Low fat diets have long been promoted as a good health option but recent research disputes this.

The Lancet study of 135,000 adults found those who cut back on fats had far shorter lives than those enjoying plenty of butter, cheese and meats. In fact, low-fat diets could raise the risk of early death by almost one quarter.

But the latest research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, in Barcelona found those with low intake of saturated fat raised chances of early death by 13 per cent compared to those eating plenty. 
Consuming high levels of all fats cut mortality by up to 23 per cent.

Researcher Dr Andrew Mente, from McMaster University, said: “Our data suggests that low fat diets put populations at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

“Loosening the restriction on total fat and saturated fat and imposing limits on carbohydrates when high to reduce intake to moderate levels would be optimal.”

Lead researcher Dr Mahshid Dehghan, said: "A high carbohydrate diet - greater than 60 per cent of energy - is associated with higher risk of mortality.

“Higher intake of fats, including saturated fats, are associated with lower risk of mortality.”

But diet had little impact on heart death risk, suggesting it had a greater impact on other killers such as cancer, dementia, and respiratory disease.

Consultant cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra said it was time “for a complete U-turn” in Britain’s approach to diet, and demonisation of fat.

“The sooner we do that the sooner we reverse the epidemic in obesity and diabetes and the sooner start improving health.”
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For the full article - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/29/low-fat-diet-linked-higher-death-rates-major-lancet-study-finds/

 I have a fascinating piece of research to share today. A case study was recently published in:

The Journal of Molecular and Genetic Medicine

Title: Increased Telomere Length and Improvements in Dysautonomia, Quality of Life, and Neck and Back Pain Following Correction of Sagittal Cervical Alignment Using Chiropractic BioPhysics® Technique: a Case Study.

Conclusion: "The case suggests that correction of cervical lordosis and forward head postures by CBP® Mirror Image® methods improved the sagittal spinal alignment and posture and was temporally associated with lengthened telomeres, improved nocturnal polyuria, neck and mid-back pain, quality of life, and autonomic nervous system adaptability."

So ignoring the improvements to back and neck pain (which we know chiropractic is good at correcting),  I wanted to focus on the increased Telomere length.  Telomeres are the tails at the end of our DNA strands and are a biomarker of the health and aging of the cell, and its ability to reproduce.  This case study suggests that Chiropractic can have an effect in improving DNA telomere length, which is improving health and aging at a cellular level.  Quite ground breaking!

It is important to remember that this is a case study(1 person) and needs to be conducted now on a larger group of people.  It is also important to note that how long this benefit lasts has not been measured.  It may be temporary, or it may be permanent.

The benefits of Chiropractic on Migraine Headaches have long been known and reported but I came across an interesting article in:

Journal of Musculoskeletal Science and Practice

Title - Adverse events in a chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy single-
blinded, placebo, randomized controlled trial for migraineurs
Volume 29, June 2017, Pages 66–71

The researchers in this paper have looked at adverse events from manipulation for Migraine Headaches.  700 subjects were sorted into two groups, 355 receiving placebo and 355 receiving manipulation.

The results: Local tenderness was the most common AE, reported by 11.3% and 6.9% of the CSMT group and the placebo group, respectively, and tiredness on the intervention day was reported by 8.5% and 1.4% of CSMT group and the placebo group, respectively.

There were no serious adverse events at all.

This research adds to the growing body of research on the safety of Chiropractic treatment for conditions such as migraine headaches, the medications for which often have numerous side effects.

An interesting article surfaced last week regarding Chondroitin in medical news.

High-quality chondroitin sulfate is as effective as celecoxib in treating knee osteoarthritis, according to an international trial in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Roughly 600 adults over 50 with primary knee osteoarthritis were randomized to receive pharmaceutical-grade chondroitin sulfate (800 mg) plus placebo, celecoxib (200 mg) plus placebo, or double placebo daily for 6 months.

At the conclusion of the trial, the chondroitin and celecoxib groups had significantly greater reductions in pain relative to the placebo group, with no difference between the two active treatments.

At 3 and 6 months, chondroitin and celecoxib conferred significant improvements in function relative to placebo, with no difference between the two active groups.

Noting the risks associated with long-term use of NSAIDs and acetaminophen, he authors suggest chondroitin sulfate "should be considered a first-line treatment in the medical management of knee OA."

This is promising news following the recent discovery that arthroscopes for osteoarthritis of the knee has no clinical relevance.

I saw this article recently in Sydney Morning Herald on line and wanted to share it.

Website source: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/many-operations-more-harmful-than-beneficial-top-surgeon-warns-20170512-gw3pbc.html

This article quotes a top orthopaetic surgeon who explains that many surgeons are performing operations that are likely to do more harm than good.
About half of orthopaedic surgical procedures have no scientific evidence from randomised trials proving they work better than non-operative treatment, Ian Harris told a meeting of 1900 surgeons this week.

Research showed another 25 per cent are no better than non-surgical alternatives. Yet many of these are still being performed.
Among the list of ineffective and potentially harmful operations are: knee arthroscopy for arthritis, some forms of spinal surgery for low back pain, Achilles tendon repairs, some shoulder arthroscopic procedures, and wrist and ankle fracture fixations.

Despite many studies showing knee arthroscopy was not beneficial for almost all patients with arthritis, many medical guidelines continue to support the procedure for such people.

Some surgeons also continued to perform spinal fusion surgery to treat low back pain despite studies showing no benefit over non-surgical alternatives.

A 2012 study of people who had the procedure for low back pain through workers' compensation schemes in NSW found only 3 per cent had returned to pre-injury work duties two years after the surgery. About 70 per cent were still taking strong opioids such as OxyContin in an attempt to manage their pain.

His warning comes amid mounting evidence of ineffective, wasteful and harmful medical treatments worldwide, and not just in surgery. In January, an international group of leading doctors and academics said up to one-third of medical interventions were now being done unnecessarily, causing physical, psychological and financial harm that could threaten the viability of healthcare systems.

The Australian government is reviewing the Medicare Benefits Schedule to eliminate ineffective medical services taxpayers should not be paying for, so it can fund more effective care.
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Bruce Robinson, an endocrinologist who is leading the review, said he was preparing to release new recommendations about changes for spinal surgery and orthopaedics in coming weeks. He estimated the government would start acting on these recommendations at the end of 2018.

One of the most common things I hear people who have never been to a Chiro say is – “Why do you have to keep going?  It’s like once you start Chiropractic you need to keep going forever.”

The answer to this is very simple.  People who start visiting the Chiropractor regularly begin to see it a bit like exercising, or eating a good diet.  Do you ever have to stop exercising?  You can stop exercising but you will lose your fitness and your quality of life will suffer.  For people who see Chiropractors regularly, chiropractors help them to manage their spine throughout their life.  As I have mentioned in previous blogs, how you age physically depends a lot on structure and weight bearing.  Chiropractic helps you to maintain good structure which helps you maintain the best quality of life that you can.  The reason people decide to keep seeing the chiropractor is that they know it keeps them doing the things they like, like playing sport or playing with the grand kids, and keeps them feeling their best.

Do you have to keep seeing the chiropractor?  No.  Chiropractic can be used for crisis care alone – to get you out of pain when you are in pain, but there is no long term benefit to this.  And as people who visit the dentist find out pretty quickly – if you keep waiting until you have a hole in your teeth before you do something about it, pretty soon you run out of teeth.  The same is true for your back.  If you just use Chiropractic for crisis care alone there is a point where chiropractic will have limited effect for your problems.

I saw this incredible story and had to share it.

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden's trio of two-week-old Malayan tiger cubs is doing well.

“They’re fed by nursery staff six times a day and have already graduated from two to three ounces per feeding,” Mike Dulaney, the zoo's curator of mammals and the vice coordinator of the Malayan Tiger Species Survival Plan (SSP), said in a news release. “Before they open their eyes, they usually just eat and sleep. Now that they can see where they’re going, they will start to become more active.”

But one of the cubs needed a little help from an unexpected source: A local chiropractor. Cub No. 1, as it has been deemed until its gender is known and a name has been given, was having trouble holding its head up.

“It was obvious to me that something wasn’t right," Dawn Strasser, a 35-year veteran in the zoo’s nursery, said in the release. “The cub’s neck appeared to be stuck at an odd angle. Massaging the neck muscles helped with the stiffness, but the cub was increasingly lethargic and not suckling well.”

Strasser brought in Dr. Mark Sperbeck, a chiropractor who works on both humans and animals. He determined that the cub’s top cervical bone (C1), through which 95 percent of the body's nerve impulses travel, was out of alignment.
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After three adjustments, the cub's neck and spine are back in place. It's eating well and has actually gotten a little bigger than its littermates.
 

I posted this last year but it has come up again recently so I wanted to repeat then post.

Car headrests

In a motor vehicle accident where your car is rear ended, you suffer less neck injury if your head is touching the head rest at the time of impact.

The makers of expensive cars have noticed that in the population, forward head carriage is quite prevalent and now, they are making their head rests with the rest forward of the seat which in their mind is helping the buyers of their cars to suffer less injury.

However, they are in actuality causing them to have problems.

Forward head carriage has been scientifically proved to contribute to tension headaches, pins and needles in the hands, neck pain, mid thorasic pain, lower back pain, shoulder pain, dizziness and the list goes on.

Consequently I have had more people appearing to my office suffering these sorts of symptoms after having long drives in their nice new cars.

So what do you do?

We should drive with our seats in an upright position and the head rest level with the top of the car seat.  Your head should be touching the rest in this position.  Try and achieve this with your car, and if you are looking to buy a new car, make sure this can be achieved with the new car.  If you can’t achieve this with your car, contact your dealer – DON’T REMOVE THE HEADREST ENTIRELY – this would cause you severe damage should you be involved in an accident.
 
Additional note for women – hair clips and hair style while driving.
If your wear thick bull clips at the back of your hair, or have a hair style such as a thick pony tail or plait that starts at the back of your head, you should take this out while driving as it creates the same forward head carriage as would occur with the headrest forward of the car seat, and it will also promote the same symptoms.

Recent research at the George Institute for Global Health reviewed the findings of 35 clinical trials of 6,000 patients using anti-inflammatory pain relieving drugs.

The findings:
"Compared with placebo, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) do not provide a clinically important effect on spinal pain," Associate Professor Manuela Ferreira said.
Researchers found six patients had to be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs for one patient to achieve a clinically important benefit in the short-term, and the drugs have side effects.
Dr Ferreira reports, "Our safety analysis revealed NSAIDs increased the risk of gastrointestinal side effects by 2.5 times, compared to placebo."

The study was published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Conversely, hundreds of studies expound the virtues of Chiropractic care and manipulative therapy in reducing back pain, so if you are a sufferer of back pain, it would seem a good idea to stop taking medication and call your local Chiropractor.

Recently a case came to me of a girl who was sixteen years old who had just had major surgery for her scoliosis.  The girl had needed to steel (Harrington) rods inserted into her back to prevent her scoliosis from advancing further and giving her catastrophic health issues.  There is no doubt that this particular girl needed this surgery as her scoliosis had advanced to the point where no other form of treatment we know about yet would have helped.

However, I am always sad to see these cases, and other scoliosis cases that are allowed to progress until people are in the mid-teens, mostly because that can often be helped and in many cases corrected if caught early enough.

Chiropractors are experts in the detection of scoliosis and this is a great reason to get your children checked at least every six months if nothing else.  If you have a history of scoliosis then you ABSOLUTELY should do this as there is a genetic link with scoliosis - it does run in families.  With early detection, you can be referred to the correct specialists who can often correct scoliosis PERMANENTLY without the need for surgery but only if it is detected early.

Please be aware that not all cases can be corrected with conservative care but all the research points to early detection and intervention giving the best hope of success.  Once a child is 16 or seventeen, it is too late.