Camarillo Chiropractor: Weekly Sticky

Healing is like the stock market. It never progresses in a straight line. You’ve got to expect some ups and downs along the way.

You might experience a surge of relief when you first start your Chiropractic care only to be followed by a relapse. Soon you’re back on track again. Progress continues with bouts of highs and lows, and you might even experience a plateau or dip in your improvements. But don’t make the mistake of ‘pulling out of the market’ early.

Keep the big picture in mind. Like stocks, the gains in Chiropractic care are best seen over time. When you look back and see how far you’ve come since your first visit, you’ll realize the dividends are paying off.

As Always thanks to our friends at:

http://theweeklysticky.com

The Camarillo Chiropractor Weekly Sticky:

Your doctor says you have arthritis in your spine and you’re concerned with how it got there. Was it from the physical stress of your job? The 15 years of league bowling? Or maybe the accident you had when you were a teenager? It’s hard to tell.

When it comes to arthritis the real problem isn’t what you DID, but what you HAVEN’T BEEN DOING.    Joints wear down faster when they’re ‘stuck’ and misaligned. That’s why it’s important to keep them lined up and moving with Chiropractic adjustments.

Blaming the activities in your life for your arthritis is like blaming the sidewalk for scuffing your shoes. Things naturally wear down when you use them over time, including your spine. Instead, focus more on prevention with regular maintenance care.

Thanks to our friends at: theweeklysticky.com

Camarillo Chiropractor weekly health news alert: The article explores the science behind playing a musical instrument and lowered dementia risks as you age.

Researchers had 70 peo­ple ages 60 to 83 per­form a vari­ety of tests to mea­sure visu­ospa­tial mem­ory, abil­ity to name objects, the brain’s abil­ity to adapt to new infor­ma­tion […] those who had engaged in musi­cal activ­ity for 10 years or longer scored sub­stan­tially bet­ter than those with no musi­cal activ­ity in their past. The longer peo­ple play instru­ments, the more ben­e­fits they may derive. All were ama­teurs who had started play­ing when they were 10 years old. The rela­tion­ship between cog­ni­tive skills and years of musi­cal activ­ity held up whether the musi­cians were cur­rently involved in mak­ing music or not.

Based on the article this research reveals a connection between musical instrument playing and cognitive ability, which doesn’t suggest a causation effect. It is not entirely clear how playing a musical instrument improves the brain. There are parts of the brain of a pro musician that are different than a non-pro.  This evidence suggests neuroplastic changes in the brain, triggered by playing a musical instrument. This alteration appears to be partly responsible  for brain/cognitive function and also be neuroprotective.
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Camarillo Chiropractor Weekly Health Alert: Millions of Americans may be falsely classified as having high blood pressure, according to this study. Brent Taylor and his colleagues from the VA hospital in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota. Their findings show no difference in mortality rates when compared with those of people with ‘normal’ blood pressure, less than 120/80

In the Journal of General Internal Medicine, which is published by Springer, the article written by Taylor and his colleagues reveals that diastolic blood pressure more accurately predicts mortality in people under 50 while systolic blood pressure is the more accurate predictor in those over 50. The authors agree that the time has come to redefine “normal” blood pressure levels.

Taylor examined the contribution of diastolic blood pressure alongside his colleagues. (DBP) Along with systolic blood pressure. (SBP) This will affect your mortality and relationships.

The authors reviewed the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which enrolled participants from 1971 to 1976 and observed them for twenty years. Using the data from 13,792 of the participants, the authors focused on DBP, SBP and long-term survival.  Taylor’s team studied data on 6,672 adults examined during a study which ran from 1959 to 1962, carried out during the first National Health Examination Survey, seeking the distribution pattern of untreated blood pressure in adults in the US, sorted by age.

Just measuring SBP, they found that people over 50 with levels over 140 were more likely to die a premature death. A DBP above 100 is linked to increase in premature death  specially in those below the age of 50. The authors want a redefinition of ‘normal’ blood pressure levels.

Dr. In conclusion, Taylor stated that their findings showed that the method of defining “normal blood pressure” would have an impact on millions of Americans. He asked if the condition should be defined as “abnormal” even though they were unable to obtain reliable results in a study that followed a large group of individuals for almost 20 years. He went on to say “this kind of approach” is critical to ensuring that only people with elevated risk factors and those most likely to benefit are given diagnoses.

*Diastolic pressure is the lowest measurable pressure within the bloodstream. This is when the heart relaxes. The highest pressure in the bloodstream is called the systolic blood pressure and it happens each time the heart beats.. This is when the heart contracts.

Camarillo Chiropractic Weekly Health Updates:
Physical exercise slows down many of the degenerative issues that result from aging. This definitely seems to be the result of modifications to numerous biological processes and systems — exercise actually modifies the whole process of your metabolism, making it work better.

There are lots of suggested mechanisms for the effects of exercise, which includes:

* The induction of heat shock proteins
* Increase in cardiac antioxidant capacity
* Expression of endoplasmic reticulum stress proteins
* Anatomical and physiological changes in the coronary arteries
* Alterations in nitric oxide production
* Adaptational changes in cardiac mitochondria
* Improved autophagy
* Improved function of sarcolemmal and/or mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channels

Camarillo Chiropractic Weekly Health Alert:

Hit the sack an hour earlier before switching to daylight saving time this weekend, expert says. Worried your sleep patterns might be disrupted when the clocks move ahead 60 minutes this weekend? The secret is getting enough sleep ahead of time, says one sleep expert. First, make certain you’re well rested before the switch to daylight savings time on March 13, advises Dr. Aparajitha Verma, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston.

A great way to do that is to start changing your sleep habits in the days before the time change; for instance, start getting up and going to sleep sixty minutes earlier, Verma said.

You may also take a nap on Sunday afternoon if you feel you need to and you have enough time. But avoid napping within a couple of hours of your regular bedtime because that would disrupt your nighttime sleep, she added.

As you try to adapt to the time change, remember that certain persistent problems may indicate a more serious sleeping disorder. Included in this are: remaining awake after 30 minutes of trying to go to sleep; excessive daytime sleepiness; or sleeping for seven or more hours and getting out of bed tired.

If you experience such problems, you may want to consider participating in an overnight study at an approved sleep study center. Verma suggested.

More information

SOURCE: Methodist Neurological Institute, news release, March 7, 2011

Sources:

New York Times February 15, 2011

Camarillo chiropractor with your weekly health alert: New research shows that, after taking a small dose of inorganic nitrate for three days, healthy people consumed less oxygen while riding an exercise bike. This provides one explanation for the well-known health benefits leafy green vegetables in particular; the nitrate was equivalent to the amount found in a plate of spinach. Until recently, nitrate wasn’t thought to have any nutritional value at all. But in fact, dietary nitrate feeds into a pathway that produces nitric oxide, a physiologically important molecule that opens up your blood vessels to help lower your blood pressure. Science Daily reports:

“The new study offers yet another benefit of nitrate and the nitric oxides that stem from them. It appears that the increased mitochondrial efficiency is owed to lower levels of proteins that normally make the cellular powerhouses leaky.”

Questions still remain though. The current results show that increased dietary nitrate can have a short term effect. But it’s not yet clear what could happen in people who digest increased levels of inorganic nitrate over longer periods of time. The authors say it will be a natural next step to repeat the study with subjects with conditions linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, including diabetes and heart disease, to see if they also will be able to partake of the benefits of nitrates.

Sources:

Science Daily February 4, 2011

Camarillo Chiropractic Alert:

According to several studies, your neighborhood may be making you fat.  It can be difficult to work on your weight when your environment is one in which access to healthy foods — or even safe sidewalks — are almost impossible to find.  One recent study found that women who lived closer to a convenience store than a grocery store were more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI).

Sources:

Institute for Responsible Technology January 14, 2011