Tag Archive for: Denver Active Release
This week’s 1-page health news…
Dr. Stripling is back this week showing you how to stretch those hamstrings out. Video link is at the bottom of this page.
Mental Attitude: Multiple Media Use. Media use among United States youth has increased 20% in the past decade, and the amount of time spent multitasking with media has spiked 120%. Using multiple forms of media at the same time (ie. playing a computer game while watching TV) has been linked to symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, December 2012
Diet: Rice Bran. The bioactive components in rice bran show anti-cancer activity, including the ability to inhibit cell proliferation, alter cell cycle progression, and initiate the programmed cell death (known as apoptosis) in malignant cells. Bioactive components of rice bran act not only within cancer cells but around the cells to create conditions in the surrounding tissues that promote the function of healthy cells while inhibiting the function of cancer cells. This tissue microenvironment activity includes controlling chronic inflammation, often a precursor for cancer. Rice bran may also promote an anti-cancer immune response and protect against cancer. Advances in Nutrition, December 2012
Exercise: Want A Healthy Brain? Physical exercise is important when it comes to maintaining a healthy brain. Scientists found that Growth Hormone (stimulated by exercise) increases the amount of stem cells that actively generate new nerve cells in the brain. Growth Hormone also slows and can even reverse the decline in new nerve cell formation normally seen as our bodies age. University of Queensland, November 2012
Chiropractic: Bone Spurs? Bone spurs (osteophytes) are bony projections that form off of bones in and along joints, and are often seen with arthritis. Bone spurs can limit joint motion and can cause joint pain. Bone spurs form when the body tries to increase the surface area of the joint to better distribute weight across a joint surface that has been damaged by arthritis. To slow formation and alleviate symptoms, it has been shown that joint motion improves nutrition to the tissue and maintains the health of the joint. Spine, 1977 In our opinion, Active Release Techniques soft tissue work combined with spinal adjusting is the best way to restore or maintain joint mobility.
Wellness/Prevention: Sleep and Insulin Resistance. High levels of insulin resistance can lead to the development of diabetes. Teenagers who normally sleep six hours a night can improve insulin resistance by 9% by simply sleeping one additional hour. This probably extrapolates to adults as well Sleep, October 2012
Quote: “He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.” ~ Thomas Carlyle
Dr. Glenn Hyman’s Crossfit Gym & this week’s 1-Page Health News
People are always asking me (Glenn) where I workout. Meredith and I train using a blend of Crossfit and Crossfit Endurance in exactly 91 sq ft of our basement (plus the outside stuff of course). You’d be surprised how much you can do in 91 sq ft with kettlebells, a barbell bumper set, a pull up bar and some imagination. (Secret hint for our loyal blog readers- Stay tuned for an upcoming announcement regarding Crossfit, Dr. Stripling & myself – it’s gonna be a biggie!) Anyway, here’s my present Cossfit Gym:
Speaking of Dr. Stripling, his popular video series is back this week. This time around, Dr. Stripling shows you some quick and easy self-help strategies for the low back.The link is at the bottom of this email.
Health Alert: Childhood Obesity Rates Falling! During the first decade of the 21st century, childhood obesity rates among children in lower income families in the United States have decreased (14.94% in 2010 vs. 15.21% in 2003). The Journal of the American Medical Association, December 2012
Diet: Red Wine and Cancer. Resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, is thought to help prevent cancer. Lab models designed to identify any benefits from consuming the amount of resveratrol in 2 daily glasses of wine found a reduction in the rate of bowel tumors by around 50%.(Note-Yay!) University of Leicester, December 2012
Exercise: Good Vibrations. Within 7 months of starting a poor diet, normal mice became obese, with significant damage to their immune and skeletal systems. Daily 15-minute treatments of low-intensity vibration, barely perceptible to human touch, helped restore the immune and skeletal systems of the mice towards those of mice fed a regular diet. If this effect translates to humans, it could have benefits for obese people suffering from immune problems related to their obesity. The FASEB Journal, December 2012
Chiropractic: Quit Smoking! Smokers suffering from spinal disorders and related back pain reported greater discomfort than those who stopped smoking during an 8 month treatment period. Patients who had never smoked and prior smokers reported significantly less back pain than current smokers and those who had quit smoking during their care. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, December 2012
Wellness/Prevention: Sleep and Pain? In a recent study, participants who slept 1.8 hours more per night had increased daytime alertness and less pain sensitivity than those who slept their normal amount. Sleep, December 2012
Quote: “What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
Dr. Stripling’s weekly video, Skiing / Snowboard / Snowshoe injuries & the 1-page health news from Denver Chiropractic Center
After spending time with our families this (past) holiday season, those of us who make up the staff of Denver Chiropractic Center (Dr. Hyman, Dr. Stripling, Miss Keri, and Awesome Massage Therapist Erin are back in the office on January 2 at 10AM and ready to help you. It’s going to be a great 2013!
We (Glenn & my wife Meredith) took the kids skiing / snowboarding / snowshoeing, and this season’s snow is looking great. That probably means that some of you are feeling the inevitable aches and pains that come with winter sports. Don’t let pain slow you down, give us a call.
Dr. Stripling and Miss Keri returned from Iowa (gee, I’ve never had employees spend so much time together) to post Dr. Stripling’s latest video for those of you who work at a desk- how to open those shoulders and improve your posture. See previous post for the video.
Here’s this week’s 1-page health news.
Mental Attitude: Anxious Parents? Parents diagnosed with social anxiety disorder are more likely to exhibit less warmth and affection towards their children, criticize them more, and express doubts about their child’s ability to complete a task. This can heighten anxiety in their child, and over time, can increase the chance their child will develop an advanced anxiety disorder of their own. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, November 2012
Health Alert: Parental Math Skills and Medication Errors. Parents with poor math skills (3rd grade level or below) are 5 times more likely to measure the wrong dose of medication for their child than parents with math skills at the 6th grade level or greater. In a study of 289 parents, 27% had math skills at 3rd grade level or below. American Academy of Pediatrics, April 2012
Diet: Processed Meat. Processed meat consumption increases the risk of prostate cancer. Processed red meat was associated with a 10% increased risk of prostate cancer with every 10 grams (about one-third of an ounce) of increased intake. This means stay away from the cheap stuff and spring for grass fed beef, available at Vitamin Cottage and Whole Foods. American Journal of Epidemiology, October 2009
Exercise: 5 Major Reasons. Exercise helps control your weight preventing excess weight gain or maintaining weight loss, combats health conditions and diseases, improves mood, boosts energy, and promotes better sleep. Mayo Clinic
Chiropractic: Spinal Degenerative Joint Disease and Pain. There are several reasons spinal degeneration causes pain: 1. Mechanical compression of nerve by bone, ligament, or the disk. 2. Biochemical mediators of inflammation.
3. Mechanical nerve compression results in decreased blood flow and swelling, which causes lack of proper motion leading to fibrotic tissue formation. Spine, 1989 In our opinion, nothing staves off spinal degeneration better than a healthy diet and regular treatment with Active Release and adjustments.
Wellness/Prevention: Get Your Sleep! Sleep disorders lead to 253 million days of sick leave a year in the United States. 63.2 billion dollars are lost a year due to insomnia. A third of this is due to absence from work, while the other two thirds is due to a loss in productivity at work. 10% of the population suffers from insomnia. Sleep apnea affects 4-5% of the population. University of Bergen, November 2012. Shoot for 7 hours a night, minimum.
Quote: “Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”
~ Edward Stanley
Do the Chiropractors at Denver Chiropractic Center Help Patients With Headaches?
This seems like an easy question to answer, doesn’t it? The answer of course being, YES!!! However, there are many people who suffer with headaches who have never been to a chiropractor or have not even ever considered it as a “good option.”
So, rather than having me “reassure you” that chiropractic works GREAT for headache management, let’s look at the scientific literature to see if “they” (the scientific community) agree or not.
In a 2011 meta-analysis, researchers reviewed journals published through 2009 and found 21 articles that met their inclusion criteria and used the results to develop treatment recommendations. Researchers discovered there is literature support utilizing Chiropractic care for the treatment of migraine headaches of either episodic or chronic migraine. Similarly, support for the Chiropractic treatment of cervicogenic headaches, or headaches arising from the neck region (see last month’s Health Update), was reported
In addition, joint mobilization (the “non-cracking” type of neck treatment such as figure 8 stretching and manual traction) or strengthening of the deep neck flexor muscles may improve symptoms in those suffering from cervicogenic headaches as well. The literature review also found low load craniocervical mobilization may be helpful for longer term management of patients with episodic or chronic tension-type headaches where manipulation was found to be less effective.
We add Active Release Techniques to this treatment arsenal to release tension in the muscles in the neck and at the base of the skull. These tight muscles are often the overlooked culprit in people with headaches,
Okay, we realize this is all fairly technical, so sorry about that. But, it is important to “hear” this so when people ask you why are going to a chiropractor for your headaches, you can say that not only that it helps a lot, but there are a lot of scientific studies that support it too!
Bottom line is that it DOES REALLY HELP and maybe, most importantly, it helps WITHOUT drugs and their related side effects. Just ask someone who has taken some of the headache medications what their side-effects were and you’ll soon realize a non-drug approach should at least be tried first since it carries few to no side effects.
We realize that you have a choice in where you choose your healthcare services. If you, a friend or family member requires care for headaches, we sincerely appreciate the trust and confidence shown by choosing our services and look forward in serving you and your family presently and, in the future.
Low Back Pain, Balance, and Foot Orthotics
Low back pain (LBP) can result from many causes, and sometimes it just occurs for reasons that are not clear, such as the accumulation of stresses that occur over time. Many causes of low back pain have been described such as bending over “wrong,” combined bending and twisting, lifting, over reaching, climbing, sitting too long, repetitious activities at home or work, sports injuries, being out of shape, and so on. But what about balance? Because poor balance leads to falling, which is the #1 cause of injuries in the elderly, ANYTHING that we can do to improve our balance should help prevent falls and hence low back injuries. Let’s look at strategies to improve our balance…
First, let’s measure our ability to balance by using a simple test you can do yourself. Stand on one leg in the corner of a room or in a doorway where you can easily grab onto something if you feel like you’re going to fall. Try to do this without holding on to anything, first with your eyes open and a second time with your eyes closed. If you have a stopwatch, click it when you start and stop (when you put your foot down). Otherwise, count, “…1001, 1002, 1003, etc.” Studies have shown that for those under 60 years old, you’re “normal” if you can balance on one leg with your eyes open for 30 seconds and 25 seconds with your eyes closed. Between ages 60-69, normal is 23 sec. (eyes open) and 10 sec. (eyes closed) is normal. If you’re 70-79 years old, normal is 14 seconds (eyes open) and 4 seconds (eyes closed). Give it a try! Notice how “normal” drops as we age. From 25 sec. to 4 sec. between age 59 and 70 is pretty dramatic! No wonder falling is so common among the elderly!
So, now that you’ve tested yourself, I’m guessing you aren’t too impressed with your balance skills. The question now is, how can we improve our balance? Performing balance exercises with a rocker, wobble board or cushion is VERY EFFECTIVE! You’ll be surprised that if you use this for 10 minutes a day, the improvement in balance is significant in just 2 weeks. Another method takes no effort at all on your part, and that is the use of made foot orthotics. Simply known as arch supports, foot orthotics (the good “prescription” kind) correct the rolling in or out of the heel bone, referred to as pronation (rolling in = most common) or supination (rolling out) by wedging the heel of the orthotic/arch support. This stabilizes the ankle joint, reduces the inward or outward shift at the knee and hip joints, and as a result, improves our balance.
Results of a recent study proved this to be the case. Researchers studied 13 subjects over 65 years of age who reported at least 1 unexpected fall in the past 12 months and measured their balance skills using a similar test as the one you just tried as well as 3 other tests (tandem stance, tandem gait, and alternating step tests) twice before and twice after starting use of foot orthotic intervention (immediately after and 2 weeks later). In each of the 4 balance tests, improvement was statistically significant in the post-tests and 2-week later follow-up tests PROVING that balance is effectively improved when wearing foot orthotics. We recommend doing BOTH the exercises and the use of foot orthotics to obtain even better results. Since falling is such a common occurrence at any age, especially in those over 60-65 years old, these simple strategies seem like a “no-brainer” to implement into a treatment program, especially for people with poor bone density at high risk for fractures.
At Denver Chiropractic Center we offer the-semi-custom Aline Foot Suspension system. In our opinion these are better than rigid orthotics because they allow your foot’s natural arches to function while providing a moderate amount of support. This allows your foot to naturally strengthen its intrinsic muscles. Call us for your more info 303.300.0424.
What happened in Vegas, Dr. Stripling’s Self-Help video for Neck Pain, and this week’s 1-Page Health News, from Denver Chiropractic Center
This weekend Meredith and I (Glenn) jetted off to Las Vegas so I could teach at the Active Release Techniques seminar there, and so we could hang out at night. Meredith saw (or almost saw, I never did get the story straight) the Victoria Secret models and Magic Johnson (not together). I did not. Anyway, as always Vegas was fun for a couple of days and then got really old really quickly.
Dr. Stripling and Keri held down the fort here at the office, and shot a video on a great neck stretch for those of you who work at a desk all day. The link is below.
Next week is the last week of the year for us, and we’ll be closed from December 22 through January 1, opening back up on January 2. Dr. Hyman will be on call in case of emergency. His cell phone # will be on our voicemail.
Mental Attitude: Reaction To Stress. How people react to stress determines how that stress will affect their health. Study volunteers were separated in two groups: 1) those who let their troubles affect their emotional state and 2) those who didn’t let stress bother them at all. At a 10-year follow up, those who let stress affect them (group 1) were more likely to suffer from chronic health problems. Penn State, November 2012
Health Alert: Hip Replacement and Stroke Risk. Hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke risk is ~4% higher within 2 weeks of total hip replacement surgery. A hemorrhagic stroke is brought on by bleeding in the brain, while an ischemic stroke is brought on by arterial blockage. Total hip replacement is extremely common in the United States. Around 1 million hip replacement surgeries are done around the world every year, 300,000 in the United States alone. Stroke, November 2012
Diet: Vitamin D Levels Decreasing? Women with health issues such as arthritis, hypothyroidism, cancer, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis are much more likely to have inadequate levels of vitamin D during seasons with decreased daylight. 28% of women had deficient levels and 33% had insufficient levels of vitamin D. Women taking supplements were able to significantly elevate their vitamin D levels.
American Society for Clinical Pathology, November 2012
Exercise: Exercise When You’re Sick? The choice to exercise or not sometimes depends on the sickness or disease. Our bodies work harder and use more energy when we are fighting an illness. If symptoms are above the neck (sore throat, runny nose), it is probably okay to exercise. If you’re sick but still want to exercise, simply reduce your intensity and duration. You should not exercise if you have body aches, fever, diarrhea or vomiting, shortness of breath or chest congestion, dizziness or light-headedness. When resuming your regular exercise routine, try starting with 50% effort and 50% duration. Loyola University Health System, November 2012
Active Release Techniques: Sliding Nerves? Nerves need to slide past muscles and other structures in your body. As tight muscles put pressure or pinch nerves, they interrupt the blood’s circulation to the nerve. This can cause symptoms like carpal tunnel in the wrist sciatica in the hip and thigh, and many more problems. Active Release Techniques is the only system that specifically includes treatment protocols for releasing nerve entrapments. Note: Dr. Glenn Hyman is still the only Active Release Techniques instructor practicing in Denver.
Wellness/Prevention: Staying Healthy! “Check out Dr. Stripling’s Self-Help video for Neck Pain:
http://www.denverback.com/?p=966
Quote: “So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their
Common Car Accident (Whiplash) Myths
Last month, we began discussing common myths about whiplash injuries, and this month, we will continue on that course. Remember, the amount of injury that occurs in an acceleration/deceleration injury is dependant on many factors, some of which include gender (females>males), body type (tall slender = worse), the amount of vehicular damage (less is sometimes worse as the energy of the strike was not absorbed by crushing metal), head position at the time of impact (rotation is worse than looking straight ahead), and more. Therefore, each case MUST be looked at on its own merits, not just analyzed based on a formula or accident reconstruction.
MYTH #5: THERE MUST BE DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE NECK FOR INJURY TO OCCUR. Injury to the neck most commonly occurs due to the rapid, uncontrolled whipping action of the head, forcing the neck to move well beyond its normal range of motion in a forwards/backwards direction (if it’s a front or rear-end collision) or, at an angle if the head is rotated or when the strike occurs at an angle.
When this occurs, the strong ligaments that hold the bones together stretch and tear in a mild, moderate, or severe degree, depending on the amount of force. Once stretched, increased motion between the affected vertebra results as ligaments, when stretched, don’t repair back to their original length and, just like a severe ankle sprain, future problems can result. This excess motion between vertebra can result in an accelerated type of arthritis and is often seen within five years following a cervical sprain or whiplash injury.
MYTH #6: SEAT BELTS PREVENT WHIPLASH INJURIES. It’s safe to say that wearing seat belts saves lives and, it’s the law! So, WEAR YOUR SEAT BELTS! They protect us from hitting the windshield or worse, being ejected from the vehicle. But, as far as preventing whiplash, in some cases (low speed impacts where most of the force is transferred to the car’s occupants), the opposite may actually be true. (This is not an excuse to not wear a seatbelt!)
The reason seat belts can add to the injury mechanism is because when the chest or trunk is held tightly against the car seat, the head moves through a greater arc of motion than it would if the trunk were not pinned against the seat, forcing the chin further to the chest and/or the back of the head further back. The best way to minimize the whiplash injury is to have a well-designed seat belt system where the height of the chest harness can be adjusted to the height of the driver so that the chest restraint doesn’t come across the upper chest or neck.
Move the side adjustment so the chest belt crosses between the breasts (this also reduces injury risk to the breasts) and attaches at or near the height of the shoulder (not too high). Another preventer of whiplash is positioning the head restraint high enough (above the ears typically) and close to the head (no more than ½ to 1 inch) so the head rest stops the backwards-whipping action. Also, keep the seat back more vertical than reclined so the body doesn’t “ramp” up the seat back forcing the head over the top of the head restraint.
If you’ve been in a car accident, Denver Chiropractic Center can help you with Active Release Techniques, chiropractic care, and physical therapy. We accept Med Pay and will work with any auto insurance carrier. 303.300.0424. Call us today.