Whole Life Times: Body Talk

May 2006 | Whole Health

Body Talk

by Elizabeth Barker

My Achy, Breaky Back

Put a little pressure on your back pain! In acupressure, a traditional Chinese medicine practice, pressing specific points on the body stimulates energy (chi) flow and promotes healing. A recent study from the British Medical Journal showed acupressure reduced low back pain more effectively than physical therapy. Of the study’s 129 patients with chronic low back pain, about half had six sessions of acupressure while the other half received the same amount of physical therapy. Members of the acupressure group had a significantly greater reduction in pain and increase in functioning immediately post- treatment—an effect that lasted for six months after the sessions stopped.

“With acupressure, the cause of the pain can be identified and removed gradually by pressing a series of acupoints for each cause,” says study author Lisa Hsieh, MD. “Stimulation on these points can help patients resume normal functioning of the body.”

P is for Pesticide

Shine up an organic apple for snack time—a new study from Emory University found that eating organic foods may help keep kids’ growing bodies free of two common pesticides. Researchers took 23 elementary school students off their usual diets and swapped in organic foods for five consecutive days, then reintroduced the children to their normal foods and continued studying them for a week. While eating organic, the majority of the children had no detectable levels of the pesticides Malathion and Chlorpyrifos in their urine. But when the kids switched back to their regular diets, those pesticides levels shot back up.

In addition to gaining what the study’s authors deem “an immediate and protective effect” against pesticide exposure, going organic may mean giving kids true nourishment. “Eating organic allows children to consume food that’s closer to a pure form, rather than food that’s been tampered with,” says Beverly Hills-based dietitian Robyn L. Goldberg, RD. “They’ll be more likely to taste the food the way it’s actually meant to taste.”

The Lowdown on Low G.I.

Consulting the glycemic index before every meal might not amount to a slimmer waistline, suggests a new study from the British Journal of Nutrition. By ranking carbs according to how they affect blood sugar, the glycemic index assigns numbers to indicate which foods to choose (low G.I. carbs like broccoli and peanuts) and which to avoid (high G.I. triggers like white bread and baked potatoes). But since the rankings are based on blood-sugar levels recorded in experimental settings, says study author Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, PhD, those numbers may not add up. “Many factors can affect the impact of food on glucose levels in a ‘real life’ setting, including the length of time that food is cooked, your body’s hormones and other foods that are eaten at the same time,” she notes.

Comparing more than 1,000 study participants over five years with relatively low G.I. diets to those with relatively high G.I. diets, the researchers found no link between the diets’ glycemic index and measures of blood glucose. Still, the glycemic index can serve as a general guide to finding more balance in your diet, says Julie Feldman, RD, Redondo Beach-based nutritionist and founder of CreativeNutrition.com. “If you eat a high G.I. food, pair it with a low G.I. food,” Feldman suggests. “This helps prevent energy crashes, which greatly impact stress hormones and thyroid function.”

Elizabeth Barker is a freelance writer living in Echo Park.

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