There are more than two million breast cancer survivors in the U.S., but treatment leaves many of those women with painful side effects. Now there is new hope for relief, thanks to some new research.
The condition happens when lymph nodes are removed and fluid can't drain properly. Finding relief is often difficult. Oncologist, Dr. Michael Grant said, "Unfortunately, there's no good treatments for Lymphedema."
Tight compression bandages are one traditional approach, but now there's something new. Water exercise. The low-impact activity and hydrostatic pressure appears to be a double-whammy against Lymphedema. "It totally alleviated the pain, almost immediately. It's such a simple thing to make me feel so much better," said pain sufferer, Mejia.
There are still questions about water therapy. Dr. Grant said, "What we'd like to know is, is this something that's effective long-term or is it just effective while you do it."
Mejia was part of a small pilot study. Researchers are now planning a larger study into the possible benefits of water therapy in treating Lymphedema.
But Mejia has all of the proof she needs. She said, "I can not even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to not have any pain, and to totally just go on with your life."
so gentle exercise in water is definately worth trying if you have this condition..
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Asthma Study on Benefits of Chiropractic
Asthma has become a large health concern for children in recent years. Over the past 20 years the incidence of asthma has doubled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that in 1998, approximately 17,299,000 people in the United States, or 6.4% of the population, with cases among very young children up 160%. As reported in the June 16, 1999 issue of JAMA, the CDC also noted that between 1980 and 1994, the number of people self-reporting asthma grew 75%.
In a study conducted in 1996 by the Michigan Chiropractic Council (MCC), a panel of doctors performed an out-come assessment study to test the qualitative and quantitative effectiveness of chiropractic care on children with asthma. The high demand of parents seeking alternative care for pediatric asthma was shown by the overwhelming interest in the study. More than 500 parents called the MCC seeking to get their child involved in the chiropractic study.
The study, which took place during May and June of 1996, examined the chiropractic effectiveness in correcting the cause of asthma in patients from birth to age 17. The average age of the participant was 10 years. "After 30 days of chiropractic health care, patients averaged only one attack, whereas prior to the study they were experiencing more than four attacks," said MCC Dr. Bob Graham, who directed the study. "Medications, which can be costly, were decreased by nearly 70 percent. Finally, patient satisfaction was rated 8.5 on a scale of 10." More than 70 chiropractors from 62 cities in Michigan studied more than 80 children suffering from asthma.
In a study conducted in 1996 by the Michigan Chiropractic Council (MCC), a panel of doctors performed an out-come assessment study to test the qualitative and quantitative effectiveness of chiropractic care on children with asthma. The high demand of parents seeking alternative care for pediatric asthma was shown by the overwhelming interest in the study. More than 500 parents called the MCC seeking to get their child involved in the chiropractic study.
The study, which took place during May and June of 1996, examined the chiropractic effectiveness in correcting the cause of asthma in patients from birth to age 17. The average age of the participant was 10 years. "After 30 days of chiropractic health care, patients averaged only one attack, whereas prior to the study they were experiencing more than four attacks," said MCC Dr. Bob Graham, who directed the study. "Medications, which can be costly, were decreased by nearly 70 percent. Finally, patient satisfaction was rated 8.5 on a scale of 10." More than 70 chiropractors from 62 cities in Michigan studied more than 80 children suffering from asthma.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
ADD and chiropractic
Chiropractic has also been shown to be of great benefit to children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD disorders. Twenty-four children were tested in an independent research project conducted at Texas A & M University. Twelve children received Chiropractic treatment and twelve received medical care. The outcome proved children receiving Chiropractic care improved more than children treated with drugs in areas such as verbal output, reading and comprehension, attitude and self-esteem, coordination and emotional maturity.
SOURCE: The Chiropractic Journal, April 2000
SOURCE: The Chiropractic Journal, April 2000
Thursday, 12 February 2009
thought for the day - bliss!
Greater awareness and alignment with our true SELF ultimately leads to experiencing more freedom, joy, love and abundance in our lives. Of course this path is not always an easy one because we have our wonderfully challenging defenses and conditioning to sift through. But we can persevere, and it is extremely helpful to be around others with similar intentions--specifically, the intention to uplift ourselves and each other.
"Follow your bliss and the Universe will open doors for you where there were only walls."
-Joseph Campbell
"Follow your bliss and the Universe will open doors for you where there were only walls."
-Joseph Campbell
Saturday, 7 February 2009
MRI scans not useful for back pain
The routine use of MRI scans in patients with lower back pain does not improve their outcomes, US scientists say.
They looked at six trials including more than 1,800 patients and found no benefit from the scans when patients were followed for up to a year.
Previous studies in the UK have shown similar results.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is expected to publish guidelines on the treatment of lower back pain in May.
The researchers said the results were most applicable to the type of acute lower back pain assessed by a GP.
They looked at pain, function, quality of life, mental health, overall patient-reported improvement and patient satisfaction in the care they received for up to a year after their initial treatment.
All the patients were randomised to receive either immediate scans or standard clinical care.
Some of the standard care group were offered scans if they had not improved within three weeks.
They did not find significant differences between immediate imaging with X-ray or MRI scans and usual clinical care either in the short-term - up to three months later, or the long-term - six to 12 months.
Imaging in the first month of low back pain is not recommended in the US or in draft guidelines from NICE that were published in October.
DRAFT NICE GUIDELINES ON BACK PAIN
Consider course of manual therapy
Consider structured exercise programme
Do not offer an X-ray
MRI only for suspected spinal fusion or other serious underlying condition
Therefore, its strange that so many MRIs and Xrays are being taken unnecessarily, exposing patients to potentially dangerous radiation - in a paper published in the Lancet, the researchers say rates of MRI scans for back pain are rising according to figures from US medical programme Medicare. I would say "follow the money trail" to see why this is taking place.
It is estimated that 40% to 50% of the population experience back pain in any given year.
The draft guidelines from NICE say X-ray and MRI investigations of the spine should be limited to when tumours, breaks, fusions or serious inflammation and infection is suspected.
It advises all people with lower back pain to "exercise, if necessary in supervised groups, and that doctors should be able to offer a course of manual therapy".
Most chiropractors offer this sort of care..
tho find your nearest chiropractor in the UK see www.gcc-uk.org
They looked at six trials including more than 1,800 patients and found no benefit from the scans when patients were followed for up to a year.
Previous studies in the UK have shown similar results.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is expected to publish guidelines on the treatment of lower back pain in May.
The researchers said the results were most applicable to the type of acute lower back pain assessed by a GP.
They looked at pain, function, quality of life, mental health, overall patient-reported improvement and patient satisfaction in the care they received for up to a year after their initial treatment.
All the patients were randomised to receive either immediate scans or standard clinical care.
Some of the standard care group were offered scans if they had not improved within three weeks.
They did not find significant differences between immediate imaging with X-ray or MRI scans and usual clinical care either in the short-term - up to three months later, or the long-term - six to 12 months.
Imaging in the first month of low back pain is not recommended in the US or in draft guidelines from NICE that were published in October.
DRAFT NICE GUIDELINES ON BACK PAIN
Consider course of manual therapy
Consider structured exercise programme
Do not offer an X-ray
MRI only for suspected spinal fusion or other serious underlying condition
Therefore, its strange that so many MRIs and Xrays are being taken unnecessarily, exposing patients to potentially dangerous radiation - in a paper published in the Lancet, the researchers say rates of MRI scans for back pain are rising according to figures from US medical programme Medicare. I would say "follow the money trail" to see why this is taking place.
It is estimated that 40% to 50% of the population experience back pain in any given year.
The draft guidelines from NICE say X-ray and MRI investigations of the spine should be limited to when tumours, breaks, fusions or serious inflammation and infection is suspected.
It advises all people with lower back pain to "exercise, if necessary in supervised groups, and that doctors should be able to offer a course of manual therapy".
Most chiropractors offer this sort of care..
tho find your nearest chiropractor in the UK see www.gcc-uk.org
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
'turmeric can prevent/halt prostate cancer' -research
From Rutgers University:
"Curry and cauliflower could halt prostate cancer
Rutgers researchers have found that the curry spice turmeric holds real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with certain vegetables.
The scientists tested turmeric, also known as curcumin, along with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance particularly abundant in a group of vegetables that includes watercress, cabbage, winter cress, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi and turnips. "The bottom line is that PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
The discovery was announced in the Jan. 15 06 issue of the journal Cancer Research by Kong and his colleagues at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States, with a half-million new cases appearing each year. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy.
The authors noted that in contrast to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is very low in India. This has been attributed to the dietary consumption of large amounts of plant-based foods rich in phytochemicals – nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties.
Consequently, scientists have been investigating intervention options based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as alternative, supplementary or complementary medications.
For Kong's study, researchers used mice bred so that their immune systems would not reject foreign biological material and injected the mice with cells from human prostate cancer cell lines to grow tumors against which the compounds could be tested.
"Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate how effective PEITC and curcumin might be – individually and in combination – to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer."
The researchers injected the mice with curcumin or PEITC, alone or in combination, three times a week for four weeks, beginning a day before the introduction of the prostate cancer cells. They found the injections significantly retarded the growth of cancerous tumors. Using PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects.
The group went on to evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect, whereas the combination of curcumin and PEITC significantly reduced tumor growth.
###
The paper, "Combined Inhibitory Effects of Curcumin and Phenethyl Isothiocyanate on the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in Immunodeficient Mice," is available at cancerres.aacrjournals.org.
The authors are Tin Oo Khor, Young-Sam Keum, Wen Lin, Jung-Hwan Kim, Rong Hu, Guoxiang Shen, Changjiang Xu, Avanthika Gopalakrishnan, Bandaru Reddy, Xi Zheng, Allan H. Conney and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, all from Rutgers.
"Curry and cauliflower could halt prostate cancer
Rutgers researchers have found that the curry spice turmeric holds real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with certain vegetables.
The scientists tested turmeric, also known as curcumin, along with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance particularly abundant in a group of vegetables that includes watercress, cabbage, winter cress, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi and turnips. "The bottom line is that PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
The discovery was announced in the Jan. 15 06 issue of the journal Cancer Research by Kong and his colleagues at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States, with a half-million new cases appearing each year. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy.
The authors noted that in contrast to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is very low in India. This has been attributed to the dietary consumption of large amounts of plant-based foods rich in phytochemicals – nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties.
Consequently, scientists have been investigating intervention options based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as alternative, supplementary or complementary medications.
For Kong's study, researchers used mice bred so that their immune systems would not reject foreign biological material and injected the mice with cells from human prostate cancer cell lines to grow tumors against which the compounds could be tested.
"Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate how effective PEITC and curcumin might be – individually and in combination – to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer."
The researchers injected the mice with curcumin or PEITC, alone or in combination, three times a week for four weeks, beginning a day before the introduction of the prostate cancer cells. They found the injections significantly retarded the growth of cancerous tumors. Using PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects.
The group went on to evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect, whereas the combination of curcumin and PEITC significantly reduced tumor growth.
###
The paper, "Combined Inhibitory Effects of Curcumin and Phenethyl Isothiocyanate on the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in Immunodeficient Mice," is available at cancerres.aacrjournals.org.
The authors are Tin Oo Khor, Young-Sam Keum, Wen Lin, Jung-Hwan Kim, Rong Hu, Guoxiang Shen, Changjiang Xu, Avanthika Gopalakrishnan, Bandaru Reddy, Xi Zheng, Allan H. Conney and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, all from Rutgers.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Chiropractic changes thinking!
CHIROPRACTIC AND THE BRAIN
I have noticed that many people report increased feelings of wellbeing following chiropractic adjustments (not just because their back pain has gone!).
Why is this ?
A recent experience from my distinguished colleague Dr Nick Hodgson may give us a clue:
"In May I was privileged to be invited to train a group of Chiropractors in Johannesburg in Torque Release Chiropractic Technique. The organiser had struck up a conversation with a PhD Psychologist who specialises in Brain EEG mapping, and when he had suggested to her that he believed that a chiropractic adjustment changed brain function, she had politely snubbed him based on her scientific experience.
When he asked me what to do I suggested that he invite her to our program and ask if she would be willing to do pre and post exams on the Chiropractors that were adjusted at the end of a long day of training. She happily accepted the challenge. We only had time to do a limited (“statistically insignificant”) number of trials, and afterward when we asked her what she had observed she commented that each participant had experienced a “shift” in their brain function.
Most of us being EEG novices we pressed her further to explain this – apparently it usually takes approximately 6 months of neurobiofeedback to achieve this phenomenon – not bad response to the carefully selected delivery of 1-3 primary subluxation adjustments?
Her response was to demand that I adjust her before she left – I think her scientific opinion had been shifted".
There is published research that supports the observation that chiropractic adjustments change brain function...
So our comprehension of the spine as being "ligaments, muscle, discs, joints and biomechanics" needs to mature to "neurones, neuropeptides, and brain holography" . In other words our understanding of chiropractic and the spine needs to shift from a "bone/back focus" to a "nerve/brain focus".
Share and Enjoy!
follow the websites to see the research...
(1) The effect of the Chiropractic adjustment on the brain wave pattern as measured by QEEG. A Four Case Study. Summarizing an additional 100 (approximately) cases over a three year period. (Richard Barwell, D.C.; Annette Long, Ph.D; Alvah Byers, Ph.D; and Craig Schisler, B.A., M.A., D.C.) http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/2008/jun/n.htm
(2) New Science Behind Chiropractic Care http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0711/S00116.htm(Altered sensorimotor integration with cervical spine manipulation. Haavik Taylor H and Murphy B. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Feb 2008. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18328937)
(3) New Technique Introduced - EEG Confirms Results: (Jay Holder. ICAC Journal, May 1996.) http://www.torquerelease.com.au/ICAC-EEG-Confirms-Results.pdf
I have noticed that many people report increased feelings of wellbeing following chiropractic adjustments (not just because their back pain has gone!).
Why is this ?
A recent experience from my distinguished colleague Dr Nick Hodgson may give us a clue:
"In May I was privileged to be invited to train a group of Chiropractors in Johannesburg in Torque Release Chiropractic Technique. The organiser had struck up a conversation with a PhD Psychologist who specialises in Brain EEG mapping, and when he had suggested to her that he believed that a chiropractic adjustment changed brain function, she had politely snubbed him based on her scientific experience.
When he asked me what to do I suggested that he invite her to our program and ask if she would be willing to do pre and post exams on the Chiropractors that were adjusted at the end of a long day of training. She happily accepted the challenge. We only had time to do a limited (“statistically insignificant”) number of trials, and afterward when we asked her what she had observed she commented that each participant had experienced a “shift” in their brain function.
Most of us being EEG novices we pressed her further to explain this – apparently it usually takes approximately 6 months of neurobiofeedback to achieve this phenomenon – not bad response to the carefully selected delivery of 1-3 primary subluxation adjustments?
Her response was to demand that I adjust her before she left – I think her scientific opinion had been shifted".
There is published research that supports the observation that chiropractic adjustments change brain function...
So our comprehension of the spine as being "ligaments, muscle, discs, joints and biomechanics" needs to mature to "neurones, neuropeptides, and brain holography" . In other words our understanding of chiropractic and the spine needs to shift from a "bone/back focus" to a "nerve/brain focus".
Share and Enjoy!
follow the websites to see the research...
(1) The effect of the Chiropractic adjustment on the brain wave pattern as measured by QEEG. A Four Case Study. Summarizing an additional 100 (approximately) cases over a three year period. (Richard Barwell, D.C.; Annette Long, Ph.D; Alvah Byers, Ph.D; and Craig Schisler, B.A., M.A., D.C.) http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/2008/jun/n.htm
(2) New Science Behind Chiropractic Care http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0711/S00116.htm(Altered sensorimotor integration with cervical spine manipulation. Haavik Taylor H and Murphy B. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Feb 2008. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18328937)
(3) New Technique Introduced - EEG Confirms Results: (Jay Holder. ICAC Journal, May 1996.) http://www.torquerelease.com.au/ICAC-EEG-Confirms-Results.pdf
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