Karen – Page 3 – Amersham Osteopathic Clinic

July 31, 2014 By Karen

Unborn babies start learning at 34 weeks

Evidence of learning by their 34th week in the womb has been found. This is three weeks earlier than previously thought.

The study followed 32 women from their 28th through 38th weeks of pregnancy to try to find when the ability to learn starts. Each woman had to say a set 15-second nursery rhyme (that they didn’t previously know) 3 times out loud, twice a day for 6 weeks. They then monitored the heart rate of the unborn babies when they listened to someone else saying the same rhyme at certain stages.

Babies showed responses to the ‘learnt’ rhyme around 34 weeks. The mums then stopped repeating the rhyme daily, but the unborn babies responded to the rhymes at 38 weeks, despite not having heard it for a month!

So maybe playing certain types of music or talking and reading to your unborn child really will have an effect – make those choices wisely!

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1lEBzAl

Emergence and retention of learning in early feral development Charlene Krueger, Cynthia Garvan. Infant Behav Develop 2014. Volume 37, Issue 2, May 2014, Pages 162–173

July 31, 2014 By Karen

Probiotics may help lower blood pressure

Having probiotics (found in live yogurt, fermented and sour milk, probiotic cheese, probiotic supplements, drinks, miso soup and other foods) has a modest effect on lowering blood pressure, according to the results of a study analysing other studies on the subject (a meta-anaysis)

Better reductions were seen in people who had higher blood pressure and who took multiple probiotics. Taking probiotics for longer was more beneficial.

“However, even a small reduction of blood pressure may have important public health benefits and cardiovascular consequences,” states Dr Saman Khalesi (Griffith University, Australia) in the article published July 21 in Hypertension.

Just a small reduction in blood pressure was associated with a 22% relative reduction in risk of cardiovascular mortality, MI, or stroke.

Khalesi S, Sun J, Buys N, Jayasinghe R. Effect of probiotics on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. Hypertension 2014; DOI:10.161/hypertensionaha.114.03469. Abstract

January 20, 2014 By Karen

Look after your liver, don’t take too much paracetamol

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is finally asking Physicians / Doctors and other healthcare professionals to stop prescribing combination prescription pain relievers that contain more than 325 mg of paracetamol (acetaminophen) per table due to the potential risk for liver damage.

Many prescription analgesics have both paracetamol (up to 750 mg of acetaminophen per dose) as well as another ingredient (like codeine)

The FDA stated: “There are no available data to show that taking more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dosage unit provides additional benefit that outweighs the added risks for liver injury.”

“Further, limiting the amount of acetaminophen per dosage unit will reduce the risk of severe liver injury from inadvertent acetaminophen overdose, which can lead to liver failure, liver transplant, and death,” they added.

Severe liver injury in patients taking paracetamol have occurred when patients took more than the prescribed dose in a 24-hour period or took more than 1 paracetamol-containing product at the same time; or drank alcohol as well as had medicine that contained paracetamol.

Look after the pain – low level laser therapy and osteopathy can help with that in some cases – as well as looking after your liver!

January 20, 2014 By Karen

Understanding your newborn’s sleep / crying patterns helps

Teaching mums about typical sleeping and crying patterns in newborns / babies and giving information on how to settle little ones was seen to improve maternal depression scores in recent study published online January 6 2014 in Pediatrics. It also helped daytime sleep issues.

Having support in caring for your newborn is so important. Family support helps, as can Health Visitors and GP’s.

Your qualified paediatric osteopath can also give you information on helping little ones settle to sleep, getting help with baby’s crying and understanding what is ‘normal’.

August 9, 2013 By Karen

Constipation and probiotics

There is now fair evidence to suggest that probiotics reduce certain constipation-related symptoms.

A new study looked at a specific strain of probiotics: Lactobacillus casei as a treatment for functional constipation in otherwise-healthy subject. There was a small but significant improvement in constipation severity at week 4 – this was seen to grow over time.

For some reason the authors used a milk drink containing a mix of sugar, skimmed milk powder, glucose, calcium, vitamins, and permitted flavourings. This would not have been especially useful in patients with lactose intolerance – interestingly, they did exclude patients with milk protein allergy.

However, some studies show that multi-strain probiotics have greater efficacy than single strains, including strains that are components of the mixtures themselves – so it might have been better for the authors to do a multi-strain probiotic. It may also have been useful to compare the result with a probiotic capsule that would have not contained the sugar and glucose and skimmed milk powder that the drink contained.

The Study: Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Effects of a Probiotic Fermented Milk on Functional Constipation: A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-Controlled Study.Mena Mustapha Mazlyn, Lee Hun-Leong Nagarajahl Arshad Fatimah, A Karim Norimah, Khean-Lee Goh. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2013;28(7):1141-1147.

other refs: European Journal of Nutrition. Health benefits of probiotics: are mixtures more effective than single strains?
C. M. C. Chapman, G. R. Gibson, I. Rowland February 2011, Volume 50, Issue 1, pp 1-17

Unborn babies start learning at 34 weeks

Probiotics may help lower blood pressure

Look after your liver, don’t take too much paracetamol

Understanding your newborn’s sleep / crying patterns helps

Constipation and probiotics

Clinic Hours • 01494 434651

Clinic Open / Closed dates

Treatment & Consultation Prices

Teaching / Lecturing

Interesting news / articles on health / diet / medical matters