Dr Beecher’s June 23 Weekly Chiropractic Newsletter

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WEEKLY HEALTH NEWS UPDATE

Week of Monday, June 23rd, 2014

Mental Attitude: ADHD Kids Often Suffer from Family Issues. A new report reveals that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to come from a family background of poverty, divorce, community violence, and substance abuse. Study author Dr. Nicole Brown adds, “Knowledge about the prevalence and types of adverse experiences among children diagnosed with ADHD may guide efforts to address trauma in this population and improve ADHD screening, diagnostic accuracy and management.” American Academy of Pediatrics, May 2013

 

Health Alert: Global Nutrition Threatened by Rising CO2 Levels. If rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations reach expected levels by 2050, researchers warn that global crops may have reduced nutritional levels of iron and zinc. If these nutrients are reduced, it may represent a significant health threat to the entire world population. Lead author Samuel Myers explains, “Humanity is conducting a global experiment by rapidly altering the environmental conditions on the only habitable planet we know. As this experiment unfolds, there will undoubtedly be many surprises. Finding out that rising CO2 threatens human nutrition is one such surprise.” Nature, May 2014

 

Diet: A Gluten-Free Diet During Pregnancy May Protect Offspring Against Type 1 Diabetes. An animal study in Denmark has found that expectant rodents experienced a change in intestinal bacteria when fed a gluten-free diet. This change in intestinal bacteria appears to offer a protective effect against development of type 1 diabetes for both mother and offspring. Researchers are optimistic that these finding can be applied to humans. Diabetes, April 2014

 

Exercise: Not Enough Disabled People Exercise. Approximately one-half of the 21 million Americans with a disability do not exercise, which unfortunately jeopardizes their health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ileana Arias, principal deputy director at the CDC, adds, “We are very concerned about this, because working-age adults with disabilities who get no aerobic physical activity are 50 percent more likely to have cancer, diabetes, stroke, or heart disease than those who get the recommended amount of physical activity.” Physical disabilities can be a significant barrier to exercise, but experts explain that depending on the disability, exercise options can include aquatic exercise, chair yoga, Tai Chi, wall push- ups, balance exercises, and gym ball exercises. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 2014

 

Chiropractic: Heavy School Bags Contribute to Musculoskeletal Pain in Children. A study of 532 Ugandan youths reveals that 35.4% of their musculoskeletal pain is associated with the weight of their schoolbags. Researchers recommend having lockers available to avoid long-term back pain issues among students. BMC Research Notes, April 2014

 

Wellness/Prevention: Breast Feeding Encourages Gut Bacteria in Children. A study that tracked over 300 children during their first three years of life found that breastfeeding for longer periods encouraged beneficial bacteria to flourish in their digestive tracts. Senior author Tine Rask Licht concludes, “We have become increasingly aware of how crucially important a healthy gut microbial population is for a well-functioning immune system. Babies are born without bacteria in the gut, and so it is interesting to identify the influence dietary factors have on gut microbiota development in children’s first three years of life.” Applied Environmental Microbiology, May 2014

 

Quote: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” ~ Stephen King

 

This Weekly Health News Update is compliments of Dr. Ward Beecher and Beecher Chiropractic Clinic. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at 281-286-1300 or BeecherChiropractic.com .

 

Dr Beecher’s May 2014 Monthly Chiropractic Newsletter

To download Dr. Beecher’s Monthly Newsletter, please click here!

“We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

  Are Your Teens Part of the E-Cig Craze?

NEW STUDY: E-Cigarettes May Lead to Conventional Smoking and Nicotine Addiction in Teenagers

Often touted as a way to quit smoking…

the opposite may also be true…

 

Also this month:

  • Multiple studies show breastfed babies have higher IQs and perform better in school: There is a BIG reason why you should know.
  • Want to quit smoking?: Reading this might help you quit within a month.
  • What you need to know the next time you drop your food on the floor: Is the five second rule backed by science… or just another urban myth? The answer might shock you.

 

Houston – If you do not want your children to start smoking, the information you are about to read will be extremely important to you. A new study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) found that e-cigarettes may actually increase the chance that teenagers start smoking conventional cigarettes, possibly leading to nicotine addiction.

This study completely contradicts the claims (and marketing promotion) that e-cigarettes are a good way to quit.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that adolescents who used e-cigarette devices were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking. The study of nearly 40,000 youth around the country also found that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students doubled between 2011 and 2012, from 3.1 percent to 6.5 percent.

Dr. Lauren Dutra of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education states, “E-cigarettes are likely to be gateway devices for nicotine addiction among youth, opening up a whole new market for tobacco.”

The study found that not only were e-cigarettes associated with a greater probability of progressing from just trying cigarettes to becoming a regular smoker, teens who smoked both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes smoked more conventional cigarettes per day than non-e-cigarette users.

A previous study of 75,000 South Korean adolescents published a year ago found similar results.

This comes on a surge in popularity of e-cigarettes, most likely due to heavy marketing that makes them look cool. This is reminiscent of old tobacco cigarette ads from decades ago that used celebrities, spokespeople, and even doctors to market their addictive and deadly product.

“It looks to me like the wild west marketing of e-cigarettes is not only encouraging youth to smoke them, but also it is promoting regular cigarette smoking among youth,” says senior author Dr. Stanton A. Glantz, UCSF Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

What Are E-Cigarettes?

E-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes or ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems), are devices whose function is to vaporize and deliver a chemical mixture typically composed of nicotine, propylene glycol, and other chemicals (although some products claim to contain no nicotine) to the user’s lungs. A number of ENDS are offered in flavors that can be particularly attractive to adolescents. Electronic cigarettes are the most common type of ENDS.

The manufacturers report that the cartridges typically contain between 6 and 24 mg of nicotine, but they can sometimes contain more than 100 mg.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO): “The dose of delivered nicotine is also unknown. It is suspected that the delivered dose varies notably by product, which contains nicotine in various quantities and concentrations.

            “Until such time when ENDS are deemed safe and effective and of acceptable quality by a competent national regulatory body, consumers should be strongly advised not to use any of these products, including electronic cigarettes.”

Here’s Something Important if You

Want to Help Someone Quit Smoking!

A study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion found that smokers who viewed ads featuring reasons to quit were substantially more likely to quit smoking after the four-week study period. However, ads with messages about how to quit smoking had no effect on an individual’s smoking behavior.

According to an author of the study, “Why-to-quit smoking messages are more powerful because those ads typically show graphic portrayals of the health consequences of smoking or feature personal testimonies to evoke emotion. Whereas, how-to-quit messages are designed to increase an individual’s belief that he or she can quit.”

Advertising Works

After four weeks, smokers who viewed ads with messages featuring reasons to quit smoking were 6 to 10 times more likely to have quit smoking compared with smokers who viewed no ads. Smokers who watched the how-to-quit smoking ads did not change their habits at all.

The success of the “why” ads is believed to be because those commercials were much more emotional in nature. They showed visible and graphic evidence of the devastating effects smoking can have on a person.

Who Else Wants to Look

20 Years Older than They Are?

Some expert marketers have said for a long time the way to get people to stop smoking is to show the cosmetic changes that result from the activity. For example, show beautiful people’s faces becoming ugly from smoking.

They say it’s because most people are much more prone to act for cosmetic reasons than they are for health reasons. Sadly, these top marketers are probably correct.

There is plenty of proof that smoking tobacco prematurely ages a smoker’s face. It causes deep lines and wrinkles that can make a person look DECADES older than they really are. The difference in aging and loss of youth and beauty is drastic.

Ironically, most smokers start smoking to “be cool” and fit in. However, smoking actually steals a person’s good looks like a thief in the night.

It seems quite obvious that good advertising cannot only influence people to start smoking… it can influence them to stop. Boring lectures about the health consequences will not change behavior, especially in teenagers. Good, emotional marketing will.

But, it’s an uphill battle. People will do almost anything to be “cool” and some marketers will do anything to sell a product.

Let’s hope the e-cigarette craze does not hook a new generation on conventional cigarettes.

 

            Don’t forget, if you ever have any questions or concerns about your health, talk to us. Contact us with your questions. We’re here to help and don’t enjoy anything more than participating in providing you natural pain relief.

Inspirational Story Of The Month

(Names And Details May Have Been Changed To Protect Privacy)

 

 

“Success is 99% Failure.”

This was one of his mottos. Find out who said this and how poor performance

in school turned him into one of the biggest success stories in the world.

 

The year was 1906. The day was November 17th. The place was Hamamatsu, Japan. On that day, a baby was born that would have a major impact on the vast majority of people in the United States, Japan, and countless countries around the world.

That was the day Soichiro Honda was born. Yes, the baby born on that day would start and build the Honda Motor Company into the giant it is today.

But, it was not always smooth sailing. In fact, little Soichiro Honda got off to a pretty rough start, especially in school…

Soichiro’s father was a blacksmith and ran a bicycle repair business on the side. He would buy broken down bicycles for a cheap price, fix them, and sell them for a small profit. It is reported that Soichiro was helping his father, “straight from the cradle.” Though Soichiro was intelligent, he wanted nothing to do with formal education… and his grades reflected it.

At his school, all students were given grade reports that their parents were to stamp with their family seal. Because he did not want his parents to see his grades, Soichiro re-created their family seal stamp out of an old tire. He stamped his report card and brought it back to school.

It worked, but Soichiro did not stop there. He started helping out his friends and making family seal stamps for them as well. That is, until Soichiro make a critical error. His family name was symmetrical so it did not need to be made in reverse on the stamp. But, his friends’ family names were not symmetrical. Soichiro did not recognize and his friend’s new seals stamped backwards! The teacher noticed the mistake and Soichiro found himself in very hot water.

Soichiro’s father was very upset. He was so upset that he made Soichiro kneel in the corner for an entire day. But this story has a little twist…

You see, Soichiro’s father was not upset because Soichiro forged the family stamps. He was upset because he did not pick up on the mirror imaging and made the stamps incorrectly. That’s why he punished him.

This lesson and others like it stuck with Soichiro, and they served him well when he met with failure after failure a little later in life when he had a dream to create a piston ring engine. He devoted his entire life to accomplishing this goal. He invested all of his money (he even brought his wife’s jewelry to the pawn shop) and sunk it into his dream.

He went back to school only to drop out because he refused to take the examinations. He founded his own company (Tokai Seiki) and was doing business with Toyota until World War II put a stop to it. Once again, he did not quit. In 1946, he started “Honda Technology Research Institute” and started making mopeds. Within two years, Honda Technology Research Institute became Honda Motor Company.

In the 1960s, Soichiro fulfilled a dream and started producing cars. I think we all know where this story ends. Clearly, the take home message is that success is rarely, if ever, a straight line. There are always twists and turns. Disappointment and adaptation. More failure than success. But thank goodness you can fail 99% of the time and still be successful in the end. You just have to be willing to fail.

 

We love helping our patients and their friends and relatives through their tough times and

getting them feeling better! We are here to help you stay feeling better and looking younger!

Don’t be a stranger. You really can afford Chiropractic care! Don’t wait until you can no longer move!


Did You Know?…

13 Facts You May Not Know About Your Own Body!

 

  1. Nerve impulses in the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour (105.6 km/hr).
  2. The brain operates on the same amount of power as a 10-watt light bulb.
  3. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your blood stream.
  4. The brain is more active at night than during the day.
  5. Eighty percent of the brain is water.
  6. The largest internal organ is the small intestine.
  7. The heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (~9 meters).
  8. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades.
  9. The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.
  10. The hardest bone in the body is the jawbone.
  11. The feet account for one quarter of all the human body’s bones.
  12. The tooth is the only part of the body that can’t repair itself.
  13. Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body.

 

Tip Of The Month

Multiple Studies Show Breastfed Babies Have Higher IQs –

But There is More to the Story…

There is quite a bit of proof that breastfeeding is superior to not breastfeeding. One benefit that has been shown in several studies is that breastfed babies have higher IQs and perform better in school. Well, now a new study sheds even more light on this subject. According to Sciencedaily: “A new study by sociologists at Brigham Young University pinpoints two parenting skills as the real source of this cognitive boost: Responding to children’s emotional cues and reading to children starting nine months of age. Breastfeeding mothers tend to do both of those things, said lead study author Ben Gibbs.” This study was published in the March 2014 issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. In other words, the authors do not believe the breast milk itself is the reason for the higher IQ and “smarter babies.” Instead, they believe it is the parenting that makes the difference.

Child development expert from Wayne State University, Dr. Sandra Jacobson, praised the study and said, “Children in the study who were breastfed for six months or longer performed the best on reading assessments because they also experienced the most optimal parenting practices.” It seems that parents who make the decision to breastfeed are also willing to make the decision to do other things that maximize the development of their children.

Next Time You Drop Food on the Floor…

When you drop food on the floor, do you pick it up and eat it? If you do, you are not alone. According to a new study, 87% of people questioned said they would or already have eaten food that was dropped on the ground. Fifty-five percent of these people were women. Here is the most surprising statistic: 81% of the women who would eat the food follow what is known as “the five-second rule.” This “rule” states that food dropped on the floor is okay to eat as long as it is picked up within five seconds. Crazy? Perhaps, but there is also some science behind the idea. A new study recorded the transfer of certain common bacteria from the different types of floors to food over time (3-30 seconds). Both the type of floor and time had an impact on the transfer of bacteria. Bacteria was least likely to transfer to carpeted surfaces and most likely to transfer to tile or laminate surfaces. The bacteria was most likely to transfer to the dropped foods if they remained on the ground for more than five seconds. It also depends on how contaminated (clean or dirty) the floor surface is so don’t laugh the next time someone drops food on a seemingly clean floor, picks it up, and eats it claiming they’re abiding by the five-second rule!

 

Remember, we’re always here to help your body heal

and maintain the pain free body you deserve.

 

This information is solely advisory, and should not be substituted for medical or chiropractic advice. Any and all health care concerns, decisions, and actions must be done through the advice and counsel of a healthcare professional who is familiar with your updated medical history. We cannot be held responsible for actions you may take without a thorough exam or appropriate referral. If you have any further concerns or questions, please let us know at 281-286-1300.

Dr Beecher’s August 2013 Monthly Chiropractic Newsletter

“All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Medical Research Sheds Light On Hunger and Risk…

 

Never Make Decisions Hungry!

 

Fruit Flies Give You A Good Reason To

Eat Before Doing Important Things

 

Also this month:

  • How Plate Size Affects How Much You Eat: Research shows how an “optical illusion” makes people eat more or less simply based on the size of the plate the food was served on. See if you are falling prey to this common problem…
  • Is Yoga Good For Your Brain? Researchers report 20 minutes of Yoga stimulates brain function!
  • Breast Feeding Creates Bigger Brains? MRI evidence shows breast feeding increases brain growth in babies!
  • Years of Crucial Baby Nutrition: Why the first 1,000 days are so important and a can “haunt” your child for the rest of their life!

 


Houston – Have you heard of the term, hangry?  Even if you haven’t, I can almost guarantee you’ve experienced it. According to the Urban Dictionary, the definition of hangry is: “When you are so hungry your lack of food causes you to become angry.”

Here is hangry used in a sentence:  The service in this place stinks!  I ordered my food over an hour ago.  I’m starving and starting to get really hangry!

Come on.  You can admit it…

You’ve Been Hangry!

We all have, and hangry is not a good place to be.  Well, now research is showing how being hungry affects our decision making.

According to an article published by the Max Planck Society, hunger affects not only decision making, but also the perception of risk.

According to the article, “Hungry people are often difficult to deal with. A good meal can affect more than our mood, it can also influence our willingness to take risks. This phenomenon is also apparent across a very diverse range of species in the animal kingdom. Experiments conducted on the fruit fly, Drosophila, by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have shown that hunger not only modifies behavior, but also changes pathways in the brain.”

Studies show that animals are willing to take much more risk depending on how hungry they are.  For example, an animal will only hunt dangerous prey when hungry.  If they are not hungry, they will try their luck getting a meal in a less hazardous way.

That seems pretty obvious, but here’s something that is NOT obvious… and even a little surprising.  One study found that hungry humans took significantly more financial risk than their well-fed colleagues.

One obvious lesson here is…

Never Make Financial

Decisions When You’re Hungry!

Of course, make sure your financial advisor and stock brokers are also well fed.  Maybe call them and make sure they have a good breakfast before they start their work day!  J

On a more serious note, it is obvious that blood chemistry is seriously affected by what and when you eat.  Your blood chemistry is extremely important when it comes to both your physical and mental health.

Hangry may seem funny, but when you are hungry, your body is not functioning optimally.

Your muscles and brain are not getting the nutrients they need.  Bad decisions and risk taking are just the tip of the iceberg. Not giving your body the nutrients it needs when it needs them can affect every organ and cell in your body.

Understand this:  If you want to GAIN WEIGHT, being “hangry” is one of the best ways to do it.

Why?  Because weight loss is best accomplished when you keep your blood sugar levels stabilized.  This can be accomplished by eating small portions of the correct foods multiple times throughout the day.  Often times, eating five or more small meals is ideal.

If you have reached the point when you feel hunger, then you are falling behind.  Hunger means your blood sugar levels have already dropped.  (Becoming “hangry” is a whole different level!)

But this does not mean you should eat as much as you want whenever you want.

The answer is to eat the right foods, at the right times, in the right portions.

Portion size is a BIG problem for most people.  But, believe it or not, you can be “tricked” into eating or drinking more  (or less) than you think you are.

Here is how:  You’ve heard the statement, “Everything is relative.”  Well, relative is a HUGE factor when it comes to how much you decide to eat.

There is something called the Delboef illusion.  This illusion occurs when people misjudge the size of identical circles when they are surrounded by larger circles of different sizes.

For example, people will think a circle is smaller if the circle surrounding it is huge and vice versa.

Researchers found that the same illusion applies to plates we eat our food on.

When the same portion of food is served on a very large plate, it seems like less food than when it is served on a small plate.

According to an article published by the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, “For example, in a study conducted at a health and fitness camp, campers who were given larger bowls served and consumed 16% more cereal than those given smaller bowls. Despite the fact that those campers were eating more, their estimates of their cereal consumption were 7% lower than the estimates of the group eating from the smaller bowls. This suggests that not only could large dinnerware cause us to serve and eat more, it can do so without us noticing and trick us into believing we have eaten less.”

The Cornell article also revealed how we can use this optical illusion to our favor.  Here is how:  Serve the vegetables and healthy foods many people do not like on large plates.  The large plate will make the portion look small and easier to eat.  On the contrary, serve bad foods, like desserts, on small plates to make the serving size look bigger.

Want To Stimulate Your Brain

In Just 20 Minutes?

A study recently published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health found that a 20-minute session of yoga improved participants’ speed and accuracy on two measures of brain function associated with the ability to focus and take in, retain, and use new information.  The study had 30 participants, and researchers said they performed significantly better immediately after the yoga practice than after moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise for the same amount of time.

 

              And don’t forget, if you ever have any questions or concerns about your health, talk to us. Contact us with your questions. We’re here to help and don’t enjoy anything more than participating in providing you natural pain relief.

Inspirational Story Of The Month

(Names And Details May Have Been Changed To Protect Privacy)

 

Man Celebrates 65th Birthday

By “Paying It Forward”

 

 

If you have seen the movie Pay It Forward, you have an idea what we are talking about.  If not, it doesn’t matter because the concept of “Paying it Forward” is much, much, much older than the movie that made it popular.

The concept can be dated back to 1841 when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “In the order of nature, we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody.”

In 1916, Lily Hardy Hammond wrote, “You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward.”

In a nutshell, pay it forward is asking the beneficiary of a good deed to repay it to others instead of to the original benefactor.  In other words, passing on the good to the rest of the world, especially those who may not be in a position to pay YOU back or give ANYTHING to you in return.

That’s exactly what Doug Eaton decided to do for his 65th birthday.  As the story goes, he turned 65 on June 11, 2012.  He was looking for something to do, so he asked his friends on Facebook what he should do.  He got a whole bunch of suggestions.  Some were good.  Some were bad.  Many were ridiculous.  One was brilliant.

That suggestion was, “Why don’t you do 65 random acts of kindness?”  Eaton immediately knew that was the winner.

According to Yahoo: [Eaton spent] 65 minutes standing on the corner of NW 39th Street and May Avenue in Oklahoma City, handing out $5 bills to people who passed by. He told his Facebook friends that he handed out more than $375, but the response – and the amount of good cheer he shared – was priceless. From a distance, Eaton looked a bit like any other panhandler holding a sign at a street corner, but instead of a plea for money, his sign read: “I have a home… and a car… and a job. Do you need a few bucks for some coffee?”

As you can imagine, people who drove by were shocked.  Some just drove by shaking their heads.  Others told him, “God bless you.”  Many did not want to take his money.

Eaton posted on Facebook, “One obviously needy truck holding a family came around the second time after misunderstanding the first time to give ME $2 just to bless ME for what I was doing.  I took their money AND gave them a $5. We kind of traded blessings.”

A lot of people told him to give theirs to someone else.

But, Eaton did not invent this birthday act of kindness idea.  In 2010, Robyn Bomar turned 38 by doing 38 random acts of kindness.  Bomar wrote on her blog, “I planned out 38 things ahead of time, just in case, but really was praying for opportunities to present themselves throughout the day. My husband, three daughters, and my husband’s parents joined me in the most favorite birthday of my life!”

That day changed Bomar’s life and she started a website with an online community of people who celebrate their birthdays by paying it forward.  The website is www.thebdayproject.com.  Now you know what to do for your next birthday! J

 

 

We love helping our patients and their friends and relatives through their tough times and getting them feeling better!  We are here to help you stay feeling better and looking younger!  Don’t be a stranger.  You really can afford Chiropractic care! Don’t wait until you can no longer move!


Did You Know?…

10 Facts About Carrots

 

  1. Carrots are 88% water.
  2. The carrot primarily gets its characteristic and bright orange color from beta-carotene.
  3. Carrots are rich in antioxidants and minerals.
  4. Carrot greens are edible as a leafy vegetable, but are only occasionally eaten by humans.
  5. Baby carrots are really just carrots that have been cut and peeled into uniform cylinders.
  6. Growing carrot plants with tomato plants increases tomato production.
  7. The carrot is one of the top-ten most economically important vegetables crops in the world.
  8. Carrots can be stored for several months in the refrigerator or over winter in a moist, cool place.
  9. Carrots are a member of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes celery, parsley, dill, cilantro, caraway, cumin, and the poisonous hemlock.
  10. Eating too many carrots can cause a person’s skin to turn yellowish orange, especially on the palms or soles of the feet. This is called carotenemia. It is completely reversible once the consumption of carrots is reduced.

 

 

Tip Of The Month

Want The Best For Your Newborn?

Research Shows Breastfeeding Creates Bigger Brains –

Why What Your Baby Eats For The First 1,000 Days Is So Important!

 

Doctors, researchers, and parents have always wanted to know how much nutrition in early life affects adults later in life.  Can adults overcome poor nutrition in the first few months or years of life or are there consequences to starting off life eating sub-optimal food? Both epidemiological and animal studies have shown the risk of metabolic syndrome is significantly increased after exposure to suboptimum nutrition during crucial periods of development.  Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.

What about IQ?  According to an article published in Neuroimage (May 28, 2013), “The prevailing consensus from large epidemiological studies posits that early exclusive breastfeeding is associated with improved measures of IQ and cognitive functioning in later childhood and adolescence. Prior morphometric brain imaging studies support these findings, revealing increased white matter and sub-cortical gray matter volume, and parietal lobe cortical thickness, associated with IQ in adolescents who were breastfed as infants compared to those who were exclusively formula-fed.” 

In other words, a majority of researchers believe (based on studies) that breastfed babies have higher IQs than babies who were given formula.  A new study from Brown University has found more evidence to the superiority of breastfeeding over formula. The study used MRIs to look at the brain growth in a sample of children under the age of four. The research found that by age two, babies who had been breastfed exclusively for at least three months had enhanced development in key parts of the brain compared to children who were fed formula exclusively or who were fed a combination of formula and breast milk. The research showed the extra growth was most pronounced in parts of the brain associated with language, emotional function, and cognition.

We’re finding the difference [in white matter growth] is on the order of 20 to 30 percent, comparing the breastfed and the non-breastfed kids,” said the study’s lead researcher, Sean Dioni. PhD. “I think it’s astounding that you could have that much difference so early.” 

With everything researchers and doctors now know, breastfeeding is the clear choice if you want the best for your child both now and as an adult.

 

Remember, we’re always here to help your body heal

and maintain the pain free body you deserve.

 

 

This information is solely advisory, and should not be substituted for medical or chiropractic advice.  Any and all health care concerns, decisions, and actions must be done through the advice and counsel of a healthcare professional who is familiar with your updated medical history. We cannot be held responsible for actions you may take without a thorough exam or appropriate referral. If you have any further concerns or questions, please let us know.