*INTRODUCTION
*HEALTH NEWS - The latest news in health
*FEATURE ARTICLE - Muscular strength and
chiropractic care
*HEALTH RESEARCH - Current research you
should be aware of
*HOW TO CONTACT US
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the third issue of Health-E-Newsletter, a
weekly newsletter for those interested in a wide variety of up-to-date
health news. Our mission is to provide informative, useful, and
current health news for the betterment of our community. This
information was found online and in peer-reviewed health and medical
journals and is not intended to be a replacement for professional health
care. Please forward this to friends, family, discussion groups
and others so that they may benefit as well. If you have
questions, comments, suggestions for future articles, or to
subscribe/unsubscribe, please let us know at:
Essence of Wellness
Yours in health,
Dean L. Smith, D.C., M.Sc.
Jane Palmer Smith, D.C.
We look forward to serving you.
HEALTH NEWS
*Important Note* Since last week there
have been a number of important health related articles that have been
published relating to improved quality of life. As you know we are
primarily concerned with improving your quality of life and hence, we
urge you to please read the articles/abstracts listed below. As
such, this newsletter is longer than usual, but well worth the read :)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids are everywhere
in the literature and media recently. You might have heard about
the "amazing" health results derived from these fats such as
its protective role against cancer, anti-inflammatory capabilities and
its role in preventing stroke as well as many others.
I will attempt to explain what omega-3 fatty acids are, why they are
important and why you should care.
What are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?
Fats are put together a little differently than
carbohydrates (sugars) and proteins. The base molecule for fat is
the triglyceride. It is a 3 pronged molecule, with glycerol as a
base. Attached to each of the prongs of the molecule is a long
molecule called a fatty acid. Linolenic acid is the prime member of the
omega-3 family. This acid cannot be made in the body and
must be supplied by foods.
Importance of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Fats have critical and essential
regulatory roles for every facet of metabolism and health. A few
roles and functions of fats in general:
1. source of calories
2. storage form of calories
3. insulation and shock-absorbing mechanical
qualities
4. forms the structure of cell membranes
5. cell signaling and transmission
6. precursors for steroid hormones
7. essential for growth, development, and health
maintenance
8. transport and uptake of fat-soluble vitamins
Why should you care?
An explosion of research into the health
effects of omega-3 fatty acids has occurred since 1980. The
rationale for the use of omega-3 fatty acids is to influence the fat in
cell membranes so that one can enhance production of anti-inflammatory (eicosanoids)
and reduce pro-inflammatory (eicosanoids) conditions. A diet
leading to an inflammatory state of our systems, has been proposed to
promote changes in gene activity that would promote cancer, heart
disease, rheumatoid arthritis and many other diseases. A diet rich
in omega-3 fatty acids on the other hand has been proposed to reduce
these harmful effects.
Given linolenic acid, the body can make 2
other omega-3's, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic
acid). Linolenic acid can be found in: fats and oils (canola,
soybean, walnut, wheat germ) nuts and seeds, vegetables (soybeans).
EPA and DHA can be found in: human milk, shellfish and fish (mackeral,
tuna, salmon, bluefish, mullet, sturgeon, anchovy, herring, trout,
sardines).
Our data indicate that higher consumption of fish and
omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is associated with a reduced risk of
thrombotic infarction, primarily among women who do not take
aspirin regularly, but is not related to risk of hemorrhagic stroke.
Epidemiological observations reveal that
Japanese women, who eat a low-fat diet with a high fish consumption,
have a much lower incidence of breast cancer than North American and
European women who eat a higher fat diet rich in omega-6 polyunsaturated
fats. This observation has been supported by experimental research that
omega-6 fatty acids like corn and safflower oil can promote tumor
growth, and omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil can inhibit tumor
growth. Omega-3 fatty acids serve a protective role against breast
cancer by competitively inhibiting harmful omega-6 metabolites that may
be responsible for tumor promotion.
Several sources of information suggest that man evolved on
a diet with a ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids of
approximately 1 whereas today this ratio is approximately 10:1
to 20-25:1, indicating that Western diets are deficient in
omega 3 fatty acids compared with the diet on which humans evolved
and their genetic patterns were established. Omega-3
fatty acids increase bleeding time; decrease platelet
aggregation, blood viscosity, and fibrinogen; and increase
erythrocyte deformability, thus decreasing the tendency to
thrombus formation.
Report
Helps Clear Vitamin Confusion
Call it vitamania: About 40 percent of Americans pop vitamin pills. But
just how much of each vitamin does your body need? When does food provide
enough? And how much is too much? A prestigious science group has just
updated national guidelines on how much of every vitamin and mineral
Americans should eat daily for good health - plus a never-before-compiled
list of which popular megadose vitamins could harm them.
Early exposure to germs may help protect children from
developing asthma or allergies later in life, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Arizona's Respiratory Sciences Center
followed the progress of 1,035 children from birth to the age of 13.
They found that infants taken to day-care centers are less likely to
develop asthma than those children who aren't. And it seems the earlier
that exposure comes, the better off the child will be.
________________________________
FEATURE ARTICLE
By: Dean L. Smith, D.C., M.Sc.
Muscular Strength and Chiropractic Care
Several studies have examined the relationship between
chiropractic adjustments and muscular strength. Smith and Cox recently
reviewed research investigations regarding strength and chiropractic
care (1). These studies have shown improvement of strength in athletes,
young subjects, males and females, and those with or without symptoms.
We cannot each be as massive as the famous body builders such as Arnold
Schwarzenegger (nor would a lot of us care to be), but nearly everyone
can improve strength. Most athletes today, include strength and power
training as important components of their complete training programs. In
fact, resistance training is now recognized as important for nonathletes
who seek the health-related benefits of exercise.
Mechanisms of Strength via Chiropractic Adjustment
There are 3 key determinants of a muscle’s ability to produce force:
1. neural factors, 2. muscular factors and 3. biomechanics. Chiropractic
may improve these determinants in a few different ways. Firstly, neural
processes could be improved via restoration of appropriate patterns of
sensory input (e.g. mechanoreceptors) and/or motor output. Secondly,
appropriate movement patterns can be facilitated by removing motion
restrictions and restoring normal joint biomechanics. Finally, muscle
properties such as length-tension relationships and resting tone are
reliant on neural and biomechanical factors and thus may be affected by
the processes described above.
Why Add Strength Training to Chiropractic Care?
Strength training has numerous benefits. For athletes, these benefits
may include the ability to generate more force during a movement, more
power production [(force x distance)/time], and the ability to
repeatedly develop and sustain near maximal or maximal forces. For
example, the golfer who is required to maintain a semi-standing position
while putting may require less muscular effort to do so; or the wrestler
who is required to maintain a static position while they attempt to pin
their opponent can do so better after strength training. Improved
strength and co-ordination can also decrease the incidence of future
injury and contribute to better structural integrity.
The person who has endured an acute injury can benefit from strength
exercises as well. In general, it is recommended to start with static
(isometric) exercises at first to avoid gross joint movement, allow for
edema (fluid) to be “pumped” out of the area, activate the neural
factors in the muscle and connective tissue, avoid deconditioning
(weakening) and to keep people active in their care. While the tissues
are inflamed, light static contraction can be done by the various muscle
groups to tolerance. Avoid prolonged static contractions as vascular
stasis (lacking flow) may occur during this type of contraction. Once
the inflammation has reduced and the joints have been mobilized via
adjustments and reduction in pain and guarding, more active concentric
(for example doing a curl to strengthen the biceps) activity can
benefit. Finally, once the tissues allow, eccentric (negative) actions
will strengthen the muscle fibers and stress the connective tissue.
Strengthening exercises, along with stretching may also help organize
scar tissue formation and prevent haphazard alignment of healing tissue.
Don’t forget that chiropractic adjustments also aid by improving
biomechanics and neurological status!
The Nature and Benefit of Strength Training
A single exercise is usually not sufficient to evoke a training
response. To achieve a “training” effect, a certain amount of
repetitions need to be performed during any given session. Basically
there are three principles of training that can be discriminated (2):
1. the principle of repetition
2. the principle of summation
3. the principle of duration
In general, the benefits of a single training session such as improved
neural co-ordination, adaptive protein synthesis and supercompensation
of energy will not hold if there are no subsequent sessions. Stable
training benefits necessitate a systematic approach with frequent
sessions of appropriate duration. It is important to note that the
demands of training must gradually increase due to adaptation of the
same stimulus intensity.
Changes take place at the level of cellular structure to organs and
their systems that are involved directly in muscular activity (muscles),
in organs attaining the function of muscles (cardiovascular/respiratory
systems and liver), in tissues supporting muscle function (connective
and skeletal tissue), and in the central and peripheral nervous system
and endocrine glands that co-ordinate the functions and metabolic
processes and effects of muscles (2).
If these benefits are not enough to convince you to incorporate strength
training into your routine, consider the following facts. In humans,
muscle constitutes 40-50% of total body mass (3) with over 430 muscles
(4). There are a high percentage of afferents (nerve messages) from
muscle and these impact not only muscle reflexively, but also have
important connections to cardiovascular regulation (5). The activity of
the cardiovascular system is intimately linked to the activity of the
muscular system (5). Because muscle represents such a high proportion of
body mass, it requires considerable fuel and could generate considerable
heat and metabolic waste (e.g. acids) and thus can be a threat to
homeostasis. Muscles that are deconditioned may be ill prepared in
dealing with “normal” everyday stresses appropriately.
Summary
It is recommended that in addition to chiropractic care, individuals
adopt some form of strength training. Chiropractic adjustments can
enhance strength. Resistance training can be added as an adjunct to
chiropractic care to maximize strength gain. Enhancements in strength
have a number of positive manifestations some of which are perceived and
others not. The ability of the chiropractor to impact muscular function
can have widespread bodily effects.
Resources:
For those interested in pursuing this topic, the following websites and
references may help:
http://www.humankinetics.com
for a wide variety of books and media on strength training.
http://www.nsca-cc.org
http://www.chiropractic.org/councils/fitness_certification.htm
for the ICA’s certification program in exercise and fitness.
References
1. Smith DL, Cox RH. Muscular strength and chiropractic: theoretical
mechanisms and health implications. JVSR 1999-2000; 3(4):1-13.
2. Viru A, Viru M. Nature of training effects. In: Garrett WE,
Kirkendall DT, editors. Exercise and sport science. Philadelphia, PA:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000.
3. Williams PL, Bannister LH. Gray’s anatomy: the anatomical basis of
medicine and surgery. New York, NY: Churchill Livingstone, 1995.
4. McArdle WD, Katch FI, Katch VL. Essentials of exercise physiology.
Malvern, PA: Lea & Feabiger, 1994.
5. Rowell L. Human cardiovascular control. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
________________________________
HEALTH RESEARCH
Overall, the new study found that back pain made up the
overwhelming share of workplace problems, along with muscle and bone
disorders and wrist injuries, including carpal tunnel syndrome. It
estimated that these maladies cost the country $45 billion to $54
billion annually in compensation, lost wages and lowered productivity.
"Accutane is prescribed as a last resort for severe
cases of acne. In researching, Laurie Stupak said she was stunned to
find that the Federal Food and Drug Administration had published reports
indicating that Accutane may trigger psychosis and suicidal tendencies.
A 1998 FDA report linked the drug with 31 reports of suicide, suicide
attempts or having thoughts of suicide. Despite these reports, no
warning label accompanied the drug."
Risk of work-related
injuries/illnesses among females has not been well documented. This
study compares compensable work-related injuries/illnesses between
females and males across all major industrial sectors and occupations
using a state-managed Workers Compensation database. The
distribution of types of injury/illness varied by gender, occupation,
and industry with significantly higher risk of carpal tunnel syndrome,
burn, sprain, and fracture in females compared to males.
We find it paramount to measure the patient's structure
on the outside (posture) and use radiography for the segmental
alignments on the inside (spine). The measurements gathered are used to
uniquely determine the specific interventions chosen for each individual
patient.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Essence of Wellness Chiropractic Center
Dean Smith, D.C., M.Sc.
Jane Palmer Smith, D.C.
890 South Barron St.
Eaton, Ohio 45320
(937) 456-4555
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