Archives for December 2014

Digestion and Stress

It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our every day schedule. The Monday morning blender can jolt your right out of that relaxing weekend as you get thrust into mayhem. Your week soon becomes consumed with juggling a myriad of demanding tasks, taking care of kids, running errands, jumping from one meeting to another, walking the dog, etc. It can all take a toll on your health, especially when it affects your digestion.

Stress causes your nervous system to shift into a state that is not conducive for digestion. Because of the pressures of modern life many of us are living in a constant state of “fight or flight”. In this state your digestive system does not create adequate hydrochloric acid and thus digestion can not proceed properly. Think about it, when you are fighting or running the last think your body is focused on is digestion. If you eat when in this mental state, how well do you think you will digest your food? And if your food doesn’t digest properly, how nourished do you think your body can be? A poorly nourished body doesn’t work properly or stay healthy long. Consequently it is important to learn how to slow your body down and shift out of “fight or flight” and into the “rest and digest” state. To achieve this, take some time to relax before a meal. Try to eat in an atmosphere that promotes relaxation (hint: your car is not that place). Getting away from the tasks and eating with friends is a good way to take a break from your day and have some enjoyment around meal time. The moral of the story: Stay relaxed around meal time. Your body will thank you for it…with good health!

Maintaining good hydration is an important part of digestive health. Many digestive functions depend on proper amounts of fluids in your body. Adequate hydration is important to the production of saliva, stomach acid, pancreatic fluids, bile production, and other digestive juices. It is also important for proper bowel flow as stool that becomes dehydrated too quickly becomes hard to pass.

Don’t be misled by health fads that suggest you have to drink large amounts of water all day long even if you aren’t thirsty. Many people carry large containers of water with them and even show up at my office carrying a gallon of water. Like many things, too much water can be just as unhealthy as drinking to little. Drinking large volumes of water all day long puts a strain on your kidneys and causes a of vital loss of vital mineral electrolytes from your blood.

Your goal should be to drink whatever amount is necessary for you to prevent mild dehydration. Pure water is the best fluid for re-hydrating the body. At the other end of the range are alcoholic drinks which cause dehydration as your body tries to get rid of the alcohol through causing urination. Other fluids like juices and teas fall somewhere in the middle, having some hydrating ability though not as good as water. Soft drinks have probably some of the most negative consequences as they are full of sugar or synthetic sweeteners (many of which have been branded neuro-toxins) and carbonic acid, which causes minerals, including calcium, to leach out of your bones. Can you say osteoporosis? So what should you take away from this? Pace yourself through the day, taking in regular fluids but not to the extent that it causes you to feel like you are urinating frequently all day long.

Although many patients have experienced good clinical results from receiving biopuncture for pain management, there have been few clinical studies done to validate claims of it’s efficacy. Recently, however, at the American College of Rheumatology 2014 Annual Meeting a study of 232 patients with knee osteoarthritis was presented that substantiates these claims.

In the multi-center, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, 232 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic knee osteoarthritis were randomized to three weekly injections of a low dose FDA approved botanical product or saline. By day 15, patients experienced significant reductions in pain without any serious adverse events.

Dr. Carlos J. Lozada, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, stated in his presentation: “This treatment protocol provided statistically significant and clinically relevant pain relief for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, a condition for which pain relief can be challenging to achieve. This potentially represents an additional option in the management of osteoarthritis, especially for those patients who cannot tolerate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are not candidates for corticosteroid treatment, or do not respond to other therapies.”

These low dose botanical products are listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference and have been available globally for more than 60 years to help manage the pain of osteoarthritis. In the last 10 years, more than 1.5 million ampules of these remedies have been sold in the U.S. alone. In my professional clinical experience this approach provides a safe and effective treatment, not only for knee pain but also for shoulder, ankle, and low back pain. Hopefully additional clinical trials will soon acknowledge the benefit of these products for other painful conditions. If you are interested in learning more about how biopuncture might help your particular situation, please contact our office for further information.