Cardiac Evaluation Before ADHD Drugs Given

The American Heart Association now recommends that all children with ADHD who have any family history of heart disease be seen by a pediatric cardiologist and probably be tested with an EKG before being prescribed common stimulant drugs. These drugs have a similar structure to cocaine, and they can be fatal if provided to the wrong kids. Much safer would be fish oils, B12 and food allergy testing. Most integrative doctors have excellent results with natural therapies.
Contact the American Heart Association or see Family Practice News (May 1, 2008) for more info.

Improving Fatigue

One of the most common complaints in a doctor’s office is fatigue. Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, muscle pain, poor athletic endurance are all symptoms that often respond well to a new supplement, d-ribose. Our experience is that this simple sugar is excellent at improving muscle performance in voluntary muscles and in the heart muscle for those with congestive heart failure. Endurance improves and muscle aching can disappear. Contact Celebration of Health Association at 419-358-4627 for references.

New Vascular Risk Factors Identified

Family Practice News in their May 1, 2008 issue discussed two new risk factors for vascular problems. The blood pressure readings in the arm compared to the ankle has been added to the popular Framingham Risk Score. If the blood pressure is not significantly higher in the ankle, there is likely blockage somewhere in the leg arteries. At the spring American Heart Association meeting, it was reported that simply measuring the waist circumference can detect significant
risk of heart attacks. High risk is a waist greater than 88 cm in women and 102 cm in men. You do not have to spend a thousand dollars to find out if you are at high risk.
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Drug Companies Corupt Medicine

The Journal of the American Medical Association contained a strong editorial in the April 16, 2008 issue about the profound influence of drug companies and medical device industries on the practice of medicine. Too often the FDA, which is supposed to regulate these areas of medicine, serves as a supportive partner instead. Many nutritional and other safe integrative therapies are suppressed by this destructive mechanism. Drugs and surgery are sometimes needed and appropriate but more natural therapies that are usually just as effective and less expensive should be what we try first. JAMA needs to go beyond the cry about corruption and call for a major overhaul of our basic approach in medicine.

Mercury and Autism

The government finally conceded that the mercury in thimerisal caused a case of autism in a legal case in November. Of course they warned that this was just an isolated case. Over 4000 sets of parents have legal actions pending linking autism to vaccine injuries. This is not the whole story on autism, but for a remarkable number of parents that I have seen, autism developed soon after a vaccine or multiple vaccines.
For more info link to autism.com , or David Kirby’s review, Evidence of Harm posted at HuffingtonPost

The American Heart Association has revised guidelines for CPR. You only have to do two things: call 911 and push hard and fast (100 beats per minute) on the victim’s chest. No longer do you have to do mouth-to-mouth breathing. The latter was a big impediment to successful CRP, and it probably made the rescue process less effective by interrupting the support of the heartbeat. If an automatic defibrillator is available, use it as well. It will be equipped with audio instructions. Link to the American Heart Association

The mental decline of normal aging is related to toxic chemicals in the environment, according to new research from Brian Schwartz of Johns Hopkins and Howard Hu of the University of Michigan. PCB’s and lead at low levels show minor changes in the young but increase mental decline as patients age. The difference in mental function is about 5 years as we grow older, due to the lifelong absorption of lead. We offer a challenge test to detect levels of lead and chelation therapy to remove lead if it is elevated. The article appeared in the Associated Press. Click here or on the link above to these authors for more details.

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that two best selling cholesterol drugs, Vytorin and Zetia, that combine a statin with a new drug have no better outcomes than the statin alone. The results of the study were available but not released for two years while the drug makers piled up the profits. You might be better off taking the natural red yeast with some niacin and fish oils, all of which have separate mechanisms of action that can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Fixation on cholesterol alone just doesn’t work.
Go to the New England Journal of Medicine and
American College of Cardiology

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association is committed to prevent accidental poisonings, especially from cough and cold medicines. They are improving the child-proof packaging. Better yet, use honey with a good herbal tea such as chammomile. It works as well and it perfectly safe. For a study that documented 7091 visits to the ER due to these meds to be published in April, go to the pediatrics(click here) website.