Daily Health Update January 4 2021

Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well. Looking forward to the start of a wonderful new year here in January 2021. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update for Monday, January 4th, 2021. I know I'm going to be writing 2020 for the next several weeks, uh, but we'll eventually get used to 2021 being here and it's going to be a good year. We're going to keep coming at you with our daily health updates Monday through Thursday in video format. And Monday through Friday with the written format. You can reach out to us, you can DM us, email us, or call us at the clinic. We can make sure you get that every day in your inbox if you like. Otherwise, you can find us on social and listen to the videos. A good way to stay plugged into some good healthcare information based on the latest and greatest in the research and literature will help control or maybe guide— not necessarily control, but guide or support— your own actions and decisions throughout the day for your own health and wellness and those around you. So this is a wonderful use of your time and effort. So congratulations for being here. Share it with your friends and family. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, you just never know what good things can happen when you listen to and think about, perhaps even just for an instant, your own health and wellness. So, um, sedentary behavior, we all know, not so good for us. And it actually, according to the Circulation Journal, Heart Failure, November 2020, increases the risk of heart failure in women. So they did analysis of health and lifestyle data of nearly 80— 81,000 postmenopausal women, and they found that spending less than 6.5 hours a day engaged in sedentary activities can cut the risk for hospitalization for heart failure by over 40%. So it's a good idea to get up and move around, take some breaks during the day, and when you're not having to be sedentary, work at a computer or other such tasks, it's good to include some kind of movement, get up and do something, be active. In the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, October 2020, they found that adding dried fruit created better health and wellness and diet markers in people. About 25,000 participants in that study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination, and they were less likely to be overweight or hypertensive, those people who ate dried fruit. Now, dried fruit, not necessarily the best source of, well, a good source of nutrients perhaps, but questionable because the hydration is gone in the fruit. The fiber is still there, but still very high in sugar, some of those. So you want to be cautious about how and when you add those to your diet. Good to do some research and to see which ones and if, or, uh, possibly that's a good fit for you in your diet. Exercise, we know, is also good for us and our body shape, but it can also help keep the mind sharp. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, November 2020, they did an evaluation of data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, and they found that middle-aged and older adults who regularly exercise scored higher on assessments of orientation, attention, memory, and language than those who are non-exercisers. So good health benefits to that fitness. Maybe that's one of the things you want to stay plugged into and/or try to increase for 2021. We encourage you to do so. Cognitive impairment and balance and walking ability, according to the European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, December 2020. Basically, they noticed perhaps that in people who are having a harder time with balance and walking as time goes by, maybe may be an indicator that they're also predisposed or will have some eventual cognitive decline. So good to keep that in mind. And if you notice such things, good to talk to your healthcare provider about what you may have noticed. According to the Spanish Archive of Urology, December 2020, smoking causes half of bladder cancer cases, and there's no indication yet in the research and literature that electronic cigarettes will reduce this risk as well. So again, good reasons to curb those habits for 2021. Headaches and the neck, of course, uh, very near and dear to us here at the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic. Patients with headaches that originate in the neck, known as cervicogenic headaches, they have a combination of manual therapies and specific exercise recommendations according to StatPearls Journal, August 2020, that can help, effective for reducing the headache frequency and intensity. So past research suggests that up to 4% of the general population and up to 1 in 6 chronic headache sufferers may be affected affected by cervicogenic headaches. Certainly I've seen research that's as high as 4 out of 5 headaches may have a neck component. So if you or someone you know suffers from headaches, good to have an assessment of the, even the upper back and neck function to see if there's some way to improve the frequency, intensity, or in duration even of those headaches and maybe even eliminate them, which would be nice, right? It's possible. All right, so we're back at it. Monday, January 4th, your first daily health update of the new year. Hope you enjoy it. Remember this year to stay Stay plugged in, stay tuned in, if not here, somewhere else on a daily basis, some information that supports your health and wellness. It is the best use, uh, certainly among the best uses of your time and effort. We encourage you to keep up that habit. All right, enjoy your week and we'll see you tomorrow. All the best.