Dr Beecher’s May 27 Weekly Chiropractic Newsletter

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Week of Monday, May 27th, 2013

 

Mental Attitude: Happily Married? A recent study concludes that young and happily married newlyweds are more

likely to gain weight than their young and unhappily married counterparts. For each unit increase in satisfaction, on

average, males and females both gained one tenth of a BMI unit every 6 months – or about one pound a year.

According to Dr. Andrea Meltzer, lead author of the study, “These findings challenge the idea that quality

relationships always benefit health, suggesting instead that spouses in satisfying relationships relax their efforts to

maintain their weight because they are no longer motivated to attract a mate. Interventions to prevent weight gain in

early marriage may therefore benefit from encouraging spouses to think about their weight in terms of health rather

than appearance.” Health Psychology, April 2013

 

Health Alert: Less Salt, More Potassium. Reducing salt intake can lower blood pressure, which ultimately reduces

the risk of heart disease and stroke. Results show that four or more weeks of modest salt reduction leads to notable

decreases in blood pressure. Increased potassium intake was associated with a 24% reduced probability of stroke in

adults and may also have an advantageous impact on blood pressure in kids. British Medical Journal, April 2013

 

Diet: So How Much Salt and Potassium Should You Consume? The World Health Organization recommends

adults should reduce salt intake to 5g per day and consume at least 3510mg of potassium per day.

World Health Organization, January 2013

 

Exercise: More Reasons. Exercise helps to retard bone loss as you age, thereby reducing your risk of developing

osteoporosis. Exercise also helps improves pain tolerance and mood if you already suffer from osteoarthritis.

Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, 1996

 

Chiropractic: Satisfied Low Back Pain Patients. Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors

showed greater improvement and satisfaction after one month of care than patients treated by family physicians.

Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropractic patients. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56% vs. 13%)

reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported

their low-back pain was worse or much worse. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 2000

 

Wellness/Prevention: Sleep Well. Increasing the number of hours adolescents sleep each night may reduce the

prevalence of adolescent obesity. A recent study shows that fewer hours of sleep is associated with greater increases

in adolescent body mass index (BMI) for participants between 14 and 18 years old. Increasing sleep from 8 to 10

hours per day at age 18 could result in a 4% reduction in the number of adolescents with a BMI above 25. This

would translate to 500,000 fewer overweight adolescents. Pediatrics, April 2013

 

Quote: “Chiropractic is a wonderful means of natural healing.” ~ Bob Hope