In this short video Dr. David Koivuranta, representing the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic, greets viewers, offers seasonal snow‑shoveling safety tips, and clarifies that the segment is not a medical diagnosis. He then reviews six recent research findings: (1) a European Heart Journal study linking even one daily alcoholic drink to a 16‑47 % higher risk of atrial fibrillation; (2) a Hand journal report that vitamin D supplementation reduced symptoms in people with carpal tunnel syndrome and low vitamin D; (3) a PLOS One analysis of 1.2 million Swedish men showing low fitness at age 18 doubled the odds of later psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis; (4) a Journal of the American Heart Association investigation finding that greater coronary calcium scores were associated with poorer cognitive test performance; (5) a Journal of Pain Research trial demonstrating that manual therapy combined with supervised exercise produced greater pain‑ and function‑improvement in knee osteoarthritis than exercise alone; and (6) a Health Advocate‑compiled list of practical wellness actions for 2021 (increase water intake, add 10 minutes of daily exercise, go to bed earlier, practice a daily stress‑relief activity, add a serving of fruit/vegetables, walk at lunch, spend time with supportive friends/family, practice gratitude, eat breakfast, improve posture, reduce screen time, brush/floss daily, control portion sizes). He invites viewers to request a written copy of the six‑point health plan and signs off with a warm wish for a healthy week.
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Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, you enjoyed your start of your week, maybe your long weekend if you had a Family Day here in some provinces in Canada, and hopefully you were okay with some shoveling this morning if you had to. In some areas of Canada, specifically here in Toronto, we received some snow, so remember to bend with those knees, less with your back, no twisting, little scoops, at a time, many trips with light loads is better than trying to do too much at once. And if you want any specific shoveling tips, let me know and we can share some of those with you. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update for Tuesday, February 16th, 2021. Maybe you also had a wonderful Valentine's Day this past weekend and filled your heart with at least giving yourself something nice and fun to do and/or a little treat if you you will. A little bit of chocolate, especially dark chocolate, might be good for you. So what— hopefully, regardless of what's going on, your beginning of your week, you're looking forward to your day and the rest of the week, uh, and enjoy it as much as you can. To help support you on your health and wellness journey for the week, we're going to share with you 6 areas of health and wellness today, like we do most days of the week. And somewhere around this video, you can read through all 6 of those areas. If you'd like a copy, just DM us on social, uh, send us an email to the clinic, or call us, and we'll be sure that we get that to you. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, we will share with you something that will support your own health and wellness efforts and keep you thinking and engaged in your health and wellness throughout the day, so your own thoughts, decisions, and actions support those healthy outcomes you want. And because you live your life through your body, you'll be helping to create those great experiences you're looking for every day. And it may start with a tasty beverage now and then. Uh, the European Heart Journal, January 2021, looked at those tasty beverage habits Although some moderate drinking is believed to be heart healthy, this new study found that just one drink per day can raise the risk of a common abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation. They looked at over 100,000 adults who researchers monitored for an average of 14 years, and it revealed those who averaged 1, 2, or 3 drinks a day, they had a 16%, 28%, or 47% higher risk for atrial fibrillation respectively. Than non-drinkers. So certainly it seems that when we start to increase some of these behaviors from moderation and maybe even just enjoying a little bit here and there, there is an increased impact on our health and wellness potentially. Now this may be individual specific, probably some more research is required, but when you couple it with all the other information, tasty beverage now and then is okay, but know not to overindulge, especially on a daily basis or that binge drinking where you're having 6, 8 or more beverages averages in a given day, very hard on your system, can be very taxing. In the journal Hand, January 2021, they looked at carpal tunnel syndrome and the effects of vitamin D. They found that those people who had low levels of vitamin D but had carpal tunnel syndrome, those symptoms improved with vitamin D supplementation. They experienced less symptoms of that carpal tunnel. So an interesting correlation there. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have carpal tunnel syndrome or those kinds of symptoms that, along with other manual therapies and treatments and self-care, there might be some benefit to looking at your vitamin D levels. The PLOS One journal, January 2021, looked at lower fitness levels that were linked to a greater risk of psoriasis later on in life. They looked at long-term data concerning over 1.2 million Swedish men, and they completed compulsory, compulsory military service, and it revealed those with low fitness at age 18 were about 50% more likely to develop psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis later in life than their more fit peers. So there's another good motivation to stay healthy and well. It's for those side effects, the icing on the cake. You do probably feel better, look better, but your body actually functions better, and that may include the skin and some inflammatory benefits as well, keeping that inflammation low. And plaque buildup in your arteries are another thing that we want to avoid. Fitness can help with that, and so can our diet, but The side effects go beyond that and may even affect your brain health, according to the Journal of the American Heart Association, February 2021. A coronary calcium scan is used to measure calcified plaque buildup in the arteries and assess a patient's risk for cardiovascular disease. A study that included nearly 5,000 adults revealed an association between more severe calcium buildup in the coronary artery in middle-aged and worse performance on some cognitive tasks. So calcification in the artery on your heart may be correlated with decreased cognitive function later on in life. So an interesting correlation there. Manual therapies improve outcomes in knee osteoarthritis patients. Some wear and tear arthritis in the knees can be benefited by some manual therapy, according to the Journal of Pain Research, January 2021. With those patients who have osteoarthritis of the knee, when you combine manual therapy with supervised exercises, you get greater improvements with respect to pain and function than just supervised exercise alone. Of course, there are many people who provide manual therapy to knees that might have some wear and tear, including physiotherapists, osteopaths, and of course chiropractors. Wellness tips for 2021— you're gonna like this list. It's a huge one if you're looking for ways to improve or feel better and look better, uh, and just create a strategy for improvement or supporting your health. According to the Health Advocate, January 2021, it's quite a list. You can drink more water, add 10 minutes exercise of exercise to your day. Get moving at work, take some breaks and move around a bit. Get to bed 10 minutes earlier. Commit to one healthy stress-relieving activity a day, maybe like singing or meditating or taking a nap. Add one more serving of fruit and vegetables to your diet. Always a good thing. Going for a walk during your lunch break, good way to add some movement to your day and to take a break. Spend more time with friends and family, hopefully the ones that you enjoy and help build you up, not beat you down. Appreciate all you have and the important people in your life. Some gratitude there. Eat breakfast. Uh, maybe if you're fasting, following the fasting protocol might be a different recommendation, but that breakfast still pops up in a lot of the research and literature. Correct your posture, reduce your screen time, brush and floss your teeth every day, and control your food portions. That's quite a good list, a lot of good reminders there, and hopefully some of that helps support and keep your momentum going with your health and wellness here in the middle of February 2021. All right, that's your daily health update for today. Have a wonderful week, stay warm, uh, and enjoy yourself no matter where you are in North America or the world tapping into this video. And we'll look forward to chatting with you tomorrow, Wednesday, for your next daily health update. Take care.
