While researchers have long known that endurance sports improve the condition and fitness of muscles, new research shows that these athletes also experience enhanced communication between the nervous system and those muscles.
Nature Communications, April 2014
A new report finds that women who consume a high-protein meal before moderate exercise burn calories more effectively than women who exercise on an empty stomach. Study author Dr. Ashley Binns writes, “We found that with exercise, there is a trend for a continued increase in caloric expenditure with higher protein consumption. Additionally, the consumption of the high- or low-protein meals resulted in greater energy expenditure than the fasted state. That means that eating prior to exercise does provide fuel to burn, making us more like an energy-burning machine.”
Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, March 2014
Considering effectiveness and cost together, chiropractic care for low back and neck pain is highly cost-effective and represents a good value in comparison to other treatments, including medical care.
Mercer Health and Benefits, October 2009
Low back pain is something that almost all people experience at some point in their lives. It is something common across sexes, age groups, countries, socioeconomic groups, education levels and occupation,” said Damian Hoy, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health, in Australia.
“Back pain is the number one cause of lost work days in the U.S,” said Dr. Anders Cohen, Chief of Neurosurgery and Spine Surgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.
Hoy and his colleagues reviewed 117 published studies that included information on low back pain prevalence. They also reviewed surveys done in 50 countries on back pain prevalence and severity. Compared to 291 other health conditions, the researchers found that low back pain causes more global disability than any other health problem studied.
The second study — done by researchers in Australia and the United States — looked at data from 187 countries from 1990 and 2010. Just over one-third of all work-related disability was related to low back pain, the study found.
“With aging and growing populations, low back pain is an enormous burden in developing countries,” lead author, Hoy said. “This is predicted to grow substantially over coming decades and will likely have an enormous impact on individual livelihoods, health care systems and economies.”
Both studies were published online on March 24 in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
If you, or someone you care about, have back pain, we would love to the opportunity to help. Just call us or email us through the website.
Courtesy of:
Denver Chiropractic Center
1780 S Bellaire St #710
Denver, CO 80222
(303) 300-0424
“Face your life, its pain, its pleasure, leave no path untaken.”
~ Neil Gaiman
Mental Attitude: Advanced Math & Reading in Kindergarten Improves School Performance.
Regardless of economic background, a new study finds that exposing kindergarteners to more challenging math and reading content during their early education results in better performance in those subjects later in childhood.
American Educational Research Journal, March 2014
Health Alert: Drug-Resistant Bacterial Infections on the Rise.
Researchers report that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are infecting an increasing number of children in the United States. Though this type of infection is still rare, the researchers say it is increasingly found in children, predominantly those between the ages of one and five years old. Lead author Dr. Latania K. Logan adds, “These antibiotic-resistant bacteria have traditionally been found in health care settings but are increasingly being found in the community, in people who have not had a significant history of health care exposure.”
Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, March 2014
Diet: Does Diet Cause Depression?
Like heart disease, depression is associated with low-grade inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and worse lipid profiles that suggest a poor diet as an underlying cause. Existing research has shown increased fast food consumption is associated with a greater risk for depression. On the other hand, the Mediterranean diet has been observed to reduce depressive symptoms. According to researcher Dr. Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, “It is difficult to be sure that the diet is responsible for depression – it could be that depressed people make bad food choices. Other study problems include ‘confounders’ which may influence dietary habits, such as marital status, exercise, alcohol (or smoking), medical conditions and social networks. Or simply genetics. To address these issues we need long-term, randomized clinical studies similar to ones successfully conducted for diet and cardiovascular disease risk. Only then will we really understand the impact of diet of depression.”
BMC Medicine, January 2013
Exercise: Kids Should Play More Than One Sport!
A report published by the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine recommends children avoid early sport specialization as it may increase their risk for overuse injuries and burnout. Overuse-related injuries account for 50% of sports injuries among youth athletes.
American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, January 2014
Chiropractic: Maintenance Care Recommended.
Chiropractors often recommend periodic visits to identify joint dysfunction and make corrections with skilled spinal manipulation or Active Release Techniques (if the doc is certified, of course;). These maintenance treatments are thought to prevent disease of both neuromusculoskeletal and visceral causes.
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, January 2000
Wellness/Prevention: Vitamin A Intake During Pregnancy Affects Child’s Immunity.
An animal study involving mice has found that vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy leads to smaller lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches in offspring. Lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches are important components of the immune system and as a result, the vitamin A-deprived offspring in the study were more susceptible to viral infections later in life. The researchers further noted that giving vitamin A to deprived offspring failed to reverse the impact of deficiency during pregnancy.
Immunology, March 2014
Spinal manipulation applied to the upper thoracic spinal region of sixty non-specific neck patients was found to improve cervical mobility and decrease neck pain.
Manual Therapy, March 2014
More than 20% of medications prescribed to older adults interfere with medications they may be taking for other health concerns, possibly worsening one or more of the conditions for which they’re being treated. Some of the most common competing chronic conditions in which medications for one condition may exacerbate the other include hypertension and osteoarthritis; hypertension and diabetes; hypertension and COPD; diabetes and coronary artery disease; and hypertension and depression. Many health care providers are aware of this problem but there isn’t much information available on how to address it.
PLOS ONE, February 2014
Researchers have found that the time food spends on the floor and type of flooring affects how many germs are transferred to the food we drop. They found that carpet was least likely to transfer germs, while solid surfaces increased the risk of germ transfer after five or more seconds. Furthermore, they surveyed individuals’ willingness to eat dropped food. Dr. Anthony Hilton, a professor of microbiology at Aston University in England, says, “Our study showed, surprisingly, that a large majority of people are happy to consume dropped food, with women the most likely to do so, but they are also more likely to follow the 5-second rule, which our research has shown to be much more than an old wives’ tale.”
Aston University, March 2014
Have you ever considered who is the best suited to treat back pain?
Since there are so many treatment options available today, it is quite challenging to make this decision without a little help.To facilitate, a study looking at this very question compared the effectiveness between medical and chiropractic intervention.
Over a 4-year time frame, 2780 patients were followed with questionnaires. Low Back Pain patients were treated using conventional approaches by both MDs (Medical Doctors) and DCs (Doctors of Chiropractic). Chiropractic treatments included spinal manipulation, physical therapy, an exercise plan, and self-care education.
Medical therapies included prescription drugs, an exercise plan, self-care advice and about 25% of the patients received physical therapy. The study focused on present pain severity and functional disability (activity interference) measured by questionnaires mailed to the patients. It was reported that chiropractic was favored over medical treatment in the following areas:
All patient groups saw significant improvement in both pain and disability over the four year study period. Acute patients saw the greatest degree of improvement with many achieving symptom relief after 3 months of care. This study also found early intervention reduced chronic pain and, at year 3, those acute LBP patients who received early intervention reported fewer days of LBP than those who waited longer for treatment.
While both MDs and DCs treatment approaches helped, it’s quite clear from the information reported that chiropractic should be utilized first.
These findings support the importance of early intervention by chiropractic physicians and make the most sense for those of you struggling with the question of who to see for your LBP.
Mental Attitude: Is Stress Contagious?
A new report finds that not only do babies pick up on their mother’s stress but their bodies will also mimic physiological changes. Researchers found that when mothers were stressed and then reunited with their infant, the child quickly adopted his/her mother’s stress response, including a corresponding change in heart rate. Lead author Dr. Sara Waters writes, “Before infants are verbal and able to express themselves fully, we can overlook how exquisitely attuned they are to the emotional tenor of their caregivers… Your infant may not be able to tell you that you seem stressed or ask you what is wrong, but our work shows that, as soon as she is in your arms, she is picking up on the bodily responses accompanying your emotional state and immediately begins to feel in her own body your own negative emotion.”
Psychological Science, February 2014
Health Alert: Buckle Your Children Up!
Tragically, car accidents still claim the lives of over 9,000 American children each year. Researchers working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that nearly a third of these deaths can be prevented if parents simply secured their children in age/size appropriate car seats. They point out that in states where car seats are required until ages 7-8, more children are put into car and booster seats and serious injury rates are 17% lower than in states without such laws.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 2014
Diet: No More Than 2-3 Cups Per Day…
Using current research on the over-consumption of caffeine as a guide, Dr. Laura Juliano, co-author of “Caffeine Use Disorder: A Comprehensive Review and Research Agenda,” recommends healthy adults limit caffeine consumption to no more than two to three cups of coffee per day (about 400 mg/day) and pregnant women to no more than half that amount. She also recommends people with health problems such as anxiety, insomnia, heart problems, or urinary incontinence limit or even eliminate caffeine consumption.
Journal of Caffeine Research, February 2014
Exercise: Sitting and Disability.
For the first time, a study has labeled sedentary activity as a risk factor for disability for people over age 60. Using data on over 2,000 adults over 60 years of age, researchers were shocked to discover that being sedentary is just as large a risk factor for disability as not exercising, and the risk of disability dramatically increases for each additional hour spent sitting at a computer or on the couch watching TV.
Journal of Physical Activity & Health, February 2014
Chiropractic: Acute Low Back Pain Treatment Comparison.
In this study, researchers compared the efficacy of spinal manipulation to diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), for the treatment of acute low back pain. Based on outcomes including self-rated physical disability, function, time missed from work, and rescue medication use during the following 12 weeks, spinal manipulation proved to be a significantly better treatment.
Spine, April 2013
Wellness/Prevention: Mammography Recommended for Women in Their 40s.
While the United States Preventive Services Task Force’s 2009 guidelines recommend against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, new research shows that regular screenings would benefit this age group by helping doctors catch the disease when it can still be treated without extensive surgery or chemotherapy. Current statistics show that one in eight women will develop breast cancer, and if the disease is caught early enough, the five-year survival rate is 97%.
American Journal of Roentgenology, February 2014