Healthy Life Newsletter, March 2018
Why Opioids Became an Epidemic and How Chiropractors Can Solve It
Need another reason to avoid opioids and embrace drugless options such as chiropractic care for pain relief (not to mention pain prevention)? Try money and manipulation – both used shamelessly by opioid manufacturers to fuel the opioid epidemic, which costs nearly 100 Americans their lives every day.
While growing awareness of the opioid crisis has spurred ongoing changes at both the policy and practice level, it might not have been necessary if not for the relationship between opioid manufacturers and advocacy groups, according to a shocking new report from the U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee.
Evidence That Can’t Be Ignored
Fueling an Epidemic: Exposing the Financial Ties Between Opioid Manufacturers and Third-Party Advocacy Groups “provides the first comprehensive snapshot of the financial connections between opioid manufacturers and advocacy groups and professional societies operating in the area of opioids policy,” according to the executive summary, which outlines the disturbing nature of the “connections” and their impact on the opioid epidemic:
“Disclosures from Purdue Pharma L.P., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mylan N.V., Depomed, Inc., and Insys Therapeutics, Inc. … describe nearly $9 million in payments from these manufacturers to 14 outside groups working on chronic pain and other opioid-related issues between 2012 and 2017. In addition, physicians affiliated with these groups accepted more than $1.6 million in payments from the five manufacturers between 2013 and the present.”
“Initiatives from the groups in this report often echoed and amplified messages favorable to increased opioid use — and ultimately, the financial interests of opioid manufacturers. These groups have issued guidelines and policies minimizing the risk of opioid addiction and promoting opioids for chronic pain, lobbied to change laws directed at curbing opioid use, and argued against accountability for physicians and industry executives responsible for overprescription and misbranding.”
Why Chiropractic Matters More than Ever
If there’s any possible upside to the opioid epidemic, it’s that the crisis is now front and center. Policy- and practice-level changes are being implemented to replace prescription pain-relief medications such as opioids with safer alternatives as the first option – including chiropractic care. Of course, chiropractors have always practiced drugless care and provided effective, natural pain relief for a variety of conditions. Now, they’re being increasingly recognized for that care not only on its own merits, but as a better, safer option that can save lives by helping patients avoid opioids – and the horrible conspiracy that fueled their use and abuse. Chiropractors didn’t cause the opioid crisis, but they sure can help end it. Talk to your chiropractor for more information.
Science Lesson: Why Chiropractic Can Relieve Your Low Back Pain
Doctors of chiropractic are known for treating low back pain – and preventing its recurrence – and recent research emphasizes the science underlying their effectiveness. A recent study suggests chiropractic care (spinal manipulation) can reduce LBP, but it also suggests chiropractic can increase spinal disc height.
Why is that important? Well, loss of intervertebral disc height is one of the traits of low back pain. Discs are the ligaments between the bony vertebrae that act as shock absorbers for the spine. As we get older, our discs have a tendency to get smaller, which can lead to all kinds of problems, including pain. Fortunately, as this study suggests, chiropractic can help.
That’s good to know no matter your age and the condition of your spine. Talk to your doctor of chiropractic for more information. A healthy spine means a healthy you!
A Better Life with Chiropractic
Why take your kids to the chiropractor? For many of the same reasons every adult should be visiting a chiropractor on a regular basis. Plain and simple, your quality of life improves with chiropractic care.
Look no further than a study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, which evaluated nearly 900 children ages 8-17 who received chiropractic spinal adjustments and related therapies commonly provided by DCs.
Quality of life, measured in terms of depression, anxiety and interference with daily activities due to pain as part of the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)-25 assessment tool, was significantly higher in children under the care of a chiropractor. Specifically, children were significantly less likely to report any symptoms of depression, anxiety or pain interference following a trial of chiropractic care. The researchers also accounted for variables that could have influenced the outcomes, such as number of visits, pain level, motivation for care, etc.
Give your children (and yourself) a better life with chiropractic. The sooner your kids experience the health and wellness benefits of regular chiropractic care, the better. After all, what parent doesn’t want their children to grow up with as little depression, anxiety and pain as possible? Talk to your chiropractor for more information. To learn more about chiropractic for kids, including additional research documenting the safety and health benefits of pediatric chiropractic, visit the website of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA).
Are You Eating Your Way to Cancer?
Not concerned with your processed food intake? After all, you don’t do it all the time, right? A new study suggests even a small percentage increase in ultra-processed food consumption can increase the risk of cancer by more than that amount.
First, what’s ultra-processed food? Here’s how the researchers who performed this study and reported on their findings in the British Medical Journal, defined it: “mass produced packaged breads and buns; sweet or savoury packaged snacks; industrialised confectionery and desserts; sodas and sweetened drinks; meat balls, poultry and fish nuggets, and other reconstituted meat products transformed with addition of preservatives other than salt (for example, nitrites); instant noodles and soups; frozen or shelf stable ready meals; and other food products made mostly or entirely from sugar, oils and fats, and other substances not commonly used in culinary preparations such as hydrogenated oils, modified starches, and protein isolates.”
Sound familiar? Yes, that’s the commonly consumed American diet in a nutshell. Unfortunately, when the researchers evaluated cancer risk based on ultra-processed food consumption, they found a mere 10 percent increase in consumption increased cancer risk significantly (by greater than 10 percent). In other words, eating more ultra-processed foods definitely wasn’t worth the risk.
But don’t think your diet has to be Spartan to improve your odds. Here’s the diet researchers considered not ultra-processed for comparison: “‘unprocessed or minimally processed foods’ (fresh, dried, ground, chilled, frozen, pasteurised, or fermented staple foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses, rice, pasta, eggs, meat, fish, or milk), ‘processed culinary ingredients’ (salt, vegetable oils, butter, sugar, and other substances extracted from foods and used in kitchens to transform unprocessed or minimally processed foods into culinary preparations), and ‘processed foods’ (canned vegetables with added salt, sugar coated dried fruits, meat products preserved only by salting, cheeses, freshly made unpackaged breads, and other products manufactured with the addition of salt, sugar, or other substances of the ‘processed culinary ingredients’ group).”
Trust us, you don’t want cancer, and anyone who’s diagnosed with cancer wishes they’d made dietary, exercise and other lifestyle changes sooner. Your doctor can tell you more about healthy eating and how even small steps can make a big difference.
Why You Should Be Making Periodic Visits to Your Chiropractor
When you experience back pain, chiropractic care can help relieve the pain and identify the underlying cause. But your care shouldn’t stop once the pain stops (or comes back, which can frequently happen).
A new study suggests maintenance chiropractic care (defined by the researchers as “treatment at regular intervals regardless of symptoms”) is more effective than symptomatic treatment (receiving chiropractic treatment only when you’re experiencing pain).
In the study, patients with recurrent / persistent low back pain who received maintenance care (scheduled every 1-3 months) after their initial treatment reported an average of 19.3 less days of “bothersome” low back pain over a 12-month period compared to patients who received only symptomatic chiropractic care. Overall, during the 12-month period, maintenance care patients made seven visits, on average, to their chiropractor, versus five visits, on average, for symptomatic patients.
So, if you’re suffering low back pain and your chiropractor suggests you come in periodically for treatment, you may want to heed his/her advice. It’s a research-supported suggestion that could dramatically reduce the amount of time you spend in pain.
A new study finds heavy drinking increases your chances of developing dementia.
By Nicole Karlis / Salon
Heavy drinking could increase one’s chances of developing dementia, a condition characterized by memory loss and brain impairment, a new study claims.
The research, published in the journal Lancet Public Health, and comprised of a nationwide study in France considered to be the largest of its kind, analyzed over one million adults in France released from hospitals who were diagnosed with dementia between 2008 and 2013. Researchers were aided by the French National Hospital Discharge database. Researchers winnowed the 1 million patients down to a sample size of 57,000 people with early-onset dementia — meaning those who developed it before the age of 65 — and found that more than half had been diagnosed with alcohol-use disorder or had brain damage that may have been alcohol-related.
“The findings indicate that heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders are the most important risk factors for dementia, and especially important for those types of dementia which start before age 65, and which lead to premature deaths,” Dr. Jürgen Rehm, co-author and Director of the CAMH Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, told Science Daily. “Alcohol-induced brain damage and dementia are preventable, and known-effective preventive and policy measures can make a dent into premature dementia deaths.”
Regarding the early onset cohort, there was a significant gender split: 64.9 percent were men.
CAMH Vice-President of Research Dr. Bruce Pollock told Science Daily preventative care can help prevent early onset.
“As a geriatric psychiatrist, I frequently see the effects of alcohol use disorder on dementia, when unfortunately alcohol treatment interventions may be too late to improve cognition,” Pollock told Science Daily. “Screening for and reduction of problem drinking, and treatment for alcohol use disorders need to start much earlier in primary care.”
Could Vitamin D Prevent a Flu Epidemic?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates, this winter’s flu season is on track to be worse than that of the 2014-2015 season when 34 million Americans got the flu, 710,000 were hospitalized, and 56,000 died (The New York Times, January 26, 2018). Newsweek reported that schools in at least 12 states have closed for some period of time due to the flu. Over the past 34 years, February has been the most common month for peak flu activity.
Why Is the Flu More Common in Winter?
There are two basic reasons:
\1. The influenza virus lives longer outside the human body when it is cold and dry, resulting in the flu season starting in late fall as cold air reduces the absolute humidity of the air.
\2. Vitamin D levels tend to be lower in winter. The research paper, “Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D,” graphs the seasonal variation of vitamin D levels of inhabitants, aged 50-80 years, of a small southern German town. Average levels were just above 30 in the summer and around 13 in late winter.
But My Vitamin D Level Is High Enough
Most likely you live in the United States or Canada, so maybe you think this doesn’t apply to you, but it does. The average vitamin D level of Americans is approximately 24 ng/ml.
48 scientists agree that optimal vitamin D levels are 40-60 ng/ml.
Read the rest of this article with graphs and links.
Easy Exercises for Ankle Sprains
By Editorial Staff
Ankle sprains can sideline you for a few days, a few weeks or even longer, depending on the severity, but at some point, after the swelling subsides, it’s important to initiate simple movement strategies to help stretch the area and strengthen it so the injury won’t repeat itself.
Fortunately, the most common exercises recommended by experts, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, are simple to understand and easy to perform. Believe it or not, the key to getting back on your feet isn’t just to immobilize the ankle; it’s actually to do the opposite: get it moving again and hopefully restore pain-free, strong range of motion again. Here are a few of the best exercises to get you started:
For Range of Motion
Use a towel or band to pull the foot toward the face in a non-gravity position (lying down). Hold a pain-free stretch for 15-30 seconds; repeat four more times. Repeat exercise 3-5 times a day.
Stand with heels on floor and bend at knees. Hold a pain-free stretch for 15-30 seconds. Perform five repetitions; repeat exercise 3-5 times a day.
Draw letters of the alphabet (lowercase and uppercase) with affected foot. Repeat 4-5 times a day.
For Strengthening
Using wall, floor or opposite foot for resistance: push foot downward, pull foot upward, push foot inward and outward. Hold each position for 5 seconds, do 10 repetitions for each position, and repeat entire exercise sequence three times a day.
With affected foot on towel, curl toes to move towel toward body. Perform 10 repetitions, twice a day. Can also curl toes throughout day during normal activities.
Use toes of affected foot to pick up marbles or similar objects from floor. Perform 10 repetitions, twice a day.
Walk forward and backward on toes and heels. Perform 10 repetitions of each direction (as tolerated); repeat twice per day.
Keep in mind that depending on the severity of the sprain and the types of activities you perform, you’ll need to progress from these exercises to maneuvers that re-establish balance, postural control and a full functional return to activity. That means you’ll need to build up to running / cutting / moving just like you did prior to the injury.
Also keep in mind that chiropractic care can be a great option as well, which your doctor of chiropractic can discuss with you along with the tips mentioned above. A great article on conservative care for ankle sprains highlights exercise options and the potential for chiropractic care to assist in the rehab process.