Sit up straight
PEOPLE who spend much of the day slumped in front of the TV could be damaging their backs, according to a team of British researchers.
Research has shown that they risk deactivating muscles that support and protect the spine.
As a result, characters like TV couch potatoes The Royle Family may suffer attacks of inexplicable back pain.
The findings come from a study in which young men spent eight weeks in bed.
Scientists found that an absence of load on the spinal support muscles can be just as debilitating as a physical injury.
Ultrasound studies have shown that in most cases of lower back pain, muscles which keep the vertebrae in place or hold the pelvis together are inactive.
Normally the muscles work continuously to support and protect the lower back.
Heavy lifting, whiplash or other injuries can damage and deactivate these support muscles.
However, only between 10% and 15% of cases of low back pain begin with such an injury. For the rest, the cause is often a mystery.
The new research was carried out by scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia who used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the backs of bed-rest volunteers.
After eight weeks, damage was seen to the lumbar multifidus muscles which hold vertebrae in place. In all 19 young male volunteers, the muscles had wasted and become inactive.
“This is the first study to show that these muscles that protect your spine are switched off in de-loading,” said researcher Julie Hides.
She added that slumping for hours in front of a TV or computer could have exactly the same effect.
After six months of monitoring, some of the volunteers still had not recovered, even those who exercised.
But people can be taught to reactivate the support muscles using visual feedback from ultrasound scans, said the researchers.
The therapy has been shown to reduce the recurrence of lower back pain by half. – dpa
Predicting heart attacks
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Preventing heart attack
A LONG-ACTING form of Bayer’s blood pressure drug Adalat prevents heart attacks and strokes in angina patients and cuts the need for operations to treat blood vessel blockages, a study showed. Adalat was Bayer’s second-biggest selling drug last year and is key for the German pharmaceuticals and chemicals group, which has few big-selling medicines and a poor research pipeline. – Reuters
Reducing irregular heartbeat
A NEW drug from Sanofi-Aventis reduced significantly episodes of atrial fibrillaton or irregular heart beat in two clinical studies. The trials showed that patients given dronedarone went, on average, 2.3 and 2.7 times longer than those on placebo before experiencing heart flutter.
The risk of a first occurrence was also reduced significantly, by 21.6% and 27.5%, over a one-year period. – Reuters
Exercise pill
ALTERING a single gene turned ordinary mice into marathon racers that could run for hours and eat huge amounts of food without getting fat, a team of researchers reported on Monday. They said their study could lead to an exercise pill that gives many of the benefits of training without the need to sweat. – Reuters
Dementia risk
OLDER women with diabetes or pre-diabetes tend to have poorer mental function than those with normal blood sugar levels, and are at greater risk of cognitive decline over time, according to new research findings. Dr Kristine Yaffe, at the University of California, San Francisco, and her associates analysed data from a trial involving 7,027 postmenopausal, “relatively high-functioning community-dwelling women” with an average age of 66.3 years. – Reuters
New bug killers
A NEW type of bacteria-killing compounds, called nubiotics, appear to be potent anti-microbial agents in animal experiments, researchers report. Nubiotics are based on nucleic acid, the stuff of DNA and RNA, and have shown strong activity against a variety of bacteria in the lab dish. They are believed to be completely different from conventional antibiotics, the researchers say, and “could offer an exciting approach” to treating burn and wound infections. – Reuters
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