In this brief daily health update, Dr. David Koivuranta of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic shares six recent research findings that touch on fertility, nutrition, musculoskeletal health, oral health, mental health, and pregnancy. He frames each study as a piece of evidence that can inform everyday lifestyle choices and highlights the broader theme of preventive care versus treatment. The update emphasizes that while the clinic does not diagnose or treat via the video, listeners can use the information to curb harmful habits, consider public‑health policy implications, and seek appropriate professional help when needed. The six topics covered are: (1) a rise in twin births linked to increased fertility treatments and possible environmental impacts on fertility; (2) a large longitudinal study showing a 10% lower stroke risk for adults eating a diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, and beans while limiting refined grains and added sugars; (3) a review of 17 RCTs indicating resistance training can reduce joint pain and improve quality of life for rheumatoid arthritis patients; (4) school‑based dental programs that cut cavity incidence by 50%, illustrating how publicly funded preventive services can reduce health disparities; (5) evidence that children with ADHD are more likely to become adult smokers, suggesting early intervention may alter long‑term outcomes; and (6) data that pregnancy‑related pelvic girdle pain risk rises 44% each week of gestation, with manual therapy, targeted exercise, physiotherapy, and education offering relief. Dr. Koivuranta ends with an encouraging call to take small daily steps toward better health and a promise of another update the next day.
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Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, you had a nice start to the week, you're looking forward to your Tuesday today. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update. It is Tuesday, April 13th, 2021. Gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness today. Somewhere around this video you can read through all 6 of those areas. If you'd like a copy, you can DM us on social, send us an email, give us a call at the clinic. We'll be sure to get that to you. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, by being here and by listening and/or reading and participating in some good health and wellness information, it may just curb some of your habits during the day that may not be supporting your health and may introduce you to some ideas, thoughts, and actions that can better support what kind of health you're trying to create for yourself and those around you in order to support those great experiences you'd like to have each and every day. And this is just a small part but can be an important part of that process by keeping your health and and wellness front of mind. So good for you for being here. There's some interesting topics today, not necessarily going to go too in depth, um, but perhaps there's some value to many out there just to ponder these things and maybe do some research and look into them further. The journal Human Reproduction, March 2021, talked about couples having more twins, and this is most likely due to increased fertility treatment. Infertility is on the rise globally, and it's thought that a leading cause can be environmental exposure to some things that are lowering our ability to be fertile. So that's interesting, um, but it does have some side effects, uh, which over time will be interesting to monitor. Might be more twins out there, uh, that's one of them. And the Journal of Neurology, March 2021, looked at the benefits of a diet for cutting stroke risk, and 210,000 adults— participated in a multi-decade study, so a significant study, and a diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, and beans with a limited intake of refined grains and added sugars had a 10% decrease, lower risk of stroke. And then I'm sure if we add in some fitness or activity statistics as well as some sleep statistics, we can lower that a little bit more. So those lifestyle factors really can add up over time to support your quality and quantity of life. The Journal of Medicine, April 2021, looked at lifting weights to help with rheumatoid arthritis. It's a chronic inflammatory disorder that affects the joints, especially those in the hands and feet. And a review of data from 17 randomized controlled trials revealed that resistance training can reduce joint pain and improve quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis patients. In these situations, it's a matter of finding that thin line hopefully not too thin, where a certain amount of activity and a type of activity is beneficial, but excessive or not enough activity will not be supportive of the joint health when there's arthritis present. So for each individual, that may be a bit different, but for those who can and those who should be able to add in resistance training, it may help with that rheumatoid arthritis. Uh, the Journal of the American Dental Association, March 2021, looked at school dental programs helping to reduce cavities. They implemented some programs within the school system, and they found that the incidence of cavities with this program, they decreased by 50%. So having this publicly funded or publicly available health program really made a big difference. So there is a disparity among people in their ability to achieve certain health outcomes due to cost of some of that care. And if prevention were a bigger part of mainstream healthcare delivery, then we can see some of the implications of that versus just treating problems when they arise. So in our area in Canada, dental care is typically not covered by the social healthcare system and it is a fee-for-service health approach. And there's some limitations to that if people don't have assistance from their employer, extended health benefits, in order to do the maintenance and prevention with their their teeth and their oral health. It is an investment. And they found that when they remove that barrier and make it available, at least in children in these schools, that the incidence of cavities decreases. And so if we extrapolate that and we just pretend that we were to roll that out across other aspects of taking care of ourselves, whether it's fitness, whether it's nutrition, and whether or not we focus on some of the leading causes of illness and disease in North America, the chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, especially, that if we had more publicly funded programs and more public support available to people in a preventative fashion, that we could probably put a big dent. Let's hope we could, let's be optimistic and say we could in some of these healthcare problems. But it would still be up to society to embrace the habits and make the choices. And regardless, everyone has the ability to try and make some improvement in that direction with all of these considerations. Regardless of socioeconomic factors. But it would be easier if we made it available to everyone equally, perhaps. A good discussion for a Tuesday. The Journal of Attention Disorders, March 2021, looked at children with ADHD and it came up with the conclusion that they were more likely to smoke as adults. So I don't know what to do with that information. It's an interesting topic to begin with. And, uh, but I share it because it's out there, and for those who, um, it may pertain to and may be useful in some way to look into that further and support some of the decisions and choices along the way, should we be taking care of and/or working with someone who might be prone to that outcome in the future. All right. And then finally, Journal Spine, January 2021, looked at the prevalence of pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy. Uh, probably never a fun thing. They looked at 780 new and expectant moms and revealed the risk for pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain increased 44% with each additional week of gestation. And the risk is elevated among women with a history of low back pain, uh, or previous pelvic girdle pain, or those with a family history of, um, pregnancy pelvic girdle pain. So common therapies such as manual therapy, specific exercise instruction, physiotherapy modalities, patient education can benefit patients with pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. So if you have discomfort from bringing this new creation into the world, there is some help out there for you. Do go seek out some care. It may not only help support that third trimester of the pregnancy, but may also help in improving the time and the effort with those three stages of the delivery process. All right, so there you have it, some good information, daily health update for Tuesday. I hope you have a wonderful day. Take care of each other out there. Keep smiling, keep doing what you do, and feed your soul with some positive stuff. Make sure you're living the life that you would like to live, that you are maybe feel like you were made to do. And if you're not, then take little steps every day to try and head in that direction. It's always time and effort well spent, just like when it comes to taking care of your health. We'll catch up with you tomorrow, Wednesday, middle of the week with your next daily health update. We'll speak with you then. Take care.
