Adjustments Impact Brain Function

Have you ever noticed improved clarity of thought or improved bodily coordination after your chiropractic adjustment? Researchers may have discovered why.

Using EEG (a brain-wave test), researchers in New Zealand found significant changes in brain function after patients receive chiropractic adjustments.

"This is the first time that anyone has used EEG's to prove that there are definite changes to the way the brain processes information after chiropractic care." said Dr. Heidi Haavik-Taylor, director of research at New Zealand College of Chiropractic.

"The process of a spinal adjustment is like rebooting a computer. The signals that these adjustments send to the brain, via the nervous system, reset muscle behavior patterns."

"By stimulating the nervous system we can improve the function of the whole body. this is something that chiropractors and their patients have known for years; and now we have some scientific evidence to prove it."

The researchers found that the adjustment instantly caused changes in the signals that the brain sent to muscles. This may change posture and coordination and help explain the improved function and pain releif that patients experience.

The adjustments did not simply cause muscles to relax either. The adjustment may improve complex firing patterns sent from the brain to the muscles. Most body movements require the integrated action of many muscles, sometimes hundreds (as in walking) and this integration and coordination is accomplished by the brain.

"[Dr. Haavik-Taylor's] work is groundbreaking on an international level by proving that chiropractic adjustments do alter and benefit the nervous system" said Dr. James Burt, president of the New Zealand Chiropractors Association.

References:
JMPT
The Chiropractic Journal

Chronic Pain May Dim Memory

Study Suggests That Chronic Pain Interferes With Memory-Making Process

By Miranda Hitti, WebMD Medical News

May 23, 2007 -- Chronic pain may distract the mind, hampering the memory-making process, according to a new Canadian study.
Learning more about chronic pain's effects on mental skills such as memory may one day lead to new treatments, note the researchers, who included Bruce Dick, PhD, of the University of Alberta.
They studied 24 adults with chronic pain who were in their mid- to late 40s, on average.
The patients' pain had lasted for at least six months. Their pain score was at least 4 on a scale ranging from 0 to 10, with 0 indicating no pain and 10 indicating the worst pain imaginable.
The patients, who were being treated at the university's Multidisciplinary Pain Centre, took memory tests twice -- once after getting a pain-relief procedure such as an epidural injection, and on another day when they hadn't had a recent pain-relief procedure.
The memory tests involved verbal memory (remembering specific words from sentences) and spatial memory (remembering how the letter "J" was shown on a computer screen).
Two-thirds of the patients performed worse on the tests on the days when they hadn't had a recent pain-relieving procedure. Spatial memory was particularly tricky for them, the study shows.
The results didn't seem to be tied to the patients' sleep problems, psychological distress, or age, note the researchers.
"Our findings suggest that pain may disrupt the maintenance of the memory trace that is required to hold information for processing and to later retain it for storage in longer-term memory stores," write Dick and colleagues.
They add that it remains to be seen whether attention training can offset those memory problems.

The study appears in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.

Reprinted from WebMD

One Secret to a Longer Life: Keep Learning

The one social factor that has been consistently linked to longer life, regardless of country, is education. It is far more important a factor than even health insurance. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life, as well as vastly improved health during old age.
Not only have studies consistently shown this connection, but there is no limit beyond which more years of school stop adding to a person's life span. There are several theories as to why this may be the case, including a better ability to plan for the future.
Other factors that seem to greatly affect health include tight social networks of friends and relatives, and income level.

New York Times January 3, 2007

The Ledger January 3, 2006

The Review of Economic Studies January 2005; 72(1): 189-221 Free Full-Text PDF

Source: Mercola.com
© Copyright Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2007. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, as long as copyright, contact, and creation information is given, only if used only in a not-for-profit format. If possible, I would also appreciate an endorsement and encouragement to subscribe to the newsletter. If any other use is desired, written permission is required.

Can Chocolate Benefit Your Brain?

A special cocoa, designed to retain naturally occurring flavanols, could help maintain healthy brain function. This could eventually lead to new weapons against cognitive decline and dementia.
Several studies have indicated that flavanols could improve blood vessel function.
For example, research has shown that the indigenous population living on islands near Panama, who consume a type of cocoa rich in flavanols on a daily basis, also experience unusually low rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
The relative risk of death from heart disease on the Panama mainland is 1,280 percent higher than on the islands.
These benefits might also extend to the brain, and could have effects on learning and memory. British researchers studied the results on the brains of young women by studying their brains via magnetic resonance imaging while completing a complex task.
Consumption of the special cocoa resulted in regional changes in brain blood flow for as long as three hours, meaning that cocoa flavanols may have potential as a treatment of vascular damage within the brain.

EurekAlert February 18, 2007

East Valley Tribune.com February 18, 2007

Source: Mercola.com

© Copyright Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2007. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, as long as copyright, contact, and creation information is given, only if used only in a not-for-profit format. If possible, I would also appreciate an endorsement and encouragement to subscribe to the newsletter. If any other use is desired, written permission is required.