GOT WATER?

Are you drinking enough water? Do you have any of these symptoms or diagnoses? Fatigue, Hypertension, High Cholesterol, or Constipation. Your amount of water consumption could be contributing to your symptoms or even your condition. You may be dehydrated.  Your body is 75% water. You need to make sure you drink at least 8 8oz glasses of water a day. In Florida where we live make it 10.  If you feel thirsty it may be to late, you may already be dehydrated.  The average adult loses about 10 cups of water a day simply by breathing, sweating, urinating, and eliminating waste. Make the decision to drink more water today. Your health depends on it.

Posture While Sleeping

The Question of the Day:  Doc what kind of mattress should I get? 

Suggestions: sleep on a firm, flat mattress. You just have to go and try them out.  I don't recommend a specific brand.  I don't think a pillow top is a good idea.  It is best to sleep on your side with your knees and hips bent and a pillow under your head, or on your back with pillows beneath your head and knees. If you must sleep on your stomach, place a pillow under your hips to reduce the curve in your lower back (do not sleep on your stomach in late pregnancy). Another tip - watch out for waterbeds. Many do not offer the support your back needs. 

BACK PAIN: The Structures Involved

There are three main types of structures and tissues involved in low back pain:
1. Connective tissue
2. Nerves
3. Muscles

50% of Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.

80% of the population will experience a baqck problem at some time in our lives.

Americans spend at least $50 Billion each year on back pain.

Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic–meaning that they are not caused by serious conditions.

Causes of low back pain include overuse and injury, weakness, degeneration, nerve impingement, abnormal bone growth (osteoarthritis), and postural misalignments.

The pelvis can be rotated. The pubic bone can be out of alignment. Your pelvis can flare in and out, or go up or down. Your leg length can be off. And, your vertebra can be stuck out of rotation.

Chiropractic care is a great choice for both the diagnosis of the cause of the pain, and to correct that cause. Chiropractic adjustments correct pelvic and lumbar misalignments. The adjustments also help restore movement to structures that don’t move very well.

Check out this infographic on low back pain and the structures involved. from: http://www.a-health-blog.com/lower-back-pain-infographic.html

7 Ways to Prevent Back Pain in Golfers

It’s no wonder that golfers have low back pain. It’s a baby boomer sport and growing every year in the number of new golf enthusiasts.  Twenty-five percent of the 26 million golfers are over the age of 65.  But age isn’t the only factor in golf injuries, and a recent literature review from the journal Sports Health helps to explain why lower back pain is such a common occurrence among golfers.

At face value, golf may not look strenuous or taxing on the body, but as you age, spinal mobility tends to decline. The ability of the spine to absorb forces decreases with age. The predominant injury amongst golfers is low back injury that lasts between two and four weeks of injury in those who get it.  Surprisingly, the golfer’s low back injury won’t incapacitate most of them suddenly but instead, the pain will creep up on them the more they play the sport.

Swinging Styles Contribute to Back Pain

It’s actually the modern way of playing the sport that is detrimental to the spine. For example, to swing correctly, you’ll have to separate your hips and shoulders during the backswing. At the end of the swing, you’ll be in a position of lumbar hyperextension. Also, by contracting your abdominal muscles during the follow-up phase and rotating your trunk with feet planted in one place, the intervertebral disc is highly stressed.

The increased pressure in the spine during the downswing to follow-through is great enough to be considered equivalent to football linemen hitting a sled. The pressure experienced in golfing exceeds the pressure needed to cause a prolapse of the disc. However, with older individuals more prone to develop osteoporosis later in life, the increased pressure in the spine from golf could be enough to fracture a rib or vertebrae, let alone cause stress fractures.

Another common occurrence in golfers is injury to the paraspinal muscles. MRI scans have revealed tears in these muscles, especially in amateur golfers.  Treatment of the muscle injuries is generally centered on rest and relaxation, core muscle strengthening sessions, and correcting the incorrect movement pattern that caused the injury to begin with.

Tips for Avoiding Back Pain from Golf

Simple preventive steps can go a long way in preventing low back pain in golfers. Here’s a list of some of those steps.

1. Make sure your club fits your body.
2. Treat golf like you might treat running – not as a weekend athlete, but someone who plays the sport two or three times a week every week. This will prevent the “de-conditioning” of your muscles that occurs between golf sessions that makes you more susceptible to injury. Avoid golf sprees of five times in one week and none the next.
3. Push that golf cart. Don’t pull it.
4. Use a long putter during one round. This will decrease stress on the spine.
5. To carry a golf bag, use the ones that have a dual backpack strap.
6. Lose any excess weight before you start the sport.
7. See your local chiropractor to ensure you’re using proper body mechanics to prevent back injuries from golf and everyday activities. Chiropractors can also keep your spine properly aligned to reduce your risk of herniated discs and pain from osteoarthritis.

Then go out and have your best and greatest golf season yet!

 Reference

Finn, Christopher. Rehabilitation of Low Back Pain in Golfers: From Diagnosis to Return to Sport. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach 2013. DOI: 10.1177/1941738113479893.

Written by: Donna Schwontkowski 

Headaches can be helped by chiropractic

The cervicogenic headache has been researched extensively. It is just one of many types of headaches.  Chiropractic seems to work best for this type of headache. Duke University recently looked into treatment for tension-type headache and cervicogenic headache are two of the most common non-migraine headaches. Population-based studies suggest that a large proportion of adults experience mild and infrequent (once per month or less) tension-type headaches, and that the one-year prevalence of more frequent headaches (more than once per month) is 20%-30%; a smaller percentage of the population (roughly 3%) has been estimated to have chronic tension-type headache (³ 180 days per year). Estimates of the prevalence of cervicogenic headache have varied considerably, due in large part to disagreements about the precise definition of the condition. A recent population-based study, which used the diagnostic criteria of the International Headache Society (IHS), found that 17.8% of subjects with frequent headache (³ 5 days per month) fulfilled the criteria for cervicogenic headache; this was equivalent to a prevalence of 2.5% in the larger population.

Spinal manipulation was associated with improvement in headache outcomes in two trials involving patients with neck pain and/or neck dysfunction and headache. Manipulation appeared to result in immediate improvement in headache severity when used to treat episodes of cervicogenic headache when compared with an attention-placebo control. Furthermore, when compared to soft-tissue therapies (massage), a course of manipulation treatments resulted in sustained improvement in headache frequency and severity. However, among patients without a neck pain/dysfunction component to their headache syndrome – that is, patients with episodic or chronic tension-type headache – the effectiveness of cervical spinal manipulation was less clear. No placebo or no-treatment control studies of manipulation have been performed in these populations. In one trial conducted among patients with episodic tension-type headache, manipulation conferred no extra benefit when added to a soft-tissue therapy (deep friction massage). In another trial conducted among patients with tension-type headache, amitriptyline was significantly better than manipulation at reducing headache severity during the 6-week treatment period; there was no significant difference between the two treatments for headache frequency during the same period. Interpretation of these results is difficult because all patients received the same relatively low dose of amitriptyline (30 mg). Despite the uniform and relatively low dose of amitriptyline, however, adverse effects were much more common with amitriptyline (82% of patients) than with manipulation (4%). During the 4-week period after both treatments ceased, patients who had received manipulation were significantly better than those who had taken amitriptyline for both headache frequency and severity. Although amitriptyline is usually continued for longer than 6 weeks, the return to near-baseline values for headache outcomes in this group contrasts with a sustained reduction in headache frequency and severity in those who had received manipulation. 

If you suffer from headaches that start with pain in the back of your neck or head you may want to call the Pain Relief Centre for a consult.  The research suggest we may be able to help. 904-823-8833


http://www.chiro.org/LINKS/FULL/Behavioral_and_Physical_Treatments_for_Headache.htmlhttp://w

ww.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/health/2014/04/23/exp-hm-migraine-treatment.cnn.html

PTSD Tied to Chronic Pain After Auto Injury

A recent study shows yet again that PTSD after mild auto injuries is anything but “minor.” The study, published in theJournal of Rheumatology, shows patients with post-traumatic stress disorder are twice as likely to have a poorer quality of life compared to those without the condition.

While a host of studies have linked whiplash plus PTSD with chronic symptoms, few have analyzed whether these same linkages exist for patients with other mild auto injuries.

Prior to adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, their results showed that 56% of whiplash patients reported non-recovery one year after the car accident, compared to 43% of patients with other mild injuries. Whiplash patients were also more likely to report that their symptoms negatively impacted their occupational status (31% versus 23%). These differences were not considered significant however after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics like gender, family, age, and education level.

What did hold true even after adjusting for these factors was the effect that PTSD had on chronic pain. Patients with PTSD, regardless of injury type, had a two-fold increased risk of poor quality of life and residual pain 12 months after the car accident.

These findings demonstrate that identifying and addressing PTSD in auto-injury patients is vital for preventing persistent pain and negative health outcomes.

Finding healthcare providers sensitive to both the psychological and physical needs of patients with auto injuries is imperative for relief. Many chiropractors are trained in holistic healing, and can support patients in connecting with effective mental healthcare providers, while working to achieve relief from physical symptoms through natural treatments.

 Reference

Hours M, et al. One year after mild injury: comparison of health status and quality of life between patients with whiplash versus other injuries. Journal of Rheumatology 2013. 10.3899/jrheum.130406

Written by: Marissa Luck 

http://www.chironexus.net/2014/04/ptsd-tied-chronic-pain-auto-injury/