5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Cell Phone Exposure

Recently another study came out showing the cell phone usage does increase your risk of cancer (WHO). While this is a very debated topic, the ‘take home’ message is clear: the more you can do to limit or remove the exposure to cell phones the better.

Here are some tips to reduce your cell phone risk factors:

1) Use a Wired Headset
2) Get Used to Texting
3) Don’t Use Your Cell Phone as an Alarm Clock – if you need to, turn on the ‘airplane mode’
4) Increase your fruits and vegetables – fruits and vegetables contain anti-oxidants which protect against damage to the DNA of your cells.
5) Get Chiropractic Adjustments- Chiropractic adjustments help your body repair damaged DNA, thus reducing your risk of cancer.

See http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/20809.php and http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/23/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-cell-phone-exposure/ for more information.

Rock Climbing May Be Better Than Standard Exercise for Low Back Pain

Therapeutic climbing, in which patients are led in rock-climbing programs
(usually on indoor climbing walls), is growing in popularity. Previous
research indicated that therapeutic climbing may be beneficial for people
with Autism. Now new research suggests it may be as effective, or more so,
as standard exercises for back pain.

The study included 28 individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Over a
four-week period they participated in either a standard exercise regime for
back pain or in a therapeutic climbing program. Each program involved four
guided training sessions per week.

Before and after the intervention subjects completed the Hannover Functional
Ability Questionnaire for measuring back pain-related disability (FFbH-R)
and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36).

No significant changes were seen on FFbH-R scores. However, both the
exercise group and the climbing group showed significant improvement on
SF-36 scores.

“The benefits of therapeutic climbing were comparable with those of a
standard exercise regime,” conclude the study’s authors. “In two subscales
of the SF-36, the benefits of therapeutic climbing exceeded those of
standard exercise therapy, primarily in perceived health and physical
functioning of the patients. This finding demonstrates that therapeutic
climbing is equivalent and partly superior to standard exercise therapy for
patients with chronic low back pain.”

Spine – May 15, 2011;36:842-49.

Exercise and diet can prevent one-third of cancers

ABOUT ONE-THIRD of the most common cancers could be prevented through healthy diets, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight.

This was the main message from a host of global organisations yesterday on World Cancer Day which this year focused on cancer prevention.

Dr Susan Higginbotham, director of research at the American Institute for Cancer, said making even small changes in the right direction could help lower the risk of cancer.

The institute has distilled the learning from thousands of studies on the subject of diet, weight, physical activity and cancer into the following recommendations: be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day; eat more of a variety of fruit and vegetables as well as whole grains and beans; avoid sugary drinks; limit the consumption of salty and processed foods and red meat; limit alcoholic drinks to two for men and one for women each day; be as lean as possible without becoming underweight; do not use supplements to protect against cancer; mothers should breastfeed exclusively for up to six months, and, after treatment, cancer survivors should follow the recommendations for cancer prevention.

“When it comes to cancer, there are no guarantees,” Dr Higginbotham said, adding that the recommendations represent “the best advice available anywhere”.

The World Health Organisation also focused on the benefits of exercise in preventing certain cancers. It said if over-18s undertake 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity it can reduce their risk of breast and colon cancers.

Here’s the original link.

Today is world asthma day and Chiropractic can help

Did you know that today, May 3rd is world asthma day?

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways, affecting more than 17 million American adults and 7 million children under 18 years of age. Asthma disproportionately affects minorities, people with lower incomes, females, and children. The disorder is characterized by mild to life-threatening episodes of airway narrowing and obstruction, causing wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. Asthma has no cure, but daily preventive treatment can enable individuals to manage their symptoms and lead active lives.

And Chiropractic can help. In fact there is so much research on Chiropractic and asthma that it’s easier to send you to the source.

Patients with asthma typically have neck and upper back subluxations (spinal restrictions). Specific adjustments (precise spinal movements) to the neck and upper back restore the proper balance to your nerve system that is required for lung function.

Spinal adjustments to the neck and upper back also reduces muscle tightness and joint stiffness that occurs from the wheezing and laboured breathing.

Once your muscles, joints and nerve system are working properly, you will able to function and breathe better.

Benefits of Outdoor Exercise Confirmed

Chiropractors have been saying for years that movement and exercise is key to a truly healthy body. Exercise in harmony with nature is even more powerful. And now a systematic review carried out by a team at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has analysed existing studies and concluded that there are benefits to mental and physical well-being from taking exercise in the natural environment. Their findings are published in the research journal Environmental Science and Technology on February 4th 2011.

The study found that most trials showed an improvement in mental well-being: compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.

Here’s the full study: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110204130607.htm

Exercising During Pregnancy is Good For Your Baby’s Heart

Babies of mothers who exercised during pregnancy appear to have stronger hearts than babies of sedentary mothers. These findings were presented this week at the Experimental Biology annual meeting in Washington, DC.

“It is my hope that these findings will show that efforts focused on improving health need to start during pregnancy rather than in childhood,” says lead author, Linda E. May.

“Most of the focus today is on school-age children, but interventions should be focused long before that.”

In a previous study, May and her colleagues found that pregnant women who exercised at least 30 minutes three times a week had fetuses with lower heart rates — a sign of heart health — during the final weeks of development.

Now the team has revealed that the fetuses’ improved cardiovascular heart control is maintained one month after pregnancy, which indicates that mothers’ efforts to stay active have lasting effects.

The study, which comprised 61 moms-to-be, monitored maternal-fetal and infant heart function. The women’s aerobic activity levels ranged from power walking to running. Some of the more active participants also lifted weights and practiced yoga.

“The system that controls heart function is known to improve with regular aerobic exercise,” May explains. “And improved heart control function is evidence of a healthy cardiovascular system and overall health. Not only did the mothers’ exercise help maintain and improve their own health, but it set their babies up for a healthier start.”

Experimental Biology – April 12, 2011.

A multivitamin a day may keep heart attacks away

In an effort to guard against heart disease, you may consider adding a multivitamin supplement to your menu of fatty fish, nuts and oat bran.

According to new a study published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women who took a one-a-day supplement were 40 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack than their peers who didn’t use multivitamins.

The current study included 33,933 Swedish women aged 49 to 83 years, the vast majority (93 per cent) having no history of heart disease. After 10 years of follow up, 1201 women had suffered a heart attack.

Among women who were free of heart disease upon enrolling in the study, taking a daily multivitamin reduced the risk of heart attack by 27 per cent. The protective effect was stronger among women who used multivitamins for at least five years. Compared with women who didn’t take supplements, those who took multivitamins for five years or longer were 40 per cent less likely to have a heart attack.

There are a number of ways in which a multivitamin may defend against heart disease. Multivitamins contain antioxidant nutrients – vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, selenium – that could lessen artery damage caused by free radicals.

Free radicals are produced naturally when we breathe, but ultraviolet light, cigarette smoking, and the consumption of alcohol are other sources. In high amounts, free radicals contribute to the formation of fatty plaques in the arteries that, if ruptured, can cause a heart attack.

Multivitamins also contain the B vitamins folate, B6 and B12, which have been shown to lower blood homocysteine, an amino acid made by the body during normal metabolism. High homocysteine is thought to damage artery walls and increase the risk of heart disease.

You can continue reading the full article here.

Fast food breakfast? Think twice about having that coffee

If your morning commute usually includes a greasy breakfast sandwich and a stiff cup of joe, here’s another reason to trade it all in for a fruit cup.

A new study from the University of Guelph found that chugging a coffee after a fatty meal of fast food can spike blood sugar in a healthy person to a level similar to those at risk of diabetes. Eating a greasy meal, we already knew, caused spikes in blood sugar. But the dangerous cocktail of caffeine and grease doubles the impact.

Researchers at the University of Guelph say that eating saturated fat makes it harder for the body to clear sugar from the blood – drinking coffee, even a couple of hours later, only makes that job harder.

“This shows that the effect of a high-fat meal can last for hours,” said Marie-Soleil Beaudoin, a PhD student who conducted the study with University of Guelph professors Lindsay Robinson and Terry Graham.

In the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, participants were given a special fat beverage, and then asked to eat a meal with a sugar drink six hours later. Typically, the body should produce insulin to remove sugar from the blood. (People with diabetes do not produce enough insulin.)

But with the high-fat beverage in their system, the blood sugar levels in participants were 32 per cent higher than those who had not consumed any fat.

And in the second part of the experiment, when participants were also asked to drink two cups of coffee five hours after the fatty drink and then down a sugar beverage, blood sugar levels were 65 per cent higher than the control group.

“Having sugar remain in our blood for long periods is unhealthy because it can take a toll on our organs,” said Ms. Beaudoin, in a release from the university.

Original Article