‘Flat head’ babies at risk

Something that has a good intent, the campaign to get parents to lay babies flat on their backs when sleeping, can also pose a risk. Plagiocephaly, or flat head syndrome, occurs when the skull can become deformed as a result of external pressure such as lying on it for long periods, or being incorrectly positioned in the womb before birth.

It is normally treated by putting a helmet on the baby to reshape the head, but a more natural and effective treatment is to use craniosacral therapy (CST). This is a very specific form of osteopathy and is incredibly gentle and effective for correcting problems with the craniosacral system, which is made up of the skull, the sacrum, and the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that protect the brain and spinal cord. If left untreated, plagiocephaly can lead to permanent deformations of the skull and facial features and can lead to speech or vision problems. Because the skull begins to harden around the age of one year it is important that CST and/or helmet therapy is started as soon as possible.

It is a relatively new therapy, being first researched and developed in the 1970’s and 1980‘s, but based on sound principles. It was discovered by John Upledger, an osteopathic physician, who realised its importance after observing rhythmic motions of cranial bones during a neck surgery he was assisting in. It works by eliminating restrictions in the craniosacral system and is effective for many conditions, including migraines, autism, and colic in babies.

The practitioner cradles the skull gently in their hands and uses a very light touch to gently mould the plates of the skull to a proper alignment. In practice, as I have experienced it, it is simply holding the skull in a very supportive and light way and allowing it to relax and settle into its natural position. with symmetric rate and rhythm.

To find out more go www.craniosacral.co.uk

Can your dentist help your arthritis?

If you are one of the half a million people in the UK who have rheumatoid arthritis, and I include myself among them, then going to the Dentist doesn’t usually suggest itself as a cure. However, some new studies published in the Journal of Periodontology show that there is definitely a link between a healthy mouth and a healthy body.

Research by the Case Western Reserve University School in Cleveland USA supports existing reports linking gum disease with arthritic pain and inflammation. Arthritis is definitely inflamed by toxins in the body and tooth decay and gum disease are both natural homes for toxins. They monitored 40 people with moderate or severe periodontitis and severe rheumatoid arthritis to see if dental treatment made any difference to their arthritis. If the subjects had toothache or painful teeth then extracting them seemed to have a positive impact on arthritic pain. It was made even better if the dental treatment was combined with taking anti-inflammatory drugs.

Gum disease no joke
A huge number of us will suffer gum disease at some point in our lives, with some estimates putting it as high as 19 in 20 people. There are significant potential risks as gum disease has been linked to not only arthritis, but heart disease, strokes, diabetes and premature births.

Rowing parents increase teenage risk factors

When a relationship breaks down there are many factors to consider, and if there are children involved then often there is conflict over whether it’s better to divorce or stay together for their sake. New research published as a report from the California Center for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles shows clearly that staying together is not always the answer. The research was carried out jointly by the universities at Cornell and Minnesota and reported that adolescents tend to get on better at school, and socially, when they live with both parents. But, and it’s a big but, if staying together means the parents argue a lot and there is a feeling of tension and conflict then the children are significantly more likely to binge drink, smoke and get poorer grades than other teenagers. In fact they are comparable results to those seen in single parent families, and are significantly more likely to binge drink.So staying together ‘for the kids’ only benefits them if you can do so by minimizing conflict and reducing arguments.

Natural formula for a good night’s sleep

I know many of my readers have trouble sleeping; instead of counting sheep they are reduced to watching share prices tumble and disgraced MP’s jumping through hoops. I just came across a natural solution to restless sleep that is based on organic oils with relaxing properties. Formulated by Muti Oils, it’s called Peaceful Night and is a mist that you can spray in the bedroom, or straight onto your pillow, or even on to a tissue to inhale it directly. It contains a blend of essential oils of Lavender, Mandarin, Geranium, and Petitgrain which work together to ease the mind and relax the body, inducing deep, restful sleep. It is effective and safe for both adults and children, particularly as it’s developer is Melina Macall, founder of Muti Oils, who uses it on her own four children. Available in the UK from www.mumstheword.com

Language, babies and TV

Parents know that as an unpaid babysitter, television is a highly effective way of keeping children occupied and, hopefully, quiet. But new scientific evidence suggests that doing it too much will cause a child’s development to suffer. If that child is very young the risk is greater of them not being able to improve their social, cognitive and language development.The ‘baby’ language of many children’s programmes such as the Teletubbies can actually decrease a child’s likelihood of learning new words, and it’s passive nature affects their ability to talk, play and interact with others.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a University of Washington pediatrician, goes a step further and suggests that these negative effects are made worse when the parents are watching as well, which is not what I would have expected. He found that the parents are more likely to be distracted by watching the TV and less likely to interact with the child. He was able to put a number on the problem as he found that for every hour a television was turned on, babies heard 770 fewer words from an adult, and that conversational exchanges between baby and parent dropped 15%, as did the overall number of words spoken by children.

Television is essentially a passive medium, unless you are screaming at the screen during Big Brother, a football match or the final of Britain’s Got Talent.

Christakis found that on average when the TV is switched on, children spend more time in silence and solitude than they do in active social interaction. Even DVD’s aimed at encouraging interaction and education of children show up in this research as having the opposite effect, however good their intention and may even contribute to a drop in learning new words. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television-watching for babies under 2, and certainly unless it is balanced with a high level of encouragement and interaction from the parents it is certainly a babysitter with distinct drawbacks. Face to face, one on one, with good physical and emotional contact and lots of verbal interaction seems to be the best prescription to enhance a child’s development.

How to substantially lower your risk of AMD

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the over 60′s. You lose that sharpness of vision you need for everyday tasks like driving and reading and it can result in total blindness.

Two new studies now offer hope that this decline is not inevitable and there is an easy preventive measure anyone can take. The University of Sydney’s Westmead Hospital’s researchers undertook a ten year study and found that eating more fish, nuts, olive oil and foods containing omega-three fatty acids may significantly lower the risk for AMD, particularly if you also avoid trans-fats in your diet.

The researchers found that eating just one serving of fish each week was associated with a 31 percent lower risk of developing early AMD and if you include just one to two servings of nuts a week then there was an increase to a 35 percent lower risk of early AMD. Olive oil is the real key here though as it provides even better protection than the fish. The optimum amount for benefit is over 100 ml a week.

I have long extolled the virtues of the Mediterranean diet, and this is pretty much what this is advocating. In this case the benefits come from the fact that these ‘healthy’ fatty acids may protect the eyes by preventing the buildup of plaque in the arteries and by reducing inflammation, blood vessel formation and oxygen-related cell damage in the retina.

BIGGEST RISK GROUP?
The research also highlighted who was most likely to have late-stage AMD and that turned out to be those who ate the most trans-fats. These are usually found in processed foods and bakery items. They can lower their risk by cutting out those items and increasing the amount of omega-three fatty acids as that showed they were far less likely to have even early AMD.

MORE HELP
Nutrients are known to help with AMD and research by the US National Eye Institute’s Age-Related Eye Disease Study found that taking high-doses of antioxidants and zinc significantly reduced the risk of advanced AMD and its associated vision loss. The study involved the daily intake of 500 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 International Units of vitamin E, 15 milligrams of beta-carotene, 80 milligrams of zinc as zinc oxide, and two milligrams of copper as cupric oxide.

Daily Aspirin help or hazard?

If you are taking a low dose aspirin on a daily basis to prevent heart problems, it seems that it does not offer protection but in fact might be harmful.A recent study reported in the Lancet showed that in people taking aspirin on that basis have very marginal protection than if they took nothing at all. The study focused on people who had no history of cardiac disease – the ones most targeted by previous information – and that their rate of occurrence of heart attack, strokes and death from heart disease was reduced to 0.51% per year. This sounds OK, until you see that the control group who took no aspirin had a rate of occurrence from the same conditions of 0.57%.

The benefit therefore is small, but there is a corresponding rise in the rate of major gastrointestinal and extracranial bleeding. This went up from 0.07% a year to 0.10% among the aspirin group, and showed that the risk of such bleeds rose along with their cardiovascular risk level.

The study analysed results for 95,000 people who took part in long-term primary prevention trials and has made the study’s authors speak out about the need to review the current guidelines for patients looking to lower their risk of heart disease.

Dr. Baigent, the main study author, recommends that to prevent heart disease we go back to basics. Primary prevention with aspirin could be expected to prevent five nonfatal heart attacks but cause three extra gastrointestinal bleeds and one extra intracranial hemorrhage per 10,000 people treated per year, To avoid these incidents the advice is to stop smoking, and to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels through diet and exercise. His last word on the subject,” The benefits of adding aspirin clearly outweigh the hazards.”

BUT ..

Researchers never do seem to agree with each other, and a study at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands came to a similar, but different, conclusion. They used the same research data to analyse and agreed that the risk of aspirin was not acceptable in people who took it purely as a preventive but that there were significant gender and baseline risk factors to take into account. They recommended that a low dose daily aspirin was justified for the following groups:

** Men age 50 to 59 who are at five times the average cardiovascular risk
** Men age 60 to 69, who have at least twice the average cardiovascular risk
** Women in the same age range with at least five times the average risk
** All men age 70 to 79 regardless of risk
** Women in the same age range with at least double the average risk

SO?
As ever, you have to look at your own potential risk for heart disease and I would suggest you put all the lifestyle factors of diet and exercise in place and discuss this with your doctor before starting, or stopping, a daily aspirin habit.

Health benefits of Dandelions

As summer appears to have suddenly burst upon us, you may soon be wrestling with that common misplaced flower – the dandelion. It may be a weed to you, but it can have some useful health benefits so save a corner of the garden for it and you might be surprised at how useful it can be.

It contains a host of good ingredients such as vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, and the minerals iron, potassium, and zinc and has been used across the world. Native Americans used dandelion to treat kidney disease, swelling, skin problems, heartburn, and stomach upset. Chinese practitioners traditionally used dandelion to treat digestive disorders, appendicitis, and breast problems such as inflammation or lack of milk flow. In Europe, herbalists incorporated it into remedies for fever, boils, eye problems, diabetes, and diarrhea.

Today, dandelion roots are mainly used as an appetite stimulant, to improve upset stomach, flatulence, and constipation. Dandelion is a natural diuretic that increases urine production by promoting the excretion of salts and water from the kidney and so is used for poor digestion, liver disorders, and high blood pressure. Research also suggests that dandelion root may improve the health and function of natural bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

How to use it:

** Dandelion tea has been used for many years to treat colds, diabetes, tuberculosis, rheumatism, and arthritis. You can get it ready made at a herbalist or health shop, but if you are making your own only pick tender, young leaves. Leave them any longer and they will taste very bitter.

** To use it as a diuretic, simmer two ounces of the sliced root in two pints of water. Boil it down to one pint. Drink half of a glass two or three times a day.

** To make a dandelion coffee to help you sleep, and solve your digestive problems, you need to roast the roots until they’re brown and hard. Grind into a power and treat like an instant coffee (but without the caffeine).

** An ‘old wives’ remedy for warts was to squeeze the stems of dandelions until the white milky substance inside comes out. Put this liquid onto the wart, let it dry and don’t wash off. Reapply when you can no longer see it on the skin and in three days it should have dried the wart so that turns black, and drops off. No need to wear a pointy hat and have a black cat, unless of course you want to.

Precautions
Plants contain powerful substances and are not to be taken lightly. Dandelion is generally considered safe but it’s possible to have an allergic reaction to even the most natural substance. If you have an allergy to ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigold, chamomile, yarrow, daisies, or iodine, you should avoid dandelion. In some people, dandelion can cause increased stomach acid and heartburn and it may also irritate the skin if applied directly to it. If you have gallbladder problems and gallstones then best to avoid this should consult a health care provider before eating dandelion.
Because of it’s diuretic effect, dandelion may increase the excretion of drugs from the body and if you taking any of the following drugs check with your doctor first: Lithium, Antibiotics, Antacids and other medicines that lower stomach acid, such as Zantac.

Barbecue flavour – Without the health risk

A warm summer evening is often flavoured with the aroma of barbecued meat – or poisoned with the smoke from a burned steak. Barbecuing seems like a healthy way to eat meat, rather than frying or using oil, but there is a hidden danger when grilling meat and that is the presence of carcinogens known as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH). They are the guys you can’t see, but you know their presence from the nice black stripes that they add to your meat.Meat contains fat, which is liquefied when heated and drips down into the barbecue. These fats then vaporize and release toxic gases that return into the meat above, and that you then absorb when you eat the meat. Cooked animal fats are known to be a cancer risk and unfortunately non organic meat also contains carcinogens such as hormone growth promoters, sodium nitrate as a preservative and MSG is added to barbecue mixes to enhance the flavour, and that can cause allergic reactions and headaches in some people.

Two things that can help you avoid this are to use a pan between the grill and the meat so the flames are never in contact with it – so get out that old camping frying pan – and as a bonus it won’t be so tough! Secondly, use a natural flavour enhancer instead of the MSG and there is a mix that will give your meat the authentic ‘blackened barbecue’ look. Mix together equal proportions of celery salt, dill, turmeric, cayenne pepper and paprika and smear the meat liberally with it before adding to the pan for a healthy, and delicious barbecue.

Napping for health

The nap has often had a bad press; associated with the elderly dozing off or the siesta so beloved of hot countries that is seen as ‘lazy’ or pointless in the more achievement-obsessed countries of the west. Leaders of men, and industry, however have often valued the nap as productive part of their day and now there is evidence that they were right all along.  Winston Churchill certainly was a great believer and he would have applauded new sleep studies backed up by acknowledged sleep experts that a nap during the day means you stand a better chance of being more mentally alert and efficient, and more likely to be in better mental health than your non-napping neighbour.

Have you ever started to just nod off in the middle of the day and sternly pulled yourself together and focused on what you were doing? Well, don’t because your body is trying to tell you that you need a break. If you want to continue being productive, don’t fight it but allow yourself to take a short interval and close your eyes. Don’t beat yourself up about it, just drift off, because resisting sleep means your brain is still arguing with your body and that won’t refresh you at all! You don’t even have to go to sleep, just relaxing and letting your mind drift can be just as refreshing – it’s the complete break from your routine that your body is trying to tell you that it needs.

If you don’t live in a country where a siesta is normal, then build in your own version of it. Can’t nap in the office? Why not? Tell people you are working on an important project and can’t be disturbed – and lock the door. Your health is an important project, so you are not being untruthful. Ten to twenty minutes works for most people, and certainly not longer than an hour or your body will slip into a real sleep and you will wake up feeling worse, not better. After lunch is often the time the body naturally wants to slow down as it is using energy to digest your food, but you need to monitor your own rhythm and see what works best for you.

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