Sinus & Allergy Problems

Throughout Southern California people are suffering from sinus trouble (sinusitis). The majority believe the symptoms to be nothing more than a slight cold in the head that periodically worsens. They do not realize they are suffering from chronic SINUSITIS, nor do they realize how rapidly a chronic sinus condition can flare up and become serious.

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the mucous membrane lining one or more of the nasal sinuses. There are 8 sinuses; cavities in the cheekbones, forehead, and on either side of and behind the nose. The function of the sinuses is to aid in the all important pollution control of air entering the lungs. Even the sweetest country air contains dust particles, pollen and other impurities. City air is often filthy with soot and smog. During the few seconds it takes for air to be sucked into the lungs, the air must pass through an intricate maze of snares and traps. The body's system of "air conditioning" begins with the hair just inside the nostrils. These hairs strain out and move obvious particles of dust, flying insects, and other large particles of filth riding the air stream as it is sucked into the lungs. Heat from the rich blood supply in the nose warms the air on its journey to the lungs, but both the warming affect and the cleansing effect of the nasal passages are lost in breathing through the mouth. Since it is highly desirable to keep impurities out of the lungs, the importance of catching such impurities in the nose is apparent. It is essential to good health that the sinuses function properly. Usually the pain is dull and aching. It may become excruciating with excessive activity.

Sinusitis can be either chronic or acute. A tendency to head colds that hang on and on is a major symptom of chronic sinusitis. Pain is often less than in acute conditions and may be merely annoying, but unless corrected completely, chronic sinusitis may stay with the victim through the major symptoms come and go.

Patients with chronic sinus trouble are often astounded at how quickly relief comes with Chiropractic care without the use of drugs and/or operations. Give it a try .... it works!

Men Also Get Osteoporosis

With all the hype about osteoporosis in women and the ads for calcium you would think it was just a disease of women, but that is very wrong. About one in six men who live to extreme old age do have a hip fracture caused by osteoporosis. the figure is one in three for women in the same age group.

Bone loss in both sexes begins as soon as the skeleton is fully mature, which is some time after age 30. The menopause is simply an accelerated phase of bone loss. This gradual loss may never cause a man a problem if he dies before the age of 70. However, a small skeleton in either a male or female means that bone loss will become more critical earlier in life.

Testosterone in males has a similar effect on calcium and bone in men as estrogen does in women. Men tend to maintain normal testosterone levels until late in life, unless they have an illness or use alcohol to excess Studies show that in medical situations where there is a decreased testosterone level, there will also be bone loss.

It is really not known how to stop osteoporosis related to age. But it is known that cigarette smoking and alcohol both increase bone loss.

The best approach to the problem is to prevent bone loss through developing a good skeleton, with challenging exercise and proper nutrition, in the development years, and to avoid alcohol and cigarettes.

IRS PHONE SCAM

Telephone scam artist: ‘Americans are fools’

Fraudster posing as IRS official tries to scam a cop, who hassles him right back.

By KELLY PUENTE

   The con man was looking for a mark, but instead he got a cop.

   Damon Tucker, head investigator for the Major Fraud Unit in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, was checking voice messages on his personal cellphone when he heard a message a lot of us get – from a scam artist.

   Tucker called back the cheat for a chat.    “Actually you are calling the police,” Tucker told the man. “That’s the part that’s hilarious.”

   “You know what’s hilarious? You calling yourself ‘police’ ” the man replied. “That’s hilarious.”

   In a YouTube video released this week, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas warns of IRS telephone scams as Tax Day approaches.

   To get his point across, Rackauckas shows a clip of Tucker’s exchange. The cheat had left a message saying that Tucker needed to call back to avoid the IRS filing a lawsuit.

   Such callers ask that money be sent to them, or try to ferret out personal information from victims.

   In the call, Tucker volleys with the man.

   “Do you have a script that they give you?” Tucker asks. “How do you guys rip off people from their money?”

   “It’s easy to rip off people – Americans are stupid,” the fraudster replies. “You don’t need a script. American are fools. Vegetables, we call them.”

   This fraudster, unfortunately, isn’t alone.

   IRS officials said they have noticed an increase in scam artists this year calling under the guise of verifying tax return information. IRS spokesman Raphael Tulino said criminals are especially aggressive during tax season.

   “There are so many ways the scammers are trying to reach out to people,” he said.

   In January, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said there had been 896,000 phone scams reported since October 2013, with more than 5,000 victims paying $26.5 million in all.

   The IRS recommends hanging up on scam artists and reporting the incident to the Tax Administration.

   In a Wednesday interview, Tucker, a longtime fraud investigator, said he decided to “con the con artists” and repeatedly called their number, giving fake names from movies until those on the other end told him to “stop calling us.”

   “I figured if I’m tying up their line, that’s time they won’t get to spend calling potential victims,” he said.

   Tucker said he spoke with the man heard in the video several times, and the man eventually became frustrated and hung up the phone.

   The District Attorney’s Office turned the case over to its Cyber Crimes Task Force, but Tucker said these types of cases are tough to investigate because the callers are usually in another country.

   To see the video, go to www.youtube.com/user/OrangeCountyDA.

Lack of Sleep Can Make You Fatter

From the American College of Physicians issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine comes a study that suggests that there is a correlation between lack of sleep and weight gain. Chief author, Dr. Eve Van Cauter, Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago, states, "If you do not run a sleep debt, you will be able to curb your appetite more easily and maintain or lose weight."

A full article on the original research on the FitCommerce.com website notes that sleep deprivation increases levels of a hunger hormone and decreases levels of a hormone that can make you feel full. These 2 factors lead to cravings for sweets, chips, and starchy fare like bread and pasta thus setting up the scenario for weight gain.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, An estimated 63% of American adults do not get the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. They report that the average adult gets 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours on weekends, for a daily average of 7 hours. The researchers point out that the decline in time spent sleeping correlates to the rise in obesity in the U.S. Statistics show that less than one-quarter of young American adults sleep eight to nine hours per night -- down from about 41 % in 1960.

The article notes that this scenario sets up a downward cycle. Not having enough sleep leads to weight gain, then weight gain and obesity leads to sleep difficulties that can affect the quality of sleep and therefore cause even more sleep loss and therefore more weight gain.

"You're not healthy, unless your sleep is healthy."

The Importance of X-rays

In examining your spinal x-rays, your chiropractor hopes to find a normal healthy spine. However, there are several major conditions which may show up on radiographs.

Fracture Or Dislocations
A fractured or dislocated vertebra may be the result of a recent accident or previous injuries. Fractures can also occur spontaneously, due to hereditary factors, nutritional deficiencies, or degenerative processes. Fractures and dislocations may cause misalignment of the vertebrae, pinched nerves, and associated health problems.

Congenital Deformity
It is estimated that at least one out of twenty people is born with a significant deformity of one or more vertebrae. Such deformities may alter the dynamics of the spinal column, resulting in misalignment, pinched nerves and a wide variety of health problems.

Pathology
Pathology is the structural and functional changes produced by disease. Some pathological changes, affecting spinal dynamics include infections, tumors, degeneration, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. The presence of these conditions may cause misalignment of the spine, producing nerve interference, resulting in additional health problems in those areas serviced directly or indirectly by the affected nerve.

Disc Problems
The spinal discs play an important role in keeping the spinal column precisely aligned and balanced. That's why disc problems such as ruptured discs, slipped discs, and disc degeneration can have considerable influence on vertebral alignment and the nerve root passageways.

Neurothlipsis
The pinching or irritation of a nerve is called neurothlipsis. Although pinching or irritation can be the result of such things as slipped discs, ruptured discs, tumors and bony arthritic growths, neurothlipsis of a nerve root most frequently occurs when a misaligned vertebra alters the shape of the opening in the spine (foramen) through which nerve roots pass. Neurothlipsis can cause pain or disease in all areas of the body supplied directly or indirectly by the branches of that nerve root. Correction of the misalignment, before any permanent damage occurs, usually results in correction of the health problems associated with the pinched nerve.

Spinal Distortion
There are several common types of spinal distortions and curvatures. Examples of potentially serious conditions are;  Scoliosis (lateral curvature of the spine), Kyphosis (hunchback), and Scheuermann's Disease (inflamed growth centers of the spine). Usually less serious causes of distortions include muscle spasms, and soft tissue contraction, etc. However, any of these types of spinal distortions can lead to spinal disease, nerve root irritation, and subsequent health problems.

Spinal Imbalance
The head is located at the top of the spinal column and is normally positioned and balanced directly over the sacrum, which is located at the base of the spinal column. If your head is not properly balanced over the sacrum, our doctor is alerted to look for such conditions as misalignment of the pelvis, a shot leg, muscle spasms, muscle imbalance, pinched nerves, etc. An imbalanced spine creates enormous stress and strain on spinal muscles and ligaments, which may lead to misalignment of the vertebrae, which in turn can result in pinched nerves and associated health problems. Such stressors may also make an individual more susceptible to spinal injury.

Abnormal Range Of Motion
The human spine is designed to bend, flex, and twist; and withstand substantial strain and stress. But, adhesions and fixations can restrict the normal range of motion, reduce the elasticity of supporting tissues, and impair local circulation. Conversely, ligaments and cartilage may be over-stretched or torn, permitting excessive range of motion. This can lead to inflammation and degeneration of the joints.

Both restricted and excessive ranges of motion may lead to increased pathology, vertebral misalignment, and impinged nerves, resulting in pain or disease in the affected areas.

"Radiographs are a discovery of disease, or a map of a healthy person - RULE IT OUT WHAT COULD BE!"

Feel up When Life is Getting You Down

With about 19 million Americans suffering from depression, and with prescriptions for drugs to treat the disorder having doubled over the last 10 years alone, the problem is only growing without real healthy answers from the medical community. The reason is that most people don't have the first clue about what's really giving us the blues.

Why do most people go through life never identifying the true source of their feelings?

As children, we were not encouraged to share our feelings, we were told to put on a happy face and ignore how we really felt. These unacknowledged, buried emotions are feelings within us that are very much alive and active. They are the cause of many diseases and dis-harmonies in the body. 

What are the three things anyone can do today to help lift their mood?

First, acknowledge that you feel blue or down. Place your hand on your chest, this is a major energy center called your heart chakra, and repeat the following three times, "even though I feel down and blue I deeply love and accept myself." 

Accepting yourself in this downer state is powerfully healing. It will honor your feelings and in that honoring allow the emotional energy to begin to release.

Second, once you have acknowledged how you feel, take some time to write out how you might have felt as a child. The following is an easy and effective technique to help you get to those deeper feelings.

Forgive yourself and others for how you feel.  Do this by placing your hand on your chest (your heart chakra again) while repeating statements like:

"I forgive myself for feeling down and blue, I am doing the best I know how."

"I forgive my younger self for feeling powerless and unheard, they were doing the best they knew how."

"I forgive my mom and dad, they did the best they knew how with the knowledge and resources they had."

Forgiveness is an important step in releasing downer feelings.  Even if you are not ready to completely feel forgiveness, doing this process plants seeds that propel you towards more wellness and happiness.

Tell yourself you are feeling better and better each day and you probably will.

Learn more powerful steps to clear the emotional baggage from your childhood.  Learn powerful techniques to heal the emotional issues from your childhood.

Hearing Loss and Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smokers are much more likely to develop hearing loss than non-smokers, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The findings are from a 5 year study that involved nearly 4,000 people between the ages of 48 and 92 years old, with an average age of 66 years. About half were smokers.

The study found that smokers were about 70% more likely to have significant hearing loss than non-smokers. Ex-smokers were about 30% more likely to have a hearing loss. Non-smokers living with smokers were also at significantly higher risk for hearing loss. Based on these findings, perhaps one of the Surgeon General's warning s printed on cigarette packages should be:

"Warning: cigarette smoking may be harmful to your hearing."

Smoking has long been suspected as a factor contributing to hearing loss because it can restrict blood flow to the inner ear. The researchers also believe that the nicotine in cigarette smoke may damage the cells of the inner ear directly. Other factors that can affect hearing include exposure to noise, hypertension, aging, genetics and physical injury.

And now we are introduced to E-Cig Vapor, another nightmare in the making ...

STAY TUNED!