Chiropractic Care, Balance, and Safety in the Home

Visit your Orange County Chiropractor

Proprioception involves activity of specialized nerve endings that tell your brain about the current configuration of all your joints (for example, the ankle joint of your right foot is currently bent at a 90-degree angle) and how much weight is being loaded onto each joint. This is a marvelously complex system. In order for your brain to receive such critical information on an instantaneous basis and to be able to respond equally instantaneously, the channels of communication need to be wide open and free of interference.

Regular chiropractic care helps this process run smoothly and effectively. By aligning your spinal column and removing sources of nerve interference. Regular chiropractic care assists your proprioceptive system and all the other nerve system components in keeping you flexible, balanced, and safe.

The Life You Want to Live

Visit your Orange County Chiropractor!

We all want to get the most we can out of life. Whether we want to find a loving partner, work at a meaningful career, gather an abundance of financial resources, or have enough leisure time to pursue favored interests, the usual bottom line is that we want to be happy. Throughout thousands of years of history, the great philosophers have pointed to happiness as the worthwhile goal of all human activities. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.) suggested that eudaimonia - happiness - is our best good.

Most of us would agree that the life we want to live involves achieving the greatest degree of happiness. Even if we haven't spent much time studying the works of Aristotle, we intuitively seek our greatest happiness. But such joy often escapes us, even at times when we think to ourselves that we ought to be happy. Various obstacles stand in our way, not the least of which is physical pain.

Physical pain can overshadow our various paths to personal happiness. We can tolerate acute pain for a while in the hope that it will go away soon, within a week or two at the most. But chronic pain is another matter. Often, extraordinary resources need to be utilized to maintain a positive attitude in the face of ongoing pain.

Many people experiencing chronic pain may find it difficult to imagine really living the life they want to live. Pain seems to influence everything. But there are many tools and techniques for diminishing the impact of chronic pain. The practice of yoga^1,2has consistently been shown to provide benefits, as has developing the habit of doing regular exercise³, such as walking or swimming. Engaging in enriching activities such as learning a new language, studying a musical instrument, and learning how to draw or paint with watercolors can shift one's focus away from pain and toward personal growth and development.

Also, chronic pain, at least that involving the musculoskeletal system, may benefit from chiropractic care. For example, chiropractic care can often help with chronic headaches, chronic neck pain, and chronic low back pain. For many people the benefit may be substantial. Your chiropractor is experienced in the care of many chronic conditions and will let you know whether chiropractic care is right for you.

¹Michalson A, et al: Yoga for chronic neck pain: a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial. J Pain 13(11):1122-1130, 2012

²Tilbrook HE, et al: Yoga for chronic low back pain: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med 155(9):569-578, 2011 

³Sullivan AB, et al: The role of exercise and types of exercise in the rehabilitation of chronic pain: specific or nonspecific benefits. Curr Pain Headache Rep 16(2):153-161, 2012

The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

Visit your Orange County Chiropractor!

Whether you live in the United States, Canada, or Western Europe, your health care decision-making is impacted by the type of health insurance available. In the United States, a fee-for-service system implies that you will be paying for some or all of the costs of every service used on your behalf. In Canada patients receive health care through a publicly funded system. Costs are funded via income taxes, so Canadian patients pay indirectly for their care. The majority of Western European countries have national health care systems in place. In France, for example, the national insurance program pays 70% of costs and much of the remaining 30% is paid by supplemental private insurance (most of this is paid by the patient's employer). Regardless, for any given person, more health problems mean more costs. Thus, preventing health problems in the first place is a strategy that will save families stress, anxiety, and financial resources in the long run. In health care it can be said that the best defense is a good offense.

What constitutes a "good offense" in health care? Being proactive in terms of lifestyle choices helps you put together a health care program that works. Your health care "offense" includes a healthful diet supported by sound nutritional principles, regular vigorous exercise, getting sufficient rest, and regular chiropractic care. All these elements are needed to enjoy long-term health and well-being. Each element provides critical value and helps support the benefits you get from the others. Good food helps you build strong muscle in response to regular vigorous exercise. Doing regular exercise helps you sleep better at night. More sleep helps you have more energy, so you have more strength and endurance when you're exercising. Regular chiropractic care helps your nerve system function at peak level, helping all your body systems work well together.

Such a lifestyle program goes very far toward restoring good health and reducing the costs of using the health care system. For example, regular vigorous exercise is an important part of all lifestyle programs aimed at lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.¹ A healthful diet and regular exercise help lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes and assist overweight and obese individuals, children as well as adults, in returning to more optimal levels of health.^2,3

Many self-help books, DVDs, and television infomercials target those who wish to improve their overall health status. These materials and programs may have some use, but professional advice and guidance is the key to developing long-term, successful health strategies. Your chiropractor is experienced in nutrition, exercise, and health maintenance and can help you design a "good offense" for health care that works for you and your family.

¹Williams PT, Thompson PD: Walking versus running for hypertension, cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus risk reduction. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 33(5):1085-1091, 2013

²Clark JE: An overview of the contribution of fatness and fitness factors, and the role of exercise, in the formation of health status for individuals who are overweight. J Diabetes Metab Disord 11(1):19, 2012

³Wilson V: Type 2 diabetes: an epidemic in children. Nurs Child Young People 25(2):14-17, 2013

Turn Your Medicine Chest into a First-Aid Cabinet

Come visit your Orange County Chiropractor

Many people have medicine chests in their bathroom, small shelving units filled with bottles of pills, capsules, and tablets. Others, instead, have first-aid and personal grooming cabinets in their bathrooms, containing rows of bandages, tubes of antiseptic, rubbing alcohol, and adhesive33 tape, as well as dental care supplies, shaving supplies, and sample-size bottles of shampoo. Of course, we can't always draw accurate conclusions about a person's lifestyle and level of health from the contents of his or her bathroom cabinet. But most of us, if we could choose, would likely want to focus on personal grooming and first aid rather than prescription medications. The key question is how we can actually make such a choice.

From the medicine chest perspective, many people have various disorders that require them to take prescription medications on a short-term or long-term basis. Persons with type 2 diabetes need to take regular doses of drugs such as metformin or glyburide. Persons who have rheumatoid arthritis may be taking Imuran, Remicade, or glucocorticoids. If you have persistent high blood pressure, you may be taking a beta-blocker or an ACE inhibitor. If you've just undergone a root canal procedure, your dentist may have prescribed a two-day supply of Vicodin.

But others have medicine chests filled with sleeping pills such as Ambien and Lunesta, cold and flu medications such as decongestants and antihistamines, and mood elevators such as Wellbutrin and Prozac.¹ Again, many people have medical conditions that require prescription medications, but many others have come to rely on such drugs even though a sound medical reason for taking medication may no longer exist. In such circumstances, changes in lifestyle may provide more and longer-lasting benefit than that being obtained via use of no-longer-needed medication.

For example, numerous studies have shown that regular vigorous exercise results in profound adaptations of one's personal physiology and biochemistry. Such changes consistently improve a person's mood and allow for a full night of restful sleep.²Healthful alterations in diet also result in mood stabilization and facilitate deeper, more beneficial sleep.³ Lifestyle changes incorporating both regular vigorous exercise and healthful diets provide enhanced benefit.

Of course, one should never discontinue prescription medications without consulting the doctor who has prescribed them. Implementing your long-term lifestyle enhancements is one of two necessary steps. The second step is letting your doctor know what you're doing and discussing with him or her the possibility of reducing the dose or even going off one or more of the "lifestyle" drugs you've been taking. By taking these steps you've begun the journey of converting your "medicine chest" into something else entirely.

¹Tragni E, et al: Prevalence of the prescription of potentially interacting drugs. PLoS One 2013 Oct 11;8(10):e78827. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078827

²Matta Mello PE, et al: Neuroscience of exercise: from neurobiology mecha

nisms to mental health.Neuropsychobiology 68(1):1-14, 2013

³Hryhorczuk C, et al: Metabolic disturbances connecting obesity and depression. Front Neurosci 7:177, 2013

New Recommendations from the American Medical Association

Visit your Orange County Chiropractor

In an article written to educate the public about back pain, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) had suggested that patients seek chiropractic and other conservative back-pain treatment before taking more invasive measures.

The article says that surgery is not usually needed for treating back pain and should only be considered when other conservative methods fail.

This recommendation reinforces what the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) teaches patients, as well. Chiropractic should be the first line of defense against musculoskeletal pain.

The article has been published online on the JAMA patient page titled "Low Back Pain," and discusses the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options, and prevention of the low-back pain The doctors who wrote the article go on to explain that the back is comprised of bones, nerves, muscles, and soft tissue like ligaments and tendons. Back pain can be a result of problems with any of these structures. Because chiropractors are neuro-musculoskeletal experts, they are well equipped to manage and prevent low-back pain.

In an interview about the JAMA article, ACA President Keith Overland, DC, said that he and his colleagues at ACA were encouraged to see chiropractic suggested for back-pain treatment. He confirmed that in many cases, back pain can be alleviated without the use of drugs or surgery, "so it makes sense to exhaust conservative options first."

And chiropractic makes sense for reducing healthcare cost as well. Dr. Overland went on to say, "Research confirms that the services provided by chiropractic physicians are not only clinically effective but also cost-effective, so taking a more conservative approach at the onset of low back pain can also potentially save both patients and the health care system money down the line."

If you have low-back pain, follow the advice of these reputable medical communities. See a chiropractor first.

References:

American Chiropractic Association, JAMA suggest chiropractic for the low back pain. Businesswire May 8, 2013, businesswire.com

Goodman D, Burke A, Livingston E. Low back pain. JAMA Patient Page April 24, 2013; 309 (16): 1738. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.3046

Are You Doing Home Repairs?

Come visit your Orange County Chiropractor

You've finally decided to paint your kids' bedrooms. Not only that, but you're going to do it yourself. Congratulations. Or your rooftop gutters have become so filled with leaves that the only place for overflow rainwater to go is down the sides of your house and seep into the foundation, and you've decided to install a gutter protection system. And you're going to do that yourself.

These may be great choices. DIY projects are self-affirming and self-empowering, and often provide real opportunities for personal growth and development. There may be substantial cost savings, or you just want to reconnect with your high school self who loved shop class. Regardless of the numerous possible motivations, the most important consideration in any home improvement project is safety.

Aside from basic rules such as using protective goggles and always having a buddy supporting and stabilizing the ladder you're up on, safety around the home often depends on your own level of physical fitness. For example, if you're relatively out-of-shape, it's easy to strain a neck, shoulder, or lower back muscle when you're trying to apply paint evenly to a corner of the ceiling. Similarly, if you haven't done any vigorous exercise on a consistent basis in a while, do-it-yourself activities such as changing your car battery or even mowing your lawn can cause a lower back injury or even a twisted ankle or knee.

Doing regular vigorous exercise provides many benefits In addition to preparing you for real physical work. Also, supporting your exercise and physical work is a specialized system of nerve endings known as proprioceptors.¹ These nerve cells play a significant role in whether physical activity is done easily and well or, instead, results in an injury. Stated succinctly, proprioceptors tell your brain about your body's position in three-dimensional space. For example, if you're bending over to pick up two one-gallon cans of paint, your brain needs to know that you're ankles are bent at 20 degrees, your knees are bent at 80 degrees, and your hips are bent at 70 degrees. If this information isn't transmitted accurately or isn't  received fairly instantaneously, you may suffer a lower back injury even though the paint cans themselves only weigh 8 pounds each.
Proprioception becomes a critical system any time you go up on a ladder.² Maintaining your balance depends on a moment-by-moment, two-directional stream of information between your brain and your bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments. Your nerve system and your musculoskeletal system do all the calculations required to enable you to work safely from the top step of your ladder. But if your proprioception system hasn't been optimally trained in a while and is, in a sense, out of shape, your balance and overall safety are at risk. Bad things can happen.

From all points of view, including that of safety in the home, it's important to maintain your proprioception system in peak condition. You can easily do this by engaging in regular strength-building activities such as strength training and yoga and regular aerobic activities such as running, walking, swimming, and biking.³ Proprioceptor training is built-in to all forms of vigorous exercise. Safely and successfully completing your home improvement projects is one of the many benefits.

¹Judkins TN, Scheidt RA: Visuo-proprioceptive interactions during adaptation of the human reach. J Neurophysiol 2013 Nov 20 [Epub ahead of print]

²Suetterlin KJ, Sayer AA: Proprioception: where are we now? A commentary on clinical assessment, changes across the life course, functional implications and future interventions. Age Aging 2013 Nov 14 [Epub ahead of print] 

³Maitre J, et al: Chronic physical activity preserves efficiency of proprioception in postural control in older women. J Rehabil Res Dev 50(6):811-820, 2013

Effects of Long Term Chiropractic Care

Come visit your Orange County Chiropractor

It'll explain everything I've been trying to tell you in this short handout. Your nervous system and immune system are hardwired. That means they work together. Here's some research that I think you'll find interesting if you care the least bit about your health and how you feel.

In 1975, Ronald Pero, Ph.D., chief of Cancer Prevention Research at New York's Preventative Medicine Institute and professor in Enviromental Health at New York University, measured 107 individuals who had received long-term Chiropractic care.

The results were outstanding and proves something most people never know. The chiropractic patients (the people who received regular chiropractic adjustments) were shown to have a 200% greater immune competence than people who had NOT received chiropractic care, and a 400% greater immune competence than people with cancer or serious diseases. IT WORKS!

This means you can't be healthy if you're not checked and aligned. Doesn't have anything to do with symptoms. "A person can feel great today, and die tomorrow." What's important is Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to boost the coordinated responses of the nervous system and the immune system. That means that you heal faster and you stay healthier.

Now I've said this before, but I want to say this again. Subluxation is the term for misalignment's in your spine. These misalignment's cause irritation of your nerves which affect various organs and systems of your body. If you want to boost your immune system, and stay healthy like the people did in Dr. Pero's study, schedule your appointment today.