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HEALTHBEAT SHOW NOTES .... Episode #108 - Recorded August 3, 2007

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of HealthBeat, Chiropractic OnLine Today’s Health, News and informational Podcast.

In this week’s news:  We’ll Look At –

• NYC Adults have High Mercury Levels

• Headache in patients with cervical radiculopathy

• Primary headaches and painful spontaneous cervical artery dissection

• PET Scans and Brainstem Dysfunction in Chronic Migraine Headaches

• And Finally, we present an Interview with attorney Richard Quadrino, discussing the recent trend of Insurers coming after doctors for payment reimbursement

For HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

Welcome to HealthBeat Podcast #108, recorded August 3, 2007.  HealthBeat is Chiropractic OnLine Today’s radio program, providing current news and commentary about Chiropractic and Health.

This week’s Episode is sponsored by DaVinci Laboratories.  Please surf to our web site at www.ChiropracticRadio.com and click on the DaVinci link for your Health and Nutritional needs.

As we enter Year 3 from the anniversary of our initial Podcast, we will be updating our RSS feed in the near future.  This means that the number of back episodes in your iTunes or related Podcast Feed will be reduced.  Remember that all previous COT HealthBeat episodes can be downloaded from our Show Notes page.

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And Now for some news ….

NYC Adults have High Mercury Levels

A recent press release from the City of New York disclosed that a quarter of adult New Yorkers have elevated blood mercury levels, according to survey results released today by the Health Department, and the elevations are closely tied to fish consumption.

Asian and higher-income New Yorkers eat more fish, and have higher average mercury levels, than others both locally and nationally. These mercury levels pose little if any health risk for most adults, but may increase the risk of cognitive delays for children whose mothers had very high mercury levels during pregnancy.

These findings are the latest presented from New York City’s Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NYC-HANES), the first such survey ever conducted by a U.S. city. It’s possible that other cities have similarly high levels, or higher ones, but haven’t yet documented them. Because mercury is a concern for the health of newborns, recommendations on mercury exposure are most important for pregnant and breastfeeding women. 

To emphasis from this press release, NYC is stating in one of its bullet points that

• Fish Still Part of a Healthy Diet, but Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women and Children Under 6 Should Avoid Fish High In Mercury

In addition, to help educate New Yorkers about which fish is right for them, the Health Department has developed recommendations for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children. They’re contained in a brochure entitled “Eat Fish, Choose Wisely,” which is available in English, Spanish and Chinese by calling 311, in the NYC area.

As always, it is important to discuss all Nutritional concerns with a qualified healthcare professional.

The full article is linked in our Show Notes - http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2007/pr059-07.shtml

Headache in patients with cervical radiculopathy

A study published in Volume 16, Issue 7 of the European Spine Journal looked at the use of diagnostic selective nerve root blocks (SNRB) when evaluating patients with cervical radiculopathy.

Frequently patients who presented with headache reported that the headache disappeared when the nerve root responsible for the radicular pain was blocked with local anaesthetics. Headache has been described as a companioning symptom related to cervical radiculopathy but has never before been evaluated with selective nerve root blocks performed in the lower cervical spine.

The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of headache in patients with cervical radiculopathy and its response to a selective nerve root block of the nerve root/roots responsible for the radiculopathy. Could nerve root compression in the lower cervical spine produce headache?

After selective nerve root block, 59% of the patients with headache reported 50% or more reduction of headache and of these 69% reported total relief. A significant correlation was seen between reduced headache intensity and reduced pain in the neck, shoulder and arm. The result indicates that cervical root compression from degenerative disease in the lower cervical spine producing radiculopathy might also induce headache.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this study - http://www.springerlink.com/content/k718u3h2820g4q65/

Primary headaches and painful spontaneous cervical artery dissection

A study in the June 2007 issue of The Journal of Headache and Pain looked at the relation between primary headaches (PH) and pain related to spontaneous cervical artery dissection (SCAD).  According to this study, this relationship is still unclear, as well as the progress of primary headaches after dissection.

The results of this study suggest that mechanisms underlying PH do not modulate dissection-related pain. Disruption of perivascular afferents may be involved in improvement of PH patterns after spontaneous cervical artery dissection.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this study - http://www.springerlink.com/content/05u78125218n1j31/?p=3777a41c89b24aeb86ecc44ceebdd89a&pi=5

PET Scans and Brainstem Dysfunction in Chronic Migraine Headaches

The July/August 2007 issue of the journal Headache, presented a study which examined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) indices of cortical excitability in patients with chronic migraine (CM) and also performed PET studies to ascertain if there were any areas of activation and inhibition for possible correlation.

At present, the pathophysiology of chronic migraine (CM) is not fully understood.

The study found that patients with chronic migraine appear to be characterized by reduced visual suppression correlating with high cortical excitability. In a cohort of these subjects there was brainstem activation and inhibition in certain areas of the cortex suggesting a potential dysfunction in the inhibitory pathways.

Surf to our Show Notes for a link to this study - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00853.x

Health Corner – In this edition of COT HealthBeat’s Health Corner, we present a discussion with Attorney Richard Quadrino. The emphasis of this interview is the recent trend of major Insurance companies coming after individual doctors, asking for re-payment after reviewing claims.

As always, please surf to our Podcast Show Notes at ChiropractiRadio.com for a full listing of web references mentioned in today’s show.
And remember - COT’s Healthbeat always recommends discussing any nutritional or exercise lifestyle modifications with a qualified healthcare professional.

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Finally, I leave you with the following quote:

"The more I heard that I couldn't make it, the more I was determined to do it. I never liked being told that I'm not good enough to do this or that."
– Archie Griffin

For Chiropractic OnLine Today’s HealthBeat, This is Dr. Todd Eglow.

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