Healthy Life Newsletter, January 2024
A Note from Dr. Mha Atma
I am aware that many many folks lack the resources, support and awareness required to care for themselves well, as they struggle with the many demands of life in our challenging world. I encourage each of you to do your best to treasure your life and your health, and to share what you learn about living a healthy life with the folks around you, including your experiences with chiropractic care. I hope to see many of you in 2024, and I appreciate you for reading this newsletter and for sharing it with anyone whom you think will find it helpful.
Patient of the Month: Subash Kundanmal
I had persistent pain in my neck and my lower back for at least two years. The pain fluctuated and was aggravated by carrying heavy loads but it continued to bother me frequently. I took over-the-counter pain killers when it was bad. My wife had come to Khalsa Chiropractic years before and the treatment helped her recover from an old injury so I finally decided to try chiropractic for myself.
I was confident the treatment would help. Dr. Mha Atma recommended twice weekly and then weekly adjustments and some stretching exercises. Over a period of several weeks I became far more pain free and productive.
I continued the treatment for many months and then did not continue after the pandemic started. I became very ill with heart failure and was in the hospital in intensive care for a month. When I returned to Khalsa Chiropractic my neck and back pain had returned for several months. As soon as I resumed treatment I started to feel better again. I am feeling much better now but need to continue treatment for further improvement and maintenance.
I recommend chiropractic to anyone who speaks about back or neck pain. I’ve told at least 10 individuals about my experience. I think chiropractic adjustments are an important and essential addition to health maintenance. Dr. Mha Atma is a very caring and compassionate and completely devoted to his patients. I have often used gift cards to begin chiropractic treatment for people that I care for.
The 411 on Vitamin B12
By Michael Greger M.D.
The Benefits of Vitamin B12
We cannot mess around with getting vitamin B12. If we don’t get enough, we may face a wide range of disorders of the gut, blood, brain, and nervous system.
Many case reports detail ways B12 can be life-changing. For instance, a 47-year-old woman had a five-year history of psychosis. She had been treated with antipsychotic drugs and was cognitively impaired and reported visual hallucinations. After her mother revealed that the patient had been following a strict vegan diet for seven years, vitamin B12 supplementation was started and her symptoms went away. She had lost years of her life lost in a psychotic haze—apparently just because she didn’t want to take a supplement.
Vitamin B12 supplementation is mandatory for anyone eating plant-based diets and, as I’ll discuss later, for every one of us from age 65 and up.
Vitamin B12 Deficiency: Symptoms and Treatment
Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause everything from abdominal distention and chronic diarrhea to shortness of breath and swollen, red, painful feet. It can also cause Parkinson’s syndrome–like symptoms, skin darkening (that resolved with supplementation), and bilateral useless hand syndrome, a condition I had never heard of before.
Being deficient in B12 may also manifest in a variety of neurological symptoms—for example, numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, muscle cramps, dizziness, cognitive disturbances, difficulty walking, and erectile dysfunction—as well as fatigue and such psychiatric symptoms as depression along with psychosis.
How can B12 deficiency be treated? Either with B12 supplements or B12-fortified foods.
Read the rest of this article at nutritionfacts.org
Add Yoga for Heart Health
With millions of global participants, yoga is a popular spiritual practice. But yoga has physical benefits as well, including heart health, a point underscored by new research that compared yoga and regular exercise vs. stretching for patients diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure).
Researchers divided hypertensive patients into two groups for comparison. One group performed 15 minutes of yoga, along with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, five times a week for three months. The other group performed 15 minutes of stretching, along with 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, with the same frequency and over the same three-month time period.
Both groups experienced reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, arterial blood pressure and heart rate. However, in the yoga group, systolic BP declined by 10 mmHg vs. only 4 mmHg in the stretching group; while also reducing resting heart rate and 10-year cardiovascular risk. Findings appear in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
Have you tried yoga? If not, now’s the time to see what it can do for you, whether you suffer from high blood pressure – or just want to make sure you never do. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
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.
How to Reduce Your Diabetes Risk Naturally
By James P. Meschino, DC, MS
A recent study suggests that men who perform weight training for an average of 150 minutes per week reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes by 34 percent. This finding is particularly interesting because generally, we think of aerobic (endurance) exercise as an important intervention to prevent and treat diabetes.
The study, published in the August 6 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that the addition of weight training to a healthy diet and aerobic exercise plan may offer additional protection against the development of type 2 diabetes.
Researchers collected data on 32,002 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study from 1990-2008. During that time, there were 2,278 new cases of type 2 diabetes. In their evaluation, the researchers noted that while weight training reduced diabetes risk by 34 percent, men performing 150 minutes per week, on average, of aerobic exercise experienced a 52 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Moreover, men who performed weight training and aerobic exercise, at the above-noted threshold levels (150 minutes / week), showed the lowest risk of developing type 2 diabetes, (59 percent) compared to those engaged in only aerobic or only weight training programs.
How does weight training reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes? By helping to build lean mass. More lean mass means that muscle tissue will extract more glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream to keep itself alive from moment to moment. Muscle tissue has a fast resting metabolic rate. Thus, more lean muscle mass translates into more calories (including glucose or blood sugar) being burned per minute, even when you are at rest. This helps to keep blood sugar lower.
The other benefit is that weight lifting burns many carbohydrate calories stored within our muscles as a substance called glycogen. Thus, after a weight training session, many of the carbohydrate calories consumed during the day are used to rebuild the muscles’ glycogen fuel tank in preparation for the next round of weight training. This effect also helps clear blood sugar (glucose) from the bloodstream, lowering blood sugar and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Talk to your doctor to learn more.
Sleep Loss and Diabetes: It Only Takes a Little
If you haven’t realized how important sleep is to your overall health, you haven’t been witnessing how you feel – for better or worse – depending on how much / how little sleep you get.
The latest research is for women specifically, suggesting that those who get even a little less sleep have an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
How much is “a little less”? Researchers discovered that restricting women’s sleep to approximately six hours per night reduced insulin sensitivity and increased plasma insulin (two risk factors for diabetes) compared with women who slept 7-9 hours a night. The changes were seen after only six weeks. The researchers believe, based on their findings, that chronic sleep restriction (which too many women and men experience) could accelerate the process that leads to type 2 diabetes.
Published in Diabetes Care, the study involved a wide age range of women: 20 to 75 years. As such, these findings are applicable to women young and old who want to reduce their diabetes risk – or even help manage it without drugs if they are already suffering from type 2 diabetes.
How many hours do you sleep on an average night? And how do you feel when you wake up – refreshed and rejuvenated, or tired and sluggish?
Cannabis and Your Baby
Think you already know how cannabis affects babies? Too many expectant mothers don’t know – and are putting their children at risk. That’s because cannabis exposure in the womb appears to impact placental function, adversely affecting pregnancy outcomes.
Among soon-to-be mothers, cannabis exposure increased the risk for an adverse pregnancy outcome – specifically “small-for-gestational-age birth, medically indicated preterm birth, stillbirth, or hypertensive disorders of pregnancy” compared to pregnant women with no cannabis exposure.
Using cannabis beyond the first trimester elevated the risk even higher than women with cannabis use in the first trimester only.
Writing on their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study authors underscore the scope of the problem: “Cannabis use among pregnant people has increased over the past decade in parallel with an increasing perception of safety.” Which brings us back to our initial question and why all future mothers need to know the answer: Cannabis isn’t safe during pregnancy.
Pregnancy is a wonderful time, but there are still natural health risks to both mother and child. Don’t add to the list by using cannabis or being exposed to it in any way. If you’re planning on having a baby or just learned you’re expecting a child, talk to your health care team about the best way to ensure a healthy pregnancy and healthy, happy baby.
The Need for Higher Vitamin D Doses
The Target-D trial has been receiving well-deserved media attention over the last few weeks. The trial, which included 632 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients, was designed to dose vitamin D according to an achieved 25(OH)D serum level with a target of at least 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L). Their findings showed that participants needed much more vitamin D than what is currently recommended and used in other large vitamin D trials that utilize a ‘single dose for all participants’ study design.
One recent example, the VITAL trial, implemented a ‘give all one dose’ protocol, where their vitamin D group received only 2000 IU vitamin D per day, and findings from that study were based on that single dose. In the Target-D trial, only 1 in 10 could achieve a vitamin D level of at least 40 ng/ml using a dose of 2000 IU per day… thus a majority of those in the VITAL trial’s vitamin D group likely remained vitamin D deficient or insufficient – how well can findings using such a study protocol be trusted?
The trial found that 86.5% of participants required a vitamin D dose greater than 2000 IU per day; 14.6% of participants needed more than 10,000 IU per day to reach a vitamin D level of 40 ng/ml or greater.
Managing Low Back Pain: Tips and Strategies for Relieving Your Pain at Home
Self-care is extremely important to our physical, social and mental well-being. There are a variety of ways to take care of your health, but many people overlook the importance of simple home remedies that can effectively manage low back pain.
Here are just a few of the things you can do at home to help manage lower back pain.
Exercise Regularly
Staying active is one of the most important things you can do to manage your pain levels. Regardless of how you exercise (as long as you’re not overworking your back), engaging in regular physical activity can help to improve your flexibility, strength and overall health, resulting in less pain. If you are worried about what activities you can safely engage in with low back pain, talk with your chiropractor.
(Not interested in staying active? You will be glad to know that most people who choose to not make any lifestyle changes to speed up the recovery process will still get better eventually.)
According to one study, Pilates, stabilization or motor control, resistance training, and aerobic exercise training are the most effective treatments for adults with low back pain. So if you have low back pain, consider starting a regular exercise routine that includes any of these – or try them all and see what works best for you!
Go for a Walk
In addition to a regular exercise routine, another way to help manage low back pain is by walking regularly. Not only can regular walking help keep your muscles flexible and strong, but it also allows you to get out of the house or office and enjoy some much-needed fresh air and natural sunlight. To get started, start with short walks at a slow pace and gradually build up your endurance.
Apply Heat or Ice Packs
Applying heat or ice to your low back can be a great way to relieve tightness and pain. If you’re dealing with chronic pain, try using an ice pack first to help reduce inflammation and swelling. Then, keep using it regularly as needed throughout the day to help soothe discomfort. Alternatively, if you’re dealing more with stiffness than pain, try using a heat pack instead to loosen up your muscles and increase circulation.
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques
Believe it or not, the power of your mind can affect the severity of your pain. By practicing mindfulness and other relaxation techniques, you can manage your discomfort more effectively.
In fact, according to one study, mindfulness is associated with the deactivation of the prefrontal and greater activation of somatosensory cortical regions. In short, mindfulness can help relieve your pain by changing the way you think about it.
If you’re feeling stressed or anxious, practicing mindfulness and relaxation techniques can be a great way to lower your stress levels and help reduce overall pain. Breathing exercises, meditation, listening to soothing music, or journaling can be helpful and reduce the pain.
Take-Home Points
Overall, managing low back pain doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. Talk with your chiropractor today about doing some simple self-care activities at home that can keep your back healthy and ease discomfort!