Unfortunately, the freedom of having a BakeOff every week has led to what I regard as some difficulties. Readers, let me warn you right off the bat. This post is going to be an op-ed piece. In other words, it is my opinion about what took place and not representative of the groups consensus, though I know some members of the group feel like me. I thought long and hard about what to do about this morning on the blog. As most of you know, I am an allopathic MD and this view colors my vision of health care to the extreme. I decided that I could not let this presentation stand without comment. Hence this opinion piece.
First, unfortunately, with no approval process through the group as a whole, with Sharleen monitoring the calendar and Todd providing somewhat careful approval about the topics that are presented , we had two people come to the meeting prepared to give presentations that might have taken the whole hour meeting easily. Neither of these individuals had gone through our "unofficial" planning and approval process as described above. That was one of the problems but I regard it as the more minor of the two problems.
First Karen Kolberg who has presented the poetry of Hafiz to our group before has lost her job counseling substance abuse victims. She, like so many in this current economic crisis, has gone through a whirlwind of emotions related to this event. She chose to try to write herself out of this maelstrom and presented an original poem written in the rhyming fashion of Theodore Seuss Giesel (Dr. Seuss). It was humorous and well written, perhaps just a little too long, but otherwise enjoyable to hear. There could have been a discussion of the poem which would have elevated it further with the group's participation, but unfortunately because another member had brought another outside presenter we were obligated to proceed with that presentation. In fact, the slide projector was all set up for that presentation when Sky announced Karen would read her poem.
The second presenter is my second major problem with the morning. That presenter said he had about a half hour presentation about something called Maximized Living, which Dr. F****, the presenter said was a worldwide company dedicated to totally revolutionize health care and turn it toward total prevention. What followed was basically an infomercial for Dr. F**** chiropractic clinic and its merger or adoption of the Maximized Living method of health care. In fact, Dr F**** is planning an open house to introduce this new merger and was present to promote this open house.
The presentation was filled with two extremes of information. There was some information that is backed by science and evidence based practice. Everyone knows that exercise and good nutrition is basic to good health and is preventative of disease. Every chiropractor, osteopath, and MD would agree with some of these basic ideas even as presented.
I looked up Maximized Living on the Internet and found the 5 essentials that Dr. F**** talked about. Here is the website: http://www.maximizedliving.com/HealthEssentials.aspx
Number 1 is called Maximized Mind. This basically is some self counseling, trying to remove negative self fulfilling prophecies and statements about yourself and replacing them with affirmations that are more positive. I basically don't have any problem with Number 1.
Number 2 is Maximizing Nerve supply. Now here is where I start to have a problem. Basically this Essential of the 5 is the basic belief in chiropractic which you know that most MDs do not believe in. It is presented in a very nice way, stating facts that the nervous system is very important to us and we can't live even a few seconds without a nervous system. However, the nice facts that most people could agree with then lead to the necessity of spinal manipulation to realign the spine to allow the organs of the body to function. Now I have had people get benefit from chiropractic adjustment and I have even referred people to chiropractors when I have determined that there is nothing medically seriously wrong with them and I have seen them get benefits. But I have chosen my chiropractors that I refer to very carefully because I know that they can work with allopathic medicine and we can achieve a good result. My problem is with chiropractors and some of the chiropractic teachings that claim that spinal adjustment can correct a vast number of medical problems, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, when there is no evidence of this. Stating or implying to patients with these diseases that the spinal adjustment or other processes undertaken in an office chiropractic without the treatments necessary in modern traditional allopathic medicine in my mind is very dangerous And extreme chiropractors find a reason to adjust almost everyone who comes into their clinic even if just preventatively. Now I don't have factual knowledge here, but Dr. F**** made a statement during his presentation that alarmed me and makes me think this office is one of those offices where I would not send my patients. That statement that slipped out during the presentation was something to this effect: (paraphrased): "Our office doesn't just treat young athletes. We have patients of many types and ages come in and we are able to help them with adjustments. Why just recently we treated a 2 week old baby with an adjustment." Now, ask yourself what need would a 2 week old baby have of a spinal adjustment. And how would you monitor what you are accomplishing in this newborn infant? That was very scary to me.
Number 3 of the 5 essentials has to do with nutrition. Again there are some facts here. Certainly our society has erred in its dietary practices with too many carbs and the wrong kind of fats. Most MDs would agree that we would all benefit from reduced refined sugar in our diet. But I am a little afraid that this diet for weight loss may be a little too extreme. It completely eliminates any fruits because there is fructose in them. And it eliminates whole grains. Instead calories come from organic grass fed meats, and fats including coconut oil and butter which we MDs believe is not good. It might be that weight loss is achieved by reducing carbohydrates much like the Atkins diet does. In a very low carbohydrate diet, the body breaks down fat and muscle for fuel and ketones are produced. When these reach a high level in the blood, they trigger anorexia (poor appetite) and even a little nausea. The Atkins diet even advises participants to test their urine for ketones to confirm that they are in that range where their appetite will be suppressed. This is basically how weight loss occurs. Perhaps that is what this weight loss diet is trying to achieve. However, the Atkins diet maintains this ketotic diet only for a set amount of time, I believe at the most 3 months. Then it is modified because the human body is not intended to be ketotic, (acidotic) permanently. There is no discussion on the website for the length of time that this restrictive diet would be followed. However, then on the website is the sales portion and I note that there are at least two products that Maximized Living wants to sell you -- one is a protein made from whey (a biproduct of milk) and the second are Omega fatty acids with what they say is a proper balance of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acids (4:1). I am not aware of any benefits to health or weight loss from these products and it always makes me a little suspicious when these are being sold on the side.
Number 4 in the essentials is :Maximized oxygen and lean muscle. This is the program's attempt to promote exercise. Now no one could disagree with that, right? There are many factual statements in this section of the website. There seems to be an underpinning of science here. The different types of muscle fibers are discussed and there is an emphasis on trying to stimulate the growth of the quick twitch muscle fibers not the endurance muscle fibers. To attract people to this exercise program it states that goals of exercise can be reached by only 12 minutes of exercise per day. Now that doesn't sound like very much time, does it? Indeed as stated in this company's literature, the body does not care how long you exercise. You can gain the same benefit by exercising intensely for 15 minutes as you can by slow walking for an hour. So to get your exercise needs in 12 minutes you can imagine that this will be very intense exercise. Indeed, this program promotes exercise at 100% maximum heart rate for those 12 minutes. Now I know that even the astronauts are carefully monitored and advised to slow down and rest if their heart rate continues at 100% maximum for a period of time, and they are all in very good athletic shape. One member of the audience asked: "You are talking about a young healthy individual, right? What about an elderly person or someone with a heart condition?"
"Oh," said Dr. F****, "on the contrary. We use this protocol even for the elderly and those with heart problems. Oh, we would monitor them a little bit at first."
Again, the extremes in these between the lines statements are what frightens this modern traditional allopathic doctor.
Number 5 essential: Detoxify. This one really goes off the deep end. Some statements in the website are certainly true. Our world does contain many toxins, the weed killers on our lawn, some chemicals that we use to clean our homes, etc. And some of us still smoke, and no doubt we have air pollution. But lumped in with these toxins are medications, medications that your doctor has prescribed. There is no statement that these medications might be necessary and that you should check with your doctor before stopping them. Even a statement slips in that (paraphrased) "Exercise has been shown to be as effective in treating depression as antidepressant medications." Then comes the sales pitch. Under this essential, you are encouraged to eliminate the meds you take, eat organically (fine) and avoid outdoor and indoor chemicals AND you must buy two products sold by Maximized Living and put them into your body. One is glutathione which is fairly harmless since it is an amino acid. But this ad claims that it will eliminate toxins from your body. I don't know the proof for that and would be interested in it. The second product is some unknown concoction that is claimed to detoxify your body, and help your own body functions to get rid of bad things you have ingested. It doesn't explain what this is and how it works. "So folks, don't trust your MD's medications, stop them and purchase our unknown product and take it into your body." Does this sound strange at all?
Well, I feel better. In some ways I am sorry to subject the readers to this controversy. But I felt the need to counter this infomercial that we were subjected to. Again chiropractic has its place and can benefit people, but only when it works with allopathic medicine. This infomercial contained statements that were alarming to me and that implied this program will not work well with allopathy and may do harm. I think if we had known what this presentation was before hand the group would not have chosen to entertain it. I would welcome any comments that you might have about this post.
First, unfortunately, with no approval process through the group as a whole, with Sharleen monitoring the calendar and Todd providing somewhat careful approval about the topics that are presented , we had two people come to the meeting prepared to give presentations that might have taken the whole hour meeting easily. Neither of these individuals had gone through our "unofficial" planning and approval process as described above. That was one of the problems but I regard it as the more minor of the two problems.
First Karen Kolberg who has presented the poetry of Hafiz to our group before has lost her job counseling substance abuse victims. She, like so many in this current economic crisis, has gone through a whirlwind of emotions related to this event. She chose to try to write herself out of this maelstrom and presented an original poem written in the rhyming fashion of Theodore Seuss Giesel (Dr. Seuss). It was humorous and well written, perhaps just a little too long, but otherwise enjoyable to hear. There could have been a discussion of the poem which would have elevated it further with the group's participation, but unfortunately because another member had brought another outside presenter we were obligated to proceed with that presentation. In fact, the slide projector was all set up for that presentation when Sky announced Karen would read her poem.
The second presenter is my second major problem with the morning. That presenter said he had about a half hour presentation about something called Maximized Living, which Dr. F****, the presenter said was a worldwide company dedicated to totally revolutionize health care and turn it toward total prevention. What followed was basically an infomercial for Dr. F**** chiropractic clinic and its merger or adoption of the Maximized Living method of health care. In fact, Dr F**** is planning an open house to introduce this new merger and was present to promote this open house.
The presentation was filled with two extremes of information. There was some information that is backed by science and evidence based practice. Everyone knows that exercise and good nutrition is basic to good health and is preventative of disease. Every chiropractor, osteopath, and MD would agree with some of these basic ideas even as presented.
I looked up Maximized Living on the Internet and found the 5 essentials that Dr. F**** talked about. Here is the website: http://www.maximizedliving.com/HealthEssentials.aspx
Number 1 is called Maximized Mind. This basically is some self counseling, trying to remove negative self fulfilling prophecies and statements about yourself and replacing them with affirmations that are more positive. I basically don't have any problem with Number 1.
Number 2 is Maximizing Nerve supply. Now here is where I start to have a problem. Basically this Essential of the 5 is the basic belief in chiropractic which you know that most MDs do not believe in. It is presented in a very nice way, stating facts that the nervous system is very important to us and we can't live even a few seconds without a nervous system. However, the nice facts that most people could agree with then lead to the necessity of spinal manipulation to realign the spine to allow the organs of the body to function. Now I have had people get benefit from chiropractic adjustment and I have even referred people to chiropractors when I have determined that there is nothing medically seriously wrong with them and I have seen them get benefits. But I have chosen my chiropractors that I refer to very carefully because I know that they can work with allopathic medicine and we can achieve a good result. My problem is with chiropractors and some of the chiropractic teachings that claim that spinal adjustment can correct a vast number of medical problems, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, when there is no evidence of this. Stating or implying to patients with these diseases that the spinal adjustment or other processes undertaken in an office chiropractic without the treatments necessary in modern traditional allopathic medicine in my mind is very dangerous And extreme chiropractors find a reason to adjust almost everyone who comes into their clinic even if just preventatively. Now I don't have factual knowledge here, but Dr. F**** made a statement during his presentation that alarmed me and makes me think this office is one of those offices where I would not send my patients. That statement that slipped out during the presentation was something to this effect: (paraphrased): "Our office doesn't just treat young athletes. We have patients of many types and ages come in and we are able to help them with adjustments. Why just recently we treated a 2 week old baby with an adjustment." Now, ask yourself what need would a 2 week old baby have of a spinal adjustment. And how would you monitor what you are accomplishing in this newborn infant? That was very scary to me.
Number 3 of the 5 essentials has to do with nutrition. Again there are some facts here. Certainly our society has erred in its dietary practices with too many carbs and the wrong kind of fats. Most MDs would agree that we would all benefit from reduced refined sugar in our diet. But I am a little afraid that this diet for weight loss may be a little too extreme. It completely eliminates any fruits because there is fructose in them. And it eliminates whole grains. Instead calories come from organic grass fed meats, and fats including coconut oil and butter which we MDs believe is not good. It might be that weight loss is achieved by reducing carbohydrates much like the Atkins diet does. In a very low carbohydrate diet, the body breaks down fat and muscle for fuel and ketones are produced. When these reach a high level in the blood, they trigger anorexia (poor appetite) and even a little nausea. The Atkins diet even advises participants to test their urine for ketones to confirm that they are in that range where their appetite will be suppressed. This is basically how weight loss occurs. Perhaps that is what this weight loss diet is trying to achieve. However, the Atkins diet maintains this ketotic diet only for a set amount of time, I believe at the most 3 months. Then it is modified because the human body is not intended to be ketotic, (acidotic) permanently. There is no discussion on the website for the length of time that this restrictive diet would be followed. However, then on the website is the sales portion and I note that there are at least two products that Maximized Living wants to sell you -- one is a protein made from whey (a biproduct of milk) and the second are Omega fatty acids with what they say is a proper balance of Omega 6 fatty acids to Omega 3 fatty acids (4:1). I am not aware of any benefits to health or weight loss from these products and it always makes me a little suspicious when these are being sold on the side.
Number 4 in the essentials is :Maximized oxygen and lean muscle. This is the program's attempt to promote exercise. Now no one could disagree with that, right? There are many factual statements in this section of the website. There seems to be an underpinning of science here. The different types of muscle fibers are discussed and there is an emphasis on trying to stimulate the growth of the quick twitch muscle fibers not the endurance muscle fibers. To attract people to this exercise program it states that goals of exercise can be reached by only 12 minutes of exercise per day. Now that doesn't sound like very much time, does it? Indeed as stated in this company's literature, the body does not care how long you exercise. You can gain the same benefit by exercising intensely for 15 minutes as you can by slow walking for an hour. So to get your exercise needs in 12 minutes you can imagine that this will be very intense exercise. Indeed, this program promotes exercise at 100% maximum heart rate for those 12 minutes. Now I know that even the astronauts are carefully monitored and advised to slow down and rest if their heart rate continues at 100% maximum for a period of time, and they are all in very good athletic shape. One member of the audience asked: "You are talking about a young healthy individual, right? What about an elderly person or someone with a heart condition?"
"Oh," said Dr. F****, "on the contrary. We use this protocol even for the elderly and those with heart problems. Oh, we would monitor them a little bit at first."
Again, the extremes in these between the lines statements are what frightens this modern traditional allopathic doctor.
Number 5 essential: Detoxify. This one really goes off the deep end. Some statements in the website are certainly true. Our world does contain many toxins, the weed killers on our lawn, some chemicals that we use to clean our homes, etc. And some of us still smoke, and no doubt we have air pollution. But lumped in with these toxins are medications, medications that your doctor has prescribed. There is no statement that these medications might be necessary and that you should check with your doctor before stopping them. Even a statement slips in that (paraphrased) "Exercise has been shown to be as effective in treating depression as antidepressant medications." Then comes the sales pitch. Under this essential, you are encouraged to eliminate the meds you take, eat organically (fine) and avoid outdoor and indoor chemicals AND you must buy two products sold by Maximized Living and put them into your body. One is glutathione which is fairly harmless since it is an amino acid. But this ad claims that it will eliminate toxins from your body. I don't know the proof for that and would be interested in it. The second product is some unknown concoction that is claimed to detoxify your body, and help your own body functions to get rid of bad things you have ingested. It doesn't explain what this is and how it works. "So folks, don't trust your MD's medications, stop them and purchase our unknown product and take it into your body." Does this sound strange at all?
Well, I feel better. In some ways I am sorry to subject the readers to this controversy. But I felt the need to counter this infomercial that we were subjected to. Again chiropractic has its place and can benefit people, but only when it works with allopathic medicine. This infomercial contained statements that were alarming to me and that implied this program will not work well with allopathy and may do harm. I think if we had known what this presentation was before hand the group would not have chosen to entertain it. I would welcome any comments that you might have about this post.
2 comments:
Thank you Ann. I think this blog is a good opportunity to continue a discussion that is worth continuing.
Two discussion points:
1. I want to clarify one point, that Karen Kolberg intended to present her writing as part of the Bake off, not a whole presentation. Therefore, her friend and one of our regular attendees, Sky, checked with me to make sure that the week was a bake off and not a presentation. I said yes, it was a bake off, so she could share her writing as a bake off item. However, I realize now that if non regular attendees are making a special effort to attend and present something at a Bake-off, we should e-mail everyone.
2. I also am having a hard time with the presentation by the chiropractor and am letting the ideas sit for a while. I appreciate the idea of the five essentials, and to focus on foods with a low glycemic index. I am also concerned about the big focus on spinal adjustments and the 12 minute intense exercise in the "Maximized Living" Model.
Thank you for your clarification. I didn't have a problem with Karen Kolberg's presentation. It was the chiropratic presentation that I had a problem with. But I do now since this has happened that it would be a good idea to do as you suggest in Number 1 above. Thank you for your organization skills for our group.
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