Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, May 28th, 2012

Weekly Health Update

Week of: Monday, May 28th, 2012

Courtesy of:

Eric Lane, D.C.

(520) 742-7785

"To wish to be well is a part of becoming well." ~ Seneca

Mental Attitude: Bad Obligation?  Ever stay on a job longer than you wanted because you felt obligated? Staying in an organization out of a sense of obligation or for lack of alternatives can lead to emotional exhaustion, a chronic state of physical and mental depletion resulting from continuous stress and excessive job demands.  Human Relations, April 2012  Health Alert: Chronic Stress!  Psychological stress is associated with greater risk for depression, heart disease and infectious diseases. Until now, it has not been clear exactly how stress influences disease and health. Chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response. Inflammation is partly regulated by the hormone cortisol and when cortisol is not allowed to serve this function, inflammation can get out of control. Prolonged stress alters the effectiveness of cortisol to regulate the inflammatory response because it decreases tissue sensitivity to the hormone. Specifically, immune cells become insensitive to cortisol's regulatory effect. In turn, runaway inflammation is thought to promote the development and progression of many diseases.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2012  Diet: Your Knees!  The supplement glucosamine sulfate taken at oral doses of 1500 mg a day is more effective than a placebo in treating symptoms for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.  Arthritis & Rheumatism, 2007  Exercise: Exercise Your Arthritis Away!  Subjects with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis who participated in aerobic conditioning exercise showed significant improvement over control subjects who participated in only range of motion exercises.  Arthritis & Rheumatism, 1984  Chiropractic: Another Reason To Maintain Spinal Health!  Whatever the cause, by age 50, 85-90% of adults show evidence of degenerative disk disease at autopsy.  Arthritis & Rheumatism, 1979  Wellness/Prevention: What's For Breakfast?  Eating foods at breakfast that have a low glycemic index may help prevent a spike in blood sugar throughout the morning and after the next meal of the day. These breakfast foods can also increase feelings of satiety and fullness and may make people less likely to overeat throughout the day. The glycemic index ranks foods on the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Foods with a high index are rapidly digested and result in high fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Foods with a low glycemic index produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels and are considered healthier, especially for people with diabetes. Low glycemic foods include rolled oats and groats, whole grains, nuts and seeds, sweet potato, barley b-glucan, yam flour, glucomannan, durum pasta, vegetable flours, chia/flax seed and resistant starch.  Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, April 2012

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, May 21th, 2012

Weekly Health Update

Week of: Monday, May 21st, 2012

Courtesy of:

Eric Lane, D.C.

(520) 742-7785

"I look to the future because that's where I'm spending the rest of my life."

~George Burns

Mental Attitude: Dementia!
The number of people globally with dementia is set to rise from its current 35.6 million, to 65 million by 2030 and 115 million by 2050. Currently, $604 billion are spent each year worldwide on treating and caring for individuals with dementia. This toll includes the provision of health and social care, as well as loss of income of the dementia patients and their caregivers, as many caregivers have to give up their jobs to look after a person with dementia.
World Health Organization, April 2012

Health Alert: America's Obesity Epidemic.
The scope of the obesity epidemic in the US has been greatly underestimated. Researchers found that the Body Mass Index (BMI) substantially under-diagnoses obesity when compared to the Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan, a direct simultaneous measure of body fat, muscle mass, and bone density. The study found 39% of Americans who are classified as overweight based on BMI are actually obese as measured by DXA. The BMI is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they show distribution of body fat.
PLoS One, April 2012

Diet: How Should You Take It?
For reversing damage and promoting repair to cartilage, the supplements Chondroitin Sulfate and Glucosamine have been shown to be more effective if taken together, as the mixture of the two allows them to act synergistically.
Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 2006

Exercise: Caffeine & Exercise?
According to a 14-week study conducted on mice, caffeine and exercise may cut the risk of developing skin cancers caused by sun exposure. Researchers found 62% fewer non-melanoma skin tumors and the size of tumors reduced by 85% in the caffeine and exercise group when compared to the control group (no caffeine, no exercise). The results of the caffeine and exercise group also exceeded the other two groups in the study (caffeine, no exercise and exercise, no caffeine).
American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, April 2012

Chiropractic: Another Endorsement For Chiropractic!
"I found the best way is to use Chiropractors, not only after injury, but also before injury."
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Actor, Retired Body Builder and Former Governor

Wellness/Prevention: Still Smoke?
7,000 chemicals and chemical compounds are present in tobacco and tobacco smoke, including 93 HPHCs (harmful and potentially harmful constituents).
Food and Drug Administration, April 2012

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, May 14th, 2012

Weekly Health Update Week of: Monday, May 14th, 2012 Courtesy of: Eric Lane, D.C. (520) 742-7785 "When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough."  ~Donald Trump

Mental Attitude: Less Distress If Active!  Researchers found that older adults who experienced any level of psychological distress were more likely to experience physical functional limitations than those who did not. Psychological distress scores indicated that 8.4% of all older adult participants experienced some level of psychological distress and older adults who experienced even a moderate level of psychological distress were the most likely group to experience a functional limitation -- almost seven times more likely than those who did not report any psychological distress!  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, April 2012  Health Alert: Super Markets and Waist Size.  People who shop at discount supermarkets or in supermarkets in areas with poorly educated consumers have higher than normal body mass indices (BMI) and waist circumferences. According to the study's author, Basile Chaix, "A public health strategy to reduce excess weight may be to intervene on specific supermarkets to change food purchasing behavior, as supermarkets are where dietary preferences are materialized into definite purchased foods."  PLoS One, April 2012  Diet: Red Wine & Fruit For Fat.  Piceatannol is a compound found in red wine, grapes, blueberries and passion fruit. It's able to block cellular processes that allow fat cells to develop, opening a door to a potential method to control obesity.  Journal of Biological Chemistry, April 2012  Exercise: Regular Walking Regimen.  Cancer patients can literally take a step-by-step approach to combat fatigue following surgical treatment. This fatigue doesn't go away with sleep, affects daily activities (doing your personal hygiene in the morning, getting up and getting dressed, going from the bedroom to breakfast, etc.) and can also lead to anxiety and depression. Patients who underwent an operation as part of their cancer treatment and then started a regular walking regimen experienced less fatigue than cancer survivors who did not do the walking program.  Journal of the American College of Surgeons, April 2012  Chiropractic: Keep Your Blood Flowing.  Patients with atherosclerosis are associated with increased disk degeneration and subjective low back pain. Atherosclerosis slows blood flow to the disk complex, which, in turn, leads to degeneration.  Spine, 1997  Wellness/Prevention: Cancer Is A Preventable Disease!  Only 5-10% of cancer cases are due to genetic defects. The other 90-95% of cancer cases are due to environmental and lifestyle factors including smoking, alcohol consumption, poor diet, obesity, infectious agents, environmental pollution and radiation.  Pharmaceutical Research, September 2008