Dear Steve,

DID YOU KNOW that a new study performed at the Mayo Clinic suggests that active workstations incorporating a walking pad, bike, stepper and/or standing desk are successful strategies for reducing sedentary time and improving mental cognition at work without reducing job performance?

When participants used the active workstations, their brain function either improved or stayed the same, and their typing speed slowed down only a bit. However, the accuracy of their typing was not affected. The study also revealed improved reasoning scores when standing, stepping and walking as compared with sitting.

Extended sedentary behavior, whether at work or home, increases a person's risk of preventable chronic diseases. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Steve: Epidemiologists are worried about the bird flu that is currently traveling from mammal to mammal, including a few human cases in those who were in close contact to infected animals.

Bird influenza is a virus. Like any virus you are exposed to, when the host is strong, the virus may infiltrate, but will not proliferate, and your immune system will decimate the virus.

Here's your obligatory reminder that just because warmer months are here, you still need to prime your immune system year-round with optimal diet, supplement, and lifestyle habits.

COVID

Clarity about COVID and other infectious diseases have progressed since my last infection update in December of 2023.

Long COVID continues to be a major drag on the population, with 6.4% of Americans still reporting symptoms. This makes sense considering results presented at the 2024 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections found COVID antigens in the blood for up to 14 months after infection and in tissue samples for more than 2 years after infection in long COVID patients. Moreover, long COVID has persisted for much longer in numerous cases.

Ways to prevent long COVID, lower the risk of severe infection, and more:

• A study from Nutrition Journal found that reducing inflammation is key for prevention, especially brain-related symptoms.

• A study from Nature Communications found mitochondria have newly discovered roles in protecting cells from both internal and external stresses, including strengthening the immune system. This is why malfunctioning mitochondria is a hallmark of long COVID, and why fatigue is so prevalent (mitochondria provide energy to cells).

• A study from The New England Journal of Medicine found that Paxlovid was no more effective to alleviate symptoms of COVID-19 compared with placebo among non-hospitalized adults.

• Preventing reactivation of latent viruses including Epstein-Barr and herpes is key to prevention reported multiple studies including one from JAMA.

• Optimal lifestyle including diet and stress management are essential because an NIH-funded study from Nature Cardiovascular Research and a study from Medrxiv suggest SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can directly infect the arteries of the heart and cause the fatty plaque inside arteries to become highly inflamed, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

• A JAMA study suggests preventing serotonin decline is a key to preventing long COVID.

Non-COVID Infections

Antibiotics have no measurable effect on the severity or duration of coughs due to acute lower respiratory tract infection, a large study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found. In fact, those receiving an antibiotic in the primary- and urgent-care setting had a small but significant increase in overall length of illness.

According to a study from The Lancet Infectious Diseases, long flu is a thing, even though less severe and happens less often than long COVID.

Runny noses are the hallmarks of infection, and the increase in mucus is exactly what bacteria use to mount a coordinated attack on the immune system, according to a new study from PNAS Nexus. The thicker the mucus, the better the bacteria are able to swarm. This is why using antihistamines or nasal lavages during infection can be helpful to limit the severity and duration of infection.

If you read this newsletter, you are aware of the litany of side effects that come with long-term proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use for gastrointestinal reflux (GERD). You may know these medications by the names Nexium, Omeprazole, Prevacid, Protonix, and among others.

A 65 year-old male came to see Steve because he was concerned about being on a PPI long-term.

After reviewing every aspect of his diet and lifestyle, Steve found numerous triggers that could be adjusted so his client could stop the PPI.

For example, the daily combination of coffee, cinnamon, turmeric, kombucha, apple cider vinegar, fluid cow's milk, and extreme stress made him extremely acidic.

Steve and his client agreed upon alternatives for all the food and beverage insults. Moreover, they found a stress management technique that would fit his lifestyle and that he would enjoy.

After adhering to the aforementioned for two weeks to relax his system, the client followed a 10 week weaning off the PPI medication.

After three short months, he successfully weaned off the PPI. The GERD that had plagued him for so many years now no longer exists!

Did you have a great experience working with us? Please let others know by leaving a review here.

Disclaimer: Case reports are not intended for self-healing. Case reports are for references purposes only and should be discussed with your health professional.

In “Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul” a young boy’s first asthma attack began at eighteen months old. He was immediately put on inhalers and medications yet his attacks became more severe. By age four he began receiving allergy shots and more medications. Yet the trips to the emergency room continued.

At age seven his right lung collapsed and he was given more medications. He was also told to swim to help his lungs. Though he loved it, his asthma kicked in if he swam over fifty meters. By age ten his right lung collapsed a second time. They gave him steroids and more medications but was back in the hospital not long after. This time when he left the hospital his mom brought him to her chiropractor.

With weekly care he was less dependent on his inhalers and his breathing machine. When autumn came it was the first time ever that he didn’t miss school. The same thing happened when spring time came around and by the end of summer he was swimming his best ever. He felt so good that he stopped going in for his weekly adjustments.

Within a month of not seeing the chiropractor he needed to use his inhaler more frequently and ended up back in the hospital. That relapse convinced his mother that her son needed to continue with his weekly adjustments no matter what. She saw firsthand that this natural approach gave him a better and healthier life.

Hopefully this helps you understand why it’s important for adults and children to be checked regularly for spinal subluxations. A specialty that only chiropractors' study in order to determine stress patterns in the nervous system that can lead to a multitude of symptoms. Chiropractic makes sure that nerve signals are working properly, for positive changes to occur. What health condition are you ready to let Chiropractic care help you with?

Dr. Liselotte Schuster is a Holistic Family Chiropractor and has been in practice since 1989. She tailors each visit by using a variety of techniques that she feels are most effective. She loves seeing children and adults reach their full potential, trusting in the healing powers of their body. Dr. Schuster is in the same office as Bonnie & Steve Minsky as they have been in practice together for 33 years. She can be reached at (847)509-9067 or drliloschuster@sbcglobal.net

Bonnie, Steve, Liselotte, Lori, Sharron, Cindy, Diana, Ileana, and Carolyn