Dr. Terry Rondberg: Up Close and Personal

When I first read the e-mail, my hopes soared.

The message supposedly reported on a new “cancer update” from Johns Hopkins University, in which they disavowed chemotherapy and radiation therapy and even surgery as “treatments” for cancer, and suggested nutrition and other natural preventive measures as alternatives.

Gilman Hall at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Too good to be true, I thought! Sure enough, it was. I’m really trying to be positive in outlook about these kinds of announcements because almost daily things are showing a decided trend toward the alternative health care universe. But, in this case, a check with Snopes revealed that the message is one of the urban legends that arise out of a widespread desire for such news to be true. The e-mail report generated so much interest that Johns Hopkins had to issue a disclaimer, stating: “Information falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins called, ‘CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS’ describes properties of cancer cells and suggests ways of preventing cancer.  Johns Hopkins did not publish the information, which often is an email attachment, nor do we endorse its contents.”

They even went on to claim: “Traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, work. The evidence is the millions of cancer survivors in the United States today who are alive because of these therapies. We recognize that treatments don’t work in every patient, or sometimes work for awhile and then stop working, and there are some cancers that are more difficult to cure than others.”

It’s hard to imagine, in this day and age where so much is being discovered about the damage done by radiation and chemotherapy, that any “legitimate” medical institution could continue to praise these approaches so highly. At the very least, they might have conceded that the perceived “benefits” of such radical (some say barbaric) practices are extremely small compared to the risks and side effects.

Several medical research papers have concluded that most types of cancer do not respond positively to chemo or radiation therapies. Naturally, these papers receive little publicity, particularly compared to the “breakthrough” articles for research funded primarily by drug companies.

One such article is the 1992 paper by Dr. Ulrich Abel, a German biostatistician who spent 10 years as a statistician in clinical oncology. He found that:

“Apart from lung cancer, in particular small-cell lung cancer, there is no direct evidence that chemotherapy prolongs survival in patients with advanced carcinoma. Except for ovarian cancer, available indirect evidence rather supports the absence of a positive effect.

“In treatment of lung cancer and ovarian cancer, the therapeutic benefit is at best rather small, and a less aggressive treatment seems to be at least as effective as the usual one. It is possible that certain sub-groups of patients benefit from the treatment, yet so far the available results do not allow a sufficiently precise definition of these groups.

“Many oncologists take it for granted that response to therapy prolongs survival, an opinion which is based on a fallacy and which is not supported by clinical studies. To date, it is unclear whether the treated patients, as a whole, benefit from chemotherapy as to their quality of life.

“For most cancer sites, urgently required types of studies such as randomized de-escalations of dose or comparisons of immediate versus deferred chemotherapy are still lacking. With few exceptions, there is no good scientific basis for the application of chemotherapy in symptom-free patients with advanced epithelial malignancy.”

The actual report has been so well suppressed that it’s nearly impossible to locate. Yet, the interest in his findings has increased so much in recent years that the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine included a synopsis of his findings on its pubmed.gov site.

Naturally, I’m disappointed (but not surprised) that the e-mail stating a change of heart of Johns Hopkins wasn’t true.

But I’m hanging on to it. Someday, it will be true.

The good news: Americans have cut their risk of dying from coronary heart disease in half during the past two decades.

The even better news: We did it ourselves, by smoking less, watching our diet, and lowering our cholesterol levels and blood pressure. All the expensive and risky treatments from the medical and pharmaceutical industries haven’t helped much in achieving this progress in healthy hearts.

That’s not just my opinion — it’s the conclusion of researchers reporting in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The Heart Truth, a national heart disease awareness and prevention campaign.

Using data from 1980 through 2000, they found that the biggest difference in death rates was due to prevention: reducing risk factors among healthy individuals. Drugs or surgery for people with heart disease had only a minor impact (and if you ask me, even that impact was greatly outweighed by the damage done by those medical treatments).

“We were surprised by the small proportion of the mortality fall attributable to primary preventive drug interventions such as statins and blood pressure tablets,” said lead author Fiona Young, at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University in England.

Why should she have been surprised? Death due to medical treatment — including medical errors, infections, unnecessary surgeries and other factors — is considered one of the, if not the leading cause of death in the United States.

“Knowledge about what has caused these large mortality declines allows us to plan effective measures to reduce disease rates in the future,” Young added.

Good! That should mean less treatment … more healthy living!

To uncover this information, the researchers gathered data on total cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure, and smoking prevalence from The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a yearly national survey representing the entire US population. They entered those statistics into a model that estimates changes in heart disease mortality between two points in time.

The results reinforce previous research showing that prevention — NOT TREATMENT — is the key to staying healthy.

SOURCE: “Coronary mortality declines in the U.S. between 1980 and 2000: quantifying the contributions from primary and secondary prevention” American Journal of Preventive Medicine.39(3), 2010.

In his book, “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” author Brian Wansink makes an important point when he reminds us that fast food restaurants and packaged food manufacturers don’t sell calorie-laden, high-sodium, super-processed foods to deliberately make us fat or unhealthy. They do it because those items are what sell. If the public shows that it wants healthier foods, they’ll start making and selling them.

A discussion that took place at the 2010 Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo recently backs up his premise. Consumer demand for foods with health and wellness benefits has increased in recent years and the food industry is sitting up and taking notice.

At the Expo, Suzy Badaracco, a registered dietitian and president of Culinary Tides, Inc. (a company that tracks food trends) pointed to a growing body of research that supports the health benefits of a wide range of ingredients from all over the world. She named several “rock star” ingredients from around the globe, such as kefir from Russia, adzuki beans from Japan and black currant from the European Union, among many others.

Carlos Barroso, president and founder of another food industry consulting firm, explained that timing is right for such products, given the ongoing demand for “authentic” foods. Already, probiotic-enriched foods that have been popular overseas for years are a hit in this country. “It’s not a European phenomenon anymore — it’s already a multimillion dollar business here,” he said, adding that traditional incentives like marketplace success are as important as ever. “You can certainly make money from importing health and wellness trends from outside the U.S.”

Barroso says the next step is to use food as a way to deliver health properties. He cited a dietary supplement called triphala, made with a natural extract of three fruits. “Why put it into a pill? What about a natural triphala fruit snack?”

Expo speaker Kara Nielsen, a “trendologist” at the Center for Culinary Development in San Francisco, said that food product developers here can easily and successfully incorporate such medicinal ingredients into food products that already have a certain cultural flair: using the Indian spice turmeric, shown to have healthful properties, in Indian-style simmer sauces, for example. “And don’t ignore common wisdom built on folk remedies — like enhanced chicken soup or extra cinnamon in baked goods,” she added.

Eventually, the food industry may go a step further and stop thinking of food as “medicine” to treat specific conditions and just focus on helping the body achieve the highest possible level of natural wellness (just as chiropractic does). But for now, at least they’re moving in the right direction!

Here’s an interesting new research finding: married men are healthier than men who were never married or whose marriages ended in divorce or widowhood. That’s the conclusion of a recent survey of American adults, reported in the July 2010 issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

According to the Harvard online publication, numerous studies conducted over the past 150 years suggest that marriage (or, at least, a good marriage) is good for health (at least for men!). Now, scientists are beginning to understand how marriage affects heart disease, cancer, and other conditions in men.

The survey — part of the from the Framingham Offspring Study — found that married men had a 46% lower rate of death than unmarried men, even after taking into account major cardiovascular risk factors. In this study, the happiness of the marriage didn’t seem to influence the overall protective effect. In other studies, though, marital unhappiness and stress were linked with high blood pressure (hypertension), an important cardiac risk factor. Over time, marital stress is associated with thickening of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber. On the flip side, a supportive marriage is associated with improved survival among men who develop heart failure.

Makes sense to me. Being in a loving partnership with someone (married or not) has to make a positive impact on your life. If nothing else, being able to share one’s joys and sorrows with another person reduces stress which, as we well know, is the key element in almost all health problems.

And, despite the fact that this survey focused on men, other studies have shown the same is true for women. A fascinating report published by the National Center for Health Statistics notes that research consistently documents associations between formal marital status and health and well-being. Compared with unmarried people, those who tie the knot generally have better mental and physical health outcomes, live longer, and have lower prevalence of cardiovascular disease.

Interestingly, the only real “negative” health outcome due to marriage is that husbands tend to pack on some extra pounds!

So, next time you get into a fight with your spouse, keep in mind that it’s worth it — for your health’s sake — to kiss and make up.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) just came out with a report warning about a growing and potentially life-threatening trend known as “Robo tripping,” the abuse of over-the-counter cough and cold medications by America’s youth.

The ASA is involved in the problem because anesthesiologists are often among the first medical people to deal with overdose cases at hospitals.

From what the ASA says, nearly 10% of all American teens have admitted to getting high on cough medication containing the synthetic drug dextromethorphan (DXM), which produces a hallucinogenic high when consumed in large amounts.

Kids as young as nine-years-old have admitted to Robo tripping, mainly because the drug is readily available without a prescription and inexpensive. The “Robo” refers to Robotussin, although many other cough medicines also contain DXM.

“Consuming large amounts of drugs containing DXM can have a variety of serious and very dangerous side effects on a child’s short- and long-term health, ranging from hallucinations to loss of motor control, and even death,” said Michael H. Entrup, MD, ASA director for the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists. “As summer swings into high gear and many kids are home from school, it’s especially important for parents to be aware of what their kids are doing during the break. As anesthesiologists, we want to help family members not only recognize the signs of Robo tripping but also to ensure that children are aware of the danger inherent in this type of drug abuse.”

The ASA is taking action to curb Robo tripping among teens and tweens by providing parents with the information to recognize and prevent it. DXM, the active ingredient in cough medications that is abused when children Robo trip — also referred to as Robo, Skittles, Dex and Tussin — is available in more than 125 medications, including well-known brands.

Parents should actively monitor for possible signs of Robo tripping, which can include:

• An unusual medicinal smell on the child.
• Empty or missing cough and cold medicine bottles.
• An unexplainable disappearance of money from the house.
• A sudden change in their child’s physical appearance, attitude, and sleeping and/or eating habits.
• Questionable or unexpected packages arriving in the mail addressed to the child.
• Visits by their child to pro-drug websites.

Parents can help protect their children from DXM abuse by:

• Educating them about the dangers of drug abuse.
• Controlling access to cough and cold medicines (which may include locking the medicine cabinet).
• Keeping their own medications out of the reach of their children.
• Familiarizing themselves with — and not stockpiling — medicines that contain DXM.
• Actively checking their credit card statements.
• Monitoring their child’s internet use.

I’m going to add my own advice: set an example for your kids. Look into your medicine cabinet and ask yourself whether you REALLY need all those medicines and pills. Are you taking them for every little ache and pain? Are you taking them more out of habit than need? Are you buying into the drug makers’ propaganda that chemical substances are good for you (as though you may have an aspirin deficiency!)?

If your kids see you reaching for an OTC drug every day, what kind of message are they getting from you? If they see you drinking alcohol every night, they’re likely to see this as an accepted behavior. Same thing for both prescription and OTC drugs. Your acceptance of these medications as good and healthy things can give your children a green light to try their own version of the OTC banquet. At the very least, it gives them the parental example they need to justify their actions.

Reduce the likelihood that your children will be lured into taking drugs of any kind by making sure you teach by example, and achieve wellness through wise lifestyle choices.

In the past, whenever I got excited about a new project (or stressed over some problem!) I had trouble sleeping. I’d toss and turn while my mind went spinning. I’d be too tired to get up, but I couldn’t sleep. After eight hours or so, I’d drag myself out of bed exhausted.

Things changed when I started practicing yoga. The physical and mental disciplines I learned helped me throughout the day — AND at night. Almost all yoga students can attest to this benefit, but if we had any doubts, insomnia experts have confirmed this (interesting how we love getting scientific proof to validate our personal experiences).

Ramadevi Gourineni, MD, director of the Comprehensive Insomnia Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, noted in May that “simple lifestyle changes can replace the need for medications to achieve a better night’s sleep.”

The clinic put priority on educating patients about behavioral changes they can make that will help them sleep. Examples of behavioral changes are kicking bad habits such as consuming caffeine before bedtime and not using the bedroom for work or watching TV. They also counsel patients on stress management techniques and to reduce the worry and anxiety that often keeps people awake at night.

One of the best behavioral changes people can make is to practice yoga. According to the American Yoga Association: “If you suffer from insomnia, whether often or occasionally, yoga can help. Through relaxing physical exercise, breathing techniques and complete relaxation, you can promote more regular and restful sleeping patterns without resorting to sleep-inducing drugs. Such drugs interfere with your body’s natural sleep cycle and can create psychological dependence and undesirable side effects.”

A report published in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback noted: “In this preliminary study, a simple daily yoga treatment was evaluated in a chronic insomnia … For 20 participants completing the protocol, statistically significant improvements were observed…”

Gourineni also conducted a study which showed that practicing deep relaxation techniques, such as yoga, during the daytime can help improve sleep at night. The patients in her study saw improvements in sleep quality, total sleep time, and depression.

In the future, Gourineni and other clinic doctors hope to work with Chicago-area yoga teachers to build a network of recommended places for patients to practice yoga.

SOURCES: “Treatment of chronic insomnia with yoga: a preliminary study with sleep-wake diaries,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 2004 Dec; 29(4):269-78).

“Behavioral Changes As Effective As Medication In Treating Insomnia,” Northwest Memorial Hospital, May 7, 2010.

By Terry A. Rondberg

Numerous studies have proven that a positive state of mind can increase longevity, improve immune function, and lower the risk of many health issues — diabetes, hypertension, obesity and stroke to name just a few. Conversely, anger, sadness and worry have been linked with everything from loss of hair to heart attacks.

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Centre in New York joined in the growing chorus of professionals singing the praises of happiness when they published their report in the European Heart Journal.

They examined the association between “positive affect” and cardiovascular events in 1,739 adults (862 men and 877 women). They defined positive affect as “the experience of pleasurable emotions such as joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment,” and noted that “these feelings can be transient, but they are usually stable and trait-like, particularly in adulthood.”

The results weren’t surprising, but they were spectacular! Those people with a generally negative outlook were twice as likely as their happy counterparts to suffer heart disease.

The really good news is that we can all learn to be happy. Our emotions are a result of our thoughts. To enjoy positive emotions, we simply have to focus our minds on positive thoughts. And if there’s only one thing in the world we truly can control, it’s our thoughts.

Here are four steps toward being happy:

1) Eliminate the negative. What causes you to have sad, angry or worried thoughts during the day? Is it the newspaper you read each morning, with its depressing reports of war, violence and tragedy? Then stop reading it (like any addiction, you’ll go through withdrawals for a week or so, but then you’ll be free of it). Violent television shows? Unpleasant coworkers? Angry websites?  Avoid all of them whenever possible, and if you find yourself thinking any unhappy thoughts, deliberately switch the focus of your mind to something pleasant.

2) Accentuate the positive. Fill your environment with uplifting visual happiness “cues,” images or items that cause you to think positive thoughts and feel happier. Photos of your loved ones, or of beautiful sunsets and plants, inspirational quotations, positive affirmations.

3) Keep a gratitude journal. Every day, jot down a few of the many things you have to be grateful for that day (a new client or patient, a call from an old friend, a delicious lunch, an opportunity to do a good deed, the fact that you’re still alive). Keep your mind on the GOOD things that happen.

4) Fake it ’til you feel it. If you do all these things but still feel down, smile anyway. ACT happy and soon you’ll feel happy. There’s no way you can smile and laugh and still feel negative.

It takes effort and practice, but if you work at it, you can actually learn to be a happier (and healthier) person. Sure beats taking Prozac!

Although I’m no longer a strict vegetarian as I was for many years, I still reside as low as possible on the food chain. In other words, I love my veggies!

I’m also trying to be more of a “locavore” when it comes to produce. In the past, it wasn’t always easy to find locally grown fruits and vegetables, especially when you live in the middle of a fairly large metropolitan area.

Thank goodness for urban farmers’ markets! They’re springing up all over the place and they’re great places to shop for fresh produce as well as homemade specialty products like jams, breads, etc. In fact, they’re becoming popular attractions in some areas.

I read recently about one being held in Maywood, Illinois, by Loyola University Health System and students from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (among other sponsors). Normally, the idea of going to ANY event connected to a medical college wouldn’t appeal, but this one is truly different and I hope it’s the leading edge of a trend.

Since it began, the Annual Maywood Multicultural Farmers Market has been a nutritional lifeline to the people of Maywood, an area that has high levels of chronic illnesses that are partially caused and worsened by poor eating and exercise habits.

“For years, Maywood residents had no access to fresh fruits and vegetables, which could help prevent serious, chronic health problems,” said Lena Hatchett, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Stritch. “We’re proud that we were able to provide badly needed produce and we plan to do so for many more years to come.”

Through October, Maywood area residents are able to purchase low-cost ethnic fruit and vegetables, herbs, arts and crafts, flowers and gourmet items produced by local Latino, Asian-American and African-American farmers and gardeners at the market. The number of vendors and the variety of offerings will widen as the growing season progresses.

The market also features entertainment; gardening advice; tips on cooking low-fat, nutritious meals; free samples, methods to lower stress and reduce weight, fun exercises, and information on the link between diet and blood pressure and hidden fat in foods. Medical students will offer free blood pressure checks, blood-sugar level screenings and obesity awareness during the health fair. I’m hoping non-medical health care providers will have a strong presence as well.

Doesn’t that sound better than buying chemical-laden vegetables at Safeway?

To find a farmers market in your area, check Local Harvest (http://www.localharvest.org/)

My mom is in a care facility in Arizona right now, and I’m facing the painful but inevitable time when she’ll no longer be with us. Through the years, our relationship has been extremely good, which is rare in this age of dysfunctional and disjointed families. A decade ago, I moved to California but my mom has never been more than a phone call away.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’m so healthy! According to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a simple phone conversation with a loved one actually causes the release of the powerful stress-quelling hormone oxytocin.

The study focused on young girls, but I’m living proof that it works just as well for adults. Talking with someone you love — your mom, dad, spouse, kids, sweetheart — can counteract the effects of cortisol, the hormone associated with stress.

In the study, the girls were given the assignment to present an impromptu speech and solve a series of math problems in front of a panel of strangers (talk about stress!).

“Facing a challenge like that, being evaluated, raises stress levels for a lot of people,” said Seth Pollak, psychology professor and director of UW-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab.

Once their hearts started racing, one-third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers — specifically with hugs, an arm around the shoulders and the like. One-third watched an emotion-neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone. It was mom on the line, and the effect was dramatic.

“The children who got to interact with their mothers had virtually the same hormonal response, whether they interacted in person or over the phone,” Seltzer says.

The girls’ levels of oxytocin, often called the “love hormone” and strongly associated with emotional bonding, rose significantly and the stress-marking cortisol washed away.

“It was understood that oxytocin release in the context of social bonding usually required physical contact,” Seltzer said. “But it’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if they’re not standing there.”

And, according to the study, the effect is a lasting one. “It stays well beyond that stressful task,” Pollak noted. “By the time the children go home, they’re still enjoying the benefits of this relief and their cortisol levels are still low.”

The researchers, whose report was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, spent a lot of time trying to show that the effects were different for males than females. They explained that when confronted with a threat or stressful situation, males may be more likely to choose between fight and flight. A female creates or uses a social bond to deal with a stressor, either through touch or soothing vocal communication.

But any guy who has felt more relaxed after listening to the soothing voice of his parents, wife, sweetheart or even kids, knows this is not one of those “she’s from Venus, he’s from Mars” experiences. It’s a human thing.

Actually, that’s not altogether true. The effect isn’t restricted to humans alone!

“Lots of very social species vocalize,” Seltzer admitted. “We’re hoping researchers who study vocal communication will consider looking at oxytocin release in other animals and applying it to broader questions of social behavior and evolutionary biology.”

So, next time you’re feeling stressed out, pick up the phone and call a loved one. It may just be the best tranquilizer you can take.

Take a look at these news items:

• Researchers discover a new species of frog at the Condor Mountain Range in Ecudor (another new species of frog was also discovered just days before in India)

• NASA astronomers uncovered what may be the earliest, most distant cluster of galaxies ever detected

• Archeologists on a dig in Texas dug up the fossilized jawbone of an unknown species of ancient reptile — one that had a 9-foot wingspan

Incredible isn’t it? And all of that happened THIS MONTH. The fact is, just when we start to think we’ve learned all we’re going to learn, we begin making new discoveries about the world — and universe — we live in.

It’s the same thing in health care. We go to school, get our degree, take continuing education courses and figure we know pretty much everything about maintaining wellness. Then along come innovative (even revolutionary) new ways to think about human health and we feel we’re back to square one.

Some people react by digging in their heels and rejecting all new ideas and theories because it would mean having to throw out some of our old knowledge, admit maybe we (and our teachers) were wrong, and turn left at the next intersection to go in a new direction.

Others accept change and even look forward to it.  One magazine called this technique “ignoring your inner reptile.”

“There’s a part of the human mind that is often referred to as the ‘lizard brain,’ because it existed in even the earliest land animals. The lizard brain is concerned with survival; it likes the tried and true, so (when faced with change) it’s likely to pipe up … flooding you with adrenaline warnings of “Danger!” as you veer off course. This was a handy function to have when deviating from the familiar path to the watering hole may have led to an encounter with a saber-toothed tiger. But in the modern world it’s like a misfiring car alarm: pointless and annoying.” (10 ways you can embrace change – CNN.com.)

That’s what many chiropractors faced when the evidence began mounting that the neurological component of the subluxation was even more critical than the structural one. Looking at chiropractic as neurologically based means moving away from the old thinking about bones being out of place, and it’s not an easy transition for many doctors.  That old lizard brain ambles to life and yells DANGER.

The lizard really starts spitting fire when we move even farther away from the watering hole and peer over the edge of the cliff leading to knowledge about bioenergetics, epigenetics, “quantum healing” techniques, etc.

Even though all these vitalistic approaches share much in common with traditional chiropractic philosophy, they don’t always fit nicely into the normal D.C. mindset — they’re too “new agey” for the skeptical scientist that lurks inside us.

If we reject all these new ideas out of hand, we’ll never lead the advance guard into the future; we’ll always be among those who simply bring up the rear. H.G. Wells once said: “New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled, the humiliating question arises, ‘Why then are you not taking part in them?’”