Pictures of more product labels

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that Clarcon Biological Chemistry Laboratory Inc. of Roy, Utah, is voluntarily recalling some skin sanitizers and skin protectants marketed under several different brand names because of high levels of disease-causing bacteria found in the product during a recent inspection. The FDA is warning consumers to not use any Clarcon products.

Consumers should not use any Clarcon products and should throw these products away in household refuse. Analyses of several samples of over-the-counter topical antimicrobial skin sanitizer and skin protectant products revealed high levels of various bacteria, including some associated with unsanitary conditions. Some of these bacteria can cause opportunistic infections of the skin and underlying tissues.  Such infections may need medical or surgical attention, and may result in permanent damage. Examples of products that should be discarded include:

–Citrushield Lotion

–Dermasentials DermaBarrier

–Dermassentials by Clarcon Antimicrobial Hand Sanitizer

–Iron Fist Barrier Hand Treatment

–Skin Shield Restaurant

–Skin Shield Industrial

–Skin Shield Beauty Salon Lotion

–Total Skin Care Beauty

–Total Skin Care Work

Findings from the FDA’s recent inspection of the Clarcon facility are particularly concerning because the products are promoted as antimicrobial agents that claim to treat open wounds, damaged skin, and protect against various infectious diseases.  The inspection uncovered serious deviations from FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements.

Health care professionals and consumers may report serious adverse events (side effects) or product quality problems with the use of this product to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program either online, by regular mail, fax or phone.

–Online
–Regular Mail: use postage-paid FDA form 3500 and mail to MedWatch, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852-9787
–Fax: 800-FDA-0178
–Phone: 800-FDA-108

Pictures of more product labels

Most people that walk through our front doors get some help or relief, but not everyone. Sometimes there is too much deterioration and the body is too weak to get better.  Working with the body is very inexact, but there are a few rules that do apply.

#1 The body will do the best it can with what it has.

Hummm, sounds like a good rule for life in general. If your day was tough, check this video out. If you get hurt and your diet isn’t filled with good clean vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats your body will still try and repair itself but in a weaker way because it doesn’t have enough building material.

I hate to say it, but this lady that I let go this morning eats out every day for lunch. Mass produced food it the lowest grade food on the market. It is stripped down in nutrition for storage and transportation. The human body is incredibly adaptable and can survive a long time eating out but it does progressively get weaker.

Injuries can take longer to heal, colds come on faster and stay longer, degenerative diseases, like arthritis appear and cause problems and the list can keep going.

#2 The longer you wait to get help, the more chronic a problem becomes.

Let’s say you get hurt. A little pain, nothing to bad. The body will adapt and “do the best it can” Pain goes away, cool. After a few more injuries the body will run out of the ability to adapt and the lingers a little longer, not cool. This is where we see 90% of our patients.

Most people who come in get some relief in a few weeks or even a few months. They may need to get a tune up every so often, but they live happy well adjusted lives. I’ve gotten adjusted every week for the last 15 years because I feel so much better afterwards.

The most dangerous words

“I thought it would go away”

If pains are lingering and not going away, the red flags should be going up. The longer you let problems exist, the more chronic they become. The more chronic, the more difficult they are to treat and the longer it takes. This lady was 85 years old and had never been to a chiropractor. Sometimes miracles happen, but we can’t count on them.

I remember the first time I had to tell a patient “I don’t think I can help you” She was 90 and her spine was literally falling apart. Since she didn’t have any other options, the medics had done all they could with her, I agreed to at least try. She was ready for anything, and she was willing to do anything to get some relief. She got her relief and with an adjustment every week and lived pain-free almost until she died. To her kids that meant a lot that she wasn’t in pain.

#3 Attitude means everything.

I have met some real sourpuss’s in my life and they rarely if ever get better, because they always need something to complain about. Watch the video at the top again. They say if we all had our problems represented by playing cards and we all showed our hands at the end of the game. Most of us would keep the cards we were dealt, rather than take someone elses.

If a happy positive attitude is not yours by nature, never fear it can be learned. You don’t need some magic happy pill. This is just a reframing of lifes experiences and how you percieve them and starting your day with good habits and filling it with good activities and good people.

Count your blessings.

I know this or that bad thing happened to you and there was nothing good about it. BULL, every dark cloud has a white lining and the sun shining behind it. A positive attitude in life can see the sun through the cloud. It may take you YEARS to see the sun, but every dark cloud that has rained on me has been somekind of blessing. I’ve had to get some big umbrellas, but the more I look at something bad as having a positive side the better I get at it.

Start your day with a smile on your face and looking forward to doing something you love that day. If that seems impossible then start looking for the answers to why you can’t do that. Maybe you need a new job, a new friend, a new counselor, a new menu, a new house, a new book to read. If you are crabby in the morning start looking for ways to fix it. Your body will thanks you.

Misery love company.

People don’t go to bars at 3:00 in the afternoon to talk about how great life is.
Like attracts like.
Fill your life with good people, and that may be tough, but it is critical for a good day and a healthy body. That may mean a new church, new friends, or even a new spouse. That may be dramatic but I have seen the healthy benefits in patients who needed to make the tough changes.

In summary, if you eat some good wholesome food, don’t wait for problems to become chronic, and have a good attitude about health and feeling good there is no stopping you from feeling good and being healthier.

Health is a daily activity. You can’t wait until your 80 to start thinking about being healthy.

Enjoy the day. If this helped you, send it on to people you care about.

Dr. Altman

P.S. Watch your email. I have a special project coming this week. This is unlike anything I have done before. I know you are going to love it.

Just vote below or fill in a new topic.

I used to think Valentine’s Day was one of the dumbest holidays.  It was probably because I was single.  I thought it was a made-up holiday to sell cards, chocolate and roses at triple the price.  Now, it is my favorite holiday for all the reasons below that remind me to be a better spouse.

So I checked the History Channel for some background info.  According to them:

The truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It’s no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)  Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.  The men must pick up most of the roses and chocolates.
The first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine.  the first cards were elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap”.  I knew it!  She was a scrapbooker.

Now, it is a day to remember and appreciate your loved ones. 

If you have a significant other this is a wonderful time to reconnect, or ramp up your relationship.  After 12 years of marriage I know life rises and falls with my relationship.  I think a marriage is constant work.  You can never work on it too much.

Blink for your marriage

One of the most interesting  books I have read in a while was Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink”.  It isn’t a marriage specific book, but a great book on psychology.  One of the more profound things I learned was from a guy who could detect with almost 90% accuracy if a couple would get divorced.  They studied tapes and tapes of couple arguing and it boiled down to one thing.  This is the most destructive behavior in a relationship.

People get divorced for many reasons but this one thing may help you strengthen any relationship you have by recognizing it and not letting it creep in.  Want to know?

It was contempt…huh!  That’s what I thought too.  I think it is tough to describe.

Contempt \Con*tempt”\
1. The act of contemning or despising; the feeling with which one regards that which is esteemed mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn.
2. The state of being despised; disgrace; shame.
The contempt and anger of his lip. –Shak.
3. An act or expression denoting contempt.

Little insults and contempts. –Spectator.

So, what is contempt?

Contempt is any verbal or nonverbal behavior that puts oneself on a higher plane than one’s partner. It can take the tone of actual comments, or the contempt may be expressed more clearly thorough the tone of voice or facial expression. Mocking each other, using sarcasm, and throwing out put downs are all examples. They are hurtful, disrespectful, and insulting comments, but often they are cloaked in subtlety or even disguised in “humor”. There is even a universal facial expression associated with contempt- a muscle in the side of the face pulls the lip over to the side and creates a dimple, then the person often rolls the eyes and looks upward, as if pleading to God to stop the insanity.

Examples:

Person 1: I’m lost- I just can’t seem to figure it out.

Contempt: Of course you can’t. You and your whole family couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper sack.

Person 1: Is dinner ready?

Contempt: Is eating all you ever think about anyway?

Person 1: I enjoyed your presentation today.

Contempt: Really? That’s surprising, I didn’t think you’d get the importance.

Action Step: Contempt has NO place in loving partnership. Be on the lookout and ban it from your behavior. There is never an excuse.

Marriage or any close relationships are work and here are a few things that you might enjoy and actions you can start Valentines day.
#1 Fireproof your marriage.  If you haven’t seen the movie “Fireproof”, you should.  What it lacks in Hollywood talent and writing, it makes up for in message and inspiration on relationships that doesn’t come from Hollywood.  I’m very much an action movie guy, but when it comes to my spouse I prefer something we can both enjoy.   It is one of the best movies on marriage I’ve seen.

#2 On that theme, I bought the book “The Love Dare” last night at Target.  It would make a fabulous Valentines day present, if you are serious about making a better life with your spouse, it may be a wonderful thing to start on V’day.  Too bad I spilled the beans here, my wife will read this.  I’ll have to get something else for her.  If you see the movie, email me your review or any other comments about marriage and I have an extra book to give away for the person I think needs it the most.  You can email, facebook (Dave Altman), or twitter me.

#3 My wife and I were in a marriage group and we went through some “get to know your spouse questions”  every month and it was good to have a frame work for conversation.  You may think you know someone, but you might be surprised and amused.  If you want the full 1000 questions, you can get them here…The romantic questions.

Spend Valentine’s day getting to know your significant other a little better.  These would also be especially fabulous questions for anyone who wants to get married.
I’ll give you a few samples from the catagories.

1.  What feeling do you have the most difficulty expressing?

2.  Men, what do you think is the best thing about being a guy? Women, what do you think is the best thing about being a female?

3.  If you could live one year of your life all over again without changing a thing, what year would you choose? Why?

4.  Should your sweetheart love you just the way you are, or would you be willing to make some changes (the way you dress, shaving, new hairstyle, etc) to become more attractive to him or her?

5.  Would you rather take a one-week $5000 vacation or would you rather go on three different one-week vacations that cost $1700 each?

6.  Do you enjoy going on long road trips as the driver? As the passenger?

7.  What are three goals you have for this year?

8.  If you could build a vacation home anywhere in the world, where would you build it?

I believe a lot fewer couples would get divorced (or even marry each other in the first place) if they actually knew each other well enough before they got married. Married couples could cut down on a lot of their clashes if they know more about their mate’s thoughts, beliefs and emotions. The best way to get to really know someone is with questions and time talking.  The best time, I think to talk is in the car on a long road trip.

Happy Valentine’s day,
Dr. Altman

P.S. For Valentines for the family, Cards, treats, fun stuff for the kids check this site out for ideas.

Thank goodness, Truth never dies.

After 4 years of tireless work by the International Foundation for Nutrition and Health it has been brought back to life, page by page. As part of a new series I am posting a quick health tip and parts of the book on Twitter. It is called 365 days to a healthier body. You can follow me on Twitter at the address below. As I read something astonishing, this allows me to post it quick and easily. For those of you using Gmail you can add a TwitterGadget to follow easily.

http://twitter.com/docaltman