Potential Advances In The Treatment Of Osteoarthritic Pain

In a recent study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and reported in Medical News Today, Sara Kelly and colleagues from the Arthritis Research UK Pain Centre at The University of Nottingham have discovered a new way to possibly decrease the chronic pain affecting people with osteoarthritis. They studied a protein receptor called TRPV1 which is present in the synovial membranes of joints. These receptors are responsive to pain. Injecting TRPV1 agonists directly into the joint produced pain relieving effects.

The study was performed on rats so before being used on humans the results will need to be replicated in clinical trials and monitored for potential side effects.

Until then the best self-help advice for those with osteoarthritis is weight loss (if it affects joints in the lower limbs), stretching & strengthening exercises and maintaining moderate levels of activity. Nutritional supplements can also help (see related articles here).

Poor Sleep Linked To Pain

A new study by Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre at Keele University and published in Arthritis & Rheumatology has identified factors associated with an increased risk of developing widespread pain in adults over 50. Of the factors measured, non-restorative sleep was the strongest independent predictor of new onset widespread pain.

Living Near Green Spaces Improves Health

Today BBC News published an interesting article on work done by Mathew White from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter. He recently conducted a study looking into the benefits of green spaces on health and well-being. The findings of a previous study showed that people living in greener urban areas were showing fewer signs of depression or anxiety.

Various things such as job promotions, pay rises, winning the lottery, etc. can make people happier but the effects last for only 6 months to a year. These things don’t lead to long-term happiness. Dr White examined data from the British Household Panel Survey (about 40,000 households). What he found was that living in an area with green spaces, like parks, has a lasting beneficial effect on mental health (happiness, depression, anxiety).

As the mind and body are entwined, I’m sure there must also be physical benefits to living near green spaces.

Meditation Changes Gene Expression

There is now evidence that mindfulness meditation can alter gene expression. Research carried out jointly by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain revealed that participating in a day of mindfulness meditation activities reduces levels of pro-inflammatory genes. Perhaps meditation could be used to treat chronic inflammatory conditions.

Effervescent, Dispersible And Soluble Medicines Are Bad For Health

It’s now well-known that having high levels of salt in one’s diet can lead to high blood pressure and associated cardiovascular disease. What is not commonly known, is that effervescent (fizzy), dispersible and soluble medicines have a high sodium content. In a study published in the British Medical Journal, Dr George from the University of Dundee compared the risk of cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, etc.) for patients taking effervescent, soluble versions of medication with non-sodium versions of the same medicine.

Over a million people were followed for about 7 years. After all factors had been taken into account, the results showed that patients taking the sodium rich tablets had a 16% higher risk of cardiovascular problems than patients taking the non-sodium versions. The patients on the high sodium pills were also 7 times more likely to develop hypertension and had a 28% higher death rate than the other group!

Some of you may be thinking “that doesn’t concern me, I don’t take any prescribed medication”, but what about ‘over the counter’ medication and supplements? Paracetamol, Vitamin C, multivitamins, etc. I’ll tell you what I’ve done with all my effervescent, dispersible and soluble tablets…straight in the bin, that’s the best place for them!

Alcohol Slows Fracture Healing

A team at Loyola University Medical Center lead by Roman Natoli has discovered how alcohol can slow the healing of fractures. The study was conducted on mice and showed that alcohol:

• inhibits bone formation leading to bones that are less mineralised and weaker
• impairs normal cellular function by causing oxidative stress
• lowers levels of proteins that recruit stem cells to the fracture site (stem cells mature into bone cells)

The amount of alcohol given to the mice was equivalent to being about 3 times over the legal driving limit.

MBT: To Wear Or Not To Wear?

Ever wondered whether MBT shoes really work? Well, a study was commissioned by companies that manufacture rocker sole shoes. The research was carried out by a team of physiotherapists from King’s College London. 115 people with chronic low back pain (CLBP) were randomly split into 2 groups; one was asked to wear rocker shoes for a minimum of 2 hours a day and the other was asked to wear  flat soled shoes for the same duration. The subjects were followed for a year. At the end of the study the researchers concluded that “rocker sole shoes appear to be no more beneficial than flat sole shoes in affecting disability and pain outcomes in people with CLBP. Flat shoes are more beneficial for LBP aggravated by standing or walking.”

Watermelon Relieves Post-Exercise Muscle Soreness

Encarna Aguayo and colleagues from the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena in Spain have published a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that supports the use of watermelon juice to relieve post-exercise muscle soreness. They attribute the effect to the amino acid L-citrulline.

Meaning And Purpose Improve Health

Steven Cole et al. from UCLA have recently shown that having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life can lead to positive genetic changes such as lowering the levels of inflammatory gene expression and strengthening the expression of antiviral and antibody genes. Theoretically, this could mean that those with a strong sense of purpose and meaning have a more efficient immune system and are less susceptible to inflammatory diseases.

Parallels can be drawn with Viktor Frankl’s influential book ‘Man’s Search For Meaning‘. In it, he relates his experiences of life in concentration camps during WWII. He believed that finding a meaning to life was crucial to survival in those terrible circumstances. After the war, he continued his work as a psychiatrist with logotherapy (a form of existential analysis) and became convinced that happiness was to be attained by finding meaning and purpose in life.

Exercise Prevents Stress

A lot of us know from experience that exercise is a great stress buster. Elizabeth Gould (Professor of Psychology at Princeton) and her associates have clarified the process. Their research was published in the March issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Their experiments were performed on mice. The mice were divided into 2 groups:

• Sedentary group: no running wheel
• Active group: free access to a running wheel (mice run about 4 km per day when given a running wheel!)

Six weeks later the mice were exposed to a stressor (cold water). The sedentary group showed an increase in ‘immediate early genes’ (short-lived genes that turn on rapidly when neurons fire). Whereas the active group showed no presence of these genes suggesting no neuronal excitation secondary to the stressor. In the active group, inhibitory neurons were more active and more gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was released in the brain. GABA is a neurotransmitter that calms down neural excitement.

Gould concluded that “the results suggest that running improves anxiety regulation by engaging local inhibitory mechanisms in the ventral hippocampus”. In layman’s terms, this means that exercise prevents stress and anxiety by suppressing brain agitation.