February 22, 2010 by Avery Jenkins.

I just sent out my latest issue of the DocAltMed newsletter. If you aren’t a subscriber, click on this link to read it. If you want to subscribe, just register on this blog or at www.docaltmed.com, and we’ll put you on the mailing list.

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February 21, 2010 by Avery Jenkins.

My new podcast is up, you can download it here, or even better, subscribe to the podcast by clicking on this feed. Or, as usual, you can always go to iTunes and subscribe there.

For more information about the March 12 Free Digital Foot Scan, go here.

The laboratory website is www.footlevelers.com.

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February 19, 2010 by Avery Jenkins.

A reader brought to my attention the growing trend of barefoot running, given fuel recently by this study:

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February 16, 2010 by Avery Jenkins.

I’m very happy to be able to do this.

For 15 years, I’ve been putting my patients into custom orthotics for a variety of reasons, most typically chronic low back or knee pain. I have also used them quite frequently on my athlete patients, as the research has found that custom orthotics can curtail the risk of training injuries.

And in the case of at least one sport — golf — there is research that shows that using custom orthotics actually increases performance! Yep, you read it right. Slip these things in your golf cleats and strip a couple of strokes off your game. Can’t beat that with a stick (so to speak).

Having made a short story longer, here’s the point: I’ve arranged for the orthotics lab that I’ve been using for the past 15 years, Foot Levelers, to bring in one of their technicians. She will be spending the day on Friday, March 12, doing digital scans of people’s feet to see if you need orthotics. Did I mention that this is free?If it turns out that you do need orthotics and you order them that day, I’ll give you 15% off.If you order two pairs, you get 30% off. Sweet.

Here’s a linky that takes you to a pretty web page about it.

You can always check out my website to read much of what you’ve read here, only with more formal wording.And, as always, if you have questions, email me, or call me at (860)567-5727.

Do this. It’s free, and it will make you so happy.

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February 3, 2010 by Avery Jenkins.

That’s the name of this year’s first podcast, and it is up and available now. The feed for all my podcasts is here.

And, as promised, here are the show notes:

Br J Community Nurs. 2009 Oct;14(10):422, 424-6.
Dietary factors and depression in older people.

Williamson C. British Nutrition Foundation, London. c.williamson@nutrition.org.uk

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions and can affect people of all ages, but it is becoming more common among the older population with increasing life expectancy. Observational studies have found poor micronutrient status (particularly folate and vitamin B12) to be associated with an increased risk of depression in older people. Supplementation with folic acid has been shown to enhance anti-depressant drug treatment and there is preliminary evidence that supplementation with certain micronutrients may help improve depressive symptoms in older patients. There has also been a lot of interest in the role of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in depression.

Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age.

Akbaraly TN, Brunner EJ, Ferrie JE, Marmot MG, Kivimaki M, Singh-Manoux A. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. tasnime.akbaraly@inserm.fr

 BACKGROUND: Studies of diet and depression have focused primarily on individual nutrients. AIMS: To examine the association between dietary patterns and depression using an overall diet approach. METHOD: Analyses were carried on data from 3486 participants (26.2% women, mean age 55.6 years) from the Whitehall II prospective cohort, in which two dietary patterns were identified: ‘whole food’ (heavily loaded by vegetables, fruits and fish) and ‘processed food’ (heavily loaded by sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products). CONCLUSIONS: In middle-aged participants, a processed food dietary pattern is a risk factor for CES-D depression 5 years later, whereas a whole food pattern is protective. 

If you are interested in more information about diet and depression, contact me by clicking here.

Thanks for listening, and as always, your feedback and comments are very much appreciated!

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