Archive for February, 2010
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Guests of Dr Carl O Helvie on Saturday on the Holistic Health Show on BBS Radio are: Ms Elaine Masters (left), Dr Kathy Gruver(right), and Ms Peggy Hall (below). Elaine Masters has baccalaureate degrees in fine arts (Cornish College and San Francisco State University)and is certified as a yoga teacher with the yoga alliance in kinepathics, hatha yoga and somatic movement. Elaine has been practicing yoga for decades and commutes to speaking engagements throughout southern California. She is a mom, and the award winning author of Drivetime Yoga. She recently launched the Flytime Yoga Passport Wallet and Booklet. Her company, the YogoProject, creates yoga inspired products for travel ease. She will share some small simple techniques to do safely while driving or at stop lights or while flying in order to arrive relaxed and ready to play. More information is available at www.drivetimeyoga.com
Dr Kathy Gruver has a doctorate as a traditional naturopath, a masters in natural health and is pursuing a PhD. She is also a liscensed massage therapist and has 20 years and over 10,000 hours of medical massage and natural health experience. She works with people having back pain using deep trigger point massage and mind/body medicine to see a decrease in pain and an increase in range of motion. She has been featured as an expert in publications such Massage Magazine, Discovery, First for Women, Dermascope Magazine, and Pacific Coast Business Times. She has written many health and wellness articles and appeared as guest on 30 radio shows covering topics such as back pain, mind/body medicine, healthy pregnancy, homeopathics, nutrition, and patient advocacy. Kathy’s first book the Alternative Medicine Cabinet will be available in April. She also produced an instructional massage DvD titled Therapeutic Massage at Home: Learn to Rub People the Right Way. More information is available at: www.healingcirclemassage.com
Peggy Hall was called America’s Ultimate Wellness Expert by Woman’s World Magazine. She is the featured health and wellness expert for the ABC radio network with her weekly wellness segment syndicated to 200 stations coast to coast. She is also a contributing writer for Clean Eating Magazine, and the creator of the Three Day Detox Diet.
Peggy holds a baccalaureate degree in political science, a masters degree in iinternational relations, and is certified in nutrition and yoga. She is the creator of the best selling Yoga for Surfers instructional DVD series. More information is available at www.peggyhall.com
Tags: back pain, Dr Carl O Helvie, Dr Kathy Gruver, Elaine Masters, massage, Peggy Hall, Yoga
Posted in back and neck pain, body alignment, exercise, massage, nutrition, wellness, Yoga | No Comments »
Friday, February 26th, 2010
A study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology reported that “aspirin can significantly reduce the risk of cancer spread and death in women who have been treated for early breast cancer.” Researchers at Harvard Medical School studied 4,164 female registered nurses taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study. Starting in 1976 they looked at who took aspirin, who developed breast cancer and all causes of death up until 2006. During this time 341 nurses died of breast cancer. Of this group women who took aspirin two to five days a week had a 60% reduced risk of their cancer spreading and a 71% lower risk of breast cancer death. Other non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s) in the same class as aspirin had the same effect and included ibuprofen and naproxen but not acetaminophen. This relationship was not as clear because of limited data. Although aspirin is relatively benign compared with chemotherapy drugs it can cause bleeding and should not be taken without medical supervision. It also should not be taken while undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy because of the possible side effects.
Tags: aspirin, breast cancer, cancer spread, death rates, Harvard Medical School, research
Posted in breast cancer, drugs, research | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
A recent study published in Clinical Rehabilitation compared three treatment interventions with patients having non-specific low back pain. Four hundred forty three patients who reported having non-specific low back pain often or always over a 6 month period were evaluated for the study. Baseline data on pain related disability, pain-related use of medications, and demographic information was collected. Those who had any of the following were excluded: complicating factors such as neurological signs or symptoms, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions, previous fractures, psychiatric disease, cognitive impairment, or pain-related litigation. The experimental group comprised 210 patients who met all of the eligibility requirements.
Patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups with 70 in each. The groups were: back school, individual physical therapy, and spinal manipulation. The back school group were given 15 hours of group education and exercises for one hour a day on 5 days a week spread over 3 weeks. Classes included training in back physiology and pathology, ergonomics and group exercises.
The physical therapy group received 15 hours of passive and active mobilization, active exercise, massage/treatment of soft tissue and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. The emphasis was on education and active treatment by a physical therapist with the same amount of education and experience as the back school therapists.
The spinal manipulation group attended four to six weekly sessions of 20 minutes each for a total of 80 to 120 minutes of treatment. Treatment was aimed at restoring movement in the vertebral segments by direct and indirect mobilization and manipulation by chiropractors with at least 9 to 12 years of practice.
Two hundred five patients completed the study including 68 in the back school group, 68 in physical therapy, and 69 in spinal manipulation. All three groups reported a significantly lower rate of pain-related disability, subjective experience of pain, and low-back pain related use of medications at the end of the treatment period and after 12 months. Results were most striking for those assigned to the spinal manipulation group. Spinal manipulation provided more functional improvement than the other interventions at the end of the study program and at follow-up one year later as measured by lower scores on the Roland Morris Disability Scale. Their average score was 1.6 compared with 5.9 for the back school group and 5.3 for the physical therapy group. There was also less need for medications among this group than the others as measured by a 49% reduction in the need for pain medications in this group compared to a 23% drop in the back school group, and a 14% drop in the physical therapy group.
Tags: back school, non-specific low back pain, physical therapy, research, spinal manipulation
Posted in back and neck pain, research | No Comments »
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Dr Carl O Helvie interviewed two back pain experts and two CEO’s of companies providing natural products for back pain and arthritis pain. These are pictured from left to right: Dr Andrew Fleschner, Dr Andrew Block, Mr Daniel Chapman, and Mr Tamer Elsafy.
Dr Andrew Fleschner is a board certified physician who is in private practice in Bala Cynwdy, Pennsylvania and has a consultancy in Miami, Florida. He is author of Back Together: Hands-On Healing for Couples Other aspects of his background were discussed earlier on this site and can be found at Http://stretchzone.com/Fleschner.htm
Dr Andrew Block is on the staff of the Texas Back Institute and has multiple national and international presentations on the spine and spine surgery. He has also contributed chapters to many of the major books on spine surgery, chronic pain, and other back problems and has authored or co-authored 5 books. The latest of these is The Psychology of Spine Surgery More information is available on an earlier blog here or at: Http:www.texasback.com
Mr Daniel Chapman is the Founder and CEO of Redd Remedies, a leading natural health supplements provider and advocate ffor a holistic health approach to wellness. His company dates back to 1961 when his family opened their first Sunrise Health Food Store in Reseland, Illinois. More information on Daniel and his company was presented earlier and can be found at: www.reddremedies.com
Mr Tamer Elsafy is President and CEO of Flexicon International a producer and supplier of natural products for joint pain and arthritis that incorporate CM8. his products have been formulated under the direction of physicians and nutritionists. More information was presented earlier and can be found at www.flexicon.com
The interviews follow. I hope you enjoy and learn from them.
Tags: back and neck pain, Back Together, causes, CM8, COPE Program, couples, Daniel Chapman, decompression surgery, deconditioning syndrome, Dr Andrew Block, Dr Andrew Fleschner, Dr Carl O Helvie, exercise, facebook, flexicon, gout, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, immune system, kindney functioning, lifestyle, multidisciplinary team, muscle ease, muscle functioning, nerve shield, nutritional counseling, OSTeO, pain evaluation, pain management, prevalence, psychological testing, Redd Remedies, spinal surgery, Tamer Elsafy, Texas Back Institute, trigger point injections, types, uric acid
Posted in arthritis, back and neck pain, exercise, integrative medicine, natural products, Podcast | 1 Comment »
Friday, February 19th, 2010
A new study reported online January 12, 2010 in Cancer Research concluded that leafy green vegetables, folate, and some multivitamins may serve as a protective factor against lung cancer in current and former smokers. This first step in understanding a complex association was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers studied more than 1,100 current and former smokers who submitted sputum specimens and completed questionaires about their dietary intake. Most of the sample (75%) were women. Sputum samples were examined for the methylation status of eight genes that are linked to the increased risk of lung cancer in previous studies. Gene Methylation is believed to be a major mechanism for lung cancer development and progression and also a potential marker for the early detection of lung cancer.
The researchers investigated the association between 21 dietary variables and methylation and found that higher intakes of leafy vegetables and folate were significantly associated with a reduced probability of high methylation. Additional research is needed to validate these findings.
Tags: folate, green leafy vegetables, lung cancer, methylation, nutrition, research, smokers
Posted in lung cancer, nutrition, research | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
Current research published in the journal Sleep Medicine concluded that cognitive therapy can significantly improve sleep for patients with chronic neck and back pain and relieve pain so they can perform more normal daily activities. This included patients who were on medications but did not want to take more for an sleep disturbances.
A nurse therapist delivered eight weeks of cognitive -behavioral therapy including sleep restrictions, stimulus control, sleep hygiene, and a discussion of catastropic thoughts about the consequence of insomnia. They talked about habits such as the use of caffeine or alcohol, and the use of the bed only for sleeping or sex. A user-friendly manual describing each step was developed that can be used to train other therapists.
Twenty- eight patients participated in the study. They kept sleep diaries, reported on pain and mood standardized tests, and were followed for 6 months after the in intervention. Further research is ongoing to determine the duration of the effects of treatment.
Tags: chronic pain, cognitive therapy, normal functioning, research, sleep
Posted in back and neck pain, research | 1 Comment »
Sunday, February 14th, 2010
Guests to be Interviewed by Dr Carl O Helvie on the Holistic Health Show on Saturday include Dr. Andrew Fleschner (top left), Dr Andrew Block (top right), Mr Daniel Chapman (lower left), and Mr Tamer Elsafy (lower right).
Dr. Andrew Kirschner is the physician many top athletes and performers turn to for relief from pain. Dr. Kirschner, a board certified physician and Assistant Clinical Professor at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, has created a unique combination of his own Osteopathic techniques and other carefully selected modailities which he has named OSTeO. These techniques with the accompanying psychological strategies can often help to decrease pain and restore peak function where more conventional approaches have failed. Atheletes and the physically challenged, adolescents and the elderly have all benefitted from his unique approach to back & neck pain.
Dr. Kirschner graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995. He completed an internship and residency in family medicine and osteopathic manual medicine at Suburban General Hospital in 1998, and became board certified in family medicine and osteopathic manual medicine that same year. He has been in private practice in Bala Cynwyd, PA since 1999, and has worked as a peak performance consultant in Miami since 2000.
Dr. Kirschner founded Back Together in 2001 to be a resource for individuals and couples looking for information about back pain, as well as conservative solutions to back pain. His well received book Back Together- Hands-on Healing for Couples was released in 2006 has helped thousands of couples find relief. His follow up video program Back Together- Simple & Effective Solutions for Back Pain was released this year. The Back Together blog, BackWords is one of very few resources on the internet offering direct responses to viewer questions both in video and text form.
If you or someone you know is suffering from back pain, you owe it to yourself to visit his websites.
For more information about Dr. Kirschner and Back Together please:
-Visit his website: www.backtogether.org
-Subscribe to his blog: wwww.thebacktogetherblog.com
-Become a fan of Back Together on Facebook to receive the Back Together Back Pain Tip of the Day.
-View Back Together video updates on his youtube channel, backtogethertv.
-Receive tips by following his Twitter feed, BackTips
Dr Andrew Block received his PhD in Applied Experimental Psychology and completed his clinical internship at Dartmouth College in 1980. He is currently on the staff of the Texas Back Institute and has served as
Director of the Well Being Group in Plano, Texas; Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Texas in Dallas; and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
He has multiple national and international presentations on spine and spine surgery concerns. He has also contributed chapters to many of the major books on spine surgery, chronic pain and other back problems. He has also authored or co-authored 5 books and the most recent is The Psychology of Spine Surgery published by the American Psychological Association in 2003. More information is available at: http://www.texasback.com
Mr Daniel Chapman is Founder and CEO of Redd Remedies with origins dating back to 1961 when his family opened their first Sunrise Health Food store in Roseland, Illinois. Redd Remedies has evolved as a leading natural health supplement provider and an advocate for a holistic approach to wellness. Today they have six retail outlets and a nationwide distribution. Redd Remedies is a sponsor of the nonprofit American Botanical Council and is distributed to independent health food stores nationwide. More information is available at www.reddremedies.com
Mr Tamer Elsafy is President and CEO of Flexcin International. In 1997 he began marketing and manufacturing all natural vitamins and dietary supplements. Over the next two years his business grew rapidly but he was not fufilled. Seeing his grandmother suffer from severe pain he became passionate about helping her and others. In 1999, under the guidance of doctors and nutritionists he developed an all natural formula to relieve symptoms associated with joint pain and arthritis that incorporated CM8 discovered by Harry Diehl. His grandmother was helped by the product that has since helped thousands of people all over the world become pain-free. More information is available at: http://www.flexicon.com
Mr Elsafy’ product is for arthritis which will complete the series on arthritis. I will add that I have no connection with either of these companies or products to be presented by Mr Chapman or Mr Elsafy and found them through contact with publicists. I received samples and passed them on to friends suffering from arthritis or back pain and received positive reports back. I offer these interviews to sufferers because of my interest in natural products and supplements instead of harsh chemicals in the treatment for pain.
Posted in arthritis, back and neck pain, herbs, natural products | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that along with stopping smoking a diet rich in soy lowers the risk of lung cancer in men. In addition to previously know soy isoflavones having anticancer properties in breast and prostate cancer the research now extends soy to lung cancer. The researches believe that men who use soy products may also participate in other activities that lower the risk of lung cancer. Although more studies are needed to comfirm these results their results show that non-smoking men who use soy products are less likely to develop lung cancer.
Tags: lung cancer, research, soy products
Posted in lung cancer, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Research published in the January 22 issue of Cell confirmed that obesity in mice increased the risk of cancer especially liver cancer. In their study the researchers gave 2 week old mice DEN ( a chemical carcinogen) and divided them into two groups. One group was fed a normal diet that was relatively low in fat and the other group a diet high in fat. The high fat group developed more liver cancer than the normal diet group. To further confirm the link between obesity and liver cancer they gave 2 week old mice DEN that were fed a normal diet but were prone to obesity. This group also developed more liver cancer so the researchers concluded that it was not necessarily the high fat diet but something about the obesity state. They also gave DEN to 3 month old mice on a high fat diet and they also developed more liver cancer. Usually mice on a standard diet given DEN at this age without the extra push of phenobarbitol do not develop liver cancer. But the obese mice developed liver cancer without the extra push of phenobarbitol. The researchers traced the source of the obese cancer producing effect to a rise in inflammatory factors and obese mice lacking these did not show the same rise in liver cancer nor the same distribution of fat in the body. This study suggests that anti-inflammatory drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease may also reduce the risk of cancer for those at high risk of liver cancer because of obesity. .
Tags: DEN, high fat diet, liver cancer, low fat diet, obesity
Posted in Cancer, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
New research to be published in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism discussed a novel way to halt or reverse rheumatoid arthritis by using am imitation of a suicide molecule that floats undetected into immune cells that are responsible for this type of arthritis. Using this approach the researchers were able to stop the disease in 75% of the study mice without any observed toxic effects as is the case with current drugs. The mechanism is that healthy immune cells usually die after attacking an invading virus or bacteria. However, in rheumatoid arthritis the immune cells do not die but live on and go rogue proliferating in the blood, building up in the joints and invading cartilage and bone.
Researchers discovered that immune cells in rheumatoid arthritis are low in a critical molecule (Bim) that cause the immune cells to self- destruct. To correct this fault they developed an imitation of this molecule (called BH2) that was injected into study mice with rheumatoid arthritis that caused the immune cells to destruct, joint swelling was reduced and bone destruction decreased. Thus, they concluded that the molecule could prevent the disease and trigger a remission in those who have it. Further research is planned to develop a more precise method of delivering the drug.
Tags: halt progression, immune cells, research, rheumatoid arthritis
Posted in arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Uncategorized | No Comments »
