In this short daily health update, Dr. David Koivuranta (Dr. Dave) of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic reviews several evidence‑based health topics. He begins with a reminder to check medication safety, especially the increased stroke risk linked to certain antidepressants (Stroke journal, Dec 2020). He then highlights that dietary fiber can lower the risk of non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease (Frontiers in Nutrition, Nov 2020). Next, he cites a Dutch epidemiology study (2017) showing dementia contributes to roughly one‑quarter of deaths, urging readers to protect brain health through diet, exercise, and stress management. He discusses research from Johns Hopkins (Dec 2020) that identifies stress as a major driver of cardiovascular disease in women, offering lifestyle tips (social connection, exercise, optimism, self‑care). He adds a brief note on the health‑boosting power of laughter. Finally, he presents findings from the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation (Nov 2020) that chronic low back pain in athletes impairs balance, recommending balance‑training and functional chiropractic rehabilitation to improve posture control and reduce future injury risk. Throughout, Dr. Dave emphasizes that the segment is informational, not diagnostic, and invites viewers to request a written copy or contact the clinic for more details.
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Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well, enjoying the start of your week. You had a good Monday, looking forward to your Tuesday. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update. It's Tuesday, January 12th, 2021. Gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness today. Somewhere around this video you can touch on all 6 areas, you can read through it, and we're gonna look at a few of them, give or take, 3 or 4. And if you'd like a copy, we can send that to you. Just DM us on social, give us a call at the clinic, or send send us an email, we'd be happy to provide that to you so you can stay plugged in, tuned in, and tapped into some good health and wellness information based on the latest research and literature supporting those good health choices you're trying to make every day to have those great experiences you want in your life. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, we will try to have some fun, share some good information, and get you on your healthy way. So, um, you want to be sure if you take medications that those medications in combination with other things that you're doing are safe. So talk to your doctor and pharmacist about that. Never hurts to get a second opinion as well. There are some risks with certain antidepressants and stroke, according to the journal Stroke in December 2020. So if you're on antidepressants, make sure you know the side effects, and you could talk to a naturopathic doctor about mitigating those side side effects through your lifestyle choices. So it's good to have a team supporting you to have that good quality mental health and wellness. Dietary fiber can reduce fatty liver risk. Um, so if it's non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, um, that can be curbed by making sure you have enough fiber in your diet. Most North Americans don't have enough. So according to the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, November 2020, one of the benefits among many with increased fiber is to help the risk of fatty liver disease. Dementia is present in nearly 1 in 4 deaths according to a research study done in the Netherlands in 2017 reported in the International Journal of Epidemiology. So along with your heart health and your digestive health and all these things that we know, remember to also look into do some research for your brain health and make sure you're eating well, especially those fruits and vegetables and get enough exercise and watch out for stress. Stress as well according to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine December 2020 is involved with cardiovascular disease in women. So they came out with some heart health tips for women, and they said that stress is a major driver of heart disease in women, and to reduce that stress and to improve your heart health, they recommend being social, exercising, eating a healthy diet, being optimistic, and scheduling time for yourself. Nothing like a good belly laugh to get those healthy chemicals boosted in your body, and again, especially in your brain. So try and get some laughter into your life today if you can. Finally, in the Journal of Sports Rehabilitation, November 2020, athletes can suffer from chronic back pain and it'll affect their balance. They looked at 56 athletes, half of whom had chronic low back pain, and they observed that participants with the back pain exhibited poor posture control during one-leg standing tests, especially with knee flexion. The findings suggest that athletes with chronic low back pain could benefit from balance training exercises, and that improving balance may reduce the risk of both first-time and future episodes of back pain. Probably will improve their performance, probably also keep them safe from other potential injuries. And, um, it's good to have a functional assessment with those exercises so that when you're doing those exercises, all your parts can participate. So good to get them unlocked, released, reintegrated into the system, and then when you go use them, you'll get better results. And that's actually how we take care of back pain and neck pain with chiropractic care all the time, is that, uh, unlocking, releasing, rebuilding, and reintegrating, and then teaching you how to keep it that way for as long as you would like, which is awesome. So that's your daily health update for Tuesday, short and sweet, kinda. And I hope you found it useful. Hope you have a good day. Go out there and share some smiles and take care of each other. We'll catch up with you tomorrow, Wednesday, middle of the week, with your next daily health update. Until then, have a good one.
