Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, September 23rd, 2013

Mental Attitude: Tidy Or Messy Desk? According to research, disorderly environments (like an untidy desk) seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights and creativity. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe. Psychological Science, August 2013 Health Alert: Clean Water and Soap Please! Stunting, or a reduced growth rate, affects 165 million children worldwide and results in long-term impacts on physical and mental development, increasing the risk of mortality, and reducing productivity in adulthood. Researchers identified 14 studies c onducted in low and middle-income countries that provided data on the effect of water, sanitation, and hygiene programs on the physical growth of children. Clean drinking water and effective hand washing could reduce the prevalence of stunting in children under age five by 15%. Cochrane Review, August 2013 Diet: Obesity and Sleep. Brain scans of people after a sleepless night s how that sleeplessness reduces the so-called higher order powers of our brain and creates an excessive response in more primitive parts of the brain. Researchers say this combination of brain activities may lead to poor food choices, such as eating junk food. Nature Communications Journal, August 2013 Exercise: Is Hot Yoga Safe? The concern that heated yoga classes (those with temperatures ranging from 90-95°F) are dangerous is unfounded. Howeve r, it is important to properly hydrate before, during, and after class. It can take 10-14 days to fully acclimate to exercising in the heat. American Council on Exercise, June 2013 Chiropractic: Headaches and Your Neck. For some headache patients, the three nerves that exit the top of the spine (upper neck) may be at least partially responsible for their headaches. These three nerves travel into the head and have to pass through a very thick group of muscles in the upper part of the neck near where these muscles attach to the base of the skull. This is why when you have headaches and rub the back of the neck, the muscles may feel tight and or tender. In fact, if enough pressure is applied over one of these three nerves, pain will radiate into the head following the course of the nerve, sometimes all the way into the eyes. When chiropractic treatment is applied in the upper neck region, a reduction of the headache and neck pain may occur because the muscle tension is decreased and joint motion is restored. Steve Yeomans, D.C., April 2010 Wellness/Prevention: Don't Take Your Team's Loss So Personally. Seeing your team lose can cause you to eat more sugars and saturated fats, especially in close games that are lost at the last second. However, researchers found you can counteract this behavior by simply writing down what's most important in your life immediately after the game. Psychological Science, August 2013

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, September 16th, 2013

Mental Attitude: The 9 Risk Factors of Young-Onset Dementia.
A 37-year follow-up study found the major risk factors associated with young-onset dementia disease (dementia diagnosed under age 65) included alcohol intoxication, stroke, use of antipsychotics, depression, below average height, father's dementia, drug intoxication, low cognitive function at 18 years of age, and high systolic blood pressure at 18 years of age. Men who had at least two of the nine risk factors and were also in the lowest third of cognitive function at age 18 had a 20-fold increased risk for a dementia diagnosis before age 65.
JAMA Internal Medicine, August 2013

Health Alert: Concussions in High School Sports.
Between the 1997-98 and 2007-08 school years, concussion rates increased across the board in most high school sports. While football accounts for more than half of all concussions and has the highest incident rate (.6 per 10,000 athletes), girl's soccer had the most concussions among female sports and the 2nd highest incident rate among all sports at .35 per 10,000 athletes.
The American Journal of Sports Medicine, January 2011

Diet: Zinc Deficiency and Old Age.
Zinc deficiency may develop with age, leading to low-grade chronic inflammation that has been associated with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Low zinc levels have also been associated with a weakened immune system response. In animal studies, older subjects showed signs of zinc deficiency even though their diets should have provided adequate amounts of the nutrient. The researchers believe the aging process alters the body's ability to efficiently transport zinc to our cells. When the test animals were given more than the recommended daily amount of zinc, biomarkers related to chronic inflammation returned to levels seen in younger subjects.
The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, January 2013

Exercise: More Reasons.
Physical fitness helps to maintain an independent lifestyle and reduces the level of abdominal obesity, a significant health-risk factor.
Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health, 1996

Chiropractic: Faster Recovery, Less Money!
In a 52-week study of patients with neck pain, manual therapy (spinal mobilization) resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education, and medication). Costs of the manual therapy were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care.
British Medical Journal, April 2003

Wellness/Prevention: Save Your Brain!
50% of Alzheimer's and dementia cases may be preventable! Preventable or treatable risk factors include smoking, physical inactivity, depression, mid-life high blood pressure, diabetes, and mid-life obesity.
The Lancet Neurology, September 2011

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, September 2nd, 2013

Mental Attitude: Live To Be 120?  When people were asked whether they would want medical treatments to extend their lives by decades so they could live to be 120 or more, 56% of adult Americans aged 18 and over declined the offer. When asked how long they would like to live, 69% gave an answer of between 79 and 100 years. The median ideal age is 90 years, about 11 years longer than the current life expectancy of Americans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 2013 Health Alert: Destroy Your IQ?  Two serious fight-related head injuries can impact a teenage boy’s IQ to the equivalent of losing a whole year of school. For girls, a similar loss of IQ is possible after just one serious fight-related head injury. Falls in IQ are linked to lower academic and professional performance, behavioral problems, mental disorders, and decreased life spans. Each fight-related injury resulted in a drop of 1.62 IQ points for boys and a fall of 3.02 IQ points for girls. Missing a whole academic year is equivalent to a loss of between 2 and 4 IQ points. Journal of Adolescent Health, August 2013 Diet: Antioxidents and Conception.  Women undergoing fertility treatment often take dietary supplements, including antioxidents, to improve their chances of becoming pregnant. However, a study of over 3,500 women who attended fertility clinics found that antioxidents had no effect on conception, either in improving pregnancy rates or hindering them. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2007 Exercise: Little Girls Not Exercising Enough.  Just 38% of seven-year-old girls in the United Kingdom (UK) get the recommended amount of daily exercise, compared to 63% of boys in the same age group. UK guidelines call for children to exercise just one hour per day. BMJ Open, August 2013 Chiropractic: Chiropractic and Chest Pain. Over six million Americans suffer from angina pectoris (chest pain), the most common form being stable angina pectoris. A study of 50 patients with cervicothoracic angina (a form a stable angina pectoris) found that 70% benefited from eight chiropractic treatments over a four week period with improvements in chest pain, emotional health, mental health, and vitality. Patients in a control group who received no treatment reported no such improvements. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, November 2005 Wellness/Prevention: Resetting Your Clock.  According to new research, camping in the wilderness for a week can synchronize our internal clocks to the solar day, allowing our bodies to normalize melatonin levels. On average, study participants went to bed and awoke two hours earlier when only exposed to sunlight and campfire light. All of the participants' sleep patterns synchronized with sunset and sunrise, despite the fact that the study included both early birds and night owls. Current Biology, August 2013