We all know that exercise and playing sports is an essential part of staying healthy. It benefits your heart, lungs, joints and bones, and also your mind in the way it releases mood-enhancing endorphins. The downside is that physical activity can sometimes lead to injury, either because we are new to it, or we push beyond our limits, or because equipment is used incorrectly or is substandard, or through a simple accident. Sport injuries most commonly occur to the ankles, knees, shoulders, elbows, and spine, although the chances of getting hurt can be reduced by taking advice from your doctor of chiropractic before starting.

Strains, Sprains and Tendonitis

Broken bones can obviously occur when playing sport or exercising, but the more common injuries are those that happen to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments – the tendons attaching the muscles to the bones, and the ligaments attaching the bones to each other.

When you twist or overextend a joint, a strain can occur, which is a tear to the muscle or tendon, or a sprain can occur, which is a tear to the ligament. The damage these inflict varies in severity from a few torn or stretched fibers to a complete tear right through the structure. The latter will often require surgery to repair. Also susceptible to tearing are the intervertebral discs, which are the ligaments between the spinal vertebrae that act as shock absorbers. When this happens the disc will bulge and/or become herniated.

Overtraining is a common cause of a condition called tendonitis, which is one of the so-called “overuse syndromes”. This happens when the joint is overworked and the connecting tendons become inflamed, causing pain and dysfunction. When this happens in the shoulder, a bunch of muscles called the rotator cuff becomes inflamed and results in rotator cuff tendonitis. Perhaps the best-known form of tendonitis is “tennis elbow”, a condition replicated in “golfer’s elbow”, both named for obvious reasons.

Stress Fractures

A stress fracture, or a fatigue fracture, happens when a bone suffers too much stress. A good example would be a runner who pushes and pushes for more miles and quicker times until their system tells them enough in the form of a stress fracture. However, a novice can suffer as well if they do too much too soon. Another common runners’ injury is shin splints, where the constant foot-pounding results in microfractures on the front surface of the tibia (shin bone).

Diagnosis and Treatment

Sports injuries are usually pretty easy to diagnose because the athlete will normally have felt when something went awry. A physical examination should confirm this, but x-rays may also be ordered if the injury is suspected of being more serious, like a fracture. Injuries to the soft tissue, as in the case of tendonitis, strains and sprains, may also require deeper investigation, this time with use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or diagnostic ultrasound.

Plaster casts are required to treat fractures, and surgery is an option in severe cases that are not going to heal on their own. For lesser injuries, the treatment prescribed is pretty standard, as follows:

Rest

48 hours of rest and/or immobilization normally help, unless the injury is more severe. Too much rest can work against recovery in many cases, and can even be harmful. The sooner normal function is restored, the better, provided the process is not so hurried as to cause further damage through overzealousness. Your doctor of chiropractic can advise on the optimum times for rest and recuperation.

Ice

Ice can help to reduce the inflammation and speed healing.

Compression

Swelling may be controlled somewhat through compression of the injured area, as advised by your doctor of chiropractic.

Elevation

Raising the injured limb above the level of the heart is thought to be helpful in reducing swelling.

Joint manipulation

Recent research has also shown that joint manipulation, as practiced by your doctor of chiropractic, can help with certain types of injury, lowering pain levels and speeding recovery.

Prevention

Many sports injuries are preventable through the use of proper physical conditioning, including warm-up and cool-down routines, and correct techniques when practicing the activity. It may also be the case that safety equipment is available for your particular sport or exercise which will help lower the chances of injury. Keeping hydrated with a good intake of water also guards against injuries by feeding the tissues what they most require to function optimally.

Not many people like doing housework. For most, it’s a real pain in the aaah … what’s the word? Sacroiliac. But it’s not just the disruption it causes to your longed-for life of leisure; it really can be a pain. Literally.

The activities you carry out around the house may not seem too physically demanding, but if you don’t pay attention to how you are doing them, even something like washing the dishes can put a strain on your back and cause debilitating pain.

One of the chief culprits in housework, and generally, is lifting. It doesn’t matter what you are picking up, if you do it incorrectly you can injure yourself. The correct approach is to bend at the knees, not from the waist. The item you’re picking up should be held close in to the body, and there should be no twisting, which can hurt the spine; if you want to turn in another direction, take a step that way once you have straightened up.

Tips to Save Your Back

Here are some tips that will help you take the strain out of your household duties:

• Washing the dishes, try opening the cabinet under the sink, bending a knee and placing a foot on the raised shelf inside. Also try leaning forward against the counter to transfer some of your weight forward for a little support.
• Similarly, with ironing, use a small stool and raise one foot onto it to take some of the strain from your back.
• When using a vacuum cleaner, adopt the same stance you would see combatants take in a fencing match, one foot stepped back behind the other. Move your weight from one foot to the other as you push the machine back and forward, and pivot on the back foot when you wish to turn.
• Even talking on the telephone can be a problem if you are prone to cradling the handset between your ear and your raised shoulder. The spinal joints in the neck and upper back can lock when you do this. Fortunately, as humans, we have opposing thumbs and can very easily hold objects in our hands. Either that, or use a speaker phone.
• Watching TV with your head resting on the arm of the sofa is not good, because the angle is too acute for your neck joints.
• When your back does start to hurt, use a cold pack.
• If you suffer with pain for a couple of days without relief, or you feel weakness, numbness or tingling in your hands or feet, a visit to your doctor of chiropractic is in order.

As springtime continues leading us to summer  many people will spend more time outside planting bulbs, mowing the lawn and pulling weeds. Gardening can provide a great workout, but with all the bending, twisting, reaching and pulling, your body may not be ready for exercise of the garden variety.

Gardening can be enjoyable, but it is important to stretch your muscles before reaching for your gardening tools. The back, upper legs, shoulders, and wrists are all major muscle groups affected when using your green thumb.

“A warm-up and cool-down period is as important in gardening as it is for any other physical activity,” said Dr. Scott Bautch of the American Chiropractic Association’s (ACA) Council on Occupational Health. “Performing simple stretches during these periods will help alleviate injuries, pain and stiffness.”

To make gardening as fun and enjoyable as possible, it is important to prepare your body for this type of physical activity. The following stretches will help to alleviate muscle pain after a day spent in your garden.

Garden Fitness Stretches

• Before stretching for any activity, breathe in and out, slowly and rythmically; do not bounce or jerk your body, and stretch as far and as comfortably as you can. Do not follow the no pain, no gain rule. Stretching should not be painful. o While sitting, prop your heel on a stool or step, keeping the knees straight. Lean forward until you feel a stretch in the back of the thigh, or the hamstring muscle. Hold this position for 15 seconds. Do this once more and repeat with the other leg.
• Stand up, balance yourself, and grab the front of your ankle from behind. Pull your heel towards your buttocks and hold the position for 15 seconds. Do this again and repeat with the other leg.
• While standing, weave your fingers together above your head with the palms up. Lean to one side for 10 seconds, then to the other. Repeat this stretch three times.
• Do the “Hug your best friend.” Wrap your arms around yourself and rotate to one side, stretching as far as you can comfortably go. Hold for 10 seconds and reverse. Repeat two or three times.

Finally, be aware of your body technique, body form and correct posture while gardening. Kneel, don’t bend, and alternate your stance and movements as often as possible to keep the muscles and body balanced.

When the Bulbs Are Planted…

If you already feel muscle aches and pains and did not complete the warm-up and cool-down stretches, there are ways to alleviate the discomfort. Apply a cold pack on the area of pain for the first 48 hours or apply a heat pack after 48 hours, and consider chiropractic care.

You wouldn’t go to a gas station and fill your tank with the wrong type of fuel, would you? Of course not, because you know what the consequences would be. You’d break down a half mile along the road.

It’s pretty much the same with the human body, except for one thing: we are such amazing creatures that our bodies can travel for many years on the wrong fuel. Depending on the individual, the consequences of eating unhealthily may be a series of running repairs throughout the years to keep you on the road, or one catastrophic and terminal break down that sends you to that big scrap heap in the sky.

Changing your diet , even slightly, can bring improvements to your overall health. A radical overall can transform it for the rest of your (extended) life.

We all know which are the correct foods to eat, and which cause problems. You’d have to be a life-long hermit in a cave (without cable TV) not to have heard the horror stories that accompany the excess consumption of certain foods. It is not ignorance of the facts that’s the problem, i.e. not knowing; rather, it’s ignoring the facts that you certainly do know. Too often we make choices based on taste and convenience, it’s that simple. And if that’s the case, no amount of tips and advice is going to change your mind.

Let’s face it, a coffee and doughnut for breakfast is more appetizing than a piece of fruit or a bowl of muesli. The deciding factor is whether you see the fuel you eat as a means of taking you the full distance without mishap, or whether you don’t care how far you go so long as you are allowed to stop in at every fast food joint along the way.

If you are one of those people who has decided to “drive green” the rest of the journey, but are too bombarded by well-meaning information to know how to start, these simple tips may be of help:

Lifestyle Changes

• Exercise for at least 30 minutes three or four days a week to power up your metabolic rate and keep it revving even through periods of inactivity.
• Dine out less often. Restaurants are purveyors of taste over nutrition, and are prone to loading their recipes with salt and sugar.
• Prepare your own lunch in the morning so you control exactly what goes into it. Include more fruits, vegetables, and grains.
• Limit alcohol intake and give up smoking. Both habits impair your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from your food.

Dietary Changes

• Raw foods are bursting with nutrients so eat more of them. Cooking and canning kills off most of the goodness in food (although it should be noted that canned tomatoes can help prevent prostate cancer). Choose instead fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, containing more vitamins and minerals.
• Choose organic produce if you can to avoid the chemicals and toxins that are present in pesticides.
• Eat 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day in the form of whole-grain breads and cereals, beans and nuts. Some fruits and vegetables are also good sources of fiber. Remember, though, that processed white flour products are the chief cause of Type-2 diabetes, messing up as they do your blood-glucose levels and destroying your body’s ability to control insulin.
• Drink eight to ten 8-ounce glasses of water a day to hydrate your organs and lubricate all your bodily functions. Remember that coffee, tea, soft drinks, and alcohol are diuretics, and steal water from the body.

Some general advice to conclude:

• Eat more dark green vegetables, oils, nuts, and seeds, which are good sources of magnesium, fatty acids, and other vitamins and minerals.
• If you don’t know about nutrition, don’t “self-prescribe”. Consult someone like a doctor of chiropractic who can help you formulate a supplements program that is geared to your own diet.
• Symptoms such as headaches, chronic fatigue, or cardiac problems should send you straight to a healthcare professional for further investigation. It may be that all you need is to improve your diet, but these things are best not assumed.

“In my own practice, I have noticed a marked increase in the number of young children who are complaining about back, neck and shoulder pain,” and “The first question I ask these patients is, ‘Do you carry a backpack to school?’ Almost always, the answer is ‘yes.’”

This new back pain trend among youngsters isn’t surprising when you consider the disproportionate amounts of weight they carry in their backpacks – often slung over just one shoulder. A recent study conducted in Italy found that the average child carries a backpack that would be the equivalent of a 39-pound burden for a 176-pound man, or a 29-pound load for a 132-pound woman. Of those children carrying heavy backpacks to school, 60 percent had experienced back pain as a result.

Preliminary results of studies being conducted in France show that the longer a child wears a backpack, the longer it takes for a curvature or deformity of the spine to correct itself. The question that needs to be addressed next is, ‘Does it ever return to normal?’

The results of these types of studies are especially important as more and more school districts – many of them in urban areas – remove lockers from the premises, forcing students to carry their books with them all day long.

The problem has become so widespread, in fact, that the California State Assembly passed legislation that would force school districts to develop ways of reducing the weight of students’ backpacks. Similar legislation is being considered in New Jersey as well. The ACA believes that limiting the backpack’s weight to no more than 10 percent of the child’s body weight and urging the use of ergonomically correct backpacks are possible solutions.

What Can You Do?

The following tips will help prevent the needless pain that backpack misuse could cause the students in your household.

• Make sure your child’s backpack weighs no more than 10 percent of his or her body weight. A heavier backpack will cause your child to bend forward in an attempt to support the weight on his or her back, rather than on the shoulders, by the straps.
• The backpack should never hang more than four inches below the waistline. A backpack that hangs too low increases the weight on the shoulders, causing your child to lean forward when walking.
• A backpack with individualized compartments helps in positioning the contents most effectively. Make sure that pointy or bulky objects are packed away from the area that will rest on your child’s back.
• Bigger is not necessarily better. The more room there is in a backpack, the more your child will carry-and the heavier the backpack will be.
• Urge your child to wear both shoulder straps. Lugging the backpack around by one strap can cause the disproportionate shift of weight to one side, leading to neck and muscle spasms, as well as low-back pain.
• Wide, padded straps are very important. Non-padded straps are uncomfortable, and can dig into your child’s shoulders.
• The shoulder straps should be adjustable so the backpack can be fitted to your child’s body. Straps that are too loose can cause the backpack to dangle uncomfortably and cause spinal misalignment and pain.
• If the backpack is still too heavy, talk to your child’s teacher. Ask if your child could leave the heaviest books at school, and bring home only lighter hand-out materials or workbooks.
• Although the use of rollerpacks – or backpacks on wheels – has become popular in recent years, it is now recommended that they be used cautiously and on a limited basis by only those students who are not physically able to carry a backpack. Some school districts have begun banning the use of rollerpacks because they clutter hallways, resulting in dangerous trips and falls.

Chiropractic Care Can Help…

If you or your child experiences any pain or discomfort resulting from backpack use, call our office. As a Doctor of Chiropractic we are licensed and trained to diagnose and treat patients of all ages and will use a more gentle type of treatment for children. In addition, we can also prescribe exercises designed to help children develop strong muscles, along with instruction in good nutrition, posture and sleeping habits.

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This condition develops slowly. It usually can first become noticed at night or when you first wake up in the morning. “Pins and needles” is the feeling that most patients compare to their hand or fingers falling asleep. Patients states that shaking or moving of the fingers can help.

As this condition progresses, a weakness in the thumb and first two fingers can be observed. It may be difficult to make a fist or grasp objects. Carpal tunnel syndrome can also cause a feeling of numbness in the hands or they may have trouble distinguishing between hot and cold temperatures.

There are some conditions that can mimic carpal tunnel syndrome, these include: injury to a muscle or ligament, arthritis in the thumb and wrist, and degeneration and nerve irritation at the roots of the brachial plexus (C5 to T1). To properly diagnose carpal tunnel syndrome a patient must undergo a nerve conduction study or an electromyography.

Often times the diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome fails to include a proper evaluation of the cervical spine, which is often involved. Chiropractors will fully evaluate the spine to determine if it is involved with the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and should it be involved can provide tremendous relief when other treatments may be non-responsive.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an excellent example of how chiropractic is not just about neck pain, back pain and headaches. Again pain in the wrist or hands is often times just the final symptom of a long standing problem. Fortunately, this type of degenerative condition is 100% preventable. Through Chiropractic care combined with a healthy diet and an active lifestyle you can keep your spine fit for life.

If you have trouble getting quality sleep, rest assured you’re not alone.  Surveys into sleeping problems reveal that between forty and sixty percent of adults don’t feel that they sleep as well as they should or would like to. It is often down to stress in a variety of fashions: money, family, work, aches and pains, general discomfort, poor quality pillow or bed, or a myriad of other reasons.

Good quality sleep is crucial to maintaining good health. It allows your body to recharge and regenerate, and gives your mind the break it needs to stay focused through the next day.

Doctors of chiropractic are trained in all aspects of creating wellness, and can offer advice to to help naturally-induced slumber that refreshes as it should. Here are a few tips to create a better environment for quality sleep:

• Exercise regularly, and preferably in the morning. Evening exercise can raise your heartbeat into a range that may prevent you settling down to sleep. Try to leave a 2 to 3 hour gap between finishing exercise and going to bed.
• Limit caffeine consumption later in the day and especially before bed. That means not just coffee, but caffeinated sodas and also tea. Counteract the effect of any such beverage during the day by drinking an equal amount of water.
• If you need water during the night, drink it at room temperature not cold, which can upset the digestion and therefore your sleep.
• Try not to eat dinner later than 6pm, again because this sets off the digestive functions which need to be settled for you to sleep well.
• Try to go to bed and wake up at the same times to program your system.
• Sleep in a cool room and as dark as possible. Any light, even through closed eyelids, triggers hormones to be produced that tell you to wake up.

Make sure you give yourself the best chance of sleep by choosing a good mattress and pillow.

The mattress should provide even support for the body and maintain the spine in its natural alignment. This is subjective for each person. To give an idea of whether it feels okay for you, it is recommended that you lie down on it in the store for 3 to 5 minutes. Any longer and you may be ejected for just being a hobo in search of a free lie-down.

Mattress Advice

• Support should be uniform from head to toe, with no unsupportive gaps.
• To firm up a soft mattress if you have back pain, put a board underneath it, but only until you feel better. Too-firm mattresses are not good.
• Flip your mattress, or rotate it head to toe every few months to prevent any part becoming permanently indented.
• When you start waking up feeling achy, that may be a sign you need a new mattress. Mattress life varies according to the quality of the build and how it is used.
• Your mattress may need changing sooner if you experience changes in your life that affect you physically: weight gain or loss or injuries, for example, or anything that affects the weight or the placement of weight on your mattress.
• To soften up a too-hard mattress if you don’t want to splurge on a new one, there are memory-foam toppers available that will certainly help.

Pillow Talk

A bad pillow can negate all the good work performed every night by a good mattress. The aim of a pillow is to keep the cervical spine (the neck) aligned with the thoracic and lumbar sections of the spine (the chest and the lower back).

• As a guide, a pillow should be able to keep your head and neck level with your mid and lower spine when you are lying on your side. If you lie on your back, it should be able to keep your head and neck level with your upper back and spine. Any deviation from these that angles your head and neck wrongly means you need to find another pillow.
• Foam pillows are good so long as the material is firm enough to provide proper support and not squish away to nothing under your weight.
• You should not need to put your arm under your pillow to get it to the right height, nor bend it over on itself to double its thickness. Those are good indicators your pillow is wrong.
• Like a mattress, it is not a one-size-fits-all situation with pillows. Choose the one that is right for your shape.

Chiropractic Care To Help You Sleep Better

Your doctor of chiropractic can help with more than good advice. Even with the correct bedding, problems falling asleep due to pain and discomfort can occur when there are spinal problems. Chiropractors are trained to treat these problems and ensure that your spine is in a better state to allow you more peaceful rest.

The reason low back injuries are so prevalent is that this is a highly unstable part of the spine, much like the neck. Whereas the thoracic spine is supported and stabilized by the rib cage, the upper and lower spinal areas are on their own, so to speak. It is to our benefit in one way because it allows us greater flexibility to carry out more tasks, but it also makes us vulnerable to injury.

Having said that, provided the low back is cared for, it is able to offer immense support and withstand great forces. If that were not so, power lifters would not be able to do what they do, hoisting hundreds of pounds of weights off the floor. On the other hand, if your low back is weak or misaligned, even the lightest of movements can create problems.

The old approach to low back pain and injury was to let it heal on its own, as it was assumed this happened naturally. Recent research shows that this is not the case; it may ease for a while but often returns. This points to the importance of promptly attending to any low back pain through chiropractic care to prevent a recurrence.

Low back pain can result from many conditions, such as sprained ligaments, strained muscles, ruptured disks, myofascial pain (muscular trigger points), and inflamed joints. It can happen following an obviously traumatic incident such as during hard sport, or it can be triggered by something as simple as sneezing where a weakness existed previously. It may also be the result of conditions such as arthritis, bad posture, and obesity,

This great variety of causes means it is very important not to assume the reason for any low back pain you may be experiencing. Professional help should be sought to identify the problem, or to at least rule out anything more serious. Doctors of chiropractic are specially trained in assessing low back pain, and offering appropriate treatment.

Common Causes of Low-Back Pain

• Subluxations: This refers to disruptions in the normal movement or position of the vertebrae, resulting often in pain and inflammation. In the lumbar spine, it is the point between the lower spine and the sacrum that is most usually subluxated. Thankfully, chiropractic treatment can effectively remedy subluxations, reducing pain and inflammation, and this improvement is often instantly felt following treatment.
• Herniated Discs: It may surprise you that a herniated disc does not necessarily cause any discomfort in the low back. One study showed that half of those adults suffering from herniated or bulging discs did not even know it. However, a herniated disc can refer serious pain to other parts of the body, and they rarely recover to their previously perfect state. Chiropractic care is an effective way to retard this deterioration.
• Sprains, Strains and Spasms: Individuals who lead fairly sedentary lives during the week and then go a little crazy at the weekend are most prone to this kind of low back pain. Someone who perhaps has a game of soccer or a hard game of squash to blow out the cobwebs can end up overstressing themselves very quickly, suffering injuries that cause pain and inflammation.

Chiropractic Treatment of Low Back Pain

Low-back pain is bread and butter to a doctor of chiropractic, and usually treated with comparative ease. Adjustments are made to the lower lumbar vertebrae and pelvis, thus returning normal functioning to your bones and joints. Numerous studies have shown that chiropractic is the most effective treatment for low back pain, being cheaper to administer and producing far better long-term improvements. This is because it is only chiropractic that seeks to realign the spine and re-establish normal vertebral motion. Conventional treatments often do no more than temporarily mask the symptoms, and do not attend to or correct the root cause of the problem.

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