Healthy Life Newsletter, October 2017
Book Review: A new look at the number one cause of pain, disease and premature death in the U.S. By Dr. Mha Atma S Khalsa
Dr. David Seaman has been lecturing to chiropractic audiences and writing articles about the connection between diet and inflammation for over a quarter century. For years I have been referring folks to his website, deflame.com. Finally he’s written a book for lay people: The Deflame Diet:
Deflame your diet, body and mind. It lays out clearly and simply, and in a rather blunt and edgy fashion, how to rid your body and mind of the chronic inflammation that plagues our society and drives obesity, chronic pain, and diseases ranging from arthritis to asthma to diabetes to cancer and many others.
The key says Dr. Seaman in this well-referenced science-based book, is to eliminate (or greatly reduce) from your life what he calls “dietary crack” and to instead live on foods that offer nutritional support and do not stimulate chronic inflammation. He tells us that Americans get 60% of all of their calories from “dietary crack” (and we all love it and want it) which encompasses the main drivers of chronic inflammation. Dietary crack includes refined sugar, refined grains, grain flour products, trans fats, and refined omega-6 seed oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, peanut, soy and others).
The sensible approach he lays out makes it clear that a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet can vary widely as long as it eliminates most dietary crack and includes a generous amount of vegetables and leafy greens. Thus some folks can gravitate to a “paleo” diet (lots of meat + veggies) , or a “ketogenic” diet (lots of fat from meat, dairy, nuts, etc. + only low-carb vegies and very little fruit), or a vegatarian diet or a low-fat vegan diet–and they all can work as long as they don’t contain dietary crack. This flexibility and clarity allows the reader to choose an approach that fits their personal preferences and values, and to thrive and be healthy as long as they drop dietary crack (with occasional indulgences). From the book: “The key to being a healthy meat eater OR vegan is to avoid ‘dietary crack’ – we all need to dump the refined sugar, flour and oils from our diet.”
Foods and beverages that can be included in an anti-inflammatory diet include grass fed meat and wild game, meat, wild caught fish, shellfish, chicken, omega-3 eggs, cheese, vegetables, salads (leafy greens), fruit, tubers (potatoes, yams, sweet potato), nuts (raw or dry roasted), omega-3 seeds (hemp, chia, flax), dark chocolate, spices of all kinds, olive oil, coconut oil, butter, cream, avocados, bacon, red wine and stout beer, and coffee and tea. Dr. Seaman makes it clear that eating fat is not the main problem in driving inflammation–it’s refined carbs and other dietary crack that causes most of our health problems.
There are chapters in the book that explain why beans can be a good anti-inflammatory choice especially for vegetarians, and why whole grains are ok if necessary but much inferior to vegetables, fruit, nuts and beans. (Note that the dietary crack list includes “grain flour products” which includes bread, pasta, pancakes, waffles, and other stuff made from flour, but not whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, or oatmeal.) There are chapters that explain the science behind how foods cause or reduce inflammation, and others that explain how taking de-flaming supplements (like vitamin D, fish oil, and magnesium among others) can enhance the positive effects of an anti-inflammatory diet.
Reading this book and implementing its basic guidelines can change your life, and it could dramatically change our society and our societal health care challenges if everyone were to follow these guidelines. Everyone won’t, but you could!
(The book is available at Dr. Seaman’s website, deflame.com, and at our office.)
Recent study indicates safety and effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for neck pain in children–researchers abstracted data from 50 clinical files that met inclusion criteria from a general practice chiropractic office in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. Fifty patients between the ages of 6 and 18 were treated for neck pain. All but two were treated with chiropractic adjustments, an average of 5 visits over 19 days. Significant improvement was recorded in 96% of the files, and no adverse events were documented. Researchers concluded that spinal manipulative therapy (chiropractic adjustments) appears to benefit paediatric mechanical neck pain resulting from day-today activities with no reported serious adverse events.
J Can Chiropr Assoc. 2016 Sep;60(3):212-219.
Study indicates that alcohol consumption, even at moderate levels, is associated with adverse brain outcomes–Researchers in the UK followed 550 men and women over 30 years with a record of weekly alcohol intake and periodic cognitive performance measurements. The average age at the start of the study was 43 years. At the end of the 30 years all participants had a brain MRI. Structural brain measures included hippocampal atrophy, grey matter density, and white matter microstructure. Functional measures included cognitive decline over the study and cross sectional cognitive performance at the time of scanning. Higher alcohol consumpton over the 30 years was associated with increased odds of hippocampal atrophy, with those consuming 30 or more drinks weekly having the highest risk but even those drinking moderately (14-21 weekly drinks) had three times the odds of hippocampal atrophy. There was no protective effect of light drinking (1 to 7 drinks/week). The researchers concluded that these results support the recent reduction in alcohol guidance in the UK and question the current limits recommended in the US.
BMJ. 2017 Jun 6;357:j2353. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j2353.
Move It or Lose It (Your Life)
Think you can sit at your desk or on the couch all day and counteract it with exercise? Think again. Even people who exercise are putting their health – in fact, their lives – at risk by not moving enough, and it may not be a simple question of sitting too much.
In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers evaluated sedentary time for one week by requiring that study participants wear accelerometers, which tracked activity levels. They then grouped participants based on activity, generating four groups. Members of the least sedentary group spent about 11 hours sitting and standing, while the most sedentary spent about 13 hours sitting / standing. Researchers also grouped participants based on how frequently they took movement breaks, which ranged from every 7.7 minutes to 12.4 minutes or longer.
People who remained sedentary for the longest amount of time per day and sat the longest without moving were twice as likely to die during the four-year tracking period compared to the least sedentary people who also took movement breaks the most often. The study didn’t say that lack of movement caused death, but that people who didn’t move enough were more likely to die. Of course, we all know ample research connects exercise / movement with longevity, so although no direct association could be made, it’s easy to speculate that not moving could have the opposite effect.
It’s important to note that the accelerometers worn by the study participants couldn’t differentiate between sitting vs. standing. That’s a critical point because increasingly, health experts suggest desk-sitters stand for greater portions of their workday. That’s good advice, but it might not be enough, as this study emphasizes. Movement is what truly matters, not merely a change in position.
Resist Anxiety with Exercise
Feeling worried, fearful or uneasy? That’s anxiety in a nutshell. Anxiety can be a reaction to stress, but it can also occur without the presence of any significant stressors. Regardless of the cause, anxiety can produce physical and psychological symptoms including stomach upset, headache, dizziness, sleep dysfunction, fatigue and muscle tension – and that’s just for starters.
The good news is if you’re already exercising (particularly resistance exercise), then you’re putting a dent on anxiety without even knowing it. Why? Because a 16-study review involving nearly 1,000 participants suggests resistance exercise helps reduce anxiety, and according to the lead study author, the positive impact is comparable to what could be achieved with medication or psychotherapy.
What’s resistance exercise? Basically, it’s any exercise that requires your muscles to contract: doing a push-up / squat / etc., lifting a weight (free weights or weight machines), or even doing flexible band exercises that involve muscle contraction. Now what’s the really good news? You can do resistance exercise at a gym, at your home, or just about anywhere in between! Who knew reducing anxiety could get you fit simultaneously?
Growing Up with Antibiotics, Growing Up with Asthma?
In the latest (but probably not the last) research to associate antibiotic use during infancy with the development of asthma, three studies suggest exposure to antibiotics (either prescribed to the pregnant mother or the child during the first year after birth) increases the risk that the child will suffer from asthma.
The first study found that “both prenatal (before birth) and post-natal exposure to antibiotics was associated with an increased risk of asthma.” Building on this, the second study noted: “Antibiotic use in the first year life is associated with an increased risk of early-onset childhood asthma that began before 3 years of age. The apparent effect has a clear dose response” (the more you take, the greater the risk).
The third study compared babies born in urban areas with those born in rural areas. While a number of factors increased the risk of asthma, “the use of antibiotics” was one factor contributing to development of the condition, particularly in urban areas.
Talk to your doctor about the risk-benefit profile of any medication you’re prescribed / recommended (including over-the-counter products); then make an informed decision on whether it’s worth the risk.
From Dr. Mha Atma: Brief Update on My Own Healing Journey
Since our bike accident July 23 I’ve had the opportunity to be reminded up close about the body’s amazing healing ability AND that sometimes healing takes time, often longer than we hoped. So now over two months into this journey my fractured knee is mostly healed (still leg weakness and reduced balance but I’m doing rehab and I can walk pretty well) and my injured right thumb is 2 1/2 weeks post-surgery and healing…gradually. I am still hoping to be able to return to adjusting patients by mid-October…and I am seeking to surrender to the possilbility that it may take a week or two longer. Dr. Manjit Khalsa continues to provide his healing hands and expertise to all who come to our office, and I look forward to see many of you soon! I will update you when I actually return and you can email me any time at this address.