The Fast Lane

Regular Chiropractic Care and Core Fitness

Many exercise-related injuries are caused, in part, by deficiencies in core muscle strength. Weakness in core performance leads to a lack of biomechanical support for movements such as bending, lifting, pushing, and pulling. You're not aware of such lack of support until, for example, you attempt a dumbbell squat or try to run a little faster in an interval training session. Even a simple exercise such as a lat pulldown or triceps pressdown requires sufficient core stabilization. A strong core is critically important for a successful exercise program. The core muscular system consists of numerous inner layers of sheets of muscle and a vast array of small muscles that help maintain coordinated movement among your spinal bones, pelvic bones, and hip joints. By detecting and correcting spinal misalignments that cause nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your core muscles are receiving the nerve information they need to function properly and help you get the most out of your exercise time.

Driving fast is not necessarily a good thing. We want to get where we're going as quickly as possible, but we also want to arrive safely. If we drive too fast, we may encounter all sorts of problems. If we drive too slow, we're wasting time and may be causing traffic problems behind us. These competing considerations will both be fulfilled by maintaining an average velocity that is at or close to the posted speed limit. We want to find the "sweet spot," the happy medium that both saves time and helps keep us safe.
The same principles may also be applied when we're exercising. We want to improve, get stronger, and build more endurance as soon as we can, while simultaneously avoiding injury and staying healthy. Very often, these goals may conflict. It's important to ensure that we're exercising efficiently and making certain we're deriving the greatest benefit from our exercise time. These benefits are obtained by a steady approach, one that focuses on incremental gains accomplished over time.¹
It's natural to want to arrive at a desired outcome quickly. But as with any other form of training, whether learning to play the piano or becoming a competent chess player, substantial time is required to produce long lasting results. In the case of exercise, trying to hurry the process will usually cause an injury. You'll be set back at least weeks, if not months, and you'll have to start over, pretty much from the beginning.
For almost all of us the "tortoise" approach, rather than that of the "hare" in the well-known fable, will produce the health benefits we're hoping to achieve from our daily exercise. If you've never walked before and want to incorporate this aerobic activity as part of your exercise routine, start with a 10-minute walk. This doesn't sound like much, but that is precisely the point. Start by doing a little and build up gradually and consistently. Within 6 or 8 weeks you'll be doing 30-40 minute brisk walks several times a week, which will represent a very good aerobic exercise program. Incorporating strength training into your routine will employ a similar method. For each of your exercises (such as bench press, one-arm row, squat, toe raise, shoulder press, biceps curl, and lying triceps press), begin with a weight with which you can comfortably do 10 repetitions. If you can't do 10 reps, the weight is too heavy. Start with that weight and do 3 sets per exercise. Build up gradually by increasing the weight by 5%, if possible, each week or every 2 weeks. After 10 to 12 weeks you'll be noticeably stronger and your metabolism will begin to be more efficient.^2,3
By progressing slowly and steadily, you will build a solid base and make consistent and possibly substantial gains in your exercise routine. You will get where you want to get safely and effectively. The long-term outcome will be enhanced health, wellness, and well-being.

¹Marongiu E, Crisafulli A: Cardioprotection acquired through exercise: the role of ischemic preconditioning. Curr Cardiol Rev 10(4):336-348, 2014
²Huxel Bliven KC, Anderson BE: Core stability training for injury prevention. Sports Health 5(6):514-522, 2013
³Granacher U, et al: The importance of trunk muscle strength for balance, functional performance, and fall prevention in seniors: a systematic review. Sports Med 43(7):627-641, 2013

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Mankato Melt Down 2014

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The Power of Cross Training

The Power of Cross-Training

Chiropractic Care Optimizes the Benefits of Exercise

Cross-training places numerous physiological demands on your cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal systems, as well as on your digestive, hormonal, and immune systems. These demands are necessary for your ongoing health and well-being, following both the principle of "use it or lose it" and Wolff's Law (bone remodels along lines of physiological stress). But in order to maximize our cross-training gains, we want to make sure that our body's underlying structure is intact. Our various physiological systems must be able to communicate with each other efficiently, and each system must be able to receive and transmit information to the master system, the nerve system. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure these necessary interactions are taking place, consistently and over time. By detecting and correcting spinal misalignments and by removing nerve interference, regular chiropractic care helps optimize all physiological functioning and helps you get the most out of your cross-training activities.

Cross-training refers to a combination of different methods of exercise. Specifically, cross-training refers to the combination of strength training and cardiovascular training in your overall exercise program. Whether you're a 14-year-old just starting out on your first fitness program, or whether you're a 74-year-old who hasn't exercised in more than 40 years, cross-training will provide optimal results for the time and effort you spend on exercise.
In cross-training, it's not that you're doing aerobic and strength-training activities simultaneously. Rather, you're incorporating both methods in your weekly exercise regime. One week you might do three sessions of strength training and two sessions of cardiovascular activity. The next week you could do three sessions of aerobic exercise and two sessions of strength training. The result is that, overall, approximately half of your exercise time is devoted to each of these two methods.
The remarkable outcome of combining two distinctly different training modes is that both sets of results are enhanced.^1,2 Doing cardiovascular exercise on alternate days makes you stronger. In other words, your muscular strength and size are greater than they would be if strength training were your only form of exercise. Correspondingly, doing strength training on alternate days provides you with heightened cardiovascular gains. Specifically, your stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped on each contraction of your heart muscle) and vital capacity (the amount of air you can take in on each breath) are greater than the results you would have obtained by only doing aerobic exercise.
The benefits of cross-training are automatic. There's nothing you need to do intentionally to achieve these gains, other than engaging in your cross-training program five days a week. When you train your heart and lungs by doing cardiovascular (really, cardiorespiratory) exercise, your skeletal muscles automatically participate in your walking, running, biking, or swimming activity. When you do strength training, exercising your chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs (on different split-training days, of course), your heart and lungs automatically participate, pumping the extra blood and breathing in the extra oxygen required for any vigorous physical activity.
The synergy created by the cross-training format potentiates the results obtained from each method.³ The improved performance of your heart and lungs, derived from aerobic training, enables greater strength training gains. A stronger musculoskeletal system, derived from training with weights, causes your heart and lungs to become more efficient to meet new demands. A positive feedback loop is established from which you obtain improved health and enhanced wellness and  well-being.
The best time to begin your new cross-training program is today. Start slowly, increase duration and intensity gradually, and evaluate your gains at 6- and 12-week intervals. Your chiropractor is experienced in exercise rehabilitation and will help you design a cross-training program that works for you.
¹Fournier SB, et al: Improved Arterial-Ventricular Coupling in Metabolic Syndrome after Exercise Training. Med Sci Sports Exerc  2014 May 27. [Epub ahead of print]
²Kolka C: Treating Diabetes with Exercise - Focus on the Microvasculature. J Diabetes Metab 4:308, 2013
³Dos Santos ES, et al: Acute and Chronic Cardiovascular Response to 16 Weeks of Combined Eccentric or Traditional Resistance and Aerobic Training in Elderly Hypertensive Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Strength Cond Res 2014 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

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Heavy Lifting

Chiropractic Care and Core Training

Core training focuses on the deepest muscular layers of your body, including small muscles such as the multifidi and intertransversarii that lie directly on the spinal column and help move individual spinal vertebras. In order to train these deep muscles properly, the spinal vertebras need to be able to move freely throughout their full range of motion. This is where regular chiropractic care comes in. Chiropractic care identifies, analyzes, and corrects sites of limited spinal mobility, making it possible for you to optimally train your core muscles. Returning to fitness requires an ongoing commitment of time and effort. In order to get the most out of your investment in yourself, it’s important to make sure that your body will respond effectively to your exercise activities. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that you’ll achieve such success.

All of us who’ve experienced a back injury of one sort or another have been told at some point to “avoid heavy lifting.” That type of advice appears to be a no-brainer or at least redundant, as no one whose back is hurting is going to try to pick up an air conditioner or even a 100-foot reel of garden hose. In this context, it’s important to remember the words of Shakespeare’s Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves”. The problem isn’t the heavy lifting, as such. The real problem is in us, that is, in our overall level of conditioning or physical fitness.
Most back injuries don’t occur as a result of heavy lifting, but rather are caused by a seemingly innocuous event such as bending over in the shower to retrieve a bar of soap that has fallen to the floor. Other likely pain-producing scenarios are bending over to place a bag of groceries in the trunk o f a car bending over to tie a loose shoelace. None of these circumstances involved lifting extraordinary weight.  Rather, the common elements are lack of flexibility and lack of appropriate muscle tone and strength to support the weight of your body in a forward flexed position.
The problem isn’t lack of big muscles. Picking up a bar of soap or positioning a 15-pound grocery bag doesn’t require bulging biceps or massive lats. The problem is lack of conditioning. Most of us no longer do actual physical work on a regular basis. We spend the large majority of our day sitting, either working, reading, or watching entertainment on television or other devices. The result of such lack of activity is twofold. Muscles lose strength and muscle fibers are replaced by fat. Additionally, tendons and ligaments contract and become tight, losing their necessary composition of elastic fibers. The functional loss associated with these physiological changes is profound. We experience these change every time we feel a twinge, or worse, in our backs.
The fix is easy and primarily focuses on building up core muscle strength.^1,2 Core training is directed toward your deep abdominal muscles. The main such muscle is the transverses abdominis, which surrounds your entire waist, protecting and supporting your lower back. You can think of this critically important structure as your internal weight belt. Activation of the core muscles is required for all effective physical activity.³ Without this essential foundation, any minor attempt at work, even bending over to pick up a pencil, can lead to disaster in the form of excruciating back pain.
Core training includes exercises such as the scorpion, lying windmill with bent legs, pushups, squats, and the plank. Many good books and numerous online videos are available to provide instruction in the performance of core exercises. Your chiropractor is experienced in rehabilitative exercise and will help guide you to the training methods that are best for you.
¹Inani SB, Selkar SP: Effect of core stabilization exercises versus conventional exercises on pain and functional status in patients with non-specific low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. J Back Musculoskel Rehabil 26(1):37-43, 2014
²Brumitt J, et al: Core stabilization exercise prescription, part 2: a systematic review of motor control and general (global) exercise rehabilitation approaches for patients with low back pain. Sports Health 5(6):510-3, 2013
³Wang XQ, et al: A meta-analysis of core stability exercise versus general exercise for chronic low back pain. PLoS One 2012;7(12):e52082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052082. Epub 2012 Dec 17

Heavy Lifting

Chiropractic Care and Core Training

Core training focuses on the deepest muscular layers of your body, including small muscles such as the multifidi and intertransversarii that lie directly on the spinal column and help move individual spinal vertebras. In order to train these deep muscles properly, the spinal vertebras need to be able to move freely throughout their full range of motion. This is where regular chiropractic care comes in. Chiropractic care identifies, analyzes, and corrects sites of limited spinal mobility, making it possible for you to optimally train your core muscles. Returning to fitness requires an ongoing commitment of time and effort. In order to get the most out of your investment in yourself, it’s important to make sure that your body will respond effectively to your exercise activities. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that you’ll achieve such success.

All of us who’ve experienced a back injury of one sort or another have been told at some point to “avoid heavy lifting.” That type of advice appears to be a no-brainer or at least redundant, as no one whose back is hurting is going to try to pick up an air conditioner or even a 100-foot reel of garden hose. In this context, it’s important to remember the words of Shakespeare’s Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves”. The problem isn’t the heavy lifting, as such. The real problem is in us, that is, in our overall level of conditioning or physical fitness.
Most back injuries don’t occur as a result of heavy lifting, but rather are caused by a seemingly innocuous event such as bending over in the shower to retrieve a bar of soap that has fallen to the floor. Other likely pain-producing scenarios are bending over to place a bag of groceries in the trunk o f a car bending over to tie a loose shoelace. None of these circumstances involved lifting extraordinary weight.  Rather, the common elements are lack of flexibility and lack of appropriate muscle tone and strength to support the weight of your body in a forward flexed position.
The problem isn’t lack of big muscles. Picking up a bar of soap or positioning a 15-pound grocery bag doesn’t require bulging biceps or massive lats. The problem is lack of conditioning. Most of us no longer do actual physical work on a regular basis. We spend the large majority of our day sitting, either working, reading, or watching entertainment on television or other devices. The result of such lack of activity is twofold. Muscles lose strength and muscle fibers are replaced by fat. Additionally, tendons and ligaments contract and become tight, losing their necessary composition of elastic fibers. The functional loss associated with these physiological changes is profound. We experience these change every time we feel a twinge, or worse, in our backs.
The fix is easy and primarily focuses on building up core muscle strength.^1,2 Core training is directed toward your deep abdominal muscles. The main such muscle is the transverses abdominis, which surrounds your entire waist, protecting and supporting your lower back. You can think of this critically important structure as your internal weight belt. Activation of the core muscles is required for all effective physical activity.³ Without this essential foundation, any minor attempt at work, even bending over to pick up a pencil, can lead to disaster in the form of excruciating back pain.
Core training includes exercises such as the scorpion, lying windmill with bent legs, pushups, squats, and the plank. Many good books and numerous online videos are available to provide instruction in the performance of core exercises. Your chiropractor is experienced in rehabilitative exercise and will help guide you to the training methods that are best for you.
¹Inani SB, Selkar SP: Effect of core stabilization exercises versus conventional exercises on pain and functional status in patients with non-specific low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. J Back Musculoskel Rehabil 26(1):37-43, 2014
²Brumitt J, et al: Core stabilization exercise prescription, part 2: a systematic review of motor control and general (global) exercise rehabilitation approaches for patients with low back pain. Sports Health 5(6):510-3, 2013
³Wang XQ, et al: A meta-analysis of core stability exercise versus general exercise for chronic low back pain. PLoS One 2012;7(12):e52082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052082. Epub 2012 Dec 17

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Entropy, the Gym, and You

Chiropractic Care and Ongoing Good Health

Optimal health and well-being depend on more than a consistently good diet and regular vigorous exercise. Regular chiropractic care is needed to derive the maximum benefit from these key ingredients of health. A properly functioning nerve system is required to efficiently digest, metabolize, and use the nutrition you’re obtaining in your daily diet. Similarly, your muscles, joints, and bones need to receive a proper nerve supply to effectively perform all the elements of your exercise routine, including cardiovascular activities and strength training. All your body systems must receive and send accurate, timely information so that your body works well as a unified whole. Your body’s master system, the nerve system, makes this possible. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your nerve system is functioning at peak efficiency. The result, in combination with the other health-promoting action steps you’re taking, helps ensure high levels of health and well-being over the long-term.

Let’s say you’ve been taking some time off from the gym. Maybe you reached the end of your 12-week training cycle and you’re taking a week off. It’s possible that one week turns into two or even three or four weeks. Life happens, you need to attend to some pressing matters, and going to the gym starts to take a back seat. Before you know it, two or three months have passed by. Suddenly, you’re no longer a person who goes to the gym, but a person who needs to figure out a way to get back to the gym on a regular basis. “What happened to me?” you wonder. “Where did the time go?” Now you have to actually exert effort to fit “workout time” into your schedule. You scratch your head and ponder. “I thought I had this all covered,” you think, not for the first time.
What happened to you and your well-made plans was entropy, that insidious force in the universe that turns order into disorder. The basic rule is that any organized system, left unattended, will immediately begin to break down. As a mundane example, those piles of papers on your desk keep reaccumulating as a result of entropy. The weeds in your garden? Entropy. The dust bunnies in your attic and basement? Entropy. The collapse of your plan for doing regular workouts? Entropy.
What’s worse, entropy takes a serious toll on your physical fitness.^1,2 If you miss enough time from the gym, all your fitness gains begin to melt away. First, your muscles begin to lose their stores of energy. Glycogen, the complex sugar that supplies energy for muscle work, is broken down for use elsewhere. Arterioles and capillaries, small blood vessels that were needed to supply nutrients to your growing muscles, are no longer required and rapidly disappear. Muscle fibers that were continually added to support your exercise activities are cannibalized, so that their constituent parts may be used for other physiological processes. Entropy launches a process of randomization that breaks down your carefully built-up muscular structure. Your body, being very smart, metaphorically swoops in and moves all those metabolic components to other structures and systems for more efficient use.
The superficial result is loss of muscle definition. The deeper result is loss of muscle tone.³ Your cardiorespiratory system (heart and lungs), digestive system, and metabolism are all affected, as these physiologic systems are no longer required to be functioning at peak to support a regular vigorous exercise program. Entropy sets in to all these systems, as well. The overall result is a profound impact on your health and well-being.
The good news is we can help keep entropy at bay. But doing so requires attention and determination. We want to attend to our bodies as carefully and regularly as we attend to the environment of our home, office, and garden. Just as our cars, motorcycles, and bicycles require periodic maintenance, our bodies require much more frequent care, care on a daily and weekly basis. It’s fine to occasionally skip a week or two, or even a month if needed, of exercise. But we must make sure we get right back on schedule to ensure benefits to our short-term and long-term health.
¹Barwais FA, et al: Physical activity, sedentary behavior and total wellness changes among sedentary adults: a 4-week randomized controlled trial. Health Qual Life Outcomes 2013 Oct 29;11:183. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-11-183
²Loprinzi PD, Lee H: Rationale for promoting physical activity among cancer survivors: literature review and epidemiologic examination. Oncol Nurs Forum 2014 Mar 1;41(2):117-25. doi: 10.1188/14.ONF.117-125.
³Ricci-VItor AL, et al: Influence of the resistance training on heart rate variability, functional capacity and muscle strength in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med 49(6):793-801, 2013

Low Back Pain

 

Effective Diagnosis and Treatment of Low Back Pain

Healthy Backs and Regular Chiropractic Care

Regular chiropractic care helps your body function at peak capacity. Your body is a dynamic structure and, as in all finely crafted machines, it's possible for subtle things to go wrong. The problem, of course, is that as these problems are subtle we don't know about them until, in a sense, it's too late. Too late, that is, from the point of view of how long it may take to get better now that the problem's been going on for some time. By receiving regular chiropractic care you're helping to nip various physical problems in the bud. For example, low back stiffness, which if left unattended might develop into a mechanical problem and ultimately a herniated lumbar disc, is identified at the outset and lessened or resolved by regular chiropractic care. By helping you improve your overall health and well-being, regular chiropractic care is a modern implementation of the old proverb, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Here's an all-too-common situation. You develop low back pain that lasts for more than a few days and you're uncomfortable enough to go see your primary care physician. He or she tells you it's not clear what's going on and sends you for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of your lumbar spine. The study comes back showing one or two herniated intervertebral discs. [Intervertebral discs are cartilaginous shock absorbers interspaced between pairs of spinal vertebras.] Your doctor informs you that you have "herniated discs in your back" and prescribes medications and a course of physical therapy. Your doctor may even refer you to an orthopedic surgeon to evaluate the need for surgery on your back.
Now, all of these recommendations may be necessary. Or none of them may be necessary and all that's needed is some rest and an exercise rehabilitation program that you could do on your own if you were given the proper instructions. The culprit here is how the presence of the herniated disc or discs is interpreted. It's important to remember that not all herniated discs are a problem requiring a solution. In fact, a sizable proportion of such disc herniations (30% or more)¹ represent the progression of natural processes and are not a problem at all.^2,3 But many family doctors and even specialists are not appropriately trained in accurate differentiation among the various possibilities. When faced with MRI evidence of a herniated disc, such doctors see it as a disorder or disease that needs to be treated and fixed. Such an approach results in significant stress and leads to unnecessary procedures and financial hardship for many patients.
Given the frequency of occurrence of such instances of "over-diagnosis", how can a person with back pain expect to receive appropriate care? Of course, people as patients are usually not in a position to be able to overrule their doctor's recommendations. The answer lies in obtaining relevant information. Let your doctor know you're aware that up to one-third of normal persons have herniated discs, and ask whether it's possible that your disc herniation is in fact unrelated to your back pain and merely an incidental finding. Further, if your back pain is not accompanied by leg pain radiating below your knee, it may be that the disc herniation is not affecting spinal nerve roots and may be treated by very conservative measures such as rest followed-up with exercise.
Thus, not all disc herniations have the same impact on a person's health. Some represent normal findings, even if they are present in a person who has back pain. Let your doctor explain to you exactly why your particular problem requires more than watchful waiting. Your local chiropractor will be able to provide you with the very best expert advice and recommendations for any necessary treatment.
¹Takatalo J, et al: Does lumbar disc degeneration on magnetic resonance imaging associate with low back symptom severity in young Finnish adults? Spine (Phila PA 1976) 36(25):2180-2189, 2011
²Spontaneous regression of herniated lumbar discs. Kim ES, et al: J Clin Neurosci 2013 Oct 24. pii: S0967-5868(13)00552-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2013.10.008. [Epub ahead of print]
³Endean A, et al: Potential of magnetic resonance imaging findings to refine case definition for mechanical low back pain in epidemiological studies: a systematic review. Spine (Phila PA 1976) 36(2):160-169, 2011

Day
Mon	8:30 to 12:00	2:00 to 6:00
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Testimonial

Thanks for helping me feel better. Since I've been seeing you, my headaches have gone away. I have never been to any Dr. that explains what they're doing and what they think is going on with my health like you do. I will continue to refer anyone that might need your assistance.

Rick Chandler -
Mankato, MN

Heavy Lifting

Heavy Lifting

Chiropractic Care and Core Training

Core training focuses on the deepest muscular layers of your body, including small muscles such as the multifidi and intertransversarii that lie directly on the spinal column and help move individual spinal vertebras. In order to train these deep muscles properly, the spinal vertebras need to be able to move freely throughout their full range of motion. This is where regular chiropractic care comes in. Chiropractic care identifies, analyzes, and corrects sites of limited spinal mobility, making it possible for you to optimally train your core muscles. Returning to fitness requires an ongoing commitment of time and effort. In order to get the most out of your investment in yourself, it’s important to make sure that your body will respond effectively to your exercise activities. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure that you’ll achieve such success.

All of us who’ve experienced a back injury of one sort or another have been told at some point to “avoid heavy lifting.” That type of advice appears to be a no-brainer or at least redundant, as no one whose back is hurting is going to try to pick up an air conditioner or even a 100-foot reel of garden hose. In this context, it’s important to remember the words of Shakespeare’s Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves”. The problem isn’t the heavy lifting, as such. The real problem is in us, that is, in our overall level of conditioning or physical fitness.
Most back injuries don’t occur as a result of heavy lifting, but rather are caused by a seemingly innocuous event such as bending over in the shower to retrieve a bar of soap that has fallen to the floor. Other likely pain-producing scenarios are bending over to place a bag of groceries in the trunk o f a car bending over to tie a loose shoelace. None of these circumstances involved lifting extraordinary weight.  Rather, the common elements are lack of flexibility and lack of appropriate muscle tone and strength to support the weight of your body in a forward flexed position.
The problem isn’t lack of big muscles. Picking up a bar of soap or positioning a 15-pound grocery bag doesn’t require bulging biceps or massive lats. The problem is lack of conditioning. Most of us no longer do actual physical work on a regular basis. We spend the large majority of our day sitting, either working, reading, or watching entertainment on television or other devices. The result of such lack of activity is twofold. Muscles lose strength and muscle fibers are replaced by fat. Additionally, tendons and ligaments contract and become tight, losing their necessary composition of elastic fibers. The functional loss associated with these physiological changes is profound. We experience these change every time we feel a twinge, or worse, in our backs.
The fix is easy and primarily focuses on building up core muscle strength.^1,2 Core training is directed toward your deep abdominal muscles. The main such muscle is the transverses abdominis, which surrounds your entire waist, protecting and supporting your lower back. You can think of this critically important structure as your internal weight belt. Activation of the core muscles is required for all effective physical activity.³ Without this essential foundation, any minor attempt at work, even bending over to pick up a pencil, can lead to disaster in the form of excruciating back pain.
Core training includes exercises such as the scorpion, lying windmill with bent legs, pushups, squats, and the plank. Many good books and numerous online videos are available to provide instruction in the performance of core exercises. Your chiropractor is experienced in rehabilitative exercise and will help guide you to the training methods that are best for you.
¹Inani SB, Selkar SP: Effect of core stabilization exercises versus conventional exercises on pain and functional status in patients with non-specific low back pain: a randomized clinical trial. J Back Musculoskel Rehabil 26(1):37-43, 2014
²Brumitt J, et al: Core stabilization exercise prescription, part 2: a systematic review of motor control and general (global) exercise rehabilitation approaches for patients with low back pain. Sports Health 5(6):510-3, 2013
³Wang XQ, et al: A meta-analysis of core stability exercise versus general exercise for chronic low back pain. PLoS One 2012;7(12):e52082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052082. Epub 2012 Dec 17

Weekend Warrior

Sports and Chiropractic

Many professional, Olympic, college, high school, and weekend athletes have found the benefits of Chiropractic care. Injuries to the spine or extremity can restrict motion, reduce reflexes, impair balance and timing, decrease muscle strength and balance and cause over all decrease in performance. Athletes demand results, and chiropractic care provides them.

Chiropractic care helps restore function to the spinal joints and extremities that are not moving properly. This helps relieve pain, inflammation, and increase nerve function to the body. It will increase range of motion, and the healing ability of the body. By normalizing the spinal function of the body it will speed up the healing of the soft tissues and reduce the deconditioning effect of being out of action.

Dr. Skrien Has Helped With These Sports Related Injuries With Chiropractic and Active Care:

• Tennis elbow
• Golfers elbow
• Rotator cuff and shoulder injuries
• Knee problems
• Ankle sprains
• Foot problems
• Low back pain
• Neck pain
• Stingers
• And other sports injuries

He also helps athletes gain a competitive edge by designing specific chiropractic and active care programs for them.

Dr. Skrien is a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician. He has taken specialized training in the sports field of chiropractic care. He has been helping athletes of all levels since 1993. 

Don’t stay on the side lines any more. Find out what others have, get in and have an evaluation today.

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Blood Pressure Guidelines For Care

Making Sense of Guidelines for Care

Chiropractic Care and Chronic Health Problems

Chronic health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes often require treatment plans from several different specialists. Effective treatment of high blood pressure may involve a person’s family physician, internist, and cardiologist. A person with diabetes may be receiving treatment from her internist and endocrinologist, and possibly from an ophthalmologist and even a neurologist. An additional key specialist involved in any of these scenarios is a chiropractor. Of course, chiropractic care is not directed toward treatment of any disease. Rather, chiropractic care focuses on the health and well being of the whole person. By concentrating on biomechanics and the nerve system, that is, the integrity and functioning of the spinal column and spinal nerves, chiropractic care helps ensure that the body as a whole is working effectively. This means that whatever a person’s clinical circumstances may be, regular chiropractic care is essential to his or her long-term health. Your chiropractor is a key member of your health care team in any situation.

Not too long ago, the Eighth Joint National Committee (originally commissioned by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) released a new set of evidence-based guidelines for evaluation and treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure). The guidelines committee, comprised of 17 academics, spent five years reviewing evidence as preparation for developing the new recommendations.
The committee’s report represents nothing less than a sea change in the treatment of patients with higher-than-normal blood pressure readings. The primary shift is from a long-held standard of implementing treatment when a person’s blood pressure is higher than 140/90 mmHg. The new guidelines recommend beginning treatment only when blood pressure readings are higher than 150/90 mmHg. The new standard is a huge modification of decades-old practice methods, and has generated substantial controversy.^1.2 Of course, a good portion of the pushback is from those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, such as physicians who dispense medications from their office and earn substantial income from selling antihypertensive drugs at multiples of their wholesale costs. In addition to physicians who act as pharmacies, drug companies who manufacture antihypertensive medications also stand to lose significant revenue. But aside from considerations related to the practice of medicine as a business, the real issues should be focused on the benefits and harms to patients. In this context, it may be reasonably stated that fewer medications are, by and large, a good thing.
The new blood pressure guidelines have two primary impacts. First, for people over age 60, treatment for presumed hypertension should be initiated when blood pressure readings are higher than 150/90 mm/Hg. More than 7.4 million Americans over age 60 will be in the new safe range. Many of these millions of people have been taking antihypertensive medication for years, possibly needlessly as implied by the new guidelines. Next, for all those under age 60, there is insufficient medical evidence that a systolic blood pressure (the first number in the reading) threshold exists that would dictate treatment. In other words, for many years the systolic threshold had been 140 (as in 140/90 mmHg). Higher systolic readings virtually mandated antihypertensive treatment. Although the committee expressed its opinion that the systolic threshold of 140 mmHg ought to be maintained for those younger than age 60, even though evidence for such a threshold is weak. Thus, it may be that many millions more people have been taking antihypertensive medication without such recommendations being backed by sound scientific research.
The point here is not that people should stop taking their blood pressure medication.³ All such types of decisions should be made in consultation with the prescribing physician. The main consideration is having the ability to make informed choices. Some medication regimens may be appropriate. Some may not. Some may need to be reevaluated. As always, regular chiropractic care is of value by providing you with the best opportunity to achieve maximum good health.
¹Mitka M:Groups spar over new hypertension guidelines. JAMA 311(7):663-664, 2014
²Kieldsen SE, et al: Hypertension management by practice guidelines. Blood Press 23(1):1-2, 2014
³Sheppard JP, et al: Missed opportunities in prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary care: a cross-sectional study. Br J Pract 2014, Jan;64(618):e38-46. doi: 10.3399/bjgp14X676447

DOT Physicals

Full Services for your DOT needs.

Dr. Skrien is a Certified Medical Examiner #328871785 and also Certified to do DOT Examinations and also is a Certified to do DOT Drug and Alcohol Screenings .

The DOT requires drivers to have a current Medical Examiner's Certificate that they are physically qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Anyone who does any of the following will need to have this...

If you drive a commercial vehicle that is over 10,000 lbs. Transport hazardous materials. Capable of carrying  8 or more passengers (including driver) for compensation. Capable of transporting more than 15 passengers (including driver) not for compensation.

The physical includes a health history (please bring in address of any other Dr. that you have treated with in the past for any health conditions), vision and hearing exam, heart and lung auscultation, blood pressure/ height/ weight, neuro- muscular examination and urinary analysis. What do you need to bring to the examinations? 1) Driver's license as proof of identity 2) If you take any medications you need to bring a list of all current medications (including over the counter and supplements), their dosage, and prescribing doctor's name. 3) If you wear contacts of eye glasses please have them in or bring them. 4) Payment is to be paid at time of the examinations. We take cash are credit card.  http://chiropracticfamilyclinic.net/

Rotator Cuff Treatment

Repairing an Injured Rotator Cuff

Regular Chiropractic Care and Injury Rehabilitation

Recovery from injury can’t be rushed, but the rehabilitation process can be impeded or facilitated. In other words, sufficient time is required to allow for healing of damaged structures. Re-injury is possible if you attempt to return to full activity before healing is complete. In contrast, use of tested rehabilitative protocols help you prepare properly for return to full activity and may even help you to come back stronger. Regular chiropractic care is an important component of injury rehabilitation. By helping ensure that your spinal column is well aligned, regular chiropractic care facilitates optimal functioning of all of your body’s systems. Mechanical loads are balanced so your spine, hips, legs, and arms work effectively, aiding in the recovery process. Spinal nerve irritation is reduced and removed, helping your internal organ systems do their job properly. As a result, oxygen and nutrition are delivered where they’re needed most. Regular chiropractic care supports your rehabilitation program and the healing process, helping you get back as quickly as possible to doing the things you want to do.

As we get older, rotator cuff injuries become more common, a result of the natural aging process. A similar mechanism operates in the discs separating the vertebras in your lower back. These cartilaginous structures lose water over time, becoming less flexible and more brittle as the decades roll by. In the case of the shoulder, the rotator cuff tendon is pulleyed to and fro as the arm swings forward and back and up and down. As the years pass, this constant motion may cause fraying in the rotator cuff tendon and inflammation in the muscles that comprise the rotator cuff. Eventually, partial or full thickness tears may develop in one or more of these musculotendinous units, causing pain and some loss of function. Importantly, conservative care may be all that’s needed to reduce pain and restore needed motion.

The shoulder joint is beautifully designed and a marvel of engineering. Its construction makes possible a full 360-degree arc of motion in both the sagittal and frontal planes. In other words, you can swing your arm in a complete circle from front-to-back and to-the-side-and-up-and-around. In the third, horizontal, plane, 180 degrees of motion is available. The overall combination of movements in three-dimensional space makes the shoulder joint the most freely movable joint in your body. However, as with all freedoms we enjoy in this life, there is a price. The shoulder joint’s great mobility is countered by its very limited stability.

The shoulder’s lack of stability needn’t concern us in our average day-to-day tasks. Protection to the joint is built-in by way of the rotator cuff muscles, which form a strong hood that envelops the intersection of the arm bone and shoulder blade. Falling on an outstretched arm may result in a dislocated shoulder, so we need to have some care in this regard.

If you’re a young athlete and have suffered a rotator cuff tear, surgery may be an appropriate option.¹ But for the vast majority of people, especially for those over age 40, most rotator cuff injuries are chronic rather than acute and can be treated with rest and rehabilitative exercise. Again, if you’re a 60-year-old skier who has torn his or her rotator cuff in a downhill accident, surgery could be indicated. For the rest of us, rehabilitative exercise is the key.^2,3

Four or five primary strength training exercises are involved in shoulder or rotator cuff rehabilitation. The three basic shoulder exercises are (1) seated overhead press, which trains all the shoulder girdle muscles simultaneously; (2) standing side [lateral] raise; and (3) seated or standing bent-over raise. The lateral raise specifically trains the middle deltoid muscle and the bent-over raise specifically trains the posterior deltoid muscle. Specific rotator cuff strength training exercises include internal rotation and external rotation on a flat bench using very light dumbbells. More painful injuries with greater loss of mobility may require (1) Codman pendulum exercises and (2) finger-walking (up a wall) to the front and to the side.

The goals of rotator cuff rehabilitation, as for any mechanical injury, include decreased inflammation, decreased pain, return to more full active range of motion, return to more full muscular strength, and restoration of function.

¹ Plate JF, et al: Rotator cuff injuries in professional and recreational athletes. J Surg Orthop Adv 22(2):134-142, 2013

² Escalmilla RF, et al: Optimal management of shoulder impingement syndrome. Open Access J Sports Med 5:13-24, 2014

³ McMahon PJ, et al: What Is the Prevalence of Senior-athlete Rotator Cuff Injuries and Are They Associated With Pain and Dysfunction? Clin Orthop Relat Res 2014 Mar 12. [Epub ahead of print]

 http://chiropracticfamilyclinic.net/

Chiropractic Care for Short-Term and Long-Term Health

Chiropractic Care for Short-Term and Long-Term Health

Chiropractic Care Is Comprehensive Care

Following a complete evaluation, which includes a history and physical examination, your chiropractor will design a care plan that will meet your specific health needs. Your care plan will include chiropractic care focusing on improving function of your spinal column. Your care plan will likely include additional recommendations, such as stretches, exercises, and nutritional planning. Your chiropractic care plan may, depending on the circumstances, include strategies for reducing stress and obtaining proper rest. Your chiropractor is a holistic practitioner who has expertise in many areas of health care. Chiropractic care is well known for its ability to treat musculoskeletal problems such as neck pain, back pain, and headaches. As chiropractic care focuses on the nerve system, your chiropractor may be of benefit in the overall care plan for many other conditions.

Chiropractic care is the one form of health care that keeps on giving. Chiropractic care certainly helps people to recover from short-term health problems, but this powerful method of healing also helps people stay well and assists in preventing new problems from developing.
Your chiropractor treats a wide variety of musculoskeletal problems. Neck pain, back pain, pain that travels from the neck to the arm and hand, pain that travels from the back to the leg and foot, headaches, and muscle spasms are conditions commonly treated by chiropractic care. Your chiropractor also treats many types of exercise- and sports-related injuries, such as rotator cuff injuries, tennis elbow, wrist sprains, knee injuries, ankle sprains, and shin splints. Repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome are also treated by chiropractic care. Also, chiropractic care may be a valuable addition to treatment for sleep disorders, digestive problems, menstrual cramps, asthma, and various allergies. Chiropractic care may also be of great assistance during pregnancy, in helping to relieve neck pain and back pain and to ease the process of delivery.
Chiropractic care can be beneficial for so many health problems owing to the fact that chiropractic care directly affects the functioning of your nerve system. Your nerve system, consisting of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves that branch out to the rest of your body, is your master physiologic system. Your nerve system, by sending signals to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body, controls all the other systems. Your heart relies on the nerve system so that it can pump blood at the right time and in the right amount.¹ Your small intestine relies on the nerve system so that it can complete the digestion of food and transmit usable nutrients to the bloodstream.² Your white blood cells and other immune system agents rely on the nerve system so that they can quickly identify and destroy foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.³
But your nerve system can break down, in a sense, if spinal nerve interference is present. Such nerve interference, caused by irritation and inflammation of spinal nerves, is caused by loss of full mobility of spinal vertebras. Limited spinal motion irritates the muscles that move the spinal bones and the ligaments that hold those bones together. Inflamed spinal muscles and spinal ligaments cause spinal nerve inflammation. The immediate result is distortion in the quality and flow of information sent from the brain to the rest of the body. Too much or too little information is sent to the cells, tissues, and organs. The messages they receive are the wrong messages, or the messages arrive at the wrong time. The outcome is decreased functioning and/or inappropriate functioning of many other physiologic systems. Thus, spinal nerve interference is one of the primary causes of the many problems that may bring a person to his or her chiropractor's office.
Chiropractic care helps reduce and remove nerve interference by restoring increased functioning of your spinal column. The direct result is improved overall functioning of the rest of your body. By directly focusing on your spine and nerve system, your chiropractor can help restore quality of life and overall health and well-being.
¹Muller MD, et al: Mental stress elicits sustained and reproducible increases in skin sympathetic nerve activity. Physiol Rep  2013 Mar 1(1). pii: e00002.
²Zhou G, et al: White-matter microstructural changes in functional dyspepsia: a diffusion tensor imaging study. Am J Gastroenterol 108(2):260-269, 2013
³Straub RH, et al: Role of neuroendocrine and neuroimmune mechanisms in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases-The 10-year update. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2013 May 31 doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2013.04.008 [Epub ahead of print]

Is your Baby Walking?

Why Do You Need Your Baby Checked?

Before the baby was born you were doing many things to ensure your baby’s health. You ate right, took vitamins, did not drink alcohol, did not smoke, did not use drugs, and did not take over the counter medications. Now that the baby is born you want to do what is right for them.  You are breast feeding them, keeping them away from cigarette smoke, having wellness check ups. But have you had your baby’s spine checked? An unhealthy spine can affect the health of your child. The spine is what protects the nervous system. The nervous system controls all functions of the body. Dr. Skrien is specially trained to check your baby’s spine for areas of vertebral subluxations. The vertebral subluxations cause the nervous system to be in a state of dis-ease, and not working properly. This will cause the health of your baby to less then healthy.

When Does A Baby Need A Spinal Checkup?

Six times in its first year.

• After the birth of the baby. This may be the most traumatic event in their life.
• When they start to hold up their head. Very important in development of the cervical curve.
• When they start to sit up. Think of all the times they tip over and jar their spine.
• When they start to crawl. Start to develop the low back curve in the lumbar spine.
• When they start to stand. Count how many times they fall down and jar the spine.
• When they start to walk. Again see how many times they fall down.

This is according to chiropractic pediatric specialist Larry Webster, D.C.

What Else Can Chiropractic Help With My Childs Health?

For over a hundred years chiropractic has been helping baby’s respond to chiropractic care. These are a few conditions that Dr. Skrien has helped in his clinic with chiropractic care.

• Colic
• Difficulty breast feeding
• Ears, nose and throat infections
• Allergies
• Sleeping disorders
• Projectile vomiting

To have a healthy baby you need to give them the best possible chance. You have had your baby’s eyes checked, heart checked, hearing checked. Now have their spine checked, it could make a big difference in their health for the rest of their lives.