Last Thursday's post discussed back pain and how it can be alleviated through yoga. Today we consider acupuncture.
According to a new study from a group of Seattle researchers, it even works when toothpicks are used instead of needles and the effects seem to be long-lasting. The investigators compared four different treatments on 638 adults with chronic low back pain. Over seven weeks 157 of the adults received 10 individually prescribed acupuncture treatments. A second group of 158 had a standardized course of acupuncture treatments considered effective by experts on low back pain. A third group of 162 patients had 10 sessions of simulated acupuncture - here, the patients didn’t know that toothpicks were used instead of needles. The fourth group of 161 patients received usual medical care. In telephone follow-ups, the patients reported on how they were doing at eight, 26 and 52 weeks after treatment. After a year, 59 to 65 percent of the patients in the acupuncture groups reported less pain and improved functioning compared to 50 percent of the usual care group. The study was published in the May 11, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
New evidence from Britain suggests that vegetarians are one-third less likely to develop diverticular disease than are meat eaters.
This disorder, affects the colon and has been associated with diets that are low in fiber. Symptoms include painful abdominal cramps, bloating, flatulence, constipation and diarrhea. A research team from the University of Oxford looked at more than 47,000 British adults participating in a European study of cancer and nutrition; more than 15,000 of them reported that they were vegetarians. After more than 11 years of follow up and adjusting for such factors as alcohol consumption, smoking and body mass index (BMI), the investigators found that the rate of diverticular disease among the vegetarians was one-third lower than that of other study participants. They also found that those whose consumption of dietary fiber was about 25 grams a day were at lower risk of being hospitalized or dying from diverticular disease than study participants who consumed less than 14 grams of fiber daily. Diverticular disease may also worsen into a condition known as diverticulitis. The findings were published online on July 19th on the British Medical Journal's website.
New research from Canada suggests that a combination of relatively minor ailments such as skin, stomach or bladder problems, dentures that don't fit, arthritis, or trouble hearing can raise the risk of age-related dementia. (Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia.) Published in the July 13, 2011 issue of Neurology, the analysis of data gathered from more than 7,200 people age 65 or older showed that a collection of minor ailments may have a cumulative effect on the risk of dementia. The study suggested that each extra health problem increased the risk of dementia by three percent compared to the risk of other seniors in the study with no minor health problems. All told, the healthy participants with no complaints had an 18 percent risk of developing dementia over the next decade while those with a dozen small problems had a 40 percent risk.
The study author said that the findings seem to suggest that paying attention to general health and dealing with small problems may reduce the risk of dementia.
Following a healthy lifestyle is important for all of us, and the general advice for healthy living applies to both men and women equally. As we age, however, gender may play a larger role in the health issues we experience, and how we address them. If you are a man, consider this information or pass it on to a male loved one!
Acupuncture can help ease menstrual pain, pregnancy-related back pain, and now, a small new study suggests, it can also reduce the severity of hot flashes. Of the 53 menopausal women who took part in the study, about half received acupuncture treatments twice a week for 10 weeks while the others received "sham" acupuncture (in which needles are placed randomly rather than traditional therapeutic locations). Results showed that in addition to easing the hot flashes, true acupuncture also elicited a beneficial effect on mood swings among the women treated. No such changes took place among those who received the sham acupuncture. Treatment didn’t affect vaginal dryness or the number of urinary tract infections among the women in the study, which was published in the March issue of the journal Acupuncture and Medicine. Elsewhere, mindfulness classes, including instruction on meditation and stretching, improved the quality of life among women experiencing severe hot flashes. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester randomly assigned 110 women either to attend mindfulness classes for eight weeks or to sign up on a waiting list for the classes. Afterwards, the women in the mindfulness classes reported being less bothered by their hot flashes, less stressed and anxious and better able to sleep. This study was published online on Feb. 26 by Menopause
Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo report that even patients with severe symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were able to get better (and stayed better) if they were motivated and believed they could control their symptoms by changing their behavior. Nearly one-third of the 71 patients participating in a 10-week cognitive behavioral study indicated they felt significant relief after only four weeks, regardless of the amount of time they spent with the therapists treating them. Some had four one-hour sessions with a therapist over the 10 weeks; others had 10 one-hour sessions over the 10 weeks; those in a third "control" group attended no sessions. Conventional wisdom holds that benefit from behavioral treatment is tied to the amount of treatment a patient receives, said lead researcher Jeffrey Lackner, Psy.D., director of the Behavioral Medicine Clinic at the UB School of Medicine. But that didn’t hold true in this study - some patients improved rapidly regardless of how many sessions they had. In addition, the investigators reported that 92.5 percent of these "rapid responders" maintained their improvement for well over three months with little evidence of deterioration. The study was published in the May issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
