The Best Things in Life Are Not Only Free, But Healthy!
Obesity, Health Concerns Rise As Parks And Recreation Programs Decline
One way to help address the epidemic of obesity in the United States is improved access to pleasant hiking trails and an ambitious parks and recreation program, a recent study suggests, but programs such as this are increasingly being reduced in many states due to budget shortfalls.
The analysis, done by researchers in Oregon, found that some of the health issues that plague overweight and obese people can be aided by a stronger commitment to recreational opportunities. Cutting such programs to save money may be counterproductive to community health, scientists said. "Research is now showing there's a close correlation between public health and recreational opportunities, both close to home and in state parks," said Randy Rosenberger, an associate professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. "And it's not just about losing weight. It's been found that active obese individuals have lower morbidity and mortality than normal weight individuals who are sedentary."(Read more…)The Dangers of Ignoring Headaches
Headaches can be thought of as internal alarm bells, ringing only when something is going on inside of the body. Most of us live a life so full of external distractions that our own physical problems get easily over looked.
Headaches that are Warning: “There is Something up Ahead” -
Nearly 70% of women between 20-35 years of age start to develop a “menstrual migraine”. At first this migraine is easily categorized with normal migraines, but then begins to stand out because of its consistency.
The menstrual migraine will usually show up every month, 2 days before menstruation. As with other premenstrual symptoms, having advanced knowledge of what to expect can make the occurrence less painful by being prepared.
Your Body’s Natural Volcanic System -
A common phrase that children hear from their mothers is, “You must be sleepy.” It’s amusing to watch as the child tries to first deny the accusation and then question what brought on such a declaration.
Unfortunately, when a person reaches adulthood there’s no one around to tell you when you should sleep and when you should relax. Suddenly, the responsibility of knowing what’s best is all yours.
When a body is pushed hard daily and given little to no opportunity of relaxation, something begins to happen. One of those things that happens is a head pain that feels painfully tight around the circumference of the head. The very sight of light can become discomforting, as well as noises both soft and loud.
This is a signal your body has sent with almost volcanic violence. To avoid repeated episodes that can develop to more severe levels, seek a chiropractic doctor.
Talking to a chiropractor about your tension headache is not the same as just going to visit a masseuse, because these doctors will do a thorough examination to find all the root causes of your headache.
The treatment you may receive will definitely be therapeutic, but it will have the added benefit of being preventive as well. The number one goal of these facilities is to not just get rid of pain, but help you continue living a pain free life.
The Weight of Headache Pain -
A scary thing about weight gain is that there doesn’t seem to be any real internal trigger that extra pounds are being added on. Usually it’s not until after all the external evidence is before one that they notice their weight gain.
Studies are starting to reveal that overweight people begin having headaches more often and more severely than those that are of a healthy weight. It’s still unclear as to how the body is triggering this effect, but it is evident in recent researches.
Even when headaches seem to be a part of your life’s package, it’s good to make sure that they’re not coming on for other serious reasons.
Waiting until you reach your breaking point before you get the rest you need is as dangerous as drunk driving. So taking a moment out of your day to visit a local doctor’s office, or chiropractic health practice shouldn’t be delayed, especially since most of us don’t just want the pain to go away, we want it to stay away.
Source: HealthSource
No Evidence that Chiropractic Causes Stroke According to Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation
Amidst a great deal of emotion and rhetoric coming out of Connecticut this week regarding the stroke issue The Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation has just released a very clear position statement on the issue of chiropractic and strokes.
Atlanta, GA, January 07, 2010 –(PR.com)– According to the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation there is no human experimental evidence that chiropractic adjustments or neck manipulations are causally related to strokes. “While plaintiff’s attorneys and expert witness make claims and statements contending that such a causative link exists, the fact remains that these are based largely on anecdotes, case reports, and case controlled studies and cannot be used to prove causation” stated Foundation President Christopher Kent DC, JD a chiropractic researcher and attorney. According to researchers and the scientific method itself there are all sorts of biases and distortions that effect conclusions drawn from such studies and other criteria must be used to determine whether such a link exists. “What this boils down to is a simple lack of understanding of biostatistics and epidemiology” stated Foundation Vice President Matthew McCoy DC, MPH, a chiropractic researcher and public health expert. “Words like ‘association’ and ‘causation’ and ‘risk’ have very specific meanings when it comes to their use in epidemiology and it’s clear that laypersons involved in this debate are using these terms inappropriately.” While the experience of a stroke can be devastating and no one would suggest ignoring the concerns of those who have suffered one, the reality is that when it comes to the contention that chiropractic causes strokes – the evidence just isn’t there. And while the strokes these people have experienced are indeed real, McCoy suggests there are often other issues involved and offered an example. “Millions of people visit a dentist every year and a certain number of those same people get into car accidents on their way home. If we were to run the stats on it we might find that there is a statistical association between visiting a dentist and getting into a car accident on the way home. But no one would even consider suggesting that the dentists are causing the car accidents.” Self described chiropractic stroke victims say there is a risk and that people should be advised about it prior to undergoing chiropractic care. The majority of chiropractors would agree that patients should be informed of the risks, benefits and alternatives of any health care intervention, but according to Dr. Kent “Such informed consent must be based on appropriate information and since there is no scientific evidence that chiropractic adjustments or neck manipulations actually cause strokes, it is inappropriate to require a doctor to suggest that such a risk exists.” Dr. McCoy added another often overlooked issue “Chiropractors utilize a number of techniques to address joint dysfunction and vertebral subluxation and in fact there are over 300 named chiropractic techniques and many do not employ the type of manipulation that has been alleged to be a factor in vertebrobasilar accidents. This adds to the inappropriate nature of such a disclosure.” In the end, chiropractic has an impressive safety record compared to traditional medical care with estimates are that anywhere from 100,000 (Institute of medicine) to 750,000 (Null et al) people die every year from medical care. In comparison, other than some minor soreness following chiropractic treatment, research has shown chiropractic to be very safe.Posted via email from chirohealthnews’s posterous
Do You Have the Sugar Blues?
from Integrative Nutrition Blog
Do you have cravings for sweets that you see as treats? Do you think indulging in a pint of ice cream is your reward for making it through the day? Are you looking for something sweet to overcome that 3pm slump? For some, sugar is just as addicting as caffeine, tobacco or alcohol and it keeps us from losing the pounds we long to shed.
The United States is the largest consumer of sweeteners and one of the largest global sugar importers. We started in 1689 when the first sugar refinery was built in New York City. Colonists soon began to sweeten their breakfast porridge with refined sugar, and within 10 years, individual consumption had reached 4 pounds a year. The average American now consumes more than 100 pounds of sugar and sweeteners per year. The USDA recommends we get no more than 10 teaspoons per day, yet most Americans eat about 30 teaspoons per day—that’s three times the liberal recommended daily value.
Humans love sweet things. Even before we started refining sugar, we sought out foods with sweet tastes. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that occurs naturally in foods such as grains, beans, vegetables and fruit. When unprocessed, sugar contains a variety of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and proteins. When brown rice or other whole grains are cooked, chewed and digested, the natural carbohydrates break down uniformly into separate glucose molecules. These molecules enter the bloodstream, where they are burned smoothly and evenly, allowing your body to absorb all the good stuff. Read more…
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San Diego Chiropractor Explains Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo and How Chiropractic Treatment Can Help
Exactly what does the word, “vertigo, ” signify? Vertigo is a term for the dizzy disturbance that a person suffers within a fixed setting. The perception is that the external world is tilting or spinning. Vertigo may be quick and short- lived or constant. However, in any case, the specific reason for vertigo needs to be defined and the correct therapy carried out.
There are numerous reasons for the complaints of Vertigo. An inner ear problem, known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, will at times manifest as the result of a sustained head injury or serious cold. Many times this particular vertigo might be the result of the aging process. The root, however, usually is unknown. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo is a wordy diagnosis, but it characterizes completely this non- progressive problem that is due to, as its name signifies, a quick change in head posture. The symptoms are typically surprising and varied.
It is beneficial to look at the function of the inner ear in an endeavor grasp what creates this commonly disabling difficulties of this sort of vertigo. The brain senses motion and keeps equilibrium employing the fluid within the inner ear. Also in the inner ear are minute calcium carbonate crystals, known as otoconia. These crystals usually float in the inner ear fluid if dislodged. As the crystals strike against the responsive nerve endings in the inner ear, they produce the symptoms of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV.
The good news is that chiropractic treatment can eliminate the complaints of BPPV very quickly and effectively using a technique which is called the Epley maneuver. By means of the use of this practice, a chiropractor rotates the head of a BPPV sufferer into a number of different positions, letting gravity move the calcium carbonate crystals into a space of the inner ear that is away from the nerve endings where they will bring about no further vertigo.
Your chiropractor has assisted hundreds of people for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo making use of the Epley Maneuver technique. Quite often, with only one treatment the majority of patients no longer suffer from wooziness. Call your San Diego Chiropractor today!
Physical Activity Reduces Disease-Related Fatigue And Depression By Increasing Self-Efficacy Or Mastery
Researchers in the US studying people with chronic diseases found that physical activity may reduce depression and fatigue by increasing self-efficacy, or the belief that one can master physical goals and attain a sense of accomplishment from applying oneself.
These were the findings of a study by lead author Dr Edward McAuley, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois in Champaign, and colleagues, and appears in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. A person’s self-efficacy is the belief they can attain a certain goal: an example of my self-efficacy would be that I believe I can climb several flights of stairs or jog around the block without stopping. While there is lots of evidence that physical activity influences well-being, the reason why is less well understood. Read more…Posted via email from chirohealthnews’s posterous
What is Kinesiology and Exercise Science
What is kinesiology and exercise science? The study of movement is kinesiology and the science of exercise is the exploration of specific movements in relation to fitness and health. The kinesthetic aspect of the program relates to motion as it realates to health and mental functioning.
Movement, Mental Processing and Mood
Many studies suggest that activity has a direct effect on mental functioning and mood. A sedentary person is more likely to develop depression, inattention, and the inability to focus. Kinesiology is related to language development and communication skills as well.
The motor theory of language suggests that all language is rooted in neurological motor systems based in movement. Fundamentally, all communication arises out of motion. Mental processes, though appearing to be sedentary are based in activity and motion.
Kinesiology
Kinesiology explores movement in regards to intellect with the combination of motion. The field looks at various populations including the elderly, children, athletes, and people with physical challenges due to disabilities or health disease. The approach explore motion in the following realms:
* Life skills
* Exercise
* Physical fitness
* Dancing
* Playing
* Working
* Engaging in sports
The study of human movement is a field that brings together a number of different elements. When you explore motion, you naturally touch upon the following topics, especially in regards to alternative and complementary medicine.
* Psychology
* Physical fitness
* Biochemistry
* Biology
* Neurology
This topic is applicable to health as well as various treatment modalities, including forms of alternative and complementary medicine. The better that an individual understands the science of human motion, the better able he or she is to adopt health practices that are most effective.
What is Exercise Science?
What is exercise science? Not everyone makes the connection between science and exercise, but the two are deeply connected. Every movement, even the most seemingly simplistic motion involves complicated neurological and physical components that work together to make the motion possible. In addition, each movement has ramifications on the mind, body and spirit.
Exercise science explores everything about movement from nutrition to injury and illness. This field of study helps us understand how the body functions from the fundamental origins of movement, including biological, chemical and nutritional realms.
Kinesiology and Exercise Medicine
Kinesiology and exercise medicine relate to more than fitness and workouts. The fields of study look at the inner workings of motion and exercise as well as their impact on the body in various realms. The comprehensive perspective on motion offers new insight into the importance of activity and health
Each approach looks at the body as a machine that drives the mind and emotions through motion. Thought, emotional processing and motion are each interconnected and those who explore the fundamentals of the connection between the body and the mind may want to consider the motor theory of language, kinesiology and exercise medicine.
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Music of Mozart Soothes the Preemie Baby
Repetitive melodies encourage less energy use, more growth, study finds
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay News) — Could the music of the 18th century classical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart help tiny infants born today?
Yes, suggests an Israeli study that found that listening for just 30 minutes a day helped premature babies use less energy, which may help them grow faster.
“Within 10 minutes of listening to Mozart music, healthy infants [born prematurely] had a 10 percent to 13 percent reduction of their resting energy expenditure,” the study authors wrote. “We speculate that this effect of music on resting energy expenditure might explain, in part, the improved weight gain that results from this Mozart effect.”
The findings were published online Monday in Pediatrics, and are slated to appear in the January print issue of the journal. Read more…
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Researchers Find that Tai Chi Relieves Knee Osteoarthritis
Knee X-ray
Research done by Tufts University School of Medicine has determined that patients that are at least 65 years of age or older who suffer from knee osteoarthritis (OA), and who practice Tai Chi, improved their physical function and encountered a decrease in pain. Osteoarthritis is a common form of arthritis that brings about a breakdown of joint cartilage. Chiropractors treat a large number men and women who have developed OA in a number of areas of the body, including the joints of the knee. Second only to spinal problems, knee pain and disability is one of the most prevalent afflictions of the musculoskeletal system. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are a surprising 4.3 million people in this country over 60 years of ag diagnosed with knee OA, and the CDC predicts that half of the men and women in America may develop symptoms of OA in at least one knee by age 85. Knee osteoarthritis results in pain, mobility limitations, dysfunction and disability, and a reduced quality of life.
You may be asking why so many men and women develop OA. As with the majority of the musculoskeletal conditions that we develop as we get older, abnormal stress to a joint day after day is a major determinant. Therefore, as people get older they are more likely to develop OA in their joints, including the knees. Incorrect mechanics of the knee, improper gait, compensatory foot mechanics as an offset of foot pain, and overuse of the knee joint all produce excessive stress on the knees. Over time arthritic changes in the knee joint develop. The majority of chiropractors advise their patients to try such natural, drug-free practices as Tai Chi, in addition to their chiropractic management. Tai Chi (Chuan) is a traditional style of Chinese martial arts that features slow, rhythmic movements that produce peace of mind, as well as improved balance, an increase in strength, and improved flexibility.
The 40 adults chosen for the Tufts study were on an average 65 years of age, overweight, and with confirmed OA, but in otherwise good health. Participants were selected at random to take part in 60-minute “Yang style” Tai Chi sessions twice weekly for 12 weeks. Each session included a 10-minute self-massage and a review of Tai Chi principles, 30 minutes of Tai Chi movement, 10 minutes of breathing technique, and 10 minutes of relaxation.
Tai Chi incorporates many of the current exercise protocols for OA, such as range of motion, flexibility, muscle conditioning, and aerobic workout. As an added benefit, researchers found that the “mental feature” of Tai Chi encouraged a sense of well-being, life enjoyments, and personal concepts of health that helped the participants to deal differently with chronic pain. Compared with the control group, the group practicing Tai Chi experienced a considerable decrease in knee pain.
Full findings of the study are published in the November 2009 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
Almost Last and Still a Winner?
“Almost last” aren’t exactly words we affiliate with accomplishment. Indeed, not many things in life, it seems, count much at all if you don’t “hit a bull’s eye.” Well, it would seem that this may not be entirely the case when it comes to an extended lifespan. As a chiropractor in San Diego who has many older patients and who is also fully dedicated to encouraging my patients to exercise at every age level, I was very interested in the following study.
Researchers found that of the “least-fit” versus the “slightly more fit” in a recent study of nearly 4,400 healthy Americans, roughly 20 percent with the lowest physical fitness levels were twice as likely to die over the nine years of the study as the 20 percent with the next-lowest fitness levels. (That is to say, those 20 percent who were almost at the lowest fitness levels.) This is the familiar “bad news/good news” outcome. It is obviously bad news if you are a confirmed sofa spud. But, it is genuinely good news for those who haven’t quite hit rock bottom in the sedentary lifestyle department but are not, by definition, energetic. Apparently, those people who remain just moderately fit as they age may have a longer lifespan than those who are completely out-of-shape, the study suggests.
Between 1986 and 2006, researchers assessed the fitness levels of 4,384 middle-aged and senior men and women during exercise treatmill tests. The researchers then followed their progress for approximately nine years. The study took into consideration factors like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. This, in and of itself, underscores the significants of being physically fit. In an email to Reuters Health, lead researcher, Dr. Sandra Mandic of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, noted: “Our findings suggest that a sedentary lifestyle, rather than differences in cardiovascular risk factors or age, may explain the two-fold higher mortality rates in the least-fit versus slightly more fit individuals.”
Nearly two-thirds of the least-fit study participants failed to get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, five or more days a week, which was the minimum recommended amount of exercise. “These results emphasize the importance of improving and maintaining high fitness levels by engaging in regular physical activity,” Mandic said, “particularly in poorly-fit individuals.”
Separating the participants into five groups based on fitness levels, the researchers discovered that 25 percent of the least-fit individuals had died during the study period, versus 13 percent of those who were in slightly better shape. Only 6 percent of the most-fit group (i.e., the ones who “hit the bull’s eye,” so to speak) had died during the follow-up period.
The five fitness-level groups presented little variance, overall, in their reported exercise practices during most of their adult lives, but notably, they contrasted in activity levels only in recent years. “Since it is recent physical activity that offers protection,” Mandic said, “it is important to maintain regular physical activity throughout life.”
In this particular study, irrespective of weight and other health issues such as those mentioned above, fitness is clearly linked to longevity. Therefore, exercise is vital to the extension of our lifespan. And, perhaps it goes without saying, imagine the health benefits we could all experience if we worked our way up into the higher levels of fitness.
SOURCE: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2009.
