Telecommuting and Technology Hazards

The benefits to be derived from using emerging technology for business as well as household organization are progressing at an ever increasing rate. However, these benefits come at a cost to the body that must be taken into consideration.

Reliance on technology such as e-mail, fax machine, the Internet, as well as the seemingly ever-present smartphone makes working away from an office more enticing and alluring than ever before. Working outside the office may take place in a home, at a local library, or any location that is appropriate and has access to the World Wide Web, but the Internet is not always a requirement for work to be performed. Regardless of the physical location of your workplace, the practice of using technology to work from remote locations is referred to as telecommuting and it is beginning to reveal that it is producing problems that accompany the benefits derived from the convenience of working in this manner.

Repetitive strain injury (RSI) is a comprehensive syndrome that encompasses tendonitis in many different areas of the body, carpal tunnel syndrome, and thoracic outlet syndrome resulting from repetitive work activity. These types of syndromes may also be referred to as overuse syndromes because the damaged body parts are being hurt by performing the same sequence of work activity over and over again.

Think about this for a moment. When you are using a computer or texting on your cell phone aren’t you repeating the same activities over and over again? Of course you are! And RSI can easily result from the repeating movements you are making with your fingers and hands.

RSIs are a much more significant problem for full time workers than for those working less than 30 hours per week because of the greater exposure time to the repetitive movements causing these syndromes. That is no big surprise, is it?

Another huge factor affecting RSI is that most electronic devices are not designed with ergonomics in mind. The next time you have an opportunity to observe someone using a laptop computer note if their wrists are held in a perfectly horizontal position (which is the best wrist position to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome) or are their hands held with the wrists placed at an acute angle? They most likely have a laptop in their lap or on a low table so they must crane their neck forward allowing them to look down at the monitor. How about their head position? Are they sitting with their head erect to keep their ears over their shoulders and their shoulders perfectly positioned over their hips as they should be sitting?

These types of positions spell disaster for the musculoskeletal system. Any time the 12-15 pound head is placed forward of the center gravitational line of the body the muscles of the neck and upper back are being used in a manner that often leads to neck, upper back, and/or head pain. Telecommuting and technology hazards very often involve this type of posture which can lead to painful and sometimes debilitating afflictions. A repetitive strain injury resulting from hazards created by telecommuting or other uses of new technology is becoming a major area of concern for employees, employers, and all entities involved in worker compensation issues.

Scoliosis and Chiropractic Care

Most people have heard of scoliosis from spinal examinations that are often performed in schools by the school nurse but few people understand what scoliosis is and how to use conservative methods to treat this relatively common condition.

Scoliosis is a lateral (to the sides of the body) curvature that has progressed 10 degrees or more from normal posture. When the school nurse or your doctor performs an examination for scoliosis they are looking for this abnormal lateral curve of the spine which may be accompanied by a “hump” on one side that is evidence of rib cage deformity occurring due to the scoliosis. The danger in scoliosis is that it may progress as a child’s spine grows. Depending on the severity of the scoliosis and the resultant curvature the vital organs (mainly the heart and lungs) may be compressed which inhibits normal function.  

While there is no definitive known cause of scoliosis, recent scientific studies have concentrated on hormonal and neurological causes for this condition. There have been some promising findings from these studies that may assist doctors to treat scoliosis with conservative methods.

One on the most significant findings involves the pineal gland. This small gland is located in the brain and is responsible for the hormone melatonin. Melatonin appears to have a direct influence on the development of a balanced and therefore straight spine lacking the lateral curvature of scoliosis.

Two studies of the effect of melatonin on spinal development were performed by surgically removing the pineal gland from young chickens in one study and removing the pineal gland from rats in another study. Both studies produced spinal curvatures similar to scoliosis as occurs in humans with rotation of the vertebrae (spinal bones) accompanied by humping of the rib cage. In the rat study, some rats were given melatonin which prevented the development of scoliosis-like spinal curvatures. These findings led the researchers to suspect that melatonin is involved with maintaining the balance of 24 vertebrae when stacked one atop the other which will lead to the formation of a straight spine or one suffering scoliosis if there is a lack of melatonin.

So what does this have to do with chiropractic care of scoliosis?

Many studies have verified the presence of problems involving balance when standing and muscular coordination difficulties in people suffering scoliosis. It has not been determined if the abnormal gait (walking) patterns found in children with scoliosis are a consequence of the scoliosis or if an abnormal gait pattern is a contributing factor leading to the formation of scoliosis. One study using scientifically advanced measuring devices combined with sophisticated computer analysis has helped shed some light on this question by finding there are lower extremity control problems present in children with scoliosis when compared to children without scoliosis.

Findings from studies such as these allow Doctors of Chiropractic to stop or slow down the progression of scoliosis by utilizing chiropractic adjustments, nutritional supplementation, specific exercises to improve balance as well as neuromuscular coordination, and the use of spinal pelvic stabilizers to initiate the normalization of foot function and the resultant gait symmetry.

Of course, a thorough initial examination must be performed before a course of treatment can be established. Do not wait. Get a proper evaluation from your local Doctor of Chiropractic today to determine if your child has scoliosis and what can be done for it before it progresses any further.

Mediterranean Diet for Heart Health

The Mediterranean Diet is still being touted as an excellent way to lower the risk of cardiovascular related deaths from myocardial infarction (heart attacks) or stroke. Recently, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published findings from a study that has become known as the PREDIMED study (which is an acronym for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet study). The PREDIMED study took five years to complete and involved 7,447 people so the findings should be fairly representative of the general population.

The PREDIMED study showed that a Mediterranean diet containing extra-virgin olive oil and/or tree nuts such as hazelnuts, almonds, and/or walnuts may reduce the risk of death caused by cardiovascular disease by 30 percent. The study is explained this way because two groups, both consuming a Mediterranean diet with either extra-virgin olive oil or tree nuts, showed substantially less risk of suffering cardiovascular disease related death from myocardial infarction or stroke regardless of whether they ate olive oil or tree nuts. A similar group consuming a low-fat diet did not experience this large of a reduction in the risk of suffering cardiovascular death.

It is surmised that these findings are related to the ingestion of compounds called phenols, which would be fairly high in this type of diet. The importance of consuming phenols was demonstrated by a study that looked at people who consumed their regular diet, people who consumed their normal diet along with olive oil low in phenols, and people who consumed their normal diet along with olive oil high in phenols. The group consuming olive oil high in phenols experienced a number of positive health enhancing effects including reduced inflammation, reduced tumor production, reduced cancer risk, and lessened potential for cardiovascular disease. Variations in phenol content may be one explanation of why some olive oils offer a reduction in cardiovascular disease while other olive oils do not.

Is olive oil the only food that may offer a rich source of phenols to help prevent cardiovascular disease? Of course it is not. But many of the other foods high in phenols are not commonly found in the typical American diet though they definitely should be consumed on a regular basis.

Foods high in phenols include: black elderberry, black chokeberry, black currant, blueberry, globe artichoke heads, coffee, sweet cherry, strawberry, blackberry, plum, red raspberry, flaxseed, dark chocolate, chestnut, black tea, green tea, apple juice, apple, whole grain rye bread, hazelnut, red wine, soy yogurt, cocoa powder, and pomegranate juice. Other foods having respectable amounts of phenols include: black olives, spinach, pecans, black beans, red onions, broccoli, and soy milk.

However, consuming foods such as olive oil may offer benefits other than the effects from phenols. It is thought that the oleic acid found in olive oil is responsible for lowering blood pressure. Overall, it appears that a good plan for eating a heart healthy diet may be to consume olive oil and tree nuts along with other sources of monounsaturated fats such as those found in avocado to help prevent cardiovascular disease.

Other Reasons for Neck, Back, Arm, and Leg Pain

When a person presents to a chiropractic office complaining of neck and/or back pain they have it in their mind that it is either a “pulled muscle” (which really does not occur except in athletic injuries) or a “bone out of place.” Those are good guesses because both may be obliquely true though neither is absolutely accurate.

A subluxation, the “bone out of place” a Doctor of Chiropractic finds and corrects, can and often is the beginning of an entire cascade of physiological events that can result in neck, back, arm, and/or leg pain. One of the factors in this physiological cascade that may cause excruciating pain is involvement of the interspinous ligaments.

Interspinous ligaments are found between the bony projections of your spine that you may describe as “those bony bumps running down my back.” A subluxation of a spinal bone may lead to tenderness and involvement of the interspinous ligaments that connect to those subluxated spinal bones resulting in neck, back, arm, and/or leg pain. Pain such as this is not always due to a “pinched nerve” or sciatica.

Pain that radiates from the interspinous ligaments may be felt in the arms, buttock, thigh, hamstring area, and/or calf muscles area of the lower leg. If your Doctor of Chiropractic presses on the interspinous ligaments and the result is increased pain in these areas then you know that the bones connected by those ligaments and the ligaments themselves are in need of attention in order to resolve your symptoms.

These sources of radiating pain are recognized by the medical community as evidenced by a soon-to-be-released book by Carla Stecco, MD entitled An Atlas of the Human Fascial System.

It is important to realize that pain from interspinous ligaments may be from sudden, acute injury or from the cumulative effects of microtrauma occurring over a long period of time. Microtrauma results from multiple, small injuries to tissue that you may not even notice. Microtraumatic injury occurs in repetitive motion injuries caused by performing the same movements over and over again at work or when using your computer.

Therefore, pain generated from these tissues may be acute or chronic in nature. The main detrimental effect from this type of scenario is that abnormal stress and strain in the interspinous ligaments leads to lack of coordination while increasing the stress on the delicate facet joints of the spine.

These neurological aspects of interspinous ligaments may lead to spinal muscles being tasked with maintaining joint stability in the spine which then leads to trigger point formation further aggravating an already aggravated area of your body which leads to more pain. Trigger points in your muscles can actually become generators of pain regardless of the reasons why they formed. The development of these acute inflammatory responses can lead to the establishment of long-term, chronic pain syndromes. This condition is so common in today’s society that it has been given a name: Cumulative Trauma Disorder.

It is important that these cascading sources of musculoskeletal pain syndromes not be allowed to form or progress. That is why regular visits to see your Doctor of Chiropractic are vital to maintaining your health. Prevention and the maintenance of a normal, health state within your spine can reduce the incidence of these crippling and debilitating conditions. Stop them from beginning or permitting them to continue uninhibited until your lifestyle is adversely affected.

Back Pain: Number One Cause of Disability Worldwide

There is a worldwide effort being undertaken by the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Project to identify detrimental health conditions throughout the world. Seven of the studies undertaken by this group as well as accompanying commentaries have appeared in The Lancet, a British medical journal. The global disease burden is a computation of death and disability and its overall cost.

One of the most interesting studies involves a massive collaboration between the World Health Organization, the Institute for health Metrics and Evaluation which is the coordinating center of this endeavor, the University of Queensland School of Population Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the University of Tokyo, Imperial College London that delineates the extent of musculoskeletal conditions throughout the world.

The Global Burden of Disease 2010 Project found that neck and back pain are respectively the number four and number one causes of disability worldwide. The worldwide burden of disability from musculoskeletal conditions is much larger than they were only 20-30 years ago. The estimates of people suffering from musculoskeletal conditions worldwide is staggering with an estimated 632.045 million people suffering low back pain and another 332.049 suffering neck pain.

Additionally, people are living much longer which adds to the health burden because age is usually accompanied by pain, disability, and disease at levels not previously seen.

Dr. Scott Haldeman holds both a Doctor of Chiropractic degree and a degree in Medicine (meaning he is both a chiropractor and medical doctor) who chaired the 2000-2010 Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Project. Dr. Haldeman notes that musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, neck pain, and arthritis affect more than 1.7 BILLION people throughout this world.

With over 1.7 billion people suffering from back pain, neck pain, and arthritis that makes musculoskeletal conditions a greater impact on people than HIV/AIDS, tropical diseases that includes malaria, disasters from nature, and all of the neurological conditions combined. And do not confuse the term “health burden” with deaths from these causes. It is the cost of long-term deleterious health problems.

When considering the costs of “years living with disability,” musculoskeletal conditions are only second to mental and behavioral disorders. Overall, musculoskeletal conditions are the sixth leading cause of death and disability with cardiovascular disease, neonatal diseases (newborn baby diseases in the first month of life), neoplasms (a new growth of tissue that serves no physiological function… think “tumor”), and mental or behavioral disorders being a greater threat to death and disability than musculoskeletal conditions.

Low back pain alone accounts for more of a global disease burden than malaria, preterm birth complications, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis that is an irreversible obstruction in the airway causing impediments to the ability to exhale air from the lungs), tuberculosis, diabetes, or lung cancer.

When calculations are done to combine the global disease burden of low back pain with that of neck pain these two conditions account for more of a global disease burden than all other diseases and health depleting conditions except ischemic heart disease. This makes the combination of low back and neck pain a greater global disease burden than HIV/AIDS, malaria, lower respiratory infections, stroke, breast cancer and lung cancer combined, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, or injuries from traffic accidents.