Daily Health Update for June 23 2021 by Toronto Chiropractor Dr. David Koivuranta in Davisville.

Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, enjoying the middle of your week. You made it to Wednesday, that's amazing. Coming at you today on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update for Wednesday, June 23rd, 2021. Gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness. Somewhere around this video you can read through all 6 of those areas, and if you'd like a copy or have any questions, you can DM us on social, send us an email, or give us a call here at the clinic. We'd be happy to help you out. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, you just never know what that body of yours is capable of when you start creating a good environment for it to do what it's designed to do, and that's take care of you. So sometimes it doesn't need a lot of help, we just have to remove the interference, and the research and literature can help us with steps in that regard. So let's see what they have to say today. The American Heart Association builds on a story we talked about, I believe yesterday, with respect to sleep apnea. This comes out in May 2021, this time in childhood, and having sleep apnea can actually may lead to hypertension in adolescence. New research suggests that half of children with obstructive sleep apnea will outgrow the disorder by their teen years. However, those who continue to experience sleep apnea are 3 times more likely to have high blood pressure than their peers without a history of sleep disturbance. So getting good quality sleep, making sure that you have good support from a qualified healthcare provider when it comes to sleep apnea, especially if it's obstructive sleep apnea. Then you will not only improve that condition, but it will stave off some complicating factors down the road. Perhaps the George Institute for Global Health, May 2021, looks at an interesting concept of doctors prescribing fruit and vegetables instead of pills. A review of 13 healthy food prescription programs that involved either subsidized or directly supplied food such as fruits and vegetables as a form of medical treatment showed that participants not only ate more healthy foods but also experienced improvements in weight and sugar levels. The George's Institute says that collectively they saw a positive impact on the health of patients in those programs, even though they were quite different in ways in which they provided the healthier foods and measured the outcomes. They found the effect of healthy food prescriptions on blood glucose was comparable to what you would expect to see from some commonly prescribed glucose— blood glucose— glucose-lowering medications. And that This adds weight to the growing evidence that food can also be medicine. Who would have thunk? That's the power of deciding what it is you're going to consume every day. And even though we've maybe had some challenges along the way and didn't do it the way we wanted to, when we turn around and make some changes, we can feel good about those changes and possibly even recover or heal and get ourselves better again. So the power of food, very amazing. How about the power of exercise or activity? The American Heart Association, again May 2021, looked at getting more steps and how it could lead to a longer life. Following a multi-year study that included over 16,000 older women, researchers found that for every 1,000 cumulative steps per day a woman takes at age 72, her risk of death in the following 7 years follows by 20— falls by 28%. There's a lot there to be said for momentum and just staying active and in action. Motion truly is life, isn't it? American Health Association's on a roll. In May, they also talked about too much TV and how it could dull your brain. A recent study that included nearly 6,500 adults identified an association between time spent watching television per day and a greater degree of cognitive decline over the following 15 years. However, the researchers are unclear if watching TV is responsible for this effect or if prolonged sedentary behavior is the cause of the decline. Or perhaps it's a combination of the two, 'cause both of them done in moderation are probably okay. We do need to rest, take a break, and can be sedentary for some time. And sure, we can watch things and engage with our digital world. However, we of course want to break that up with getting up and moving and engaging in other activities, right? The UNC Health Report, May 2021, talks about the health benefits of gardening. Maybe you're able to get out into your garden now this spring and summer. Gardening not only gives you beautiful flowers and vegetables, vegetables, it can also offer many health benefits such as providing self-esteem, heart health, stress relief, better mood, stronger hand strength, and higher vitamin D levels. So gardening, good. Just be cautious of what you're doing and how you're doing it, especially comes to those knees and your back. Finally, on the chiropractic side of things, the BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders report from May 2021 looks at cervical thoracic pain— pain in the upper back and neck— being common among Air Force personnel Among a group of 73 Air Force personnel who underwent tests that assessed pain, function, and range of motion in the neck and mid-back, researchers found that 30% experienced cervicothoracic pain with range of motion, um, impairments. Cervicothoracic pain is a common presentation in many clinics and offices, including chiropractic clinics, and it can be effectively treated with a combination of manual therapies and specific exercises. So you may not be a pilot, maybe not of a plane, but you probably pilot other things, um, maybe maybe a bicycle, a motor vehicle, and other things, even the pilot of your computer workstation, perhaps. And you may also get some neck and upper back discomfort. So do seek out some qualified help with that. There is some room for improvement, I'm sure, and you can find it out there in the hands of someone who's willing to help you. All right, that's your daily health update for Wednesday. And the tail end of the week is coming. Hope you're excited for another summer weekend coming up. And make the most of it. Get outside and enjoy yourself. All right, but before then, we'll catch up with you tomorrow, Thursday, with the next daily health update. Look forward to chatting with you then. All the best.