Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

Visualization and Exercise

Visualization is an effective tool for creating the life you desire. It is also the key to making your workouts more beneficial. Visualization enhances the natural connection between your body and your mind. When you picture your muscles working in your "mind's eye", the "wiring" between your nervous system and your muscles increases. More nerve-muscle connections are created and enhanced, resulting in stronger and smarter muscles. It is really quite remarkable. And the nice part is that it doesn't take any extra effort, other than thinking about it!

Have you ever been out running when you suddenly experience pain in your shins?  Shin splints¹ are common in runners, but there are things you can do to lower your risk.


One thing you can do to lower your risk of injury is to make sure you have a plan for exercise. Having a well thought out strategy can help you train smart and train safe. When you train smart and follow your plan, then you can also train hard while minimizing your risk of injury.

Training smart and safe means paying attention to what is happening in your body as you workout. "Paying attention" is a learned skill that depends upon repetition and mental focus. Visualization is an important aspect of mental focus, and if you're visualizing ideal form while you're exercising, then you are automatically paying attention!

If you are a runner, you can focus on:
•    Visualizing a strong, fluid and erect spine, and a strong abdominal core.
•    Keeping your head upright, looking forward and slightly down, while keeping your chest open and relaxed.
•    Keeping your arms and shoulders relaxed while you move.
•    Visualizing a long, fluid stride with your feet landing gently, and then pushing off powerfully, as your leg extends behind you.

Training smart also involves trusting your instincts, instead of following your ego. This can be challenging for many of us. In the middle of a workout, it can seem imperative to complete your set and do that last rep even if your form is suffering. But the truth is, form is the most important thing.  If you end up sacrificing proper form to complete those last few reps, you may get an unexpected and unwelcome result.

It is the same for runners. If you are running and your form begins to break down, take that as a signal to lessen your speed enough to reestablish your good form. If you train while focusing on proper, effective form, you will be more likely to run a good race at a good pace when the time comes.

As in much of life, there is a sweet spot where you are training hard enough to get the results you're seeking, but not overtraining and increasing your risk of injury.  Remember, to pace yourself so that you continue to receive the benefits of training over the long term, rather than being side-lined by an injury.



¹Couture CJ, Karlson KA: Tibial Stress Injuries: Decisive Diagnosis and Treatment of "Shin Splints". Physician and Sportsmedicine 36(6):29-36, 2002 

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When Today's Fashion Becomes Tomorrow's Pain

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

When Today's Fashion Becomes Tomorrow's Pain

Tips for Being Comfortably Fashionable

Choose a purse or briefcase that has a wide adjustable strap, long enough to wear across your torso. This helps to distribute the weight more evenly across the body. Keep your purse or briefcase as light as possible - take time to remove unnecessary items - and switch from side to side frequently to ease the burden. Try not to keep your wallet or card holder in your back pocket - especially when you are sitting or driving for extended periods of time. Wear comfortable shoes as much as possible. Wear flat shoes if you walk to work, and bring your heels with you. Keeping a comfortable lower-heeled pair at your office is helpful if your feet begin to bother you during the day. Be picky when shopping for shoes, and only buy them if they are very comfortable.  Look for shoes with lower heel heights. Your body will thank you. If possible, remove your heels and stretch your calves and hamstrings during the day. Avoid wearing excessively tight clothing.  If clothing is very form-fitting, make sure the fabric has some stretch. Consider your daily tasks, and if your clothing affects your movements in a negative way, consider outfits that will better fit your lifestyle.

Looking your best may not always be the best thing for your body. Today's society is generally very style and fashion conscious. The downside is that clothing designers and style professionals focus on creating visually interesting styles that can sometimes be impractical or even uncomfortable to wear.

Fashion shows typically feature models strutting down the runway in high heel stilettos and tight pants or skirts. These styles may look good on the catwalk, but in real life they are rarely practical and often result in back, foot, leg, neck or spine problems.  Many women are unaware of the adverse effects of wearing high heels, tight clothing, and carrying a heavy purse or briefcase.

Women often wear high heels to complement an outfit rather than for comfort, not realizing that high heel shoes can cause serious pain and problems in the feet and legs.  It can even cause or exacerbate back pain.

In a natural barefoot posture, the body's weight is properly distributed.  When a woman wears high heels, the position of the body is altered which causes shortening and tightening of certain muscles - particularly the hamstrings, and the gastrocnemius muscles of the calves.  It also causes increased stress and strain on your body while it struggles to adapt to an altered center of gravity.  Wearing high heels for an extended length of time increases the normal curve of the lower back, causing the pelvis to tilt forward. These changes are necessary for the body to maintain equilibrium while wearing high heels, but they are bad news for the musculoskeletal system.

Look for heels that are well-made, supportive, well-cushioned, and ideally less than 3 inches high.  Also, try to minimize the length of time heels are worn, and alternate them with good, supportive low heeled shoes.

Another major problem area when it comes to fashion is purses or handbags. Women often carry too many items in their purses, and are usually unaware of the potential health risks associated with lugging around too much "stuff."  When a women carries a purse or briefcase on one shoulder, she will unconsciously raise that shoulder and tighten her muscles in an attempt to keep it in place.  This throws off her body alignment and causes even more muscles to tighten in an attempt to balance this uneven weight distribution.  This can can cause chronic back pain, and an abnormal curvature in the spine.  When we see a patient who has been carrying her purse on one shoulder, it is usually very obvious due to the telltale postural issues and misalignments.

It is much better to use a purse or briefcase that has a strap long enough to be worn across the body, which distributes the weight more evenly.  It also allows your shoulder to relax more because you are no longer subconsciously tightening your muscles to keep it in place. The other important factor is the weight of your purse or briefcase.  Go through your bag regularly, removing anything that you don't absolutely need to carry each day.  Even with the bare minimum though, your purse or briefcase can still be a significant burden, especially if you are carrying it for an extended length of time. Also, get in the habit of switching your purse or briefcase from one side of the body to the other, to keep your body more balanced.

Both men and women are susceptible to the influence of fashion. However, women are much more likely to wear clothes that are too tight. A tight pencil skirt or tight jeans can be attractive on some women, but they can also make it more difficult to sit, walk or bend. This will usually have a negative effect on posture, and can cause or exacerbate spinal misalignments.

The main problem area for men is that they often carry their wallets or cardholders in the back pocket of their pants. This can be convenient, but carrying your wallet in the back pocket of your pants can throw your body off balance when sitting for an extended period of time.  Make a point of switching your wallet to your front pocket if you know you will be sitting or driving for a while.

Stylists and designers are often more concerned about the way something looks rather than the effect it has on the body. Pay attention to the way your body feels.  It's nice to look fashionable, but it's more important in the long run to select shoes, bags and clothes that not only suit your style and lifestyle, but are also comfortable.  Besides, feeling good will make you look even better as your natural health and vitality shines through.  By following these simple suggestions, you can be fashionable while still being comfortable, and feel as great as you look.

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Things You Need to Know About Lab Tests

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Things You Need to Know About Lab Tests

Analyzing Lab Tests

Various aspects of health care have made significant advances in the last few decades . Laboratory testing has also improved, not only in the range of tests available, but also in the quick turnaround-time of results. Unfortunately though, no lab test is perfect. Tests may either inaccurately suggest that a patient has a particular disease they don't have, or instead miss the presence of the disease in someone who actually has it. Either of these situations can be very problematic. MRIs, for example, are a helpful tool that reveal more information than ever before. But not every suspicious shadow on an MRI means something. It takes time and experience to accurately interpret MRI images. It is not unusual for new technology to become available well in advance of our ability to accurately interpret the results. Lab tests need to be interpreted cautiously. In order to have an accurate diagnosis, we need to also have supporting evidence in the form of patient history and physical exam findings, in addition to the lab test results.

You're in your doctor's office because you noticed some unusual symptoms and are afraid something might be wrong. Even though you know some lab tests are probably necessary, that doesn't prevent you from feeling anxious. We may want to know the results, but at the same time we probably are very concerned about what the outcome might be. Hearing the doctor casually mention that "we need to do some blood work," can be enough to trigger a strong bout of anxiety in many people.

Then when you get the results, it can be difficult to decipher the medical jargon, especially when the tests are "positive". Most of us have had the experience of our mind tuning out after hearing the initial news that "your test results are positive".  In this situation, our minds begin racing ahead, imagining all sorts of awful possibilities.

Occasionally, a compassionate physician will endeavor to put the lab results in a less-worrisome perspective for the patient. For patients, it helps to know some important facts  that will help to empower you whenever you have lab tests done.

First of all, statistically one out of every 20 tests performed will be reported as "abnormal", even though the result is in fact "normal" for the individual being tested. If you are perfectly healthy and have 20 tests done on your blood sample, one of those 20 test results will be "out of the normal range" based on statistics alone.¹

This anomaly is a result of the way the normal test range is calculated, which involves testing a large group of "normal" people and eliminating the top and bottom 2.5% of the results, leaving the middle 95% as the normal range. So if 20 tests are done, statistically one will be considered "abnormal", only because its results will fall in the top or bottom 2.5%.  It may be perfectly normal for you, but it will still be reported as "abnormal".

Other things to consider are the specificity and the sensitivity of the lab test.²  Specificity has to do with whether or not a particular positive test result actually indicates the presence of the disease for which you are being tested.  If a test has a specificity rate of 90%, then in ten out of 100 positive results, the patient does not actually have the disease. Sensitivity has to do with how accurate the test is in detecting the disease when the disease is truly present. For example, if a test for colon cancer is 90% sensitive, it will miss ten cases of the disease out of every 100 cases.

To summarize, if a test has low specificity, test results reporting the presence of the disease may be inaccurate, and if a test has low sensitivity, actual cases of the disease may be missed. All these factors need to be taken into consideration when interpreting lab test results. Things are not always as they seem.³

The important thing to realize from all of this, is that lab test results should always be evaluated in the specific context of the patient. An isolated lab test result - or a set of lab test results - needs to be related to the patient's circumstances and condition.  Making a diagnosis based on lab results alone can be a big mistake.

Similarly, x-ray, MRI, and ultrasound results must also be interpreted in context. Attempting to interpret an x-ray without any clinical information will likely result in an inaccurate conclusion. Context is everything. Your doctor should be willing and able to explain why certain tests are necessary, and to help you understand what the results indicate, when taken into consideration along with your exam and other findings.



 
¹Thomas SL, et al: How accurate are diagnoses for rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis in the general practice research database? Arthritis Rheum  59(9):1314-1321, 2008
²Friston KJ, et al: Classical and Bayesian inference in neuroimaging: theory. Neuroimage 16(2):465-483, 2002
³Kobayashi M, et al: Intraindividual variation in total and percent free prostate-specific antigen levels in prostate cancer suspects. Urol Int 74(3):198-202, 2005

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Spring Cleaning? Protect Your Back!

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Spring Cleaning?  Protect Your Back!

The beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures of spring often motivate us to open the windows, let the fresh air in, and give our homes a thorough cleaning.  Be careful though, household chores can sometimes literally be a pain in your back. Even common cleaning activities, such as loading and unloading the dishwasher, washing dishes, scrubbing the bathroom, and vacuuming the floors, can cause back strain resulting in anything from mild discomfort to debilitating pain.

Fortunately, you can lessen your risk of injury by making sure you are using proper form while cleaning.  It also helps to take plenty of breaks and to do a little each day instead of one marathon session.


One of the most important things you can do to protect your back is to always make sure you use good body mechanics while lifting heavy objects, such as a bucket full of soapy water or a heavy vacuum cleaner.  Make sure to always bend at your knees rather than your waist, and always keep the item you're lifting as close to your body as possible to reduce back strain.  Also, make sure you are facing the object you are picking up (rather than twisting while you lift) and if you need to place it to the side of you, turn your whole body to face that direction before bending your knees and setting it down.

Here are some additional tips to help protect your back:

• Whenever you need to stand for an extended period of time, see if you can find a way to lift one of your feet a little higher than the other one, and then periodically alternate.  For example, if you are washing dishes, you can open the cabinet below and rest your foot on the ledge to reduce back strain.  (Cashiers, and other people who stand all day, often find this little trick invaluable.)
• When vacuuming, transfer your weight back and forth between your front and back feet, using your body weight to propel the vacuum as you lunge.  Also, periodically switching from one hand to the other helps to keep your muscles working in a more balanced manner, reducing back strain.
• If you can, switch hands while scrubbing your bathroom or performing other similar tasks, and pay attention to your body mechanics, making sure to minimize any twisting.
• Don't overdo it.  As mentioned earlier, spread out your chores throughout the week, doing a little at a time.  Similarly, if you have a lot of dishes to do and notice that it tends to aggravate your back... only do half and let them dry in the dish rack while the others soak in hot soapy water, finishing them later.
• If you notice your back is feeling tight, take a break, lie down on your back, and hug your knees to your chest until your back muscles relax.  This may be a good time for some additional stretching.  Your chiropractor can show you some easy stretches that can help reduce muscle spasm and tension.
• If your back is hurting, use an ice pack wrapped in a thin towel.  If you don't have a frozen cold pack, a bag of frozen vegetables can make a good substitute.
• If the pain continues for more than a day or two or if you experience numbness, tingling or any weakness in your extremities, see your chiropractor.  Your Millar doctor of chiropractic is an expert in spinal health and can help identify and treat your problem.

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Stacking the Deck

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

 

Stacking the Deck

Making Your Own Luck

When it comes to ensuring your own good health, you can make your own luck by taking positive actions that stack the deck in your favor. Otherwise, depending upon "luck" by itself, without applying any extra effort, will only take you so far on your journey toward health.  Some people are lucky because they are blessed with a speedy metabolism. They are able to eat whatever they want without gaining weight. But just because they haven't been gaining weight eating a lot of fast food cheeseburgers, french fries and milkshakes, doesn't mean that a diet like this is conducive to long-term health. It's important to realize that there is a down side to eating foods that are low in the nutrients your body needs. Eventually even a fast metabolism will begin to rebel against this type of diet, eventually slowing down and storing excess body fat as the person gets older. When this happens, it may take a lengthy amount of time to reverse the effects, even after switching to a more healthful diet.  Even without excessive weight gain, a poor diet over time usually predisposes a person to other health problems as the years go by. Instead, you can stack the deck in your favor by making good lifestyle choices and by being vigilant about your health. Chiropractic check-ups help to make sure that your body functions at peak levels. If it isn't, then your chiropractor can suggest a treatment plan that can help you get back to your optimal level of fitness. Your doctor of chiropractic can also offer guidance as you improve your diet and choose exercise activities that will help keep you and your family healthy and well.

Life isn't fair. Some people can do all the right things and still struggle with serious health problems. At the same time, there are other people with terrible habits who end up living long lives before dying peacefully in their sleep at a very advanced age.
Many people suffer from chronic hypertension (high blood pressure) which causes their hearts to have to work much harder than a person with normal blood pressure. Hypertension is associated with the increased incidence of strokes and heart attacks, and is a leading cause of death. ¹

Chronic hypertension is often considered to be a "lifestyle disease". ^2,3  Being overweight or obese (which includes approximately two-thirds of American adults) and/or diabetic will increase one's risk of chronic hypertension, as will smoking and not exercising regularly.  Actually, being overweight/obese, not exercising, and smoking are the top three causes of this serious malady.

It is clear that maintaining an appropriate weight, performing regular exercise, and either stopping smoking (or even better - never starting to begin with) are the three primary lifestyle actions related to decreasing one's risk of developing chronic hypertension. Even so, a small percentage of people who are slender, have never smoked, and have exercised regularly all their lives may still not be immune to developing high blood pressure. In a case such as this, chronic hypertension is referred to as "essential hypertension". The person has a very healthy lifestyle that does not include any risk factors for hypertension, and yet they still become hypertensive. That is the luck of the draw, otherwise known as a genetic predisposition to this disease.

In contrast, you may know someone who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day since they were a teenager, drinks a large amount of alcohol almost daily, and still they rarely ever get sick. They somehow avoid developing lung cancer or liver problems, and have no real problems with heart disease or chronic hypertension.  Even though they're living a life that's contrary to all that is known about achieving good health, they somehow manage to thrive well into their 80s and 90s.  They love to remind their friends and relatives that they've never been sick a day in their life, while lighting up another cigarette. A person such as this is described by epidemiologists as an "outlier" - someone whose health parameters represent an outlying 2.5% or less of the standard values. Their particular genetic predisposition seems to give them an indestructible constitution.

Of course the exceptions only prove the rule, and it's important to realize that their existence does not suggest that it would be wise for the rest of us to ignore the rules for good health. Regular vigorous exercise and a healthful diet (that suits one's particular constitution) is very important for the other 97.5% of the population without an abnormally resilient constitution. Chiropractic care is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Chiropractic care helps people, young and old, achieve their best possible health. This natural form of health care helps take the "luck" out of the equation by minimizing its influence. We can stack the deck in our favor, and chiropractic helps us do that in the arena of health and well-being.


¹Zhang WW, et al: Hypertension and TIA. Int J Stroke 4(3):206-214, 2009
²Schmid AA, et al: Current blood pressure self-management: a qualitative study. Rehabil Nurs 34(6):223-229, 2009
³Pascual JM, et al: Body weight variation and control of cardiovascular risk factors in essential hypertension. Blood Press 18(5):247-254

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Activity Breaks

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Activity Breaks

Why Lean Muscle is So Important

It is often said that increasing your body's percentage of "lean muscle tissue" is a major benefit of performing regular, strenuous exercise. Building lean muscle tissue is one of the ways your body adapts to certain types of physiologic stress. Lean muscle tissue acts like a metabolic furnace - burning extra calories even while your body is resting. You can think of it as though your increased percentage of lean muscle tissue turns up your internal thermostat, causing your body to burn fat in order to satisfy the increased demand for energy. Lean muscle tissue is more dense than body fat, so as you increase your percentage of lean muscle tissue, you may notice your waistline and other measurements decreasing faster than your weight on the scale.  For some people, their weight may even increase a bit while they become slimmer and more toned.  That's why it's best to not rely on a scale to chart your fitness progress.  Increasing your lean muscle tissue will give you a stronger, firmer, and more shapely body that increases your vibrancy, and makes it easier to stay in shape.

You may have heard that regularly performing just thirty minutes of strenuous exercise each day will reward you with many health benefits.  The greatest difficulty for many people though is finding the time to exercise consistently. We only have twenty-four hours each day to accomplish everything we need to do.  In many cases, working, shopping, cleaning, cooking, taking care of the kids, and all the other daily duties we need to perform often take precedence and may leave little room for working out.

Most of us have at least some motivation to exercise¹ - we want to workout regularly and we realize it's important and good for us.² But how and when can we manage to fit it into our busy lives?  A small minority are motivated enough to get up at 5:00 a.m. to workout - making more time in their day but sacrificing their precious sleep. Others wait until the end of the day to exercise, but that can often be stressful and counterproductive, and much more difficult to remain consistent long-term. Clearly though, many people make a good effort to exercise at least a few times each week, wherever they can fit it in.

Over time however, many of our good intentions get thwarted by our daily concerns. Scheduling concerns and deadlines end up taking precedence, and the item on our to-do list that is easiest to cast aside - exercise - ends up getting lost in the time crunch. When this happens, it usually doesn't take long before we're back to not exercising at all. So how can we overcome this tendency, other than getting up very early and exercising first thing in the morning before other concerns vie for our energy and attention?  One way is by performing short bursts of activity throughout each day. Studies have shown that "activity bursts", lasting from three to five minutes, provide significant health benefits for people who would otherwise find it difficult or impossible to exercise in more traditional ways.

The idea of activity bursts is slowly catching on. You may even find that some people at your place of work are starting to take "activity breaks" instead of taking coffee breaks.  Spending a few minutes walking briskly outside, climbing the office building stairs or performing a brief set of calisthenics is all it takes. Six to ten of these short, three to five minute bursts will fulfill the minimum daily requirement of thirty minutes of exercise. You won't even have to find time in your schedule for a typical workout. You're already at work, and you're already taking breaks. It's easy to convert your breaks to exercise breaks. And by the time you've finished your work day, your exercise for the day has also already been completed. The other nice thing about it is that you end up feeling great all day, due to the increased amounts of endorphins that are being released throughout the day.

You don't have to work in an office building to take advantage of this type of exercise.  These "activity bursts" are also great for those who work from home, as well as for school children. Studies in schools are showing that short bursts of intense physical activity increases attention spans and results in increased learning.

This is a way to exercise that makes it easy to fit physical activity into your life.  Finally, everyone can have a workable system for getting the exercise they need. Your Millar chiropractor is a fitness expert and will be happy to help you design an exercise program that works for you.



¹Vallance JK, et al: Maintenance of physical activity in breast cancer survivors after a randomized trial. Med Sci Sports Exerc 40(1):173-180, 2008
²Heckman GE, McKelvie RS: Cardiovascular aging and exercise in healthy older adults. Clin J Sport Med 18(6):479-485, 2008

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Chiropractic for Kids

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Chiropractic for Kids

To Be Healthy, Kids Need Plenty of Exercise and Good Nutrition

There is a raging epidemic of obesity among America's youth. The number of American adolescents who are obese has risen an astounding 300% in the last 40 years. Fortunately, in almost all cases, obesity is a lifestyle disorder. What this means is that most of the time, children who have become obese have done so due to behaviors they learned from their family, friends, and advertising media. To ensure your child maintains a healthy weight, it is critical that they eat a proper diet and get plenty of exercise throughout the day.  For a healthy diet: Eliminate all trans fats (including almost all fast foods). Eliminate sweet drinks and encourage water-drinking instead. Eat plenty of vegetables a some whole fruits each day. Avoid processed food as much as possible, and keep junk food out of your home. Serve pastured and organic meat and poultry if possible. Don't push your child to clean their plates.  Instead help them to recognize when they are full and to stop eating as soon as they've had enough. Children need a minimum of an hour of daily physical activity, which can include outdoor play, dance, calisthenics, gymnastics, and sporting activities.  Make sure your kids are getting an appropriate amount of exercise each day!

Grownups aren't the only ones who benefit by being checked by their chiropractor.  Kids do too!  Most kids probably don't need to have their blood pressure and glucose levels checked regularly.  Having these simple procedures done during their annual physical is usually enough for the majority of children. On the other hand, because kids are normally very active, more frequent chiropractic check-ups are usually a good idea.

Because most of us were never introduced to chiropractic care until we were adults - we had to play catch-up for a certain length of time before we really started to feel truly healthy again.  If we were one of the luckier ones who began chiropractic care as a younger adult, it probably didn't take too long to restore good health. If we were older, then the process probably took significantly more time.

If chiropractic care is valuable for you, imagine how valuable it is for your children. Kids are natural explorers - they run, jump, climb things, fall down, and generally bounce around a lot. Fortunately, kids are resilient - their quick recovery ability is one of the great benefits of being very young.

Occasionally though, one of these activity-related injuries negatively impacts a child's spine. It may not have been anything that was obvious, and nothing hurts, but there still may be subtle injuries to spinal ligaments and muscles that will have a long-term effect on spinal nerve function.^1,2

Proper functioning of the spinal nerves is dependent upon the mechanical integrity of the spine itself.  If spinal ligaments and muscles are irritated or inflamed, spinal nerve function is compromised to a certain extent. In a child, the short-term and long-term effects may include muscle pain and stiffness, reduced range of motion in the low back or neck, frequent headaches, colds, asthma, allergies, and gastrointestinal problems.

Of course, when it comes to protecting your and your family's health, it's always much easier to prevent a problem before it begins, rather than treat the problem after it occurs. Prevention also costs much less over the long-run.

We all want our kids to be as healthy and well as possible. We want them to play full-out, having a lot of fun and engaging in all sorts of athletic activities.  Regular spinal check-ups are as important for ensuring your child's optimal health as their annual physical exam.

Your Millar chiropractor is a spinal health expert. He or she will be happy to help you ensure your child's continued good health.


¹Fecteau D, et al: The effect of concentrating periods of physical activity on the risk of injury in organized sports in a pediatric population. Clin J Sport Med 18(5):410-414, 2008
²Spinks AB, McClure RJ: Quantifying the risk of sports injury: a systematic review of activity-specific rates for children under 16 years of age. Br J Sports Med 41(9):548-557, 2007

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