The sunny hero: Vitamin D

 

It helps us live longer and better

You know the truth about the sun. You know the risks of skin cancer and ultra violet rays. You wear your sunscreen and a hat and you stay in the shade.

But scientists are telling us we desperately need the Vitamin D that the sun so generously provides.

Not only that, but Vitamin D is emerging as a powerful defense against cancer in post-menopausal women.

According to The Associated Press and CBC radio-television recently, a prominent American Vitamin D researcher says the latest findings herald a breakthrough with a huge impact on cancer prevention.

Most guidelines say 200 to 600 units of Vitamin D, depending on a person’s age, are important for healthy bones. But researchers gave 1,179 women (average age 67) 1,000 units of Vitamin D.

The results ultimately showed a 77 per cent “markedly-reduced risk of developing the serious deadly cancers.” (The story quotes Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University Medical Center.)

Not only Vitamin D is in the limelight these days.
Exercise, fruit and vegetables share the stage in the prevention of breast cancer in particular. Women are being told if they eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables every day and exercise at least 30 minutes a day, they can expect a 50 per cent risk-reduc- tion in dying from breast cancer.

This seems to be the case no matter when a woman begins to exercise. Although she may have been inactive all her life, if she begins an exercise program (for instance, walking half an hour a day) when she’s older than 50, 60, 70 or beyond, she has a much better chance of avoiding breast cancer in her lifetime.

It just goes to show you: get your vitamin D, eat lots of fruit and salad and cooked veggies, put on your running shoes, and get moving.

 

A simple glass of orange juice

It’s easy to find this life-preserving B vitamin

Question: What is as useful at the beginning of your life, even before you’re born, as it is in your “twilight” years?

It’s folic acid, the B vitamin well known by pregnant women but also proving to be helpful in preventing heart disease. Research shows it is a factor in blocking the accumulation of too much homocysteine, an amino acid. Homocysteine is formed when your body breaks down protein. If you have a high level of it in your blood, your risk of heart attack, stroke, and blood clots in the leg are high as well.

According to Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com), homocysteine is similar to the risk of
high cholesterol, only it’s easier to control — with folic acid.

However, a story in BBC News (www.news.bbc.co.uk ) said too much folic acid could upset the balance of a person’s vitamin B12 intake and warned against rushing out to buy supplements.

Women who wish to get pregnant are often advised to consume folic acid before pregnancy and then to increase it during pregnancy. Many medical professionals and the National Women’s Health Information Center in the United States say it can help prevent major birth defects of a baby’s brain or spine.

It’s simple enough to make sure folic acid is part of our diets. Breakfast cereals often contain it (read the labels to be sure); so do broccoli, asparagus, bananas, oranges and grapefruit, peas, nuts and seeds, whole wheat bread, liver and other organ meat, and poultry. According to Go ask Alice! (www. goaskalice.columbia.edu ), half the folic acid you need daily is in a cup of orange juice. She warns food processing destroys much of the folate in foods, however, and it’s best therefore to eat raw foods and lightly cooked vegetables.

It may be the easiest path to health we can take – from beginning to end.

Muscles make you mighty

Lift that barbell. Do those chin- ups. Pull those bands. Work those weight machines.

These are the keys, experts say, to strength, power, and endurance.
For women, especially, they’re critical to bone development and to the growth hormone that builds muscle.

Men rely on the male hormone testosterone for muscle building.

Women need growth hormone, and this is stimulated by exercise – particularly if it’s resistance or weight-based.

According to CBC news (www.cbc.ca ), which recently reported on findings in the American Journal of Physiology- Endocrinology and Metabolism, growth hormone is important in the female body’s fight against tissue breakdown. It improves metabolic function and helps prevent fractures. This is especially important to women at risk for osteoporosis.

Resistance training is the kind of exercise women should do regularly, researchers from the University of Connecticut say. They stressed that women must do moderate to heavy regimens and not shy away from weight work- outs.
Fitness experts say exercised muscles must rest for at least two days between sessions, so although aerobic exercises are healthy every day, resistance training should only happen every second day.

A pack on the back

It starts simply with schooldays… and potentially damaged spines.

You wash their clothes. You pack their snacks. You find their shoes. You gather their books. Maybe you throw in a pencil case, and something for Show-and-Tell.

School-age children have so much stuff to take with them, even when they’re only going to Kindergarten. The older they get, the more they drag along.

Of course, all this stuff needs a backpack. Most chiropractors are worried about this. They say overloading little backs can cause terrible stress to developing spinal columns, necks, arms, joints, and muscles.

Chiropractic associations warn the contents of an elementary-school child’s pack should not be more than 10 per cent of the child’s own weight. Teenagers are all right with loads up to 15 per cent. But the contents in both cases must be distributed evenly.

You have probably seen how kids and teens just sling those back-packs over their shoulders. The Ontario Chiropractic Association tells us this causes damage to their posture. They say students must wear them using both straps and close to their bodies.

In a story in the London Free Press, Woodstock Chiropractor Donna Meyers explains that worn incorrectly, backpacks hurt the brachial plexus nerves and cause muscle spasms in the shoulders and neck.

And a piece in the New Jersey Courier-Post instructs students how to put on their backpacks: Face the back-pack before picking it up. Bend at the knees. Lift with the legs and not with the back. Put on one strap at a time.

The British Columbia Chiropractic Association tells parents to buy back-packs with padded, adjustable straps so the backpack can fit the child’s body without digging into shoulders.
Backpacks are an important part of a child’s life at school. But the health of their spines is forever.

Look stress in the face

…and decide it won’t get you. It certainly doesn’t have to

Feeling stressed? Ask yourself what you’re going to do about it. Believe it or not, you can manage it.

Hans Selye, a Canadian research pioneer, gave two categories to stress: distress (negative stress) and eustress (positive stress). While some people interpret standing on the edge of a high bridge as an extremely distressful event, to a bungee jumper it can be an exhilarating and positively stressful event. Stress is part of the fabric of life.

Sometimes our bodies react to stress in unhealthy ways, particularly when the stress is negative. That’s often when we visit a Chiropractor. Headaches, fatigue, neck pain, low back pain and digestive upset are frequent complaints of people who are suffering its adverse effects….

But we don’t have to let stress get us down. There are strategies.

Here are some of them:

• Exercise daily. Thirty minutes of aerobic activity greatly improves our ability to cope with daily stressors.
• Meditate. Spend 15 minutes per day in quiet reflection. Attempt to clear your mind of the daily chatter. Focus on you and what your body is tell- ing you.
• Eat a good breakfast and have small nutrition breaks throughout the day. If your body is not fueled, it cannot adapt.
• Leave the office at lunchtime. It is a great time for a 30-minute aerobic walk.
• Develop a ritual at the end of your workday to signal that work is over. Hourly workers punch their time clock card to signal the end of their workday. What do you do?
• Take care of your body. Chiropractic care and massage therapy help to relieve the physical aspects of the stress response and help your body more effectively adapt to daily stressors.
• Develop a hobby or passion. If we are entirely focused on work we become boring, one-dimensional beings.

Stress will always be a part of our life. It’s what we do with it that counts.

More than just a pain in the neck

Don’t mess with whiplash. It’s nasty

If you are short, male, on the young side of 40, wear your seat belt, and drive a medium-size car, you have a better chance of avoiding serious whiplash in a car accident.

But don’t be fooled. Whiplash is a nasty injury that can sneak up on you in a couple of weeks. You can still be hurting a year or more later.

This is one of the reasons why it’s important to have a spinal checkup after even seemingly minor car accidents.

According to the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (August 2005), 78 per cent of motor accident victims have neck pain lasting more than a week. About half, or 52 per cent, suffer more than a year.

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict, based on the severity of the impact, how long a person might suffer. However, when the symptoms appear most intense at the beginning, there is a good possibility, say authors Lotta Jakobsson, Hans Norm and Olle Bunketorp, they will experience pain for more than a year. The authors, who are associated with the Volvo Car Corporation, say initial severe symptoms usually spell a prolonged recovery.

There are many symptoms of whiplash, but radiating arm pain is more common in those with severe injury.

According to the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (University of Bristol, England), evidence of whiplash can last a long time. It reports on a 15-year follow-up study where only 18 per cent of patients had improved between 10 and 15 years after an accident; 28 per cent had deteriorated; and 54 per cent had remained static. Neck pain was the worst, present in 65 per cent of patients. Low back pain was next at 48 per cent. These studies illustrate what you probably already knew: you must have a spinal checkup immediately after a car accident.

If you have had a previous whiplash, it is still important to be monitored by a chiropractor. Chiropractic care can help you recover from your injuries more quickly and completely.

Regular adjustments later on help prevent the possible long-term degenerative consequences of this ugly injury. Whiplash is not something to take lightly – not if you value your spinal health now and in the years to come

Powernapping

In his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulgham advises, “Take a nap every afternoon.” Many cultures embrace this philosophy into their lifestyles, except for the North American ‘go-go’ high speed culture.

An afternoon powernap can actually improve alertness and productivity in the workplace as many cultures who have long subscribed to “siesta time” already know. The rest of us have been slow to adopt the idea of napping on the job, although several professions, such as airline pilots and healthcare workers, actually encourage it because of the consequences that could ensue if these workers are not alert on the job.

A team of Harvard researchers found that napping helps the brain to process difficult tasks learned during the day. A group of volunteers were asked to complete a series of difficult tests. One third were not allowed to take a nap at all. One third were allowed to nap for 30 minutes and the last third were allowed an hour long nap. All of the test-takers did their best early in the day. As expected, performance declined for those who did not nap at all, while it did not for those who took a 30 minute nap. Those who napped for an hour actually did better on the post-nap test tasks in comparison to the tasks they did earlier that day.

Hopefully, the idea of the 30 minute “power nap” will soon become as widely accepted as the “coffee break” to refresh one’s mind and body!

So the next time you think you’re too sick to come in for your appointment, remember an adjustment is just what the doctor ordered.

Health Matters, July 2011 Vol. 3 No. 2