I pity the fool that volunteered for this study. 153 healthy, that’s right, HEALTHY, men and women VOLUNTEERED, if you can believe it, to be given the virus that develops into the common cold. Imagine doing that to yourself. Anyway, I am loving their work, for we all get to benefit from the results. Prior to being given the virus, their sleep habits were measured for 14 nights, both in terms of their sleep duration and their “sleep efficiency” (the percentage of time in bed that they were actually asleep).
“Sleep …

In this study the authors measured the Vitamin D levels in people suffering chronic pain to see if it may be a contributing factor. Vitamin D does play a role in pain perception and neuromuscular functioning, and so dysfunctions related to Vitamin D levels may present as abnormal (in this case elevated) pain states.
The researchers measured the Vitamin D levels in 267 people and compared it with other parameters “such as the amount and duration of narcotic pain medication used, self-reported levels of pain, emotional distress, physical functioning, health perception”.
…

In my last post I wrote about how much better off you are getting treatment for low back pain rather than just waiting for it to get better, and in this post I’m going to follow on from that by discussing the results of a study which has found that you are better off staying active than resting.
Now, it may not seem terribly important, I mean, how bad could a couple of days on the couch be? Well, here are the stats: “more than three quarters of individuals will have …

So, we’re looking at Osteoporosis and which type of exercise is best for it. This study looked at how weight bearing exercise (that is, exercise where you bear your own weight, like running, as opposed to swimming, where your weight is supported by the water) compares with resistance exercise (that is, weights). Hope I haven’t used the word weight too much yet…
Now we all know that weight bearing exercise is better than non weight bearing for increasing bone mineral density. There had been some studies in recent years where it …

So the theory goes something like this: Osteoporosis develops as your bone mineral density decreases, which happens with age (after menopause it can really accelerate). Your peak levels are in your mid 30’s. The higher you can get your bone mineral density at that point, the longer you will be able to stave off osteoporosis.
Two really important factors for increasing your bone mineral density (BMD) are diet/nutrition, and exercise (traditonally weight bearing exercise such as walking has been championed, but also resistance exercise, that is, weights, have been shown to …

There are some pretty interesting studies coming out on coffee intake at the moment. Now, let’s not get carried away. For every study telling you that it’s better to do more of one things there’s usually another saying you should do less of it. It’s all about balance, and what works for some individuals doesn’t work for others. We should apply this same principle to coffee intake.
But I did want to mention a couple of articles on coffee that I read recently as the results are quite impressive. In the …

What is it? As you can see in the picture on the left, it’s when a vertebrae slips forward (or backwards) against another vertebrae. Sometimes it develops from a bilateral stress fracture. So you might have heard that on a scan result.
Is it serious? Can be. If it slides too far, it can run into your spinal cord. This is a baaaaad thing – you would need an operation. Also, it makes the area unstable, which will make everything tighten up around it.
What causes it? Some people are born with it, …

Read 2 studies recently on arthritis that I thought you might find interesting. The first is one on the effect of chondroitin on knee arthritis. Now, anecdotally, I hear from people that they find chondroitin to be effective for knees quite regularly, a lot more than they say it about other joints – hip or lower back for example. They found the people taking chondroitin had significantly less joint degradation , the people taking chondroitin experienced pain relief significantly faster than the placebo group, and it’s safe—“No differences in safety between groups”.
In the 2nd …