The Back Pain Blog

By Rachelle Holmes of Chicago Breast Augmentation and Chicago Liposuction Center, MetropolitanMDs

Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of health care and treatments on the planet, but it still serves its purposes even today. Now, while inserting dozens of needles into your body doesn’t seem like the most fun way to treat ailments, acupuncture is a tried and true therapeutic practice that has helped people deal with pain for centuries.

By inserting needles into various pressure points around the body, physical pain and stress can be relieved and even treated using acupuncture. For most, it’s funny to think that sticking needles into the pain areas and pressure points of the body would be the answer, but when it comes to people who suffer from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, it might just be that.

New studies have shown that that acupuncture in certain areas of the body releases adenosine, which is a natural pain killer that is usually released after an injury. This allows people who are suffering from constant fibromyalgia to gain some much-needed relief.

By releasing adenosine, pain signals can be blocked from ever reaching the brain thus helping sufferers deal with their pain problems. This brings up a lot of questions about how much acupuncture has to do with adenosine release and if this is the reason that so many benefit from it. Yet, whatever the reason, studies have shown acupuncture to be great at treating the condition and helping the people who suffer from it.

From the fatigue angle, the study also went on to show that adenosine released from acupuncture has a lot to do with the regulation of the sleep cycle. By being able to regulate sleep correctly, chronic fatigue syndrome may be able to be properly treated and even fixed.

Acupuncture paired with the correct medicine can help both constant pain and fatigue, as new studies have gone on to show. This is good news for sufferers of both ailments, and goes to show that this ancient art of health may still have some new tricks to share.

While the computer age has done wonders for our society in general, it certainly hasn’t done us back pain sufferers any favors. More and more of us are spending time in front of a pc, whether it be for work or just surfing the world wide web, in fact I’m not physic but I bet you are sitting in front of a computer screen right now . Seriously though, it can play absolute havoc with our back, neck and shoulders but if you can follow these tips I’m sure that your suffering will be limited. 

• An adjustable chair with good back support is a must. If your chair is lacking in back support a small pillow placed in the small of your back can help and if you already have a back complaint a kneeling chair may also be a good option as they transfer your bodies weight from your lower spine and hips to your legs. They can take a while to get used to though!
• Have your chair set a height that allows your feet to rest flat on the floor with your knees slightly higher or level with your hips. If you find the chair is to high use a platform to support your feet. Do Not tuck your feet under the chair!
• A chair that reclines slightly is also useful in moving your body’s weight on to the back rest rather than your spine taking all of the weight. Also keep the chair close to the desk to help maintain a more upright position.
• Keep your head up and avoid leaning forward. Place any typing material on an angle rather than flat on the desk where you have to continually lean forward to read them.
• Position the top of your screen just below eye level and close enough so that you don’t have to lean forward or move your head in any way to read it and have enough room in front and beside your keyboard to rest your hands and wrists. Your shoulders should be able to ‘hang’ loosely without any muscle tension.
• Above all, take frequent breaks away from your desk. The human body is not designed to sit idle in one place for any great length of time. Once muscle fatigue sets in it is almost impossible to maintain good posture. Even if you can manage two minutes every hour away from your desk, preferably walking rather than just standing you will feel a lot better for it.

I find it takes a lot of concentration to maintain good posture for any length of time when I’m working at my computer and quite often I resort to using an alarm clock to remind me that it is time to get up and go for a walk. All of the other tips mentioned do help to some degree but I find that there is no substitute for taking a break and stretching and walking around. I’d love to hear from you if you have any other tips for limiting your pain while sitting for long periods of time.

Take Care,

Craig

Source – Columbia University Press Release

Finding, in Animal Model, Offers Proof of Principle that Inhibiting Serotonin in the Gut Could Become a Novel Treatment for Tens of Millions of Osteoporosis Sufferers.

NEW YORK (February 7, 2010) – An investigational drug that inhibits serotonin synthesis in the gut, administered orally once daily, effectively cured osteoporosis in mice and rats reports an international team led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center, in the Feb. 7 issue of Nature Medicine. Serotonin in the gut has been shown in recent research to stall bone formation. The finding could lead to new therapies that build new bone; most current drugs for osteoporosis can only prevent the breakdown of old bone.

Gerard Karsenty, M.D., Ph.D.

“New therapies that inhibit the production of serotonin in the gut have the potential to become a novel class of drugs to be added to the therapeutic arsenal against osteoporosis,” said Gerard Karsenty, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, lead author of the paper. “With tens of millions of people worldwide affected by this devastating and debilitating bone loss, there is an urgent need for new treatments that not only stop bone loss, but also build new bone. Using these findings, we are working hard to develop this type of treatment for human patients.”

The Nature Medicine paper follows on a major discovery, also made by Dr. Gerard Karsenty’s group (published in the Nov. 26, 2008 issue of Cell), that serotonin released by the gut inhibits bone formation, and that regulating the production of serotonin within the gut affects the formation of bone. Prior to this discovery, serotonin was primarily known as a neurotransmitter acting in the brain. Yet, 95 percent of the body’s serotonin is found in the gut, where its major function is to inhibit bone formation (the remaining five percent is in the brain, where it regulates mood, among other critical functions). By turning off the intestine’s release of serotonin, the team was able, in this new study, to cure osteoporosis in mice that had undergone menopause.

Based on their findings reported in the Cell paper, Dr. Karsenty and his team postulated that an inhibitor of serotonin synthesis should be an effective treatment for osteoporosis. Shortly thereafter, they read about an investigational drug, known as LP533401, which is able to inhibit serotonin in the gut. “When we learned of this compound, we thought that it was important to test it as proof of principle that there could be novel ways to treat osteoporosis with therapies that can be taken orally and regulate the formation of serotonin,” said Dr. Karsenty.

Dr. Karsenty and his team developed a research protocol to test their theory, where they administered the compound orally, once daily, at a small dose, for up to six weeks to rodents experiencing post-menopausal osteoporosis. Results demonstrated that osteoporosis was prevented from developing, or when already present, could be fully cured. Of critical importance, levels of serotonin were normal in the brain, which indicated that the compound did not enter the general circulation and was unable to cross the blood-brain barrier, thereby avoiding many potential side effects.

Implications for the Treatment of Osteoporosis

Most osteoporosis drugs, including those currently under clinical investigation, do not generate new bone but rather, prevent the breakdown of old bone. Only one drug currently on the market can generate new bone – but it must be taken by injection once a day, and because it may increase the risk of bone cancer, at least in rats, its use is restricted for short-term use in women with severe osteoporosis.

“There is an urgent need to identify new, safe therapies that can increase bone formation on a long term basis and to such an extent that they compensate for the increase in bone resorption caused by menopause,” said Dr. Karsenty. “Furthermore, it is important to note that since this study was conducted in rodents, it will need further confirmation in human subjects.”

Osteoporosis: A Disease of Bone Mass Decline…

Osteoporosis is a growing public health concern, with the aging population and the incidence of post-menopausal osteoporosis on the rise. It is a disease of low bone mass, most often caused by an increase in bone resorption not compensated by a similar increase in bone formation.

Far from being inert, bone constantly undergoes renovation, with some cells responsible for removing old material and other cells responsible for creating new bone. In humans, after age 20, the balance between bone formation and breakdown tips toward breakdown, and bone mass starts to decline. In women, the rate of decline increases after menopause, when estrogen levels drop and cells that tear down old bone become overactive. Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and porous, increasing the risk of breaks. It is diagnosed when bone mass drops below a certain level.