 Yoga away your stress & colds! The cold and flu season can be a miserable time, but there are several natural ways to improve immune system function and reduce your susceptibility to a cold or flu. With the weather changing, it is a good time to think about preparing to avoid the worst by improving your health habits.
By incorporating these natural strategies into your daily routine, you can significantly reduce your risk of catching a cold or flu. And if you do experience a cold, these consistent health habits can ease your recovery.
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 Congaplex Immune Support Professionals of every kind have their favorite go-to tools for handling common problems. Let's take a look at one of our favorite tools for immune system support and upper respiratory challenges.
Congaplex: Go-to Immune Support Congaplex is one of our favorite answers when patients ask about what to do for stuffy sinuses, coughing, sneezing, and the other fun than comes with upper respiratory challenges. We especially keep it handy around our houses during the winter when those problems hit the hardest. Conga - plex can be thought of as a complex of whole food nutrients that fight congestion and support the immune system. Congaplex is actually a specially formulated blend of other Standard Process supplements:
We have found it to be a great choice and kids especially like the Congaplex chewable version that includes berry powder. We use it in lower doses for prevention or higher doses when fighting off a bug. Check out some of the good foods inside: bovine thymus extract, carrot root, bovine bone, nutritional yeast, wheat germ, bovine adrenal, alfalfa juice, oat flour, alfalfa flour, bovine kidney, veal bone, veal bone extract, mushroom, buckwheat leaf juice, buckwheat seed, peanut bran, soybean lecithin, carrot oil. You could try Congaplex or eat all of these! 11/17/2015 Research Roundup: Animal Antibiotics Hurt Kids, Bad Medicine, and Healthy Eating Improves Health!Read Now Enjoy the latest research on health care and healthy living:
American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) Says No to Antibiotics in Animal Feed Feeding livestock antibiotics to artificially boost growth is big business and America's Pediatricians are finally saying that's enough. MedPage reported on the AAP's announcement discouraging use of antibiotics in animal fed due to the potential harm for children. While 7.25 million pounds of these drugs are sold for use in humans, more than 32.2 million pounds are sold for use in animals -- animals that often have no active infection. The overuse of antibiotic medication in children was also briefly addressed: "Clinicians bear some responsibility for this problem because we ourselves are not always prudent in our use of antibiotics...Unfortunately, too many people still prescribe antibiotics for colds or sore throats without having an appropriate bacterial diagnosis. So, since clinicians are part of the problem, they can be part of the solution." For your family's safety, choose meat that has been raised without antibiotics or other chemicals. And avoid antibiotic use for common colds, runny noses, and sore throats that are caused by viruses that cannot be killed with antibiotics. Medical Errors Still Alarmingly High Forbes recently reported: "A disturbing new study, published in the October 2015 issue of Anesthesiology, found that medication errors occurred in nearly half of all surgical procedures. Additionally, the study found that one-third of all errors resulted in adverse drug events or harm to patients." The study reviewed surgeries performed at a Harvard-affiliated hospital "considered a leader in patient safety." Clinicians weighing in on the study felt this actually underestimates the number of medical errors. This follows research estimating deaths due to preventable medical errors at 400,000 per year in the United States. Furthermore, these estimates seem to only consider hospitalized medical care, not accounting for other medical treatment. It's always important to recognize the significant risks associated with even "non-invasive" or "minor" medical care, utilizing safer conservative care first whenever possible. Now Some Good News: Americans Are Eating Better And Reducing Disease Don't let us mislead you, researchers still conclude the diet of Americans is "poor". However, an analysis of diet trends (from 1999-2012) found small signs of improvement with a big payoff: 1.1 million fewer premature deaths, 8.6% fewer cardiovascular disease cases, 1.3% fewer cancer cases, and 12.6% fewer type 2 diabetes cases. Good job Americans - now keep going! You're apparently drinking fewer sugary beverages and eating more fruit, but you haven't increased your veggies. Get those veggies in and keep cutting the sweets and carbs. Eat real unprocessed food and get moving!  With the CDC announcing this year's flu vaccine is less effective than usual, some medical experts are predicting a bad flu season. That means more cases of flu and those with weakened immune systems dealing with bothersome symptoms.
What's a doctor to do? Prescribe Tamiflu is they don't read research. Dr. Andrew Buelt (DO) recently wrote an article for Medpage Today about doctors continuing to prescribe Tamiflu to treat the flu when the research shows no significant benefit. Here are some excerpts: "Oseltamivir, brand name Tamiflu, was released onto the market in 1999 for the treatment of influenza... It's easy to see why everyone thought this was a wonder drug. A meta-analysis...concluded that "Oseltamivir treatment of influenza illness reduces LRTCs [lower respiratory tract complications], antibiotic use, and hospitalization in both healthy and 'at-risk' adults." However, the same authors (Kaiser L, et al) also said acute bronchitis requires antibiotic use, which we know it doesn't, and that eight of the 10 trials were unpublished or published only in abstract form. Finally, 68% of the randomized patients tested positive for influenza when, on average, only about 14% of those in a given flu season test positive, according to U.S. virological surveillance data. When Tom Jefferson, MD, of the Cochrane Review, asked for the clinical studies and full research, he was turned away. This started a 4-year stall by Roche, makers of Tamiflu. For those of you who are interested in the exchange, you should follow the paper trail on The BMJ website... Finally, Roche started to release the clinical studies. First, a report with access to some of the full clinical data concluded "there is no evidence that oseltamivir reduces the likelihood of hospitalization, pneumonia, or combined outcome of pneumonia." And what was more shocking was that this trial, WV15912, which took 401 adults with at least one cardiac or respiratory condition, had an end result of a nonsignificant 1-hour reduction in symptoms. I repeat only 1 hour, only 60 minutes, only 3,600 seconds. When the Cochrane reviewers were finally able to look at and sort through the body of information, and not just the abstract data, they came to similar conclusions, and reported that there were no differences for hospital admissions, reductions in confirmed pneumonia, or other complications. However, I don't want to say the drug did nothing, as there were increases in symptoms of nausea (NNH 28), vomiting (NNH 22), and headaches (NNH 32). Yes, Tamiflu is too good to be true. Patients who have the flu feel bad, they want a drug to help them feel any amount of relief. Sadly, we have nothing for them. We can encourage hydration and rest, but that's about it. The easy path is to write a prescription for Tamiflu and move to the next patient. The hard path is to discuss why you are not going to write the script to someone who doesn't want to hear it." When a drug manufacturer can't prove their drug causes a reduction in symptoms for only one hour (could you ask of any less from a drug?), it's pretty clear the drug is not effective. Try some simple natural solutions instead - at least they shouldn't increase nausea, vomiting, and headaches.  The risks associated with antibiotic use in children continues to grow as new research finds a strong link between antibiotic use and the development of arthritis in children.
Medpage Today reports, "Children who were exposed to antibiotics had an increased risk of developing juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)...any antibiotic use was associated with more than twice the risk of JIA." Antibiotics are made to kill microbes throughout the body, but end up killing helpful bacteria with the harmful bacteria. Researchers noted this disruption of healthy bacteria has been linked to multiple autoimmune diseases..."including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, and exposure to antibiotics has been linked with inflammatory bowel disease in children." The researchers went on to note that 25% of antibiotics used for children are for respiratory infections and are not needed. For a reminder of when antibiotics should NOT be used (common colds, flu, runny nose, bronchitis, fluid in ears, etc.) click here. To keep you and your children healthy, avoid antibiotics whenever possible and include probiotics or fermented foods in the diet to make sure there is plenty of good bacteria in the gut.  No ear infection here. Vitamin D Reduces Recurrent Ear Infections in Kids
A recent study looked out how vitamin D supplements affected children with recurrent ear infections. Researchers found that the average blood level of vitamin D was lower than recommended in children with recurrent ear infections. They gave some of the children a daily 1000 unit supplement of vitamin D and found those children had significantly fewer episodes of ear infections. Seattle Children's Hospital Researcher Craig Rubens noted this study confirms that doctors need to pay more attention to nutrition in cases of recurring ear infections. Many kids with recurrent infections rely on repeated rounds of antibiotics and eventually ear tubes to control the infections. This study highlights the need to look into the nutrition of these kids. Parents shouldn't fear child exposure to the sun. Low vitamin D is frequent in our area of Northeast Ohio, especially in the winter, due to limited sun exposure. Repeated warnings about sun exposure during summer have also contributed to adults and children receiving less than a healthy amount of sun to produce adequate vitamin D. This leaves us more dependent on our foods which do not provide an abundant source of vitamin D. It's a good idea to have your vitamin D level checked, especially if noticing recurrent ear infections.  Use probiotics to prevent diarrhea Research Shows Probiotics Prevent Diarrhea
MedPage Today reports on research that shows probiotics prevent diarrhea resulting from the use of antibiotics. Diarrhea is a common side effect that occurs after taking antibiotics; experienced in as many as 30% of patients. Probiotics are live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that are similar to beneficial microorganisms found in the human gut. They are also called 'friendly bacteria' or 'good bacteria'. You can add these healthy microorganisms to your diet by taking supplements or by eating fermented foods. Learn more about probiotics and fermented foods in our recent post. What Did The Probiotics Research Show? The researchers performed a meta-analysis in which they reviewed multiple studies that have been performed. They analyzed 82 randomly controlled studies on the subject and found a significant reduction in antibiotic-related diarrhea for those patients who received probiotics. Various probiotic strains were used including bacteria and yeasts. All tested strains demonstrated some benefit in preventing diarrhea, with an average reduced risk of 42%. How Do Probiotics Prevent Diarrhea? The researchers explain the benefit of probiotics: "Potentially, probiotics maintain or restore gut microecology during or after antibiotic treatment through receptor competition, competition for nutrients, inhibition of epithelial and mucosal adherence of pathogens, introduction of lower colonic pH favoring the growth of nonpathogenic species, stimulation of immunity, or production of antimicrobial substances." Translation: Taking probiotics returns good bugs to our gut after antibiotics kill them. They compete against the bad bugs for nutrients and space, so it is harder for the bad bugs to develop into an infection. These healthy bugs also help stimulate our immune system. Probiotics are basically the opposite of antibiotics. Instead of taking a pill that kills any microorganisms in your body (good or bad), you take a supplement that increases the number of healthy microorganisms that should be in your body. This restores the natural balance and helps the immune system work as it should. Do Probiotics Benefit Children & Adults? Most of the research has been performed on adults, but studies on children have also noted significant benefit to using probiotics as well. They are considered to be very safe. One possible risk is when used in neonates that have been born prematurely and have an immune deficiency. Babies should be enjoying the immune enhancing benefits from their mother's breastmilk anyway. You can enjoy the benefits of probiotics by taking a supplement or eating fermented foods - learn more here.  You can make fermented foods at home You may not be familiar with "fermented foods", but you have probably eaten them and enjoyed their probiotic benefits. Yogurt is likely the best known of fermented foods in America, and yogurt makers have recently increased their marketing to educate consumers on the health benefits of probiotics. What Are Probiotics? The National Institute of Health defines probiotics as "live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that are similar to beneficial microorganisms found in the human gut. They are also called 'friendly bacteria' or 'good bacteria'." Our body is swarming with trillions of these bacteria that help our body maintain a balance and stay healthy. A lot of these organisms are in our digestion system to help us digest certain foods. They play an important role in supporting our immune system among other benefits. What Are Fermented Foods? Fermented foods are made with bacteria or yeast that consume their sugars and leave behind lactic acid or alcohol. For our purposes, we are primarily talking about fermentation that increases lactic acid content and not alcohol. This increase in lactic acid helps prevent harmful bacteria from growing, which makes the food safer to eat and allows it to be stored longer. Most cultures around the world include some type of fermented food in their diet. These cultures all found that fermenting foods provides a number of benefits. Fermented foods contain healthy probiotics to keep our digestive system properly balanced, and the process makes certain nutrients easier to digest for us so we can get more out of the food we eat. It also adds a flavorful tang. Common fermented foods consumed around the world:  Fermented foods include cheese
What If We Don't Eat Fermented Foods? We recommend everyone try to include fermented foods in their diet on a regular basis (at least weekly; daily is better). Watch out for two issues:
If you don't eat any fermented foods, consider a probiotic supplement. These often come in capsule or liquid form. Similar to the foods, just make sure to check ingredients so the company is not including sugars or other unhealthy junk. These should be taken on a regular basis, but can be especially helpful when noticing digestive issues or infections. What About Prebiotics? Prebiotics are indigestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth and maintenance of beneficial gut microbiota. Essentially, it's food that we can't digest, but it feeds healthy bacteria in our gut. While probiotics receive most of the attention, consuming prebiotics are just as important. Soluble fiber from fresh fruits and vegetables serve as prebiotics that feed the healthy organisms in our digestive tract. This is one more reason why its so important to eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fermented foods are great because they can provide both probiotics and prebiotics in one tasty package.
We should also consider avoiding foods that feed unhealthy bacteria and cause problems with our microbial balance. Limit sugars, artificial sweeteners, and chemicals. Go out and eat some fermented foods today - your gut will thank you.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) started a program called "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work" to educate Americans about the overuse of antibiotics and the growing danger of antibiotic resistance. With coughs, sneezes and sore throats (oh my!) going around, we want to help share this important information. The following is from the CDC website: Facts About Antibiotic Resistance
Facts About Antibiotic Prescribing
 Colds or Runny Nose
Since the common cold is caused by a virus, antibiotics will not help it get better. A runny nose or cold almost always gets better on its own, so it is better to wait and take antibiotics only when they are needed. Taking antibiotics when they are not needed can be harmful. Sore Throat When a sore throat is caused by a virus or irritation from the air, antibiotic treatment will not help it get better. Most sore throats will improve on their own within 1-2 weeks. Antibiotics are needed if a healthcare provider diagnoses you or your child with strep throat, which is caused by bacteria. Strep throat cannot be diagnosed by looking in the throat – a lab test must also be done. Ear Infections When an ear infection is caused by a virus, antibiotic treatment will not help it get better. Ear infections will often get better on their own without antibiotic treatment. Your healthcare provider will determine what treatment is best for you or your child. Your healthcare provider will consider several factors when determining if antibiotics are needed for you or your child: age, severity of illness, diagnostic certainty, and follow-up options. Bronchitis (chest cold) Antibiotics will rarely be needed since acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis are almost always caused by a virus and chronic bronchitis requires other therapies. If your healthcare provider diagnoses you or your child with another type of respiratory infection such as pneumonia or whooping cough, antibiotics will most likely be prescribed. Sinusitis (sinus infection) When sinusitis is caused by a virus or irritation in the air (like cigarette smoke), antibiotics will not help it get better. Acute sinusitis will almost always get better on its own. It is better to wait and take antibiotics only when they are needed. What You Can Do to Feel Better
We would also recommend eating as well as possible (mom's homemade chicken soup) and don't forget your vitamins. Find more information on appropriate antibiotic use on the CDC website. A future post will explore the CDC's report and recommendations on the use of antibiotics fed to our farm animals, which may also be contributing to antibiotic resistance: "According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, about 25 million pounds of antibiotics and related drugs are used every year in livestock for nontherapeutic purposes. The Animal Health Institute estimates that 20.2 million pounds of antibiotics were produced for use in farm and companion animals in 2003." Stay tuned... |
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October 2024
Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your treating doctor. This blog is not a doctor and will not diagnose or treat your problems.
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