Daily Health Update for May 3 2021

Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, you had a nice weekend, you're off to a good start on your Monday, and you're gonna have a super week. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update. It's Monday, May 3rd, 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, DM us on social, send us an email here at the clinic, or give us a call and we'll be sure to get that to you. No problem. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, we will keep you focused on your health and wellness, influencing your own daily choices, decisions, and actions when it comes to taking care of yourself and those around you so that you can keep having those great experiences you'd like to have every single day. So we'll keep that momentum going gladly by first starting at taking a look at secondhand smoke. It actually puts kids at risk for hospitalization, according to the PLOS One journal, March 2021. They looked at children from smoking households, and they're more likely to visit an urgent care center or be admitted to a hospital than kids from smoke-free homes. Despite major progress in tobacco control, about 4 in 10 children remain exposed to tobacco smoke. This exposure places developing children at higher risk for many health problems, including respiratory illnesses such as asthma, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. So good to be cautious of that for various reasons. Don't expose yourself to secondhand smoke. And if you are a smoker, continue to be cautious of not exposing people around you to secondhand smoke, especially your children with those developing bodies. The journal Clinical Obesity, January 2021, looks at slowing down at mealtime, not being so fast to eat and quick to get that food in. Using data from two ongoing studies, Researchers report that individuals identified as fast eaters tend to consume more calories per meal and are more likely to gain weight over time than slower eaters. Sometimes chewing your food is very important to get the nutrients out, but can also increase the sensation of satiety. And the slower you eat and you let that food get into your system, uh, you'll less likely feel like you need more by the end of the meal. So slow down a bit. I'm certainly guilty of that over the years, and, uh, over time maybe we all generally slow down a bit, but when it comes to eating, good to take your time, and it's also safe. Lots of choking incidents in North America each year, so we want to avoid that as well. So slowing down has lots of positive benefits. The Journal Neurology, March 2021, looks at exercise slowing cognitive decline in Parkinson's patients. 173 patients with early Parkinson's disease observed It was observed that those with a sedentary lifestyle experienced a greater decline in cognitive function over the following 2 years than participants who regularly exercise. So another motivating factor to maintain that cognitive function for you to keep fitness in your life. Good for your body and how you look and feel, but also for your noggin. Good to keep that cognitive function going. Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling in March 2021 has an interesting report on teens who are online a lot are more more likely to become cyberbullies. They did a survey of 428 adolescents and revealed that teenagers spend an average of 7 hours a day online. And the more time a teen is on the internet each day, the greater the chance they will engage in cyberbullying behaviors. Now, something tells me time is not the only factor. There's probably other supporting and mitigating factors that would have this occur. So be cautious of, simply the time. The time can have benefit depending on what someone is doing and how they're doing it online, but certainly something to be concerned about. It's always been an issue even before things were online, and we just want to continue to be vigilant to support all people around us to act and behave in a way that's healthy for us, not just our physical and chemical health, but also, of course, our mental health and wellness. Very important. Journal Orthopaedic Surgery, March 2021, looked at vitamin D deficiency, which is too common in hip fracture patients. They looked at blood tests collected from 268 brittle hip fracture patients and revealed that almost 90% were vitamin D deficient, and half of these individuals were severely deficient. Because vitamin D is important for healthy bones, the findings suggest that improving vitamin D status in the elderly could reduce their risk for serious hip fracture. And of course, bone density— peak bone density is determined sometime in the late 20s to early 30s. And we want to be sure that people in that— those two decades of life are taking care to ensure that their bone development matures as much as possible so that later on in life it's healthier. They'll have the least amount of loss because there is a gradual loss in bone density naturally over time. But regardless, at any point in time, if someone is vitamin D deficient, there is benefits to getting those levels back up to normal, and that includes your bone health. Keep those bones nice and strong. Finally, the China Journal of Orthopedics and Traumatology, January 2021, looked at manipulation for treatment of lumbar disc herniation. A study that included 67 lumbar disc herniation patients revealed that 6 spinal manipulative therapy treatments spread over 2 weeks not only resulted in improvements in pain and function but also in the curvature of the lower back. The lumbar spine. Spinal manipulation is the primary form of treatment used by manual practitioners like doctors of chiropractic, and quite often it seems contradictory or contrary to what someone would want to do with a part that seems to have failed and has caused that disc herniation, to go in there and, and move it around or try to improve its function. However, the reason that it's probably deteriorated over time and has finally herniated or failed is because it's had a lack of function. And even in that state, when it's done carefully, properly, uh, getting some function back in there can help improve the status of the parts, including the disc, and help to relieve and get some pressure off the nerve that's maybe causing any kind of discomfort or pain. So manual therapy, always of benefit to get a consultation if you have that kind of back pain or neck pain, because it may be a good fit for what has caused your neck and back pain. In a large percentage of cases, cases, there is a component of that dysfunction in there. So good to get that checked indeed. All right, Jonathan Swift has a quote today at the bottom of the Daily Health Update. We don't often talk about it in the video, but sometimes when you get the hard copy, you can read it. But here it says, May you live every day of your life. And of course, it's a blessing to be up every morning alive and living, but may you then take that day that you're alive for and live it as certainly best you can. And that includes trying to stay healthy with those good choices. And decisions and actions throughout the day. So we'll be here to support you through that 5 days a week, Monday through Friday— Monday through Thursday with the video format. And that means tomorrow, Tuesday, we'll be back with your next daily health update. And we'll look forward to chatting with you then. Have a superstar to your week. Take care.