Sitting Is Killing You

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Back to Basics: Understanding Back Pain

Via To Your Health

Despite the amount of information available on the Internet these days, many people still do not have the proper facts on back pain. Perhaps it’s due to information overload or just misinformation.

Regardless of the reason, there are too many people suffering from back pain and not enough understanding of the causes and potential solutions. Let’s try and change that by looking at the basics of back pain.

First, understand that back pain is not due to one and only one cause. That would make everyone’s job so much easier. Just imagine going to your car mechanic and knowing anything and everything that might be wrong with your car had only one cause. Life would be so much easier that way, but it’s just not the case. Back pain is no different. It can be caused by a multitude of things involving bones, muscles, nerves or even psychological factors.

Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries?

via The New York Times

Should you stretch before a run? That question, which has prompted countless academic studies, debates and inter-running-partner squabbles, is now at the heart of a notable new study published in August on the Web site of USA Track and Field, the sport’s national governing body. The study, one of the largest of its kind, involved almost 1,400 runners, from age 13 to past 60, who were assigned randomly to two groups. The first group did not stretch before their runs, while otherwise maintaining their normal workout routine: the same mileage, warm-up (minus any stretching) and so on. The second group stretched, having received photographs and specific instructions for a series of simple, traditional poses, like leaning over and touching toes, that focused on the calf, hamstring and quadriceps muscles. The volunteers were told to hold each stretch for 20 seconds, a technique known as static stretching. The entire routine required three to five minutes and was to be completed immediately before a run.

Americans get most radiation from medical scans

Radiation from multiple x-rays or CT scans can be harmful.

We fret about airport scanners, power lines, cell phones and even microwaves. It’s true that we get too much radiation. But it’s not from those sources – it’s from too many medical tests.

Americans get the most medical radiation in the world, even more than folks in other rich countries. The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation, and the average American’s dose has grown sixfold over the last couple of decades.

Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer. That risk is growing because people in everyday situations are getting imaging tests far too often. Like the New Hampshire teen who was about to get a CT scan to check for kidney stones until

Guide to Shopping for Safer Produce

Peachy!

Unlike organic foods, conventional produce is often treated with pesticides and other chemicals while it’s being grown and after it’s been harvested. The pesticides are typically made from some of the most toxic substances available, and their residues often remain on the foods we buy in the supermarket.

Dietary Intervention in Swine With Genetically Induced High Cholesterol

Reprinted from Standard Process

Standard Process researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently published a study examining the effect of diet interventions on cholesterol levels in swine with a genetically altered tendency toward high cholesterol