Do you talk with your healthcare practitioner before taking a new supplement? If you don’t, it’s a good habit to start, especially if you take medications for a chronic illness. As the Wall Street Journal reported, some supplements can affect the way your body reacts to certain medications. For example, some supplements may make your body metabolize a specific medication too slowly, causing it to build up in your body, while others may make your body metabolize a specific medication too quickly, causing your body to flush it out before it can take effect. Having a basic understanding of these interactions, along with talking to your doctor, can help you make the best choice when selecting a new supplement. Here are some commonly used supplements and a few of their possible drug interactions:

• Calcium. Research has linked calcium to bone, menstrual, and pregnancy support. It’s important to know, however, that calcium may reduce the body’s absorption of certain antibiotics. Learn more about calcium–drug interactions.
• Echinacea. Research supports the use of echinacea for immune system support. While the research on echinacea’s interactions with certain medications is still unclear, it’s possible to have an allergy to echinacea that may cause an allergic reaction. Read up on echinacea–drug interactions.
• Ginkgo. Ginkgo has been found to improve age-related cognitive decline and to improve vision in people with glaucoma. Be aware, though, that ginkgo may worsen glucose tolerance when taken with some anti-diabetes medications. Find out more about ginkgo–drug interactions.

According to an article in The Washington Post, it's common for female athletes to have iron deficiency due to monthly blood loss and to diets that often don’t include fortified foods or red meat. It’s important to note that you can be iron deficient without being anemic, although anemia is often caused by low iron and refers specifically to low hemoglobin—the molecule that carries oxygen throughout the body. Lack of iron can lead to feeling tired, cold, and depressed, which can impact performance in a big way. Luckily iron deficiency is completely preventable. Here’s what you need to know:

• The National Institutes of Health’s recommended iron intake for premenopausal women is 18 mg daily. According to one expert, female athletes may need to take a higher dosage.
• Aside from red meat and seafood, green-leafy vegetables can also provide iron, especially when consumed along with vitamin C. Avoid eating these foods with ones that interfere with iron uptake, such as coffee and tea.
• Iron can be taken as a supplement, but it’s important to be screened first to see how deficient you are, as getting too much iron is not healthful.

Source: The Washington Post

Is sitting all day at your desk becoming a real pain in the neck? Research may offer up a remedy: researchers have found that long-term use of two alternative therapies—acupuncture and the Alexander Technique—may each reduce neck pain when paired with physical therapy and medication, both of which are considered standard therapies typically prescribed for neck pain. While most have heard of acupuncture, an ancient practice that involves stimulating specific points on the body by inserting needles into the skin, many may be unfamiliar with the Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique is an educational method which focuses on body movements that minimize muscle strain, and thereby improves posture, coordination, balance, and stress. For the study, which was reported on in Time and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers recruited 517 people who had been experiencing neck pain for at least 3 months (with an average duration of 6 years). Participants were divided into three groups and were treated for a year: the first group was assigned to receive standard therapies plus twelve, 50-minute acupuncture treatments; the second group was assigned to receive standard therapies plus twenty, 30-minute Alexander Technique lessons; and the third group was assigned to receive only standard therapies. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their neck pain at the beginning of the study, and then after 3, 6, and 12 months of treatment. At the end of the study, here is what the researchers discovered:

• People receiving acupuncture or Alexander Technique lessons reported 31% to 32% less neck pain than they reported at the beginning of the study. On average this was about 4 percentage points less than people receiving standard therapies only.
• After 6 months, people receiving acupuncture or Alexander Technique lessons had improvements in self-efficacy, which is the belief that one can make positive changes to one’s quality of life. This was associated with the neck pain reductions reported at the end of the study.

These findings suggest that acupuncture or the Alexander Technique may be beneficial for people with chronic neck pain, and joins other research that supports acupuncture’s role in pain reduction. The study’s findings also signal that self-efficacy may play a role in long-term pain reduction; however, more research is needed to determine whether acupuncture and the Alexander Technique can contribute to self-efficacy, and to better understand the relationship between self-efficacy and pain reduction. In the end, believing in yourself could be one aspect of pain management: if you’re confident you can manage your pain, you just might be able to!

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine

Eat well to sleep well, suggests research which has found that eating a diet low in fiber, high in sugar, and high in saturated fat may lead to poor sleep quality. Published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the study included 26 adults, aged 30 to 45, who had healthy weights and good sleep habits (seven to nine hours per night). During five consecutive nights, the participants were assigned to spend nine hours in bed in a sleep lab. For the first four days, the participants ate a controlled diet; on the fifth day, they ate what they wanted. After researchers analyzed several measurements of the participants’ sleep quality, including the duration of their slow wave sleep (deep sleep), the time it took for them to fall sleep, and how often they stirred while sleeping, they found that:

• The participants took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in deep sleep after their day of free eating compared to their days eating the controlled diet.
• Three specific food patterns were linked to sleep variables on the fifth night: higher fiber intake was linked to more time spent in deep sleep, a greater proportion of calories from saturated fat was linked to less time spent in deep sleep, and a greater proportion of calories from sugar was linked to more arousals from sleep.

These findings suggest that a poor diet could result in lighter, less restorative sleep. However, this study only included good sleepers, so more research is needed to understand if a healthier diet could help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders. Previous research suggests the inverse of this study may also be true—that poor sleep can lead to overeating. So, it’s probably a good idea to get the recommended seven to nine hours of ZZZ’s and to eat a diet full of fiber-rich whole foods and low in saturated fats and sugar to keep yourself shipshape.

Source: Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine

A study found that girls with diets high in potassium have lower blood pressure into their teens. Published in JAMA Pediatrics, the study looked at data on the sodium and potassium intakes, and the blood pressures, of 2,185 girls, ages 9 to 10. The data also included an additional 10 years of follow-up with the girls so that researchers could continue to assess their diets and systolic and diastolic blood pressures. After adjusting for race, height, activity, screen time, energy intake, and other dietary factors, the study found that:

• Girls consuming higher amounts of potassium had lower blood pressure in their teens compared with girls consuming less potassium.
• Higher sodium consumption (greater than 3,000 mg per day) was not associated with higher adolescent blood pressure. In fact, girls consuming 3,500 mg/day or more generally had lower diastolic blood pressures compared with girls consuming less than 2,500 mg/day.

This study is important because it suggests that potassium-rich diets may be an effective way to lower blood pressure in adolescence. Only a small percentage of people get the recommended 4,700 mg/day of potassium, but there are many great sources of potassium that are easy to eat daily; these include bananas, raisins, sweet potatoes, avocados, spinach, and kale.

Source: JAMA Pediatrics