This Week In Wellness

This Week In Wellness research conducted by Dr. Sanjida Halim Topa with colleagues at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has shown that a major component of cinnamon essential oil could be the answer to control the dispersion of superbugs and the development of their biofilm.

As antibiotics become less and less effective against superbugs, there is an urgent need to develop alternatives to antibiotics to treat chronic biofilm-mediated infections and researchers are re-examining some traditional methods of bacterial control.

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-cinnamon-oil-key-superbugs.amp

https://mic.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.000692

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This Week In Wellness the Australian Chiropractors Association President Dr Anthony Coxon is calling for Australian Chiropractors, health professionals and members of the public to make sure that their views are heard on the topic of Chiropractic care for kids. He encourages them to head to the link attached in the show notes and fill in the survey linked to the review.

He says that political decisions based on the findings of a review being conducted by Safer Care Victoria could have detrimental effects on the way chiropractors currently practice here in Australia, potentially limiting their ability to treat children under 12.

He goes on to say that a strong community response will provide a crucial backdrop to the review’s findings and will help highlight the important role chiropractors play in the paediatric care of thousands of children across Australia.

www.chiro.org.au/important-message-from-aca-president/

Link to the review >>>> engage.vic.gov.au/chiropractic-spinal-care-children-review

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This Week In Wellness Australia and New Zealand’s health star food rating system has been criticised by Public health researchers and lawyers from the George Institute for Global Health because salty, sugary and fatty products are scoring too highly as producers are accused of “gaming the system”. With the Institute’s public health lawyer, Alexandra Jones stating the system should be based on science not vested interests.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12908

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/30/unhealthy-products-are-gaming-flawed-health-star-food-rating-study-finds

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This Week In Wellness in validation of mums and dads all over the world, broccoli has been shown to inactivate genes that play an important role in cancer development.

It has been known for some time that cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, Brussels sprouts and kale have decreased the risk of cancers however recent research published in Science may give us an indication just how it does it.

Researchers, led by Pier Paolo Pandolfi, the Director of the Cancer Center and Cancer Research Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, showed that targeting the gene, known as WWP1, with the ingredient found in broccoli suppressed tumor growth in cancer-prone lab animals.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190516142913.htm

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aau0159

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cancer-fighting-foods#section1

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This week in wellness 56 percent of parents of teens with sleep troubles believe this use of electronics is hurting their child’s ability to get to sleep and stay asleep.

The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll (conducted by the Children’s Health Department at the University of Michigan) took responses from a nationally representative household survey of 1,018 parents with at least one child 13-18 years old. Forty-three percent of parents reporting that their teen struggles to fall asleep or wakes up and can’t get back to sleep.

Not being able to stay off electronics — including social media and mobile phones — was the top reason parents cited for sleep disturbance. Other reasons included homework, worries about school, and concerns about their social life, in that order.

https://mottpoll.org/reports/when-teens-cant-sleep

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917082431.htm

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This week in wellness an integrative approach may help to decrease the pain and usage in prescription opioid users. With the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) stating that the number of deaths in Australia involving opioids has nearly doubled in the decade to 2016, from 591 to 1119 and AIHW spokesperson Dr Lynelle Moon stating that “Every day in Australia, there are nearly 150 hospitalisations and 14 presentations to emergency departments involving opioid harm, and three people [a day] die from … opioid use,” this is welcome news for an urgent problem.

The study, published Feb. 20, 2019, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, tracked the impact of a program for low-income, at-risk patients with chronic pain at Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. They were offered group support, acupuncture, mindfulness, massage and gentle exercise with the aim of preventing the progression into drug misuse, overdose and ultimately death. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190220133629.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30783878

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/opioid-harm-in-australia/contents/table-of-contents

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2685622

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This week in wellness alcohol advertisers are attempting to put a “health halo” on their products in order to attract increasingly health conscious consumers whilst Instagram influencers have also been used in quote, unquote “underhanded” alcohol marketing as researchers call for greater regulation.

Research at Curtin University and published in Public Health Research and Practice examined both interviews conducted by alcohol industry executive and alcoholic products released to conclude that alcohol advertisers were attempting to regain lost and reduced consumers using labels such as vegan, gluten free, ‘natural flavours’, low carb or sugar free as well as healthy imagery.

http://www.phrp.com.au/issues/online-early/proliferation-of-healthy-alcohol-products-in-australia-implications-for-policy/

https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/advertisers-put-%E2%80%98health-halo%E2%80%99-on-alcohol-products

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/09/australian-instagram-influencers-often-plug-alcohol-but-do-not-declare-sponsorship

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This week in wellness a study presented at EuroPrevent 2019 showed that those in the lowest quartile of muscle power had a massive 10-13 times higher chance of dying compared to those above the median for maximum muscle-power.

The study looked at non-athletes between 41 and 85 years of age and used an upright row test to determine power, defined as the amount of work performed per unit time. The researchers determined each participant’s maximal muscle power by taking the highest value that they achieved over two or three attempts with increasing weight and then calculating the power exertion per kilogram of body weight. The upright row exercise was chosen for the study because it is a common action in daily life for things like picking up groceries and grandchildren.

Click here for the link to the press release https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190412085247.htm

And here are the fitness references Brett mentions in the show.

https://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-workout-plan-basics/

https://www.crossfit.com/what-is-crossfit

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This week in wellness a study, published recently in Circulation, estimates that the US FDA’s added sugar label could prevent or postpone nearly 1 million cases of cardiometabolic disease, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, over a 20-year period in the US alone.

In 2016, the FDA announced several mandatory changes to the Nutrition Facts label in order to provide consumers with enhanced nutritional information. Among the changes was adding the grams and percent Daily Value of added sugar content, which would help consumers limit calories from added sugar in accordance with the recommendations of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (which suggest limiting added sugars to less than 10% of calories per day).

The links mentioned in the show are as follows.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.036751

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190415081951.htm

https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/

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This week in wellness just days after the removal of health fund rebates for natural therapies came into effect on 1 April, Greg Hunt MP has announced $2 million for updated natural therapy reviews to re-examine which therapies should once again be eligible for Subsidy through the Private Health Insurance rebate.

The review update will also look at removing the ‘banned’ list so insurers can cover whichever therapies they want, even if they won’t attract the Subsidy.

The instigators of the ‘your health your choice’ campaign have given credit to the 13,323 members of the public who took the time to send a personalised message to Minister Hunt and LNP MPs and Senators and the over 110,000 people who signed the petition. They state that “The Minister and the LNP have been flooded with protest from consumers on a scale that simply could not be ignored”, and that “Removal of natural therapy rebates pushes costs to consumers and makes private health insurance less worthwhile”.

A poll of nearly 4,000 people conducted by YHYC in 2018 showed that 95% would either cancel (50%) or reduce (45%) their level of private health cover if the policy went ahead.

The link to Greg Hunt’s announcement and to the Your Health Your Choice website’s are below. 

https://www.greghunt.com.au/review-of-natural-therapies-for-private-health-insurance/

https://www.yourhealthyourchoice.com.au/news-features/breaking-2mil-pledged-to-update-natural-therapy-reviews/?fbclid=IwAR3z9JEu-IsaDLITtroaWkjfUs_mLphdcKDNE23qOMIQq1Jfo5aMvqjpz6E

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