November 2021 Health Newsletter

Similar to adults, the impact headaches have on children can be substantial. Children suffering from headaches can experience struggles in school, sports, social life and just the fun of being a kid. The number of children suffering from headaches is also substantial. Fortunately, chiropractic care is not only effective in treating many headache-types in adults, research indicates it can also be effective in children. According to a 2009 national sampling of American children aged 4 to 18 years of age, 17% reported frequent or severe headaches including migraine within the previous 12 months. In 2019, a similar collection of headache data was obtained from 3,386 Australian children and adolescents aged 10 to 18 years of age. Collected data found 76% experienced one or more headaches in the previous 12 months. More specifically, 26% experienced mild headache(s) lasting less than 1 hour, 24% experienced migraine(s), 22% experienced tension-type headache(s), and 3% experienced headaches lasting more than 15 days/month. Also, 42% experienced restrictions in daily activities due to headaches. Additionally, a full 50% of those children and adolescent headache sufferers used medication for their headaches. In 2021, a Denmark study was published which investigated the effectiveness of chiropractic spinal manipulation vs. a sham manipulation in 7 to 14 year old children suffering from recurrent headaches. Researchers collected their data over a 5 year period. The data revealed chiropractic manipulation resulted in significantly few days with headaches. The researchers concluded, "Chiropractic spinal manipulation resulted in fewer headaches and higher global perceived effect, with only minor side effects." If you have a child that is suffering from headaches, consider having them evaluated by your local chiropractor. Chiropractic care is safe, effective and non-invasive. Many chiropractors also offer a no obligation evaluation at no cost.

While there are many philosophies and beliefs in regards to chiropractic care and exactly how everything works and what conditions chiropractic care can affect, there are also those clinical results experienced by chiropractic patients daily that are plain and simple, chiropractic miracles. Rather than get into the specifics of how chiropractic works and why, we’d simply like to share a case study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. In this study, a 7-year old girl presents to a chiropractor after having suffered from cyclic vomiting syndrome for the previous 4 1/2 years. She additionally had a 2-month history of headaches and stomachaches. After receiving a thorough chiropractic evaluation, she was treated with a safe, low-force chiropractic procedure to her upper neck region. According to the case study, her symptoms improved within an hour of treatment. Chiropractic care has helped millions of people not only get out of pain, but similar to this case study, resolve their medical mysteries, so-to-speak, and experience their own chiropractic miracles. We encourage those who are suffering from pain and other health problems to contact their local chiropractor today for a consultation to see if chiropractic care can be their miracle too!

Type 2 diabetes is an ever-increasing and insidious health risk. Studies in the past have linked the lack of physical activity to the risk of becoming diabetic. A new study conducted by Gibbs and his colleagues on 2,027 overweight people between the ages of 38 and 50 showed a definite correlation between a lack of daily physical activity and the increased risk of diabetes. Although certain elements of the study were critiqued by other professionals, the overall feeling was that the study once again demonstrated that being sedentary for up to 10 hours per day was a definitive factor in being at risk for developing diabetes. The study supported the benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle as well as a lifestyle that limits inactivity. People who were sedentary for a minimum of 10 hours per day were more than twice as likely to end up with glucose tolerance issues leading to diabetes than people whose daily sedentary time was less than 6 hours per day. The study suggests that people with daily sedentary behavior can reduce their risk of developing glucose intolerance impairment and subsequently developing diabetes by adding a regimen of daily physical activity to their behavior.

Individuals partaking in even just a small amount of low-intensity exercise are significantly less likely to die prematurely than their sedentary counterparts, according to researchers.  The findings come from examining data from 10 previous studies of more than 36,000 older subjects.  The evidence is becoming more clear – stop moving, and the risk of death increases significantly.  Being sedentary 10 hours a day increased death during the close to 7-year study by 48%.  Those that pushed their sedentary lifestyle to 12 hours a day nearly tripled their risk of death during this time frame.  The good news is that researchers found that literally any level of physical activity level was beneficial.  Thus, you don’t need to run a marathon or even run to reap the benefits.  Simply get up, get out and just move!

Have a hectic schedule that leaves the only opportunity for you to workout later in the day or at night? Many individuals naturally assume that working out later in the day or at night will keep them from getting a good nights rest. New information suggests this may not be the case. Recently, 1,000 participants completed either a phone or web-based questionnaire with questions related to sleep and physical activity. According to the results and contrary to what one might think, individuals who engaged in moderate to vigorous exercise within 4 hours of going to sleep reported having the same quality of sleep as those who did not exercise. Even with those findings, experts recommended that the late night workouts within a few hours of sleep be less intense and that what may work for one individual, could affect another individual differently. So while late night workouts may not be for everyone, they actually do appear to work for some. If the only time to squeeze in a workout is at night, it’s definitely worth giving it a try!