Fred Samorodin is impressed with XanGo, a mangosteen health drink for antiinflammatory benefits.

abc news:  Sunday, January 17, 2010

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Profile

 - One of the things that’s very popular right now are these super juices. A lot of people are talking about acai berry, goji berry, but the one we’ve chosen to study is something called Mangosteen. The leading manufacturer is a company called XanGo, and we’ve worked with them to evaluate their product, which is a Mangosteen juice. It includes not only the fruit but also the rind of the fruit.
  And it’s that rind that contains some unique anti-inflammatory agents called xanthones.

Well in many animal studies and in some anecdotal human experiences we’ve seen pretty remarkable anti-inflammatory effects. So we’re actually conducting a large trial of about 220 patients, all of whom have atrial fibrillation and as they go to cardioversion, where they get a shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm, those people are then going to either drink the juice or a placebo juice and the idea being that recurrent atrial fibrillation is often driven by how much inflammation is in the body.

So if Mangosteen does what we think it will, reduces the inflammation, we anticipate we’ll see less atrial fibrillation recurring in those patients drinking the actual juice. We’re also looking at a number of markers for inflammation and antioxidant capabilities, so there’s a lot of interest, because if it’s positive, this’ll really be the first clinical trial to validate the use of this novel juice and there’s plenty of other applications that we’ll pursue in other research studies.

Dr. Brent Bauer, M.D.

Mayo Clinic–Rochester, Minnesota

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Study finds sit-ups don’t do much for your abs and can be a strain on your back.

(more…)

Check out this brief video on how to stretch your thoracic spine over a foam roller at home.

Fred Samorodin,RPT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ_RvGB3TFU

Visceral Manipulation: How important is it for you?

by barralinstitute.com

• Did you know that the attachments of the sigmoid colon and the caecum on the anterior sacroiliac joint could be the cause of your client’s sacroiliac joint dysfunction?
• Did you know that the ligaments that attach from the superior border of the lungs to the cervical spine and the first rib can tighten due to scar tissue from a lung infection, and this can cause brachial plexus issues?
• Did you know that Jean-Pierre Barral, DO, the developer of Visceral Manipulation, has found that 90% of all musculoskeletal disorders have a visceral component?

Visceral Manipulation blends into all types of manual therapy practices…The fisceral system relies on the interconnected synchronicity between the motions of all the organs and stgructures of the body,.  At optimal health, this harmoniuous relationship remains stable despite the body’s endless varieties of motion.  But when an organ cannot move in harmony with its surroundings due to abnormal tone, adhesions or displacement, it works against the body’s other organs, as well as muscular, membranous, fascial and osseous structures.  This disharmony creates fixed, abnormal points of tension that the body is forced to move around.  These fixed points create viscero-somatic interactions, which present as musculoskeletal or neuromuscular symptomology.

Clinical Study on the Effrects of VM for Low Back Spinal Dysfunction

Gail Wetzler, Registered Physical Therapist studied the effects of visceral manipulation on low back pain in 30 patients.  Some patients has previous manual therapy treatment, but did not include visceral manipulation.  Wetzler treated patients with VM (visceral manipulation) an average of 6-7 times.  Resutls were measured via a pain scale the patient completed, neurological testing, and standard movement and strength tests of the low back.  The results showed marked improvement in all but 2 of the cases across all tests.  The conclusion was “low back spinal dyusfunction may be more effectively and efficiently resolved with the addition of Visceral Manipulation into the treatment program.” Complete study can be found at www.barralinstitute.com