Healthy Life Newsletter, June 2024
A Note from Dr. Mha Atma
To survive in this whacky world, it’s helpful for me to stop every day and count my blessings. Gratitude gives fortitude. There is a lot of turmoil and suffering in our world, but also a lot of beauty and kindness. Creating and remembering this is good for my health…and yours.
Patient of the Month: Jashandeep Singh
I had back pain for the last two years and most of the time felt less energetic. The pain started from my neck region going all the way down to the bottom of the spine. The pain was moderate to high. I did see a chiropractor in India some time ago. He was very good and I felt better at the time. But my pain had returned and all I could do was put Bengay on my back muscles which gave temporary relief.
I wanted to see an experienced chiropractor and was glad to find Dr. Mha Atma. I knew chiropractic would help me and I was very positive before I came here that it would help. I am glad I was right. Dr. Mha Atma and his office made me feel certain that I was in the right place. He recommended treatment, twice weekly at first, and daily exercises for the back as well as taking vitamin D.
I have felt a lot better in these four months since beginning treatment, especially considering that I had the problem for a long time. Also my mother and sister received chiropractic care and it has a big difference for them and really helped. I absolutely recommend chiropractic to people who want to improve their health. I have told about six people about it so far. I tell them that they well feel a lot more energetic and less or no stress in their daily activities.
I realize that I need to continue doing exercises regularly and make them a part of life going forward. And I will continue my chiropractic care even after I feel 100 percent.
Please keep up the good work that you do to make a difference in people’s lives. Your office is excellent and second to none.
Reducing Opioid Use: DCs vs. PTs
A study recently published in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine compares use of opioids, spinal injections and specialty medical care according to whether the patient saw a physical therapist (PT) or a doctor of chiropractic (DC).1
The authors note that “(t)here have been no physical therapy treatments that lower the use of opioids in acute or chronic pain.2 This includes direct care: manual therapy, active care: physical activity, and passive care: exercise therapy, heat, needle therapy (acupuncture or dry needling), therapeutic exercise, neuromuscular re-education, ultrasound, mechanical traction, and electric stimulation. If any combination of active or passive care is performed, opiate use increases by 50%. If one passive intervention is used, spinal injections increase by 32%, and M.D. specialty care increases by 27%. If any combination of passive and active care is performed, spinal injections increase by 53%, and M.D. specialty care increases by 50%. If 2 or more passive interventions were used, there was a 50% to 80% greater likelihood of the escalation of care events.”
In addition, they found physical therapy resulted in as much as an 80% increase in opioids in 90% of PT patients.
In contrast, the authors point out that chiropractic care reduces opioid prescriptions by 55% versus other therapies, with an opioid prescription cost reduction of 74%.3 They also note that the 365-day adjusted risk of a chiropractic patient filing an opioid prescription on their initial visit was 56% lower than non-chiropractic patients in an older population.4 The authors continue that for back-related conditions, chiropractic care reduced secondary disability by 313% compared to physical therapy.5 Likewise, chiropractic care helps 96% of patients, including low back pain patients.6
To see the rest of this article and the references, see dynamicchiropractic.com
The Sleepless Night Diet
Need another sleepless night? Keep eating ultraprocessed foods (UPF). That’s the conclusion of a study that evaluated UPF intake and insomnia in a large sample (38,570 adults). All participants completed a sleep questionnaire to assess sleep quality and at least two 24-hour dietary recall records.
Results revealed a “a statistically significant association between UPF intake and chronic insomnia, independent of sociodemographic, lifestyle, diet quality, and mental health status.”
Insomnia is more common than most people think; in fact, many people who don’t think they’re suffering from insomnia actually are. According to the National Institutes of Health, “With insomnia, you may have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting good quality sleep. This happens even if you have the time and the right environment to sleep well.” Probably makes you wonder if you’re suffering from insomnia, right?
Ultraprocessed foods aren’t just associated with insomnia; health conditions such as diabetes, obesity and even cancer are linked to UPF consumption. You’re likely eating at least some ultraprocessed foods without realizing it; think ice cream, breakfast cereals, instant soups, processed meats and a lot more (click here for more information). The bottom line: the more you limit your UPF intake, the better it is for your health.
Great for Memory
Imagine struggling with memory – not remembering the best moments in your life; the ones that happened yesterday or the ones that took place 20 years ago. One way to help preserve memory appears to be by avoiding the Western diet as much as possible, because memory deficits can occur in response to the Western diet even when we’re young.
What’s the Western diet? It’s the diet characteristic of Western countries – particularly the United States. Think sugar-sweetened, processed, refined foods: cookies, crackers, soft drinks, fried foods, high-fat dairy and red meat, etc. Compare that to the non-Western diet, more characteristic in Eastern countries; think Middle Eastern and Asian diets that feature more vegetables, unrefined / raw foods, and far less refined, sugary foods that lack solid nutrition.
According to a new study published in the research journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, long-lasting memory deficits can occur in response to the Western diet in early life – even if a healthier diet is subsequently introduced. The take-home point is clear: The importance of a healthy diet begins as soon as your child can eat solid food and continues throughout life. Their memory may depend on it.
Kids Need Exercise
Planting the seeds of lifelong physical fitness has benefits for children and adolescents that pay off right away in the form of mental health. That’s the conclusion of a new study that assessed how physical fitness affects anxiety, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in nearly 2 million children and adolescents (ages 10-11 when the study began).
Various physical fitness tests were used to assess “cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, muscular power (MP), and flexibility, measured through an 800-meter run time, bent-leg curl-ups, standing broad jump, and sit-and-reach test, respectively. …Diagnoses of [anxiety, depression and ADHD] were based on clinical interviews conducted with parents and children by clinicians. These assessments also incorporated observations or evaluations by school teachers.”
Over a minimum of three years of follow-up, researchers determined that higher physical fitness levels are independently associated with a lower risk of having an anxiety disorder, depressive disorder or ADHD in children / adolescents. Cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness appeared to have the greatest impact on disorder risks, according to the researchers, whose findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics.
With screen time and sedentary behavior at an all-time high among children, it’s no wonder their mental health is suffering, as this study emphasizes. The solution? Limit how much your kids sit around and maximize their opportunities to move!
Berries for Blood Pressure
High blood pressure (hypertension) essentially means blood flow through your arteries increases, which can lead to some serious problems over time: we’re talking arterial damage (increasing the risk of arteriosclerosis), coronary artery disease, heart attack or heart failure, kidney damage/failure, and stroke.
Not a pretty picture, but here’s an easy – and tasty – solution: eat berries! According to a recent study, eating at least one serving a day of blueberries and/or strawberries reduces your risk of high blood pressure by nearly 10 percent compared to eating no berries. Researchers postulate that the blood pressure benefits of berries are attributable to a compound called anthocyanin, a dietary flavonoid present in blueberries, strawberries and other berries.
This wasn’t a small study, by the way; it included 87,242 women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study II, 46,672 women from the Nurses’ Health Study I, and 23,043 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up study, all of whom were tracked for 14 years to see who developed high blood pressure. And while there were some limitations, the study did account for other potential risk factors for high blood pressure including family history, body mass index, physical activity, and multiple other dietary factors That means it’s more likely the findings are applicable to the general population – that means you! So get your daily dose of berries as part of a healthy diet and active lifestyle - and feel confident that you’re making every effort to keep your blood pressure within normal limits and in so doing, keep your cardiovascular system in tip-top shape for a lifetime.
Eating for Stroke Prevention
By Michael Greger M.D. FACLM
Strokes are one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. They are the most common cause of seizures in the elderly, the second most common cause of dementia, and a frequent cause of major depression. In short, stroke is a burdensome—but preventable––brain disorder.
What Causes a Stroke?
Strokes can kill instantly and without warning. Most can be thought of as “brain attacks”—like heart attacks, but with the rupturing plaques in our arteries cutting off blood flow to parts of the brain rather than parts of the heart.
Nearly 90 percent of strokes are ischemic, from the Latin ischaemia, meaning “stopping blood.” Blood flow to part of the brain gets cut off, depriving it of oxygen and killing off the part fed by the clogged artery. A small minority of strokes are hemorrhagic, caused by bleeding into the brain when a blood vessel bursts. People who experience a brief stroke may only contend with arm or leg weakness, while those who suffer a major stroke may develop paralysis, lose the ability to speak, or die.
The blood clot may last only a moment—not long enough to notice but still long enough to kill off a tiny portion of our brain. These “silent strokes” can multiply and slowly reduce cognitive function until dementia fully develops.
How to Prevent a Stroke
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, the largest study of risk factors for human disease in history, funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, more than 90 percent of the stroke burden is attributable to modifiable risk factors. For example, about 10 percent of all healthy years of life lost due to stroke may be due to ambient air pollution. Moving away from a city to a more rural area with cleaner air is an option to modify that risk factor, but it may be easier to quit smoking, which accounts for 18 percent of the stroke death and disability. As I discuss in my video What to Eat for Stroke Prevention, diets high in salt are as bad as smoking when it comes to stroke burden, but not as harmful as inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption. Other factors, like sedentary lifestyles, are at play, but they aren’t as bad as not eating enough whole grains, for instance.
As with heart disease, a plant-based diet can reduce stroke risk by reducing cholesterol and blood pressure, while improving blood flow and antioxidant capacity. Most of the studies on plant-based dietary patterns have found a protective effect against stroke, whereas those looking at Westernized eating habits based more on animal foods, added sugars, and fats have found a detrimental effect.
Yes, wrote the director of the Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre, “learning to make vegetarian meals every other day is a tall order for most North Americans, but is feasible given tasty recipes and a positive attitude.”
To read the rest of this article go to nutritionfacts.org
Chiropractic Better than Medication for Neck Pain
A study published in the research journal Annals of Internal Medicine and widely reported by mainstream media suggests chiropractic spinal manipulation is more effective than over-the-counter and prescription medication for relieving acute and subacute neck pain.
Spinal manipulative therapy was more effective than medication in both the short and long term.
The study involved 272 adults ages 18-65 with neck pain of two to 12 weeks’ duration. Participants were recruited from a university research center and a pain management clinic in Minnesota. Spinal manipulation was provided courtesy of a doctor of chiropractic. According to the study, six chiropractors, each with at least five years’ experience, provided treatment, with the specific spinal level to be treated and the number of treatments provided left to the discretion of the individual chiropractor.
Instead of chiropractic care, some patients in the study group received medication as monitored by a licensed medical physician. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen (aspirin), or both served as the first line of pharmacological therapy. With patients who did not respond to or could not tolerate these drugs, narcotic medications and muscle relaxants were prescribed. With each patient, the MD determined the type of medication administered and the number of patient visits.
Self-reported outcomes, including pain, were measured six times during the 12-week treatment period: at two initial (baseline) appointments; two, four, eight and 12 weeks after treatment began; and on two occasions post-treatment (weeks 26 and 52). Objective measures of cervical spine motion were measured at four and 12 weeks by seven trained examiners who were unaware of which treatment the patients were receiving.
After 12 weeks of treatment, a significantly higher proportion of the SMT group experienced reductions of pain of at least 50% [compared to the medication group]. Specifically, at week 12, more than 82 percent of the SMT group reported a 50 percent or greater reduction in pain; 57 percent reported at least a 75 percent reduction and 32 percent reported a 100 percent reduction. By comparison, the medication group reported reductions of only 69 percent, 33 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
In terms of long-term improvement, 75 percent of the SMT group reported at least a 50 percent reduction in pain after 26 weeks, while nearly 81 percent reported at least a 50 percent reduction at 52 weeks. The medication group’s improvement fluctuated from 59 percent reporting pain reduction of 50 percent or more at 26 weeks to 69 percent reporting the same reduction at 52 weeks.
“Participants who received medication seemed to fare worse, with a consistently higher use of pain medications for neck pain throughout the trial’s observational period,” said the study authors. In other words, chiropractic was a much better choice than medication for neck pain.
Interestingly enough, a third group of patients who received home exercise advice instead of chiropractic care or medication also fared better than the medication group during the study period. That means two forms of conservative, drug-free care - both of which are commonly provided by doctors of chiropractic - were more effective than over-the-counter and/or prescription drugs. The moral of the story? The next time you or someone you know is suffering from neck pain, don’t turn to the medicine cabinet or a medical doctor; turn to your doctor of chiropractic.