Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor • September 2016 • Roundup

Canadian memorial chiropractic college (CMCC) has signed an official memorandum of understanding with the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Institute of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics.

The agreement paves the way for fostering cooperative and mutually rewarding relationships in research and education, CMCC said in a statement. .

According to CMCC, the cooperation can lead to collaboration and joint publication of scientific papers in musculoskeletal research and joint applications for funding of research initiatives. Other outcomes anticipated to come from this agreement include: joint educational courses; graduate and undergraduate student mobility opportunities such as internships and studying abroad; facilitation of common graduate student projects; adjunct appointments and exchanges for senior researchers; development of joint courses; and exchange of faculty for teaching and observation.

“We are proud to reach this agreement with our colleagues at SDU. Such agreements at an international level not only increase our capacity, they promote a cross-cultural knowledge sharing that ultimately enhances joint initiatives. We look forward to developing such projects and opportunities,” said CMCC president Dr. David Wickes.

Dr. Jan Hartvigsen, professor and head of the research unit for clinical biomechanics at the faculty of health sciences, University of Southern Denmark, welcomed CMCC-SDU memorandum of understanding.

“We have a global network of collaborators in musculoskeletal research, and with CMCC’s strong commitment to research and evidence- based advancement in chiropractic, this is a perfect partnership. It will increase opportunities for high-level research as well as student exchange on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Hartvigsen, who is also a senior researcher at the Nordic Institute of Chiropractic and Clinical Biomechanics.

Dr. Silvano Mior, CMCC’s vice-president for research and external relations, spearheaded this initiative and other such initiatives that continue to define new models of partnership and knowledge sharing between academic institutions, and between chiropractors and other health scientists.

“Agreements such as this promote international dialogue and enable collaboration, reducing barriers to care for patients. We look forward to advancing collaboration within research and increasing learning opportunities for students,” Mior said.

The University of Southern Denmark is a full-scale publicly funded university with over 22,000 students in five faculties. Its five-year chiropractic education is placed under the faculty of health sciences and integrated into the medical school where chiropractic and medical students take many courses together.

The key to eating for wellness is not necessarily what foods to eat, but how and when we eat them, says Suzanne Judd, associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Biostatistics.

There is no definite right or wrong – it’s often a matter of personal taste and unique body chemistry. Food influences the way a person feels, how he or she sleeps and interacts with others. Too much food can lead to extra weight, and extra weight is associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease and decreased physical function. Diet can affect how people with chronic illness feel. It’s important to feed the body in a way that optimizes your own health, and the hard part is crafting the right diet for your body’s and mind’s needs, she said.

Many of the body’s chronic illnesses result from inflammation, a catch-all term used to describe an over-active immune system or an immune system that is responding when there is not a germ to fight, Judd said.

“Since one-third of the body’s immune system lies within the gut (large intestine, small intestine and stomach) what we eat is tightly tied to the amount of daily immune response, or inflammation, the body creates,” Judd said.

Diets like the Whole 30, a month long clean-eating program, and Paleo, which attempts to mimic what our ancestors ate, do work to reduce the number of pro-inflammatory foods the gut has to address, and therefore lead to lower levels of inflammation, she explained. These diets emphasize whole, simple foods that nourish the body and advocate eating vegetables, meat, fish, nuts, seeds and some fruits, while cutting grains, sugar, alcohol and dairy.

However, for many people diets like these are tough to maintain. One good option is to take breaks from a regular diet and follow the ideas behind these diets to periodically lower the body’s inflammatory load. That’s a great way to give the gut and body a rest but not feel as though you can’t eat some of your favourites from time to time, Judd said.

Another option is the 90:10 rule, she said. “Try to have 90 per cent of the food you eat come from clean foods, and then the other 10 per cent of the food can be from more processed items,” Judd said. “You may find with time you feel better eating 100 per cent of your diet from nonprocessed food.”

As for the best foods to eat for wellness generally, Judd recommends that people start with fruits and vegetables and try to get about half-full on those before starting on the meats and fats.

• Eat six to nine servings, or more, of fruit and vegetables each day. “These can be raw, dried or cooked; but do not add a lot of sugar, animal fat or salt if they are cooked. Try to eat seasonally and locally for optimum freshness and Lower cost.”

• Eat some healthy fat each day: avocado, walnuts, almonds, other nuts, olives, chia seeds, olive oil, grape seed oil or canola oil. “Try to limit fats to four servings each day, based on hunger. A palmful, not fistful, of walnuts or cashews can go a long way toward staving off afternoon hunger.”

• Find a good source of protein. Judd said lentils, beans, seeds, fish and meat qualify. Base your protein source on your likes. “I once ate fish every day for a week to be more ‘healthy’ and was so miserable I binge-ate three huge cookies. There is no reason to make yourself miserable. Try to strike a balance between what you like for taste and what keeps you from being hungry.”

• Use physical activity to feel good, not to lose weight. “If you have eaten in the last three hours, but feel tired or shaky and think you need to eat, try a short walk outside or up and down stairs.”

• Download an app that tracks calories to help you understand how much you are eating each day. Judd suggests MyFitnessPal.

• As far as supplements, consider adding vitamin D to your diet, 2,000-4,000 Ius in summer and 4,000-8,000 Ius in winter. “Check with your doctor first to determine whether you may need more due to vitamin D deficiency. Apple cider vinegar is loaded with probiotics, which along with what you eat can change the bacteria in your gut. When I’m feeling lethargic, I add B12 and fish oil to my diet. Supplements are great but shouldn’t be the primary source of vitamins and minerals. You want them to come from your diet first.”

• When it doubt, consult a dietitian. Ask a friend, colleague or your physician for suggestions, or search for one online. “The internet is a great source for information; but don’t get too bogged down in the details, and be wary of anyone who says they have the ‘cure’ for obesity or the ‘solution’ for belly fat.”

“Developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with food is a lifelong pursuit and not a sprint to the finish line,” Judd said. “But once you start, it is a downhill race and gets easier every day.”

Vancouver – Overdose deaths have climbed to such an urgent level in British Columbia that the province needs help from the federal government to deal with a public health emergency, Premier Christy Clark says.

Clark told a news conference Thursday she wants Ottawa to restrict access to devices involved with drug production, such as pill presses and table ting machines, and to pursue stronger penalties against people who import and traffic fentanyl.

Clark also called on the federal government to ask the Canada Border Services Agency to search small packages, including envelopes, for fentanyl in order to stop the drug from entering the country.

Recent statistics from the coroners’ service in B.C. show there were 371 deaths in the first six months of this year, about a 74-per-cent increase compared with the same period last year.

The service said the proportion of deaths where toxicology tests detected fentanyl jumped to about 60 per cent and that the drug was either used alone or in combination with other drugs.

“That scope is alarming. It’s frightening and it’s something that all of us should be concerned about,” Clark said at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, where she was flanked by police, ambulance and firefighting officials, as well as addiction experts.

Health Minister Terry Lake said various federal agencies would join forces to deal with other public health crises, which he said needs to happen as B.C. fights a rising death toll that prompted the province to declare a public health emergency in April.

“If this were SARS or Ebola, Health Canada and border security and immigration would all be focused on this as a health issue that is essentially like a pandemic,” Lake said. “I think when we put our minds to it we can do these things even though they appear to be difficult.”

Clark said B.C. is forming a joint task force involving the provincial health officer and the director of police services to identify ways to prevent and respond to overdoses.

“They’ll have two main goals: to get those deadly drugs off our streets and to get people the help that they need,” she said.

Clark said the province will improve access to treatment regimes, including its opioid substitution program, and will launch a public education campaign to draw attention to the dangers of laced drugs.

“Drug overdoses are absolutely senseless deaths. Every one of them is a preventable tragedy that families feel in the worst possible way,” she said.

“Some have lost their lives to a tainted pill at a party. They didn’t know what they were taking. Others were taken by that needless burden of addiction that they can’t kick. We need to support all of them.”

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control also released measures on Wednesday it believes will help tackle the problem after meeting with public health officials and the coroners’ service.

It wants to expand the availability of naloxone to reverse overdoses, expand access to opioid substitution treatments like suboxone and methadone and increase checks on street drugs, among other things.

Leslie McBain, whose 25-year-old son Jordan Miller died in February 2014 after becoming addicted to prescribed oxyco done for a workplace back injury, said she’s hoping the task force will consider the efficacy of safe-injection sites and more services to keep vulnerable people alive.

“We couldn’t find the support that he needed, either medical support or psychological support and so on,” McBain said of her son, who relapsed after going into detox.

Dr. Keith Ahamad, an addictions specialist, said more family doctors must be trained in recognizing and preventing addiction, similar to other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

That’s the only way people dealing with addictions will stop bouncing in and out of emergency departments where staff are overwhelmed, he said.

Ahamad said St. Paul’s Hospital will open an addiction medicine clinic in the coming months to treat patients from throughout British Columbia.

“We’re going to be helping stabilize patients and transitioning them back to their doctors’ offices with very comprehensive plans in place.”

Changing just one seated meeting per week at work into a walking meeting increased the work-related physical activity levels of white-collar workers by 10 minutes, according to a new study published by public health researchers with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The study, published in June in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s journal Preventing Chronic Disease, suggests a possible new health promotion approach to improving the health of millions of white-collar workers who spend most of their workdays sitting in chairs.

Titled, “Opportunities for Increased Physical Activity in the Workplace: the Walking Meeting,” the study also supports the American Heart Association’s recommendations of 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity for adults, or about 30 minutes each weekday.

“There are limited opportunities for physical activity at work. This walking meeting pilot study provides early evidence that white-collar workers find it feasible and acceptable to convert a traditional seated meeting into a walking meeting,” said the study’s principal investigator, Alberto Caban-Martinez, assistant professor of public health sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“Physical activity interventions such as the walking meeting protocol that encourage walking and raise levels of physical activity in the workplace are needed to counter the negative health effects of sedentary behavior,” he added.

Participants in the study, who were white-collar workers recruited from the University of Miami, wore accelerometers to measure physical activity levels during the workday over a three week period. They also followed a “walking meeting protocol” that included guidance for leading meetings and taking notes while walking.

The average combined moderate/vigorous physical activity reported by participants increased from 107 minutes in the first week to 114 minutes in the second week and to 117 minutes in week three of the study.

“Walking is known to have tremendous health benefits,” said lead author Hannah Kling, the study’s project director and a graduate of UM’s Department of Public Health Sciences. “Having sedentary, white-collar workers consider walking meetings feasible suggests that this intervention has the potential to positively influence the health of many individuals.”

Ottawa – The Canadian military is trying out a “bionic” knee brace developed by a Halifax-based company.

Spring Loaded Technology has delivered 60 bionic knee braces to National Defence for field testing in Ottawa as part of a $1-million- contract for 190 braces.

Maj. Edward Jun says soldiers will test out the brace’s strength in a series of exercises and movements to see how it performs in field conditions and training areas across the country.

The Nova Scotia researchers who developed the brace say it can enhance ability and reduce fatigue by storing energy when you bend your knees and releasing it as you straighten.

The military brace will have reinforced rods to make it stronger and a knee-pad that will complement the military’s tactical gear.

The civilian product, to be sold for $2,500, is intended for athletes going through rehabilitation, workers needing to alleviate knee stress and fatigue and older people with worn-out knees.

To reduce the health and injury risks of prolonged sitting, workers should change postures often and aim to stand for an equal amount of time that they spend sitting over the course of a work day.

That was Dr. Jack Callaghan’s message in a keynote address before an audience of about 400 researchers and clinicians at the recent 9th International Scientific Conference on the Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PREMUS 2016).

Although even a small decrease in sitting time has been shown to reduce musculoskeletal discomfort, from an overall health perspective, workers should aim for a one-to-one ratio of standing time and sitting time, said Callaghan, who is a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo.

A key consideration is the frequency with which workers change positions, he noted. Changing positions often, even if total sitting time is not reduced, can result in health benefits, including reduced low back pain.

“With the attention given to sitting related to death, there has been a knee-jerk reaction to demonize sitting and have people stand all of the time. However, standing all the time also carries health risks, and what is needed to reduce these risks is work combining sitting and standing in an appropriate and individualized fashion,” said Callaghan, who holds a Canada research chair in spine biomechanics and injury prevention. He added that sit-stand workstations that allow workers to periodically alternate between sitting and standing positions may mitigate work-related health issues, provided that users are given ergonomic training along with the equipment.