Flight to Honduras

Hello. This is my first blog- so I apologize for any misspellings or grammatical errors.
This is my sixth trip to Honduras. Since one must overnight somewhere, instead of Houston, I fly via Miami on the red eye so I can have breakfast with my mom and brother, who live about 40 minutes from the airport.
This flight was not as quiet as most. Just as I was about to fall asleep, they asked for a doc on board. After identifying myself (with my state issued license too- the airlines can't be too careful!),
A woman was not feeling well. After determining that she had not eaten or drank for over 12 hrs after taking her oral medicine for diabetes, I was able to handle this without any problems. Unfortunately it took two different trips back to her at different times, so I barley got any sleep. Shades of residency days!
As usual, I met my mom and brother Norman at the airport hotel and we spent about three hours over a leisurely breakfast. At 86 , my mom is a fairly good shape and it is always great to see her and my brother. Then it was onto another flight to Honduras. Unfortunately I was supposed to work on the lecture I will be giving on Saturday for on this flight, but due to the lack of sleep on the first flight, I fell asleep. That's life. Next e-mail from Honduras.

Take care,

Peter A. Fields, MD, DC
“The Athletic Doc” and Ironman Triathlete

PS I have some pictures but have to get the adapter for the camera tom'w.

Honduras 2009

Dr Fields volunteers his time with the Hackett-Hemwall Foundation at free medical clinic in Honduras.

In 2009, Dr Fields was appointed Director of La Ceiba Clinic

	For photos click the links below:
Click to Read Part 1 Click to Read Part 2 Click to Read Part 3	Honduras 2009 Week 1 Honduras 2009 Roatan Honduras 2009 Week 2

PART 1

After a red eye flight to Miami, my trip began on a great note as I received a big hug from my mom who was waiting for me at the Miami Airport. Then had a nice leisurely breakfast with her and my bother who came with her to the airport. After several hours with them, it was an hour and 40 minute flight to Honduras where I ran into half a dozen on my colleagues on the plane. After clearing customs most of the crowd was already there waiting in the airport. It was a re-union as I have worked with some of these people for the past five years. Then a three car ride to La Ceiba, not only our base city, but the city I will be working in. It is a pleasant town of about 170,000 people. The next day we had lectures for 8+ hrs as this is also an educational experience (continuing education credits given by the University of Wisconsin Medical School).

After the introduction by Dr Jeff Patterson (the head of the Hackett Hemwall Organization)

I gave the first lecture of the day starting at 8am. It was a lecture on the knee which took over 20 hrs to prepare! It was well received by all. This was followed by many other lectures form different colleagues of mine on various topics. This took all day until 5:30pm. I then gave the final lecture of the day titled "How to Present Prolotherapy to Potential Patients and other Colleagues". This lecture received many praises as many physicians do not know how to do get the Prolo word out. Plus Prolotherapy is natural and non-mainstream which requires additional explanation.

Sunday was a day off but some of us helped to organize the La Ceiba Clinic. Of course I was there as I will be the director of the clinic. The other two clinic gourps left at noon for their respective cites. I will see them again next weekend as we go to the coastal Honduran Island of Roatan for a break.

We were left with 25 people for the clinic - 18 docs and 6 helpers.

Monday I start work as the director of the LA Ceiba Clinic.

PART 2

Dear All,

The first week is now over and all went well. The first day was quite hectic. I was in charge of all 19 doctors and four of the helpers. Plus we had translators from a school here in La Ceiba, who I also was responsible for.

After getting everyone orientated, we began seeing patients. We saw a total of 64 patients the first day which was quite a lot considering that every area had one student and one teacher. I was the floater, going wherever I was needed to explain a procedure or demonstrate it. The clinic is opened from 8am until about 5:3opm with an hour break for lunch.

Since this is a teaching situation, we have half an hour lecture every morning at breakfast on basic anatomy. At lunch we have the second half of the lecture which is orthopedic tests and injection procedures. Later at dinner, we discuss any unusual cases or whatever else someone has questions on. ,I gave the first days lecture on the knee. The other days were assigned to the instructor doctors.

In addition to the above, during the day I have to make up that mornings or afternoons assignment (which instructor with which student), handle all problems with the running of the clinic, meet with Red Cross people (we are using their building) and even do an interview with a local TV station. Plus I am the roving doc in the clinic, going to whatever station needs help to either demonstrate or do an injection. So very busy but exiting too. All the days went well.

Now that the week is over, we all flew to Roatan, a laid back resort island off the coast of Honduras. We will be here for the weekend to relax and have some fun before we head back early Monday am.

That is about it for now.

PS I still get to work out almost daily. Four or five of us get up early am to either run, swim or go to the local gym.

Take care,

Peter A. Fields MD. DC.

Pacific Prolotherapy and Medical Wellness Center

PART 3

Dear All,

After the first week, we took a break and the group went to the island or Roatan, just 15 miles off the coast of Honduras. Roatan is laid back Caribbean island where English is the primary language. The activities included scuba diving, snorkeling, sailing, zip lining, swimming, and running, biking, laying on the beach or just doing nothing. A very relaxing time for all. Five of us (myself included) went scuba diving on Saturday and it was excellent. Friday Night we had buffet dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. It was a time to get to see the whole group as we had split up a week ago. This evening was sponsored by the foundation. Saturday and Sunday we were on our own.

Monday it was back to the clinics. The week went smoothly again. As a note, our translators came form the #1 bilingual school in all of Honduras. Very mature and well educated kids ranging from the 9th to the 12th grade. All spoke english without a trace of an accent and were applying to US Universities. One girl spoke, wrote and read four languages (spanish, english, french and german) fluently! Since one of my student docs was from Switzerland, he also spoke german.

I was always busy since as the floater doc (not attached to any one person or room),

I was the one that people came to when there was something that they were unsure of or needed help with. This week I let most of the docs work on their own in a treatment area to give them a feel for the real world. This kept me even busier than the last week with all their questions. Plus there were many other clinic concerns to be aware of. But all in all it was great week. Thursday night we had a farewell party at the Ex-Pat’s restaurant for all of the 75 + people involved. Dr Jeff Patterson, the head of the organization, spoke about the accomplishments of this 40th year anniversary trip to Honduras. All three clinic directors were given praises and a chance to address the entire group. I also had made a poem up to acknowledge the great efforts of Dr. Patterson and Mary Doherty (his partner), who run the Hackett-Hemwall Foundation. The next day, Friday, we left for our trip back to our respective counties, which included the US, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, Italy, Switzerland, South Africa and more.

One last glitch was that a civil strike was planned for that day in which they were going to shut down all the major roads at 5 or 6am. So to be sure that we all got to the airport on time, our buses left at 4am. Since it was a late night with the farewell party, when we got to the airport 5-7 hrs prior to our flights, a lot of catch of sleeping was done.

That is about it.

Again, it was very rewarding for me to be able to donate my time and effort to this third world country and at the same time help train more physicians in Prolotherapy.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. Feel free to ask me any questions .

And is so inclined, check out the Hackett-Hemwall Organization website at: www.hacketthemwall.org/

Take care

PS Within a week or so I will have pictures of the trip posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/pafdcmd.

Look for the 2009 postings under Honduras

The Medical Benefits of Exercise

Research shows that regular physical activity can help reduce your risk for several diseases and health conditions and improve your overall quality of life. Regular physical activity can also help with weight management. Below are just a few of the benefits of staying active.

Weight Control.
Regular activity can help to decrease body fat by preserving and /or building muscle mass. It can also increase ones metabolism which improves the body's ability to burn off calories. When physical activity is combined with good nutrition, it can help control weight and prevent obesity, both which are major risk factors for many diseases.
Bone strengthRegular weight-bearing exercise promotes bone formation and may prevent many forms of bone loss associated with aging (osteoporosis).

Heart Disease and Stroke.
Regular physical activity can help prevent these two diseases. Exercise can improve blood flow and increase your heart's working capacity. It also can strengthen your heart muscle, lower your blood pressure, raise your HDL levels (good cholesterol) and lower LDL levels (bad cholesterol). It can also help with decreasing the risk for peripheral vascular disease.

High Blood Pressure.
Regular physical activity can reduce blood pressure. Physical activity can also reduce body fat, which is associated with high blood pressure.

Type 2 Diabetes
By reducing body fat, physical activity can help to prevent and control this type of diabetes.

Mood Enhancer
Regular physical activity can improve your mood and the way you feel about yourself. Researchers have found that people that exercise regularly are more likely to manage stress in addition to reducing anxiety and depression

Peter A. Fields, MD,DC is one of a handful of physicians in the nation with both medical and chiropractic degrees. His practice, Pacific Prolotherapy & Medical Wellness Center offers an integrative approach to health and fitness and is located in Santa Monica, CA. For additional information please go to his website: www.DrFields.com Prolotherapy Los Angeles

Diet and Exercise to Cut Cancer

In 2007, 7.6 million people died from cancer worldwide, but a new study by World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research reveals better diets, more exercise and controlling weight is enough to stifle global cancer rates. Calling cancer “mostly preventable” researchers found 43% of colon and 42% of breast cancer in the U.K., 45% of bowel and 38% of breast cancer in the U.S., and other cancers, like prostate and pancreas, could be avoided with healthier lifestyles and diets consisting of more fruits and vegetables and less meat and dairy; Reuters reports

No real shocker here. Foods high in saturated fat, i.e. meat and dairy, are constantly being linked to cancer, like adenocarcinomas and carcinoid tumors in the small intestine, disease progression after prostate cancer surgery, and dioxin, a toxic compound found butter and cheese, is a prominent risk-factor for cancer. So don’t be like this dope and ignore everything and only eat bacon for a month!

Now, flip the script for a second, fruits and vegetables have the opposite effect on cancer. Recently, research determined sulforaphane, a chemical found in green veggies like broccoli, induces enzymes that protect against cancer and eating 28 servings of vegetables a week can cut the risk of prostate cancer by 33%. And fruits, like pomegranates, are packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants.

Chronic Pain, Prolotherapy May be Able to Help

Many of us have aches or pains that just won’t go away no matter what we do.
Medications, rest, physical therapy, acupuncture, manipulation, etc.
Somehow that pain either never goes away or just keeps coming back.
But one thing many of us have not tried is Prolotherapy.

Prolotherapy is a technique that helps to stimulate the body’s ability to repair a painful area when the natural healing process is not enough. In most cases Prolotherapy is effective at eliminating chronic pain due to ligament and tendon weakness 80 to 90 percent of the time.

You might wonder why you still have pain in an injured area or why that area remains weak, even after a healing period of weeks, months or years. The answer lies in the fact that both ligaments and tendons have very poor circulation. These areas may have little or no blood flow, but they have lots of nerves. When they become weak, nerves around the ligaments and tendons become stretched and irritated which produces pain.

Prolotherapy involves the injection of a solution that causes an inflammatory response which stimulates the healing process. This results in a stronger or larger tendon or ligament that can the hold body structures in place more effectively.

The weakened area heals, and the patient's pain is reduced or eliminated. 
It is also an excellent alternative to cortisone injections, which long term studies have shown to actually weaken tissue.

Most patients require about 6 treatments to restore function and relieve pain. 
The treatments are usually given at about 3 week intervals.

In addition to chronic pain, Prolotherapy is effective in back pain & neck pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, and other joint pain; tendonitis, arthritis, herniated discs and headaches. And if you have a sports injury, look no further than Prolotherapy. If it involves a tendon or ligament, chances are prolotherapy will help.

Hypertension May Impair Ones Cognition

Now keeping ones blood pressure under control has an added reward.
If you have high blood pressure, this may affect your cognition - the act or process of knowing; perception. Now research suggests that hypertension may affect older people’s cognitive abilities. This may suggests that stressful situations could impair their ability to think clearly.


Researchers at North Carolina State University studied 36 men and women aged 60 to 87, twice a day for 60 days. After having their blood pressure taken participants were asked to complete a number of cognitive function tests. Results showed that the performance of participants whose average systolic (the top number) blood pressure was 130 or higher dropped significantly when their blood pressure spiked. However the same deterioration of cognitive functioning was not seen in participants whose average systolic blood pressure was low or normal.



Study co-author Dr Jason Allaire said that the results revealed a link between blood pressure spikes in seniors with high blood pressure and a decrease in their inductive reasoning. "Inductive reasoning is important because it is essentially the ability to work flexibly with unfamiliar information and find solutions," said Allaire in a news release.



New Study Shows High Blood Pressure May Make it Difficult for the Elderly to Think Clearly. North Carolina State Univerity. December 15th 2008.

Avoiding Knee Surgery

If you want to avoid knee surgery and heal your injury naturally, then read this!

There are some facts one should know about healing knee injuries without surgery. In most cases of knee injuries, there is a weakening of the tendons or ligaments supporting the knee. Sometimes there is even a tear. Usually this is described as a partial tear. This also means that whatever is partially torn is also partially attached. The patient's best option is always to first try to and get these areas which are damaged to repair themselves.

The best way to do this: Prolotherapy.
Prolotherapy works by stimulating the body's healing system, therefore making this a natural way to get better. The technique involves the injection of various solutions that cause a mild inflammatory response that turns on the healing process. The growth of new ligament and tendon tissue is then stimulated. Prolotherapy can be done exactly where the ligaments or tendons attach and insert, and thereby stimulate the ligament on both ends to proliferate and strengthen.

The ligaments and tendons produced after Prolotherapy appear much the same as normal tissues, except that they are thicker, stronger, and contain fibers of varying thickness.

Many patients have avoided surgery using Prolotherapy. Common knee injuries include the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament), the medial or lateral collateral ligaments, strained muscles insertions (tendons), pain from a torn meniscus and even chondromalacia (soreness under the knee cap).

In addition many other knee problems and pains have been fixed using Prolotherapy.

The best advice is to try a non-surgical approach to your injury by trying Prolotherapy first.