Hi Everyone in Italy,
Welcome to my newsletter.  I send it out each week with items that may be helpful in your AK practice.  Robert sent me your names for the list.  If you don't want the newsletter, just let me know and I will remove you.  Thank you for your interest.  Donald

Here is today's news letter:

ICAKUSA's research director,  Dr. Anthony Rosner has authored a great paper discussing the misrepresenting of AK in the research world  and hits the nail right on the "straw man's" head.  Dr. Phil Maffetone has posted his .ppt from the ICAKUSA meeting in Los Angeles.  You can access it here.  Some more new AK papers have been approved for publication and I will let you know as soon as they are available.  I will be attending Dr. Victor Portelli's Visceral Manipulation seminar this weekend to present AK 100 hour certification certificates and to welcome them into the AK family.  We have 9 Aussie AK Diplomates and I enjoy sitting in on their presentations.  I understand all the years that go into refining great presentations.  For many AK teachers it is their life's work wrapped up in a week end package of great tips and tools for immediate clinical use.  I hope to see many of you at Victor's Seminar.  Enjoy this weeks fascinating features of fantastic news.   Donald


1.  Why women's maximum heart rate is lower than men's.
2. AK research findings get misrepresented.
3. Want new laws for your profession and want to get rid of the old ones?
4. Massaging muscle tendons is better than static stretching
5. Where the internet is going and what it will yet do.
6. Whole body electromyostimulation is better than exercise.
7. Maintaining honesty and integrity.  
8. Running causes most biathlete injuries.
9. Mini workshopping to improve your muscle testing.
10. Bitter melon is a fat reducer



1. Why women's maximum heart rate is lower than men's. "A recent issue of the medical journal Circulation published an important study by Dr. Martha Gulati and her colleagues from Northwestern University. They measured heart rate responses to exercise stress tests in over 5,437 women (average age 52). After a 16-year follow up (in which 549 women – a very high and alarming 10 percent – died of various causes), the researchers found an important association between the maximum exercise heart rates and age, and they determined a better max heart-rate formula for women undergoing stress tests to help predict those at higher health risk." 

2. AK research findings get misrepresented. "Elsewhere, a randomized controlled trial which debunks AK and challenge procedures employed 68 naive volunteers from a chiropractic college. The provocative vertebral challenge applied was a standardized 4-5 kg force delivered with a pressure algometer to the lateral aspects of the T3-T12 spinous processes. The therapeutic intervention was a manual high-velocity low-amplitude adjustment; a switched-off Activator instrument was used as a sham. Reactivity of the piriformis muscle following a vertebral challenge was assessed, as was responsiveness following spinal manipulation. Because the percent of reactivity to the vertebral challenge was only 16 percent with 0 percent responsiveness to spinal manipulation, it was judged that the muscle response seemed to be only a random occurrence which was unrelated to the manipulable subluxation. The authors concluded that manual muscle testing was of questionable value for spinal screening and post-adjustive evaluation.17
The problem with this trial was that the majority of subjects investigated (60 percent) lacked pain - with only half having stiffness in the thoracic region. Challenging the normally functioning vertebra in most of these cases would necessarily lead to a negative result, such that positive tests performed in this experiment would not be expected. Furthermore, the specific vector to challenge must match the specific subluxation of the vertebra if changes in manual muscle testing are to be found and the challenge procedure to be of any use in guiding subsequent therapeutic interventions. So, with the deck stacked as it turned out to be in this experiment, one would not expect positive results. (I'm still trying to imagine how a subluxated straw man would look.)"

3. Want new laws for your profession and want to get rid of the old ones?  The new UK leadership is on a roll.  I hope all the UK AK'ers can do something to help their occupational freedom.  Watch the video of their Prime Minister.  "This site gives you the chance to tell us which laws and regulations you think we should get rid of. Your feedback will inform government policy and some of your proposals could end up making it into bills we bring before Parliament to change the law. We've had an excellent response so far, receiving thousands of ideas, comments and votes."

4. Massaging muscle tendons is better than static stretching. "With a significant increase in hip angle and no associated increase in passive tension or EMG, there is a suggestion that 10 and 30 seconds of musculotendinous massage induces greater ROM through a modified stretch perception, increased stretch tolerance, or increased compliance of the hamstrings. Musculotendinous massage may be used as an alternative or a complement to static stretching for increasing ROM." 

5. Where the internet is going and what it will yet do. "Just as the invention of the printing press transformed society, the internet's capacity for "an unlimited amount of zero-cost reproduction of any digital item by anyone who owns a computer" has removed the barrier to universal participation, and revealed that human beings would rather be creating and sharing than passively consuming what a privileged elite think they should watch."   

6. Whole body electromyostimulation is better than exercise. "In summary, adjunct WB-EMS training significantly exceeds the effect of isolated endurance and resistance type exercise on fitness and fatness parameters. Further, we conclude that for elderly subjects unable or unwilling to perform dynamic strength exercises, electromyostimulation may be a smooth alternative to maintain lean body mass, strength, and power."  

7. Maintaining honesty and integrity.  "For a leader, honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survival. A lot of businesspeople don't realize how closely they're being watched by their subordinates. Remember when you were a kid in grammar school, how you used to sit there staring at your teacher all day? By the end of the school year, you could do a perfect imitation of all your teacher's mannerisms. You were aware of the slightest nuances in your teacher's voice—all the little clues that distinguished levels of meaning that told you the difference between bluff and "now I mean business." 

8. Running causes most biathlete injuries.  "Biathlon is associated with a relatively high incidence of injuries, mostly of slight severity. Female athletes experience more injuries than male athletes. Lower back injuries are the most common injury site. The majority of injuries are caused from training activities such as running." 

9. Mini workshopping to improve your muscle testing. 

10. Bitter melon is a fat reducer. "Our data suggests that BMJ is a potent inhibitor of lipogenesis and stimulator of lipolysis activity in human adipocytes. BMJ may therefore prove to be an effective complementary or alternative therapy to reduce adipogenesis in humans."   

11. Don't swallow button batteries. "
Recent cases suggest that severe and fatal button battery ingestions are increasing and current treatment may be inadequate. The objective of this study was to identify battery ingestion outcome predictors and trends, define the urgency of intervention, and refine treatment guidelines." 

12. Chronic cough not related to reflux. "
In children with chronic cough and suspected of having gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, the temporal relationship between acid reflux and cough is unlikely causal."  


14. Homeopathics to be labeled as placebos? "
Homoeopathic hospitals and remedies should not be funded on the NHS, given the absence of valid scientific evidence of benefit, voted representatives at the BMA’s annual conference in Brighton this week.  
They also voted that no UK training post should include a placement in homoeopathy and that pharmacists should remove homoeopathic remedies from their shelves indicating they are drugs: they should place them on shelves clearly labelled "placebos."
 

15. Mah Jong causes deep vein thrombosis. "
A 40-year-old woman presented to us in April, 2009, with pain and swelling in the left leg. She had played Mah-Jong for 8 h the previous night and had only drunk a small amount of soft drink during this time. She had no past health problems and no family history of DVT. However, she had been taking an oral contraceptive (desogestrel and ethinylestradiol) for 1 month. Her blood pressure was 115/90 mm Hg and there were no abnormal signs on heart and lung examination. Her left leg was diffusely firm and swollen."
 

16. Modest tea and coffee use cuts heart disease. "
The latest look at the effects of tea and coffee consumption on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality suggests that moderate intake of either reduces coronary heart disease risk but has little effect on stroke and no effect on all-cause mortality [1]. Tea, however, does seem to reduce CHD deaths."

18. Honey as an antibiotic. "
Tualang honey has a bactericidal as well as bacteriostatic effect. It is useful as a dressing, as it is easier to apply and is less sticky compared to Manuka honey. However, for Gram positive bacteria, tualang honey is not as effective as usual care products such as silver-based dressing or medical grade honey dressing."  

19. Gluteus muscles help stabilise hip implants. "
The anterior-posterior component of the hip contact load has a significant effect on the axial motion of the stem relative to the bone. Inclusion of the abductor force had a stabilizing effect on the implant motion when simulating stair climbing." 

20. An update on CSF flow and drainage. "
This review traces the development of our understanding of the anatomy and physiological properties of the two systems responsible for the drainage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the systemic circulation. The role of the cranial and spinal arachnoid villi and the lymphatic outflow systems are evaluated as to the dominance of one over the other in various species and degree of animal maturation. The functional capabilities of the total CSF drainage system is presented with evidence that the duality of the system is supported by the changes in fluid outflow dynamics in human and sub human primates in hydrocephalus. The review also reconciles the relative importance and alterations of each of the outflow systems in a variety of clinical pathological conditions."

21. Osteopaths manipulate to help "soul sickness".   
"Soul sickness," or demoralization, is characterized by feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and a perceived sense of incompetence. This condition typically involves vague, unexplained physical symptoms. Soul sickness can be efficiently diagnosed by asking patients a series of questions about their personal lives. Patients with this condition require a restoration of their morale and hope. Physicians can assist patients in regaining hope by encouraging them to focus on new, adaptive behaviors. As osteopathic physicians, we can use our skills in osteopathic manipulative treatment to manage the demoralization-related physical symptoms of patients."  
 


22. Ischemic compression helps shoulder pain. "
The results of this study suggest that myofascial therapy using ischemic compression on shoulder trigger points may reduce the symptoms of patients experiencing chronic shoulder pain."  

23. Neck headaches are difficult to examine. "
Cervical ROM was most associated with the baseline headache experience. However, 4 weeks after treatment, algometric pain thresholds were most associated. No one PE measure remained associated with the self-reported headache outcomes over time."  

Thus the reduced O2 cost of exercise following dietary NO  supplementation appears to be due to a reduced ATP cost of muscle force production. The reduced muscle metabolic perturbation with NO  supplementation allowed high-intensity exercise to be tolerated for a greater period of time.  


25. No more sponsorship for medical education?  "

The medical profession needs to seize back control of continuing medical education from the drug industry, concluded doctors at a conference examining the future of postgraduate education.  

Adriane Fugh-Berman, professor at the Georgetown school of medicine in Washington, DC, told the conference that doctors tend to operate under the assumption that because they are well educated and knowledgeable in their field that they can detect bias in educational materials sponsored by industry, but that is not the case." 


26. Hanging by a venetian blind. "
With the growing popularity of Venetian blinds the window cord has become a major contributor to accidental strangulation of infants and toddlers. An adviser from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has been quoted as saying, "One or two children die each year in the UK in this way."2 (However,newspaper accounts indicate that at least five deaths have occurred over the past 12 months.) In a personal communication the Child Accident Prevention Trust told me that deaths by strangulation from window blinds are underreported, as official statistics do not readily allow such deaths to be identified."
 

27. Patients question medical safety. "
Looking at the issues from harmed patients’ perspectives, the research illustrates that a model of medical harm focussing predominantly upon the clinical markers and individual agency associated with a medical model operates to obscure a range of social processes. These social processes, connected to the power and dominance of the medical profession and the activities of a wider state, are seen to be a major part of the construction of harm that impacts upon patients, which is further compounded by its concealment. Understanding the experiences of harmed patients is therefore seen as an important way of generating knowledge about the medical and social processes involved in harm, that can lead to a broader framework for addressing patient safety."  
 

28. How to get more blood flow into vertebral basilar arteries. "
EECP and traction therapy can relieve the symptoms of rotational VBI, improve the rotational reduction of vertebrobasilar blood flow, and reduce the increased arterial impedance."  

29. Increased muscle pressure and decreased blood flow cause more pain and inflammation in spinal muscles.  "
These findings suggest that IMP and decreased IMBF in the lumbar paraspinal muscles induce inflammation and pain in the lower back."

30. Patient expectations and acupuncture therapy. "
Persons with high pretreatment expectations for the success of acupuncture were more likely to report greater general expectations for improvement, a preference for acupuncture, having heard acupuncture was a very effective treatment and having a very or moderately positive impression of acupuncture. However, none of these variables was a significant predictor of improvement in back-related symptoms or function at 8 or 52 weeks. After 1 treatment, participants' revised expectations of treatment success were only associated with back-symptoms at the end of treatment. After 5 treatments, revised expectation of success was predictive of both symptoms and function at 8 and 52 weeks."  
 


Comments:
Hi Donald- I received your email newsletter via Michael Hook & the NZCA.
 
How do you get added to your list please?
 
Also I noted the link you have to the story on power balance band. Gareth Rapson (one of our chiropractors ) & I were given one each  by the Wellington distributor to wear to see what difference it made and if we would recommend them. The “AK” demonstration is definitely thought provoking. Of note is how many people seem to have significantly poorer sleep quality whilst wearing them. I thought this was just a placebo effect, but the same thing happened with me. A couple of times, I had forgotten to take it off & only noticed that I was still wearing it in the morning. I’m still not sure about them, but there is something going on with them.
 
Cheers
Louise J
Donald McDowall
DC, MAppSc, DNBCE, DIBAK, FACC