For years I have run a casual email
list serving the chiropractic profession, its students
and various interested non-chiropractor supporters.
Issue 8
14/08/07 13:03
Obese Aussies a hazard for mortuaries
- More Health News -
MSNBC.com
eeeeek, what a story
so glad we are catching up with Americans...god bless ozmerica!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20134672/
Updated: 3:07 p.m. ET Aug. 5, 2007
SYDNEY - More than two-thirds of Australians living outside major cities are overweight or obese, and extremely obese corpses are creating a safety hazard at mortuaries, according to two studies released on Sunday.
Nearly three quarters of men and 64 percent of women were overweight in a study of people in rural areas. Just 30 percent of those studied recorded a healthy weight, said research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
“Urgent action is required at the highest level to change unhealthy lifestyle habits by improving diet, increasing physical activity and making our environments supportive of these objectives,” wrote the lead researcher, Professor Edward Janus.
=-=-=-=-
Flexner
Hi Joe,
The group may be interested in downloading this report.
It is the one famous for setting up the current medical system and giving chiropractic a hard time over the years.
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/files/elibrary/flexner_report.pdf
Donald
-=-=-
Anything made by McDonald's tastes better
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.
Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.
The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.
Download whole story at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/06/mcdonalds.preschoolers.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Many thanks Dr Henry Battistoni for this...
-=-=-
Exercise vs SMT
seems like the PTs are justifying their "exercise" approach and, ONCE again, we may ask "what about specific manipulation, ie: adjustment a la chiropractic, compared herewith...
certainly of interest
Comparison of general exercise, motor control exercise and spinal manipulative therapy for chronic low back pain: A randomized trial
Manuela L. Ferreiraa, Paulo H. Ferreirab, Jane Latimerc, Robert D. Herbertc, Paul W. Hodgesd, Matthew D. Jenningse, Christopher G. Maherc, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author and Kathryn M. Refshaugec
aSchool of Physiotherapy, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Brazil
bSchool of Physiotherapy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
cSchool of Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, Australia
dDivision of Physiotherapy, The University of Queensland, Australia
eDepartment of Physiotherapy, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Received 24 June 2006; revised 29 October 2006; accepted 7 December 2006. Available online 23 January 2007.
Abstract
Practice guidelines recommend various types of exercise and manipulative therapy for chronic back pain but there have been few head-to-head comparisons of these interventions.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare effects of general exercise, motor control exercise and manipulative therapy on function and perceived effect of intervention in patients with chronic back pain.
Two hundred and forty adults with non-specific low back pain greater-or-equal, slanted3 months were allocated to groups that received 8 weeks of general exercise, motor control exercise or spinal manipulative therapy. General exercise included strengthening, stretching and aerobic exercises. Motor control exercise involved retraining specific trunk muscles using ultrasound feedback. Spinal manipulative therapy included joint mobilization and manipulation. Primary outcomes were patient-specific function (PSFS, 3–30) and global perceived effect (GPE, −5 to 5) at 8 weeks. These outcomes were also measured at 6 and 12 months. Follow-up was 93% at 8 weeks and 88% at 6 and 12 months. The motor control exercise group had slightly better outcomes than the general exercise group at 8 weeks (between-group difference: PSFS 2.9, 95% CI: 0.9–4.8; GPE 1.7, 95% CI: 0.9–2.4), as did the spinal manipulative therapy group (PSFS 2.3, 95% CI: 0.4–4.2; GPE 1.2, 95% CI: 0.4–2.0).
The groups had similar outcomes at 6 and 12 months. Motor control exercise and spinal manipulative therapy produce slightly better short-term function and perceptions of effect than general exercise, but not better medium or long-term effects, in patients with chronic non-specific back pain.
Pain. Volume 131, Issues 1-2, September 2007, Pages 31-37
-=-=-
Asia
Hello friends,
This seems serious.
A friend in Singapore contacted me re: his grief...
Hi Joe how are you? just wondering, with your vast knowledge and
experience including being in the media,how would you respond to nasty
orthopods. They wrote something in the newspaper here that there's no
scientific evidence of chiros helping pts with scoliosis and some bad
mouthing as well. Have you ever written anything back to fight back
like what you have written in journals and etc? Thank you. We are
having a tough time here. The ministry of health does not want to
register us either and the orthopods are using that as leverage that
we are unscientific, unregulated and unregistered. Argh. Anthony
There is an interesting story about Asia in the CAA newsletter this month. Written by Krystina Brown. There are so many unregistered charlatans, she writes, calling themselves chiropractors, that the mind boggles.
What would I say to an Ortho Surgeon who claims chiropractors dont help scoliosis?
1. do you subscribe to the chiropractic journals that publish results with scoliosis? Or are you aware of such studies?
2. what is the success rate of surgical approaches to idiopathic scoliosis and how do hey compare with conservative treatment?
3. Rapid advancement of idiopathic, or otherwise, scoliosis requires urgent referral to orthopaedic surgeon for assessment, usually in the range of 20-40º, and certainly for advances greater than 40º. Meanwhile, musculoskeletal imbalance can be addressed through chiropractic technique regimes to complement any required medical therapies and allow the patient to experience pain relief or sometimes suspension of scoliotic advancement.
Other associated discomfort due to scoliotic involvement can be relieved, such as suboccipital tension contributing to headache, or erector spinae hypertonicity creating thoracic tension triggering organ reflex symptoms through neuro-genic stimulation, which can be successfully alleviated with specific manipulative techniques to restore normality to the vertebral motion segments.
Scoliosis sufferers commonly endure reflexogenic effects of thoracic curvature such as stomach problems, diaphragm pressures like reflux and hiatus hernias...all relieved by gentle chiropractic work.
Many specific techniques look at the role of pelvic instability, or the upper cervical spine in the neurogenic link to postural distortions through injury or other means.
In essence, the work of chiropractic care is not always to cure scoliosis, which is, in fact, rare in any medical or chiropractic case. The essence of chiropractic is to alleviate human suffering, educate the patient in maintaining optimal health, and finally to advise the patient when to refer to medical specialists where indicated.
The dangers of surgery are known. The benefits too. In all cases, sound medical advice would have consideration for any possible help to be gained by chiropractic care. All good orthopaedic specialists do not rush into surgery unless the odds are toward the beneficial outcomes.
In Australia, UK and North American institutions, chiropractors are educated at UNIVERSITIES to work together with medical physicians to help people and complement the benefits of all therapies registered by the government.
....hope this helps friend.
And for what its worth "illegitimati non carborundum"...or whatever they say!
joe
-=-=-=-=-
jim sigafoose article
makes sense to me
http://www.planetc1.com/cgi-bin/n/v.cgi?c=1&id=1186549764
personally I have an "all encompassing" approach....but I still get more bang for my buck by adjusting C1, specifically, using x ray 99% of the time, in the time honoured approach BJ shared.
we certainly loved this...
My patient Greg Buchanan says "adjusting C1 specifically is what will help us patients..."
-=-=-
Quote
the germans have it here...
super quote for your files
thanks greg
joe
"Cranial Trauma & Head Joints (C1,2) -Many discomforts subsequent to cranial trauma remain latent for a considerable length of time and were unexplainable until now. They are due to subluxations of atlas and axis. They consist of muscular reflectoric, radicular and sympathetic nervous system symptoms. Chiropractic treatment aimed at realigning cervical vertebrae is the recommended course of action and can relieve all symptoms completely. G. Gutmann, MD, (1955) Cranial Trauma and Head Joints (German Medical Weekly), 80, 1503"
_______________________________________________________
Regards
Greg Buchanan - www.upcspine.com; www.uppercervicalpatients.com; www.whattimetuesday.com
Upper Cervical Patient Advocate - Australia
'The greatest natural resource that any country can have is its children' - Danny Kaye
-=-=-=-
for the music lovers
just saw the Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line
for fans, look at this song in his old age
someone sent it to me saying it was his most beautiful
so I posted it on my
myspace blog
enjoy
joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go
-=-=-
Coffe OD
my friend in USA is still not convinced of the health benefits of
coffee,
after this story, no wonder....but I still like my "one a day" drug.
joe
Teenage girl rushed to hospital after overdosing on coffee
By PAUL SIMS - More by this author »
Last updated at 01:28am on 14th August 2007
A teenage waitress overdosed on caffeine after drinking 14 shots of
espresso.
Jasmine Willis, 17, could hardly breathe and was taken to hospital
with a high temperature and heart palpitations.
She had drunk almost three times the recommended daily amount of
caffeine in just four hours.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/
dietfitness.html?
in_article_id=475021&in_page_id=1774&ICO=HEALTH&ICL=TOPART
-=-=-=-
NEW FILM
Read this Film review
SiCKO strikes a chord
Janis Hass, BAA
Ottawa, Ont.
SiCKO Written, produced and directed by Michael Moore; Alliance Atlantis; 2007; 116 min
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/177/4/379?etoc
-=-=-=--
WOW, look at this, thanks also to Dr Love of the UK.
When are we going to broadcast this and not the "others"??
So maybe kyphotic necks aren't normal after all?!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12457-bad-posture-could-raise-your-blood-pressure.html
Bad posture could raise your blood pressure
14:12 11 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
THAT office job might be raising your blood pressure in more ways than one.
A link between the muscles in the neck, blood pressure and heart rate has long been suspected. Now Jim Deuchars and colleagues at the University of Leeds, UK, have found a direct neural connection between these neck muscles and a part of the brainstem - called the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) - which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure.
Deuchars's team was using mice to investigate how the brain responds to a variety of stimulatory and inhibitory proteins. They noticed that a group of brain cells connected to the neck muscles kept firing in response to both types of proteins, suggesting the cells played a very active role in the brain.
"The cells lit up time and time again, so we looked at what they were doing," says team member Ian Edwards. It turned out that these cells are also connected to the NTS (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0638-07.2007).
Edwards says the finding could explain why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured - through whiplash, for example. Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure. "The pathway exists for bad posture to really have an effect," Edwards says.
AND MORE:
RAW DATA ON LAST E-MAIL:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/31/8324?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=neck+blood+pressure&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
The Neurochemically Diverse Intermedius Nucleus of the Medulla as a Source of Excitatory and Inhibitory Synaptic Input to the Nucleus Tractus Solitarii
Ian J. Edwards,1 * Mark L. Dallas,1 * Sarah L. Poole,1 Carol J. Milligan,1 Yuchio Yanagawa,2 Gábor Szabó,3 Ferenc Erdélyi,3 Susan A. Deuchars,1 and Jim Deuchars1
1Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom, 2Department of Genetic and Behavioral Neuroscience, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, and Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Maebashi 371-8511, Japan, and 3Department of Gene Technology and Developmental Neurobiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, H-1450 Budapest, Hungary
Correspondence should be addressed to either Jim Deuchars or Susan A. Deuchars, Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology, Garstang Building, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Email: J.Deuchars@leeds.ac.uk or Email: S.A.Deuchars@leeds.ac.uk
Sensory afferent signals from neck muscles have been postulated to influence central cardiorespiratory control as components of postural reflexes, but neuronal pathways for this action have not been identified. The intermedius nucleus of the medulla (InM) is a target of neck muscle spindle afferents and is ideally located to influence such reflexes but is poorly investigated. To aid identification of the nucleus, we initially produced three-dimensional reconstructions of the InM in both mouse and rat. Neurochemical analysis including transgenic reporter mice expressing green fluorescent protein in GABA-synthesizing neurons, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization revealed that the InM is neurochemically diverse, containing GABAegric and glutamatergic neurons with some degree of colocalization with parvalbumin, neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and calretinin. Projections from the InM to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) were studied electrophysiologically in rat brainstem slices. Electrical stimulation of the NTS resulted in antidromically activated action potentials within InM neurons. In addition, electrical stimulation of the InM resulted in EPSPs that were mediated by excitatory amino acids and IPSPs mediated solely by GABAA receptors or by GABAA and glycine receptors. Chemical stimulation of the InM resulted in (1) a depolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by NBQX (2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonoamide) or kynurenic acid and (2) a hyperpolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by bicuculline. Thus, the InM contains neurochemically diverse neurons and sends both excitatory and inhibitory projections to the NTS. These data provide a novel pathway that may underlie possible reflex changes in autonomic variables after neck muscle spindle afferent activation.
eeeeek, what a story
so glad we are catching up with Americans...god bless ozmerica!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20134672/
Updated: 3:07 p.m. ET Aug. 5, 2007
SYDNEY - More than two-thirds of Australians living outside major cities are overweight or obese, and extremely obese corpses are creating a safety hazard at mortuaries, according to two studies released on Sunday.
Nearly three quarters of men and 64 percent of women were overweight in a study of people in rural areas. Just 30 percent of those studied recorded a healthy weight, said research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
“Urgent action is required at the highest level to change unhealthy lifestyle habits by improving diet, increasing physical activity and making our environments supportive of these objectives,” wrote the lead researcher, Professor Edward Janus.
=-=-=-=-
Flexner
Hi Joe,
The group may be interested in downloading this report.
It is the one famous for setting up the current medical system and giving chiropractic a hard time over the years.
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/files/elibrary/flexner_report.pdf
Donald
-=-=-
Anything made by McDonald's tastes better
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.
Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.
The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.
Download whole story at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/06/mcdonalds.preschoolers.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Many thanks Dr Henry Battistoni for this...
-=-=-
Exercise vs SMT
seems like the PTs are justifying their "exercise" approach and, ONCE again, we may ask "what about specific manipulation, ie: adjustment a la chiropractic, compared herewith...
certainly of interest
Comparison of general exercise, motor control exercise and spinal manipulative therapy for chronic low back pain: A randomized trial
Manuela L. Ferreiraa, Paulo H. Ferreirab, Jane Latimerc, Robert D. Herbertc, Paul W. Hodgesd, Matthew D. Jenningse, Christopher G. Maherc, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author and Kathryn M. Refshaugec
aSchool of Physiotherapy, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Brazil
bSchool of Physiotherapy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil
cSchool of Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, Australia
dDivision of Physiotherapy, The University of Queensland, Australia
eDepartment of Physiotherapy, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Received 24 June 2006; revised 29 October 2006; accepted 7 December 2006. Available online 23 January 2007.
Abstract
Practice guidelines recommend various types of exercise and manipulative therapy for chronic back pain but there have been few head-to-head comparisons of these interventions.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare effects of general exercise, motor control exercise and manipulative therapy on function and perceived effect of intervention in patients with chronic back pain.
Two hundred and forty adults with non-specific low back pain greater-or-equal, slanted3 months were allocated to groups that received 8 weeks of general exercise, motor control exercise or spinal manipulative therapy. General exercise included strengthening, stretching and aerobic exercises. Motor control exercise involved retraining specific trunk muscles using ultrasound feedback. Spinal manipulative therapy included joint mobilization and manipulation. Primary outcomes were patient-specific function (PSFS, 3–30) and global perceived effect (GPE, −5 to 5) at 8 weeks. These outcomes were also measured at 6 and 12 months. Follow-up was 93% at 8 weeks and 88% at 6 and 12 months. The motor control exercise group had slightly better outcomes than the general exercise group at 8 weeks (between-group difference: PSFS 2.9, 95% CI: 0.9–4.8; GPE 1.7, 95% CI: 0.9–2.4), as did the spinal manipulative therapy group (PSFS 2.3, 95% CI: 0.4–4.2; GPE 1.2, 95% CI: 0.4–2.0).
The groups had similar outcomes at 6 and 12 months. Motor control exercise and spinal manipulative therapy produce slightly better short-term function and perceptions of effect than general exercise, but not better medium or long-term effects, in patients with chronic non-specific back pain.
Pain. Volume 131, Issues 1-2, September 2007, Pages 31-37
-=-=-
Asia
Hello friends,
This seems serious.
A friend in Singapore contacted me re: his grief...
Hi Joe how are you? just wondering, with your vast knowledge and
experience including being in the media,how would you respond to nasty
orthopods. They wrote something in the newspaper here that there's no
scientific evidence of chiros helping pts with scoliosis and some bad
mouthing as well. Have you ever written anything back to fight back
like what you have written in journals and etc? Thank you. We are
having a tough time here. The ministry of health does not want to
register us either and the orthopods are using that as leverage that
we are unscientific, unregulated and unregistered. Argh. Anthony
There is an interesting story about Asia in the CAA newsletter this month. Written by Krystina Brown. There are so many unregistered charlatans, she writes, calling themselves chiropractors, that the mind boggles.
What would I say to an Ortho Surgeon who claims chiropractors dont help scoliosis?
1. do you subscribe to the chiropractic journals that publish results with scoliosis? Or are you aware of such studies?
2. what is the success rate of surgical approaches to idiopathic scoliosis and how do hey compare with conservative treatment?
3. Rapid advancement of idiopathic, or otherwise, scoliosis requires urgent referral to orthopaedic surgeon for assessment, usually in the range of 20-40º, and certainly for advances greater than 40º. Meanwhile, musculoskeletal imbalance can be addressed through chiropractic technique regimes to complement any required medical therapies and allow the patient to experience pain relief or sometimes suspension of scoliotic advancement.
Other associated discomfort due to scoliotic involvement can be relieved, such as suboccipital tension contributing to headache, or erector spinae hypertonicity creating thoracic tension triggering organ reflex symptoms through neuro-genic stimulation, which can be successfully alleviated with specific manipulative techniques to restore normality to the vertebral motion segments.
Scoliosis sufferers commonly endure reflexogenic effects of thoracic curvature such as stomach problems, diaphragm pressures like reflux and hiatus hernias...all relieved by gentle chiropractic work.
Many specific techniques look at the role of pelvic instability, or the upper cervical spine in the neurogenic link to postural distortions through injury or other means.
In essence, the work of chiropractic care is not always to cure scoliosis, which is, in fact, rare in any medical or chiropractic case. The essence of chiropractic is to alleviate human suffering, educate the patient in maintaining optimal health, and finally to advise the patient when to refer to medical specialists where indicated.
The dangers of surgery are known. The benefits too. In all cases, sound medical advice would have consideration for any possible help to be gained by chiropractic care. All good orthopaedic specialists do not rush into surgery unless the odds are toward the beneficial outcomes.
In Australia, UK and North American institutions, chiropractors are educated at UNIVERSITIES to work together with medical physicians to help people and complement the benefits of all therapies registered by the government.
....hope this helps friend.
And for what its worth "illegitimati non carborundum"...or whatever they say!
joe
-=-=-=-=-
jim sigafoose article
makes sense to me
http://www.planetc1.com/cgi-bin/n/v.cgi?c=1&id=1186549764
personally I have an "all encompassing" approach....but I still get more bang for my buck by adjusting C1, specifically, using x ray 99% of the time, in the time honoured approach BJ shared.
we certainly loved this...
My patient Greg Buchanan says "adjusting C1 specifically is what will help us patients..."
-=-=-
Quote
the germans have it here...
super quote for your files
thanks greg
joe
"Cranial Trauma & Head Joints (C1,2) -Many discomforts subsequent to cranial trauma remain latent for a considerable length of time and were unexplainable until now. They are due to subluxations of atlas and axis. They consist of muscular reflectoric, radicular and sympathetic nervous system symptoms. Chiropractic treatment aimed at realigning cervical vertebrae is the recommended course of action and can relieve all symptoms completely. G. Gutmann, MD, (1955) Cranial Trauma and Head Joints (German Medical Weekly), 80, 1503"
_______________________________________________________
Regards
Greg Buchanan - www.upcspine.com; www.uppercervicalpatients.com; www.whattimetuesday.com
Upper Cervical Patient Advocate - Australia
'The greatest natural resource that any country can have is its children' - Danny Kaye
-=-=-=-
for the music lovers
just saw the Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line
for fans, look at this song in his old age
someone sent it to me saying it was his most beautiful
so I posted it on my
myspace blog
enjoy
joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go
-=-=-
Coffe OD
my friend in USA is still not convinced of the health benefits of
coffee,
after this story, no wonder....but I still like my "one a day" drug.
joe
Teenage girl rushed to hospital after overdosing on coffee
By PAUL SIMS - More by this author »
Last updated at 01:28am on 14th August 2007
A teenage waitress overdosed on caffeine after drinking 14 shots of
espresso.
Jasmine Willis, 17, could hardly breathe and was taken to hospital
with a high temperature and heart palpitations.
She had drunk almost three times the recommended daily amount of
caffeine in just four hours.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/
dietfitness.html?
in_article_id=475021&in_page_id=1774&ICO=HEALTH&ICL=TOPART
-=-=-=-
NEW FILM
Read this Film review
SiCKO strikes a chord
Janis Hass, BAA
Ottawa, Ont.
SiCKO Written, produced and directed by Michael Moore; Alliance Atlantis; 2007; 116 min
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/177/4/379?etoc
-=-=-=--
WOW, look at this, thanks also to Dr Love of the UK.
When are we going to broadcast this and not the "others"??
So maybe kyphotic necks aren't normal after all?!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12457-bad-posture-could-raise-your-blood-pressure.html
Bad posture could raise your blood pressure
14:12 11 August 2007
NewScientist.com news service
THAT office job might be raising your blood pressure in more ways than one.
A link between the muscles in the neck, blood pressure and heart rate has long been suspected. Now Jim Deuchars and colleagues at the University of Leeds, UK, have found a direct neural connection between these neck muscles and a part of the brainstem - called the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) - which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure.
Deuchars's team was using mice to investigate how the brain responds to a variety of stimulatory and inhibitory proteins. They noticed that a group of brain cells connected to the neck muscles kept firing in response to both types of proteins, suggesting the cells played a very active role in the brain.
"The cells lit up time and time again, so we looked at what they were doing," says team member Ian Edwards. It turned out that these cells are also connected to the NTS (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0638-07.2007).
Edwards says the finding could explain why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured - through whiplash, for example. Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure. "The pathway exists for bad posture to really have an effect," Edwards says.
AND MORE:
RAW DATA ON LAST E-MAIL:
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/31/8324?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=neck+blood+pressure&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
The Neurochemically Diverse Intermedius Nucleus of the Medulla as a Source of Excitatory and Inhibitory Synaptic Input to the Nucleus Tractus Solitarii
Ian J. Edwards,1 * Mark L. Dallas,1 * Sarah L. Poole,1 Carol J. Milligan,1 Yuchio Yanagawa,2 Gábor Szabó,3 Ferenc Erdélyi,3 Susan A. Deuchars,1 and Jim Deuchars1
1Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom, 2Department of Genetic and Behavioral Neuroscience, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, and Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Maebashi 371-8511, Japan, and 3Department of Gene Technology and Developmental Neurobiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, H-1450 Budapest, Hungary
Correspondence should be addressed to either Jim Deuchars or Susan A. Deuchars, Institute of Membrane and Systems Biology, Garstang Building, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. Email: J.Deuchars@leeds.ac.uk or Email: S.A.Deuchars@leeds.ac.uk
Sensory afferent signals from neck muscles have been postulated to influence central cardiorespiratory control as components of postural reflexes, but neuronal pathways for this action have not been identified. The intermedius nucleus of the medulla (InM) is a target of neck muscle spindle afferents and is ideally located to influence such reflexes but is poorly investigated. To aid identification of the nucleus, we initially produced three-dimensional reconstructions of the InM in both mouse and rat. Neurochemical analysis including transgenic reporter mice expressing green fluorescent protein in GABA-synthesizing neurons, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization revealed that the InM is neurochemically diverse, containing GABAegric and glutamatergic neurons with some degree of colocalization with parvalbumin, neuronal nitric oxide synthase, and calretinin. Projections from the InM to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) were studied electrophysiologically in rat brainstem slices. Electrical stimulation of the NTS resulted in antidromically activated action potentials within InM neurons. In addition, electrical stimulation of the InM resulted in EPSPs that were mediated by excitatory amino acids and IPSPs mediated solely by GABAA receptors or by GABAA and glycine receptors. Chemical stimulation of the InM resulted in (1) a depolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by NBQX (2,3-dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonoamide) or kynurenic acid and (2) a hyperpolarization of NTS neurons that were blocked by bicuculline. Thus, the InM contains neurochemically diverse neurons and sends both excitatory and inhibitory projections to the NTS. These data provide a novel pathway that may underlie possible reflex changes in autonomic variables after neck muscle spindle afferent activation.