BREAKING NEWS AND UPCOMING EVENTS

          Life University President, Dr. Guy Riekeman is touring the nation and looking to connect with you, your patients and prospective students. Join us on September 23, 2013 to gain insight about how to inject Life University's philosophy of vitalism into your lives and your practice. This is your chance to glimpse into the future of Chiropractic and learn about the incredibly positive impact Chiropractic can have, not only on a personal level, but also on the future of healthcare. Doctors are invited to bring their patients for a special presentation.

          For More Information or To Register and Save Seats for Your Guests for the September 23, 2013 Event, Contact: Danielle Janssen at Danielle.Janssen@LIFE.edu

or call 770.426.2675

GMO Free Arizona would like to make and your members aware of a special educational event regarding the health concerns about genetic modification of food (GMOs).

Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, is the keynote speaker October 3 at the Chaparral Suites, Scottsdale. He will be joined by a panel of Valley physicians for audience Q&A: Deborah Dykema, DO; Chris Serafini, DC; and Jack Wolfson, DO.

We are reaching out to various medical associations and schools. The event is structured with medical professionals in mind; the general public is also welcome.

For much more information and to register and obtain a ticket, people are directed to the organization's home page:

www.gmofreeaz.org

          Eat whole foods. Exercise. Meditate. Rely on supportive family and friends. All of these things have been linked, whether independently or together, with better health. And now, a new study shows it's never too late to start reaping the benefits of changing to healthy lifestyle -- and that those changes could even reverse cell aging.

          The study, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, shows that healthy lifestyle changes can have an impact on aging and age-related diseases on a cellular level, by increasing the length of telomeres. Telomeres are the "caps" that protect the ends of chromosomes, similar to how shoelaces have plastic caps to stop them from fraying.

          Shorter telomeres have been linked in previous research with cell aging and increased risks of age-related diseases like cancer and dementia, as well as premature death.

          "We know from earlier studies that eating an unhealthy diet, smoking cigarettes, being under chronic emotional stress, loneliness and depression may shorten telomeres. But this is the first one we can actually increase the length of them," study researcher Dean Ornish, M.D., told HuffPost. Ornish is the founder and president of the Preventive Medical Research Institute, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and medical editor at HuffPost. He's also conducted extensive research throughout his career evaluating the effects of lifestyle changes on  coronary heart disease. ("Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study," Dean Ornish, Jue Lin, June M Chan, Elissa Epel, Colleen Kemp, Gerdi Weidner, Ruth Marlin, Steven J Frenda, Mark Jesus M Magbanua, Jennifer Daubenmier, Ivette Estay, Nancy K Hills, Nita Chainani-Wu, Peter R Carroll, Elizabeth H Blackburn, Lancet Oncology,http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70366-8)

          Read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/healthy-lifestyle-telomeres-lengthen_n_3916235.html.

          (Editor's Note: Dr. Ornish was the first to publish peer-reviewed medical literature in 1986 proving that a plant-based diet could lead to reversal of coronary atherosclerosis and avoidance of coronary bypass surgery and angioplasty. The other researcher who has duplicated the same work and published many studies is Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. He has a webpage loaded with valuable information and a book that is easy to read for lay people complete with recipes, all found at www.heartattackproof.com. Check out these resources along with those found on the ACS website under Important Scientific and Health Studies, Reports, Books and Links which is a treasure trove of information. If you want to treat the whole person and many health conditions, these resources will show you the way.)

          The AAC recently filed a formal petition with the Arizona Legislature asking that the chiropractic scope of practice be changed to remove the prohibition that currently states chiropractors cannot prescribe drugs. The AAC wants an exception for prescription strength anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and muscle relaxants. The AAC's proposal was immediately rejected by the Legislature and so chiropractic will remain a drug-free profession in Arizona.

          ACS is concerned that the AAC made this proposal secretly. It is a proposal that affects all chiropractors in Arizona, yet there has never been any mention of it in emails to AAC members, not to mention all Arizona chiropractors. There is no mention of the prescription drug proposal anywhere on the AAC webpage. We do not believe the profession should move in the direction of prescription drugs unless there is an overwhelmingly positive consensus in favor of such a major change. From the feedback we have received, there is no such consensus.

          In the past few months, Dynamic Chiropractic has published a three part series called "The Case Against Drugs in Chiropractic." We would like a dialogue to begin about this subject and suggest you begin by reading all three articles. Then we would like you to send ACS an email expressing your views regarding whether or not the chiropractic scope of practice should be expanded granting chiropractors the right to prescribe FDA controlled prescription drugs and begin the transformation that the osteopaths made in the 1950s which ultimately led to them becoming identical to allopaths. Here are the links to the three DC articles:

http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=56609

http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=56652

           If you are in favor of drugs in chiropractic, we will expect you to rebut the arguments presented in these articles.

            Anti-inflammatory drugs, of course, slow down or halt the inflammatory process. According to RobbinsBasic Pathology

, the classic text used in medical and chiropractic schools, inflammation is "fundamentally a protective response, designed to rid the organism of both the initial cause of cell injury (e.g., microbes, toxins) and the consequences of such injury (e.g., necrotic cells and tissues). Without inflammation infections would go unchecked, wounds would never heal, and injured tissues might remain permanent festering sores." Inflammation is "essential to the survival of organisms in their ability to get rid of damaged or necrotic tissues and foreign invaders, such as microbes."

No one has explained theoretically how it makes any common sense to suppress or oppose the inflammatory process with drugs such as NSAIDs knowing that inflammation is "fundamentally a protective response . . ." Nonetheless, a few chiropractors at the AAC want DCs to get into the business of prescribing drugs to suppress the beneficial process of inflammation. This flies in the face of the entire philosophy and basis of the chiropractic profession and must be seriously questioned. Furthermore, these drugs are highly toxic. According to a study by Wolfe et al published in the New England Journal of Medicine in the 06/17/99 issue, if prescription NSAIDs were given their own category, they would be the 15^th most common cause of death in the U.S. due to GI bleeding. In 1997, prescription NSAIDs killed 16,500 people in the U.S. while AIDS killed 16,685 people. Deaths from non-prescription NSAIDs were not counted. Chiropractic, the non-drug profession, uses ice to control inflammation. No one has ever died from using ice for inflammation.

          We do condemn the AAC for operating in the dark on an issue of such monumental importance. Fortunately, we have an ace lobbyist who can keep track of what the AAC is up to at the Legislature and we will report their activities to the profession even if they want to keep them secret. We do not believe a handful of self-appointed "elite" leaders should be making policy for all Arizona chiropractors with no outside input.