The Truth About Taking Vitamins

Although countless research articles have been published and nearly everyone has consumed vitamin products at some point during their lives, there are still quite a few misconceptions regarding vitamins, particularly vitamins in supplemental form. Here are a few of the common myths and truths about vitamins so you can make more informed decisions when it comes to your health.

Myth: The more vitamins you take, the healthier you’ll be.

Truth: We’ve been convinced, primarily through media-fostered misinformation, that mega-doses of vitamins are necessary for health. However, research has shown just the opposite is true. Since most supplements are colloidal (large molecule), synthetic, and contain inorganic elements, binders and fillers, most of the health benefits are lost or cannot be utilized properly.

Myth: If you take a daily multivitamin, you don’t need to worry about what you eat.

Truth: Vitamins cannot function without the energy generated from complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and lean sources of protein. Therefore, it is important to consume a variety of foods that supply energy and vitamins naturally. If deficiencies exist, additional supplements in the right form and combination can compensate for these deficiencies.

Myth: If you take vitamins regularly, you don’t need to exercise.

This is an excerpt from my monthly free newsletter which you can register for at the “Free Newsletter” link at www.DrSaracino.com.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

It’s a well-known saying that may actually be true, according to a number of studies. Evidence suggests laughter is a true health promoter, helping cut stress, boost your heart rate, increase circulation, and even burn calories. For example, laughter helps combat stress, which is well-known to decrease immune-system response. Less stress means a better immune system, making your body less prone to infection and disease. Reducing stress levels also makes it easier to fall asleep, and as has been discussed in this publication on several occasions, poor and/or inadequate sleep can give to a whole host of negative health consequences. But how could laughter possibly burn calories? It’s actually a simple concept, if you think about it: When you laugh, your body moves in various ways; muscles throughout the body stretch and, depending on the strength of the laugh, your abdomen and other areas of the body may even contract repeatedly. That’s a workout and a laugh all in one! It all boils down to finding ways to relax, reduce your stress levels, and enjoy life – a great recipe for a healthy, happy life for you and your whole family.

This is a recent excerpt from my monthly emailed newsletter To Your Health.  Sign up at:  http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-free-newsletter.html . I look forward to hearing your comments.

A Natural Defense for Sinusitis and Flu

Chiropractic manipulations have helped prevent or reduce the duration of common colds by bolstering the immune system with an increase in immunoglobulin A levels and a decrease in the levels of glucocorticoid cortisol, a major component of stress. Chiropractic may affect the common cold through stress reduction.
Suggested therapy for such cold and flu-like symptoms as dripping sinuses, scratchy throat, cold and fatigued feelings: take two tablets each twice a day 500milligrams time released vitamin C, 30,000 international units vitamin A, 30milligrams zinc di-picolinate, 60milligrams grape seed extract, one dropper liquid Echinacea and Goldenseal. Spray sinuses with .1% grapefruit extract and drink many more fluids than usual.

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com:

http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

About www.AccuWeather.com’s Arthritis Index

I recommend everyone with joint pain view daily www.AccuWeather.com’s Arthritis Index to determine if one’s condition is effected by the indicators listed below.  To help remember one’s reactions to weather, create a Pain Log.  Keep it where you go every day, such as near where you take your shoes off at night, so it is easy to remember and record the day’s joint pain.  Present it to me in the office (610 337 3335) after a few months for guidance.

 

The fact that weather has an effect on how arthritis is felt by its sufferers is well documented, with surveys showing as many as 93% of arthritis sufferers believing that weather affects their pain level, and 68% believing that weather severely affects their pain level. Patients with arthritis often claim they can predict the weather, based upon their pain level, and a number of studies have been conducted to test this hypothesis. While these studies show that the effects of weather can vary from person to person, many show that arthritis pain is increased by a variety of weather factors, which may swell inflamed arthritic joints, stretching the inflamed joint lining and capsule, thereby increasing the pain of arthritis.

Among the types of weather that may increase joint sensitivity and arthritic pain are:
1. Changes in atmospheric pressure, especially falling pressure
2. Changes in temperature, especially lowering temperature
3. High or increasing relative or absolute humidity
4. Relatively low atmospheric pressure
5. Low temperatures
6. Precipitation

Arthritic pain can be especially severe when these conditions are combined, such as during chilly, damp weather when pressure is low and falling.

AccuWeather has developed an index that combines all of the weather factors that may affect arthritis sufferers, and summarizes the most likely severity of weather-related arthritis pain in one easy-to-understand scale, from Low to Extreme for each of several days, so arthritis sufferers can have advanced notice of when they are most likely to have increased pain, allowing them to take appropriate medication and to better plan activities.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

With Health,

Dr. Saracino

Muscle & Fitness Magazine Article: The Squat Exercise

The benefits of the squat exercise (deep knee bends with weights) are so great, it should be performed consistently for the rest of our lives! Just think of how many stairs we climb, get out of bed and walk.  Squats utilize more muscle groups and weight-bearing joints than any other exercise. Doing squats not only adds tremendous strength to the quadriceps and gluteal muscles but adds stability to the knees and ankles and helps prevents low back pain. Whether you are a professional athlete, fitness enthusiast or in exercise rehabilitation, you can benefit from squats.

Read the full-length article by clicking its thumb nail on the home page of www.DrSaracino.com

More on Chiropractic’s Effectiveness for Headaches

…Boline (3) compared the effectiveness of chiropractic manipulation and amitriptyline for chronic tension-type headache. One hundred fifty patients were divided into two groups. One group received spinal manipulative therapy by chiropractic physicians and the other group received amitriptyline medication by a medical physician. Both groups were treated for six weeks. During the treatment period, both groups improved at similar rates in all primary outcomes. In relation to baseline values four weeks after cessation of treatment, the spinal manipulation group showed a reduction of 32 percent in headache intensity, 42 percent in headache frequency, 30 percent in over-the-counter medication usage and a 16 percent improvement in functional health status. By comparison, the amitriptyline group showed no improvement or a slight worsening from baseline values in the same four outcome measures. In addition, the study reported amitriptyline patients (82 percent) reported more side effects including drowsiness, dry mouth and weight gain compared to patients receiving chiropractic care (4.3 percent experienced.

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com:

http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

More on Eye Strain and the Common Headache

…also, an effective and safe remedy can be found in applying cold gel packs to the forehead and back of neck in three repetitions- one minute on and one minute off. Too often we abuse our eyes with poor light. The amount of light on the reading surface should be the same as that which is in the room! This means that the room lights should be turned on, not off, when we watch TV, read or work on the computer. Reading can be just as irritating if the material is too close or too far away. The center of the computer monitor should be at eye-level as one peers horizontally not with the head facing downward, as is often the case. The late Dr. Joseph Janse, a leader in chiropractic research, founder of the Council on Chiropractic Education and past president of my alma mater, was instrumental in correlating eyestrain to headache.

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com: http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Roger Rabbit Medical Mishaps

Minutes hang like hours in a doctor’s waiting room. Worse yet is when our anticipation is met with a hurried exam. Isn’t it frustrating to leave with important questions unanswered?
Walt Disney productions created a parody on medical care titled “Tummy Trouble”. It featured Roger Rabbit who was boosted to stardom in the movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” An infant whom roger is babysitting accidentally swallows one of his rattles. The child is taken to the hospital, but Roger is misdiagnosed as having ‘tummy trouble’! The abandoned baby roams the hallways while Roger is rushed to surgery. Roger’s operation is halted by the lunch whistle, but he is not out of danger because the infant crawls into the operating room and unwittingly activates an atom smasher! Roger saves himself and the infant by eluding the deadly ray and surviving other life threatening incidences. No doubt, the cartoon addresses some of the shortcomings of today’s health care system.

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com:

http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Performing Arts Experiences

Practicing next to a dinner theater for eighteen years has allowed me to develop skills in treating performing artists and their specific injuries, i.e., singers’ jaws, necks and throats, dancers’ backs and legs, etc.
Among many other experiences, I have been invited to speak and advise dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the cast of the 1996-97 New York musical Victor Victoria. I toured Europe in 1991 with the David Parsons Dance Company, a modern dance ensemble that appears biannually at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. These outside-of-the-office performing arts highlights have been most rewarding. Not only have these activities gotten me involved with some of the most talented and appreciative people, but they have allowed me to give back to a community which has so generously given to me. All of the performing and fine arts in America struggle to survive because they compete with television, movies, sports and popular music.

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com:

http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Dr. Saracino’s Path to Chiropractic Neurology and the Performing Arts

 (In September 2008 the American Chiropractic Association interviewed Dr. Saracino and published a shorter version (seen at the “Doctor’s Media” navigational link) in the Journal of the ACA.

 Chiropractic Neurologist relies on education and professionalism.   A curiosity about nutrition as a youngster and sports participation as a teen put Mark Saracino, DC, DACAN of King of Prussia, Pa., on the path to becoming a chiropractic neurologist. As a child, he noticed the difference that eating healthy food, back-rub exchanges with an older brother and regular sports activities made in the way he felt. This influenced his use of massage and exercise therapies in practice. Before pursuing machine technology and the beginnings of mechanical engineering he discovered the benefits of taking large dosages of vitamin C to treat and prevent colds.    

Read more about this topic at www.DrSaracino.com:

http://www.drsaracino.com/chiropractic-neurology-health-articles.html

I look forward to hearing from you soon.