’s discussion with the following key takeaway. Chiropractic is a safe, drug-free approach to helping the body function better and should be considered for those individuals that have autism as part of a multidisciplinary approach to care. I hope you found this information helpful, please share this episode with anyone you feel may benefit from hearing it. This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much for listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/22880822

Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Chiropractic: Literature Review 04/10/2022

Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Chiropractic: Literature Review Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Chiropractic: Literature Review Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today we are going to discuss a 2015 literature review, titled Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Chiropractic: A Systematic Review of the Literature. This research review was published in the Journal Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health, in March of 2015. This topic is so important and timely since Neurodevelopmental disorders include some of the most challenging health issues facing children today, namely, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). The rates of ADD, ADHD and ASD are rising within the global population at an alarming rate, while treatments seem to be sadly lagging behind. Therefore, any intervention, especially those that are non-invasive & safe that shows promise should be looked at closely. Despite there being numerous pharmaceutical drugs on the market for these conditions, their results are mixed and side effects are often just as troubling as the conditions they are supposed to be addressing. The Summary or Abstract of the review is as follows:The objective: To provide a comprehensive analysis of the current body of scientific literature regarding the chiropractic management of a wide variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. The Methods of the Review: A literature search was performed using PubMed, MANTIS, the Index to Chiropractic Literature, McCoy Press, Galileo, and ScienceDirect. Inclusion criteria consisted of full-text peer-reviewed articles written in English as they related to the efficacy of chiropractic management of neurodevelopmental disorders. The Results: 50 articles were selected. The results were: 3 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT), 7 Reviews of Literature, 3 Case Series, 34 Case Studies and 3 Survey/Commentaries. The Conclusions: The majority of articles dealt specifically with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD)/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and were predominantly case studies. While we believe there is enough evidence to support the use of chiropractic with children who have been previously diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially ASD and ADD/ADHD, the chiropractic community should see this as a call to action to provide more research regarding neurodevelopmental disorders. Given that RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials) are the gold standard of research, the authors acknowledged that although 3 RCTs supporting Chiropractic care for neurodevelopmental disorders is a great start, we need to fund additional research projects to build upon these initial studies. Lets dive deeper into this research review. Now, what does Chiropractic care have to do with neurodevelopmental disorders? For those of you not familiar with HOW chiropractic actually works, the answer is quite simple. The MAIN goal of chiropractic care is to improve brain-body, body-brain communication. We do that by analyzing the spine for abnormally positioned or abnormally moving spinal segments, known as vertebral subluxations. Vertebral subluxations are corrected by specific chiropractic adjustments. Because vertebral subluxations, by the stress caused to the surrounding spinal cord and nerve roots, cause nervous system interference, it should make sense that correcting vertebral subluxations reduces nervous system interference and therefore could help those suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders. It is important to note: people alway ask, does chiropractic cure this or fix so and so conditions? The answer is no, chiropractic’s purpose is Not to treat specific diseases, rather chiropractic’s purpose is to do one thing and one thing only: correct vertebral subluxations which enables the body to better do what it was designed to do! Of course, by helping the body to better do what it is designed to do, this results in improved health & healing which explains why so many health challenges have responded to chiropractic care! Getting back to this literature review the authors point out; “With rising incidences of various neurodevelopmental disorders, the likelihood of healthcare professionals encountering them as a presenting complaint in their clinics is just as likely to rise. With chiropractors serving as portal of entry providers, it is also therefore likely that the practicing chiropractor will encounter such patients. It is therefore important to understand the possible relationship between chiropractic care and neurodevelopmental disorders. The evidence presented within this literature review aims to demonstrate the plausibility of chiropractic care as an appropriate healthcare service utilized for neurodevelopmental disorders. Services provided include spinal adjustments focused on the correction of vertebral subluxation, improvement in joint function, reduction of pain, increased quality of life and levels of independence, as well as management of dizziness, proprioceptive and/or vestibular complaints, and possibly more.” Some of the key takeaways from the expanded conclusion section of this review are as follows:If we consider the new research that shows chiropractic adjustments having a direct effect on neural plasticity of the central nervous system (as demonstrated by the breakthrough research paper by Haavik-Taylor published in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology in February of 2007) and other research linking abnormal stimuli to plastic changes within the central nervous system along with the case studies herein which show associated benefits from chiropractic treatment with regards to neurodevelopmental disorders. The mechanisms by which this could happen appears plausible. Further advances in neural plasticity research may yet reveal stronger connections to chiropractic treatment. Considering the goal of a subluxation based chiropractor to treat the vertebral subluxation complex, its safety with regards to children based on the Council on Chiropractic Practice Guidelines, and not treating neurodevelopmental disorders specifically, along with the results shown herein regards to the available case files, we believe there is enough evidence to support the use of chiropractic treatments on children who have been previously diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially ASD and ADD/ADHD. We suggest a conservative treatment approach that would focus specifically on diagnosed subluxations within the vertebral column and co-management with other medical professionals to better objectively quantify any changes that may manifest in the presentation of the patient’s neurodevelopmental disorders, which would then add additional strength to the case for future considerations into publication as a case file.” So there you have it, my summary of the paper, “Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Chiropractic: A Systematic Review of the Literature” I hope this explains how chiropractic care may help those that are dealing with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially ADD, ADHD and ASD. My final point today: Chiropractic care should be considered for those individuals that are dealing with neurodevelopmental disorders. Research supports co-management of these complex cases including other medical providers. I hope you found this information helpful, please share this episode with anyone you feel may benefit from hearing it. This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much for listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/22745477

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“Treat the Patient, not the infection” Cellular Theory vs. Germ Theory 05/10/2020

“Treat the Patient, not the infection” Cellular Theory vs. Germ Theory “Treat the Patient, not the infection” Cellular Theory vs. Germ Theory Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host, Dr. Marc Dupuis Today I want to share a recent blog post that stirred up quite a bit of attention. The core of today’s discussion involves a critical look at long held belief, championed by French biologist, Louis Pasteur that germs cause disease and that the condition of the body or host does not play any role. Louis Pasteur’s biggest rival was French scientist Antoine Bechamp. Antoine Bechamp is responsible for our title quote, “treat the patient, not the infection”. He believed that the way to prevent disease was to build up the health of the host’s body (or terrain as he called it) through proper diet, hygiene and healthy lifestyle habits. He saw the host’s body as terrain, Ultimately, Pasteur’s ideas were accepted by society and really led to our modern western medical system that is based on antibiotics, drugs and vaccinations while Bechamp’s ideas were mostly forgotten. What most people do not know and is quite ironic is this: At the end of his life Pasteur renounced his own germ theory and admitted that Bechamp was right all along. In fact, Louis Pasteur’s last words were “The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything”. Now on to the quote that our blog post began with: “If the Germ theory were true, no one would be alive to believe it!” This quote by Dr. BJ Palmer may sound silly to many educated people, however, for those with the most up to date, researched based education on the human immune system, it actually makes a lot of sense. Think about it: As of May 1, 2020, the COVID-19 virus has been attributed to 235,000 deaths worldwide. There are approximately 3,337,000 confirmed cases worldwide. There are 2,047,000 active cases world-wide, 98% of those infected have mild symptoms while 2% are in serious or critical condition. Over 1,054,000 have fully recovered from COVID-19. New research shows that there are likely 50x more people that have had it but have never been tested since the majority of people infected (~80%) will have mild symptoms and a majority of them will not even require ANY medical intervention, therefore they are not being tested and thus are not being counted. So, if the majority of those who have recovered required little to no medical attention, what is the difference between those that have died and those that survived? It’s the same virus that infected both serious and mild cases. The difference has to be in the condition of the HOST, not the virus itself! Here is a simple but accurate analogy. Think of the body as a mansion. Now think of two mansions on the same street. The first one has not been well maintained. It has large cracks in the foundation, there are holes in the siding, the roof is in disrepair and is leaking. The garbage has never been taken out, so the basement is filled with countless bags of it rotting away. The homeowners left the pantry with boxes and bags of junk food half open and spilled out onto shelves and ground. The second mansion has been well maintained. The foundation does not have any damage, the exterior siding is air-tight and has an extra layer of insulation. The roof is intact and does not leak. There is no garbage left in the house. The homeowners have kept the pantry clean, all foodstuffs are kept in sealed containers. Which mansion do you expect to eventually become overrun (infected) with rats? Of course, the first mansion. The first mansion has all of the ingredients needed for rats to thrive in it! The problem with the first mansion is not the existence of rats. Rats have been around long before the mansions were built. The problem is the first mansion has become the perfect host for rats. The owners of the first mansion can pay exterminators to kill off the rats, but if they do not fix the cracks in the foundation, patch the holes in the siding and roof and if they do not get rid of the garbage, clean and secure the food in the pantry…. The rats will come back! That is not hard to understand. This is how it works with the human body. When not properly cared for it can become a suitable host for pathogens like bacteria and VIRUSES to cause damage. The problem is not the bacteria or virus itself. The problem is with the person’s body has become a suitable host. If you are still stuck on the belief that the problem is the virus or bacteria think about this: The human body is made up of about 70 trillion cells. Did you know that we have 10x the amount of bacteria on us and IN us! What is even more interesting, is that a plethora of research has shown that many of those bacteria species live symbiotically in us, promoting numerous factors of health for the human host. The complete collection of bacteria that live on & in us is considered our microbiome. When a person has a wide variety of beneficial bacteria, those helpful bacteria can keep more dangerous bacteria populations in check. It is true that each and everyone of us, have countless species of bacteria in us & on us every single day that are capable of causing disease but are kept in check by both the action of friendly bacteria and actions of our immune system. Now for the kicker: Did you know that in reference to our 70 trillion cells, we have an estimated 100X the amount of…….VIRUSES in & on us! The total of all of the viruses in & on us is considered our virome! And, just like our microbiome, it appears that a number of these viruses are also contributing to our overall health! This is a rapidly emerging area of science (a search on for human virome yields 588 results vs. a search for human microbiome that yields 62,037 results!) but as of now it appears that the virome is likely to behave similarly to that of our microbiome. The majority of the viruses that make up our virome are symbiotic in nature however some of them are likely to be capable of causing disease but only if they get out of balance with regards to the friendly viruses & our immune system. Now you should be able to understand the main fault in the overly simplistic germ theory of disease that Dr. BJ Palmer and many other top scientists pointed out over 100 years ago. The problem is not the germ, the problem is with the host! So, simply relying on just wearing a mask & gloves to keep you safe from this virus or any future pathogens without taking the steps to improve the overall integrity of your body is a short-sighted plan that will likely lead to a false sense of security. Doing so is no different than covering up the second broken down mansion with a tarp and hoping that will keep the rats out! Here are some action steps you can take to shore up your mansion’s (body’s) defenses. Sleep 8 hours per night (for adults, children 9-10 hours per night) Exercise regularly Have your spine regularly checked for subluxation (fixed spinal joints) and get adjusted as needed to remove subluxations. This is engineering 101. Structure determines function. If there are structural imbalances in your spine, it will result in abnormal body function. Reduce the intake of processed flour (nutrient dead food) and especially processed sugar. Processed sugar is inflammatory in nature (medical folks: think of the impact on the cytokine storm!) and is an immunosuppressant. Increase the intake of non-GMO/Organic vegetables, particularly those high in vitamins A & C (liver, sweet potato, carrots, spinach, broccoli, red pepper, cauliflower, kale, yellow pepper). Most people know about the immune supporting actions of vitamin C, however, vitamin A is just as important, in fact, it Is critical in the building of a sound epithelium, which is like the siding on the mansion! Optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D directly influences immune system function! Each day take action to manage STRESS. This can be done in just 10-15 minutes per day but is so very important since unchecked stress can lead to adrenal fatigue which can significantly suppress your immune system. Some examples of ways to do so: Breath work, prayer and meditation. So there you have it. Take the steps recommended by state & federal officials to stay safe and TAKE ACTION to build up your body and your body’s defenses so that you will NOT be a suitable host for this virus or any other pathogen! 207-324-7098 You can find relevant links to things we discussed today on our show notes page at If you can, please rate & review us on Apple Podcasts, that can help us tremendously by staying relevant and well placed in search results. Thank you very much for listening & have a great day! links: /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/14356454

Your Body IS the Miracle! Life University's Vice President Dr. GIlles LaMarche 05/02/2019

Your Body IS the Miracle! Life University's Vice President Dr. GIlles LaMarche Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Gilles LaMarche Dr. Gilles Lamarche is a passionate chiropractor who has practiced for more than 25 years in Northern Ontario, Canada. He is an avid student of the psychology and philosophy of success. He has spoken to audiences throughout Canada, United States, Mexico, Japan, Scandinavia, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean. He is the author and co-author of more than nine books including and the . Dr. Gilles was named Canadian Chiropractor of the Year in 2006 by the readers of . He is currently the Vice President of University Advancement at Life University in Marietta Georgia Dr. Gilles, welcome to the show. Dr. Gilles thank you so much for joining us today! First and foremost, would you mind telling our listeners a little more about you as a person and especially about how you ended up on the road to becoming a chiropractor? In doing my research for today’s conversation I learned that not only did chiropractic care save you from a lifetime of pain after suffering that injury as a child, chiropractic saved you again this time after being told as an adult that you only had 24 months to live! Can you share with our listeners the details of this exceptionally powerful story? These stories highlight such an important point. Yes, chiropractic care can be very helpful for those with back pain and neck pain but really, chiropractic care is about so much more than just pain management. Can you take a moment and elaborate on this for our listeners? You speak to people all over the world, in addition to thinking that chiropractic care is only for neck pain and low back pain are there any other common misconceptions that people have about Chiropractic care? Switching gears now, would you talk about your current role at Life University, what led you to take on such a position and for those unfamiliar with Life University, can you tell our listeners a little bit about this great institution? How does Life University differ from some of the other Chiropractic Colleges? In addition to your own books that you have written, which we will have links to in our show notes page, do you have additional any resources that you would recommend to our listeners, this could be a book, podcast, seminar etc? How can listeners connect or follow you: Social media, websites, email etc., Lastly, Dr. Gilles, do you have any final words of wisdom for our listeners? Dr. Gilles, Thank you so much taking the time out of your busy schedule and for coming on the show today! links: /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/9626582

BTHCP_022_Chiropractics_Certainty_Advocate_Dr._Dan_Sullivan_Shares_the_Science_Behind_Chiropractic__Total_Health_Optimization.mp3 04/09/2019

BTHCP_022_Chiropractics_Certainty_Advocate_Dr._Dan_Sullivan_Shares_the_Science_Behind_Chiropractic__Total_Health_Optimization.mp3 Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Dan Sullivan Dr. Dan Sullivan is a chiropractor, speaker, author, and one of the most sought after health experts in the United States. Dr. Sullivan’s passion for health care revolution took root in a childhood shared with seven brothers and sisters, two of whom have since become medical doctors. Dr. Dan demanded an understanding of the cause of diseases that entered homes just like his and a world that profits from the treatment of symptoms that maintain an endless cycle of sickness. Dr. Sullivan’s journey and research produced an undeniable truth: the medical model of health care needed to change. The power of a chiropractic adjustment forms the foundation for reforming a hopeless, drug-stricken pathogenic system into a true health and salutogenic-care model founded in vitalistic principles His search for truth led him through Doctoral School in Minnesota and advanced chiropractic training. Dr. Dan went on to build one of the largest single-doctor natural healthcare clinics in the state of Nebraska. Dr. Dan expanded his pursuit to the world of research and education in 2012, speaking to students, doctors, and the public while serving as an Official Chiropractor for the United States Wrestling team during the 2012 London Olympics. Dr. Dan, welcome to the show. Dr. Dan thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us! First and foremost, would you mind telling our listeners a little more about you as a person and especially about how you ended up on the road to becoming a chiropractor? You are an expert on the science behind the power of the chiropractic adjustment and its effect on optimizing human health. One of the major factors that separates you from other researchers is your excellent ability to explain such findings in an easy to understand manner for patients, community members and especially to other doctors who quite frankly have not been trained in this subject matter. Can you please take a moment to explain to our listeners just what is a subluxation and how it affects our human health? One question that often come up from so many people after learning about the devastating effects of subluxation is this: how come I have never heard subluxation? I think that question leads us into a very important issue. Our modern healthcare system, based primarily on the treatment of symptoms through drugs and surgery, is not the answer to improved health and healing. It really should be called sickness care and it is based upon a mechanistic philosophy. Now, a true healthcare system based on healing and the optimization of health like Chiropractic is based upon Vitalistic philosophy. Can you expand on this issue for our listeners? You speak to people all over the world, what are some of the biggest misconceptions that people have about Chiropractic care? Do you have any resources that you would recommend to our listeners, this could be a book, podcast, seminar etc? How can listeners connect or follow you: Social media, websites, email etc., Lastly, Dr. Dan, do you have any final words of wisdom for our listeners? Dr. Dan, Thank you so much taking the time out of your busy schedule and for coming on the show today! links: Dr. Dan Sullivan’s website Dr. Dan Sullivan on Facebook /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/9240428

BTHCP 021 Getting To The CAUSE Of Heart Disease With The Paleo Cardiologist Amazon #1 Best Seller Dr Jack Wolfson 03/25/2019

BTHCP 021 Getting To The CAUSE Of Heart Disease With The Paleo Cardiologist Amazon #1 Best Seller Dr Jack Wolfson BTHCP 021: Getting To The CAUSE Of Heart Disease With The Paleo Cardiologist & Amazon #1 Best Seller, Dr. Jack Wolfson Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Jack Wolfson Dr. Jack Wolfson is a board-certified cardiologist and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He has emerged as one of the world’s leading holistic natural cardiologists, and was a Natural Choice Award Winner in the Holistic MD category from Natural Awakenings Magazine. His ideas have been featured by NBC and CNN and covered in publications like the USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. Prior to opening Wolfson Integrative Cardiology, Dr. Jack was Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Paradise Valley Hospital in Arizona. He was also a partner in Arizona’s largest cardiology practice. As a trusted leader in heart health and natural heart health, Dr. Jack has taught more than 10,000 physicians his natural heart health best practices. His book, , was an Amazon # 1 best seller. He is an in-demand lecturer about natural healthy living without Big Pharma pills and invasive procedures. Dr. Jack, welcome to the show. I am so happy to have you on the show today because the information you teach not only to patients and the public at large but to doctors is desperately needed; more so than ever before as the number one killer in the US is and continues to be: heart disease, despite all of our medical interventions and countless prescription drugs! But first; Would you mind telling our listeners a little more about you as a person and especially about how you ended up on the road to becoming an interventional cardiologist and then a holistic cardiologist? In your book you reference the following quote from Upton Sinclair “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I think that quote perfectly explains one of the biggest challenges in our country’s “health care” system that is largely driven by pharmaceutical companies & medical device companies that spend upwards of 300 BILLION dollars per year to brainwash us & brainwash many doctors into believing that all we need to improve health is better chemistry, in the form of more prescription drugs & devices and in fact they have a pill for every ill and this system rewards doctors not for getting patients well, but for prescribing more drugs & medical devices and performing more procedures. How much resistance did you encounter from your cardiology colleagues when you began to have success treating patients with natural supplements, dietary modification and lifestyle advice? Let’s jump into some topics that are sure to make some of our listeners heads spin! First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room right from the get-go: Cholesterol is not the bad guy that people have been taught to believe is it? Could you expand on this for our listeners? Now that we know just how important Cholesterol is, how on earth did we get to our current situation where most doctors and patients still believe it is so bad, is it mainly a by-product of bad science spearheaded by Ancel Keys in the 1950’s, combined with the fact that modern medical education contains virtually no study of nutrition or are there other forces behind this? Let us now jump into perhaps an equally controversial topic: Diet. Grandma was right all along when she said, “You are what you eat” Most of us grew up learning about the standard food pyramid that suggest we eat 4-5 servings of whole grains every day. What are the biggest problems that can result from consuming so much grain? You make an excellent case that when you actually study the physiology of the human body and use actual lab tests when adjusting the diets of patients, eating a Paleo diet is one of the best things we can do for our health. Can you outline for our listeners what exactly is a Paleo diet and also just as important, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about the Paleo diet? Let’s shift to a topic that is of course near and dear to my heart, Chiropractic! Can you explain to our listeners how chiropractic care can help prevent and treat heart disease? In addition to eating a Paleo diet and maintaining spinal health through chiropractic care, what are a few other top things that people should do to improve their heart health? Switching gears once again, let’s talk for a moment about supplements. What are the top two or three most important supplements that can help optimize heart health? Dr. Jack, As we get ready to wrap things up, do you have any last words of wisdom or asks of our audience? Last but no least, How can listeners connect or follow you: Social media, websites, etc. I will put links to each of the resources that Dr. Jack mentioned as well as links to the ways to follow/connect with him & a link to his Amazon Best Selling Book, on our show notes page at Dr. Jack, Thank you so much taking the time out of your busy schedule and for bringing so much value to our show today! links: A Podcast Channel of Back to Health Chiropractic PC /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/9125120

BTHCP 020: The Chiropractic Big Idea & Finding Your Life Purpose with Dr. Fred DiDomenico 03/07/2019

BTHCP 020: The Chiropractic Big Idea & Finding Your Life Purpose with Dr. Fred DiDomenico BTHCP 020: The Chiropractic Big Idea & Finding Your Life Purpose with Dr. Fred DiDomenico Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Fred Didomenico Dr. Fred DiDomenico has had 4 practices in 14 years, and has help thousands of patients build stronger, healthier bodies and live a better life. Combined with the following years coaching doctors to help more people in their community, he has impacted the strength, health and lives of well over a million people around the world. He has the purpose to raise the awareness of the general public that proper spinal structure and nervous system function is the foundation of health and life. He is committed to bring this message to people that are suffering with health problems, disability and disease that will continue to degenerate unless they receive this truth. He is the founder of Elite Chiropractic Coaching & Author of the Fantastic New eBook: Back to Health, A New Awareness of the Role of Your Spine in Your Overall Wellness. Dr. Fred, welcome to the show. Dr. Fred, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us! I have been looking forward to getting to know you for quite some time, I first became familiar with you a number of years ago when I came across an excellent podcast you were doing with Dr. Deed Harrison & Dr. Joe Ferrantelli, which by the way I am very happy to report is back with new episodes! First and foremost, would you mind telling our listeners a little more about you as a person and especially about how you ended up on the road to becoming a chiropractor? A recent Gallup study cited that 14% of Americans go to chiropractors and 70% of those believe it’s only about back and neck pain. After 120 years of chiropractic tradition, only 4.2% of the population have a proper understanding of the power that chiropractic has to heal disease and maintain overall health. /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/8914301

BTHCP 019: Interview with Former Mr. America & Chiropractor, Dr. Chris Zaino 02/18/2019

BTHCP 019: Interview with Former Mr. America & Chiropractor, Dr. Chris Zaino BTHCP 019: Interview with Former Mr. America & Chiropractor, Dr. Chris Zaino Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Chris Zaino Dr. Chris Zaino grew up in Melville, New York until the age of 12 when his family relocated to Sarasota, Florida. Early in high school he was inspired by his father to begin what would be a successful bodybuilding career. Dr. Zaino began natural competitive bodybuilding as he was going through college and won many titles at the national level, including Mr. America in 1992. In 1998, he graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Exercise Physiology & Wellness. He then went on to Parker College of Chiropractic, to earn his doctorate in Chiropractic. Dr. Zaino’s passion is to educate and support as many families as possible so they can reach their God-given health potential through natural chiropractic care. His office, Abundant Life Chiropractic is now the largest chiropractic clinic in the world! Dr. Chris, welcome to the show. Dr. Chris I am so excited to have you on the show today, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with us! First and foremost, would you mind telling our listeners a little more about you as a person and especially about how you ended up on the road to becoming a chiropractor? Thank you for sharing that impactful story. A key point I want to emphasize to our listeners is this: You were dealing with a serious health condition that was anything but what most people think chiropractic care is for: back pain and neck pain. Of course chiropractic care works great for back pain and neck pain but man, the fact that spinal dysfunction (or vertebral subluxations) interfere with the nervous system, which is the master control system of the entire body, people need to understand that virtually any health condition could be the result of spinal dysfunction! Can you tell us a little more about how you educate your patients on the fact that all healing requires time? Thank you for that. I think this is another very important point. All healing takes time. Although it seems like we suddenly become sick, the truth is when we are sick, it was in the days or weeks or months or sometimes even years before that where we actually became unhealthy and lost our ability to adapt to future challenges. In this day and age when we have pharmaceutical companies spending upwards of 300 BILLION dollars per year to brainwash us into believing the opposite: that time is not needed, rather all we need to improve our health is better chemistry, in the form of more prescription drugs and in fact they have a pill for every ill, which sadly is not the path to improved health. If you were not patient enough, you may have ended up undergoing major surgery and likely would have been put on a lifetime of prescription drugs! How do you educate your patients on understanding that healing takes time? Do you have any resources that you would recommend to our listeners, this could be a book, podcast, seminar etc? How can listeners connect or follow you: Social media, websites, email etc., I know you have another exciting project that your are working on, “The I am Hero Project” can listeners contact you through that platform? Dr. Chris, Thank you so much taking the time out of your busy schedule and for coming on the show today! links: Dr. Chris Zaino on Facebook Dr. Chris Zaino on Instagram Dr. Chris’ Special Gift for our listeners Dr. Chris Zaino’s “I am Hero” Project Recommended Dr. Fred Barge Books Recommended Dr. Reggie Gold Books /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/8692430

BTHCP: 018 Gluten Sensitivity: Real or Imagined? 01/07/2019

BTHCP 017 SIBO: A Hidden Cause of IBS, IBD, GERD and Much More! 12/26/2018

BTHCP 017 SIBO: A Hidden Cause of IBS, IBD, GERD and Much More! BTHCP: 017 SIBO: A Hidden Cause of IBS, IBD, GERD and Much More! Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today we are going to shed some light on a hot topic in functional medicine; SIBO or Small Intestine Bacteria Overgrowth. SIBO is a condition in which abnormally large numbers of bacteria are present in the small intestine leading to problems with digestion and absorption of nutrients and for many, increased intestinal permeability or “Leaky Gut”. Technically speaking SIBO is defined when small intestinal bacteria levels rise above 10(3)bacteria/ml. Let’s talk for a moment about the small intestine There are a number of factors that are supposed to keep bacteria levels lower in the small intestine compared to the large intestine. The major factors are: the presence of digestive HCL, bile, and other digestive enzymes, the presence of gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT) and the action of the migratory muscle complex (MMC). We will cover how these factors influence small intestine bacteria levels in a moment. The average small intestine is about 20 feet in length (compared to the large intestine which on average is about 5 feet in length). The complete digestive tract is a highly specialized structure that is connected to and influenced by both the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system and contains over 100 trillion bacteria. Over our lifetimes we will put literally TONS of foods, fake foods, preservatives, chemicals and more into our mouths, therefore it should come as no surprise that diet is one of the major causes of SIBO, more on that later. Because of the numerous bodily processes that are reliant on a properly functioning digestive system, there are a number of Diseases Associated with SIBO. The most common ones are: IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBD(irritable bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease & Ulcerative Colitis), GERD, Celiac & Gluten Sensitivity, Autism, Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Syndrome, Interstitial Cystitis, Diabetes, Scleroderma, Cirrhosis & Hepatic Encephalopathy, Hypothyrodism and Diverticulitis. Symptoms of SIBOThe most common Signs & Symptoms of SIBO are: Abdominal Gas & bloating, with or without pain and or discomfort. This is due to an excess of hydrogen and methane gases being produced by the overpopulated bacteria in the small intestine. Because excess methane gas often causes constipation and excessive hydrogen gas often causes diarrhea this explains the second major sign/symptom of SIBO Abnormal bowel function. What is normal? One should have a bowel movement at least once per day, the consistency of your stool should be similar in consistency to that of a ripe banana. Excessive burping and excessive flatulence Reflux Nausea Fatigue Other systemic symptoms that come after eating food, three such examples are headaches, joint pain and a sense of “crashing after eating”. As mentioned earlier If left untreated SIBO can lead to leaky gut (increased intestinal permeability) which can then cause food sensitivities, headaches, respiratory problems and even neurological disorders such as depression, anxiety and more... Some of the most common clinical finding related to SIBO which are likely to be missed by health-care providers not trained in functional medicine are: Anemia B12 deficiency Fat malabsorption low body weight combined with inability to put on weight Fat soluble vitamin deficiency (ADEK) Causes The most common causes of SIBO are: Long course utilization of broad spectrum antibiotics Proton pump inhibiting drugs (anti-acid drugs) Opioid drugs Food poisoning Significant life stress Other significant infections Food Allergies/Sensitivities Fortunately our bodies do have multiple, natural ways to prevent SIBO: Many of our digestive enzymes help to keep bacterial populations in balance. The gut associated lymphatic tissue (GALT) within our small intestine tissues works to regulate commensal or friendly bacteria and identifies and fights intestinal pathogens, the ileocecal valve (one way valve) helps to encourage normal flow of intestinal contents and the Migratory Motor Complex or MMC plays a tremendous role in preventing SIBO. Let’s talk about the migrating motor complex: It is activated by enteric nervous system, (ENS (gut brain/2nd brain)) operates between meals, every 90 min MMC performs one full peristaltic sweep from stomach to ileum encouraging proper clearance of continents from the small intestine into the large intestine. The MMC stops when eating resumes. Knowledge of how the MMC works should give pause to those that are trying diets that encourage eating every 1-2 hours as this could result in becoming more susceptible to developing SIBO. Risk factors: There are some known risk factors for developing SIBO and they include: having an atypical small intestine loop or loops, having diverticuli present, have a sluggish or suppressed Migratory Motor Complex. and diabetes. How do you know if you have SIBO? This takes us to the next part of our discussion, Testing for SIBO. There are a few challenges to testing this specialized region of the intestine. Due to its length, location and given the fact that the small intestine is far from the rectum, stool cultures are not at all effective in determining its contents. The best way to currently asses if one has SIBO is to perform a lactulose SIBO breath test. For this test a patient drinks a lactulose solution and then over the period of at least two hours has their breath tested to see how much Hydrogen & methane gas is exhaled. Because the bacteria in the small intestine acts upon the lactulose solution, producing hydrogen & methane gases, this test can accurately tell what is going on in this part of the intestine. This test can also be performed with the patient drinking a glucose solution, however, lactulose is preferred since it is a synthetic sugar which unlike glucose is non-digestible by the patient, yet is digestible by intestinal bacteria. Now, it is important to know that many health-care providers are familiar with an H-pylori breath test due to the long term knowledge of H-pylori’s association with stomach ulcers and pernicous anemia, however, many are unfamiliar with the SIBO breath test. Therefore if you ask your health-care provider for a SIBO breath test, the wrong test may be ordered, just a heads up. Sources do vary on what criteria is required to consider a test positive, however, for the most part a positive test is considered if any of the following occurs within the first 2 hours of the test: a rise in Hydrogen gas of 20 ppm over lowest preceding level a rise in Methane gas of 12 ppm over lowest preceding level a combined rise in Hydrogen gas & Methane gas of 15 ppm over lowest preceding level Now that we reviewed how to test for SIBO, more importantly, what are the treatments for SIBO? Currently there are four major major methods of treatment available. What someone will need in regards to which treatment or which combination of treatments depends on a number of different factors some of which are age, underlying health, severity of symptoms, previous treatment. Treatment often requires multiple rounds due to the high rate of recurrences or relapses. General Dietary modification: This method of treatment is designed to be ongoing, it will not likely be effective if done for just a one or two or three weeks. The main goals are to (1) lower the patient’s carbohydrate intake which will limit growth in the overpopulated species of bacteria and (2) consume foods that encourage proper gut motility which helps to clear bacteria populations from the small intestine (the latter goal is to follow what is considered to be a prokinetic diet). Research has shown that the AMOUNT of FOOD one eats per meal IS Important. Eating smaller amounts per meal will aid in the recovery of SIBO. Obviously if you regularly consume large portions, much of what you will not be able to absorb only serves as additional fuel for the already overpopulated small intestinal bacteria! Another general rule of thumb; Space meals out at least 4 hours apart to allow for maximal Migratory Motor Complex activity, remember it takes 90 minutes after eating for just one wave of motility from the stomach through small intestine. 1b. Specific Diets: There are six specific diets that have been shown to be useful in the treatment of SIBO. They are: Specific Carbohydrate Diet GAPS (Gut and psychology syndrome diet) Low FODMAP diet (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, short chain carbohydrates & sugar alcohols that are poorly absorbed by the body but readily available as food for intestinal bacteria) Cedars-Sinai Low Fermentation Diet (C-SLFD). Easiest to follow SIBO Specific Food Guide (SSFG). Most restrictive, however, seems to result in the most symptomatic relief Paleo Diet You can easily Google any of these diets to learn more about them. Prokinetic foods: These are low FODMAP foods that are rich in calcium & magnesium which play a major role in smooth muscle contraction/relaxation, thereby increasing Migratory Motor Complex activity. Some examples are ripe bananas, almonds & quinoa. Some of the most commonly used prokinetic supplements are Iberogast (I-bureau-gast) which contains a mixture of 9 herbs, MotilPro which contains ginger, vitamin B6, acetyl-l-carnitine and 5-HTP. A number of health-care providers will use ginger on its own as a supplement to improve gut motility. Elemental diet: Treatment duration 2-3 wks: Use of a powder that is mixed with fluid and drank that contains pre-digested nutrients, therefore it is easily digested without placing much stress on the GI and is designed to replace ALL meals for 2-3 weeks. The success comes from essentially starving the overgrown bacteria populations while still providing nutrients to the patient. Research has shown that the elemental diet can be AS effective as prescription antibiotics! the down side, it is a difficult diet to adhere to due to poor taste, and restriction of all solid foods, which is also often emotionally very difficult for the patient. Other downsides to this diet are possibility of excessive weight loss and Yeast overgrowth. Herbal antibiotics Treatment duration 4 - 6 wks: Research has shown that the following herbs & herb derived compounds are AS effective as prescription antibiotics; Allicin (Ally-sin), Berberine, Neem, Oregano & Cinnamon. Avoid whole garlic due to pre-biotic fiber content which supports bacteria growth Antibiotics Treatment duration 2 wks: Most commonly use drugs are Rifaximin (Re-fax-a-min), Neomycin and Metronidazole (Metro-Nye-di-zol) One of the main challenges that can arise during treatment for SIBO is a poorly tolerated “Die off”, which is a temporary worsening of symptoms related to toxins being released from bacteria being killed off. The most common symptoms of die off include flu like symptoms, increased gas/bloating or a worsening of whatever initial symptoms they first presented with. Symptoms from die off can last as long as 3-4 wks and is a major reason why it is so important to work with a qualified health-care professional who can help to modify the treatment plan, if needed, to help make the die off phase more manageable. The good news is this: despite research saying die off symptoms can last as long as 3-4 wks, it is not that common. Im my experience, these symptoms typically last only 1 to 2 wks, provided that the patient is compliant in making the modifications to their treatment plan that I recommend. This wraps up our conversation on small intestine bacteria overgrowth or SIBO. I hope this helped to explain what exactly SIBO is, the most common symptoms of SIBO, most common diseases associated, how to test for it and most importantly, how to treat it. I will put links to some of the information we touched upon today, they can be found on our show notes page that is located at . This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links Excellent website for an overview of SIBO Dr. Mullin’s work showing herbal therapy is equal to prescription antibiotics for the treatment of SIBO Genova Diagnostics SIBO Breath Test /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/8045546

BTHCP: 016 Healing with HEAT: The Numerous Health Benefits of Sauna Use 10/01/2018

BTHCP: 016 Healing with HEAT: The Numerous Health Benefits of Sauna Use BTHCP: 016 Healing with HEAT: The Numerous Health Benefits of Sauna Use Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I am excited to share with you an ever-expanding list of health benefits that come from spending time in a sauna! Sauna use is of course nothing new, as saunas have played an important role in many different cultures all throughout the world. Sauna use has been well known to promote relaxation and reduce stress however new research is showing that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms how sauna use can improve your health! Improved Detoxification:Folks this is huge. Never before have we been exposed to so many toxins on such a regular basis. Increased toxic load is proposed to be a major contributing factor to many of the leading chronic diseases, including cancers, due to the inflammation that so many of these toxins create in our bodies. Therefore, it is absolutely critical to do all we can to improve our bodies ability to detoxify. It has been proven that our skin plays a major role in detoxification and sweating is how we release numerous toxins. Research in the publication Clinical Chemistry showed that Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead and Mercury can be readily eliminated from the body via sweat, which is why sauna use is so effective in promoting detoxification. Improved Cardiovascular Function,This is equally huge. It seems that sauna use provides a benefit similar to exercise. It is all about overcoming applied stress. With traditional exercise the stress comes from physical resistance in a variety of forms depending on what we are doing; For example; when running we need to exert ground contact force to overcome gravity, when cycling we need to exert power to overcome the resistance from the pedals, gears, etc. With sauna use the the applied stress is maintaining core temperature in a hot environment. Both exercise and sauna use result in increased heart rate, increased respiration rate, increased stroke volume and increased sweat rate. Now this is important: There is one one major difference between sauna use and traditional exercise: When we do traditional exercise weather it be weight training, running, biking, elliptical use etc, of course we experience increases in everything we just mentioned, BUT, it also causes an adrenal response (our adrenal glands produce stress hormones as a result of the body sensing it is under stress) causing a spike in cortisol output. Now this is can a good thing because cortisol triggers the subsequent changes in hormones and dietary fuels that we need to get through whatever is stressing us weather it be a workout, running away from that bear, making those split second decisions to avoid say a car crash and cortisol also sets the stage for recovery (in fact that is just the beginning of what cortisol does, we could literally spend an hour on that). But, there is a problem which is this; So many of us are under so much stress on such a regular & on-going basis that our adrenal glands are actually fatigued. The harder you push in training results in greater strains to the adrenals glands. Continuing to push hard ie TRAIN when you are in adrenally fatigued leads to becoming overtrained which leads to poor performance, injury and sickeness. Now when using a sauna, the body must try to cool which creates a stress on the cardiovascular system similar to what occurs when working out, however, sauna use has been shown to actually Decrease cortisol levels! Therefore; you get the benefit of a cardiovascular workout without putting stress on our adrenal glands! This takes us right into the next major benefit of sauna use: Enables Downregulation of our Nervous System Let’s talk some more about STRESS! Stress in all its forms attacks our nervous system first? Why? Simple. It’s been estimated that 80% of our entire nervous system is dedicated to sensing what is going on in our environment. It’s an innate survival mechanism. Is there a bear chasing me? Where is my food source? Is a storm coming? Do I need to take shelter and warm up, cool down? Etc. Get it? There are two major subdivisions of our nervous system. The sympathetic or “fight or flight” system and the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” system. They are opposing systems, like a light switch so they cannot both be fully “on”. As I just mentioned, when we are under stress, weather working out, being chased or are being hit with a myriad of emotionally based stresses…work, money, relationships, that triggers the fight or flight sympathetic system. Which is okay if we need to run from that bear, crush that workout or figure out how to resolve that emotional challenge. The problem is, we are not supposed to be chased by a bear all day long. Constant sympathetic stimulus stresses out adrenal glands as they try to put out an abundance of cortisol. Now we only have so many building blocks for hormones, so if we spend all day trying to produce cortisol we begin to see drops in other critical hormones responsible for repair, healing and longevity such as DHEA and growth hormone! Now to further complicate things, of the two systems, the sympathetic system is the only one capable of winding itself up. The end result we get stuck in sympathetic overdrive and then big problems start showing up. In addition to poor performance, injury and sickness, our digestion system becomes impaired, often resulting in excessive gas, bloating, heartburn, irritable bowel symptoms. We start putting on weight around the midsection despite how much we work out or how little we eat. Often, we are so tired but when we go to bed we are actually so wound up we do not sleep well, the list goes on and on. This is where down regulation comes in. Simply put; down regulation refers to anything that can calm down the sympathetic system while simultaneously stimulating the critically important rest and digest parasympathetic system and sauna use has been clinically shown to do this! This is probably the most important health benefit that is behind the longevity of sauna use dating as far back as to the Greek & Roman empire era Improves HypertensionRecent 2017 research in the American Journal of Hypertension found that regular sauna use resulted in lower rates of hypertension. Likely the same factors that generate the improved cardiovascular function as talked about earlier help in the overall balance of blood pressure. Weight LossThere are at least two major factors that can help sauna users lose weight. The first is reduced cortisol levels. Remember when we talked about saunas being able to help us downregulate the nervous system. This results in lowering cortisol output which can have a significant impact on weight. Cortisol, among many things, induced the body to store body fat as part of the alarm response. Simply put; you body thinks you are being chased and you may be running far away from your food source so you better store fat for future fuel just in case. The second way sauna use can help people lose weight is through direct calorie burn. Depending on your size, weight and sweat rate, the average person burns somewhere between 200-600 calories per 30 min session. Decreased incidence of Alzheimer’s and DementiaVery promising, recent research in the Journal of Age and Ageing showed lower risks of developing both Alzheimer’s and Dementia with increasing rates of sauna use. This was an interesting study because it followed a large sample size, over 2300 males for over 20 years. This is consistent with other research that has shown that the more you sweat the greater amount of BDNF Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor is produced, which is critical for improving the health of the neurons in the brain! Helps to reduce chronic painAn interesting 2005 study in the Journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics found that daily sauna use for 4 weeks not only reduced the participants chronic pain, 77% of them showed signs of continued progress 2 years after the sauna trial was completed. There are likely multiple factors that can help those with chronic pain. Improved circulation and metabolism helped improve their healing response and they most likely benefited from sauna induced downregulation. Those in chronic pain are typically deep in sympathetic wind up since pain directly stimulates that fight or flight system therefore these individuals need as much help as anyone in downregulation. There you have it folks! In addition to promoting relaxation and stress reduction, regular sauna use can improve detoxification, increase cardiovascular function, downregulate the nervous system, decrease risk of hypertension, stimulate weight loss, decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s & Dementia and reduce chronic pain! Now for my personal experience: I began researching the benefits of sauna use a few years ago and last winter purchased a small home unit so I could perform my own research and this is what I have learned so far. #1. Better sleep. Now this was something I was not expecting as I am extremely fortunate to be a good sleeper. But when using the sauna in the evening for as little as 20 minutes, I come out feeling so incredibly relaxed that the night my sleep is another level, I would say in all honesty, it’s fantastic! #2. Noticeable Stress Relief. This ties in with the previous finding. I had some extremely stressful times in our clinic this past winter as we had to switch over to a completely new electronic health record, deal with some difficult insurance companies and we were simultaneously rebuilding our team. On some of the most stressful days, if I were to get into the sauna for a session, I would have to say afterwords, if I had to put a number on it, it would be no stretch to say I felt 90% less stress after the session, no doubt I had experienced some much needed downregulation. #3. Absolute improvement in dealing with race day heat. This past winter in the Northeast was brutally cold and the cold temperatures continued as we had a cooler than usual spring and even early summer. One of my earlier season races was Xterra French River, which I would highly recommend, by the way, but the temps on race day were over 90 degrees. Many people suffered during that race, however, after drawing back to my many sessions in the 140-150 degree sauna I can say it made the 90+ degree heat that day seem not that bad. Based on how I felt during the race, I know that the degree of power I was putting out was much more than I could have done pre-sauna training. That wraps up my personal observations regarding regular sauna use. If any of you have your own stories about how sauna use has helped your training and performance, please share them with us by commenting on this episode on tunes, facebook or on our website directly, the links for all the ways to do so will be in the show notes. I will put links to the research discussed in the show notes as well as links to the Clear Light sauna that I am currently using. And as a special thank you to our listeners, if you are interested in purchasing a sauna, use this link and enter the promo code SPINE to get $450 dollars off and a special Gift with purchase! That is promo code SPINE! This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links Clear Light Saunas: Remember to use the Promo Code, SPINE to get $450 off & a Gift with purchase Research /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/7114287

BTHCP_015_Practical_Nutrition.mp3 05/29/2018

BTHCP_014_Posture__Ergonomic_Tips_for_the_Workplace.mp3 05/22/2018

BTHCP: 013 The Green Book Series, “While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment” BTHCP: 013 The Green Book Series, “While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment” I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I am extremely excited to share another of Dr. B.J. Palmer’s writing from his book, The Bigness of the Fellow Within. In this chapter titled “Innate Intelligence”, he expands upon one of the core principles of Chiropractic: While other professions are concerned with changing the environment to suit the weakened body, chiropractic is concerned with strengthening the body to suit the environment. Dr. B.J. Palmer was the modern developer of chiropractic and over the course of his many years as a clinician, researcher and professor, he created a profound volume of writings based on his observations and what he learned about health & healing. The information, ideas and concepts he discussed has never been more needed than right now, in our present time. Despite our abundance of modern technology, especially in the health care sector, we are all being manipulated or “educated” to believe that all we need is the right drug to “fix” or “cure” any, and all health challenges that we face. All one needs to do is watch 10 minutes of any TV program or read virtually any magazine, newspaper or article and you will quickly be shown ads telling you to “just ask your doctor if super drug XY or Z is right for you” then you will hear over the next 30 seconds or see in the fine print, all of the ways said super drug can harm or even kill you with its “side effects”. Folks, it really is quite simple when you really, really, think about. All healing does in fact come from within. The power that made the body heals the body. From the moment we are born, our innate intelligence is running the show by regulating & controlling every single one of our vital functions. Our incredible innate intelligence is transmitted throughout our entire body via our Nervous System, which is THE master control system of our entire body, which controls & regulates the function of every cell, tissue, gland & organ in our body. Think about this: We have never had to download an app or read to book to figure out what are heart rate should be or what our respiration rate should be not matter what activity we are doing. We never have to concentrate on how to digest whatever it is that we put into our mouths. We never have to think about how to grow new skin cells when we suffer from cuts & abrasions. Now many people, especially many healthcare providers and even some chiropractors are quick to discount or even discredit Dr. B.J. Palmers books, however, the irony is that most of them that do have NEVER even read ANY of them. I think the main reason is due to these folk’s ego. Here is what I mean. If all health and healing comes from within, which it in fact does. Then doctors need to understand that THEY do not cure. No doctor ever has. No doctor ever will. That is a hard pill for many to swallow. Now, the orthopedist may set that broken bone in the best possible position for healing, but come on, that patient’s innate intelligence is responsible for actually mending that bone. That patient’s body controls and regulates the numerous processes that have to occur perfectly, their innate intelligence sends osteoclast cells to resorb the rough edges of the fractured bone, then it sends and coordinates the action of osteoblast cells which actually create new bone as well as sending fibroblast cells which produce new collagen fibers within the new bony matrix. That is an amazing & beautiful thing. Now, one of Dr. Palmers key lessons that comes up numerous times in his writing is this; Our innate intelligence often becomes at odds with what we learn through our educated intelligence. Here is a modern example; The pharmaceutal industry spends over 3 billion dollars each year, in an attempt to educate us into thinking that the way to health and healing is by finding the right drug. Did you know that they spend even more in their education of doctors to make them believe that they can cure their patients by using their drugs? It’s true, look at the role they take in funding medical school education and especially in financing continuing educational opportunities for doctors. For these reasons and many more, there is much we can learn from what I am about to read. Therefore, without any futher ado, here are words from Dr. B.J. Palmer: I hope you enjoyed this reading from Dr. B.J. Palmer. Remember: All health & healing comes from within. This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/6406659

BTHCP_012_Launch_of_the_Green_Book_Series.mp3 12/08/2017

BTHCP_011_A_Functional_Medicine_Approach_to_Anxiety.mp3 10/04/2017

BTHCP_011_A_Functional_Medicine_Approach_to_Anxiety.mp3 The focus of today’s show is Anxiety. Anxiety can be a debilitating health challenge and if you or a loved one is dealing with it, you are not alone. Did you know that world-wide more than 40 million people suffer from Anxiety and Anxiety related health challenges? What I am about to share with you today is an article written by Dr. Ronald Grisanti. Dr. Grisanti is the lead instructor of Functional Medicine University and is one of the leading pioneers in Functional Medicine. The significant difference between functional medicine and traditional medicine is that functional medicine looks to restore health by addressing an individual’s underlying root cause or root causes of dysfunction as opposed to taking steps to merely cover up symptoms. Without any further ado, here is the article by Dr. Grisanti titled “Has Your Doctor Missed Something? Causes of Debilitating Anxiety” Real Life Example of Anxiety It's normal to feel anxious or worried at times. Everyone experiences a certain amount of nervousness and apprehension when faced with a stressful situation. However, when anxiety becomes excessive or prolonged and begins to interfere with your ability to perform your daily activities, that's when you can say one has crossed the road from simple worry to a full force illness. Imagine you are walking down a dimly lit road and out between two parked cars a man with a gun confronts you and demands that you give him all your money or he will kill you. As you can imagine, your heart quickly begins to thump, your legs feel like rubber, you want to run but you are paralyzed with fear. By shear luck, out of the corner of your right eye, you see a police car and without a moment hesitation, you scream and gain the attention of your hero. You are saved! As the criminal is whisked away in handcuffs, you begin to gain a sense of calm. Still nervous but all in all an inner contentment that you just for the first time in your life you looked death right in the eye. Now what would you say if I told you that a full blown anxiety or a major panic attack have all the same characteristics as the above scenario. Yes, you will get that same pounding heart, you will be paralyzed with an intense terrifying fear, you will get nauseous, get lightheaded and a bunch more symptoms soon to be explained. Unfortunately, unlike the victim who was lucky to be saved by the police officer, anxiety suffers continue to experience these terrible symptoms day in and day out. The anxiety victim soon becomes a prisoner within their own body not knowing if they will ever see the sunshine or the birds sing again. Anxiety Overview You see, there are more than 19 million Americans suffering from all anxiety disorders combined. It's normal to feel anxious or worried at times. Everyone experiences a certain amount of nervousness and apprehension when faced with a stressful situation. However, when anxiety becomes excessive or prolonged and begins to interfere with your ability to perform your daily activities, that's when you can say one has crossed the road from simple worry to a full force illness. Most people are convinced they are minutes from dying and experience something commonly called "impending doom". They are frequent visitors of the local emergency room. Test after test continues to show that nothing life threatening is wrong. Unfortunately, the anxiety sufferer is still not satisfied. Something has obviously been overlooked. So more tests are run only to once again find nothing wrong. Soon their family and friends begin to label you a hypochondriac. It must be all in your mind they say. Signs and SymptomsThe signs and symptoms of anxiety can vary in combination or severity. They may include: Restlessness Feeling of being keyed up or on edge Feeling a lump in your throat Difficulty concentrating Fatigue Irritability Impatient Being easily distracted Muscle tension Trouble falling or staying asleep (insomnia) Excessive sweating Shortness of breath Stomachache Diarrhea HeadacheIf you have anxiety you may feel on edge about many or all aspects of your life. For example, you may feel intense worry about your safety or that of your loved ones, or you may feel that something bad is about to happen, even when there's no immediate danger. When you feel anxious, your body releases hormones that prepare you to react to a threat. This is called the fight-or-flight response. When anxiety gets out of control, this response can occur almost continuously, even at times when you seem calm.Clinical Lab AssessmentsSome of the following laboratory testing can provide information necessary for diagnosis and treatment. In addition, the tests listed may also give insight to functional metabolism and functional nutrient status in the body. Adrenal Stress/Cortisol Testing/Neurotransmitter Testing: Adrenal insufficiency can lead to a host of problems, including a weakened immune response, anxiety and panic attacks. Imbalance in the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA) is involved in anxiety related disorders. In this complex, adrenal functional abnormalities are relatively simple to identify and address. Plasma or salivary cortisol measurements can be used as a marker in the evaluation of stress syndromes that may relate to anxiety disorders. Some study has suggested that altered cortisol response to stress in panic disorders may complicate successful lifestyle intervention. Thyroid ProfileElevation of thyroid antibodies has commonly been found in individuals with anxiety disorder. Correlations have been observed between thyroid laboratory values and anxiety. Assessment of thyroid hormone production, peripheral hormone conversion, cellular sensitivity response, thyroid hormone antibody activity can provide critical information for intervention with a goal of optimal function. Allergy and Food Sensitivity Response AssessmentAllergic responses to foods, inhalants and environmental chemicals, and other substances can cause a variety of responses that induce or aggravate anxiety. Screening can enable an individual to eliminate or minimize exposure to unfriendly allergens. Organic AcidsOrganic acids analysis is a useful method for measurement of biochemical intermediates in urine. These intermediates can offer information about key enzyme functions and nutrient competence (amino acids, nutrient cofactors, minerals, and fatty acids). Elevation of vanilmandelate reflects elevations in epinephrine and homovanillate indicates norepinephrine elevation. High levels of these neurotransmitters are associated with physiologic inability to manage stress. Melatonin Level Rule out Progesterone deficiency or Estrogen Dominance Rule out Lyme Disease Rule out Mycotoxins (Mold) Rule out PyroluriaPyroluria is a known biochemical marker for life long anxiety symptoms. According to one alcoholism treatment center, one-third to one-half of alcoholics treated have this marker. High levels of pyrrolles systematically bind to B6 and zinc, preventing the use of these nutrients in the body and brain. The result is a myriad of symptoms, including severe inner tension, ongoing anxiety, poor stress control, fearfulness, and sometimes episodic anger. Obtain Magnesium Levels via RBC erthrocyte assessement Rule out Mercury Toxicity Amino AcidsDeficiencies or imbalances in amino acids can indicate fundamental reasons for numerous disorders. Amino acid malabsorption syndrome or imbalanced amino patterns reflect abnormal organ and glandular processes that have critical bearing on optimal function. Phenylalanine and tyrosine are precursors to the catecholamines and affect the capability to manage stress in anxiety disorders.Treatment OptionsConventional Medical ApproachPrescription drug treatment includes anti-anxiety agents such as lorazepam (Ativan), alprazolam (Xanax), and buspirone (Buspar). Antidepressants, such as fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), and venlafaxine (Effexor), are often prescribed to treat generalized anxiety and panic attacks.Nutritional MedicineMagnesium Magnesium may provide benefit for people with anxiety. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency include anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, muscle fatigue, and tachycardia. Clinical studies have supported the theory that anxiety is one of the symptoms that can occur in individuals with magnesium depletion.Vitamin B6In a study of individuals suffering from frequent anxiety attacks, patients were given vitamin B6 (125mg, 3 times daily) and tryptophan (2 grams daily). This regime enabled in 70 percent of patients (9 of 13) to become free of anxiety attacks within three weeks. Vitamin B6 is required for the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin. Therefore, a deficiency of vitamin B6 may result in symptoms of anxiety and depression due to inhibition of serotonin synthesis. In a study of individuals suffering from frequent anxiety attacks, patients were given vitamin B6 (125mg, 3 times daily) and tryptophan (2 grams daily). This regime enabled in 70 percent of patients (9 of 13) to become free of anxiety attacks within three weeks.Inositol Clinical studies have found that inositol may be a valuable natural aid for patients suffering with Panic Attacks and may provide benefit for anxiety suffers. Biochemically, inositol is precursor for the phosphatidyl-inositol system and as such should be considered for its impact on elevated cortisol levels.A double-blind, controlled study comparing the effect of inositol against fluvoxamine in panic disorder. Twenty patients completed 1 month of inositol up to 18 g/day and 1 month of fluvoxamine (Luvox) up to 150 mg/day. Improvements on Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety scores were similar for both treatments. In the first month, inositol reduced the number of panic attacks per week by 4.0 compared with a reduction of 2.4 (2) with fluvoxamine.5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP)Studies that induce low levels of tryptophan result in low serotonin levels, which can cause anxiety. Tryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) are the precursors for serotonin. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that the body cannot manufacturer. Tryptophan is converted into 5-HTP, which in turn is converted into serotonin. There is ample evidence that tryptophan depletion causes reduced synthesis of serotonin, which can result in anxiety and other mood disorders.Patients taking anti-anxiety drugs or other antidepressants should not take tryptophan or 5-HTP without the supervision of a health care professional because it can increase the effects of other antidepressants.Tyrosine Tyrosine is the precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine, which all influence and regulate mental and emotional states. In a clinical study reduced brain tyrosine levels caused a reduction in catecholamine synthesis. This caused decreased calmness, increased tension and anger. The authors of this study state that brain catecholaminergic dysregulation is involved in pathological anxiety states.Phosphorylated Serine: should be considered with elevated cortisol levelsHerbal MedicineSeveral plants, known as nervines (nerve tonics), are used in traditional herbal medicine for people with anxiety, with few reports of toxicity. Most nervines have not been rigorously investigated by scientific means to confirm their efficacy. However, one study found that a combination of the nervines valerian and passion flower reduced symptoms in people suffering from anxiety. In a double-blind study, 45 drops per day of an extract of passion flower taken for four weeks was as effective as 30 mg per day of oxazepam (Serax), a medication used for anxiety.Passionflower Passionflower has been reported to have sedative, hypnotic, antispasmodic properties. In humans, passionflower has been reported effective when used in combination with other sedative and anti-anxiety herbs such as valerian.Valerian Valerian has long been used as an agent to soothe the nervous system in response to stress. It has been reported that valerian helps improve sleep quality. Theanine Diet & Lifestyle All sources of caffeine should be avoided, including coffee, tea, chocolate, caffeinated sodas, and caffeine-containing medications. Avoid sugar and refined carbohydrates.Stress ReductionStress reduction can take form in a variety of ways. Some of the more structured forms of anxiety relief include; counseling, tai chi, yoga, meditation, deep breathing. These tips may help reduce your anxiety: Take action. Determine what's making you anxious and address it. For example, if finances are your concern, draw up a budget. Let it go. Don't dwell on past concerns. Change what you can and let the rest take its course. Break the cycle. When you feel anxious, take a brisk walk or delve into a hobby to refocus. Take care of yourself. Get enough rest, eat a balanced diet, exercise, and take time to relax. Talk to someone. Share your problems with a friend or professional counselor who can help you gain perspective. Clinical NotesA variety of conditions could contribute to feelings of anxiousness. Consider evaluating the individual for heavy metal toxicity, dysbiosis, as well as DHEA and cortisol as initial steps. The key nutrient to consider is magnesium. This concludes Dr. Grisanti’s article. I hope you found this article helpful and I hope that it shed some light as to the benefits of applying the functional medicine approach to a very common health challenge. I have personally seen numerous patients come into our functional medicine based nutrition therapy program with Anxiety as their main health challenge that they were able to overcome by addressing a number of the underlying causes that Dr. Grisanti covered in this article. For more information please see our show notes page at where we will have a copy of Dr. Grisanti’s article as well as applicable links. This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Finally, Thank you very much listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links https://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/public/1018.cfm /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/5762722

BTHCP 010: Can Coconut Oil Actually Kill You? 09/20/2017

BTHCP 010: Can Coconut Oil Actually Kill You? Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Coconut oil has recently come under attack by none other than the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association has warned us to avoid it in order to reduce the risk of heart disease. They go further to and tell us to replace coconut oil with vegetable oil! Now why would they tell us to make this switch when vegetable oil has been proven promote excessive inflammation within our bodies, which itself is a well known cause of cardiovascular disease? Also why is it that the four studies they reference were all quite old: done in the 1960’s and, ironically, all have been discredited by means of performance bias. The answer becomes clear when we follow the money! Although the AHA sounds altruistic, the reality is they get their funding from major players in the food industry and therefore it should come as no surprise that all of their major recommendations support the very industries that provide their funding. Case in point: We subside canola crops which surprise surprise is the grain used to make canola oil, which is called vegetable oil, btw, vegetables are healthy so vegetable oil must be right..wrong, canola is a grain. Now guess who is on the AHA’s nutrition advisory panel? Hmmm the US Canola Association and the CanolaInfo board. Interesting. Do you know who is NOT on the AHA’s nutrition advisory panel? That is right, no major supplier of coconuts. In fact all major producers are found outside of the US. Here is another interesting side note; listen to some of the other members of the AHA’s Nutrition Advisory Panel: Pepsicola... Now for a little more information about the benefits of coconut oil, I will turn to a fellow expert in nutrition Dr. Robert Silverman. If that name sounds familiar, he was our guest on episode 007. The following is an article written by Dr. Silverman which can be found under the Free Articles tab of functional medicine university.com Robert G. Silverman, DC, DACBN, DCBCN, MS, CCN, CNS, CSCS, CIISN, CKTP, CES, HKC, SASTM “The recent headlines about coconut oil say that because it's higher in saturated fat than beef or lard, it's bad for you. “You'll drastically increase the chances of cardiovascular disease if you eat it because saturated fat raises cholesterol, which leads to heart disease and mortality.” That kind of warning comes from the American Heart Association (AHA)—a powerful organization that continues to promote the mythical direct link between saturated fat and heart disease. We know from the research that saturated fat can in fact raise your cholesterol. However, it raises it in a good way. Evidence has shown if your LDL cholesterol contains a lot of small, dense particles and you also have high triglycerides, then you're setting the stage for heart disease. Those small, dense particles come from a diet that's high in carbs and low in fat. Reduce your carbohydrate consumption and increase the good quality fats, your cholesterol particle ratio of bad to good will almost certainly improve. However, if your LDL cholesterol is mostly made up of large, fluffy particles and your triglycerides are low, your risk of heart disease is much lower. What makes the difference between dangerous small, dense LDL particles and safer LDL isn't the amount of saturated fat you eat. In fact, study after study shows that your fat and cholesterol intake have almost no impact on your blood cholesterol. It's the amount of sugar. The AHA estimates that the average person eats 20 teaspoons of sugar a day. Sugar raises your LDL cholesterol, lowers your HDL cholesterol, and increases your triglycerides. It has been shown to increase insulin resistance and trigger inflammation. In fact, an important study in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2014 proved conclusively that high sugar consumption is closely linked to death from heart disease—and that link is far closer than it is for cholesterol, smoking, hypertension, or any other risk factors. That is the statistic– about the dangers to your heart and your health–is where the real headline scare should be. There's no need to avoid saturated fat as long as it comes from a healthy, plant-based source. Coconut oil is definitely preferable to cheap, highly processed vegetable oils that have had their nutrients stripped away. Coconut oil has other health benefits as well. The main fatty acid in coconut oil is lauric acid, which has well-known antibiotic, anti-microbial, and anti-viral benefits. Coconut oil also helps stabilize blood sugar and helps soothe digestive upsets. Eating a lot of coconut oil does, indeed, raise your cholesterol levels–in a positive way by raising HDL (the good cholesterol), lowering triglycerides, and lowering the amount of small LDL particles. So go ahead. Use coconut oil in your cooking.” So there you have it folks, as Dr. Silverman wrote, go ahead and use coconut oil and before you follow any advice from a national organization, take some time do a little research and look for conflicts of interest that will shed some light on weather to ignore or heed said advice. For more information please see our show notes page at . There you will see links to some of the supplements that I have had the most success with, both the bile salt containing supplement and the liver supporting supplements. Please subscribe to the podcast so that you will not miss any future episodes, also kindly rate and review us on iTunes. Feedback: you also reach us on the contact us page at our website, if there are any topics you would like us to tackle, let me know and I will do my best to get to them in a future episode. Lastly, thank you very much for listening and have a fantastic day! Links /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/5758550

BTHCP 009: Interview with Sacopee Valley Midwifes’ Brenda Surabian, Certified Professional Midwife 08/08/2017

BTHCP 009: Interview with Sacopee Valley Midwifes’ Brenda Surabian, Certified Professional Midwife BTHCP 009: Interview with Sacopee Valley Midwifes’ Brenda Surabian, Certified Professional Midwife The information you are about to hear is for education purposes only. Please consult your doctor before attempting to implement anything covered in the following episode. Welcome to the Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast I’m your host Dr. Marc Dupuis on this show we discuss tips, tools and strategies to improve the health & wellness of you and your family! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Brenda Surabian, Certified Professional Midwife Brenda, welcome to the show. I am so excited to have you on the show today to speak about a topic that is so important to so many of our listeners…improving the health & wellness of new born babies which really begins by helping expecting mothers maximize their health throughout their entire pregnancy. Brenda, that was just a quick introduction, can you take a minute to fill in some of the gaps for our listeners, maybe tell us a little more about yourself and especially what led you to become a midwife? Let’s jump right in: You ladies have been helping families have Safe, Natural Homebirths for over 20 years. Can you take a few moments and expand upon the numerous benefits of having a natural home birth? What are some of the biggest misconceptions that people have about natural home births? Let’s talk for a minute about safety. Prior to going to graduate school, I was under the assumption that our hospitals with all the modern technologies available were the best place to give birth. However, I was so surprised to learn, when taking graduate & post graduate pediatric courses, just how many common procedures are performed on newborns in the hospital setting that have virtually no medical research behind them. Equally surprising was how many common procedures are done to the expecting mother, throughout her pregnancy, that again have virtually no medical research behind them. Throughout these studies, I was also surprised to learn (and again I think this would surprise many of our listeners) that Ob-Gyn physicians pay some of the highest premiums for malpractice insurance. Now knowing what I know, for non-complicated births, safe, natural home births are much more appealing. Can you comment on this for our listeners? Can you take a few moments and walk our listeners through what a typical monitoring schedule looks like for expecting mothers? How often do you see them, what do typical visits look like? Let’s talk for a moment about nutrition & herbal therapy. What are some of the most common mistakes that you find expecting mothers make, in regards to, their diet? Closely related, what is some of the most significant MIS-information that is GIVEN to expecting mothers. What are some of the most common health challenges that expecting mothers have that respond well to herbal therapies? Now let’s dive into Game Day. Can you take some time and give our listeners an insider’s view of how that special day unfolds. How many providers typically attend. What about other members of the family, location in the house etc What other services do you offer at Sacopee Valley Midwifes? Can you tell us about some of the events that you have? Recommended Resources Do you have any resources that you would recommend to our listeners for learning more about the health & wellness of infants, children & expecting mothers? Closing Two Questions Do you have any final words of wisdom for our listeners How can listeners follow you: Social media, websites, email etc. CLOSING COMMENTS BY HOST Brenda, Thank you so much for being on the show today …! Links: Sacopee Valley Midwives Website Midwives and Mothers in Action National Associate of CPMs North American Registry of Midwives Maine Midwives Maine Association of Certified Professional Midwives /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/5621401

BTHCP_008_Dr_Tara_Buchakjian.mp3 05/29/2017

BTHCP_007_Dr._Rob_Silverman.mp3 05/14/2017

BTHCP_007_Dr._Rob_Silverman.mp3 BTHCP 007: Interview with Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, Dr. Robert Silverman “Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live” The information you are about to hear is for education purposes only. Please consult your doctor before attempting to implement anything covered in the following episode. In this podcast you will learn: Why your gut is the key to your overall health & wellness How & why increased inflammation can contribute to chronic pain What are some of the best ways to boost your own detoxification pathways Simple steps to take to reduce your exposure to environmental toxins Steps to take to maximize your recovery from athletic injuries and much, much more! Today I’m Excited to bring you our featured guest: Dr. Robert Silverman Dr. Silverman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic and has a Masters of Science in human nutrition. His extensive list of educational accomplishments includes designations as a certified nutrition specialist, certified clinical nutritionist, certified strength and conditioning specialist, certified Kinesio® taping practitioner, NASM-certified corrective exercise specialist, and a certified sports nutritionist from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Dr. Silverman is a diplomate with the American Clinical Board of Nutrition and a diplomate with the Chiropractic Board of Clinical Nutrition. Dr. Silverman is also a HardStyle Kettlebell Certified instructor. Dr. Silverman was awarded the prestigious 2015 Sports Chiropractor of the Year by the ACA Sports Council. In 2016 he published Amazon’s #1 Best Seller, Inside/Out Health: A Revolutionary Approach to Your Body. Dr. Robert Silverman, welcome to the show. Dr. Rob, can you tell our listeners a little more about yourself and especially what led you to become the chiropractic physician and nutritionist that you are today? Okay, Dr. Rob, When I was reading your book, what excited me the most was how well you explain in such a straight forward way the fact that true health and healing really does require an inside - out approach: Eating well, digesting properly, exercise just to name a few of the key areas you cover. Meanwhile, the majority of people and medical treatments continue to focus on an outside – in approaches to health, such as more drugs, procedures and surgeries which do not actually promote any of our bodies natural healing processes. In fact this conventional outside – in approach has led to more chronic disease than we ever have had at any point in the history of mankind! Therefore I am so excited for you to share some of this great knowledge with our listeners today! When I am working with patients in our nutritional wellness program I often talk about the importance of fixing the gut first. I love the fact that the very first chapter in your book is titled, It’s all about your gut”. Can you explain to our listeners why the gut is so important and how it impacts our overall health & well-being? Another topic that you explain so well is inflammation. It seems like every day more and more research is coming out that shows just how damaging excessive inflammation can be. In fact most chronic degenerative conditions seemed linked with excessive inflammation. What are some of the most important facts about inflammation that most people do not know? And, how does our gut health factor in to this discussion? You also do a fantastic job of explaining how muscle pain, bone pain and joint pain are not only affected by inflammation but in many circumstances are a direct result of increased inflammation. Have you ever seen a chronic pain patient that did not have an issue with gut related inflammation? Let’s shift our focus for a minute to Toxins. I often reference the Metagenics study from a few years ago that determined the average person is exposed to well over 200 toxins by the time he or she arrives at work each and every day. Now, you have been giving continuing education lectures to us doctors for years about toxins and on things we and our patients need to do to mitigate the damaging effects toxins. What are some of the best actionable steps that our listeners can take to bolster their own detoxification abilities? What about prevention? Are there some simple steps people can take to significantly decrease the amount of toxins they encounter on a daily basis? Let’s jump into one more topic. You and I both see a number of athletes that come in with a wide variety of sports related injuries. You talk in detail about the importance of properly evaluating HOW one moves throughout their course of chiropractic care for their injury. All too often we see the following scenario; life gets busy and an athlete wants to discontinue their care as soon as their pain is resolved, however, they haven’t put in the proper time to re-educate their body on restoring proper pre-injury movement patterns. Then, two, three or ten months later they come in with a new injury that we can easily see was related to their previous injury. Can you expand on this topic for our listeners so they may be able to better understand WHY they develop alternative movement patterns after an injury why those patterns are not likely get better on their own? In addition to your book, which we will have a link to in our show notes, are there any other resources that you would recommend to our listeners to learn more about some of the things we talked about today? As we get ready to wrap up, I have two final questions: Do you have any final words of wisdom for our listeners and HOW can we CONNECT WITH YOU? Folks, I will put a link to each of the ways to connect with Dr. Rob in our show notes page @ Dr. Rob, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today and for sharing such useful information with our listeners, I enjoyed our talk today! This concludes today’s episode of The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast, where we discuss tips, tools & strategies to improve the health and wellness of you & your family! Please SUBSCRIBE to this podcast so that you never miss a future episode, also PLEASE SHARE this podcast with ANYONE you feel may benefit from what we covered today. Last but not least, Thank you very much listening and until next time, have a Fantastic Day! Links How to connect with Dr. Rob Facebook & Instagram @drrobertsilverman Twitter @drrobsilverman Dr. Rob’s Amazon’s #1 Best Seller Other items discussed /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/5355378

BTHCP_006_Interview_with_Dr._MacArthur.mp3 05/01/2017

BTHCP 005: What you NEED to KNOW if your gallbladder has been removed 04/17/2017

BTHCP 004: Is your Wearable Physical Activity Monitor Feeding You a Line of BS? 04/03/2017

BTHCP_003_What_you__your_doctor_do_not_know_about_heartburn__GERD.mp3 03/20/2017

BTHCP 002: Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression, Revolutionary Treatment for Disc Injuries 02/10/2017

BTHCP 002: Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression, Revolutionary Treatment for Disc Injuries In this podcast you will learn: 1. What is it? 2. How does it work? 3. Who can it help? 4. Contra-indications In this podcast you will learn: What is Non-surgical spinal decompression What is it used to treat Who can it help Are there any contra-indications Where can I learn more Summary Nonsurgical spinal decompression therapy is a revolutionary, life changing technology used primarily to treat disc injuries in the neck and lower back. Clinical research has also shown spinal decompression therapy to be effective in treating facet syndrome, radiating arm pain, leg pain, degenerative disc disease and more. This effective treatment option consists of decreasing pressure within the spinal discs through distracting and positioning the vertebra to create negative intra-discal pressure, In other words, it creates a vacuum inside the discs that are being targeted in treatment in order to alleviate pressure. In nonsurgical spinal decompression, the vertebrae are gently separated while the patient lies comfortably on the decompression table. In addition to decreasing the intra-discal pressure, it may also induce the retraction of the herniated or bulging disc to the inside of the disc, which then can take pressure off the nearby nerve root, thecal sac, or both. There are numerous benefits of spinal decompression which is why this treatment has grown in demand. The cycles of decompression and partial relaxation that occur microscopically in this treatment can cause results that are quite dramatic. Over a series of visits to the clinic, the torn and degenerated disc fibers under consideration can begin to heal as water, oxygen, and nutrient-rich fluids outside the discs are diffused within. The issue with the majority of conventional treatments offered is that not only do they not promote the healing process, typical treatments such as steroid injections and oral anti-inflammatory drugs actually hinder the body’s innate healing process. Injections and drugs do limit swelling which can significantly decrease pain, but the cost comes with a lowered ability to actually heal. When tissues are swollen and inflamed your body is trying to send key nutrients and specific cells such as fibroblasts to the damaged area in order to begin the repair process. The swelling itself is often painful, which does have an important function of telling us to rest and to not continue to use the damaged tissue in stressful ways. The better injections and anti-inflammatory drugs do in limiting the pain, the greater their side effect is in terms of shutting down the healing response. Because spinal decompression promotes your body’s healing process, the latest research has shown it to be 80% EFFECTIVE, no matter how badly the disc is damaged. Compare this to the fact that back surgery has a greater than 50% failure rate! It is important to keep in mind that although spinal decompression is highly successful, 80% is not perfect. Therefore research has shown that around 20% of people with significant damage to their discs will need surgical intervention. However, it only makes sense to have the proper evaluation to see if one is a candidate for decompression therapy and to try that FIRST before resorting to drugs and or surgery. To find out more about the benefits of nonsurgical spinal decompression, contact us Back to Health Chiropractic, 207-324-7098, Due to the tremendous results we have seen with numerous patients, we are pleased to report that we have added a second decompression unit to our state of the art facility. Contra-indications Pregnancy Previous surgery with implanted hardware Spinal injuries that resulted in instability Related Links /episode/index/show/backtohealthchiropractic/id/5073477

BTHCP 001: Do You Know Chiropractic’s BIG Idea? 01/31/2017

The Back to Health Chiropractic Podcast

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