In this concise daily health update, Dr. David Koivuranta of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic presents six evidence‑based health and wellness topics. He begins by highlighting risky teen behaviors: 18% of surveyed teens drove under the influence of marijuana and 5% under alcohol, and about half of teens who suffered a concussion returned to driving within two weeks, posing safety risks. He then warns against high consumption of ultra‑processed foods, citing a study of 22,000 participants that linked such diets to a 58% increased risk of cardiovascular death over eight years. Next, he notes a decline in children’s lower‑body strength, referencing national fitness data that show standing broad‑jump performance has fallen since the 1990s, emphasizing the need for active lifestyles. He proceeds to reinforce CDC flu‑prevention tips—avoid close contact, stay home when sick, practice good hygiene—and adds advice on rest, hydration, and nutrition. He concludes with workplace ergonomics, reporting that 1 in 5 office workers experience wrist/hand symptoms associated with carpal tunnel syndrome, but frequent breaks can cut risk by nearly 90%. Throughout, Dr. Koivuranta frames these findings as opportunities for small daily actions to build positive momentum for overall wellbeing, inviting viewers to request a written copy and seek clinic assistance if needed.
Chapters
Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, you enjoyed your weekend, you're looking forward to a wonderful week. It's Monday, it's gonna be a good day, don't worry. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update. Monday, February 1st, 2021. Very exciting, a new month, a new day, a new week, new opportunities to take care of yourself and those around you. Thanks for joining us today. Gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness, as we often do on our daily health update. Somewhere around this video you can read through all 6 areas, but if you'd like to receive a copy, DM us on social, send us an email, or give us a call at the clinic. We'll make sure we get that to you. Not gonna treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together. However, I do promise to share with you some of the latest and greatest in the research and literature world when it comes to health and wellness. And by plugging in, tapping into, and staying interested in some aspect of health and wellness on a daily basis, it's more likely to support those thoughts, decisions, choices, and actions you're making for yourself and those around you on a daily basis. And that creates some positive momentum. And when you have good momentum, it's more likely to attract those good experiences you're looking for in your life. And, uh, that makes for some happiness. All right. Um, many teens, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, December 2020, are driving while impaired. About 18% 13%, sorry, had driven under the influence of marijuana in the previous month, and another 5% reported alcohol in their system while driving in the previous month when they surveyed 6,800 teenagers. So, again, those decision-making processes, we wanna be able to support those people around us and keep an eye on some of their decisions and just lend a hand when we can in some loving capacity regardless of age. But for our teens who are still trying to navigate and create not only independence, but an understanding of interdependence, we want to help them create good, logical, and strong emotional decision-making, perhaps, especially when it comes to these kinds of risky behaviors. Another risky behavior is, of course, what we eat sometimes. And according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, December 2020, we want to stay away from those ultra-processed foods because they do pose a health risk. They looked at data with over 22,000 participants from the MoleSani project, and, uh, it indicated a high intake of ultra-processed foods can increase an individual's risk for death due to cardiovascular disease by up to 58% in the following 8 years. So an interpretation of that might be eating those ultra-processed refined foods for 8 years, somewhere along the way you're going to be more likely, more than 50% likely to develop cardiovascular disease. So those processed refined foods are not good for our heart and our blood vessels, apparently. So heed that warning. It's a good one. Can't go wrong with sticking to some fruits, vegetables, and natural foods that don't need a lot of shelf life. The longer they last, the longer they're probably gonna hurt you for. Lower body strength in children is on the decline. When we look at our fitness or exercise info for today, this according to Sports Medicine, December 2020. They looked at data from national fitness assessments conducted since 1960, and performance on the standing broad jump test increased steadily from 1960 to 1980, but then slowed in the '90s and has declined over the last two decades. Do you remember doing this in elementary school? I don't know if they still do it or not, uh, because some of these things have taken a back seat to academics. Um, unfortunately Unfortunately, however, seeing how far people can jump when jumping from standing still apparently indicates how good we might be at some level of fitness. But monitoring that over time shows that on average, young people are not jumping as far as they used to. So let's keep them active and keep them jumping far. Their physical fitness will help them with their life fitness and support them with whatever journey they're on in their lives. And of course, we want the best for our children. Back to those teens. Teens and driving, uh, not only impaired. However, according to the Journal of Adolescent Health, December 2020, some teens who have suffered a concussion go back to driving too soon. They interviewed 320 adolescent drivers who had had a concussion. Roughly a third made no changes to their driving behavior, and 1 in 5 returned to driving within 2 weeks. The findings suggest that roughly half of teen drivers who sustain a concussion may be back on the road too soon, placing themselves, their passengers, and other drivers and pedestrians at risk. So Not only important to know with a concussion, a return to a healthy level to support the healing from that injury, as well as a return to participation in other activities, but also a return to behaviors such as driving and activities such as driving. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December 2020, wanted to remind you how to protect yourself from the flu. They offer the following tips: Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Stay at home if you are sick. Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing. Stay home when you're sick. Uh, did we mention that already? Clean your hands. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth, and practice other good health habits such as cleaning surfaces, eating healthy, drinking plenty of fluids, and exercising, and probably getting enough rest, which they probably didn't mention in there, but I'm gonna add in because that also makes sense. Those lifestyle factors become even more important while you're feeling under the weather to help your body recover and feel good again. Finally, if you're an office worker, a computer worker, a desk worker, someone who does repetitive work during the day using your arms and hands, the BMC Public Health Journal, January 2020, talked about the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome in those kinds of tasks. They looked at 969 office workers under the age of 50 and revealed that 1 in 5 experienced wrist and/or hand symptoms commonly associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. They say that working without breaks can increase the risk for hand and wrist symptoms by about 88%, and that taking frequent breaks could reduce the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome among office workers. So one of the leading strategies with effects from what we do during the day— no, probably no matter what we're doing or how we're doing it, it doesn't hurt to take a break. It's good for your physical body. It's also good for your mind, uh, to let your brain rest for a moment from that task or activity. And taking those breaks throughout the day interrupts the cumulative buildup of whatever it is we might be doing or thinking about, and then we can go back to it a little more refreshed. Of course, what we do during those breaks can help too. Certainly gets up— it helps to get up and move around, walk, remind your body you can move in different ways than you've been using it all day, and that is a smart thing to do. All right, so some great information to start your week on a Monday. And if you've been down on your health a little bit, and the winter and the season and the pandemic is getting you down, you can always put some positive effort into making little changes each day to support some positivity when it comes to your health and wellness. And that will, I guarantee you, spill over into the rest of your life with whatever challenges and/or goals, aspirations, dreams, and desires you have, because you do live your life through your body. And when it's feeling good and working good, your life starts to feel good and work good as well. So good job for being here. Share it with your friends and family. If you need any help with anything we cover in the daily health update, feel free to reach out. We'll send you in the right direction. And, uh, otherwise we'll catch up with you tomorrow and we'll just keep that good momentum going. All right, enjoy your Monday. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye now.
