October 31st 2008
Being physically active is one of the most important steps that Americans of all ages can take to improve their health. This inaugural Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans provides science based guidance to help Americans aged 6 and older improve their health through appropriate physical activity.
Feel free to download one or all, there is something for everyone.
2008 Be Active Your Way
2008 Be Active Your Way Adult Guide
October 30th 2008
The triathlon is arguably the most physically demanding endurance sport. Competitive triathletes report training up to 20 hours per week when preparing for a competition. The repetitive motions experienced during training increases the triathlete’s risk of sustaining an overuse injury. Almost 50% of triathletes will experience a sport related injury that will affect their ability to train or will require them to seek medical attention.
by J. Brumitt, from nsca performance training journal Vol 7 Iss 2
training tips to help triathletes reduce overuse injuries
October 30th 2008
For decades, people have been trying to determine if eating sugar causes cancer or feed a cancer that is already there. A researcher named Dr. Michael Pollak at McGill University in Montreal summed it up well by saying “sugar does not directly cause cancer, but people should be careful about the amount of sugar they consume, because each person’s individual body reacts differently to sugar.
Researcher has now shown that when insulin levels are harmfully high at the time of a cancer diagnosis, the cancer is associated with a worse prognosis. This process, however, isn’t as straightforward as it might sound because insulin also promote the storage of fat, and we know that obesity itself can induce insulin resistance.
It is known that people with a history of cancer have a greater incidence of borderline diabetes or overt diabetes that do those without a history.
from Johns Hopkins University.
October 29th 2008
The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can be a little too familiar as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way well out.
The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.
“Now that we know hydrogen sulfide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension.” said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D. a co author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the Journal Science.
Snyder and his colleagues compared normal mice to mice that were missing a gene for an enzyme known as CSE, long suspected as being responsible for making hydrogen sulfide. As they measured hydrogen sulfide levels taken from tissues of the CSE deficient mice, the scientists found that the gas was depleted in the cardiovascular systems of the altered mice. By contrast, normal mice had higher levels of the gas, thereby showing that hydrogen sulfide is naturally made by mammalian tissues using CSE.
Next, the mice were subjected to higher blood pressures comparable to serious hypertension in humans. Scientists had them respond to a chemical called methacholine that relaxes normal blood vessels. The blood vessels of the CSE lacking mice hardly relaxed indicating that hydrogen sulfide is a huge contender for regulating blood pressure.
Hydrogen sulfide is the most recently discovered member of a family of gasotransmitters, small molecules inside our bodies with important physiological functions.
This study is the first to reveal that the CSE enzyme that triggers hydrogen sulfide is activated itself in the same way as other enzymes when they trigger their respective gasotransmitter, such as a nitric oxide forming enzyme that also regulates blood pressure, Dr. Snyder said.
Because gasotransmitters are common in mammals all over the evolutionary tree these findings on the importance of hydrogen sulfide are thought to have broad applications to human diseases such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.
The research was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as a Research Scientist Award.
by Amelia Tomas, for LiveScience.com
October 29th 2008
The medical profession has a long history of opposing alternative healing professions. While always claiming public safety as its reason for the attacks, the true reasons involve protecting their monopoly of the health (medical) care market.
In the past, medicine has fought battles to limit the practices of such professionals as homeopaths, naturopaths, osteopaths, podiatrists, optometrists, dentist, psychologist and chiropractors. In the case of osteopathy and chiropractic there are distinct differences in the approach to healing and health when compared to medicine. The last thing that organized medicine wants is for their doctrine of drugs and surgery to be challenged.
Osteopaths allowed themselves to be absorbed by medicine today there is little difference between and M.D. and a D.O. Chiropractic on the other hand fought hard through the personalities of those like B.J. Palmer to remain a separate and distinct profession.
Medicine’s opposition to chiropractic was at its strongest under the leadership of Morris Fishbein. Fishbein as Secretary of the American Medical Association (AMA) from 1924 to 1949, lead a 25 year anti chiropractic campaign in both professional publications and the public media. Fishbein called chiropractors “rabid dogs” and referred to them as “playful and cute… but killers.” He tried to portray chiropractors as members of an unscientific cult, caring about noting but taking their patients money.
In 1949 the AMA removed Fishbein but continued its anti chiropractic campaign. In 1971, H. Doyle Taylor, the Director of the AMA Depart of Investigation and Secretary of its Committee of Quackery (COQ) submitted a memo to the AMA Board of Trustees stating:
Since the AMA Board of Trustees decision at its meeting on November 2-3, 1963 to establish a Committee on Quackery your committee has considered its prime mission to be 1st the containment of chiropractic and ultimately the elimination of chiropractic.
The following is an excerpt from the COQ’s 1st annual to the Board of the AMA:
The involvement and indoctrination of the State Medical Society leadership in our opinion is vital to the success of the chiropractic program. We hope and believe that with continued aggressive AMA activity chiropractic can and will be contained at the national level and that steps are being taken to stop or eliminate the licenser of chiropractic at the state level.
In 1967, the COQ released its anti chiropractic campaign goals; basically the committee’s short range objectives for containing the cult of chiropractic and any additional recognition it might achieve revolves around 4 points:
The AMA through its committee on Quackery continued its war against chiropractic through such acts as; disturbing propaganda to the nation’s teachers and guidance councilors, eliminating the inclusion of chiropractic from the U.S. Depart of Labor’s Health Careers Guidebook and establishing specific educational guidelines for medical schools regarding the “hazards to individuals from the unscientific cult of chiropractic.
The AMA did not sop with these acts of propaganda against the chiropractic profession. They worked both publicly and politically to ensure that chiropractic failed as a profession. But even with all of this negative publicity against the profession chiropractic continued to gain acceptance with the general public because chiropractic got results.
In 1975 the U.S. Supreme court ruled in the case of Goldfarb vs The Virginia State Bar that learned professions are not exempt from antitrust suits. In 1982 the Court ruled that the FTC can enforce antitrust laws against medical societies. These 2 suits paved the way in 1976 for 5 chiropractors to file an antitrust suit against the AMA and several other health care agencies and societies in Federal District Court (known as the Wilkes Case).
Similar suits were filed in New York and Pennsylvania in 1979. The pressure of these law suits force the AMA even before these suits went to court to propose a modification of their Medical Code of Ethics which prohibited MDs from association with chiropractors. But it was not until 1980 that the ethics code was changed to reflect that each individual doctor may decide for themselves whether to accept a patent from or refer a patient to a chiropractor or other limited practitioner.
The law suits caused so much fear in the medical profession that Mike Wallace (60 minutes) was unable to find an MD to take the anti chiropractic side for a 1979 documentary piece on chiropractic.
In 1980 the Wilkes suit went to court where the AMA and other defendants were found not guilty of all charges. That decision was overturned and a new trial was ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals in February 1983.
Judge Susan Getzendanner found the AMA and others guilty of an illegal conspiracy against the chiropractic profession in September of 1987, ordering a permanent injunction against the AMA and forcing them to print the courts findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Several of the other defendants settled out of court helping to pay for the chiropractors legal expenses and donating to a chiropractic non profit home for disabled children, Kentuckiana Children’s Center.
This decision was upheld in the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1990 and again by the U.S. Supreme Court that same year.
To this day, most consumers are unaware that the “idea” that chiropractors are quacks was purposefully, illegally, underhandedly and cleverly crafted and promoted by the AMA.
by Herb Newborg
October 28th 2008
Participation in sports is highly encouraged for girl’s involvement in these organized activities has been proven to help improve girls’ social lives and prevent teen pregnancies. And exercise has been shown to boost mood and decrease depression in women.
But with increasing pressure in today’s society to be extremely thin some females take involvement in athletics or exercise too far. Fear of becoming overweight or out of shape can lead to the “Female Athlete Triad,” a condition that can lead to bone loss, stoppage of menstrual periods and eating disorders.
Girls who participate in sports that emphasize thinness such swimming or gymnastics are especially at risk. Parents and coaches should not encourage weight loss and should monitor young athletes eating habits to ensure they are not skipping meals or eating very little.
Any women who may be experiencing the Triad should seek advice from a qualified sports medicine or exercise science professional, counselor or dietician. www.femaleathletetriad.org
October 27th 2008
Daily exercise can have profound benefits for adolescents increased energy maintenance of a healthy weight, prevention of osteoporosis some forms of cancer and heart disease later in life and so much more. Exercise can also lead to improved academic performance and establishment of lifelong healthy physical activity habits.
Moreover, adolescents can also reap numerous mental health benefits from physical activity, especially as it relates to depression. A 2006 study showed higher levels of sport participation and physical activity were linked to lower levels of depression and that exercise can encourage better self perception. This is very important for teen girls as research indicates that although girls are no more depressed than boys in childhood more girls than boys are depressed in adolescence. Even beyond adolescence up to age 24 females can have nearly double the lifetime incidence of major depressive disorder compared to males the same age, according to a study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Ethnic minority adolescents can also reap the benefits of sport participation and physical activity. Although there is a lack of research on depressive symptoms in ethnic minority children and adolescents it is important for helping professionals to understand that mental health issues may be based on a combination of culture and life stressors from daily experiences. For example, a 2002 meta analysis found that Hispanic children ages 8 to 16 reported significantly more depressive symptoms than either white or black children, which is consistent with previous research that found higher depression rates in the Hispanic population.
A critical review of the literature conducted in 193 found that being member of an ethnic minority group might provide barriers to leisure activities, including exercise and sport participation. Furthermore a study from 2007 determined that older adolescent girls especially those with symptoms of depression typically had the lowest amounts of exercise. For culturally diverse adolescents including girls and ethnic minorities high amounts of exercise correlated with low prevalence of depression symptoms. Additionally physical activity has been shown to reduce anxiety sensitivity a precursor of panic attacks and panic disorder.
Adolescents can be encouraged to exercise by finding activities they enjoy especially outside of school. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, physical education curriculums vary widely across the United States and are not required beyond 8th grade in some states. Adolescence is a key time to be active for both physical and mental health benefits, but organized sports aren’t the only way for this age group to accumulate physical activity even something as simple as a nightly family walk after dinner can improve health, wellness and quality of life.
by M. Allison Williams, PhD
October 24th 2008
Postpartum depression is often unspoken aspects of pregnancy new mothers are expected to rejoice in their child’s birth so feelings of sadness are sometimes swept under the rug for fear of being frowned upon. Postpartum depression can be caused by many different things including hormonal changes, body image issues sense of self loss and limitation of free time.
Studies show that women are also susceptible to feelings of depression during pregnancy especially during the 1st and last trimesters. These symptoms are more than just a simple case of the “baby blues” a 2003 study showed that 97% of women who suffered from major depressive disorder during or following pregnancy reported role impairment in home, work or social domains.
Exercise can help boost mood during and after pregnancy as well as provide health benefits to both mother and baby. In 2006 ACSM released a Roundtable Consensus Statement that outlined some benefits of physical activity for expectant mothers.
During pregnancy expectant mothers should consult with their physician prior to beginning an exercise program. Heat stress and existing or potential complications should also be taken into consideration.
American College of Sports Medicine possesion statement.
October 24th 2008
American doctors regularly prescribe placebo pills that are intended to have a psychological effect, a new survey finds.
However, the placebos reported by the 679 physicians in the survey often aren’t the inactive substances used in controlled clinical trials, said Dr. Farr A Curlin, a assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and a member of the team reporting the finding in the Oct. 24 issue of the BMJ.
“Most people when they say ‘placebo’ think of something like a sugar pill.” Curlin said. “But doctors can use a treatment that may have some effects but that they think will not have a direct effect on the patient except by the placebo effect.”
The placebo effect, well established in countless studies is a benefit produced by assuring someone that whatever is being given will benefit whatever the problem happens to be “optimism or confidence that something is being done,” Curlin phrased it.
Only 3% of the doctors responding in the survey reported prescribing sugar pills. But 41% said they used over the counter painkillers as placebos, 38% used vitamins, 13% used antibiotics and 13% used sedatives.
The survey also found that only 5% of the doctors who prescribe a placebo treatment describe it as such. The great majority, 68% describe it as potentially beneficial medicine or treatment not typically used for the condition.
And almost 2/3 of the doctors in the survey said they believed the practice to be ethically permissible.
“It’s a gray zone,” Curlin said. “It is not ethical to actively deceive patients. But when doctors give something which they think will help but don’t think it helpful to explain the full reasoning about why it will help, that’s a gray zone.
Placebo treatment “is pretty common in the practice of medicine,” said Curlin, who acknowledged using it. “I give people the information I think a reasonable person would want to know, trying to be as candid as possible,” he said. “There are times when I have said, ‘Yes, I think it might be helpful, why don’t you give it a try,’ when I don’t have confidence it will help their condition.”
What matters is that the treatment can help, Curlin added. “The placebo effect is a real effect,” he said. “People do feel better. To the extent that it can be mobilized in a way that is restful and not actively deceiving patients, I think it is acceptable.”
Placebo treatment “is part of an old but good medical tradition,” said Dr. David Spiegel, an assistant chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. “The basic rule is First do no harm. If there is no toxicity, and it does some good, evidence supports its use,” Spiegel said.
But straightforward lying about a prescription is wrong, said Dr. Andrew Leuchter, associate dean of the school of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“The appropriate way to explain a placebo treatment, Leuchter added, is to say,” There is no reasonable medical evidence that this pill is effective for your condition, but some people who take this pill say it makes them feel better.”
It is important to not that “deception is not a necessary part of the placebo effect,” Spiegel said. “You can tell people that the treatment might benefit them, and that is not a lie.”
And the placebo effect is often at work in medical practice, Spiegel noted “A lot of factors go into the effect of therapy, some of which are specifically pharmaceutical and some are not. You might feel better because you feel you are doing something actively to treat the problem.
The argument about the ethics of placebo treatment can also be turned around, he added. “There are ways to present placebo treatment that do not involve deception,” he said. “You are doing it because it can help a patient and a certain percentage of patients will respond. Especially in conditions where we do not have a lot of treatments, is it ethical to withhold it?
by Ed Edelson, HealthDay reporter
October 21st 2008
There were over 20,000 competitors in Sunday’s Nike Women’s marathon in San Francisco. And 24 year old Arien O’Connell, a 5th grade teacher from New York City ran the fastest time of any of the women.
but she didn’t win.
It doesn’t get much simpler than a footrace. All it takes is a starting line, a finish line and a clock. You fire the gun and the 1st person to the end of the course is the winner.