Recently, there has been an obvious shift in how we view health care. A few decades ago, there was just a blanket acceptance that drugs and surgery would solve all our health problems. Through numerous surveys and studies in the last ten years, a growing percentage of the population is leaning toward more natural forms of health care, rather than having to deal with a life of drugs and surgery.

Prescription Drugs and Prevention

In 1990, Harvard Medical School calculated that there were 388 million visits to medical doctors and 426 million visits to natural health practitioners in the United States. In 1997 they calculated 386 million visits to medical doctors and 686 million visits to natural health practitioners. The obvious trend is that people are looking for more natural approaches than medicine.

There is widespread acknowledgment that there are more adverse effects from drugs than ever before, and it scares people. Through research, we now know that the fourth leading cause of death in our society is prescription medication. Some newer research argues that it is actually number three. In the US, researchers maintain that the number of deaths as a direct result of medication is over 40,000 people a year.

Crisis Care System

Every day I see people who either don’t want to begin a drug regime, or who realize it is in their best interest to change their health in a natural way. When they stop taking the drugs they have been on for a long period of time, many of the side affects that have been plaguing them are alleviated.

In our health care system, medicine shines because of a crisis care mentality. Our doctors are the best at saving lives for those who have severe health crises. Advancements in health care, as a result of the billions of dollars spent on research, have shown that medicine is great for crises situations, however not very effective for long-term health.

From Drugs to Chiropractic

Chiropractic is the leading natural health care profession worldwide, educating people on how to have a natural and healthy existence from the moment of birth to the day they leave this world. The more we use natural approaches to build the strength of our bodies, the less we will find ourselves in crisis care situations.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder affecting the central nerve system. A person with Parkinson’s disease may develop muscular rigidity, tremors, and altered speech patterns. The person may also have problems using language and lose higher cognitive functions. PD may cause a person to move very slowly (bradykinesia) and may cause loss of balance. The disease is progressive and chronic. PD is not fatal, but eventually severe muscular problems may cause pneumonia, choking, and falls which may result in death. PD affects approximately 150 out of every 100,000 Caucasian individuals, and is slightly less prevalent among African-Americans.

Parkinson’s disease is caused by decreased activity of dopamine (DA)-secreting nerve cells located in the substantia nigra (”black substance”) of the brain. DA is a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of muscular activity as well as various neuropsychiatric functions including cognition and behavior. A common medical treatment for PD is L-Dopa which is converted into DA by dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Administration of L-Dopa attempts to replace the body’s supply of DA. The drug is not an optimal therapy - only a small percentage is converted to DA and the drug causes many side-effects.

PD is an ideal candidate for stem cell treatment. Brilliant research by Wernig et al.¹ (conducted in the Jaenisch laboratory at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research) demonstrated successful treatment of PD in adult rats using neurons derived from stem cells. These authors derived iPS cells by reprogramming rat connective tissue cells. The stem cells were then transformed into neuronal cell types and transplanted into the brains of adult rat models of PD. The nerve cells were successfully transplanted and led to functional recovery in eight of nine rats. Importantly, no cancers that might have been caused by the transplants were detected up to eight weeks following transplantation.

An additional remarkable study was reported recently by Zhou et al.² at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Using an in vivo approach in adult mice, this team directly converted mouse pancreatic exocrine cells into pancreatic endocrine β-cells. The team used an adenovirus to transfect the exocrine cells with a specific combination of transcription factors, effectively reprogramming the exocrine cells into endocrine β-cells. This stunning breakthrough demonstrates that it is possible in certain circumstances to avoid the necessity of reprogramming a cell to an embryonic pluripotent state. Zhou et al showed that transdifferentiation is possible by using a cocktail of lineage-specific transcription factors.

Much work is needed to be done, of course. Yet the work of both these research teams points to exciting new possibilities for treatment of these devastating diseases.

The field of regenerative medicine is progressing at an astonishing rate. Hallowed concepts of embryology and development are being revised, practically on-the-fly, yearly if not monthly. We are living in very exciting times.

1 Wernig M, et al: Neurons derived from reprogrammed fibroblasts functionally integrate into the fetal brain and improve symptoms of rats with Parkinson’s disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(15):5856-5861, 2008

2 Zhou Q, et al: In vivo reprogramming of adult pancreatic exocrine cells to beta-cells. Nature 455(7213):627-632, 2008

Hazardous Drug Exposure can lead to health problems having short to long term impact on all the people involved with the handling of medicines containing toxic agents. Though it is important to heal the diseased patients, it is equally essential to protect the health care workers. The toxic agents contained in the drugs can cause devastating effects like skin problems, birth defects, infertility, leukemia and respiratory problems. Therefore while preparing and administering medications to patients, special care should be taken to prevent the health care personnel from being exposed to harmful medicines.

All preparation, manufacturing and mixing of medication should be done in Biological Safety cabinets in area designated for such processes. The Biological safety cabinet is designed to protect the sterile medicine products from contamination and also moves the airflow in the medicine preparation away from the worker and avoids the workers from being exposed to harmful medicines. While handling the medications, the workers must wear protective caps, gowns, gloves and masks to avoid inhalation, absorption and ingestion of chemical aerosols, vapors, powders and droplets that can be leaked or spilled in the process.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Administration has prescribed guidelines for the safe handling of harmful medicines and other toxic chemicals. These guidelines indicate the various routes through which hazardous drug exposure is possible. It also advocates the methods to reduce such exposure. One of the methods suggested is the use of closed system transfer which ensures safe, enclosed transfer and minimizes exposure. The syringes, infusion sets, IV sets and other medicine delivery systems used in administering and transferring medicines should be fitted with Luer locks to avoid drips, leaks and contamination.

Many devices, machines and equipments have been devised to check hazardous drug exposure. However, traces of contamination have been found in the urine of nurses and health workers employed in hospitals. This is due to lack of adherence to safety measures and lack of seriousness among these health care personnel. This can be overcome by training and implementing policies.