Hungry for all-youcan-eat health research? Try Cochrane Review
Cochrane Review is a trove of free research that can shed light on your medical and psychological queries.
Few people would be surprised to learn that yoga can help manage back pain. What is surprising is that it’s apparently less helpful than one might hope. The finding, however, is not as significant as the method used to make it – something called a Cochrane Review.
Cochrane describes itself as “a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health”, which provides unlimited and free online access to the research they do.
What Cochrane does is identify an important question – in this case, does yoga help sufferers of non-specific lower back pain? – and systematically pulls together all the high-quality research studies that have looked at that question. It summarises the findings to come to a conclusion based on the weight of available, credible evidence.
A look at the Cochrane library reveals a
treasure trove of interesting and sound evidencebased work. Among its most popular reviews are ones that show steam inhalation doesn’t seem to ease symptoms of the common cold, regular vitamin C doesn’t help to prevent colds and vitamin E supplements don’t reduce various risks in pregnancy.
That isn’t to say these reviews produce partypooping prohibitions. The flu vaccine shows modest benefits, virtual-reality-enhanced exercise can help the mobility of Parkinson’s sufferers, melatonin is “remarkably” effective in managing jet lag, and breast-feeding infants during and after vaccinations reduces their experience of pain.
In fact, there’s a lot of stuff about what reduces pain. For example, one study shows capsaicin applied to the site of chronic pain can have an analgesic effect in about 40% of people – the stuff that makes chillies hot can reduce pain? The theory is that capsaicin “overloads” the nerves responsible for sending dodgy pain messages so they shut down for a while.
There are a good number of mental health-related reviews, too. Although more, highquality, studies are needed, exercise is helpful for managing anxiety in young people and also effective for reducing symptoms of depression, and psycho-education – telling people more about specific mental illness and what we know about it – is also helpful for managing distress associated with symptoms.
St John’s wort is pretty good for mild depression, and seems to have fewer side effects than some other standard medications. Given the dodgy weather we’ve been having, it’s interesting that light therapy isn’t clearly beneficial for people who report experiencing seasonal depression, but it is beneficial for people with non-seasonal depression.
One review asked the question of whether skin-to-skin contact as soon after birth as practical has any benefits. The answer appears to be a fairly solid yes.
It doesn’t seem controversial to suggest that letting mothers cuddle their babies straight after birth is a good thing, but the evidence says it’s more than just a warm feeling that results. Babies are more likely to breastfeed successfully and for longer, their blood glucose levels are higher and mums also benefit – they don’t experience the same degree of breast pain and are less anxious if they have the chance for early skin-to-skin contact. Importantly, it doesn’t matter if cuddles happen the moment a baby is born or after a quick weighing and physical.
That isn’t to say these reviews produce partypooping prohibitions. In fact, there’s a lot of stuff about what reduces pain.
Cochrane Review: tinyurl.com/NZLCochrane