Home Improvement

Chiropractic Care, Balance, and Safety in the Home

Proprioception involves activity of specialized nerve endings that tell your brain about the current configuration of all your joints (for example, the ankle joint of your right foot is currently bent at a 90-degree angle) and how much weight is being loaded onto each joint. This is a marvelously complex system. In order for your brain to receive such critical information on an instantansous basis and to be able to respond equally instantaneously, the channels of communication need to be wide open and free of interference. Regular chiropractic care helps this process run smoothly and effectively. By aligning your spinal column and removing sources of nerve interference. Regular chiropractic care assists your proprioceptive system and all the other nerve system components in keeping you flexible, balanced, and safe.

You've finally decided to paint your kids' bedrooms. Not only that, but you're going to do it yourself. Congratulations. Or your rooftop gutters have become so filled with leaves that the only place for overflow rainwater to go is down the sides of your house and seep into the foundation, and you've decided to install a gutter protection system. And you're going to do that yourself.
These may be great choices. DIY projects are self-affirming and self-empowering, and often provide real opportunities for personal growth and development. There may be substantial cost savings, or you just want to reconnect with your high school self who loved shop class. Regardless of the numerous possible motivations, the most important consideration in any home improvement project is safety.
Aside from basic rules such as using protective goggles and always having a buddy supporting and stabilizing the ladder you're up on, safety around the home often depends on your own level of physical fitness. For example, if you're relatively out-of-shape, it's easy to strain a neck, shoulder, or lower back muscle when you're trying to apply paint evenly to a corner of the ceiling. Similarly, if you haven't done any vigorous exercise on a consistent basis in a while, do-it-yourself activities such as changing your car battery or even mowing your lawn can cause a lower back injury or even a twisted ankle or knee.
Doing regular vigorous exercise provides many benefits In addition to preparing you for real physical work. Also, supporting your exercise and physical work is a specialized system of nerve endings known as proprioceptors.¹ These nerve cells play a significant role in whether physical activity is done easily and well or, instead, results in an injury. Stated succinctly, proprioceptors tell your brain about your body's position in three-dimensional space. For example, if you're bending over to pick up two one-gallon cans of paint, your brain needs to know that you're ankles are bent at 20 degrees, your knees are bent at 80 degrees, and your hips are bent at 70 degrees. If this information isn't transmitted accurately or isn't  received fairly instantaneously, you may suffer a lower back injury even though the paint cans themselves only weigh 8 pounds each.
Proprioception becomes a critical system any time you go up on a ladder.² Maintaining your balance depends on a moment-by-moment, two-directional stream of information between your brain and your bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments. Your nerve system and your musculoskeletal system do all the calculations required to enable you to work safely from the top step of your ladder. But if your proprioception system hasn't been optimally trained in a while and is, in a sense, out of shape, your balance and overall safety are at risk. Bad things can happen.
From all points of view, including that of safety in the home, it's important to maintain your proprioception system in peak condition. You can easily do this by engaging in regular strength-building activities such as strength training and yoga and regular aerobic activities such as running, walking, swimming, and biking.³ Proprioceptor training is built-in to all forms of vigorous exercise. Safely and successfully completing your home improvement projects is one of the many benefits.
¹Judkins TN, Scheidt RA: Visuo-proprioceptive interactions during adaptation of the human reach. J Neurophysiol 2013 Nov 20 [Epub ahead of print]
²Suetterlin KJ, Sayer AA: Proprioception: where are we now? A commentary on clinical assessment, changes across the life course, functional implications and future interventions. Age Aging 2013 Nov 14 [Epub ahead of print]
³Maitre J, et al: Chronic physical activity preserves efficiency of proprioception in postural control in older women. J Rehabil Res Dev 50(6):811-820, 2013

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Strength Training for Beginners (and Experts, Too)

Chiropractic Care and Strength Training

Regular vigorous exercise is a requirement for good health. Ideally, every adult is exercising for at least 30 minutes five times per week. Regular chiropractic care provides fundamental support for this necessary level of physical activity. Regular exercise requires optimal functioning of muscles, joints, and bones. In turn, such optimal performance requires full and free functioning of your nerve system. The nerve system sends timely instructions to all the rest of your body systems, informing cells, tissues, and organs as to when to do their jobs and exactly how much of a job to do. Regular chiropractic care removes irritation and inflammation from spinal nerves and other critical nerve tissue, helping ensure that exercising muscles receive the information they need to do their jobs well. By helping keep your nerve system healthy, regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of your investment in exercise.

Strength training, otherwise known as weight training, is one of those activities that provides a wide range of benefits for the person who does it regularly. Like yoga, strength straining makes all your muscles stronger, enhances flexibility, and improves cardiovascular capability and capacity. In fact, two strength training sessions per week combined with one or two yoga classes per week will lead to super-fitness for most people within only a couple of months.
Strength training is beneficial for teenagers, young adults, and older adults.¹ Many strength training exercises are done in a weightbearing position, and the process of doing reps and sets with a modestly or moderately heavy load makes your bones stronger. Not only muscles, but also the soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system, including tendons, ligaments, and joint cartilage, are made sturdier by receiving increased supplies of oxygen and other nutrients. Engaging in a regular program of strength training will provide more restful sleep, rid your metabolism of accumulated toxins, add sparkle and tone to your skin, and improve your overall sense of well-being. All at the low price of two to three hours per week.
The key question is how to begin. Many books and online training videos are available. Most fitness centers offer a complimentary lesson or two with a personal trainer to enable you to learn the basics. Simply put, you want to train all of your major muscle groups once per week. For example, you can exercise your chest and back muscles on one day and your shoulders and arms on another day. If you're also doing one or two yoga classes per week, or one yoga class and two walking or running days per week, your leg muscles are covered.²
Let's say this is your chest and back day. Ideally you'll do three different exercises per body part. For your chest you could do lying-down (supine) bench presses with dumbbells, supine flies (in which you hold the dumbbells overhead and then open your arms out to the side), and incline bench presses with dumbbells. For your back, you could do one-arm rows, supine dumbbell pullovers (in which you use both hands to hold one dumbbell overhead and then lower the dumbbell all the way behind your head), and lat pulldowns on a machine. All together, doing these six different exercises, three sets per exercise, should take about one hour.
Then, two or three days later in the week, you do strength training for your shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Shoulder exercises could include seated overhead presses, standing lateral raises, and seated bent-over rows. Bicep exercises could include seated alternate incline curls, machine bicep curls, and seated concentration curls. Tricep exercises could include push-ups, lying (supine) tricep extensions, and machine tricep pressdowns. Again, these nine different exercises, three sets per exercise, should take about one hour.
There are many video clips available on the internet that demonstrate the mechanics of each of these exercises. Good form is critical. In fact, making sure your posture is balanced and your abdominal muscles are activated is more important than the amount of weight you are lifting.
Beginners, especially, need to know how much weight they should be using on each exercise.³ Importantly, lifting too much weight too soon will usually lead to injury. Of course, we want to work-out as safely as possible. Choose a weight at which you can comfortably do eight repetitions. If you can't do eight, the weight is too heavy. If eight repetitions with a particular weight seems ridiculously easy, try again with a weight that is 10% heavier. Repeat the process until you find the starting weight that is comfortable for you. There are many types of weight progression programs that you will employ as you become accustomed to the weight-training process. The main point is to begin to engage in this highly beneficial form of exercise. As your mastery of these techniques slowly improves, a new world of fitness, fun, and satisfaction will be revealed.
¹Conceicao MS, et al: Sixteen weeks of resistance training can decrease the risk of metabolic syndrome in healthy postmenopausal women. Clin Interv Aging Epub Sept 16 2013
²Karavirta L, et al: Heart rate dynamics after combined strength and endurance training in middle-aged women: heterogeneity of responses. PLoS One 2013 Aug 27;8(8):e72664. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072664
³Van Roie E, et al: Strength training at high versus low external resistance in older adults: Effects on muscle volume, muscle strength, and force-velocity characteristics. Exp Gerontol Epub ahead of print

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Choosing the Right Diet for Me

Regular Chiropractic Care and Your Diet

Regular chiropractic care is helpful for musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, neck pain, and headache. Regular chiropractic care is also important for maintaining the functioning of other key components of your health and well-being such as digestion and metabolism. As the normal physiological activities of all your body systems depend on the nerve system for instructions, proper timing, and signaling, the nerve system itself needs to be kept in working order. This is the role of chiropractic care. Effective, healthy functioning of your digestive system and a well-orchestrated metabolic system will help you get the most benefit from the good food you're eating. Regular chiropractic care helps make this possible.

It seems as if every few months there’s a new diet whose rules and requirements we must follow if we’re going to reach the goal of good health. The “paleo” diet provides a great example of this phenomenon. We’re exhorted by paleo proponents to eat lots of fats and animal protein. Carbohydrate consumption should be fairly light. Grass-fed beef is prized by paleo-dieters. You may consume unlimited amounts of butter, and must eliminate all cereals, legumes, and dairy products (except butter of course) from your diet. Now unless you’re a paleo convert, these prescriptions may seem to fly in the face of everything you’ve ever known about healthy eating. Paleo supporters will respond with the claim that human biology developed over the course of hundreds of thousands of years and that agriculture is brand new, having arrived about 10,000 years ago. That’s worth thinking about, but we may remember that other diets backed by correspondingly compelling logic and dollops of science have come and gone over the course of many decades.
For instance, the Atkins diet is still going strong for more than 50 years. The main requirement of the Atkins diet is low carbohydrate consumption, and in this way the Atkins program resembles the paleo diet. High-protein consumption is the other pillar of the Atkins approach. The rationale was that such an eating plan would force your body to burn fat, rather than glucose, for energy. But the diet hasn’t withstood rigorous scientific scrutiny.^1,2
Vegan and vegetarian diets have also been popular for many decades.3 The vegetarian lifestyle has wide appeal and vegetarian recipes are famed for their simplicity and palate-pleasing qualities. However, vegetarian contrarians do exist. Some studies even suggest that vegetarian or vegan diets may be associated with anxiety, depression, and neurologic dysfunction.³
The bottom line is that good sense should prevail. Starting a diet because the program was touted in a magazine article or a talk-show interview may not be in every person's best interest. Simply put, any diet may be harmful to a particular person. It's important to remember that what works for one person may not work for another. Paleo, Atkins, and vegetarian diets may create great benefits for certain persons, but may cause real medical problems for other people. The best overall approach for most us is to eat regularly from a wide variety of food groups, make sure to eat five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables every day, and pay close attention to portion control and calorie intake. Those desiring more detailed information and recommendations will find their chiropractors and family physicians excellent sources of expert guidance.
¹ Noto H, et al: Low-carbohydrate diets and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. PLoS One 2013;8(1):e55030. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055030. Epub 2013 Jan 25
² Lagiou P, et al: Low carbohydrate-high protein diet and incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Swedish women: prospective cohort study. Br Med J 2012 Jun 26;344:e4026. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e4026
³Plotnikoff GA: Nutritional assessment in vegetarians and vegans: questions clinicians should ask. Minn Med 95(12):36-36, 2012

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Why Are Super Foods So Super? Healthy eatting.

 

Why Are Super Foods So Super?

Chiropractic Care and the Benefits of Nutrition

As with regular, vigorous exercise, consistent habits of good nutrition are substantially supported by regular chiropractic care. Good nutrition provides the necessary raw materials for a healthy physiology. But in order to properly utilize these nutritional building blocks, the physiological processes themselves must be functioning effectively. This is where regular chiropractic care comes in. In order to put your dietary greens, berries, nuts, citrus fruits, root vegetables, grains, and proteins to good use, a complex array of networks needs to be working in harmony. Organs, tissues, and cells of your digestive, circulatory, and hormonal systems all need to exchange information smoothly and effectively. Your nervous system is the master system coordinating all this activity, and regular chiropractic care helps ensure that your nervous system is functioning at its best. Thus, regular chiropractic care helps you get the most out of your good nutritional choices and helps ensure the overall health and well-being of you and your family.

In recent years, media pundits around the world have proclaimed the extraordinary value of so-called super foods. Blueberries, broccoli, and especially kale have been described as possessing remarkable, almost magical, properties. What is it about these foods that makes them so good for you?
From a basic perspective, adding fresh fruits and vegetables of all types to your daily diet is a very smart way to help improve your current levels of health and well-being. Fresh fruits and vegetables are so important that many national agencies and organizations have promoted the "five to stay alive" rule - these groups recommend eating at least five portions of fruits and vegetables each day.¹
Fresh fruits and vegetables provide numerous health benefits, many of which are based upon the actions of biochemicals known as phytonutrients. Certain of these formerly mysterious compounds stimulate enzyme activity and others have actions similar to those of hormones. Many phytonutrients are powerful antioxidants that circulate throughout the body, scooping up and neutralizing free radicals. Free radicals are a normal byproduct of cellular metabolism, but too many of them will cause a lot of problems. Excess free radicals have, for example, been linked to development of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer.^2,3 Blueberries, broccoli, and kale are categorized as "super foods" owing to the abundance of phytonutrients they contain and make available to those who consume them.
The takeaway is not to load up on kale, broccoli, and blueberries in an attempt to make up for years of less-than-optimal dietary choices. Rather, the goal is to begin, today, to implement a healthful, balanced food plan. Diets lacking fresh fruits and vegetables in general, and lacking super foods in particular, will not provide you and your family with the resources needed to enjoy productive, energy-filled days. Resolving to follow the "five-to-stay-alive" plan will add literally missing ingredients to your daily health regime. As you upgrade your nutrition, you're automatically upgrading the functioning of all your body's systems.
With sufficient dietary phytonutrients, you can help prevent chronic disease, strengthen the immune system, combat the effects of obesity, and obtain numerous anti-aging benefits.
The vast array of advantages that will likely ensue include more restful sleep; enhanced skin tone and muscle tone; increased reserves of energy throughout the day; and improved ability to focus and complete tasks successfully. Improved peace of mind will naturally occur as a consequence of these benefits, and an untapped reservoir of creativity may be revealed. Super foods truly provide super benefits.
¹Liu RH: Health-promoting components of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Adv Nutr 4(3):384S-392S, 2013
²Wu TY, et al: Pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics and epigenetics of nrf2-regulated xenobioticmetabolizing enzymes and transporters by dietary phytochemical and cancer chemoprevention. Curr Drug Metab 14(6):688-694, 2013
³Pasko P, et al: Rutabaga (Brassica napus L. var. napobrassica) seeds, roots, and sprouts: a novel kind of food with antioxidant properties and proapoptotic potential in Hep G2 hepatoma cell line. J Med Food 16(8):749-759, 2013

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Chiropractic Care and Your Personal Lifestyle

Regular chiropractic care is an important component of any lifestyle change you're planning to put into place. Whether you're improving your diet by eating at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day, engaging in regular vigorous exercise for at least 30 minutes five times per week, or both, the benefits you obtain will be enhanced by regular chiropractic care. To derive the most benefit from the healthful food you're eating and the exercise you're doing, your metabolism must be working properly. Your metabolic systems require your nerve system to be functioning at peak capacity. Nerve signals must arrive on time and must be processed properly. Spinal nerve irritation interferes with these activities. Regular chiropractic care helps make sure your nerve system is free of interference and, as a result, helps make sure you're getting the most out of your valuable time and effort spent in implementing your new lifestyle upgrade.

Feeling 30 at 50

Getting Fit at Fifty and Beyond

Chiropractic Care and Returning to Fitness

Chiropractic care is an important component of any exercise program and is especially important for those who are beginning a fitness program or returning to exercise after a long absence. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure spinal fitness, which is the starting point for all aspects of health and well-being. Your spinal column is the mechanical center of your body. Major muscle groups involved in strength training, such as the latissimus dorsi and rhomboids, and major muscle groups involved in aerobic exercise, such as the quadriceps and hamstrings, attach directly or indirectly to the spine and pelvis. Regular chiropractic care helps ensure optimal functioning of your spinal column, which in turn helps ensure a full range of motion and mechanical availability of muscles critical for successful exercise. By helping you get the most out of your exercise, regular chiropractic care helps you achieve your long-term goals for good health.

What if you used to be really fit and now you're not? What if, as the years have gone by, you've added a couple of pounds here and there, and you suddenly notice you're 30 pounds heavier than you were at your 10th high school reunion? Or, what if you've never enjoyed the idea of exercising, exercise was never part of your world-view, but you're not feeling as good as you'd like to feel and think that exercise might help improve your overall health and sense of well-being?
Many people want to get fit or want to regain a former level of fitness for a variety of considerations, including the above scenarios.^1,2 But most of us need guidance in the process of getting fit. We need information and even instruction on what to do and how to do it. For example, it would be a serious mistake for someone older than 50, and even older than 40, to simply go out and try to run 4 miles if he had never run before. Muscle strains, shin splints, or even a stress fracture of one of the bones in the foot would be a likely and unwanted result. Similarly, going to the gym and trying to "work heavy" would assuredly create various problems for an out-of-shape person who wanted to "get fit" as quickly as possible. The injured tendons and sprained ligaments resulting from trying to rush would set back your hoped-for progress by at least four to six weeks, further delaying achievement of improved health.
The best way to get fit or return to fitness after a long period of inactivity is to start slowly, progress in small increments, and gain an authentic, long-lasting level of fitness over months and years. Being a smart exerciser means not doing too much too soon, in other words, respecting your body's capabilities. Also, smart exercise involves engaging in a blend of activities, usually on alternating days. Persons who only bike or run and persons who only lift weights will never be as healthy and fit as those who do both aerobic activity and strength training.³ Developing a two-week schedule will provide a thorough, balanced fitness program. In week A you do aerobic exercise (walking, running, biking, swimming laps) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You do strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. In week B you reverse activities, doing strength training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and aerobic exercise on Tuesday and Thursday. This alternating pattern ensures you are getting the full benefit of your valuable time spent exercising.
It is important to remember that what works for you, works for you. Each of us needs to find his or her best way forward. Some methods of exercise will be experienced as intuitive and enjoyable. Others will be experienced as the opposite. You probably won't want to continue any of the latter. For example, the exercise program suggested by your friend may not be effective for your physical makeup and may even be harmful. Your chiropractor is an expert in healthy exercise and will be able to recommend fitness activities that will be right for you.
¹Johanssen NM, et al: Categorical analysis of the impact of aerobic and resistance exercise training, alone and in combination, on cardiorespiratory fitness levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: results from the HART-D study. Diabetes Care 2013 July 22 [Epub ahead of print]
²Stanton R, el al: Is cardiovascular or resistance exercise better to treat patients with depression? A narrative review. Issues Ment Health Nurs 34(7):531-538, 2013
³Lorenz D, Reiman M: The role and implementation of eccentric training in athletic rehabilitation: tendinopathy, hamstring strains, and acl reconstruction. Int J Sports Phys Ther 6(1):27-44, 2011

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Frequent Flying

Frequent Flying

Chiropractic Care and Healthy Travel

Travel by air, rail, or highway takes us out of our daily routine and causes us to encounter unusual stresses and strains. Regular exercise and a healthy diet help us prepare for such circumstances. Regular chiropractic care is an additional critical component of our overall program for ensuring good health when on the road. Regular chiropractic care helps a person's spine maintain its full mobility. Such optimal range of motion helps reduce irritation and inflammation of spinal muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The result is a core musculoskeletal system that is able to withstand the unexpected shocks and traumas that are part of the normal travel experience. Regular chiropractic care helps your body be more resilient and the result is better overall health.

Most of us, at one time or another, have traveled for business. Some of us do this fairly often, and when we travel for business, we're usually getting where we're going by plane. Air travel used to be quick and easy. But lately, within the last ten years, maybe not so much. By now, we're used to long lines at security checkpoints, extended downtime waiting for our scheduled flights to depart, and an almost total absence of healthy food choices on our travel days. That said, there are several steps a smart traveler can take to help ensure that necessary travel does not take a toll on our health and overall well-being.
The key to healthy travel is preparation. We want to avoid two main problems. First, we want to prevent the strains and sprains that may befall us when we battle unwieldy luggage in the cramped quarters of airplane cabins. Next, we want to avoid the colds, coughs, and other ailments we might contract by prolonged close contact with our fellow passengers and fellow conference attendees (or other business associates).
The best means of avoiding travel-related sprains and strains is to make sure we're stretching and doing vigorous exercise on a regular basis. Ideally, exercising and stretching has been a part of our weekly routine for a long time. If not, the good news about exercising is that the best time to begin is right now. Begin your fitness program at least four weeks before your travel date. Don't try to cram everything in. That would be a big mistake. Rather, consult with your chiropractor to learn a beginner's fitness routine that will work for you.
Begin your program and gradually build-up your capabilities over four or more weeks. Your fitness activities will prepare you for the physical work of lugging your bags around the airport and maneuvering them once you're inside the plane. Your stretching and exercise routines will improve your strength and flexibility, so you'll be better able to withstand the physical stresses of travel without suffering an annoying injury.
The best approach to guarding against travel-induced ailments is to ensure that you're providing your body with sufficient sources of energy.^1,2 Healthy nutrition is the key here. Again, ideally, you and your family have been engaged in healthy eating for some time. But it's certainly easy to get off track. As with exercise, begin your program of good nutrition at least four weeks before your trip. Make sure, on a regular basis, you're eating from all the major food groups. Make sure, too, that you're eating at least five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables per day. Such a daily diet will provide your body with the requirements for good health and sufficient energy that will enable a strong immune system.
Your two key action steps, a regular exercise and stretching program and a balanced and complete nutritional program, will help you maintain good health and enhanced well-being when you're traveling and when you return home.^3
1Rizzoli R, et al: Nutrition and bone health: turning knowledge and beliefs into healthy behaviour. Curr Med Res Opin Sep 23 2013 [Epub ahead of print]
²Roberts CK: Modification of insulin sensitivity and glycemic control by activity and exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc 10:1868-1877, 2013
³Taggart J, et al: A systematic review of interventions in primary care to improve health literacy for chronic disease behavioral risk factors. BMC Family Pract 13:49, 2012

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