When pregnant mothers take omega-3 supplements, it has shown to increase the mental abilities of their babies. The researchers first warned of the problems associated with insufficient intake of Omega-3 fatty acids: Poor outcomes associated with insufficient intakes of omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy include intrauterine growth retardation, delayed or suboptimum depth perception, adverse neurodevelopmental measures, residual deficits in fine motor skills, speed of information processing in infants, and irreversible deficits in serotonin and dopamine release, according to Dr. Hibbeln and colleaguesFurthermore, in a study of nearly 12,000 pregnant women in England, those that consumed the least amount of Omega-3s during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of being in the lowest ranks for Verbal IQ, when the child was 8 years old! At 7 years old, there was an increased risk of social impairment. At ages up to 3.5 years, scores were also lower for fine-motor skills, communication, and social development. The higher the omega-3 intake of the pregnant mother, the less likely the child would score poorly in any of these areas, according to the researchers.

Sciatica pain

The term sciatica describes the symptoms of pain and possibly tingling, numbness or weakness that travels from the low back through the buttock and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of the leg. The sciatica Nerve is the largest longest nerve in the body. Sciatic pain is caused when a nerve root in the lower spine is pinched or irritated, and is commonly caused by a lumbar herniated disc, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease or spondylolisthesis. The clinical diagnosis of sciatica is referred to as a “radiculopathy”, meaning that a disc has protruded from its normal position in the vertebral column and is putting pressure on the nerve root in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve.Sciatica occurs most frequently in people between 30 and 50 years of age. Often a particular event or injury does not cause sciatica, but rather it may develop as a result of general wear and tear on the structures of the lower spine. The vast majority of people who experience sciatica get better with time (usually a few weeks or months) and find pain relief with non-surgical treatments.

Description of sciatica

For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and debilitating. For others, the pain might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse. Usually, sciatica only affects one side of the lower body, and the pain often radiates from the lower back all the way through the back of the thigh and down through the leg. Depending on where the sciatic nerve is affected, the pain may also radiate to the foot or toes.One or more of the following sensations may occur as a result of sciatica:·         Pain in the rear or leg that is worse when sitting·         Burning or tingling down the leg·         Weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg or foot·         A constant pain on one side of the rear·         A shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up·         Low back pain may be present along with the leg pain, but usually the low back pain is less severe than the leg pain.

If you have Sciatica over the next week I will post your options.

Thanks for reading,

Dr Dan

February 2007 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT). Despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain during pregnancy, few women in under-served populations receive treatment for their low back pain and researchers found that pain in a previous pregnancy may predict a high risk for musculoskeletal complaints in future pregnancies. 

According to Clayton Skaggs, DC, the study’s chief author, 85 percent of women surveyed reported that they had not received treatment for their musculoskeletal pain, and of the small percentage who perceived that their back complaints were addressed, less than 10 percent were satisfied with the symptom relief they obtained. 

“Based on the findings of this study, doctors of chiropractic and other health care professionals need to expand the musculoskeletal care available during pregnancy, especially in underserved populations,” Dr. Skaggs said.  “As a proactive step, health professionals should consider including back pain screening as part of early obstetrical care to help identify musculoskeletal risk factors and allow for early education and/or treatment.” 

Researchers surveyed more than 600 women. Surveys were offered to all obstetrical patients and were designed to collect information about pregnancy-related pain and quality of life issues.  Of those women who responded to the survey, two-thirds reported back pain and nearly half of all women reported pain at two or more locations, including pelvic pain and mid-back pain. 

The study findings suggest that pregnant women with back pain are predisposed to sleep disturbances.  In the survey, close to 80 percent of women reporting sleep disturbances had back pain, whereas only 8 percent of women without pain reported problems sleeping.  More alarming was the significant relationship between reports of musculoskeletal pain and the use of pain medication.  Three-fourths of the women who reported pain also described use of pain medication. 

“We saw a direct association between sleep deficiency and back pain,” the authors said.  “These results raise the question of whether or not the high incidence of pain medication use reflects a lack of education about potential risks of medications or more an inability for the pregnant women to cope with the pain.”

The study’s authors also found a relationship between pain in a previous pregnancy and pain in the current pregnancy.  Similar to the results of other studies, researchers found that 85 percent of women who experienced pain in a previous pregnancy reported pain during their current pregnancy. 

The study was the result of on-going collaboration between Logan College of Chiropractic and the Department of Obstetrics at Washington University School of Medicine. 

 Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, according to a study in Nature Medicine. The study was done in mice, but a clinical trial at Children’s Hospital Boston will soon begin testing the effects of omega-3 supplementation in premature babies, who are at risk for vision loss.

Abnormal vessel growth is the cause of retinopathy of prematurity, diabetic retinopathy in adults, and “wet” age-related macular degeneration, three leading causes of blindness. Retinopathy, affecting about 4 million diabetic patients and about 40,000 premature infants in the United States, is a two-step disease that begins with a loss of blood vessels in the retina (the nerve tissue at the back of the eye that sends visual signals to the brain). In the end stage of the disease, the abnormal vessels pull the retina away from its supporting layer, and this retinal detachment ultimately causes blindness. The researchers, led by Lois Smith, MD, PhD, and Kip Connor, PhD, of Children’s Hospital Boston’s Department of Ophthalmology and Harvard Medical School, and John Paul SanGiovanni, ScD, of the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health, studied retinopathy in a mouse model, feeding the mice diets that emphasized either omega-3 fatty acids or omega-6 fatty acids.  Mice on the omega-3 diet, rich in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and its precursor EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), had less initial vessel loss in the retina than the omega-6-fed mice: the area with vessel loss was 40 to 50 percent smaller. As a result, the omega-3 group had a 40 to 50 percent decrease in pathological vessel growth. “Our studies suggest that after initial loss, vessels re-grew more quickly and efficiently in the omega-3-fed mice,” says Connor, the study’s first author.  Because omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the retina, a mere 2 percent change in dietary omega-3 intake was sufficient to decrease disease severity by 50 percent, the researchers note. Validating their findings, results were virtually identical in mice whose omega-3 fatty acid levels were increased through genetic means.Omega-3 fatty acids like DHA and EPA are thought to dampen inflammation in the body. They are often lacking in Western diets; instead, omega-6 fatty acids predominate. The ideal omega-6:omega-3 ratio is thought to be 2:1 to 5:1, whereas typical Western diets have ratios of 10:1 or higher. Premature infants are especially lacking in omega-3 fatty acids, because they miss getting this nutrient from their mothers, a transfer that normally happens in the third trimester of pregnancy.“If omega-3 fatty acids, or these anti-inflammatory mediators, are as effective in humans and they are in mice, simple supplementation could be a cost-effective intervention benefiting millions of people,” says Smith, the study’s senior investigator. “The cost of blindness is enormous.”Aside from fish-oil supplements, the most widely available source of omega-3 fatty acids is coldwater oily fish (wild salmon, herry, mackerel, anchovies, sardines). The compounds can also be made synthetically from algae or other non-fish sources. Paul A. Sieving, MD, PhD, director of the NEI, which provided funding for the study, said, “This study shows the benefit of dietary omega-3 fatty acids in protecting against the development and progression of retinal disease. It gives us a better understanding of the biological processes that lead to retinopathy and how to intervene to prevent or slow disease. It will be interesting to see if human clinical trials show similar beneficial effects.” The clinical trial at Children’s Hospital Boston will follow premature newborns who are unable to feed and are receiving parenteral nutrition, with omega-3 fatty acids as part of their IV solution. The hope is that the omega-3 supplementation will allow the retina and its vessels to develop normally. “Once the retina is detached, there’s little you can do,” says Smith. “We want to give omega-3 right from the beginning to mimic what the infants would be getting from their mothers in utero, had they not been born prematurely.”In addition to retinopathy, the researchers speculate that omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce vision loss in people with “wet” or neovascular phase of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that also involves abnormal vessel growth.