Is There A Cure To Your Arthritis Pain?
Free At Last!
Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of chronic pain in the world. It’s understood that the condition stems from irregularly developing joints, but the real question is “why did my joints develop irregularly”?
There is a “Law” in medicine called Wolff’s Law. This Law states that bones will modify themselves to best resist the forces that are regularly applied to them. What this means is bones that resist heavy forces get stronger, bones that resist light forces stay weaker, and bones that resist irregular forces develop irregularly. Similar to a car tire that is off center, the irregular forces applied to the tire will cause it to wear away inappropriately. The same thing happens to joints that are stressed in a manner that they were not designed for.
Common Beliefs:
Most people have been taught to believe that arthritis is a helpless condition that occurs naturally with aging. This is a very common misconception that is simply not true. If it were true, why then do x-rays of young persons often identify arthritic joints? Also, why are these finding almost always accidental and cause the patient no symptoms? These facts strongly suggest two things: one, the condition is not only found in the elderly; and two, the appearance of the condition does not mean that it causes pain. Furthermore, there is a large population of elderly men and women who don’t suffer from any arthritic pain, proving that simply being old does not equate to developing arthritis.
What’s Commonly Done?
Most people who suffer from arthritic pain have been told by their medical doctor that their only options are pain-killers or surgery. These two inappropriate recommendations are the result of an overdone drug prescribing culture the medical profession has embraced as well as inexpertness in the treatment of the condition. Neither recommendation touches the source of the problem and for that reason has allowed the condition to accumulate in common society.
What Should Be Done?
If osteoarthritis is caused by irregular forces to your joints, the cure must include correcting these irregular forces. Through meticulous physical evaluation provided by a diagnostic specialist, and in some cases the use of advanced imaging, the exact sources of these irregularities are identified. Combining the most advanced therapies with specific exercises and biomechanical adjustments reverses these aberrant forces, ultimately eliminating the source of your pain. The cure to your arthritis pain is out there, seek it! If you have any further questions about arthritis pain, feel free to contact us.
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How to Protect Yourself After A Car Accident
Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’
There are few things as terrifying as a car accident. Most people are familiar with the formalities that they must follow afterwards, but often time’s people forget to tend to the most important element of the accident… themselves. Read on to learn more about what happens to your body after a car accident.
When your body is involved in a trauma it automatically activates a life preserving reflex called the Sympathetic Response. The role of this reflex is to shift all of your mental and physical functions into ones that are most beneficial to saving your life. While this “fight or flight” response was critical to humans in historical times when they were being chased by Saber Tooth Tigers, it has its drawbacks in civilized times.
Some individuals have such a strong Sympathetic Response after a car accident that they will function with broken bones for hours before they start to notice symptoms of pain!
In a lot of cases, a car accident victim will go about their entire day and not realize the injuries they have incurred until they literally cannot get out of bed the next morning.
More often than not, however, the person involved in a car accident remains symptom free for days, weeks, or even months after the trauma, then experiences a sudden catastrophic injury while performing a common daily task! Why does this happen?
After your body experiences a high impact trauma it is almost with absolute certainty that subtle shifts have occur to your structure. The warning signs of these subtle shifts are…well, subtle…so most individuals experience a little soreness or a little stiffness a day or two later that resolves on its own. As time goes on, however, and your body continues to function and compensate for these shifts, muscular and skeletal imbalances continue to build upon themselves to the point where an activity as simple as bending over to tie your shoelace overloads the already compensated area and, as they say, “breaks the camels back”.
After a car accident, whether you feel that you are injured or not, getting examined by a specialist is the most important action you can take to prevent complicating an injury or suffering from one down the road. In most cases, auto insurance covers the cost of all necessary treatment and therapy. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
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The Top 5 Most Common Causes of Holiday Injury
More Painful Than Your In-Laws
There is no better way to crash your own holiday festivities than by throwing your back out…again. The Holiday season has the highest annual injury rate, so stay one step ahead of the season by taking these precautions into consideration for “The Top 5 Most Common Causes of Holiday Injury”.
1) Putting up lights: If you must put up your own lights, wear shoes with slip resistant soles, don’t climb a ladder higher than its 3rd to last step, and do all work at eye level. With that said, take serious consideration into hiring someone else to put your lights up for you. Craigslist has lots of postings of individuals as well as companies specialized in doing this pain staking and dangerous task professionally and for cheap.
2) Decorating the Tree: Have children help you decorate the hard to reach places of the tree so you don’t have to strain. Kids feel honored to participate and help, and your lower back will thank you as well.
3) Shopping: Keep a pair of sneakers in your car so when you decide to run into a store for some retail madness, you can take off you high heels or dress shoes and slip into something with better support.
4) Travel/Luggage: When traveling either by plane, train, or automobile, make sure get up and move around ATLEAST once every 2 hours. Duffle bags and overstuffed purses really stress and imbalance the body, so only wear shoulder bags that drape over both shoulders. If your luggage doesn’t have rollers under it (the 1980’s called and said they want their suitcase back J), invest in luggage with wheels.
5) Sleeping: Many travelers find themselves sleeping on an old fold-out bed or couch when they reach their holiday destination. If you wake up with aches and pains after sleeping on one of these, try placing the mattress or padding on the floor to sleep on.
Although it is not normal for anyone of these activities to cause you pain, until you’ve had your “weak-links” examined and treated by a professional, follow these instructions to avoid an untimely injury.
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How To Heal Quickly!
Managing An Injury
The system the human body has to heal itself is almost perfect…ALMOST! The healing process can be broken down into three critical phases. Here are a few very important tips to understand and utilize about each phase to insure that you heal quickly and to your maximal potential after an injury.
Phase 1 – Inflammation: Immediately following an injury the body inflames the damaged area to splint it, limiting its range of motion to insure that no further injury occurs. There are two big downsides to this phase. One, its painful. Two, the longer you are in the inflammatory phase, the longer it takes before you get into Phase 2 where healing actually occurs. So, the primary objective is to limit inflammation as much as possible and as soon as possible by icing, compressing, and elevating the injured area. Follow these instructions for the first 48-72 hours after an injury to insure that you limit the amount of time wasted inflaming and expedite your way to the next phase of “actual” healing.
Phase 2 – Cell Multiplication: After the initial 72 hour inflammatory phase, the body is now ready to repair the damage that has been done to it. Supplementation with Omega-3 fish oils and a multivitamin that has Calcium, Magnesium, and Vitamin C is very important to insure the body has the proper components to heal. At this point, applying a heat pack to the injured area is critical to help promote blood flow and enhance cellular metabolism.
Phase 3 – Remodeling: The final phase of healing is the remodeling phase. It is at this point that all the tissues and components that have replaced the damaged area “learn their job”. In the case of muscle, tendon, ligaments, and bone, this is when it is essential to teach the structures what forces they were designed to resist so they can align themselves in the most effective arrangement to perform their function. Light exercise and pain free range of motion must be performed during this phase to insure the tissues heal properly and don’t develop into knotted-up and dysfunctional scar tissue.
Common symptoms that are red flags for improper healing and scar tissue formation are chronic discomfort and pain, limited range of motion, and a propensity to re-injure the same area multiple times.
Follow these instructions to insure you heal quickly and appropriately. If you feel that you have suffered an injury that has not healed correctly, Scar Tissue Removal, otherwise known as Graston Therapy, is the most highly effective method of correcting such conditions.
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This Article Will Shock You! Please Read & Share
What The HELLthcare!?
What could be worse than a failed surgery? The fact that the great majority of failed surgeries are the direct result of a physician improperly diagnosing the source of your problem!
With the advent of high-tech and expensive image producing machines like MRI and CAT scans, it seems that the actual “physical evaluation” (aka Orthopedic Evaluation) of a patient has been abandoned. What is neglected by the medical profession and misunderstood by the general public is the fact that in the case of MRI, CT, and X-ray, a picture is NOT worth a thousand words.
Over ten years ago the New England Journal of Medicine published a study in which 98 human subjects who all had one thing in common, no back pain, had MRI’s taken. The physicians involved in evaluating the MRI’s were blinded to the fact that these subjects were completely without symptoms. Upon evaluation, the doctors determined that 64% of the subjects were prime candidates for surgery!
How could 63 out of 98 pain free subjects wrongly be recommended surgery? This is the consequence of examining a picture rather than the patient, and this is the sad truth that is the reason behind the common occurrence of most failed surgeries.
This is just one of many studies that has proven that MRI is not a definitive method of diagnosing the source of one’s pain. It should only be used as a supplement for diagnosis. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the fact that physicians are being over worked and have limited time to actually perform a proper exam or because special imaging generates 10-20 times more revenue than a physical exam, very little effort has been made to achieve the Gold Standard of diagnosis through highly specific Orthopedic Evaluation.
If you are suffering from pain it is imperative that you have an expert perform a thorough Orthopedic Evaluation to insure that the treatment you receive truly corresponds with the condition that ails you. Pain is not a mystery, it has a source. A well implemented Orthopedic Evaluation is the most effective tool to diagnose the source of your pain.
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Will A Chiropractic Adjustment Cure Your Pain?
Pain Is Fleeting
So, what should be done for the large population of people who have tried Chiropractic therapy with limited or no results? Well…appropriately diagnosing the source of their pain is a good start.
Technical Chiropractic evaluation, also known as Orthopedic Testing, has evolved tremendously in the past decade. A skilled Chiropractor now has all the tools and education necessary to perform a thorough evaluation and identify the exact mechanisms that are causing pain, then provide the exact treatment and/or recommendations necessary to eliminate it.
“Crack and Pray” Chiropractic is a thing of the past. A good physician is now skilled in evaluating and identifying the exact source of your pain. Many people have given up on the thought that they can live a pain free life. Remember, pain is a symptom telling you that something is wrong. Unless the exact source of the pain is identified, treatment will have a tendency to be blind and unsuccessful.
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How To Lose Weight The Right Way
Feel The Burn
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler (Albert Einstein). Losing weight already is simple, crash diets and weight loss products that promise even quicker results are the culprit of greater complication. So, when you finally decide that you are done with Yo-Yo dieting and the frustration and bodily harm that comes with it, remember that cutting 500 Calories per day is the magic number to consistently, easily, and healthily lose weight.
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Top 7 Bad Back Habits
I Got Your Back!
Optimizing your physical health takes effort. Sometimes you need to add a good habit to your routine, other times you need to remove a bad habit. To make your pursuit of physical health a little easier, here is a simple list of the Top 7 Bad Habits that you should eliminate.
1) Sleeping On Your Stomach: A common cause of lower back pain is over extension of your lumbar spine. Sleeping on your stomach holds your lower back in extension for a prolonged period of time, jamming the joints, and potentially leading to injury.
2) Using Lumbar Support: “Lumbar Support” refers to a pad or cushion that you put in your chair or car-seat to increase the arch in your lower back. The majority of people who use lumbar support have inappropriately be led to believe that it is good for their back. This is only true in very few occasions. Just like sleeping on your stomach, increasing the arch of your lower back jams the joints and leads to injury.
3) Cracking Your Neck Or Back: If you are one of those people who crack their neck or back every half hour, STOP! You are moving the same joints every time, leaving the joints that are truly “stuck” to remain stuck. This leads to excessive motion in particular areas of your spine and lack of motion in others. The danger of this is not only from the risk of injury, but most importantly the risk of developing arthritis. If you feel like you must crack you joints frequently, see a Chiropractor to appropriately assess and correct the dysfunctioning joints.
4) Sitting On Your Wallet: Sitting on your wallet causes a shift in the weight distribution put upon your pelvis and also causes your lower back to curve to the side that the wallet is on to compensate for the imbalance. Both of these factors are compromising to the integrity of your lower back and are a very common source of injury.
5) Carrying Your Purse On One Side: Carrying your purse on one shoulder or in one hand all the time will cause a chronic shift in your posture, leading to muscle imbalance and strain. Try frequently switching the side that you are carrying your purse on to balance out your equilibrium.
6) Leaning In Towards Your Computer: Considering the high number of employees who work behind a computer now-a-days, inappropriate computer station ergonomic injuries have become an epidemic. Click here to view a simple diagram of a correctly designed computer station.
7) Lifting With Your Back: When you have to lift an object, always bend at your knee’s and brace your abs. Bending at your knees keeps your lower back in a neutral position and bracing your abs locks it in place. Lifting only using your back increases the risk of a muscle strain or serious disc injury.
If you’re too lazy to do something healthy for yourself, try being more lazy and stop doing these bad habits.
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How To Weight Lift Based On Your Goals
We're Here To Pump…You Up
Strength training is the next step in the weight lifting hierarchy. For those of you who are interested in actually increasing your muscle size and lean body mass, you must weight lift based on Strength training principles. Strength training involves performing 3-5 sets of an exercise with enough weight so that you can perform between 6-12 repetitions max. Breaks in-between sets should be no longer than 1.5 minutes.
Power training is the most advanced form of weight lifting. It is not as effective in developing muscle mass like Strength training is, nor is it leaning like Endurance Training. Typically, Power training is reserved for competitive weight lifters. Power training requires performing 3-6 sets of exercise with a 2-4 repetition max. When Power training, be sure to rest 2-3 minutes between each set to assure complete recovery.
When it comes to exercising and lifting weights, everybody has slightly different goals. It is important to know how to properly train in order to maximally and efficiently achieve your goals. Following these guidelines will assure you that you are on the right track.
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The Pain of Pregnancy
Love Hurts
The process of development that occurs in the womb is one of life’s most magical and miraculous events. The structural changes and pain experienced during pregnancy, on the other hand, is not that magical. On average, a pregnant women’s uterus expands to 20 times it s original size, her abdomen will increase in girth by 25 inches, and she will carry an extra 30 pounds in less than one year! These changes, although beautiful, create an overloading burden on the muscular and skeletal system of that who is with child. The following describes the three most common conditions developed during pregnancy and a few tips on how to relieve them.
1) Lower Back Pain: Because the pregnant belly is very front heavy, women naturally arch backwards while they are standing to keep their balance. More appropriately diagnosed, the condition developed is called “Lumbar Facet Syndrome”. This is a condition in which the joints of your lower back jam together from being over extended and essentially cause a bone bruise. The most simple exercise to perform to help relieve the symptoms of Lumbar Facet Syndrome is one where you lie on you back, cross your ankles, and pull your knees up towards the sides of your abdomen. Make sure you’re comfortable and not straining when performing this stretch. Hold for 2 minutes at a time.
2) Sciatica: This is a general term used to describe irritation to the nerve that runs from your lower back all the way down your leg (the sciatic nerve). Symptoms of sciatica include aching, burning, stinging, or electrical pain that starts in you back or your buttock and shoots down the back of your leg. A common source of sciatica in the pregnant women is from the sciatic nerve being pinched by a muscle called the Piriformis. The piriformis is a muscle in your buttock that is responsible for turning your hips out. To check if you have a spasmed piriformis stand up and look at which direction your toes are pointing. If they are pointing out to the sides rather than straight in front of you, you have an overactive piriformis muscle that could be pinching your sciatic nerve. Try deep tissue massage to the gluteal region along with sitting on a warm pack to help reduce the spasm.
3) Foot Pain: Your feet bear a large burden while pregnant because of the excess weight being carried. Plantar fasciitis is commonly developed in those who continue to live active lives and stand or walk a lot during their pregnancy. If the bottom of your feet hurt, try rolling a golf ball under the tender areas as well as soaking your feet in a warm bath.
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