Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor • February 2019 • News And Events

Arthritis, which causes chronic joint pain and stiffness, is significantly more common in American adults ages 18 to 64 than previously estimated, according to a recent statistical study. The condition joins a growing list of diseases affecting younger adults that require immediate treatment, but are often ignored, creating greater risks to their health and well-being.

The study, published in Arthritis and Rheumatology, estimated that more than 91 million Americans have arthritis, including 61 million adults ages 18 to 64. The estimates for younger adults nearly double previously published national estimates of arthritis incidents.

“The results of this study are eye-opening, particularly because arthritis is a condition commonly associated with older populations,” said Sherry McAllister, DC, executive vice president of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP), a not-forprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the value of chiropractic care. “Worse yet, younger people are less likely to seek professional treatment for this condition, which can lead to greater stiffness and discomfort down the road. It’s crucial that any sort of lingering physical discomfort is addressed promptly by a qualified doctor.”

Hypertension, melanoma and back and neck pain are also becoming more common among younger adults. For the latter, treating chronic pain with an opioid raises further risks to young adults’ health and well-being as it may lead to misuse, addiction, overdose and in some cases, fatality. In fact, the age group with the highest rate of nonmedical opioid use is young adults ages 18 to 25.

Instead, experts at the F4CP offer the following tips to help alleviate pain related to arthritis:

Exercise: Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise three to five days a week. Learn proper stretching techniques and do them often.

Eat Right and Drink Water: A healthy diet – rich in fruits, vegetables and healthy fats – can help reduce inflammation and joint pain. Also limit red meat, refined sugar, white flour and processed foods.

Consult a chiropractor: Schedule a consultation to discuss an appropriate care plan that can help reduce pain and optimize overall health and well-being.

“Because the available medications for arthrits pain carry risks of side effects, it’s smart to try other ways to ease pain,” says Marcy O’Koon, from the Arthritis Foundation.

“[DC’s] successfully treat a wide range of conditions in patients of all ages, which is part of the reason patients report such high satisfaction compared with other types of care,” McAllister says. “Combined with the right lifestyle choices and preventive care, chiropractic care can help younger adults avoid chronic pain and pursue healthy, active lives.”

Having two or more noncommunicable disease s (multimorbidity) costs the country more than the sum of those individual diseases would cost, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Medicine by Tony Blakely from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and colleagues.

Few studies have estimated disease-specific health system expenditure for many diseases simultaneously. In the new work, the researchers used nationally linked health data for all New Z e a l a n d e rs, i n c l u d i n g hospitalization, outpatient, pharmaceutical, laboratory and primary care from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2014. The team calculated annual health expenditure per person and analyzed the association of this spending to whether a person had any of six non-communicable disease classes – cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal, neurological, and lung/liver/kidney (LLK) diseases – or a combination of any of those diseases.

59 per cent of publicallyfunded health expenditures in New Zealand were attributable to non-communicable diseases. Nearly a quarter (23.8 per cent) of this spending was attributable to the costs of having two or more diseases above and beyond what the diseases cost separately. Of the remaining spending, heart disease and stroke accounted for 18.7 per cent, followed by MSK (16.2 per cent), neurological (14.4 per cent), cancer (14.1 per cent), LLK disease (7.4 per cent) and diabetes (5.5 per cent). Expenditure was generally the highest in the year of diagnosis and the year of death.

“There is a surprising lack of disease-attributed costing studies involving multiple diseases at once,” the authors say. “Governments and health systems managers and funders can improve planning and prioritization knowing where the money goes.”

It’s a posture so common we almost don’t notice it anymore: someone sitting at a computer jutting his or her head forward to look more closely at the screen. But this seemingly harmless position compresses the neck and can lead to fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, increased muscle tension and even injury to the vertebrae over time. It can even limit the ability to turn your head.

“When your posture is tall and erect, the muscles of your back can easily support the weight of your head and neck – as much as 12 pounds,” explains San Francisco State University Professor of Holistic Health Erik Peper. “But when your head juts forward at a 45 degree angle, your neck acts like a fulcrum, like a long lever lifting a heavy object. Now the muscle weight of your head and neck is the equivalent of about 45 pounds. It is not surprising people get stiff necks and shoulder and back pain.”

Peper, Associate Professor of Health Education Richard Harvey and their colleagues, including two student researchers, tested the effects of head and neck position in a recent study published in the journal Biofeedback. First they asked 87 students to sit upright with their heads properly aligned on their necks and asked them to turn their heads. Then the students were asked to “scrunch” their necks and jut their heads forward. Ninety-two percent reported being able to turn their heads much farther when not scrunching. In the second test, 125 students scrunched their necks for 30 seconds. Afterwards, 98 percent reported some level of pain in their head, neck or eyes.

The researchers also monitored 12 students with electromyography equipment and found that trapezius muscle tension increased in the scrunched, head forward position.

So if you suffer from headaches or neck and backaches from computer work, check your posture and make sure your head is aligned on top of your neck, as if held by an invisible thread from the ceiling. “You can do something about this poor posture very quickly,” said Peper. To increase body awareness, Peper advises purposefully replicating the head-forward/neck scrunched position. “You can exaggerate the position and experience the symptoms. Then when you find yourself doing it, you can become aware and stop.”

Other solutions he offers include increasing the font on your computer screen, wearing computer reading glasses or placing your computer on a stand at eye level, all to make the screen easier to read without strain.

Heberden’s nodes (HNs) are bony enlargements of the finger joints that are readily detectable in a routine physical exam and are considered hallmarks of osteoarthritis. A new Arthritis & Rheumatology study found that the presence of HNs may also indicate structural damage associated with knee osteoarthritis.

In the study of 395 patients with HN and 188 without, there were significant associations between the presence of HN and imaging measures of knee osteoarthritis.

The authors noted that additional studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms behind the link between HN and knee osteoarthritis

“The presence of Heberden’s nodes in a physical examination is associated with a distinct pattern of worsening of osteoarthritis- related structural damage in the knee joint,” said leading author Dr. Arya Haj-Mirzaian, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “These exploratory results have motivated us to initiate more focused investigations to further characterize the nodal osteoarthritis phenotype and tailor specific treatments for patients in future trials,” added senior author Dr. Shadpour Demehri.

Astronauts who spend several months on the International Space Station have significant reductions in the size and density of paraspinal muscles of the trunk after returning to Earth, reports a study in Spine.

Some changes in muscle composition are still present up to four years after long-duration spaceflight, according to the new research by Katelyn Burkhart, MS, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues. They write, “Spaceflight- induced changes in paraspinal muscle morphology may contribute to back pain commonly reported in astronauts.”

The researchers analyzed computed tomography (CT) scans of the lumbar spine in 17 astronauts and cosmonauts who flew missions on the International Space Station. Scans obtained before and after missions were analyzed to determine changes in the size and composition of the paraspinal muscles. Average time in space was six months.

The CT scans showed reductions in the size of paraspinal muscles after spaceflight. For individual muscles, muscle size decreased by 4.6 to 8.8 per cent. In follow-up scans performed one year later, size returned at least to normal for all muscles.

The scans also showed significant increases in the amount of fatty tissue present in the paraspinal muscles. Accordingly, the astronauts’ muscle density, which is inversely related to fat content, decreased by 5.9 to 8.8 per cent. For most muscles, composition returned to normal by one year.

However, for two muscles – the quadratus lumborum and psoas muscles – fat content remained above preflight values even two to four years after the astronaut returned from space.

Changes in muscle size and composition varied between individuals. For some muscles, changes in size were at least partly related to the amount and type of exercise the astronauts performed while in zero gravity: either resistance exercise or cycling. In-flight exercise did not seem to affect changes in muscle density.

Previous studies of astronauts have linked spaceflight to muscle atrophy, especially of the muscles that maintain posture and stability while upright on Earth in normal gravity. Many astronauts experience low back pain during and immediately after space missions, and they appear to be at increased risk of spinal disc herniation.

The results show that muscle size returns to normal upon Earth recovery, but that some changes in muscle composition – particularly increased fatty infiltration – may persist for at least a few years.

Some of the paraspinal muscle changes seem to be affected by exercise, suggesting possible approaches to preventing the adverse effects of prolonged spaceflight on spinal health and functioning.