Daily Health Update for May 27 2021 by Toronto Chiropractor Dr. David Koivuranta in Davisville.

Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, enjoying your week. You had a nice Wednesday, looking forward to your Thursday today, and then you're only one day away from another weekend. Last weekend of May heading into the summer months. I hope you're excited and looking forward to it, and hopefully we can keep you healthy and well to enjoy it, which is always amazing. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update for Thursday, May 27th, 2021. We're gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness today. Somewhere around this video, you can read through all 6 areas. If you'd like a copy or you have any questions, you can DM us on social, send us an email here at the clinic, or even give us a call. We'll be sure to lend you a hand and/or get you a copy of that so you can have it in front of you. Not gonna treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, you just never know what your body is capable of improving and/or sustaining in terms of health now and into the future when you start making good decisions, choices, medicines and taking those action steps to support your own health and wellness. And sometimes the research and literature can help stimulate some of that process, and onward and upward you go. So we're here Monday through Thursday with a video to help you do that, Fridays with a written format, which is what you'll get tomorrow. And we're happy to support that process, and we're glad that you're here to be part of that process. The Journal of American Medical Association Network Open in April 2021 had an interesting article about dirty air and how it could raise the risk of mental illness in children. According to a new study, increased exposure to fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxide air pollutants during childhood is associated with an elevated risk for mental health issues in early adulthood. So these fine particulate matters, or matter, that is in the air globally and in some more populated areas where there's issues with smog, especially in the Eastern world with some of the larger cities, there's some concern about this even in terms of being able to conceive. It could be one of the leading factors with challenges on the conception rates. So now they found that perhaps it even affects development some way with cognitive function perhaps, and affecting the mental health and wellness of our children that presents then in early adulthood. So it's interesting now with our COVID and our exposure to masks, knowing that there are certain things in the environment that maybe we want to protect ourselves from depending on the levels of those toxic or dangerous substances in the air. Certainly there's more research warranted. I don't know that there's any recommendations coming from this, but interesting research and literature nonetheless. And as well, on the nutrition side of things, eating very well, especially those fruits and vegetables, can help detoxify and help your body maintain healthy, clean filters in order to get those toxins out that we are exposed to. So to some degree, to some amount, we're probably designed for that exposure. We just don't want it to be excessive or build up in our bodies, and a healthy diet may help to combat the effects of that as as well. The American Physiological Society, uh, April 2021, looked at a healthier diet and how it helps improve the lipid profile in children. High cholesterol levels in childhood sets the stage for an increased risk for heart disease later in life. Researchers have found that switching children and teens to a Mediterranean-style diet with an omega-3 fatty acid supplement not only improved their omega-3 serum levels but also their lipid profile overall. So Mediterranean diet, one of our favorite diets here on the Daily Health Update, one of the most researched in the world, very well balanced, a lot of moderation and variety in that diet, and allows for those healthy types of fats in the body. Including an omega-3 supplement with that just is icing on the cake, always a good idea, especially for our children and their development. Lots of research to support the benefit of having appropriate omega-3 levels. The American Physiological Society also reported in April 2021 that deep heat cream might improve Exercise performance. So analgesic heat creams are often used to ease sore muscles, but a new study suggests they may also boost exercise performance. In a recent experiment, researchers observed that participants could exercise for up to 2 minutes longer when they applied DP cream to the feet, calves, thighs, and glutes before commencing their workout. However, the authors caution that further research is necessary to understand how analgesic usage improves athletic endurance. So an interesting correlation there. Sometimes we use it after exercise or something happens, we get a little tweak to make ourselves feel better. But using it before may be a method to slightly increase athletic endurance performance. The Annals of Palliative Medicine, April 2021, looks at arthritis and how it doubles depression risk. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers estimate that individuals with arthritis of any type are up to 2.3 times more likely to report major depression than their peers without a history of arthritis. Um, there may be some inflammatory component to that connection or correlation. There may also simply be the fact that discomfort and pain, sore joints, can be very fatiguing, waste a lot of energy in our body, and simply feeling it creates a different mood and perception on our day and our experience, regardless of the reason behind why. Uh, it's no doubt that not feeling the way that we want to feel and being able to do what we want to do without feeling those sore joints will have an effect on our quality of life. So World Health Organization lists those musculoskeletal disorders as one of the, if not the leading detractors in quality of life globally. So, uh, good to maintain good function of those joints, get them treated, keep them— slow down and stop any process that might be happening and even try to reverse it a bit if possible, because it can be done with appropriate treatment. The journal Prevention, April 2021, looked at circulation and how to improve it. Of course, circulation in the body, one of those very vital fundamental functions our body needs to do really well. And to maintain that healthy circulation, the editors of Prevention magazine recommended the following: go on regular walks, take more work breaks, eat more fruits and vegetables, stay hydrated, quit smoking, manage your blood pressure, control your blood pressure, wear compression stockings if appropriate, drink green tea, and limit your alcohol intake. So some good lifestyle advice there, probably has some spillover effects to the other functions in your body, not just your circulation, if you were to follow some of those healthy suggestions. And finally, the Journal of Orthopedic Science, February 2021, looked at hamstring tightness and how it plays a role in back pain in athletes. Among a group of almost 300 high school athletes, researchers observed that participants with tight hamstrings in either one both legs were 3 times more likely to experience an episode of back pain during the following year. Doctors of chiropractic often assess hamstring length when treating patients with low back pain and can provide guidance on lengthening the hamstrings in order to achieve a satisfactory treatment outcome. And the interesting thing is that tightness, or that imbalance from side to side in a person's hamstrings, is not always just the soft tissue shortening or difference, but it can also be reflection of the joint function in the pelvis, the low back, the hips, even in the knees. Feet. And by recovering some of that joint function, you can actually regain the amount of range or motion that those hamstrings will give you across the knee, hip, and pelvis. So good to have an assessment not only of the soft tissues but also the joints. And even though this is specific to athletes, we're all athletes in some degree doing what we do every day and trying to do it really well and enjoying ourselves while we do it. So those asymmetries also are important for the rest of us in what we want to do every day. So good to get assessed, especially especially if you have low back discomfort. The symptom may be there, you're noticing discomfort in low back, but the issue that's keeping it there or maybe causing it can be far removed from where you're actually feeling it. So a thorough assessment may help alleviate it more than you might be getting relief now with your efforts. All right, so some encouragement there to get yourself checked regardless of the condition. Find the appropriate healthcare provider, not just in the medical but maybe even in the paramedical, world and help support your own improvement so that you're feeling as good as you'd like to feel every day and doing what you want to do without any impediments, which would be a great way to enjoy your summer, which is coming soon. So we hope you're looking forward to that. All the best for your Thursday. We'll catch up with you again next week with the video format. Tomorrow, the written format, as we mentioned. We hope you enjoy it. Keep plugged into that useful information. It will guide and support you, I promise you. And all the best to you and yours. We'll speak soon. Take care.