Donald McDowall's Blog

An eclectic collection of health related issues, mainly focussed on Applied Kinesiology and Chiropractic.
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139-Cell Phone, Acupuncture, Cramps, Shoulder, Excema, whiplash, Strength, Sugar, Snake oil

Posted by: in MyBlog on Jan 09, 2011

Tagged in: Untagged 

 

 

Hi Everyone,

There is a 3 X increase risk of heart attack watching the world cup.   Don't get too excited!

At the moment I am sitting with a patient recovering from an ischemic stroke.  Thanks to AK'er Dr. John Diamond for recommending the use of an Hyperbaric chamber to help her reoxygenate the damaged brain cells.  Up to 4 lbs per square inch pressure is used to help her brain absorb more oxygen as she lies, breathing in this chamber.  It seems painless other than "ear popping".   While I am well read and know where to find most information, the experience of seasoned doctors like Dr. Diamond and others are rarely published.  I am always grateful to those doctors who respond to my call for help when I need it.  Our AK team around the world is a giant resource of information.  That is why I like attending conferences and seminars.  Often I meet colleagues I haven't seen for a long time and get to catch up with their new observations for helping people.  Our AK fraternity is like that.  I help those who email or call me and down the line it goes.  Dr. Goodheart often answered 20 calls or more per day from doctors asking him questions.  As a young doctor, I didn't always look at the clock when I called him regarding a patient problem.  He would say:  "Did you know that it is 2 AM here in Detroit at the moment?"  Whoops!  Australian time would be late afternoon.  I soon learned to check time zones before I called.  His advice helped me with many difficult problems.  Thank you to all my colleagues who have helped me gather additional information to help stroke recovery patients.   I appreciate all you have shared.  Don't miss out on any of the great AK programs held around the world this year.  From Thailand to Berlin.  You will learn from each lecture and from each doctor you meet.   Enjoy this collection of great articles.   Donald


1. Acupuncture pain adenosine molecule found.
2. One way to muscle test for cell phone effects on your body.
3. Tai Chi helps psychological well being.
4. Methods of reducing a shoulder dislocation-a slideshow
5. Do your patients like or respect you?
6. SMS is a reliable system for collecting research data
7. Do you know what your colleagues are good at?
8. Using quinine for muscle cramps.
9. Depressed people eat more chocolate
10. Probiotics prevent necrotizing enterocolitis.
11. Children of parents with higher education have more excema.
12. Glucosamine is cheaper to use than pa
racetamol for knee pain.
13. Risk factors for persistence of neck pain after whiplash
14. Doctors Speed Dating patients?
15. Swiss ball exercises cause more problems than they help.
16. Repetition exercises weaken performance without rest
17. Incomplete range of movement affects muscle selection.
18. Electromagnetic stimulation adds to exercise for more strength
19. Carbohydrates before anaerobic exercise works better than aerobic exercise.
20. Static stretching may help at the beginning of high intensity aerobic exercise.
21. Imaginary exercises make you stronger.
22. Shoulder injuries occur with resistance training.
23. Men get post natal depression.
24. Don't brush your teeth enough and get heart disease
25. Metabolic syndrome has little evidence.
26. Sunscreen has a new name, "snake oil".
27. Less sugar equals less blood pressure.
28. Spinal manipulation helps brain and organ function.
29. Neck movement testing is as good as x-ray diagnosis for stiff joints.
30. Blood cells and neck pain improve with manipulation.




1. Acupuncture pain adenosine molecule found. "Acupuncture is an invasive procedure commonly used to relieve pain. Acupuncture is practiced worldwide, despite difficulties in reconciling its principles with evidence-based medicine. We found that adenosine, a neuromodulator with anti-nociceptive properties, was released during acupuncture in mice and that its anti-nociceptive actions required adenosine A1 receptor expression. Direct injection of an adenosine A1 receptor agonist replicated the analgesic effect of acupuncture. Inhibition of enzymes involved in adenosine degradation potentiated the acupuncture-elicited increase in adenosine, as well as its anti-nociceptive effect. These observations indicate that adenosine mediates the effects of acupuncture and that interfering with adenosine metabolism may prolong the clinical benefit of acupuncture." .  Free download.

2. One way to muscle test for cell phone effects on your body. My observation has been that some patients have reoccurring pain syndromes in the immediate area of cell phone contact to their body.   Donald


3. Tai Chi helps psychological well being. "Tai Chi appears to be associated with improvements in psychological well-being including reduced stress, anxiety, depression and mood disturbance, and increased self-esteem. Definitive conclusions were limited due to variation in designs, comparisons, heterogeneous outcomes and inadequate controls. High-quality, well-controlled, longer randomized trials are needed to better inform clinical decisions."

4. Methods of reducing a shoulder dislocation-a slideshow.  "The shoulder is said to be the most mobile joint in the human body. It permits movement of the arm in all directions, but it is prone to dislocation. The first documented instances of shoulder dislocation come from as early as 3000 BC, when murals depicting the Kocher technique for reducing a dislocated shoulder were made." 

5. Do your patients like or respect you?  A video discussion. "There are five factors that strengthen the desire to be liked.

6. SMS is a reliable system for collecting research data.  "SMS-T-Q appears to be a cheaper and better method to collect reliable LBP data than paper-based surveys.".  Free download.

7. Do you know what your colleagues are good at? If you do then your patients may get better quicker. 

8. Using quinine for muscle cramps. "There are Class I studies showing the efficacy of quinine derivatives for treatment of muscle cramps. However, the benefit is modest and there are adverse effects from published prospective trials as well as case reports."  

9. Depressed people eat more chocolate.  "higher CES-D depression scores were associated with greater chocolate consumption. Whether there is a causal connection, and if so in which direction, is a matter for future prospective study."  

10. Probiotics prevent necrotizing enterocolitis.  " results confirm the significant benefits of probiotic supplements in reducing death and disease in preterm neonates. The dramatic effect sizes, tight confidence intervals, extremely low P values, and overall evidence indicate that additional placebo-controlled trials are unnecessary if a suitable probiotic product is available." 

11. Children of parents with higher education have more .  "Children might have a higher risk of certain skin rashes if their parents have an advanced education, researchers at the Medical University of Vienna said Tuesday." 

12. Glucosamine is cheaper to use than pa
racetamol for knee pain. "The results of the present cost-effectiveness analysis suggested that GS is a highly cost-effective therapy alternative compared with paracetamol and PBO to treat patients diagnosed with primary knee OA."   

13. Risk factors for persistence of neck pain after whiplash.  "Our findings indicate that factors that allow us to identify patients at risk for poor recovery are age, dizziness, and initial evaluation of neck pain with VAS and cervical column functionality with NPH."  

14. Doctors Speed Dating patients? "A Texas hospital has created a program similar to speed dating, where physicians in need of patients can meet patients shopping for physicians. Critics say this type of marketing drives up healthcare costs, but proponents say it's crucial in competing with other hospitals and practices. How effective would this program be for your practice?"   

15. Swiss ball exercises cause more problems than they help. "Although this study has provided evidence for one advanced Swiss ball exercise providing a significant whole-body stimulus, the practical difficulty and risks of performing these more complicated Swiss ball exercises may outweigh potential benefits."

16. Repetition exercises weaken performance without rest. "These results suggest that upper-body exercises involving similar muscle groups and neural recruitment patterns are negatively affected in terms of repetition performance when performed at the end vs. the beginning of a session, and the reduction in repetition performance is greater when using 1-minute vs. 3-minute rest interval between sets."

17. Incomplete range of movement affects muscle selection.  "This suggests to coaches that in strength development programs the employment of an incomplete ROM can reduce the involvement of the trapezius without decreasing medium deltoid activation only with heavy loads."  

18. Electromagnetic stimulation adds to exercise for more strength.  "If a low number of training sessions are carried out, superimposed EMS leads to a higher strength gain than voluntary training alone. However, if anaerobic power is an important aim of the training, EMS should be applied isometrically instead of superimposed EMS and combined with plyometrics." 

19. Carbohydrates before anaerobic exercise works better than aerobic exercise. "These results suggest that the addition of fructose to a single G supplement ingested before a glycolitic exercise can modify the glucoregulation and increases ischemic reactive hyperemia." 

20. Static stretching may help at the beginning of high intensity aerobic exercise. "These results suggest that coaches and practitioners involved with aerobic dependent activities may use static stretching as part of their warm-up routines without fear of diminishing high-intensity aerobic exercise performance."  

21. Imaginary exercises make you stronger. "From an applied and practical perspective, we state that athletes may perform imagined muscles contractions, most especially during the rest periods of their physical training, to contribute to the enhancement of concentric strength."  

22. Shoulder injuries occur with resistance training. "The results of the review indicated that up to 36% of documented RT-related injuries and disorders occur at the shoulder complex."  

23. Men get post natal depression. "Recognition of depression in men can be difficult. Stressors in the postpartum period, such as change in marital relationship, financial concerns, and sleep deprivation, are risk factors for maternal depression but are likely to have a similar effect on fathers. The symptoms of depression in men, however, are different and might lead to withdrawal, anger, and irritability. Screening, prevention, and treatment needs to take the whole family into account. Fathers are now often involved in antenatal classes and the birth itself. They should be equally included in any postpartum contact with health professionals. The start of a family is too important a life event with far-reaching consequences for future generations to miss this opportunity for intervention."  

24. Don't brush your teeth enough and get heart disease. "Poor oral hygiene is associated with higher levels of risk of cardiovascular disease and low grade inflammation, though the causal nature of the association is yet to be determined." 

25. Metabolic syndrome has little evidence. "Asked whether there is now enough evidence to do away with the concept of metabolic syndrome, Mente replied: "We are seeing a little more evidence with each study. It gets to a point where the evidence becomes overwhelming. It is hard to say if we are there yet. Our findings are consistent with at least a couple of other studies, and, yes, in my opinion this should be the end of the metabolic syndrome. But there might be some who disagree." 

26. Sunscreen has a new name, "snake oil".  An environmental group is once again questioning the effectiveness and safety of top-selling sunscreens, claiming that many contain potentially hazardous ingredients and make exaggerated claims.  In its fourth annual Sunscreen Guide, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) evaluated 500 sunscreens and found only 8% to be acceptable.  EWG Senior Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan called most of the best-selling sunscreens in the U.S. “the equivalent of modern-day snake oil,” claiming they do not protect as well as they say they do and may be dangerous.  

27. Less sugar equals less blood pressure. "Cutting back on consumption of beverages that contain added sugar can lower blood pressure, but not only because it may reduce body weight, according to a prospective cohort study that also found no influence on BP from caffeine or consumption of diet soft drinks [1]. The analysis also suggested that change in overall intake of sugar, whether added to or naturally occurring in food and drink, had an effect on BP.  The study found--in its population of >800 adults participating in a hypertension trial of dietary and behavioral interventions--that drinking one less sugar-sweetened beverage a day was independently associated with declines of about 1.2 mm Hg and 1.1 mm Hg in systolic and diastolic BP, respectively, over 18 months. The relationships remained significant after researchers further controlled for weight change.  Our study is observational in nature, but our data show that if you reduce sugary drink consumption, you will reduce blood pressure," lead author Dr Liwei Chen (Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans) told heartwire . The analysis was published online May 24, 2010 in Circulation.

28. Spinal manipulation helps brain and organ function. "There was a significant increase in the MU/M+U ratio for both cortical (ie, N20-P25 and P22-N30) SEP components after the 20-minute repetitive contraction task. This did not occur when the motor training task was preceded with spinal manipulation. Instead, there was a significant decrease in the MU/M+U ratio for the cortical P22-N30 SEP component. The ratio changes appear to be due to changes in the ability to suppress the dual input as concurrent changes in the MU amplitudes were observed."  

29. Neck movement testing is as good as x-ray diagnosis for stiff joints. "The posterior-anterior cervical gliding test was as good as dynamic radiographic assessment for the diagnosis of intervertebral hypomobility in the midcervical spine in this group of subjects."  


30. Blood cells and neck pain improve with manipulation. "The present study has shown that catalase activity of the erythrocytes, but not lipoperoxidation, increased after 6 sessions of HVLA manipulation treatment in men with neck pain. The results support the beneficial role of HVLA in the treatment of patients with neck pain."  

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson from The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Winston's tele seminar with ideas for more money.



Donald McDowall
DC, MAppSc, DNBCE, DIBAK, FACC

 

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