Widespread vitamin D deficiency among nursing home residents linked to earlier death; strategies to improve vitamin D status "urgently needed"

Friday, March 9, 2012. A study of nursing home residents described in an article scheduled for publication in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reveals a link between being deficient in vitamin D and having a greater risk of dying over more than two years of follow up. While reduced vitamin D levels have been associated with an increased risk of premature mortality in the general population, the association in an institutionalized population has not been well explored.

The study included 961 nursing home residents residing in Austria whose age was greater than 70 years. Participants' serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels averaged 17.5 nanomoles per liter, and 92.8 percent of the subjects had levels lower than the recommended 50 nanomoles per liter.

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About Dr Kevin Lau

Dr Kevin Lau DC is the founder of Health In Your Hands, a series of tools for Scoliosis prevention and treatment. The set includes his book Your Plan for Natural Scoliosis Prevention and Treatment, a companion Scoliosis Exercises for Prevention and Correction DVD and the innovative new iPhone application ScolioTrack. Dr Kevin Lau is a graduate in Doctor of Chiropractic from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and Masters in Holistic Nutrition. He is a member of International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the leading international society on conservative treatment of spinal deformities. In 2006 I was awarded the "Best Health-care Provider Awards" by the largest Newspaper publication in Singapore on October 18 2006 as well as being interviewed on Primetime Channel News Asia as well as other TV and Radio. For more information on Dr Kevin Lau, watch his interviews or get a free sneak peek of his book, go to: http://www.hiyh.info.

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About Dr Kevin Lau

Dr Kevin Lau DC is the founder of Health In Your Hands, a series of tools for Scoliosis prevention and treatment. The set includes his book Your Plan for Natural Scoliosis Prevention and Treatment, a companion Scoliosis Exercises for Prevention and Correction DVD and the innovative new iPhone application ScolioTrack. Dr Kevin Lau is a graduate in Doctor of Chiropractic from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and Masters in Holistic Nutrition. He is a member of International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the leading international society on conservative treatment of spinal deformities. In 2006 I was awarded the "Best Health-care Provider Awards" by the largest Newspaper publication in Singapore on October 18 2006 as well as being interviewed on Primetime Channel News Asia as well as other TV and Radio. For more information on Dr Kevin Lau, watch his interviews or get a free sneak peek of his book, go to: http://www.hiyh.info.

Altered Stem Cells Limit Transplant Rejection

March 7, 2012 -- New research holds the promise of freeing manyorgan transplant patients from a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs.

In the first study of its kind, eight kidney transplant patients received stem cells from their kidney donors manipulated to “trick” their bodies into accepting the foreign organ as its own.

Transplant recipients who are not perfectly matched with their donors typically take several drugs a day for the rest of their lives to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ and to treat the side effects of those drugs.

Lindsay Porter, who was the last of the eight patients enrolled in the new study, had her kidney transplant in the summer of 2010 and was weaned off all anti-rejection drugs within a year.

The Chicago actress and mother says she feels better than she has in 15 years and sometimes has to remind herself that she had a kidney transplant.

“I was 45 when I had the surgery, and I knew I would probably need another kidney at some point,” she tells WebMD. “The opportunity to have a transplant that would last for the rest of my life and to avoid all of those drugs was very appealing.”

Stem Cells Made Transplant Friendly

Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of Surgery for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis 21 to 41 Years Later

ABSTRACT: Study Design. A case control study.

Objective. To determine the clinical outcome of middle-aged patients surgically treated for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and compare their outcomes to assessments of age- and sex-matched healthy controls.

Summary of Background Data. Several long-term follow-up studies have been published on the clinical outcomes of surgical treatment for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in patients who have reached their 20s or 30s. However, clinical outcomes in patients who have reached middle age remain unknown.

Methods: This study included 256 patients surgically treated for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) between 1968 and 1988. The Scoliosis Research Society Patient Questionnaire (SRS-22) and Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RDQ) were used for evaluating long-term clinical outcomes. Sixty-six (25.8%; 62 females, 4 males; mean age, 46.0 years [range 34-56]) of the 256 patients responded to the questionnaires. The mean follow-up period was 31.5 (range 21-41) years. Seventy-six healthy age- and sex-matched individuals with neither a history of spinal surgery nor scoliosis were selected as a control (CTR) group.

Results. Based on SRS-22 responses, AIS patients had significantly decreased function and decreased self-image in comparison with the controls, but the two groups were similar with respect to pain and mental health. The RDQ responses indicated that low back pain was not significantly increased in the AIS group compared with the CTR group.

Conclusion. Surgery had no demonstrable adverse effects on pain or mental health in these middle-aged AIS patients 21-41 years after surgery, although the AIS patients did have significantly lower function and lower self-image than the controls. (my emphasis)

This is pretty telling, in my opinion.

Source: PubMed

The Myth of the Eight-Hour Sleep

A growing body of evidence, garnered from both science and history, is beginning to suggest that the eight-hour sleep cycle may not be most natural arrangement for humans after all.  One experiment conducted in the 1990s, for example, seemed to indicate that when completely left to their own devices, people would sleep for four hours, then wake for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

More recently, historians have uncovered a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct segments, including diaries, court records, medical books and literature.  The historically recent change to this pattern could be the root of a condition called sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep

According to BBC News:

“... [R]eferences to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the rest of Western society ... In 1667, Paris became the first city in the world to light its streets ... [B]y the end of the century, more than 50 of Europe's major towns and cities were lit at night.  Night became fashionable and spending hours lying in bed was considered a waste of time. “

Sources:

  BBC News February 22, 2012 

Study: Lack of exercise in people suffering from arthritis

December 11, 2011 — Last week, NPR featured a story about a recent Northwestern University study on osteoarthritis.

The study, which evaluated 1,000 participants living with osteoarthritis of the knee, found that 90 percent of those surveyed did not perform at least 10 minutes of moderate activity through the course of aweek.

According to researchers, by exercising, muscles more effectively support the weight of the body and take pressure off the joints.

Learn what exercises you can recommend to patients living with arthritis by checking out ACA's Healthy Living Patient Fact Sheet on rheumatoid arthritis.

Source: American Chiropractic Association,www.acatoday.org

How Exercise Fuels the Brain

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Moving the body demands a lot from the brain. Exercise activates countless neurons, which generate, receive and interpret repeated, rapid-fire messages from the nervous system, coordinating muscle contractions, vision, balance, organ function and all of the complex interactions of bodily systems that allow you to take one step, then another.

This increase in brain activity naturally increases the brain’s need for nutrients, but until recently, scientists hadn’t fully understood how neurons fuel themselves during exercise. Now a series of animal studies from Japan suggest that the exercising brain has unique methods of keeping itself fueled. What’s more, the finely honed energy balance that occurs in the brain appears to have implications not only for how well the brain functions during exercise, but also for how well our thinking and memory work the rest of the time.

For many years, scientists had believed that the brain, which is a very hungry organ, subsisted only on glucose, or blood sugar, which it absorbed from the passing bloodstream. But about 10 years ago, some neuroscientists found that specialized cells in the brain, known as astrocytes, that act as support cells for neurons actually contained small stores of glycogen, or stored carbohydrates. And glycogen, as it turns out, is critical for the health of cells throughout the brain.

Tom Kha Shrimp and Scallop (Thai Soup)

We recommend making bone broths regularly, for the minerals and collagen extracted from the bone and joint tissue. The broths can be drank as a beverage, used in cooking (eg in making rice), and used as the base for soups, curries, and stews.

We make broth most Saturdays, and use it throughout the week. For an example of how to make broth, see Bone Broth Revisited; and Pumpkin Soup, Oct 3, 2011. The nature of the broth depends on the type of bones you get. Marrow bones create a fattier broth; bones with joint tissue attached create a collagen-rich gelatin; bare bones create a mineral-rich watery broth. If you start with marrow and joint bones, then the first broth will have all the fat, the first and second will have a lot of collagen, and later batches will become progressively more watery.

Since broth itself has a mild taste, it can be the foundation for a great diversity of soups. Once you have broth, most soups can be made very quickly – often in 10 minutes.

Tom Kha Gai, or chicken galangal soup, is a classic dish of Thai cuisine. It’s always made with coconut milk and usually lemongrass (which has a mild citrus flavor) and some kind of spicy flavor.

Of course, there’s no need to use chicken, and we generally prefer seafood, ruminant meats, eggs, and even duck to chicken. In today’s recipe, we used shrimp and scallops as our meats.

How Sugar Accelerates Aging

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a complex group of compounds formed when sugar reacts with amino acids. This can occur both in the food you eat, and inside your body itself. There is mounting evidence that AGEs may be implicated in the development of the chronic degenerative diseases of aging, including cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

Several studies have shown that restriction of the consumption of AGEs can lead to an increased lifespan in animal models.

According to a paper that summarizes recent research on AGEs:

 “... [T]he data are supportive that endogenous AGEs are associated with declining organ functioning. It appears that dietary AGEs may also be related ... As of today, restriction of dietary intake of AGEs and exercise has been shown to safely reduce circulating AGEs, with further reduction in oxidative stress and inflammatory markers.”
Sources:

  Nutrients December 2010; 2(12): 1247–1265 

About Dr Kevin Lau
Dr Kevin Lau DC is the founder of Health In Your Hands, a series of tools for Scoliosis prevention and treatment. The set includes his book Your Plan for Natural Scoliosis Prevention and Treatment, a companion Scoliosis Exercises for Prevention and Correction DVD and the innovative new iPhone application ScolioTrack. Dr Kevin Lau is a graduate in Doctor of Chiropractic from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and Masters in Holistic Nutrition. He is a member of International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the leading international society on conservative treatment of spinal deformities. In 2006 I was awarded the "Best Health-care Provider Awards" by the largest Newspaper publication in Singapore on October 18 2006 as well as being interviewed on Primetime Channel News Asia as well as other TV and Radio. For more information on Dr Kevin Lau, watch his interviews or get a free sneak peek of his book, go to: http://www.hiyh.info.