Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, February 24th, 2014

Mental Attitude: Meditation Benefits.
According to an analysis of 47 clinical trials involving over 3,500 patients, meditation offers benefits to people with depression, anxiety, and pain similar to antidepressant medications. The researchers behind the study also note that meditation does not have the potential negative side-effects of antidepressant drugs.
JAMA Internal Medicine, January 2014

Health Alert: Hygiene and Diabetes?
Researchers at the University of Helsinki Children's Hospital believe the rise in auto-immune diseases, like type 1 diabetes and allergies, may be linked to a corresponding rise in hygiene standards. The so-called "hygiene hypothesis" suggests that less bacterial exposure during childhood may hinder the development of a child's immune system. The researchers point out that Finland has the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes in the world but neighboring countries with lower hygiene stands have much lower reports of the auto-immune disease.
University of Helsinki Children's Hospital, January 2014

Diet: Avocado Please.
According to a new study, participants who ate half of a fresh avocado with lunch were 40% less hungry three hours later and 28% less hungry five hours later. Most of the fat content in avocados is monounsaturated fat and studies have shown that regularly consuming this type of fat can reduce levels of bad cholesterol in the blood, as well as reduce the risk of stroke and heart disease.
Nutrition Journal, January 2014

Exercise: A Quick Walk?
Walking at a moderate pace for 180 minutes over the course of a week (30 minutes a day for five days or 60 minutes a day for three days) has been demonstrated to significantly improve mild to moderate depression.
Harvard Medical School, November 2005

Chiropractic: Dare to Compare.
Patients with chronic (>13 weeks) spinal pain were placed into one of three types of care: acupuncture, medication, or spinal manipulation. After 30 days of treatment, only the manipulation group showed significant reduction in pain intensity and improvements across all outcome measurements.
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, July 1999

Wellness/Prevention: Watch What You Eat!
A study involving 224 adolescent females found that the increased consumption of dietary fat was significantly linked to an increase in abdominal fat, regardless of total calorie intake or physical fitness. The accumulation of abdominal fat is harmful as it increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular problems, diabetes mellitus, arterial high blood pressure, high cholesterol level, etc. According to lead researcher Dr. Idoia Labayen, "Until now it was thought that even with an unbalanced diet, you somehow compensated for it if you got plenty of physical exercise. In this study we have shown that this is not the case."
Clinical Nutrition, January 2014

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, February 17th, 2014

Mental Attitude: Green Spaces?
Researchers have discovered that moving to greener areas can improve a person's mental health over the long-term. During a 5-year study, people who moved into greener areas experienced an immediate improvement in mental health that persisted for at least three years. Those who moved to a more built-up area with less green space experienced a decline in their mental health. The authors of the study suggest creating more green spaces in towns and cities (parks and gardens) could bring lasting benefits to public health.
Environmental Science & Technology, January 2014

Health Alert: Excessive Alcohol Consumption.
Nearly forty million American adults drink too much alcohol, although most are not considered alcoholics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high weekly use is considered 15 or more drinks for men and eight or more drinks on average for women. Excessive alcohol consumption causes premature death (79,000 deaths annually in the United States alone) and costs the economy $224 billion a year.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2014

Diet: High-Protein Diet Linked to Kidney Problems!
A Spanish study found that rats fed a long-term, high-protein diet (57% of total calories from protein) had a higher risk for developing kidney stones and other renal diseases than rats fed a lower protein diet (13% of total calories from protein). The authors of the study stress that even though these results are derived from rat subjects, their findings should translate to humans and anyone on a high-protein diet should be closely monitored for kidney-related issues.
Nutricion Hospitalaria, January-February 2013

Exercise: Decreased Risk for Heart Attack Later in Life.
A Swedish study involving over 740,000 males found that lack of aerobic fitness at age 18 corresponds to a greater risk for a heart attack later in life. According to lead researcher Dr. Peter Nordström, "As far as we know, this is the first study to investigate the links between an objective measure of physical fitness in teenagers and risk of heart attack in the general population. Further studies are needed to investigate the clinical relevance of these findings, but given the strong association that we have found, the low cost and easy accessibility of cardiovascular training, and the role of heart disease as a major cause of illness and death worldwide, these results are important with respect to public health."
European Heart Journal, January 2014

Chiropractic: Car Wrecks and Disk Injuries.
A disk injury can cause chronic neck pain following a car accident. If the outer wall of the disk (the annulus) is torn and does not properly heal, stress on the nerve endings in the annulus may cause neck pain during normal activities.
North American Spine Society, January 2014

Wellness/Prevention: Un-Happy Employees are More Likely to Smoke.
According to the Gallup research, employees who are emotionally disconnected from their jobs are 20% more likely to smoke than employees who are either neutral or excited about their work. Previous research has shown that disengaged employees are more likely to suffer from stress, obesity, and chronic health problems.
Gallup, August 2013

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, February 10th, 2013

Health Alert: Smoking is a $289 Million Dollar a Year Burden!
During the last half-century, 20 million Americans have died as a consequence of smoking and 16 million more continue to suffer from smoking-related conditions. The combined healthcare expenses and lost economic productivity that results from smoking-related illnesses costs the United States (US) about $289,000,000 each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every thirteen children alive in the US right now will die prematurely from smoking-related diseases unless current smoking rates drop!
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2014

Diet: Diet Soda Not Helpful for Dieters!
A new study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that drinking diet soda may not help dieters lose weight. Using data from the long-term National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers discovered that, even though people who drink diet sodas are drinking fewer calories, they tend to consume just as many or more total calories than people who drink sugary beverages. According to lead author Dr. Sarah Bleich, "The results of our study suggest that overweight and obese adults looking to lose or maintain their weight--who have already made the switch from sugary to diet beverages--may need to look carefully at other components of their solid-food diet, particularly sweet snacks, to potentially identify areas for modification."
American Journal of Public Health, January 2014

Exercise: How to Keep that New Year’s Resolution.
Recording goals in a fitness diary, reflecting on successes and failures, and being held accountable by others are key strategies that have been found to maximize the achievement of all goals, including New Year’s resolutions.
Loughborough University, January 2014

Chiropractic: The Cause of Post Car Accident Neck Pain.
After a car accident, the cause of neck pain may be unknown. Muscles and ligaments can become strained and even inflamed, but they usually heal within six to ten weeks. Pain that lasts longer is usually due to injury to the disk, facet joint, or both. Facet joint pain is the most common cause of chronic neck pain after an accident. Facet joint pain may occur alone or along with disk pain and may sometimes be mistaken for muscle pain.
North American Spine Society, January 2014

Wellness/Prevention: Breastfeeding and Rheumatoid Arthritis?
A study of 7,000 older Chinese women showed that those who breast fed their children had a 50% reduced risk for rheumatoid arthritis later in life.
Rheumatology, January 2014

Weekly Health Update For The Week Of Monday, February 4th, 2013

Mental Attitude: Be Positive!
Young people with positive attitudes such as self-belief, aspiration, flexibility, and an appetite to learn were associated with less hyperactivity, fewer emotional problems, fewer problems with fellow pupils, greater inclination to help others, were happier, and slept better.
Think Forward, January 2014

Health Alert: Alarming Rate of Overweight and Obese in Developing Countries.
In the last three decades, the amount of overweight and obese people in developing countries has skyrocketed from 250 million to almost one billion people. In comparison, richer nations have seen a rise from 200 million to 600 million overweight and obese people over the same period of time. Dr. Steve Wiggin explains, "On current trends, globally, we will see a huge increase in the number of people suffering certain types of cancer, diabetes, strokes and heart attacks, putting an enormous burden on public healthcare systems."
Overseas Development Institute, January 2014

Diet: Vitamin E.
A study involving 140 elderly men and women found that those with higher levels of vitamin E in their bodies were less likely to suffer from cognitive decline. Foods rich in vitamin E include spinach, almonds, sunflower seeds, avocados, shrimp, rainbow trout, olive oil, broccoli, and pumpkin.
Experimental Gerontology, January 2014

Exercise: As Effective as Medications.
Doctors from the Stanford University School of Medicine reviewed the results of 305 studies involving over 300,000 patients and have determined that exercise may be as effective as medication in preventing early death in people who've had heart attacks or strokes. Furthermore, regular exercise lowers the risk of early death, helps one stay lean, and reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, some cancers, and cognitive decline. Despite this information, only 21% of American adults meet the government's recommendations for exercise: 150 minutes per week of moderately intense aerobic activity and muscle strengthening activities two days a week that work all the major muscle groups.
British Medical Journal, January 2014

Chiropractic: Can Neck Pain Affect Brain Activity?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation measurements taken on chronic neck pain patients both before and after spinal manipulation showed that manipulation improved cerebellar motor processing in their brains. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that plays an important role in fine-tuning the body's movements.
Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, October 2013

Wellness/Prevention: Decreasing Cancer Risk.
Over an 8-year study period, postmenopausal women who closely followed the American Cancer Society's Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention Guidelines had a 17% lower cancer risk, a 20% lower risk of cancer-related death, and a 27% lower risk of death from all causes. According to lead author Dr. Cynthia Thomson, "The message is simple and clear: If you want to reduce your risk for cancer, even later in life, eat a healthy diet, be active daily, avoid or limit alcohol, and don't smoke."
US National Institutes of Health, January 2014