NIH and CAM Research

Please follow the link by clicking on the title to read some up-to-date interesting news about Complementary/Alternative Medicine Research and NIH Government interest. I would appreciate your comments.

Childrens'Health - 90 Minutes of Exercise - A New Study

July 24, 2006 — International guidelines for physical activity for children should be increased to 90 minutes per day, according to the results of a cross-sectional study reported in the July 22 issue of The Lancet.
"Atherosclerosis develops from early childhood; physical activity could positively affect this process," write Lars Bo Andersen, MD, from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway, and colleagues. "This study's aim was to assess the associations of objectively measured physical activity with clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and derive guidelines on the basis of this analysis."
In this cross-sectional study, 1732 randomly selected 9-year-old and 15-year-old school children from Denmark, Estonia, and Portugal were evaluated for physical activity using accelerometry and for cardiovascular risk factors. The composite risk factor score (mean of Z scores) included systolic blood pressure, triglyceride levels, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio, insulin resistance, sum of 4 skinfolds, and aerobic fitness. At-risk individuals were defined as those with a risk score 1 SD above the normal.
Compared with the most active quintile, odds ratios for having clustered risk for ascending quintiles of physical activity (counts per minute) were 3.29 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.96 - 5.52), 3.13 (95% CI, 1.87 - 5.25), 2.51 (95% CI, 1.47 - 4.26), and 2.03 (95% CI, 1.18 - 3.50), respectively. In all analyses, risk was elevated in the first to the third quintile of physical activity. The mean time spent above 2000 counts per minute in the fourth quintile was 116 minutes per day in 9-year-old children and 88 minutes per day in 15-year-old teenagers.
Study limitations include cross-sectional design; use of a composite score; guidelines derived from these analyses only related to metabolic health and not to bone health, psychological well-being, or other dimensions of health; inability of the physical activity measure to capture cycling, swimming, and load-bearing activity; and assessment of physical activity for only 4 days.
"Physical activity is important for metabolic health in children," the authors conclude. "To prevent clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors, physical activity levels should be higher than the current international guidelines of at least 1 h per day of physical activity of at least moderate intensity. Achieving 90 min of daily activity might be necessary for children to prevent insulin resistance, which seems to be the central feature for clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors."
The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships. The Danish Heart Foundation, the Danish Medical Research Council, the Danish Council for Sports Research, and the Estonian Science Foundation supported this study.
In an accompanying editorial, Ram Weiss, MD, from Hadassah Hebrew University Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, calls this "a well-designed investigation."
"In addition to aerobic activity, resistance training might have beneficial effects on the development of lean body-mass and muscular strength, both of which might facilitate long-term participation in regular physical activity," Dr. Weiss writes. "To achieve such levels in all children, daily physical activity should be in the curriculum, with traditional athletics and enjoyable activities for different ages. The implementation of such interventions in schools should be a strong priority because physical activity represents a major disease prevention measure and can promote future beneficial lifestyle practices."

Health Alert: Lack of Sleep Affects Weight Gain

You can see the previous Post which links Sleep and Breast Cancer. Now there is another study linking lack of sleep with wieght gain in women. This is significant, not so much in terms of appearance, but for the links between obesity and women's health risks such as heart disease and diabetes. If you haven't already seen this article, please read it and pass it on to your family and friends.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who fail to get enough shut-eye each night risk gaining weight, a Cleveland-based researcher reported at a medical conference in San Diego today.

In a long-term study of middle-aged women, those who slept 5 hours or less each night were 32 percent more likely to gain a significant amount of weight (adding 33 pounds or more) and 15 percent more likely to become obese during 16 years of follow-up than women who slept 7 hours each night.
This level of weight gain -- 15 kg, or 33 pounds -- is "very clinically significant in terms of risk of diabetes and heart disease," Dr. Sanjay Patel of Case Western Reserve University told Reuters Health.
Women who slept 6 hours nightly were 12 percent more likely to experience major weight gain and 6 percent more likely to become obese compared with those who slept 7 hours each night.
The 68,183 women in the study provided information in 1986 on their typical night's sleep and reported their weight every 2 years for 16 years. The findings were presented at the American Thoracic Society's International Conference.
Women who said they slept for 5 hours or less each night, on average, weighed 5.4 pounds more at the beginning of the study than those sleeping 7 hours.
After accounting for the influence of age and weight at the beginning of the study, women who slept 5 hours or less each night gained about 2.3 pounds more during follow-up than those who slept 7 hours nightly. Women who got 6 hours of shut-eye each night gained 1.5 pounds more than those who slept 7 hours nightly.
The researchers analyzed the diets and physical activity levels of the women, but failed to find any differences that could explain why women who slept less weighed more. "We actually found that women who slept less, ate less," Patel said.
"In terms of exercise, we saw a small difference in that women who slept less exercised slightly less than women who slept more but it didn't explain the magnitude of our findings," Patel said.
All in all, it seems that diet and exercise are not accounting for the weight gain in women who sleep less, Patel concluded.
It's possible that sleeping less may affect changes in a person's basal metabolic rate -- the number of calories burned when at rest, Patel said.
Another possible contributor to weight regulation that's come to light recently is called "non-exercise associated thermogenesis" or NEAT, which refers to involuntary activity such as fidgeting or standing instead of sitting. It may be, Patel said, that if people who sleep less, also move around or "fidget" less.

Integrative Medicine Research Project

Very soon I will be joining the Children's Memorial Hospital Integrative Medicine research project in Chicago. Energy Healing has many benefits to offer to patients in the hospital setting, and so I am happily looking forward to offering my work to the young patients in Children's Memorial.
I'll be egaged in full time research for the project in the capacities of hands-on healer, supervisor of therapists, and educator. It's exciting and important work for the field of energy medicine. There is a link to the web-site under "Important Research Project" in the right hand bar of this site. I invite you to take a look and let me know your thoughts.

Where are the Edges

“Where are the Edges?”

Someone asked me today, “where are your learning edges?”    What an important question that is……because the edges are where the discomfort with the status quo lives. The edges are points of change and growth, and healing.

So – I encourage you to ask yourself the same question, and to explore the thoughts and feelings that arise when that question is dropped into your awareness.   “Where are your edges?”  

"Develop the Energy"

Last Week I was in New York and paid a visit to my dear friend Dr. Steven Weiss. He is a wonderfully gifted hands-on Osteopath who works very subtly in the cranial-sacral system of the body. During our conversation I was reminded of how many strains of knowledge and study inform my own hands-on energy work.
My very first teacher of any kind of healing work was the Shiatsu(acupressure) master, Shizuko Yamamoto. I was lucky enough to join her for dinner one night, and engage in discussion about healing. I had been wondering if Shiatsu was my calling, hoping that I could study intensely with her. And so I asked her to help guide me.
Shizuko Yamamoto, this great healer, said a few words which have always stayed with me. Quite simply and quietly she said:
“It is not the method, it is the energy that matters. Develop the Energy.”
And so, I spent the next thirty years doing just that, developing the energy. My healing signature is an energy that merges, and absorbs deeply through the layers of tissue and organs, and vibrates lovingly in the larger energy field. I’ve been fortunate enough to be called to the service of offering healing to people through the sharing of this energy.

The Importance of Sleep for Women - About Healing Post

Eight-plus Hours Sleep Reduces Women's Breast Cancer Risk
HealthNewsDigest.com
October 17, 2005
Women who sleep longer than eight hours per night are at lower risk of breast cancer according to a new study by a University of Connecticut School of Medicine researcher.
The study, published Oct. 15 in the journal Cancer Research, was based on a follow-up of 12,000 women for 20 years, and showed women who reported sleeping nine or more hours per night at the start of the follow-up, had about one third the risk of breast cancer over the next 20 years compared to women sleeping less.
The study was based on a larger theory of breast cancer which suggests that womens exposure to light at night, leads to lowered melatonin levels which increase the risk of cancer. The study adds to the evidence that light at night is an important risk factor for breast cancer.
This is very strong study, said Richard Stevens, Ph.D., cancer epidemiologist, Department of Community Medicine and Health Care. This was a large number of women, followed for a long period of time in Finland with excellent follow-up, he said. We assessed their sleep duration two times over the follow-up period, and we feel confident about the womens exposure, and were sure about the outcome.
The works builds on earlier work by Stevens which found increased risk of breast cancer in shift-working women, and lower risk in blind women. The study Stevens collaborated with a Finnish research team from the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki reveals that the longer a woman sleeps, the lower her risk of breast cancer. Women were asked twice, six years apart, how long they slept. The reduced breast cancer risk was strongest in those women who reported the same amount of sleep each time.
The result may be due to a longer dark period for long sleepers, and thereby less light at night.
The study supported the prediction of the Light at Night theory of breast cancer causation, said Stevens. The theory posits that if there is light at night, women are at risk; long sleepers get more dark and should be at lower risk.
The results supported that hypothesis, Stevens said.
Stevens said Finnish cultural and social norms made the study very high quality, and stronger than could be accomplished in most other places. Because of the countrys nationalized medicine and homogenous population, follow-up percentages were near 100 percent.
Dr. Stevens is available to talk about the study. Call Patrick Keefe, 860-679-2447 to arrange an interview.
The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, John Dempsey Hospital, the UConn Medical Group and University Dentists. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service.
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