Tylenol (Acetaminophen) Does Not Outperform Placebo for Low Back Pain

A large study in Australia treated low back pain patients with acetaminophen or placebo.  The median recovery time for both groups was 17 days.  There was a minimal relief of pain with the drug, much like using NSAID’s like ibuprofen and Aleve.  Most patients recover from acute low back pain reasonably well with maintaining activity and utilizing safer modalities as needed, such as acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, and herbal supplements.
 

See the Lancet, July 24, 2014 issue.

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To Tan or Not to Tan

The answer is not to tan, especially with indoor tanning booths.  The Surgeon General estimates that indoor tanning might be associated with 400,000 new cases of skin cancer and 6000 melanomas each year.  9000 people die of melanomas yearly.  One in three white women, aged 16-25, use tanning booths.  The best protections outdoors are hats and clothing.  Sunscreen might protect against harmful UV exposure, but it has to be applied repeatedly, and it reduces the body’s production of vitamin D, which can have its own set of problems.  Get your vitamin D level checked with a blood test, especially at this time of year.  Supplementation is often indicated to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and osteoporosis.

Google the Surgeon General’s report on indoor tanning for more info.

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The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, Phase 2The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, Phase 2The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, Phase 2The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, Phase 2The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy, Phase 2

TACT-1 was a huge study that showed that chelation therapy can prevent future cardiac events for patients who had suffered a previous heart attack.  Chief Investigator, Dr. Gervasio Lamas, has published the study in major journals and presented the data at many medical schools across the U.S.  The most impressive part of the study was a 51% reduction in cardiac events in diabetic patients over a 5-year period.  The FDA was impressed as well, but they demand a confirmatory study for acceptance of chelation therapy.  Thus we now have TACT-2.  If you know anyone who is a diabetic and has had at least one heart attack, please have him or her contact our office to find out if they are eligible to participate in the study.  They would have a 2/3 probability of receiving $10,000 worth of treatment, without cost.

Call Celebration of Health Association at 800-788-4627.

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What do Autoimmune Diseases, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Yeast Have in Common?

All of these medical problems involve malfunctions of the immune system.  Conventional treatments for them are powerful, expensive drugs that have potential side effects.  For many, treatment has had limited success.  We now realize that a significant factor for all of these problems can be a sensitization which occurs to common bacteria that reside in the patient’s digestive tract.  This sensitization might be reversed by treating with a very low dose allergen treatment (LDA), much like homeopathic remedies.  This is a natural treatment that can be given orally without severe dietary restrictions.  The details were presented at the fall meeting of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine.  It is an exciting new approach that we are delighted to offer at our clinic.

 

Google Low Dose Allergen treatment or contact our office in Bluffton, Ohio at 800-788-4627.

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What to Do About Ebola?

Ebola is a deadly virus, but we are unlikely to face an epidemic in the U.S.  The initial symptoms are like those from other viruses (fever, headache, muscle ache, vomiting).  Half of the victims might bleed more readily.  Only someone with active fever is contagious, and there has to be close enough contact to exchange bodily fluids—that’s why health care workers are at primary risk.  Obviously, do not travel to African countries where the virus is active unless absolutely essential.  If you fly, you could take the extra precaution of wearing gloves.  In the very unlikely event that I would see an Ebola patient, I would treat with high dose intravenous vitamin C, colloidal silver, and perhaps rectal ozone.  These alternative treatments are safer and might be more effective than anti-viral and anti-biotics that in common use today.

 See Family Practice News,  August, 2014 issue, p. 8.

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Community-dwelling Dementia Patients Might have Firearms in Their Homes

A study of 500 mid-western dementia patients showed that more than 1 in 10 of them had firearms in their homes.  27% of elderly patients owned at least one gun, and if they owned one, they were likely to own more than one.  Those with impaired memory were more likely to have delusions, hallucinations, and most likely depression.  The authors of the study acknowledged that physicians have no right to take away a gun owned by a patient.  However, they suggested that doctors ask patients with psychiatric problems or dementia about gun ownership.  If that appears likely, the care-giver should be urged to remove the gun, unload it, and/or lock it away to avoid consequences such as suicide and tragic outbursts of anger.

See Family Practice News, August 2014 issue, p. 1,4.

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Chronic Non-bacterial Prostatitis (CNBP) Commonly Fools Patients and Doctors Both

Dr. Frank Shallenburger has taken over Dr. Robert Rowen’s excellent newsletter, Second Opinion.  We will certainly miss Robert’s perceptive articles, but Frank is a superb replacement.  In his October, 2014 issue, Frank discussed CNBP, which can be the un-identified cause of erectile dysfunction, urinating frequently or urgently, an elevated PSA, or low back pain.  He suggests a therapeutic trial of cranberry powder, quercitin, and pygeum.  I will leave the details to him.  So what you should do is call 800-791-3445 and subscribe to Second Opinion ASAP.

Celebration of HealthAssociation website