“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

William Hutchinson Murray (attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Decrease Inflammation

Our diets have changed considerably over time. Today, diets in industrialised countries have a higher composition of saturated fat, trans fatty acids, omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and a lower composition of omega-3 PUFA than ancestral diets. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is around 15:1 and it’s thought that an optimum ratio should be about 1-4:1.

What’s the significance of this? Well, omega-6 PUFA and omega-3 PUFA have opposing effects on our bodies. Put simply, omega-6 PUFA are pro-inflammatory whereas omega-3 PUFA are anti-inflammatory.  Omega-3 PUFA inhibit the metabolism of omega-6 PUFA into inflammatory cells. Inflammation is characterised by the cardinal signs: pain, redness, swelling, heat and loss of function. Although it’s a normal response to infection and injury…inappropriate inflammation can cause problems! Scientists have noticed that the change in our diets has coincided with an increase in inflammatory disease such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.

Clinical studies have reported beneficial effects of increased omega-3 PUFA consumption in people with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. Less pain, fewer tender joints, a shorter duration of morning stiffness, a decreased use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and an improved physical performance has been observed in people with rheumatoid arthritis. It has also been suggested that omega-3 supplements may be beneficial to patients in intensive care or post surgery. The grandmother’s remedy of taking cod-liver oil for arthritis now seems to make sense!

I would recommend eating foods rich in omega-3 PUFA or taking supplements for any musculoskeletal condition with inflammation and pain. What foods are rich in omega-3? Make sure to check in next week for the answer…

BBC Horizon’s Secret World Of Pain

Last year BBC Horizon created a documentary entitled ‘The Secret World of Pain‘. I watched it on YouTube a week ago, thought it was really well put together and so decided to share the most salient points.

Pain is one of our most ancient survival mechanisms and it protects and alerts us to danger. The SCN9A gene is responsible for regulating electrical signals that send pain sensation to the brain. Certain rare genetic disorders can prevent people from feeling pain…these unfortunate people are much more susceptible to burns and other injuries…this underlines just how crucial the sensation of pain is to us.

Pain can alert us to injury or potential injury, but why doesn’t it reflect the extent of injury…and why is it so subjective? There are a couple of possible reasons for this. Key experiences in early life have been found to be as important to pain perception as genetics. Early life is crucial for the formation of pain pathways which are shaped in response to touch. For example, premature babies are exposed to a lot more painful procedures and this alters the normal development of their pain pathways…the overdevelopment of pain pathways makes them hypersensitive and much more likely to experience pain in the future.

Pain and pleasure are both perceptions…psychological constructs…and so environment, context, decision-making, attention, distraction, motivation, emotion, etc can change how signals are processed and hence influence pain. There is a limit to how much information the brain can process at any one time…focussing attention on something pleasant (distraction) decreases the brain’s ability to process pain signals.

Subjects in an experiment were shown a triangle and exposed to a low temperature which they rated as 3/10 on a pain scale…this was repeated several times…they were then shown a square and exposed to a high temperature which they rated as 7/10 on a pain scale…this was repeated several times…they were then shown the square but exposed to the low temperature instead…surprisingly they rated the pain as 5/10. The researchers concluded that anxiety had affected their sensation of pain. I would add that expectation and conditioning may also have played a part.

Chronic pain is pain that persists long after an injury has healed…and therefore serves no purpose. It affects 1 in 5 people and is one of the biggest medical health problems. It can become an enormous burden on the brain and leads to chemical and structural changes. MRI scanning has revealed that people with chronic pain have less grey matter in the pre-frontal cortex. The answer to chronic pain may lie in reversing these changes. Encouragingly, electromagnetic impulses to the brain cortex have helped to normalise changes and to decrease pain, albeit temporarily. Research into this sort of treatment is extremely promising but still in its infancy.

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
Rabindranath Tagore

Claire Wynnick

“I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for the treatment and the help I have received form Gauthier.  My injury has healed well due to his experience.  I have received excellent treatment, appointments were at a time that suited me and I was treated with care and respect at all times. Thank you”

How Does Sleep Loss Lead To Obesity?

Numerous studies have shown a link between sleep loss and obesity. Medical News Today summarises the findings of recent research by Stephanie Greer and her colleagues. They found that brain activity in the frontal lobe was significantly impaired following a night of sleep deprivation. The frontal lobe is responsible for higher mental functions such as “the ability to recognise future consequences resulting from current actions“. It’s thought that the impairment in brain function caused by sleep loss leads to poor food choices…and later to obesity.

This got me thinking…obesity is known to predispose to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is a disorder caused by temporary blockages of the airway during sleep. This causes repeated periods when people actually stop breathing…shortly followed by gasps for air. Obviously this affects the quality of sleep and can lead to severe daytime sleepiness.

Could there be a vicious cycle at play here?

10-20-30 Training

Jens Bangsbo and Thomas Gunnarsson from the University of Copenhagen have published the results (Journal of Applied Physiology) of a fascinating study comparing the effects of interval training to regular endurance training. A group of moderately trained runners was split into 2 groups: over a 7-week period the control group continued their normal runs and the interval group replaced their usual runs with the 10-20-30 protocol.

The 10-20-30 protocol consisted of a 1km warm-up followed by 3-4 5 min blocks of interval training. Each block was followed by 2 min of recovery. The interval training was made of low, moderate and high-speed running (<30%, <60% and >90% of maximal intensity) for 30, 20 and 10 sec respectively.

Although the total training volume in the interval group was less than half that of the control group (14 km/week vs 30 km/week), it produced some amazing results. At the end of the study, the 10-20-30 group increased their VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption) by 4% and improved their 1500 m and 5 km runs by 21 sec and 48 sec respectively. In addition to this, they significantly decreased their systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.

So despite a 50% reduction in training volume, 10-20-30 interval training improves the performance and health of trained runners.