Back and Spine Health Exercise: Exercise is one of the most significant ways to increase longevity, improve health, and decrease pain and suffering. A proper exercise program can improve flexibility, mobility, increase strength, and reduce back pain. Knowledge of the best exercises to improve health or decrease pain is essential to a workout plan or pain management program. Regular exercise is one of the best things you can do for overall health. The many benefits include improved health and fitness and reduced risk of chronic diseases.
There are many different types of exercise; it is important to pick the right types. Most benefits from a combination of exercises: Endurance or aerobic activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Examples include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, and biking.
Strength or resistance training, exercises make your muscles stronger. Some examples are lifting weights and using a resistance band. Balance exercises can make it easier to walk on uneven surfaces and help prevent falls. To improve your balance, try tai chi or exercises like standing on one leg. Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and can help your body stay limber. Yoga and doing various stretches can make you more flexible.
Getting overweight adults to adopt new heart-healthy eating habits is an uphill battle. But giving them a handout about nutrition may be better than nothing, new research suggests.
“There’s an urgent need for innovative approaches to support the implementation of current dietary advice,” said Dr. David Jenkins, lead author of the new study from the University of Toronto. To prevent chronic disease, U.S. nutrition guidelines recommend diets rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, plus foods that lower cholesterol such as oats, barley, nuts and soy.
Jenkins, who is chair of nutrition and metabolism at the university, and his team tried three ways of encouraging these healthy habits. The researchers randomly assigned more than 900 overweight adults to one of four groups.
Encouraging Healthy Eating Habits
One group received advice about diet through phone calls. Another got a weekly food basket but no advice about diet. The third group got both advice and food baskets. A fourth group, used as “controls,” did not receive advice or food baskets. Everybody in each group got a “food guide” handout about diet.
Six months later, participants overall had only slightly increased their consumption of healthier foods like fruits and vegetables, regardless of group. The researchers said the only consistent increases were seen in the group that received both food and advice. And by 18 months, that slight increase in healthy eating was dwindling, the investigators found. Still, weight and blood pressure dipped a bit in all the groups, including the control group, according to the study.
The results were published Feb. 27 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“These data demonstrate the difficulty in effectively promoting fruit, vegetable and whole grain cereals to the general population using recommendations that, when followed, decrease risk factors for chronic disease,” Jenkins said in a journal news release.
But the author of an accompanying journal editorial suggested looking at the results as a “glass half-full.”
“Each country and scientific society must prioritize the strategies best adapted to local customs and regulations,” wrote Dr. Ramon Estruch, an internist at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, in Spain.
“However, it appears that simply giving a copy of healthy dietary guidelines causes small changes in the right direction. Perhaps we should start with this extremely simple, no-cost procedure at schools, workplaces, clinics or sports centers, while the other strategies are slowly developed and implemented,” Estruch suggested. Jenkins disclosed grant funding from several food-related companies.
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, news release, Feb. 27, 2017
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Weight Loss Eases Back Pain
Back pain and symptoms of sciatica can affect a majority of the population throughout their lifetime. Research studies have demonstrated that people who are overweight or obese experience more back complications than people with a healthy weight. A proper nutrition along with regular physical fitness can help with weight loss as well as help maintain a healthy weight to eliminate symptoms of back pain and sciatica. Chiropractic care is also another natural form of treatment which treats back pain and sciatica utilizing manual spinal adjustments and manipulations.
Parkinson’s disease can cause tremors, stiffness and trouble with walking. But a new study suggests that regular exercise can slow the progression of the disease. Even those with advanced Parkinson’s can benefit from activity, the study authors said.
The research included more than 3,400 patients in North America, the Netherlands and Israel who were followed for more than two years. During that time, Parkinson’s-related changes in mobility were assessed by timing how long it took patients to rise from a chair, walk about 10 feet, turn and return to a sitting position.
The results were published online recently in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.
Connection Between Parkinson’s Disease and Exercise
“We found that people with Parkinson’s disease who maintained exercise 150 minutes per week had a smaller decline in quality of life and mobility over two years compared to people who did not exercise or exercised less,” said lead investigator Miriam Rafferty, of Northwestern University and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
“The smaller decline was significant for people who started the study as regular exercisers, as well as for people who started to exercise 150 minutes per week after their first study-related visit,” she said in a journal news release.
The study didn’t look at what specific types of exercise might be best for people with Parkinson’s disease. But the findings suggest that at least 150 minutes a week of any type of exercise offers benefits.
“People with Parkinson’s disease should feel empowered to find the type of exercise they enjoy, even those with more advanced symptoms,” Rafferty added.
The study also found that people with more advanced Parkinson’s disease saw the greatest benefit from 30-minute-per-week increases in exercise. This finding could prove important in making exercise more accessible to these people. Currently, their increased disability may limit their independent participation in community and group exercise programs, according to the researchers.
“The most important part of the study is that it suggests that people who are not currently achieving recommended levels of exercise could start to exercise today to lessen the declines in quality of life and mobility that can occur with this progressive disease,” Rafferty said.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Chiropractic Care for Older Adults
Chiropractic care is an alternative treatment option which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of injuries and/or conditions associated with the musculoskeletal and nervous system, primarily the spine. Chiropractic utilizes spinal adjustments and manual manipulations to treat a variety of injuries and conditions. As people age, degenerative injuries and conditions can commonly occur. Fortunately, chiropractic treatment has been demonstrated to benefit older adults with spinal degeneration, helping to restore their original health and wellness.
Any marathoner will tell you that the grueling 26-mile races can do a number on the hips, knees, ankles and feet.
Now, a small study suggests that these tests of endurance are also tough on the kidneys.
“Marathon runners demonstrate transient or reverse short-term kidney injury,” said Dr. Chirag Parikh, professor of medicine at Yale University.
In his study of 22 participants in the 2015 Hartford, Conn. Marathon, Parikh found that 82 percent showed acute kidney injury after the race. In this condition, the kidneys fail to filter waste from the blood. The good news is that the kidney injury seems to clear up within two days of the race, he said.
“On day 2, they are all fine,” Parikh said.
Runners likely don’t even know they’ve had this transient injury, Parikh said. “For the short term, I don’t think they would notice anything,” he said. Parikh isn’t certain why the strenuous event is linked with kidney injury. But some potential causes include the sustained rise in core body temperature, dehydration, or the decreased blood flow to the kidneys that occurs during a marathon, he explained. When the blood is pumped to the skin and muscles while running, he said, the kidneys may not get as much blood as they normally do.
Nor can Parikh say whether the effect might be cumulative, getting worse with more marathons run. It may be that the kidney adapts over time instead, he noted.
To evaluate this type of kidney injury, his team looked at blood and urine samples collected before and after the marathon. These tests included measuring blood creatinine levels and proteins in the urine, along with looking at kidney cells on a microscope. Creatinine is a waste product excreted by the kidneys; measuring it in the blood helps assess kidney health.
In a previous study, published in 2011, Dr. Peter McCullough, vice chief of medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues evaluated 25 men and women marathoners. They found 40 percent of the runners met the definition of acute kidney injury based on their blood creatinine levels.
In the new study, Parikh’s team also “performed an in depth evaluation of the urine and found evidence of injury,” McCullough said.
“The larger question looming is: do these repeated bouts of injury in endurance athletes lead to chronic kidney disease years later? Can anything be done about the injury at the time including hydration strategy?” McCullough said. More study is crucial, he added.
Parikh said additional research is also needed to assess whether certain people may not recover as quickly. For now, those with a family history of kidney disease should let their physician know they run marathons, he suggested.
Dr. Cathy Fieseler said marathoners who want to reduce their risk of kidney injury should avoid anti-inflammatory drugs before the race. Those drugs include over-the-counter ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) and naproxen (Aleve), Fieseler said. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is cleared through the liver.
Fieseler is a primary care sports medicine doctor at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System in Tyler, Texas. She’s also medical director of the American Running Association.
The study was published March 28 in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
SOURCES: Chirag Parikh, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, and director of applied translational research, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Cathy Fieseler, M.D., primary care sports medicine physician, Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System, Tyler, Texas; Peter McCullough, M.D., vice chief of medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas; March 28, 2017, American Journal of Kidney Diseases
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Chiropractic and Athletic Performance
Many athletes who are injured performing their specific sport or physical activity, frequently seek treatment from chiropractors. Chiropractic care focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of injuries and conditions affecting the musculoskeletal and nervous system. While chiropractic is a safe and effective form of conservative care for a variety of ailments, chiropractic can also be utilized to enhance athletic performance.
High-intensity exercise may help older adults reverse certain aspects of the “cellular” aging process, a new study suggests.
It’s no secret that regular exercise is healthy for young and old alike. But researchers said the new findings point to particular benefits from “high-intensity interval training” for older adults. That’s the type of workout that combines brief bursts of vigorous exercise with periods of moderate activity: A person might, for example, go all-out on a stationary bike for a few minutes, ease up for the next few, and then start again.
In this study, older adults who performed that type of exercise showed greater changes at the cellular level, compared to those who worked out more moderately. Specifically, interval training gave a bigger boost to mitochondrial function in the muscle. Mitochondria are the “powerhouses” within body cells that break down nutrients to be used for energy. The training also revved up activity in more genes related to mitochondrial function and muscle growth.
How Exercise Can Help the Aging Process
The study findings suggest that interval training can turn back the clock in ways that moderate aerobic exercise and strength training do not, according to lead researcher Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair. But, he stressed, the findings do not mean older adults should jump into a vigorous exercise regimen.
“If you’re sedentary, you should talk to your doctor before you start exercising,” said Nair. He’s an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “And then,” he said, “you can start with walking, and build yourself up to a fast pace.” For older adults who want to progress to a more-intense regimen, Nair said, it’s best to start with supervision. But he also stressed that intense exercise is not a must. “Any regular exercise will bring health benefits — absolutely,” he added.
This study demonstrated that, he pointed out. Even though interval training had the biggest effects on aspects of cellular aging, other types of exercise boosted older adults’ fitness levels and muscle strength.
Benefits of Exercise in Adults Study
The study, published recently in Cell Metabolism, involved 72 younger and older adults who were sedentary.
Nair’s team randomly assigned each of them to one of three supervised exercise groups. One group did high-intensity interval training three days a week: They pedaled on an exercise bike at their maximum speed for 4 minutes, before easing up for 3 minutes; they repeated that process four times. They also worked out more moderately — walking on a treadmill — twice a week.
A second group performed moderate aerobic exercise — using an exercise bike at a less-intense pace — five days a week, for 30 minutes. They also did some light strength-training four days a week.
The third group performed strengthening exercises only, two days a week.
After 12 weeks, all of the groups were showing positive changes — younger and older exercisers alike, the researchers found.
People who performed moderate aerobic exercise boosted their fitness levels — the body’s ability to supply blood and oxygen to working muscles. And the improvement was greater for older adults, who generally started out with lower fitness levels than younger people. Meanwhile, people who performed strength-training — alone or with aerobic exercise — increased their muscle strength.
The interval-training group showed only small gains in strength. But the training improved mitochondrial function in the muscles, especially among older adults.
Dr. Chip Lavie is medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans. He said this is a “great” study that demonstrates the benefits of different forms of exercise. According to Lavie, it adds to other evidence that high-intensity interval training is “probably the best form of exercise.”
Many studies, he said, have found that interval training beats moderate aerobic exercise when it comes to improving fitness and the heart’s structure and function.
“It would be ideal to get more people to do high-intensity interval training,” Lavie said, “and it’s possible for more-motivated individuals.” But, he added, the reality is, many people may not have the motivation or ability.
In that case, Lavie advised finding a moderate regimen you can live with — such as 30 to 40 minutes of walking or using an exercise bike or elliptical machine most days of the week.
SOURCES: K. Sreekumaran Nair, M.D., Ph.D., professor, medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Chip Lavie, M.D., medical director, cardiac rehabilitation and prevention, and director, exercise laboratories, John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans; March 7, 2017, Cell Metabolism
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Chiropractic Care for Older Adults
With the progression of age, it’s common for the human body to naturally begin to degenerate. Although degenerative changes in the body are normal, it’s also common for complications associated with aging to develop. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective, alternative treatment option utilized by many individuals to prevent, diagnose and treat injuries and conditions associated with the structures of the spine. Research studies have demonstrated that chiropractic treatment can help older adults find relief from their neck pain and back pain.
Though the most visible kinesiology tape users might be professional athletes, Olympians, or weekend warriors � a much smaller clientele is also proving the advantages of this unique treatment. With a special line designed for sensitive skin and playful prints and colors that will speak to the sticker and Band-Aid loving child, it�s not surprising that kinesiology tape is quickly becoming more than an athlete�s aid.
While the uses and applications of kinesiology tape for pediatric treatment are growing daily, here is a quick run down of how kinesiology tape is being used in pediatric care today:
Pain and Swelling Relief
� When kinesiology tape is applied to an injured or inflamed area, children can enjoy some relief without having to take pain medication or sit through icing and therapy treatments.
Orthopedic Treatment
� Children often don�t understand the purpose behind rehabilitation exercises, so kinesiology tape provides an additional or alternative treatment for children with orthopedic injuries, weak or underdeveloped muscles, gait abnormalities, paralysis � even poor posture.
Neuromuscular Disorders
� Kinesiology tape has proven effective to activate weak muscles and inhibit overactive muscles.� With a simple and safe taping application, children suffering from neuromuscular conditions like cerebral palsy, or muscular dystrophy could see improvements in symptoms and movement ability. It has also been shown to improve muscle tone in genetic disorders like Downs Syndrome and other conditions causing either spasticity, atrophy or poor muscle tone.
For children dealing with serious medical conditions, a colorful and painless treatment that can be worn for several days, even while playing and bathing, can make a big difference in their comfort level.
Interested in learning more about pediatric kinesiology taping? Dr. Kenzo Kaze, the creator of Kinesio Tape, provides step by step guidelines for taping infants and children in his manual, Kinesio Taping in Pediatrics available at Theratape.com.
For a list of successful case studies where kinesiology tape has provided improvement for children, check out Theratape�s research compilation as well as this case report (pdf) from Novel Physiotherapies. Hopefully, as more and more case studies document positive results, the use of kinesiology tape in pediatric care will continue to expand and increase.
Whether from the disease itself or the treatment, cancer can be exhausting, but a new review says there are ways to beat back cancer-related fatigue.
The review included a look at 113 past studies that included more than 11,000 adult cancer patients. The researchers found that exercise and/or behavioral and educational therapy seemed to be more effective than prescription drugs for dealing with fatigue.
“Exercise and psychological treatment, and the combination of these two interventions, work the best for treating cancer-related fatigue — better than any pharmaceuticals we have tested,” noted study lead author Karen Mustian. She’s an associate professor with the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wilmot Cancer Institute in Rochester, N.Y.
The upshot, said Mustian, is that doctors should consider exercise and psychological interventions as the “first-line therapy” instead of more medications when it comes to tackling cancer-related fatigue. The study team noted that cancer-related fatigue is a very common problem among cancer patients, both during and following treatment. The American Cancer Society describes the phenomenon as distinct from routine tiredness. Even if you get rest, you’re still tired. Your arms and legs may feel heavy. You may feel too tired to do even the simplest tasks, such as eating a meal, according to the ACS.
Beyond affecting overall quality of life, cancer-related fatigue can also interfere with a patient’s ability to continue cancer treatment itself. That may result in a poorer prognosis and, in some cases, a reduced chance for long-term survival, the study authors said.
For the study, Mustian and colleagues looked at cancer-related fatigue triggered by the onset of cancer itself, rather than as a side effect of treatment.
Almost half of the patients included in the review were women battling breast cancer. Ten studies focused solely on male patients. In all, almost 80 percent of study participants were women. Their average age was 54. The analysis excluded studies that looked at so-called complementary therapies, with an exception made for alternative exercise treatments, such as yoga or tai chi.
In addition, the research team didn’t include studies that had assessed drug treatments involving erythropoietin medications (such as epoetin alpha, brand names Procrit and Epogen). These drugs are designed to stimulate red blood cell production, and are “used primarily for treating anemia and are not recommended as a stand-alone treatment for [cancer-related fatigue] due to adverse effects,” the study authors stated.
Studies included looked at the impact of four different treatment approaches: exercise alone (including aerobic, such as walking or swimming or anaerobic, such as weight-lifting); mental health interventions aimed at providing information and/or helping patients understand and adapt to their current situation; a combination of both exercise and psychological treatment; and prescription drugs, including stimulant medications (such as modafinil, brand name Provigil) and ADHD meds (such as methylphenidate, brand name Ritalin).
All four interventions led to improvement in fatigue. But the researchers found that exercise therapy led to the best outcomes. But psychological therapies produced similarly positive results, as did treatments that integrated exercise with mental health efforts.
The team concluded that when it came to controlling cancer-related fatigue, the exercise and/or psychological therapy approaches appeared to outperform prescription drugs. Colleen Doyle is managing director of nutrition and physical activity for the ACS. She said exercise has many benefits, not just helping to ease fatigue.
“But because many people undergoing treatment do experience fatigue, it’s nice to know that there is something an individual can do to help reduce that fatigue and gain some of the many other benefits of exercise [both during and after treatment]: reduced stress, less anxiety, [and] benefits to physical functioning,” Doyle said.
But can the typical cancer patient actually handle an exercise regime? Mustian says yes.
“These are not your elite athletes or fitness buffs,” she said. Almost all of the studies focused on people who had been sedentary and were placed on a low-to-moderate intensity exercise regimen, involving activities such as yoga or resistance training. “So they are normal people who were not regular exercisers, and who were able to complete these interventions and have relief from their fatigue,” Mustian said.
Doyle said that for patients who weren’t previously active, it’s important to start slowly.
“Our recommendation for survivors is essentially avoid inactivity as best you can. There will be days when you feel like not doing much of anything, and that’s okay, but strive to do something. Even if it is gentle stretching exercises, or a five-minute walk down the block,” she advised.
Mustian stressed that relatively few studies looked at combining exercise and psychological therapy.
“So it is not as clear what the best way to combine them would be,” she noted. The researchers said more studies need to be done to explore the ideal way to integrate exercise and psychological interventions.
The study was published March 2 in JAMA Oncology.
SOURCES: Karen M. Mustian, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor, Wilmot Cancer Institute, department of surgery, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, N.Y.; Colleen Doyle, M.S., R.D., managing director, Nutrition and Physical Activity, American Cancer Society; March 2, 2017, JAMA Oncology
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: What is Chiropractic?
Chiropractic care is an well-known, alternative treatment option utilized to prevent, diagnose and treat a variety of injuries and conditions associated with the spine, primarily subluxations or spinal misalignments. Chiropractic focuses on restoring and maintaining the overall health and wellness of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. Through the use of spinal adjustments and manual manipulations, a chiropractor, or doctor of chiropractic, can carefully re-align the spine, improving a patient�s strength, mobility and flexibility.
Getting regular exercise and staying slim can lower the risk for an especially hard-to-treat type of heart failure, new research shows.
This specific type of disease is called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Ejection fraction is the amount of blood that’s pumped out of the heart. In many people with heart failure, the heart is so weak that it doesn’t pump enough blood out of the heart to meet the body’s demands.
In HFpEF, the heart muscle becomes stiff and doesn’t fill up with enough blood. This causes fluid to build up in the lungs and the body, the researchers explained in a news release from the American College of Cardiology.
“We consistently found an association between physical activity, BMI [body mass index] and overall heart failure risk,” said study senior author Dr. Jarett Berry. BMI is a measurement of body fat based on height and weight. “This was not unexpected,” Berry said, “however, the impact of these lifestyle factors on heart failure subtypes was quite different.”
Berry, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, is an associate professor in the department of internal medicine and clinical sciences, and director of cardiac rehabilitation. HFpEF accounts for up to 50 percent of heart failure cases. Treatment for the condition often doesn’t work well, which increases the importance of prevention strategies, the study authors said. For the report, Berry and his colleagues reviewed information from three previous studies that included more than 51,000 people. The researchers excluded anyone who had heart disease when the studies began.
The investigators looked for information on how much exercise the participants got, as well as their weight. In addition, the researchers reviewed participants’ medical records to see if people had been admitted to the hospital for heart failure over the several years of the study.
The study authors found that traditional risk factors for heart failure — such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and obesity — were less common among those who were more active. People who exercised more tended to be white, male and have higher levels of education and income, the findings showed.
Meanwhile, people who carried more excess weight were younger, less active and were more likely to have risk factors for heart disease, according to the report. Overall, the researchers identified almost 3,200 cases of heart failure. Almost 40 percent were HFpEF. Nearly 29 percent were heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), which is associated with weak heart muscle that doesn’t pump properly. And just under 32 percent were unclassified.
The study doesn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship, but low levels of physical activity were associated with a 6 percent lower risk of heart failure than no physical activity. Those who got the recommended amounts of exercise had an 11 percent lower risk of heart failure.
In people who got more than the recommended amounts of exercise, the risk of HFpEF was reduced by 19 percent. In addition, the incidence of HFpEF was significantly higher among those with excess weight, the findings showed.
According to the study’s first author, Dr. Ambarish Pandey, “These data suggest the importance of modifying lifestyle patterns to help prevent HFpEF in the general population.” Pandey is a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
The study was published Feb. 27 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
SOURCE: American College of Cardiology, news release, Feb. 27, 2017
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Chiropractic Care for Older Adults
With the progression of age, it�s common for the human body to naturally begin to degenerate. Although degenerative changes in the body are normal, it�s also common for complications associated with aging to develop. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective, alternative treatment option utilized by many individuals to prevent, diagnose and treat injuries and conditions associated with the structures of the spine. Research studies have demonstrated that chiropractic treatment can help older adults find relief from their neck pain and back pain.
IFM's Find A Practitioner tool is the largest referral network in Functional Medicine, created to help patients locate Functional Medicine practitioners anywhere in the world. IFM Certified Practitioners are listed first in the search results, given their extensive education in Functional Medicine
