Healthy Life Newsletter, March 2023
5 Common Causes of Neck Pain (and How Chiropractic Can Help)
Neck pain can be acute (short term) or chronic (recurring or persisting for months and even years), but regardless, when you’re in pain, relief is the first thing on your mind. Just as important as relief, of course, is finding the cause and ensuring you avoid the behavior / action that brought the pain on in the first place.
Here are five common causes of neck pain – and why doctors of chiropractic are well-suited to relieve the pain and determine the underlying cause.
\1. Poor Posture: Leaning over a desk all day or slouching in your office chair? You’re bound to develop neck pain eventually, if you haven’t already. Do this quick test: In an upright or seated position, round your shoulders and back (poor posture). Does it impact your neck as well? Exactly!
\2. Monitor Madness: Staring at the computer screen for hours at a time? That’s not good for your health (or sanity), but from a neck pain perspective, it’s madness, particularly if the screen height forces you to crane your neck up (too high) or extend it down (too low).
\3. Sleep Issues: Ideally, we spend a third of our day sleeping, so your sleep habits – for better or worse – can have a dramatic effect on your health. With regard to neck pain, anytime you sleep in an uncomfortable position, particularly one that stresses your neck musculature (think about side-sleeping while grabbing your pillow tightly, sleeping on your stomach with your arms out in front of you, or even sleeping on your back, but with a pillow that doesn’t adequately support your neck), you risk neck pain.
\4. Technology Overload: We may spend a third of our day sleeping, but we increasingly spend the other 16 hours typing, texting, tapping and otherwise interacting with our smartphones, tablets, etc. Bottom line: bad for your neck. One doctor has even coined the phrase, “text neck,” to describe the neck pain that can result from this constant technology interaction.
\5. The Wrong Movement: Twisting, turning, stretching and stressing your neck is an easy way to cause neck pain. While the muscles in the neck are strong, they can be strained, sprained and even torn, just like any other muscle.
It’s important to note that beyond these common causes, various other health issues can also contribute to or directly cause neck pain, including fibromyalgia, cervical arthritis or spondylosis (essentially spinal arthritis), spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), infection of the spine, and even cancer. The good news is that a doctor of chiropractic can help identify which of these or the above causes is to blame.
When neck pain strikes, most people turn to a temporary solution first: pain-relieving medication. But that’s not a permanent solution, of course, and it doesn’t address the cause of the pain at all, which could be something relatively minor – or more serious. What’s more, research suggests chiropractic spinal manipulation is actually more effective than over-the-counter and prescription medication for relieving both acute and subacute neck pain.
Eat to Live Longer
A healthy diet can help you live longer by reducing your risk of chronic and life-threatening conditions including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and more – but you probably know that already. OK, but do you know what a healthy diet really means? Researchers have discovered the dietary patterns best suited to longevity.
Using dietary data drawn from two large surveys: the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2020) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2020), the researchers tracked participants for more than three decades to determine how their diet influenced how long they lived. All participants were given dietary scores reflecting four healthy-eating patterns: Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-2015), Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED) score, Healthful Plant-based Diet Index (HPDI), and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).
[G]reater adherence to various healthy eating patterns was consistently associated with lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality.” In fact, each participant’s four dietary scores “were inversely associated with the risk of most major causes of death,” according to the researchers. The healthier one’s diet, the lower their risk of death during the study period, pure and simple.
If you’ve been trying to eat healthier, but aren’t sure if you’re doing it right; or if you want to eat healthier, but don’t know how to get started, ask your doctor to outline a sensible, maintainable nutrition program suitable to your health needs.
The Key to Preserving Muscle?
We lose muscle mass as we age, pure and simple. In fact, there’s a name for it: sarcopenia, and it starts earlier in life than you might think – 3-8 percent loss per decade after age 30.
And once you celebrate your 60th birthday, the rate of decline accelerates.
Preserving muscle is important from a health perspective because low muscle mass means more weakness and mobility issues, which can increase fall / fracture risk. Depending on your age, a fall / fracture can be a serious health complication; in fact, falls are the #1 cause of death in adults over the age of 65, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
So, what’s the key to preserving muscle mass? According to new research, it could be as simple as incorporating more activity breaks into your day after eating, especially if you’re a chronic sitter due to a desk job … or just a sedentary lifestyle. Study participants spent nearly eight hours sitting, interrupted every half hour by short episodes of walking (two minutes per break) or body-weight squatting (15 repetitions per break). Doing so appeared to increase the efficiency of dietary amino acids, which are utilized to synthesize muscle protein.
In other words, periodic activity (which the researchers aptly called “activity snacks”) improved the body’s ability to build muscle, particularly after a meal, when dietary protein synthesis occurs. Findings appear in the Journal of Applied Physiology. If you’re a chronic sitter, schedule periodic “activity snacks” throughout the day on your smartphone. The older you get, the more you – and your muscles – will appreciate it.
Two Recent Studies Show Chiropractic Most Effective and Least Costly for Low Back Pain
The first study (of people who experience “nonsurgical” low back pain or “LBP”) was conducted from 2017-2019: What Happens When LBP Patients See a Doctor of Chiropractic First
In the study, the research team tracked 503,958 low back pain patients seeing 196,522 different health care providers (HCPs) utilizing 13 different health care services, with a total cost of $387,867,096. Their approach was to look at which provider type was the last seen by the patient to resolve their LBP. The study also tracked the first provider and provider type each patient saw on their path to resolution.
Primary care physicians (PCPs) were the first providers for 35.2% of episodes, followed by doctors of chiropractic (DCs) (first providers for 25.9% of episodes), nurse practitioners (7.5% of episodes), radiologists (6.0%) and orthopedic surgeons (5.5%). Just over half of patients saw only one provider, with 30.2% seeking care from a second HCP, 11.8% seeking care from a third HCP, 5.2% from a fourth and 2.5% from a fifth.
Compared to primary care providers, when DCs were the initial-contact provider, they were the most likely to be the only and last one seen (84 percent of patients). DCs were also the most likely to be the last health care provider when they were the second, third and fourth HCP seen. Not surprisingly, neurosurgeons were among the least likely to be the last HCP seen. (The only or the last provider seen means the patient had their problem resolved enough not to seek further care).
Chiropractic Manipulation: The Most Effective, Least Costly First-Line Service
The second study by the same team compared first-line services: chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT), active care (AC), manual therapy (MT), and acupuncture, to see which was more efficient. The researchers looked at the number of visits, total costs and reduction in utilization of second- and third-line services like nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and opioids. The study followed 132,199 nonsurgical LBP patients who received initial care from 1,336 different DCs, 2,734 different PTs and 1,339 different acupuncturists (LAc), with a total cost of $62,185,930. The most common duration of care was between one and three visits. Almost half (48.2%) of CMT episodes came in at three or fewer visits, followed by MT (32.1%), AC (29.7%) and acupuncture (27.0%). This number of visits resulted in the lowest utilization of second- and third-line services.
This study concluded that “CMT was associated with lowest median total episode cost at each level of visit utilization.” CMT also resulted in the lowest exposure to second- and third-line services.
The First, Not Last, Option for LBP
Together, these two studies make sound arguments for beginning nonsurgical low back pain care with chiropractors. Chiropractic was shown to be the most efficient first-line care, reducing costs, as well as the use of opioids and other second- and third-line services. When it comes to low back pain, chiropractic should be the first, not last, option.
References
Elton D, Zhang M. Low back pain care pathways - is the last provider seen more important than the first: a retrospective cohort study. medRxiv 2022.10.27.22281624. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.27.22281624v1
Elton D, Zhang M. Low back pain service utilization and costs: association with number of visits of chiropractic manipulation, active care, or manual therapy. A retrospective cohort study. medRxiv, 2022.10.28.22281664. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.28.22281664v2.full
Mindfulness Exercises Can Be as Effective as Anxiety Drugs, Study Shows
Breathing and body exercises helped relieve anxiety as effectively as medications over an eight-week study of 208 people
Practicing mindfulness to relieve anxiety can be just as effective as medication, new research shows.
A recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry showed that people who received eight weeks of mindfulness-based interventions experienced a decrease in anxiety that matched those who were prescribed escitalopram, a common anti-anxiety medication that is often prescribed under the brand name Lexapro.
A seven-point scale was used to assess anxiety among 208 participants, with a score of seven representing extreme anxiety and a score of one being normal. In both the medication and the mindfulness groups, the average score after treatment dropped from a moderate level of anxiety to a mild level of anxiety.
Read the whole article from the Washington Post at washingtonpost.com
The following is excerpted from an extremely interesting article published in the New York Times. You can read the whole thing at nytimes.com
Unhealthy Foods Aren’t Just Bad for You, They May Also Be Addictive
Food researchers debate whether highly processed foods like potato chips and ice cream are addictive, triggering our brains to overeat.
Five years ago, a group of nutrition scientists studied what Americans eat and reached a striking conclusion: More than half of all the calories that the average American consumes comes from ultra-processed foods, which they defined as “industrial formulations” that combine large amounts of sugar, salt, oils, fats and other additives.
Highly processed foods continue to dominate the American diet, despite being linked to obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other health problems. They are cheap and convenient, and engineered to taste good. They are aggressively marketed by the food industry. But a growing number of scientists say another reason these foods are so heavily consumed is that for many people they are not just tempting but addictive, a notion that has sparked controversy among researchers.
Dr. Gearhardt, a clinical psychologist, helped develop the Yale Food Addiction Scale, a survey that is used to determine whether a person shows signs of addictive behavior toward food. In one study involving more than 500 people, she and her colleagues found that certain foods were especially likely to elicit “addictive-like” eating behaviors, such as intense cravings, a loss of control, and an inability to cut back despite experiencing harmful consequences and a strong desire to stop eating them.
At the top of the list were pizza, chocolate, potato chips, cookies, ice cream, French fries and cheeseburgers. Dr. Gearhardt has found in her research that these highly processed foods share much in common with addictive substances. Like cigarettes and cocaine, their ingredients are derived from naturally occurring plants and foods that are stripped of components that slow their absorption, such as fiber, water and protein. Then their most pleasurable ingredients are refined and processed into products that are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, enhancing their ability to light up regions of the brain that regulate reward, emotion and motivation.
For people who struggle with limiting their intake of highly processed foods, Dr. Gearhardt recommends keeping a journal of what you eat so you can identify the foods that have the most pull — the ones that cause intense cravings and that you can’t stop eating once you start. Keep those foods out of your home, while stocking your fridge and pantry with healthier alternatives that you enjoy, she said.