A new report indicates that suboccipital muscle inhibition may benefit patients with short hamstring syndrome.According to the study, “the sample (70 subjects = 47 male and 23 female) was randomly divided into a control group (n = 34) and an intervention group (n = 36). Mean sample age was 23.40 ± 3.82 years. The control group was subjected to a placebo technique, whereas the intervention group was subjected to the suboccipital muscle inhibition technique. Pre and postintervention evaluation was used for the assessment of hamstring elasticity, and pressure algometry was also used (myofascial trigger points).”

The study’s authors write: “According to the finger-floor distance test, the straight leg raise test, and the popliteal angle test, the suboccipital muscle inhibition technique modified the elasticity of the hamstring muscles for this group of subjects. The suboccipital muscle inhibition technique modifies the pressure algometry of the semimembranosus muscle but does not modify that of the semitendinosus muscle or biceps femoris.”

JMPT – May 2009;32:262-69.

www.jmptonline.org

A new study indicates that obese children and adolescents are at increased risk of having some kind of allergy, especially to a food.”We found a positive association between obesity and allergies,” said Darryl Zeldin, MD, senior author on the paper. The researchers analyzed data on children and young adults from a new national dataset designed to obtain information about allergies and asthma. “While the results from this study are interesting, they do not prove that obesity causes allergies. More research is needed to further investigate this potential link,” Dr. Zeldin adds.

Researchers analyzed data from 4,111 children and young adults aged 2 to 19 years of age. Obese children were about 26% more likely to have allergies than children of normal weight.

“The signal for allergies seemed to be coming mostly from food allergies. The rate of having a food allergy was 59% higher for obese children,” comments study co-author Stephanie London, MD.

Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – May 2009:123;1163-69.

www.jacionline.org

A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine shows that direct to consumer advertising was initially linked to more physician visits and that physician promotion was linked to more prescriptions. The findings will be presented on Sunday May 31st at Digestive Disease Week in Chicago, Illinois.The study involved the drug tegaserod (Zelnorm), a drug for chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome that was intensely marketed to physicians as well as the public from 2002 to 2007 ($122 million in direct to consumer ads and $127 million in physician promotion in 2005 alone).

“We found that in the three months immediately following the start of the tegaserod advertising campaign there were 1 million more physician visits for constipation and IBS like symptoms and 400,000 more IBS diagnoses. However, over time this trend reversed and eventually the number of visits and diagnoses returned to baseline,” notes lead author Spencer D. Dorn, MD, MPH.

Digestive Disease Week – May 29, 2009

www.ddw.org