Month: March 2020

Weight Loss 101: Slow Things Down

To Your Health
March, 2018 (Vol. 12, Issue 03)

By Editorial Staff

When it comes to weight loss, we often hear about the need to speed things up – train faster, train harder, train with more intensity and pace to burn as many calories and as much fat as possible. Well, research actually suggests slowing down may be a beneficial way to lose weight, too, in at least one circumstance: while eating.

Researchers compared nearly 60,000 type 2 diabetics in a study designed to determine whether eating speed was connected to weight (excess weight is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, among other health problems). All participants self-reported themselves as fast, normal speed or slow eaters. Based on these classifications and periodic checkups during the six-year study period, the researchers discovered that normal-speed eaters were 29 percent more likely to be obese compared to slow eaters. Fast eaters were even more likely to be obese: 42 percent more likely compared to slow eaters.

While the study, published in BMJ Open, does not establish a causal relationship between eating speed and obesity (meaning eating speed did not necessarily cause obesity), the authors emphasize that people who eat faster may end up eating more than slower eaters because the former don’t realize they’re full until they’ve overconsumed. Talk to your doctor for more information about dietary and exercise factors linked to weight gain (and weight loss), and how to pursue a balanced lifestyle conductive to a healthy weight.

Forward-Head Posture: No Laughing Matter

To Your Health
March, 2020 (Vol. 14, Issue 03)

By Editorial Staff

It’s frighteningly easy to spot forward-head posture – and a primary cause of the condition – these days. Just look around. Anyone who consistently uses their cellphone, tablet or computer either has FHP or is likely on their way to developing it.

Forward-head posture has also been coined “text neck,” “tech neck,” “nerd neck” and “iHunch,” among other amusing monikers.

FHP itself is no laughing matter, however; constant hunching of the shoulders, neck and head can not only compromise posture, but also generate pain in those areas. What’s more, recent research suggests FHP can actually influence the brain and the messages it receives, potentially affecting other areas of the body and overall function.

Published in the Journal of Gait and Posture, the study involved 160 participants, split evenly among people with forward-head posture and those with normal head alignment. Participants with FHP and resulting biomechanical dysfunction of the spinal column also can negatively impact the brain, namely nerve impulses that travel toward the brain. Researchers specifically evaluated how feedback to the brain from the upper neck (cervical spine) can be distorted by forward-head posture, finding that problems with this feedback (which then impacts the feedback the brain delivers to the muscles) can potentially compromise proprioception and the vestibular system.

One consequence: A person with forward-head posture may be at higher risk of experiencing poor balance, upping the risk of clumsiness and/or a fall. But because FHP can compromise the autonomic system overall, the condition can have wide-ranging effects on the body. And of course, that’s in addition to the pain and dysfunction generated by forward-head posture itself. In other words, a major lose-lose situation when it comes to your health.

Fortunately, that’s where your chiropractor comes in. Your doctor can not only treat forward-head posture and get you back on the road to wellness; they can also help prevent FHP from occurring in the first place, and certainly minimize the risk of it recurring. Of course, prevention is also up to you, by reducing the activities that can contribute to FHP. Talk to your doctor for more information.

Fighting the Coronavirus With the Power of Nutraceuticals

To Your Health
March, 2020 (Vol. 14, Issue 03)

By Editorial Staff

The overwhelming majority of news coverage right now deals with the coronavirus: what it is, where it’s spreading, efforts to make a vaccine, who has succumbed to it and how to prevent it.

Here’s a prevention tip you may not have heard about: nutraceuticals.

You may have already observed that many of the deaths from these viruses, whether it be flu or corona (yes, thousands of people die every year from influenza as well), usually involve people with less-than-ideal immunity – older, suffering from a health condition or both. It makes sense, therefore, that anything which would boost your immunity could potentially help prevent coronavirus from advancing beyond a few harmless symptoms to something life-threatening.

What exactly are nutraceuticals? In a nutshell, they’re dietary supplements, compounds or other nondrug entities found in food sources that have benefits beyond basic nutrition. For the purpose of this conversation, we’ll focus on the nutraceuticals that may reduce corona and flu per a recent study published in Progress in Cardiovascular disease, and let the researchers explain their findings: “Nutraceuticals have potential for boosting the type 1 interferon response to RNA viruses.”

Type 1 interferon exerts several important functions, but the most important may be helping protect against viruses in neighboring cells that have not been infected. You can see how a boost in type 1 interferon could help prevent corona and flu viruses from taking hold and causing problems in the body.

So, back to nutraceuticals: Which ones could help? The researchers provide some suggestions based on the evidence: elderberry, zinc, glucosamine, spirulina, lipoic acid, selenium, ferulic acid, N-acetylcysteine and yeast beta-glucan. Your doctor can tell you more about these and other nutraceuticals that can boost immune health, including the food and/or supplement sources.

Young People Love Chiropractic

To Your Health
March, 2020 (Vol. 14, Issue 03)

By Editorial Staff

Here’s one reason of many reasons why: Younger people (ages 10-24) who are experiencing spine pain improve with chiropractic care, suggests research. Pain scores, assessed through the Numeric Rating Scale, which asks patients to rate their pain from 0 (no pain) to 10 (unimaginable pain), decreased significantly following chiropractic management.

Reduced pain scores were reported in all four spinal regions: cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral. Spinal manipulation, mobilization, soft-tissue therapy, acupuncture, and other modalities within the chiropractic scope of practice were utilized.

Now here’s one of the many reasons why these findings are so important: Evidence also suggests people who experience spinal pain at a younger age are more likely to experience it when they get older, potentially setting up a cycle of pain and dysfunction that can recur (or even last) over years.

Here’s another reason: While public perception is changing, many people still don’t believe chiropractic is necessary for children, adolescents and young adults. But as research and experience continue to show, chiropractic benefits everyone – regardless of age. Your baby benefits. Your children benefit. Young adults benefit. We benefit. So start them while they’re young, and plant the seeds for a lifetime of health and wellness.