Australian Chiropractors

Patience is a virtue in many areas of life. It is definitely true when it comes to the health benefits of chiropractic care. A patient may feel better, lots better in fact, after an initial chiropractic adjustment, but it takes time to retrain the musculoskeletal system when it has been forced to endure poor posture, unhealthy gait, and repetitive stress. But, just to prove my point, I offer the mating ritual of the female Australian redback spider, known affectionately, and not just here in Australia, as one of the world’s most poisonous spiders. It is a close relative to the black widow. What does the mating ritual have to do with patience? Well, the little lady demands 100 minutes of courting (that’s right, mate, 100 minutes!) or else she’ll cannibalize her male suitor, according to recent research.

But, the good news is that size doesn’t matter! Proving that bigger isn’t always better in the mating game, the tiniest of males sometimes approach female redbacks after offering the critical 100 minutes of wooing and successfully mate without being eaten, according to the paper in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study shows that a puny male of this species can win at love after spending the time (but without exerting much effort). “Based upon our data of the timing of premature lethal cannibalism, it appears as though females are not tuned to select male size, but rather the duration of courtship,” said Jeffrey Stoltz who, a long with colleague Maydianne Andrade, co-authored the study.

Well, I think I’ve proved my point! Patience, if not virtuous, can often bear fruit!

For more on the “courtship dance” and other interesting facts about mating ritual of the redback spider, go to: discovery.com

Technorati Tags: Australian redback spider, chiropractic adjustment, chiropractic care, mating ritual, musculoskeletal

We, Australian Chiropractors, just like other health professionals, see our share of patients who need psychological help. Though we’re all super listeners when it comes to our patients, true mental and emotional problems are beyond our chiropractic scope of practice. In those cases, it is always good to have a list of resources for particular issues. That’s why I was happy to read that a multi-study review of psychological therapies for bulimia nervosa showed that bulimia-specific talk therapy, also called cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), compared with no treatment, led to cessation of binge eating in about 37 percent of those treated. Though the studies involved 3,054 adults living in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the reviews were done by Dr. Phillipa P. J. Hay and her colleagues, right here in Australia at the University of Western Sydney.

For their research, Hay and colleagues reviewed 48 studies that assessed various psychotherapies for bulimia nervosa and binge eating. The assessment included not only clinical psychotherapies such as interpersonal, psychoanalytic, hypnosis, and bulimia-specific CBT, but also following procedures of a self-help book.  While the effectiveness of the other psychotherapies took about a year, bulimia-specific CBT took around 4 to 5 months to reach the same level, according to Hay.

The target of bulimia-specific talk therapy is overeating and subsequent self-induced vomiting or heavy laxative use that purges food from the body after binge eating episodes. The therapy focuses on specific issues such as dietary habits, fear of weight gain, and how to “normalize” thoughts about food and body image.

It’s good to know that there is timely, effective treatment out there for those suffering from bulimia nervosa!

Technorati Tags: bulimia, bulimia-specific talk therapy, CBT

As a chiropractor, I happen to be both holistic and scientific in my approach to health. My experience has shown to me over the years that the “tried and true,” based on scientific protocol and empirical evidence, gives my chiropractic practice its foundation. And, yet, I have also witnessed “miracles” in the healing experiences of many of my patients, and I’ve come to accept that there is an innate healing energy that knows far more than I. I’ve come to view these miracles as natural phenomenon that occur just beyond my scope of scientific explanation. With this in mind, I read with somewhat “awe,” that the “red dust storm from hell” that dumped thousands of tons of soil across eastern Australia just a few weeks ago may actually have been a “great exhalation from heaven,” instead. The estimated 4,000 tons of dust that settled on Sydney, and another three million tons that landed in the Tasman Sea, has created an explosion in microscopic life in the Harbor and beyond.

Measurements taken at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science on the harbor’s north shore show a tripling of microscopic plant life, or phytoplankton. The scientists measure the presence of phytoplankton using remote sensing technology that can detect chlorophyll in the plants, which form the base of the ocean food chain. Microscopic plant life needs nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphate to grow. These nutrients have become scarce over the years in our ocean water, but apparently they were abundant in the topsoil that blew across our country.

This is not only “miraculous” news for our country, but according to Ian Jones, director of the Ocean Technology Group at University of Sydney, the dust storm was a natural experiment that supports their work in fertilizing the ocean by adding nitrogen-rich urea to the sea. This promotes the growth of phytoplankton near the surface of the ocean, which then leads to an increase in fish numbers.

“More phytoplankton growth means more stocks of fish. I see much promise in ocean nourishment being able to provide economical protein for vast numbers of malnourished people,” said Jones. Plus, enriching oceans with nitrogen will also aid in the fight against climate change.

So, I leave you with this thought for today: When a seemingly catastrophic and meaningless event occurs in our lives, until the dust clears we can’t be sure that we haven’t witnessed a miracle in the making.

Technorati Tags: dust storm, feeding malnourished people, ocean fertilization, ocean nourishment, phytoplankton, Sydney Harbor