Did you know a 2018 study published in the PLOS ONE journal by Siddart P. et al shows that sedentary behavior, especially sitting, is strongly associated with shrinking of the brain and cognitive decline?

That’s right. Movement, or a lack of it, has a direct effect on the function of your brain. For the brain to be healthy it needs primarily three things: nerve flow (called proprioception), blood flow and nutrients. Nerve flow from the movement of joints (especially the spine) comes first. It activates the areas of the brain to receive blood flow and nutrients. When nerve flow, blood flow and nutrients all reach tissues in sufficient amounts repair, growth and better health results.

Movement activates the cerebellum and hippocampus which are responsible for coordinating movement, thinking and emotions. If you are sedentary, sit too much and don’t exercise, these areas of the brain don’t get enough nerve stimulation so blood flow and nutrients to the areas are not stimulated in sufficient amounts. Cognition declines, emotions decline and the brain structure declines. The brain will literally shrink.

The study states that a “25% reduction in sedentary behavior could potentially prevent more than 1 million Alzheimer’s Disease cases globally.”

Movement is not just required for healthy adult brains. The same is true for children. Movement in the form of physical activity is being reduced and removed from educational curriculums. What is it being replaced with? Typically more book learning, while sedentarily seated at a desk. If we want healthier children with healthier emotions, healthier thinking and better learning abilities we must create systems that utilize this evidence. Children will learn more as they move more. Let’s add more physical activity into our schools not take it away. Parents, if your schools are taking it away you now have a greater responsibility to your children to add it in before and after school. Healthy bodies make healthy minds.

Move more, sit less. Add movement wherever you can. Go for a walk instead of watching another TV show. Ride a bike instead of driving the car. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Remember, exercise is free. It costs nothing to go for a walk or a jog. Try do get up to 30 minutes of it daily. Add some stretching and some spinal range of motion exercises also.

Bottom line, if you want a healthy mind you must create a healthy body. Keep moving.

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A landmark study published in the Spine Journal in 2010 by Bishop et al showed that chiropractic care was significantly better than the more commonly recommended treatments of drugs, massage and physiotherapy (PT).

This is the first study to compare the full clinical practice guideline-based treatment of chiropractic versus medical care in the case of acute low back pain.

The Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire was used to measure outcomes. It provides the patients’ report of measurable data regarding how pain effects daily life.

There were two treatment groups as outlined below:

Clinical Guidelines Chiropractic Group

• Only 4 weeks of treatment
• walk 5-15 minutes per day
• take acetaminophen every 6-8 hours as required
• get lumbar manipulations/adjustments (2-3x/week)

Physician Directed Usual Care Group

• 16 weeks of treatment
• MD’s directed to treat as usual at own discretion
• MD’s prescribed or referred for the following: opioid pain killers, acetaminophen, NSAIDS, referral to physiotherapy (PT), referral to massage, and/or referral to kinesiologist

At 16 weeks, the usual physician directed care group had virtually no improvement (RDQ 0.1). The clinical guidelines based chiropractic group had significant improvements (RDQ of 2.7). The clinical practice guidelines group with chiropractic care showed a 2700% greater improvement at 16 weeks (RDQ 2.7 vs 0.1).

Just 4 weeks of chiropractic care, with a walk, outperformed 16 weeks of usual medical care. Usual medical care included acetaminophen drugs, NSAIDS, opioid pain killers, massage, kinesiologist care, physiotherapy care and passive modalities (heat and cold therapy, ultrasound, laser, traction, electrical muscle stimulation, etc). 80% of patients in the physician directed usual care group received opioid drugs while 78% were still taking them at 16 weeks. 61% of physician directed patients received treatment of passive PT modalities. Ironically opioid drugs and passive modalities are considered guideline discordant or not evidence based. They should not have been recommended due to their documented ineffectiveness.

It is worth noting that the clinical practice guidelines (CPG) were developed on an international scale using independent systematic reviews that are shown to be highly consistent and based on sound scientific evidence rather than on consensus. The American College of Physicians (ACP) has created their own guidelines for use in the United States. The ACP guidelines completely ignore studies such as this and contradict the internationally established evidence-based clinical practice guidelines used in this study.

The study states that there is a poor correlation between what practitioners think it effective care versus what has actually shown itself to be effective. Muscle relaxers, opioid drugs, passive PT modalities, bed rest, special back exercise programs (core stability and extension exercises) are all shown to be guideline discordant meaning they should not be recommended as an effective treatment option.

It is also worth noting that since acetaminophen was used in both groups and the usual physician directed care had virtually no improvement we know that the acetaminophen (tylenol) was not responsible for the significant improvements seen on the clinical guidelines based chiropractic group. That means that 2-3 chiropractic adjustments and a 5-15 walk delivered the significant results. We can also determine that NSAIDS (aspirin, motrin, advil, ubuprofen, naproxen, aleve, celebrex, etc) were ineffective since the group that received them had virtually no improvement after 16 weeks of use.

Not only did 4 weeks of chiropractic care perform better than medical care at 16 weeks, at 6 months after the completion of the study the chiropractic care group reported that function was still significantly better.

The final conclusion of the study, clinical guideline practice based (evidence based) chiropractic care is SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than family physician directed-usual care for the treatment of low back pain.

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