In this solo video, Dr. David Koivuranta of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic delivers a concise health briefing covering six evidence‑based wellness topics. He first explains recent Hypertension journal findings that measuring blood pressure in both arms can reveal a >5 mmHg systolic difference, which is linked to higher cardiovascular mortality, and urges clinicians and patients to adopt bilateral checks. He then discusses widespread fiber shortfalls in North America, citing the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ recommended 25 g (women) and 38 g (men) daily intake and offers practical dietary tweaks and a “double‑up” strategy to reach 8 cups of produce. Next, he highlights a Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition study showing that daily peanut protein supplementation enhanced quadriceps thickness and power in older adults undergoing resistance training, underscoring protein’s role in tissue repair after age 30. The fourth segment reviews Mayo Clinic sleep‑hygiene guidelines—consistent schedule, mindful eating/drinking, environment, limited naps, exercise, stress management—and frames good sleep as a natural fast. The fifth topic references a British Medical Journal review that hospital clowns reduce anxiety in children and teens, prompting a brief endorsement of laughter yoga and everyday humor for stress relief. Finally, he reports Brain Research findings that chronic low back pain is associated with reduced gray‑matter volume and accelerated brain aging, linking spinal pain to central nervous system changes and suggesting chiropractic care can address both peripheral injury and central sensitization. Throughout, Dr. Koivuranta emphasizes that the information is drawn from recent literature, is not a diagnosis, and aims to empower viewers to make informed health choices.
Chapters
Hello everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're doing well, having a good week, taking care of yourself, staying happy, and enjoying the company of those around you. Coming at you on behalf of the Toronto Neck and Back Pain Clinic with your daily health update. It's Wednesday, January 27th, 2021. I'm gonna look at 6 areas of health and wellness today. We're gonna touch on all of them because they're pretty good today, so I hope you enjoy them. Somewhere around this video you can read through all of them, and if you'd like a hard copy, you can DM us on social, send us an email email here at the clinic, or even give us a call. We'd be happy to hear from you, and we'll make sure we get a copy of that to you. Not going to treat, diagnose, prevent, or cure any illness or disease with our time together today. However, I promise you that we will only share what the research and literature is currently saying in each of these different areas of health and wellness, and that maybe that information will help support some of the decisions, actions, choices, thoughts you have about your own health and wellness every day, or maybe those of those around you. But even if not, just tuning in, tapping in, plugging into what we share with you on a daily basis will help steer you in the right direction to live that great experience you're trying to live every day. And I do believe in that, so good for you for being here. From the journal Hypertension, December 2020, they talk about taking blood pressure not just in one arm but both arms when you have it checked, because that can indicate future health or heart trouble if there's a difference. An analysis of 24 past studies involving nearly 54,000 people revealed an increased risk of death from heart disease in individuals with a greater than 5-point difference in systolic blood pressure between their arms. The findings suggest something that has been long advocated but not commonly performed by healthcare providers: checking patients' blood pressure in both arms. So next time you have your checkup and/or you're seeing a healthcare provider— even your chiropractor can check that for you— have them check it in both arms, and then maybe check it 3 or 4 times to confirm that the numbers are the way they are. And there could be some useful strategy for you there preventatively. Further prevention, it's always good to get more fiber in your diet. Most North Americans are lacking, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, December 2020. For optimal health, they recommend daily fiber intake of 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men. You can boost your daily fiber intake by making a variety of small dietary changes. Eat fruits and vegetables with the skins on, don't peel those off. Add beans or lentils to salads, soups, and side dishes. Replace white breads and pastas for whole wheat versions. Aim to eat 4 to 5 cups of vegetables and 4.5 cups of fruit each day, and consider using fiber supplements if unable to meet the daily requirements. Definitely in North America, I think the key strategy would be to get that vegetable intake up, up, up. Aim for 4, and then once you hit 4 consistently, double it again. Do the same thing that you did to get it to 4, and then get it up to 8. Because believe it or not, I think some people are close to zero. And if you're not, to get to 4 would be easy, but whatever you do to get to 4 and stay at 4, double it. Double that approach and get that up to 8. It's well worth the effort. Have some for breakfast. It's the easiest way to get them in. The North American standard breakfast full of carbs and processed foods and cereals and such are not the best way to go, not the best thing to break your fast with. Intermittent fasting is very popular right now and a lot of people embrace it. And for some people, depending on what they do and how they do it, based on their day, their schedule, and their routine, it'll work. For some people, based on what they do and how they do it and their metabolism and their lifestyle, it's not so great. And I think I heard a nutritionist and I believe her, that's what I think. So I know that this nutritionist said that it's not as important when you break your fast, but how you break your fast. And most of us would probably be fasting enough if we got 8, 8 hours of sleep every night and did that sleep at the appropriate time, not going to bed too late. Most of us are pushing the limits on that sleep, getting maybe 5, 6 hours of sleep, 7 if we're lucky. So our duration of fast and when that fast occurs is not necessarily ideal. Hence, the benefits some people experience with intermittent fasting because it kind of forces that period longer. But a good sleep might be enough of a fast. So a bit of a tangent today on your fiber intake, but it's all good stuff. Just find something healthy that works for you. You'll, you'll realize you'll feel way better when you start making some of those nutritional changes. Um, and peanut protein might be good for you according to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, December 2020. According to a recent study that included 39 older adults who participated in a resistance training program, those who consumed a daily peanut protein supplement experienced greater gains in quadricep muscle thickness as well as increased power during knee flexion exercises. So they obviously targeted one muscle group in the thigh. However, there's probably some benefit across the board to the muscles with that peanut protein, helps those muscles recover. And there's been some research, nutritional research over the years as well, that people 55+ aren't getting enough quality and quantity protein in their diet to help with tissue repair. And at that stage of the game, it could be accelerating aging because protein is very valuable for tissue repair, and that process slows 1% per year after the age of 30, give or take. That's why we don't live forever. So good to make sure you're getting some good quality protein as well throughout your lifetime. Do you need to improve your sleep? As we talked about, getting good quality and quantity of sleep is important. So says the Mayo Clinic as well, December 2020. They recommend the following to improve your sleep: stick to a sleep schedule, pay attention to what you eat and drink, especially prior to eating and how close to eating, create a restful environment, limit daytime naps, get regular exercise, and manage your stress. If only it were that easy, right, with the stress. But it can be done. Just raise your energy, get your fitness, your nutrition in, and once you're more the person you were designed and created to be, that happy, gifted person that you are, then the stress will not get you down because your energy will just be so good, positive. I don't necessarily mean high and that you won't get tired or get fatigued because of what you have to do, but your attitude, your mood, as well as some of your energy when it's higher, the stress will just bother you less. You'll find more solutions coming at you when you keep that vibration high. Okay? And a good way to keep that energy high and that vibration high is with clowns. And according to the British Medical Journal, December 2020, they did a review of clinical trials and they found that teens and children with both short-term and long-term illnesses reported significantly less anxiety in hospitals that utilize clowns. So bringing some cheer and some happiness into people's healthcare seems to benefit the outcome, especially for kids and teens. And they're a little bit more open to the laughter. It's less difficult to get them. Some of us, just as time goes by, it's harder to laugh, harder to smile, and it shouldn't be that way. Life should be fun all the way through. A good friend of mine from the past, Lynn Himmelmann, here in Toronto, actually runs laughter classes and does laughter yoga. And I think it's a great thing. And nothing wrong with some good laughter, you know, plug into your Netflix, watch some stand-up comedy, laugh. You need a good belly roll now and then until we can get back together with our friends and do a chuckle together. Finally, in the journal Brain Research, January 2021, chronic low back pain may age the brain. Brain imaging of 63 adults, 31 with a history of chronic low back pain, revealed that, that chronic low back pain patients had reduced gray matter volume in several areas of the brain, including the cerebellum, which is important for balance, coordination, and posture. The findings suggest that chronic low back pain can negatively impact the brain itself, causing it to age at an accelerated rate. So some comitant decline in other areas or aspects of our function, with the chronic low back pain actually affecting those parts of the brain that are interestingly tied into balance, coordinating, posture, which could be a downward spiral then in terms of improving and getting that chronic low back pain better. So chiropractors with acute and chronic back pain can have some excellent results. Acute back pain is more about the treatment, dealing with the injury, the accident, whether it came through microtrauma or macrotrauma. But the chronic low back pain also involves some dysfunction, but also how your central nervous system is processing whatever is creating the habit or pattern of pain in the body. And there's more, uh, strategies involved with that than just treating the area of the pain because it's become centralized. It's part of your body body's internal central processing in the nervous system, and we wanna break that habit or pattern, and chiropractic can help. But hey, if you've been suffering with that chronic neck pain or back pain and you're not motivated to go get it treated, knowing that it can cause your brain to deteriorate faster might just be the impetus you need to get connected today with somebody out in the healthcare world and start improving that neck and back pain. It's worth the effort. So that's your daily health update for Wednesday. Hope you enjoyed it. Getting you closer to the weekend. We'll be back tomorrow with your Thursday daily health update. That's usually how it works. One day after the other, and we're happy to do it. We hope you enjoy it as well. Have a wonderful day, evening. Enjoy your sleep tonight. Try to get enough of it, and we'll catch up with you tomorrow. All the best.
