The truth about sports, nutrition and pain!

Archive for February, 2014

Bread – Does it make you fat?

I will admit it, I love bread and I cannot eat without bread. You give me a plate of pasta and there is no bread and I won´t enjoy it. You give me the best steak in the world with fries and there is no bread and I will be disappointed. I will still eat the steak  and the pasta  but it´s not going to be the same. Bread for me is sacred, it´s one of the best things there is.  And that is why I eat with a fork (spoon)  in one hand and bread in the other and I love it. So when people tell me they are going on a diet and give up on ¨bread¨, I gasp and say two things, ¨you are crazy¨ and ¨how the hell can you get the pasta on your fork without the help of a piece of bread? ¨ 😉

Bread always gets a bad rap and whenever people want to lose weight, the first thing they take out is ¨bread¨. So, I wanted to find out if bread is really that bad and if it´s really the thing that is causing you to gain weight. And luckily they recently did a study on that. The study is called ¨the evaluation of the usefulness of a low-calorie diet with or without bread in the treatment of overweight/obesity¨. So, what they basically did in this study was divide 122 women into 2 groups. One group was called the intervention group (COULD EAT BREAD, N=61) and the other group was called the control group (NO BREAD, N=61). Both groups received a low-calorie diet of 1500 kcal, with a total caloric distribution of 55% carbohydrates, 21% proteins and 24% fat. The BREAD group was given a diet that included bread while the NO BREAD group was given other sources of carbohydrate, such as pasta, rice , potatoes and legumes.  Both groups also received a Nutrition Education Programme and the same physical activity guidelines to be carried out at least three times a week, with 30 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity. And what they found out is that both groups of women significantly reduced their body weight, waist circumference , BMI and body fat percentage. But the intervention group (BREAD) had a better evolution of dietetic parameters and a GREATER compliance with the diet with fewer dropouts.

So what does all this mean?  Well, that a calorie is  a calorie, and if you are losing weight because you are not eating bread it is because you are consuming fewer calories, not because of the bread in itself. You could do the same thing if you just restricted another food. In fact, according to this study a low-calorie diet with bread is better than a low-calorie diet without bread.  So, in conclusion, do whatever you want but please don´t mess with ¨the bread¨.

References

Kohen-L V, Candela-G C, Fernández-F C, Torres P A, Puig-G J, Bermerjo L. Evaluation of the usefulness of a low-calorie diet with or without bread in the treatment of overweight/obesity.Clin Nutri 2012. Aug,31(4):455-61.

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Diet

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Alternative medicine part 3

My last post has created some controversy and some people were not happy with what I had written. I even got a couple of e-mails asking why I was so harsh with ¨alternative medicine¨. The senders said that, in their case, they had tried ¨alternative therapy¨ and it had worked for them, whereas ¨real medicine¨ had failed. And if their problem was one that had to do with pain or some other disease that is ¨subjective¨, I believe them. Yes, that´s right I believe them, but not for the reasons they think that the alternative therapy worked. I´ll use the example of pain and I will try to explain it.

In my last post (click here) I gave an example of an experiment which demonstrated that, subjectively, everything works. There wasn´t really any difference between any of the treatments, right? Well, pain is a very subjective feeling. We can´t measure pain. Some people have a small injury and lots of pain, while other people can have a huge injury and no pain. Pain is influenced by stress, anxiety, your beliefs, attitude, and a thousand other things. That is why pain is very complex, after all, pain is in the brain (click here). Your belief in a therapy can even influence pain, so if you belief something is going to help you with your pain then it probably will! And that may be the reason why sometimes alternative therapy helps these patients.
Now, when you have a disease that can be measured, for example diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, etc. alternative therapy simply doesn´t work.  Because different trials have shown that  alternative  therapy is no better than placebo. A pill is horrible and I wish doctors would stop prescribing so many of them. But a pill is only released onto the market when it has been proven that is has a BETTER effect than placebo, while with alternative therapy that doesn´t happen. 
But not only this, if we look at the logic behind these alternative therapies we realize that there is no logic. For example, acupuncture bases itself on the principles that a ¨life force called qi flows through bodies along 12 channels or ¨meridians¨, and that illness and pain occur when qi cannot flow freely. Science cannot do a lot of things but it can measure energy, and ¨QI¨has never been found.
Homeopathy dilutes one drop of the original substance  in a hundred, thirty times over, meaning  that less than one part per million of the original solution is in the final product, but this doen´t matter because homoeopathist believe that ¨water has memory¨.
I will say, though, that most alternative therapists usually listen better to their clients, they create a greater bond than a doctor does with his client. If you are lucky the doctor will maybe give you 5 minutes and prescribes you something. I think this is horrible and something that should change. The best thing would be to combine both treatments, things that have been demonstrated to work in clinical studies, with the care and effort that alternative therapists treat their patients.
So in conclusion: I believe those patients 100% when they say that the alternative therapy worked for them… but it´s not for the reasons why they think it worked.
References
  1. Singh S, Ernst E. Trick or Treatment? Alternative medicine on trial. Transworld Publishers.2009
  2. Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, Jüni P, Dörig S, Sterne JA, Pewsner D, Egger M. Are the clinical effect of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoepathy and allopathy. Lancet.2005
  3. Ernst E. Homeopathy: what does the ¨best¨evidence tell us? Med J Aust. 2010 Apr 19;192(8):458-60.
  4. Ernst E, Lee MS, Choi TY. Acupuncture: does it alleviate pain and are there serious risks? A review of reviews. Pain. 2011:152:755-64.
  5. Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, Jüni P, Dörig S, Sterne JA, Pewsner D, Egger M. Are the clinical effect of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy. Lancet.2005
  6. David Colquhoun (UCL) and Steven Novella (Yale). acupuncture is a theatrical placebo. Anesthesia & Analgesia, June 2013 116:1360-63
  7. Asbjørn Hróbjartsson, M.D., and Peter C. Gøtzsche, M.D. Is the Placebo Powerless?-An analysis of clinical trials comparing Placebo with no Treatment.N Engl J Med 2001; 344:1594-1602.

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Pain

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Alternative medicine part 2: subjectively – objectively

Anyone who has followed me knows that I am not a big fan of alternative medicine. Not because I have anything against it, it is just because it doesn´t really work. Study after study has found that alternative medicine is just NO good (1-4), and when they have found that something really works, well, it stopped being called alternative medicine and started being called MEDICINE.

The thing is, sometimes when you visit one of these ¨alternative therapists¨, you may come out feeling better and thinking ¨his medicine or therapy is working¨. Now, a couple of factors may come into play why ¨his therapy may be working¨,  like the ones I mentioned  in one of my previous blogs (click here). But, people sometimes don´t understand this quite well so I want to explain it with an example.

Three years ago they did a study on asthma (5). Now, I first want to mention that we know how to treat asthma. If you have asthma and take your medication you probably won´t have any problems and can live a normal life. However, if asthma is not treated properly it can lead to complications and even death. annually 250,000 people worldwide die due to asthma (6).

Ok, so the experiment went like this: There were 4 groups of people with asthma. Each group was treated with a different technique. One group was given the real medicine (albuterol), another group was given fake medicine (fake albuterol or fake inhaler), another group received sham acupuncture (there is really no difference between sham acupuncture and real acupuncture (7-12)), and the last group received nothing, they were only controlled.

SUBJECTIVELY all 4 groups improved a lot. A visual analogue scale was used to measure this (with 0 indicating no improvement and 10 indicating complete improvement). The results went as follows:

  1. ALBUTEROL- 50% improvement
  2. FAKE ALBUTEROL- 45% improvement
  3. SHAM ACUPUNCTURE- 46% improvement
  4. NO INTERVENTION CONTROL- 21% improvement

This is so important because there was really no difference between the fake treatments and the real treatments. After the experiment the patients felt quite good.

Now, OBJECTIVELY, meaning they can measure it (they measured the percent change in Maximum Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second), they all improved!! And here are the results:

  1. ALBUTEROL- 20.1% improvement
  2. FAKE ALBUTEROL- 7.5% improvement
  3. SHAM ACUPUNCTURE- 7.1% improvement
  4. No-INTERVENTION CONTROL- 7.1% improvement

The real medicine worked 3 TIMES BETTER than all the fake medicines, even though subjectively there was barely any difference. This is important because, like I said before, if asthma is not treated properly it can lead to a lot of complications and even death!!  Subjectively you may go to an ALTERNATIVE THERAPIST and feel great, but objectively it probably isn´t helping you too much. Because alternative medicine is no better than Placebo (1-4).

Another thing to take into account from this study, is the power of the brain. Because even though the 3 ¨fake groups¨ are inefficient in treating asthma, they (objectively) improved the outcome of each patient. Even the group that was only being observed!!! This phenomenon is called Hawthorne effect and it means: Clinical improvement in a group of patients in a clinical trial that is attributable to the fact of being under study!!

Hoped you liked it

References

  1. Ernst E, Lee MS, Choi TY. Acupuncture: does it alleviate pain and are there serious risks? A review of reviews. Pain. 2011:152:755-64.
  2. Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, Jüni P, Dörig S, Sterne JA, Pewsner D, Egger M. Are the clinical effect of homeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoeopathy and allopathy. Lancet.2005
  3. David Colquhoun (UCL) and Steven Novella (Yale). acupuncture is a theatrical placebo. Anesthesia & Analgesia, June 2013 116:1360-63
  4. Asbjørn Hróbjartsson, M.D., and Peter C. Gøtzsche, M.D. Is the Placebo Powerless?-An analysis of clinical trials comparing Placebo with no Treatment.N Engl J Med 2001; 344:1594-1602.
  5. Michael E. Wechsler, M.D., John M. Kelley, Ph.D., Ingrid O.E. Boyd, M.P.H., Stefanie Dutile, B.S., Gautham Marigowda, M.B., Irving Kirsch, Ph.D., Elliot Israel, M.D., and Ted J. Kaptchuk. Active Albuterol or Placebo, Sham Acupuncture, or No Intervention in Asthma.N Engl J Med 2011; 365:119-126
  6. http://www.aaaai.org/about-the-aaaai/newsroom/asthma-statistics.aspx
  7. Linde K, Streng A, Jürgens S, Hoppe A, Brinkhaus B, Witt C, Wagenpfeil S, Pfaffenrath V, Hammes MG, Weidenhammer W, Willich SN, Melchart D. Acupuncture for patients with migraine: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2005;293:2118–25
  8. Melchart D, Streng A, Hoppe A, Brinkhaus B, Witt C, Wagenpfeil S, Pfaffenrath V, Hammes M, Hummelsberger J, Irnich D, Weidenhammer W, Willich SN, Linde K. Acupuncture in patients with tension-type headache: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2005;331:376–82
  9. Haake M, Müller HH, Schade-Brittinger C, Basler HD, Schäfer H, Maier C, Endres HG, Trampisch HJ, Molsberger A. German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for chronic low back pain: randomized, multicenter, blinded, parallel-group trial with 3 groups. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167:1892–8
  10. Witt C, Brinkhaus B, Jena S, Linde K, Streng A, Wagenpfeil S, Hummelsberger J, Walther HU, Melchart D, Willich SN. Acupuncture in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomised trial. Lancet. 2005;366:136–43
  11. Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Avins AL, Erro JH, Ichikawa L, Barlow WE, Delaney K, Hawkes R, Hamilton L, Pressman A, Khalsa PS, Deyo RA. A randomized trial comparing acupuncture, simulated acupuncture, and usual care for chronic low back pain. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169:858–66
  12. Madsen MV, Gøtzsche PC, Hróbjartsson A. Acupuncture treatment for pain: systematic review of randomised clinical trials with acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, and no acupuncture groups. BMJ. 2009;338:a3115

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Pain

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The Magic tape

You´ve probably seen a bunch of athletes wearing this kind of tape. They have it over their knees, shoulders, backs, ankles, almost anywhere you can imagine. It comes in different colors and it´s called ¨athletic therapeutic tape¨. This elastic therapeutic tape is used for treating sports injuries and a variety of other disorders. You guys probably know it by kinesio tape (KT). This tape became very popular thanks, in part, to a great marketing strategy. During the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, a tape manufacturer donated kinesio tape to 58 countries for their athletes to use. Many athletes used it and overnight it became a world wide sensation. But does it really work?

Well, the research out there is controversial to say the least.  For example, there was a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (1) that concluded that ¨Kinesio taping does not appear to have a beneficial effect on pain when compared with sham treatment. Based mostly on studies of healthy populations, there are inconsistent results for other outcome measures such as ROM (range of motion), strength, muscle activity and proprioception. … At present there appears to be little high quality evidence on which to assess the effectiveness of kinesio taping, it is hoped that future research will clarify the situation¨.  And many other studies say the same thing, especially if the patients are ¨healthy¨(2,4).

For example, another systematic review found ¨insufficient evidence to support the use of KT following musculoskeletal injury, although a perceived benefit cannot be discounted. There are few high-quality studies examining the use of KT following musculoskeletal injury¨(3). Now, if the athletes are injured there seems to be some evidence that kinesio tape may help (5). It is still not known why that is (propiocepcion, placebo), but it seems like it works a little. So, should we use it?

I am a little skeptic about it, but the good thing with kinesio tape is that it doesn´t really have any negative effects. So you have nothing to lose, except a couple of euros (or $). So as a last resort I would  try it.

Hoped you liked it.

  1. Kamper SJ, Henschkle N. Kinesio taping for sports injuries. Br J Sports Med. 2013 Nov; 47(17):1128-9.
  2. Ferriero G, Vercelli S, Sartorio F, Foti C, Colleto L, Virton D, Ronconi G. Immediate effects of kinesiotaping on quadriceps muscle strength: a single-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial. Clin J Sport Med,2012 Jul;22(4):319-26.
  3. Mostafavifar M, Wertz J, Borchers J. A systematic review of the effectiveness of kinesio taping for musculoskeletal injury. Phys SPortsmed.2012 Nov;40(4):33-40.
  4. Thelen MD, Dauber JA, Stoneman PD. The clinical efficacy of kinesio tape for shoulder pain: a randomized, double-blinded, clinical trial. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, 2008 Jul; 38(7):389-95
  5. Williams S. Whatman C, Hume PA, Sheerin K. Kinesio taping in treatment and prevention of sports injuries: a meta-analysis of the evidence for its effectiveness. Sports Med, 2012 Feb 1;42(2):153-64

Category:

Pain

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