Scoliosis sufferer writes for latest Chicken Soup

By Judy WakefieldStaff Writer

With an enormous, plastic back brace strapped around her torso, covering everything from just under her breasts to above her thighs, this 11-year-old Andover girl sought refuge from what she remembers as feelings of humiliation.

"The Andover Bookstore is where I went, where I would escape to," said Alyson Gerber, who was especially thrilled when the children's author Barbara Cooney visited and signed her book "Hattie and the Wild Waves."

"It meant so much to me...I was always there (at the Andover Bookstore)," said Gerber, who still has the treasured book.

Now 27 and living in Manhattan, she's a writer herself. Her experience growing up in Andover with scoliosis, an abnormal curving of the spine, is part of the newest Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. This edition ($14,95) is called "The Magic of Mothers & Daughters."

Radiology Second Opinion Service Online

How would you or your Doctor like the ability to upload all your radiology exams, including MRIs, CT scans, X-rays, Mammograms and Ultrasounds and receive a detailed second opinion report?

Well, now you or your Doctor can upload your exams conveniently. These reports are prepared by Metis MD board-certified sub-specialized radiologists with 10 years or more experience. Metis MD is an online service providing a second opinion on all your medical imaging.

Because this service is online, it is available to patients anywhere worldwide. Your report will include detailed anatomic descriptions that focus on both the patient's and doctor's specific concerns. These radiology exams are compared with other exams, by experts, making solid recommendations based on correlations between the scans and the patient's medical history. These experts will explain their findings to the patient and/or physician, rating the quality of the scan.

"This service breaks new ground in consumer healthcare" stated Gregory Goldstein, MD, Metis MD founder and president. Dr. Goldstein went on to explain "Giving patients direct access to highly skilled board-certified radiologists has not been done like this before".

Medical imaging plays a key role in medical care and patients have an extremely important say on who and where they receive healthcare from. Patients should receive the very best information in order to, confidently, make the best treatment decisions along with their physicians.

With more and more patients wanting to have more control over final decisions regarding their treatments, Metis MD is giving them the second opinion they are looking for. Second opinions offer patients the power to decide what avenues they have and which ones they wish to take. Metis MD will offer clear, concise findings with expert advice based on the patient's medical history and the findings by the report.

Metis MD will offer you the very best service at very affordable rates, all online. You no longer have to wait for a service to pickup your exams from your Doctor and take weeks to get the results back. Or travel a great distance to sit in a waiting room for hours for a second opinion. Your particular situation is handled with the highest confidentiality and highest expert opinions.

Child's Scoliosis Stresses Patients, Parents: Study

THURSDAY, June 21 (HealthDay News) -- Having to wear a body brace for the treatment of scoliosis (curved spine) causes stress for teen patients and their parents, a new study finds.

But parents worry most of all. While teen girls dislike wearing a hard plastic brace around their torso, parents are more worried than their children about scoliosis itself, said the researchers at Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland.

The study, published June 15 in the journal Spine, included 63 girls with scoliosis who wore a brace to prevent the spinal curve from worsening. Their average age was 14. In such cases, patients generally must wear the brace at least 12 hours a day until they finish growing.

The girls in this study wore their braces an average of nearly 16 hours a day. After about 14 months of brace treatment, the patients and their parents were asked to rate their levels of emotional stress associated with the brace treatment and with scoliosis itself.

Scoliosis question from readers:

I had surgery on my upper back before, but now my lower back had a curve too. Does the book help me to prevent? Just by eating healthier will it help?

Dr. Kevin Lau's reply: 
The diet portion of the book has 2 actions depending on the age of the person. For a child who is going through their growing years it would help supply them with the necessary building blocks for a developing spine. The diet for adults on the other hand is for preventing age related degeneration. I highly recommend whether you have scoliosis or not to eat healthier to prevent most degenerative conditions.

For scoliosis prevention using the diet and exercises prescribed in the book is important. This is because the intervertebral discs between each vertebra have poor blood supply and require movement to pump fluid and nutrients into these discs to keep them healthy.

If you have any other questions email them to: scoliosis.feedback@gmail.com

In good health,
Dr. Kevin Lau

This Is Your Brain On Sugar: Study Shows High-Fructose Diet Sabotages Learning, Memory

ScienceDaily (May 15, 2012) — A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning -- and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology publishes the findings in its May 15 edition.


"Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

While earlier research has revealed how fructose harms the body through its role in diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, this study is the first to uncover how the sweetener influences the brain.

Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid sweetener. The syrup is widely added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food. The average American consumes roughly 47 pounds of cane sugar and 35 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Curcumin as effective as drug for RA sufferers, study shows

by Nora Simmons in New Hope 360 Blog


As more research shows the connection between inflammation and many diseases—from cancer to cognitive decline—it’s increasingly important that researchers continue to explore ingredients that promote a healthy inflammatory response.

A recent human clinical trial published in the March 2012 edition of Phytotherapy Research, demonstrated that BCM-95, a highly bioavailable form of curcumin, was as effective in alleviating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as diclofenac sodium (branded Voltaren, a leading pharmaceutical NSAID treatment).

The single-blinded pilot study was designed to determine whether twice daily supplementation with 500mg capsule of curcumin separately and in combination with diclofenac sodium (50mg) for eight weeks would improve Disease Activity Scores in patients diagnosed with active RA.

Forty-five participants were randomized to three groups (curcumin only, curcumin in combination with diclofenac sodium and diclofenac sodium only) and after eight weeks of therapy their DAS scores were reassessed along with the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for reduction in tenderness and swelling of joints.

The BCM-95 curcumin group experienced the most improvement, though the score change wasn’t sufficiently higher than the combination and drug-only scores to call it an out-and-out winner, explained Cheryl Myers, chief of scientific affairs and education at EuroPharma, makers of CuraMed which uses BCM-95 to promote a healthy inflammation response.

Nonetheless, “the findings of this study are significant, as these demonstrate that curcumin was not only safe and effective, but was surprisingly more effective in alleviating pain compared with diclofenac,” wrote the study authors Binu Chandran and Ajay Goel.

Stem Cells for Spine Surgery: 7 Points From Dr. Richard Hynes

How we got here
Dr. Hynes was one of the many spine surgeons who participated in Medtronic's original trials for BMP-2 in the 1990's.  While scientists have known about the ability of stem cells and BMP to generate bone for several years, Medtronic was the first company to develop a safe and effective molecule to stimulate cell growth.  After completing the pre-market approval trials, the Food and Drug Administration granted approval for the BMP-2 product, Infuse, in 2002 for creating fusion in the Lumbar Spine placed through an anterior approach in a LT cage.

"In the original study, I experienced 100 percent of enrolled patients in my Practice achieving bone growth when combining BMP with the local cells that were already there," says Dr. Hynes.  "Local 'stem cells' respond to BMP and become activated thereby creating bone.  When I saw it worked in 100 percent of my enrolled patients, I was a true believer.  I have used it in my practice since the study and FDA approval going back greater than 10 years."

What has changed is our ability to concentrate stem cells; Dr. Hynes harvests the stem cells from the iliac crest to combine with the BMP.  It takes less than five minutes for his physician's assistant to harvest the cells, which are spun in a centrifuge while he begins the operation.  After 10-15 minutes, the cells are ready and Dr. Hynes adds a small amount to the surgical field along with the BMP.  The collagen sponge is placed within an interbody LT cage to keep the material from migrating.

"This has been an effective Bone Graft method and it has been an advantage for my patients who can avoid Iliac Bone Graft surgery and Donor Bone issues and cost," says Dr. Hynes.  "It doesn't add to my usual procedure time.  It does add a small cost, but I find it's worth the value proposition."

Since its inception and release, surgeons have been experimenting with its use in several different capacities, on- and off-label.  However, articles published in The Spine Journal in July 2011 suggest complication rates may be higher than the original studies reported.  Several physicians have reported positive and negative events based on individual practice date, and further research into its use will be necessary going forward.  As with all products, on label and off label use is routine practice and common place.  When used correctly, minimal side effects of swelling, seroma and osteolysis occur.

Exposing Fetus To Plant Estrogen May Lead To Infertility In Women

A paper published in Biology of Reproduction's Papers-in-Press describes the effects of brief prenatal exposure to plant estrogens on the mouse oviduct, modeling the effects of soy-based baby formula on human infants. The results suggest that exposure to estrogenic chemicals in the womb or during childhood has the potential to affect a woman's fertility as an adult, possibly providing the mechanistic basis for some cases of unexplained female infertility. 

Earlier research suggested that neonatal exposure to plant estrogens or other environmental estrogens (synthetic substances that function similarly to the estrogen naturally produced in the body) may have long-term effects on adult female reproductive health. Wendy N. Jefferson, a researcher in the lab of Carmen J. Williams at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, previously demonstrated that neonatal exposure to the plant estrogen genistein results in complete infertility in female adult mice. Causes of infertility included failure to ovulate, reduced ability of the oviduct to support embryo development before implantation, and failure of the uterus to support effective implantation of blastocyst-stage embryos. 

The team now reports that neonatal exposure to genistein changes the level of immune response in the mouse oviduct, known as mucosal immune response. Some of the immune response genes were altered beginning from the time of genistein treatment, while others were altered much later, when the mouse was in early pregnancy. Together, those changes led to harmfully altered immune responses and to compromised oviduct support for preimplantation embryo development, both of which would likely contribute to infertility. 

These findings raise the possibility that exposure to low levels of environmental or plant estrogens during sensitive developmental windows can alter the balance of the mucosal immune response in the uterus and oviduct. 

In the mouse, the window of development during which these changes can occur is found only in the neonatal period; in humans, development of the reproductive tract continues through the onset of puberty. Therefore, estrogenic chemical exposure to the female fetus, infant, child, and adolescent all have potential impacts on mucosal immunity in the reproductive tract and, therefore, on adult fertility. The authors present the view that limiting such exposures, including minimizing use of soy-based baby formula, is a step toward maintaining female reproductive health. 

How to Protect Your Back While Working at a Computer

If you start to think about how much time you spend sitting in front of the computer, you will probably feel guilty for reading the rest of this article as it will require even more of your time. By all means – get up and walk around a little bit. That is an easy way to take care of your back while sitting at a computer. So go ahead, go get a glass of water (properly hydrating will always contribute positively to pain management), but make sure to come back and read the rest to pick up some valuable tips:

• Lumbar Support – Everyone's back is different, but everyone's back needs some sort of lumbar support. This does not require some sort of spongy pillow or an improvised, crumpled-up jacket. Actually, many people (including myself) prefer a hard, straight-backed chair, such as a dining room table chair. Next time you sit down for dinner, try to keep your lower back pressed flat against the back of the chair. Like chairs around the table, a computer chair's back inclines at a gradual angle away from you; engaging your abs and bracing your lower back flat against the base of the chair will make you sit straight – also useful for avoiding a chiding Mother at dinner.
• Avoid Eyestrain – Believe it – eyestrain will affect your back and here's how. Tension developed in the head and neck through ocular strain will cause your shoulders to tense up. Most people also have their hands extended towards the keyboard and mouse and rest their forearms on the desk in front of the keyboard. Basically, this is tension in the shoulder girdle, which attaches to the scapula and the back of the thoracic rib cage. This method of helping back pain already alluded to, but getting up or gazing out the window or at your office crush will contribute to a less painful back. 
• Relax – You do not need me to tell you that working is stressful. Healthcare professionals conclude that stress has a measurable and real effect on your body's health. Make sure you do something to relax while working: a favorite Pandora station, listening to a random baseball game on MLB.com, or making fun plans for after work always helps me to relax. 
• Exercise – So, this one is not readily done while at the computer, although it is a great idea to move your legs around. Keeping your knees pent past 90 degrees for a long time can lead to back pain because the resulting knee pain will affect the way you walk. Straightening your legs out and flexing your feet at the ankle joint is a great way to keep your calves loose. Otherwise, you really need to have an exercise program in order to keep your back muscles strong. Abdominal exercises are great for keeping your back healthy, but make sure to strengthen your lower back and external oblique muscles just as much. For your upper back, exercises that involve rolling or pulling your shoulders back are great after extending your arms for so long towards the computer. Rowing machines and bent over rows (I suggest using a straight bar rather then an Olympic bar or dumbbells) are great for back strength. Know your limits though, and for those strong men out there, it’s a good rule of thumb to never lift over your body weight – even when deadlifting. Avoid injury at all costs.

Spinal Fusion Surgery on the Rise, But is the Risky Procedure Necessary?

A study released in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found spinal fusion surgeries are on the rise. Unfortunately, these risky and complicated surgeries are not necessary for many patients receiving them. The study found this procedure is often performed on patients suffering lower back problems connected to aging and arthritis -- patients who may not be good candidates for the procedure.

Instead, the procedure is designed for patients suffering from fractured vertebrae or damage caused by scoliosis or tumors. Such misuse of the procedure could lead to an increase in spinal cord injuries.

Spinal fusion is a type of surgery that permanently joins two or more vertebrae in the spine. This is done by grafting bone material into part of the spine, generally held in place by metal rods, screws, plates or cages until the grafts are fully incorporated into the spine.