Neckpain, Exercise, Diabetes & Vitamins

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06/07/07

Commonsense Chiropractic Care    Dr. Lee DeBlon

Back and Neck Pain: Heavy Burdens
You duck into your car and rush to work; neck and back pain come along for the ride. You sit at the computer all day; neck and back pain sit right there with you. You drive home from work; neck and back pain distract you all the way. You crawl into bed for what you hope will be a good night’s sleep; there’s neck and back pain again.

Why don’t neck and back pain seem to go away? According to a study published in the June 1, 2003 issue of Spine, neck and back pain may be your constant companions because of something else that’s with you all the time: excess weight. Nearly 6,000 adult patients completed a questionnaire that asked about the existence and severity of neck and/or back pain in the previous month. Results showed that nearly 1 in 3  reported pain. 29% was chronic pain, 40% was disabling and 20% was intense, chronic and disabling. Treating spinal pain depends on the cause, which may or may not be the excess weight one is carrying around.

Exercise

There’s no getting around the benefits of consistent exercise, especially when it comes to disease prevention. The risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or one of a number of types of cancer goes down as your physical activity goes up.

But how much exercise is enough? According to several studies, the latest of which was published in the Sept. 10, 2003 issue of the journal of the American Medical Association, it’s not necessarily how intensely or how long you work out, but that you do work out.

In the study, 201 women were assigned to 4 intensities of workout groups, of which the minimal exercise was 3 times per week @ 20 minutes per workout. All women were also instructed to reduce their calorie intake to between 1200-1500 calories per day and limit dietary fat to between 20-30%.

After 12 months, significant weight loss and cardiorespitory fitness were achieved by women in all four groups, with no significant differences between groups. In other words, longer and more strenuous workouts weren’t particularly more effective than shorter workouts of moderate intensity. What’s important is a sensible consistent exercise program and sticking to it.

Multivitamins

Evidence suggests that diabetic pregnant women have an increased chance that their children will be born with this defect also. However , there is hope: A recent study provides evidence that multivitamin supplementation can help prevent diabetes-associated birth defects.

In a study, researchers polled  3,278 mothers who’s children were born with defects and 3,029 mothers whose children were not born with defects. All mothers were diabetics. The big difference was that the mothers whose children were born defect free, took multivitamins 3 months prior to becoming pregnant and continued a minimum of 3 months into the pregnancy. So if you are planning to have a child, diabetic or not , moms to be should be on a good multivitamin prior and during the pregnancy. You and your child deserve nothing less.

And if you’re not convinced by results of a single study, keep in mind that ample evidence links multivitamins  ( especially folic acid) to reduced risk of defects.

Any questions call Dr. Lee DeBlon  in Honesdale @ 253-0904 or in Lords Valley @ 775-6656