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In the study, all 64 patients received cervical spine manipulations along with exercise therapy but half also received additional adjustments applied to the thoracic spine, or the upper back. These patients had significantly better improvements in pain, disability, and overall status. In fact, 94% of patients in this thoracic spinal adjustment group had reduced neck pain after just one treatment.

This confirms the results of another study showing that using various kinds of spinal adjustments enhances chiropractic care for neck pain. In that study, patients who had spinal adjustments applied to the cervical spine, cervico-thoracic junction, and thoracic joint had greater reductions in disability than patients only receiving cervical spine manipulations.

This research validates the multifaceted treatment approach employed by many chiropractors for  neck pain. It also confirms that chiropractic adjustments can improve symptoms in patients with neck pain by addressing the underlying source of pain in the spine.

Photo by The Cookbook Man via Creative Commons

Eating bacon at breakfast may seem like an innocent way to start the day but new research suggests that bacon, along with other processed meats like ham and sausage, could increase your risk of early death.

While multiple studies have linked meat consumption to many of the world’s most common diseases, this 12-year study specifically examined whether eating red meat, poultry, and processed meats was associated with increased mortality in a group of 448,568 adults.

The risk of dying from cancer was 43% higher in people eating 160 g/day of processed meat compared to people with lower amounts of processed meat consumption (10-19.9 g/day). Heavy meat eaters also had a 70% higher risk of cardiovascular death. ( To put “heavy meat eating” in perspective, you can get about 160 grams of processed meat from a sandwich with two-three slices of ham.)

According to lead author Sabine Rohrmann and colleagues,  there are several reasons why processed meat can contribute to early mortality. The higher salt content in processed foods could lead to hypertension and cardiovascular risks, and unlike unprocessed meats, they also contain more saturated fat. Many processed meat products also have more cholesterol and additives (which are part of the smoking and curing process) which could be carcinogenic or lead to carcinogenic processes. And eating more processed meat is often associated with other poor health choices like not getting enough fruits and vegetables, low physical activity, and smoking.

Rohrmann and colleagues did not find a significant association between early mortality and unprocessed red meats and poultry. However they cautioned against ruling out the risks of red meat since other studies have suggested it does increase cardiovascular and cancer deaths.

In concluding, the authors pointed out that 3.3% of deaths could be prevented if people limited their meat consumption to 20 grams or less a day.

Three new studies published online this month in Nature show a possible connection between higher salt intake and autoimmune disease. While the research is preliminary, it may provide greater evidence of the health benefits of reducing salt in one’s diet.

The first study showed that high levels of sodium increased the induction of “helper T” cells associated with autoimmune disease. Lab mice fed a high-salt diet developed a more severe form of an animal model of MS. The researchers of this study speculated that salt may influence not only the incidence but also the severity of MS.

Another study revealed the role of serum glucocorticoid kinase 1 (SGK1) in causing salt to trigger autoimmunity. This molecule has previously been shown to mediate the response of other cells to salt. In this study, lab mice who were engineered to be deficient in SGK1 were less likely to develop the animal model of MS.

A third study looked at ways to control the pathogenic helper T cells that can cause MS. Regulatory factors were revealed by the study, some of which had never been investigated before. The hope is that future research could develop agents that could control differentiation of  these harmful cells.

Researchers are hoping that this work can spur further research looking for links between diet and autoimmune disease in people. Formal, clinic trials will be necessary. Because the risks associated with limiting salt intake are not great, it is likely that such trials will be starting soon.

“Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics,” Davies said.

An increasing number of bacterial infections have evolved into super-bugs resistant to any existing drug. And only a few new antibiotics have been developed and put to use over the past few decades. The danger is that we will run out of options to treat certain types of infections.

Most of us have heard of MRSA, which is a super-bug that kills around 19,000 Americans and 19,000 Europeans every year, far more victims than HIV and AIDS.

Other antibiotic-resistant infections are sprouting up. For example, a new tuberculosis strain is proving to be completely resistant to drugs. Also, infections with a drug-resistant mutation called NDM 1 have emerged in India, and are now starting to show up all over the world. And an untreatable gonorrhea strain is starting to spread across the planet as well.

In her report, Davies went on to say that collaboration among governments and organizations across the world is needed to fight the threat of super-bugs and develop new medicines to treat them. She called for greater cooperation among the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to preserve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics and to develop new ones.

The overuse of antibiotics spurred the American Academy of Pediatrics to recently recommend that doctors stop prescribing antibiotics for most minor ear infections in children.

Photo by Justin Marty via Creative Commons.

Should the government  regulate what beverages we chose to drink? No, according to New York state Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling who struck down Mayor Bloomberg’s attempts to ban super-sized sugary beverages. The ban, which would prohibit consumers in New York City from purchasing sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at most restaurant chains, was supposed to go into effect today but has been put on hold over questions of constitutionality from the state Supreme Court.

Critics argue that consumers are smart enough to make their own decisions about what beverages to consume. Mayor Bloomberg is undeterred, saying that the ban is a ground-breaking measure in the fight against obesity. He expects the city to win in appeal of the court’s decision.

Nearly 60% of adults in New York City, and 20% of schoolchildren are overweight and obese, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”If you know what you’re doing is harmful to people’s health, common sense says if you care, you might want to stop doing that,” Bloomberg said in response to the judge’s decision.

Opponents of the ban point to its multiple inconsistencies; the law would only apply to establishments regulated by the city’s health department, like Dunkin Donuts and Subway, but would not apply to grocery stores or 7-Eleven, which are not regulated by the department. There’s also a loophole for sugary drinks that contain milk, which is considered nutritious. As a result, consumers couldn’t buy a 16 ounce container of cranberry juice but could purchase a super-size sugary milkshake, reported Medpage Today.

Despite the law’s inconsistencies, studies suggest that sugary beverages contribute to poor health and obesity.

• Excessive calories. Sugary drinks were found to be the primary source of excessive calories in children, according to a new study published this week in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• Weight gain in kids. Sugar-sweetened beverages were tied to weight gain and obesity in teens in a study from The New England Journal of Medicine.
• High-fructose corn syrup. Such drinks often contain high amounts of high-fructose corn syrup which has been linked to type 2 diabetes.

Whether or not the government steps into to the sticky role of regulating sugary drinks, it’s time for children, parents, and doctors alike to have honest conversations about making healthy choices to prevent obesity.

A new study published in the journal Neurology tested the connection between these possible triggers and incident of migraine. Patients in the study exercised for an hour and were exposed to flashing lights for over 30 minutes. Then the patients were observed and told to reveal any migraine symptoms. Only 22% of participants suffered any type of migraine after being exposed to the suspected triggers. None of the patients had a migraine after the light exposure alone.

Some analysts involved with the study hypothesize that rather than being triggers for migraine, perhaps exercise and flashing lights are actually the brain’s reaction to early phases of the migraine. Dr. Peter Goadsby of the University of California, San Francisco, wrote, “Maybe people are driven to exercise as an early symptom and the association with light is simply the sensitivity to light that occurs with the attack itself?” More research will be required to further investigate what does and does not trigger migraine headaches.

The study was conducted using 50 participants and included a test group and a control group. A Spinal Mouse was used to measure lumbar lordosis while patients in the test group were barefoot and then again wearing 3- or 4-inch heels.  The measurements were taken from a standing position, with the second one after an adjustment period of ten minutes walking, sitting, and standing in the high heels.

This study did not find a connection between wearing high heels and increased measurement of lumbar lordosis. These results are consistent with most previous studies that showed that high-heeled shoes did not affect lumbar lordosis in most people while standing.

Researchers said further study could include testing for lumbar lordosis in conditions other than standing, or research could be conducted to identify affected subgroups.

Researchers in Australia have recently discovered that vitamin D deficiency in infants causes them to be three times more likely to develop a food allergy. A lack of vitamin D also increased the likelihood of infants having multiple, rather than single, food allergies.

The study was conducted with more than 5,200 12-month-old infants. The babies were tested for common food allergies such as egg white, peanut, and sesame. Researchers also tested the serum level of vitamin D in more than 700 participants’ blood.

Professor Katie Allen led the research team, and she says, “Food allergy is on the rise, and Australia has some of the highest reported prevalence in the world… There has also been a rise in vitamin D insufficiency…” Allen goes on to point out that this study provides the first direct evidence that supplementing vitamin D in the first year of life may help prevent food allergies.

Interestingly, the link between vitamin D deficiency and food allergy was only evident for infants with Australian-born parents, not those of parents born in other countries. Researchers hypothesize that this difference may be due to skin color, genetics, or environmental factors.

Researchers say that further studies will need to be conducted to determine in what stage of development vitamin D is most important. It is possible that a mother’s deficiency in pregnancy may be causing the deficiency in infanthood and the related risk of food allergy.

In a group of 942 patients who underwent spinal surgery:

• 87% had a least one documented complication
• 39% of those patients had to stay longer in the hospital as a result of their complication
• 10.5% had an intraoperative surgical complication
• 73.5% had a postoperative complication (8% delerium; 7% pneumonia; 5% naturopathic pain; 4.5% dysphagia; 3% neurological deterioration; 13.5% wound complication)
• 14 people died after receiving back surgery

This study could provide us with the most rigorous data on available on adverse events from spinal surgery. Although previous studies spinal surgery risks, most studies were retrospective in nature, meaning the studies were based on analyzing a set of medical data after the operations occurred. While these kinds of scientific studies provide us with critical insights, they are believed to provide weaker evidence than  prospective, rigorous studies that control for a number of factors.

The retrospective nature of many of the studies on spinal surgery could downplay the actual risks of surgery. “Without strict adherence to a prospective data collection system, the true complexity of this surgery may be greatly underestimated,” the authors concluded.

In addition to facing a number of risks, many patients who undergo back surgery are forced to have revision surgery as a result of failed back pain syndrome.

Fortunately, studies show that chiropractic care can help patients avoid surgery.