Can exercise help reduce blood pressure?
High blood pressure is known as the silent killer becuase of its the link to heart attacks and strokes.
The causes of high blood pressure are:
Mental stress: Stress can have a severe impact on blood pressure, especially when it is chronic. It can occur as a result of both socioeconomic and psychosocial factors.
Some aspects of sex: In general, high blood pressure is more common among adult men than adult women. However, after the age of 55 years, a woman’s relative risk of hypertension increases.
A recent study compared the impact of medication and exercise for reducing high systolic blood pressure. The researchers reviewed 197 exercise randomised control trials and 194 randomised control trials looking at medication.
While anti-hypertensive medications achived hight reductions in blood pressure that exercise. Researches concluded that modest but consistent reductions in systolic blood pressure can be achieved with exercise.
Reference
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Reflexology and Pain Management – Part 3
In previous posts in this series I have discussed the nature of pain, and how is evidence for the reflexology can be used for acute pain. In this article I want to discuss reflexology and chronic pain, as back pain is the most common chronic pain and it effects 8 out of 10 people in their lifetime, I will focus on studies that have looked at chronic lower back pain. An initial pilot study was carried out entitle Reflexology in the management of low back pain: a pilot randomised controlled trial by F Quinn, CM Hughes and GD Baxter. the results of which was published (see Complement Ther Med. 2008 Feb;16(1):3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2007.05.001. Epub 2007 Jun 27.) Participants suffering from non-specific lower back pain were recurited and randomly assigned to a reflexology or sham group. Each patient received either a 40 minute reflexology treatment or a sham treatment according to which group they were in once per week for 6 consecutive weeks. The key measure of success was the measurement of pain on the visual analogue scale supplemented by the McGill pain questionnaire, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire, and SF-36 health survey. Outcome measures were performed at baseline, week 6, week 12 and week 18. The results incidicated that reflexology may have a positive effect on Lower Back Pain. This initial trail was followed up by a more comprehensive study of times were nurses were the patients, nursing is in the top ten professions for high incidence of lower back pain. Again this study was a double bind trial, and the same measurements of pain were used as in the trail. The study recruited 50 male and 50 female nurses with chronic lower back pain to take part in the trail. 40 minute sessions of reflexology or sham treatements were performed three times a week for two weeks. The study concluded Reflexology can be effective in reducing the severity of chronic back pain, i.e. it is able to reduce pain from moderate to mild. (see The Irainian Journal of Nursing Times (reference Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2012 Mar-Apr; 17(3): 239–243.), focused on back pain in nurses) In conclusion it is clear that while the number and size of the studies are small there is a clear trend which demonstrates the effectiveness of Reflexology in helping to reduce pain levels especially in cases of lower back pain. Remember I offer a 15 minute taster Reflexology session for anyone who would like to try reflexology.
Migraine – Part 3
In part 1, I explore what a migraine was and how it differed from headaches and they shared a herbal remedy, last week in part 2 I looked at potential nutrional diffciences. This week, I want to explore some growing evidence about the impact of exercise. When you are having a migraine it is natural to want to rest and for some people exercise can trigger a migraine. So I was slightly surprise about the growing evidence that suggest exercise can help migraine sufferers. Firstly, the evidence all relates to a certain type of exercise known as High Intentsity Interval Training (HIIT). This is where you alternative periods of intense exercise with periods of less intense recovery. Recently scientists compared the effects of twice weekly HIIT sessions with moderate continous exercise and a control intevention and found that HIIT had most beneficial results. They found HIIT significantly reduced the munber of migraine days amoung sufferers. Reference Hanssen H, Minghetti A, Magon S, et al. Effects of different endurance exercise modalities on migraine days and cerebrovascular health in episodic migraineurs: A randomized controlled trial. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018;28:1103–1112. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13023
New insights into MS
Multiple sclerosis, MS is often seen as an immune reaction. However researchers surveyed 1,349 MS sufferers. The respondents were asked to reveal any allergic reaction to food, environmental factors or drugs, only those with a food allergy suffered more frequent relapses and had more severe pathological changes related to MS. It is not yet know whether an allergy can cause the MS in the first place, but researchers do know that sufferers often experience a relapse after a reaction to food. This suggest that MS isn't just an immune reaction but is more closely assocated with gut and inflammatory responses to foods. This discovery by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston ties in with earlier observations that people with MS seem to suffer relapses after an allergic reaction - but nobody has been sure it was a reaction only to food. Researchers concluded there is a strong link between MS and food allergy. The common factor seems to be inflammation in the gut. Reference Fakih R, Diaz-Cruz C, Chua AS, Gonzalez C, Healy BC, Sattarnezhad N, Glanz BI, Weiner HL, Chitnis T. Food allergies are associated with increased disease activity in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;90(6):629-635.
