LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Stress

STRESS EFFECTS THE LENGTH OF TELOMERES OF DNA – (12-15-04)

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ACCELERATED TELOMERE SHORTENING IN RESPONSE TO LIFE STRESS

This one definately falls into the category of “wow.” Telomeres are portions at the end of our DNA that get shorter with each cell division. As these telomeres get shorter, the life span of the organism gets shorter and shorter as well.

So, in this study, stress was shown to shorten telomere length. So, if it wasn’t bad enough that stress indirectly increases your risk of many (if not most) chronic diseases, we now find that it directly shortens lifespan as well!!

Read entire article here

 

LACK OF EXERCISE, STRESS IS ALWAYS UNDERLYING – (11-07-05)

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Signs of chronic stress in women with recurrent candida vulvovaginitis

While we offhandedly use the phrase “stress kills” we don’t often think of how accurate that phrase is. Much like insulin resistance and lack of exercise, stress is always there underlying much of the pathology that we experience. In this case, women with recurrent vaginal yeast infections had a lowered morning cortisol level (levels should be highest in AM and taper to their lowest just before sleep), indicative of chronic stress. So, the best management for these patients would be stress management and probiotics to restore the normal, competitive flora that should be present in the vaginal vault. Without addressing the underlying causes, oral and topical anti-fungals will only act as a band aid.

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STRESS CAUSES GASTRIC MUCOSAL DAMAGE – (06-20-05)

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H pylori and stress on the augmentation of gastric mucosal damage and its prevention with á-tocopherol

Regular readers of the Updates will know that I feel that H. pylori infection is merely opportunistic as a result of predisposing factors such as stress, hypochlorhydria (which is a frequent side effect of chronic stress), reduced vit C intake, etc…

This article further supports my position, finding that mice subject to chronic stress have drastically worsened ulcers.  This situation was remedied with the addition, of Vit E (which, ironically, many would now believe will kill us as result of unbalanced media attention on slightly increased mortality rates from Vit E which I have addressed in prior Updates).  As an aside, I’m not sure I like the idea of immersing mice in water for up to 8 hrs just to see if the stress will make their ulcers worse; something they could’ve just asked me…

Read entire article here

HOW TO MANAGE INSULIN RESISTANCE? – (10-02-06)

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Effects of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation on Components of the Metabolic Syndrome in Subjects With Coronary Heart Disease.

A full approach to managing insulin resistance is three pronged–diet, exercise and stress reduction. In my lifestyle management class, the diet is actually the easiest part. Once people realize eating healthy doesn’t have to be painful, they quite nicely improve their diets. Stress management and exercise, on the other hand, require the most dedication to improve.

But, as this study finds, there are unquestionable benefits to the use of some form of stress reduction to improve health.

Read entire article here

SEROTONIN HELPS INITIATE SLEEP – (06-06-05)

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Evening intake of alpha-lactalbumin increases plasma tryptophan availability and improves morning alertness and brain measures of attention

While the Ambien ads may not give you this impression, there are several well known causes for problems falling asleep.  One can be a stress related increase in evening cortisol leading to increased arousal at night which can make sleep difficult.  Managing stress and nutritional approaches to lowering cortisol can help here.

Another reason is altered serotonin levels.  Serotonin has many functions, one of which is to sedate and help initiate sleep.  Tryptophan is a large neutral amino acid (LNAA) that gets converted to serotonin.  The problem with this is that, if there is a lot of competition from other LNAAs tryptophan loses and doesn’t cross to blood brain barrier to get converted to serotonin where we need it.

This study looks at this pathway by using alpha lactoalbumin to circumvent this competition.  The results are pretty good.

Read entire article here

 

ISSUES OF HUMAN HEALTH FOR OWNING A PET – (12-19-05)

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Pet ownership and human health: a brief review of evidence and issues

Being the owner of just short of a kennel (5 canines) this article really hit home. While there are no hard findings on pet ownership and mortality risk, any pet owner could tell you that their animals are good for them.

Most people light up as they talk about their pets, and when Rover snuggles up next to you just prior to taking up the entire bed, I’m sure that stress hormone levels plummet in the bloodstream.

Read entire article here

Lower Stress By Looking At These Pictures

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stress reduction through natureWe live in a world that is disconnected from nature.  I remember being on vacation with a friend on the beach.  As we were relaxing listening to the waves crashing on the shore, my friend let out a laugh.  When queried, he said the laugh was because he had a noise machine at home with wave sounds, but the waves were very rhythmic.  He realized that the real thing, however, while lying on the beach, was anything but rhythmic.

 This is also one of the reasons why I am a big fan of hiking.  It brings you back into touch with nature.  Starting when Keegan was about 6 months old, for the next several years we did weekly hikes with him riding in my backpack.  As he became old enough to communicate effectively, he was very adamant about being the one to say “good morning” to each hiker we passed going the other way.  Contrast this with the guttural “Eh” you get as you nod to the guy walking by you at the gym.  The attitude is just different.

With this in mind, the results of this particular study should come as no surprise.  Researchers looked at what effect real plants as well as posters of nature in the waiting room had on patients’ perceived stress levels while waiting for a procedure.  Patients exposed to these items in the waiting room reported lower levels of experience related stress.

Definitely makes me re-evaluate the paintings and photos in the waiting room here…

 

WHAT IS A GOOD SOLID TEST TO CHECK OXIDATIVE STRESS – (04-25-05)

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Urinary 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid excretion is associated with oxidative stress in hypertensive subjects

Not to confuse anyone with long words (just how much would that be worth in Scrabble?) but it is surprising to me just how many ways we are finding to evaluate oxidative stress.  Truly this is a wonderful movement, because we are still lacking a good, overall, solid test to check for oxidative stress.

What I can see happening is a panel of several oxidative stress markers that will give a good idea of what state a patient is in.  Given that I think oxidative stress/mitochondrial dysfunction is the root of all evil, any markers we can identify to evaluate this is a good thing.

Read entire article here