A new study did something very interesting--it compared natural medicine (supplements, diet, lifestyle) to psychotherapy for the treatment of anxiety.  The result was:

"Both NC (naturopathic care) and PT (psychotherapy) led to significant improvements in patients' anxiety. Group comparison demonstrated a significant decrease in anxiety levels in the NC group over the PT group. Significant improvements in secondary quality of life measures were also observed in the NC group as compared to PT. The whole system of naturopathic care for anxiety needs to be investigated further including a closer examination of the individual components within the context of their additive effect. "

Why would the naturopathic group do better?  We have an unfortunate assumption in our culture--that mood based problems are "all in the head".  Anxiety and other mood disorders are a whole-person issue!  The crux of holistic medicine is that every system, and indeed every cell in the body exists in a complex coordinated dance with every other system.  You cannot isolate the brain from the body.  In this study the naturopathic treatment consisted of Ashwagandha supplementation, deep breathing exercises, counseling, and a standard multi-vitamin for 6-weeks.  This was a very generic program.  I have seen remarkable improvements in anxiety with a protocol very similar to this, but also including specific treatment directed to the individual's nervous system.  A detailed examination can reveal parts of the nervous system that are under or over-functioning.  Amazing results occur when the dysfunctioning nervous system is corrected through chiropractic.  This and other research is beginning to change the landscape of treating anxiety disorders toward a more holistic approach.

Read the study.

Another study demonstrates the benefits of omega-3's in the treatment of autism.  The study was small, involving 9 children given 1 gram of omega-3's per day for 12 weeks.  Eight of the 9 children had significant improvement on a well studied Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist, averaging 33% improvement.  The authors also noted "None worsened and no side effects were reported."  I highly recommend all children to take omega-3's, and it is critically important in children with autism, ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, and other learning impairments.  An excellent product, specially formulated for children, is available in my store.

Read the study here.

A new study found that in children with autistic spectrum disorders visual convergence is often affected.  Convergence is the ability to "cross the eyes" when focusing on a near object.  This is a very interesting study from a neurological and chiropractic perspective.  The nerve cells the coordinate convergence are very midline in the brainstem--they are in the same column of nerve cells that is responsible for "core muscles" of the spine.  This midline column of cells requires exquisitely tuned inputs from the body to generate appropriate output (coordination).  If you think of the central nervous system as a computer, this means that without comprehensible input (you typing and using your mouse appropriately), your computer will be unable to generate appropriate output.  Similarly, in humans, if the spine and brain are unable to appropriately process sensory input, output cannot be appropriately generated and dysfunction occurs.  

The single greatest input into your nervous system is gravity--input occurs from conception until your last breath.  This input sets the stage by creating a "background hum", priming the nervous system for all other inputs.  Without this "background", other sensory inputs cannot reach an appropriate threshold at an appropriate time to create a level of input that accurately reflects reality at any given moment. 

In chiropractic neurology, we spend a great deal of time examining the eyes--this is because you can easily see the coordination or lack of coordination in eye movments during an exam--its basically an incredibly precise muscle test.  With this information, a treamtent plan, including adjusments and other forms of stimulation can be created that can literally change your perception of reality!  If you or someone you know suffers from ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, or autism, I highly recommend consulting with a chiropractic neurologist--it can be life changing!

Read the new study here.

New research shows that pynogenol, an extract from pine bark, significantly decreases pain and inflammation related to arthritis.  The study followed 156 patients with painful arthritis of the knee; 77 were given 100mg of pycnogenol per day, while the remaining 79 were given a placebo.  After 3 months the treatment group outperformed the placebo group with less pain, increased walking distance, less edema (swelling) in the foot, and 58% less anti-inflammatory use.  

A follow-up to that study found large reductions in CRP (an inflammatory marker in the blood), fibrinigen (an indicator of inflammation and fibrosis), and free radicals following pycnogenol use (read the study here).

Keeping in mind that the diseases that plague modern man are all associated with inflammation and free radical production, on would expect pycnogenol to be helpful in other disorders as well.  A review of the literature over just the recent pasts reveals the following (you can click each topic to read the research): pycnogenol is very effective in the treatment of diabetes, fertility disorders, ADD/ADHD, and dementia (pycnogenol improves memory).

Read the study on knee arthritis.

A great new study shows that you not only grow your brain with mediation, you grow the best parts!  Specifically, the study found that long-term mediators have significant increases in gray matter (gray matter includes nerve cells and their dendrites, or "connections") in the frontal lobe and the hippocampus.

The frontal lobes are evolutionarily the newest part of the brain; they are what make us human.  Frontal lobes are responsible for judgement, planning, ordering, and impulse and response control (and a whole lot more).  The hippocampus is related to long-term memory and spatial navigation--it is the first part of brain to be affected by Alzheimer's.  Interestingly, if you have a strong hippocampus, you are much more resistant to Alzheimer's.  The authors of the study state that the increases in gray matter in these regions among mediators "might account for meditators' singular abilities and habits to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in mindful behavior."

 Remember, you are incharge of your own brain!  We all do a great favor to all of humanity (not to mention ourselves) by creating the very best brains we can, and you can qoute me on that!

Check out my Stress Reduction page and click on the "A Simple Meditation" link to the left to learn a basic meditation.

Read the study here.

 An alarming number of older adults are being prescribed drugs that act on the central nervous system.  These drugs are primarily being prescribed for depression, sleep problems, pain, and anxiety.  New research demonstrates that in addition to the known side-effects of these drugs, they contribute to cognitive decline in the elderly.

"Central nervous system (CNS)-active medications (e.g., benzodiazepines, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, traditional antipsychotics) are commonly prescribed to older adults and represent a frequent cause of adverse medication effects, including problems with mobility, falls, and cognition.^[1-3] Medications that adversely affect cognition in particular lead to greater morbidity and healthcare use by older people.^[1-3] More importantly, CNS medication-induced cognition problems may be reversed by adjusting or discontinuing these medications altogether."

"This study confirms a strong association between highest combined daily dose of CNS medication use and cognitive decline."

These findings add urgency to implementing alternative means of treatment for the disorders that these drugs are used to treat.  Chiropractic care has been shown to be more effective than drug therapy for most types of chronic pain (do a search on my site for "pain"), sleep education and herbal products help many people with sleep issues, and lifestyle changes including stress reduction techniques, diet changes and supplementation with omega-3's and amino acids help most people with anxiety and depression.

Increasingly the public needs to be educated as to the full scope of chiropractic care.  Often thought of as "alternative" treatment, chiropractic espouses natural methods to bring about changes in humankind.  These practices are mainstream, proven, and methodical.  In the rare cases that they fail, nothing is lost and less conservative, more experimental therapies such as prescription drugs may be tried!

Read the study here.

 

Psychological distress and depression are common in western countries during menopausal transition.  A new study supplemented menopausal women with moderate-to-severe psychological distress with 1.05 grams of EPA--an omega-3 found in fish oil (read more about EPA and fish oil here ).  The researchers found that after 8 weeks of supplementation, women with psychological distress significantly improved.  Women who had had Major Depressive Episodes, however, did not improve.

This is in-line with what I have seen clinically.  For "routine depression" low doses of omega-3's can work wonders.  The dosage in this study, 1.05 grams is low dose.  In his book The Omega-3 Connection, Harvard psychiatrist Stahl demonstrated great benefits treating people with bipolar disorder with a high dose of Omega-3's--10 grams per day.

If you suffer from depression consider trying a high dose of omega-3's.  You can read more on alternative treatments for depression here, and more on omega-3's here.  I have an excellent omega-3 product in my store.

Read the study here.

A new study demonstrates the interesting relationship between genes and environment.  The study looked at genetic makeup in adolescent boys who hung out with "delinquent" peers.  The idea was that "Being antisocial, using drugs, and criminal behavior is known to be linked to having delinquent peers. And belonging to a delinquent peer group is one of the strongest predictors of criminal behavior."  

The study did indeed find a fairly consistent genetic variant in boys who hung out with "the wrong sort" (my words) from a "high-risk family environment".  In other words, if a boy had the genetic variant and came from a high-risk family, he was more likely to have high-risk peers than a boy from a similar background without the genetic variant.  If however, the boy grew up in a loving, nurturing environment with "high maternal engagement and warmth", the boy was not more likely to hang out with bums even if he had the genetic variant.

What this means for us is simple; we never know what genes our children come in with.  We do know that if we make our children a priority, and by extension make our families and relationships a priority, we can often trump genes!

Read the Yahoo! news story.

As we move through the daily grind in which we live, our brains often function reactively.  We have set "programs" that our minds use to deal with externally (from the environment) and internally (from our own bodies) generated stimuli.  Meditation allows us a chance to escape the reactive trappings of our mind.  This has been shown in many studies, and recently in Japanese Buddhist monks. What these studies show is an increase in frontal lobe activity during meditation.  The frontal lobe is the newest portion of our brain, evolutionarily speaking.  This portion of our brain allows us to discriminate, judge, and override more primal parts of our brain.  In short, it is the part of our brain that makes us human--the part that is able to rise to a moral, philosophical standard, rather than being trapped by instinct and desire.  

I bring all of this up because many believe that when meditating you are "doing nothing".  In fact, you are improving the part of you that makes you uniquely yourself!  If you wish to change yourself for the better it is crucial that you are able to choose the direction in which you wish to go, then override old programs to execute the new behavior.  I know of no more powerful tool for this than to meditate.  Read more on this subject on my Stress Reduction Page.

Read the study on Japanese monks.

One of the biggest lies in modern psychiatry is that depressed people have Prozac deficiency syndrome.  Despite physicial exam findings that can discover specific deficiencies/excesses in the brain and specific urine tests that can effectively evaluate neurotransmitter levels, the mainstays of modern psychiatry remain non-targeted antidepressant drugs.  The New York Times recently broke a story showing that as often as studies showing a benefit from antidepressants are published, studies showing that they don't work are suppressed (read the article here).

I always recommend having a neurotransmitter test done (I use a lab called NeuroScience) to pinpoint brain deficiencies and excesses in individuals with depression.  An excellent physcial exam can also reveal relevant therapeutic strategies, whether they include lifestyle changes, psychotherapy, exercise, supplements, or somatic therapies like chiropractic care. 

Two supplements are gaining attention in the treatment of depression that I would like to mention here; creatine monohydrate and whey protein.  For those of you who have worked on becoming no-neck muscle heads, these will be familiar, as they are mainstays in the world of fitness. 

Athletes use creatine monohydrate to re-energize muscle cells during workouts.  What new research shows is that that creatine does the same thing in your brain!  The study involved giving 3-5 grams of creatine monohydrate to people with "treatment resistant" depression for 4 weeks.  Astoundingly, all the patients improved significantly!  If this were a drug trial it would of headlined on every newspaper and television show in the world.  Since creatine is a cheap, non-patentable supplement, the research was only seen by people who read the journal Bipolar Disorders (you can read the study here).  One warning; the researchers gave the creatine to 2 people with bipolar disorder and they both developed hypomania/mania--people with bipolar should not use creatine.

Next, Whey protein has shown some promise in normalizing neurotransmitter levels in the brain.  Disturbances in these chemical balances is associated with depression.  One study (read it here) looked at serotonin levels and cognitive ability (memory, in this case) among people taking whey protein.  They found increases in serotonin and improvements in memory.  Another study again found increases in serotonin with use of a protein in whey protein, as well as better sleep, and "improved behavior patterns" in people who has poor sleep prior to supplementation  (see the study here).  Whey protein is a complete protein that both supplies the brain with precursors needed to create neurotransmitters, and increases the body's production of glutathione--your most potent antioxidant and detoxifier (see the whey protein page).   I offer an excellent whey protein product in my store--click here to view it.

Last, don't forget about omega-3's--you can read more about them in the treatment of depression in a separate article--click here.