November 30, 2004 [Volume 5, Issue 25]

To Your Health is brought to you by:

• Recommended Reading: An Owner's Guide to the Human Body
• A Painful Lesson
• Start Smart, Stay Healthy
• When Baby Comes, "Good" Cholesterol May Go

This month's featured title is An Owner's Guide to the Human Body: An Easy to Understand Overview of the Body and How to Best Use It by Jim Walkenbach, DC.

An Owner's Guide to the Human Body can be read from cover to cover in one afternoon and provides a nuts-and-bolts account of the basic functions of the human body, and how best to maximize health and performance. Dr. Walkenbach, while acknowledging the toll that life can take on the human body, reveals the reasons healthy living is so crucial. Each chapter of his easy-to-read format is clear, concise and to the point, which is great for those wanting quick and reasonable ways to begin making small changes to improve health.

Click here to read the complete review.

When it comes to handling pain, are you a pill-popper? If you're one of the millions who reach toward the medicine cabinet when you feel a headache or other pain coming on, take note: According to a recent study, you might actually be making the pain worse over the long run.

Researchers found that daily or near-daily use of over-the-counter (OTC) or prescription painkillers was associated with chronic headaches (especially chronic migraines), and to a lesser extent, with other common, chronic pain conditions, including neck and back pain. For example, daily use for one month increased the likelihood of suffering chronic migraines nearly threefold, and chronic neck pain and chronic back pain nearly twofold.

If that isn't frightening enough, researchers discovered that subjects who took painkillers daily for more than six months (more common than you might think) were more than 20 times more likely to suffer chronic migraines, 3.5 times more likely to suffer chronic neck pain, and 3.5 times more likely to suffer chronic back pain.

If just thinking about these figures gives you a headache, don't reach for the medicine cabinet! Schedule an appointment with a doctor of chiropractic, who is trained to manage these types of conditions - and prevent them from recurring. For more information on the potential dangers of OTC and prescription medications, visit www.chiroweb.com/find/archives/general/drugs.

Reference: Zwart J-A, Dyb G, Hagen K, et al. Analgesic overuse among subjects with headache, neck and low-back pain. Neurology 2004;62:1540-44.

Getting children off "on the right track" has been shown to positively influence educational achievement and overall fitness in later life. In other words, start smart, stay smart, and start healthy, stay healthy. But did you know that starting your children off smart might actually help them stay healthy?

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health interviewed 633 adults, ages 30-39, whose parents had enrolled them (from birth up to age 7) in a health study more than 30 years ago. After performing a variety of tests, and comparing the results of an IQ test administered to each subject at age 7, the researchers reached an interesting conclusion: "Higher cognitive performance at age 7 was related to a significantly reduced risk of serious illness in adulthood."

Specifically, they noted that a 15-point increase in IQ correlated with a 33 percent reduction in the risk of illness. This association was independent of parents' socioeconomic status and study participants' attained level of education. The researchers suggest that smart children may acquire better skills to help avoid illness, particularly with respect to successful management of their health care.

These findings underscore what you should already know - the inherent value in exposing your children to a wide variety of stimulating experiences that help develop their cognitive skills. For more information on the essentials of childhood health and wellness, visit www.chiroweb.com/find/archives/pediatrics.

References: Martin LT, Fitzmaurice GM, Kindlon DJ, Buka SL. Cognitive performance in childhood and early adult illness: a prospective cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health August 2004;58:674-79.

Ah, the joy of pregnancy - in spite of the hormonal changes, unavoidable weight gain, increasing inability to sit down or sit up on your own, and a host of other frustrations, most women say it's one of the most magical times of their lives. The culmination of this nine-month adventure is a bubbly bundle of wonderment and perfection. Life couldn't be better, right? Well, according to a recent study, there might be at least one unforseen drawback to a first pregnancy: a reduction in your HDL cholesterol.

"HDL" or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is also known as "good" cholesterol because evidence suggests that it actually helps protect against heart disease, and may remove excess low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol from plaque on arterial walls. The more HDL cholesterol we have, the better. Researchers tracked nearly 2,000 U.S. women from 1986-96, establishing lipid profiles at baseline and tracking changes over three time intervals (baseline to years 3, 5 and 7). Results showed that "pregnancy exerts persistent adverse effects on HDL cholesterol," according to the study authors. LDL cholesterol did not change over any interval based on pregnancy/childbirth status.

If you're expecting, be sure to meet regularly with your health care team to ensure a healthy pregnancy - for you and for your soon-to-arrive child. Ask about ways you can stay healthy, both during pregnancy and following delivery. And whether you're pregnant or not, ask your doctor about improving your cholesterol profile with appropriate nutritional modifications. A number of foods may help increase HDL cholesterol levels, including fish (particularly salmon), olive or canola oil, spinach, avocado, and soy products.

To access a wealth of information on women's health, including pregnancy, visit www.chiroweb.com/find/archives/women.

Reference: Gunderson EP, Lewis CE, Murtaugh MA, et al. Long-term plasma lipid changes associated with a first birth. The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 2004;159(11):1028-39.

This issue features a number of articles you will want to share with your family, friends and co-workers. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to them via e-mail. If you have received this e-mail newsletter from someone else, you may subscribe free of charge and begin receiving your own copy by going to: www.chiroweb.com/newsletter/TYH/subscribe.php

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