Sitting, Flexibility, Mobility and Back Health

The reality of today’s world in the United States is that most people sit for the better part of their day. This is true whether an individual is driving in a car, sitting at a computer at work, sitting at a computer at home, or sitting in front of the television being a “couch potato.” It is bad to be  sitting this much because the human body is made to stand and move but not to sit, which is why sitting causes so much trouble for the human musculoskeletal system.

So what are you to do?

You can move to keep your body flexible and mobile. It’s not as hard or involved as you may think. You can easily fit flexibility and mobility training into your hectic day without much fuss or effort.

Most folks think of stretching to increase flexibility but to achieve usable flexibility you must perform more than simple static stretching of your muscles. Simple static stretching of muscles can improve the non-moving static flexibility but does not prepare your body for fast and efficient movements, which is why static stretching before physical exertion or participating in athletic endeavors is now being discouraged.

To better understand this concept it may be a good idea to actually define what flexibility is instead of simply relying on what your idea of flexibility consists of because your conceptualization of flexibility may be in error. We will also define the difference between flexibility and mobility for the same reasons.

Flexibility is the physiological maximum range of motion that can be achieved within a given movement of the body that is passive in nature and does not produce pain or severe discomfort. Flexibility exercises are done to restore normal tissue length as well as to help guard against the injury that may occur when a muscle is overused over the long term. Flexibility is not strength dependent.

Mobility on the other hand, is the ability to move a limb through the full range of a joint’s motion. It involves voluntary movement, conscious control of that limb, and strength to achieve full range of motion within that joint. Mobility is more important than flexibility because to achieve mobility you must be in active control of your movements whereas flexibility is a passive endeavor not requiring strength. As far as your body and your personal well being are concerned it is better to be inflexible with good mobility than it is to be flexible with poor mobility.

Because of long term flexibility and mobility problems caused by prolonged sitting as is commonly found in an office worker or traveling sales person sitting in their automobile for long periods of time it is advisable that you see your local doctor of chiropractic to be evaluated for the best flexibility and mobility exercises for you. After a thorough examination your chiropractor can devise a plan designed for you based upon static postural analysis, orthopedic and neurological testing, and functional movement assessments of how your body moves.

Treatment may consist of working the soft tissues of your body using deep-tissue laser (also known as cold laser or light therapy), lymph channel drainage, myofascial decompression techniques, and vibration or percussion treatment to help break down adhesion or scar tissue that may have formed from long standing problems. You doctor of chiropractic can also teach you to use soft tissue myofascial release techniques using a foam roll or other device so you can continue your care at home.

Dynamic flexibility warm-ups and dynamic mobility training can also be used at home and may have a greater effect than static flexibility exercises. Dynamic mobility training offers greater stability as you increase your range of motion which helps reduce the risk of injury from having too much range of motion and not enough stability in the joints.

Talk to your local Doctor of Chiropractic about your options before more serious conditions set in and become permanent.

Kentuckiana: The Chiropractic Children’s Center

When people hear the term “chiropractic” they usually think of manual manipulation as a treatment for back pain, neck pain, and/or headaches. While it is true chiropractic has become well known as a popular treatment for these common ailments it is actually a form of preventive healthcare with much broader applications.

This discrepancy in the perception of chiropractic and the reality of its role in modern healthcare can be illustrated by the Kentuckiana Children’s Center. The Kentuckiana Children’s Center treats special needs children with chiropractic as the foundational treatment modality. At Kentuckiana, chiropractic care is supplemented with care from many other healthcare disciplines. By placing all these healthcare disciplines under one roof and working toward the united goal of helping children these angels of mercy are able to help children burdened with what would have previously been described as being dim potential and allow them to have greatly improved lifetime outcomes.

By using chiropractic as the foundational treatment modality it allows physical therapy, speech therapy, nutritional therapy, and all the other allied healthcare disciplines available at Kentuckiana to be maximally effective. The combined effects of these therapies supply diverse sensory input resulting in better outcomes than would normally be expected from the application of any of these healthcare disciplines used by itself. This diverse sensory input appears to promote greater cognitive stimulation and therefore improved outcomes and results for the children under care at this unique facility.

Utilizing all of these different healthcare disciplines to promote greater cognitive stimulation in children allows the organized sensory input to augment cognitive function (the ability to think and reason), the immune system, and motor coordination. The improvement in physical functions the practitioners at Kentuckiana are able to attain for the children under care in this type of environment offers results not being achieved at other facilities.

The organization of sensory input to strengthen the cognitive function, immunity, and motor coordination is well documented in the scientific literature and in clinical observation. To stay abreast of the latest medical developments the doctors, staff, and board members at Kentuckiana regularly attend workshops, seminars, and other types of continuing education functions pertinent to the conditions they treat in the pediatric population at the facility. Additionally, the doctors perform research at Kentuckiana to submit for publication in scientific journals.

Some of the observable results found at Kentuckiana via the use of chiropractic as the foundational treatment modality include: improved speech, decreased severity of seizures, improved bowel function, improved sleep patterns, fewer tantrums, less seizures, calmer behavioral patterns, and the speedier attainment of goals when undergoing other therapies such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy. Overall, many of the parents note that their child is simply more pleasant to be around.

Additionally, the special needs children treated at Kentuckiana are a shining example of Doctors of Chiropractic being modulators of the nervous system thereby affecting all the various functions the nervous system controls. This takes Doctors of Chiropractic out of the realm of being simply doctors treating low back pain, neck pain, and headaches.

However, such care of special needs children demands funds to keep this effective therapy available. Kentuckiana accepts private-sector donations, insurance reimbursement, as well as conducting fundraisers, writing grants, and mailing requests for donations numerous times throughout the year. Some donors make specific donations of equipment or facility maintenance thereby allowing the continued operation of this special facility. However, the current economic climate and increasing competition from other non-profit organizations that compete for the same funds is creating funding difficulties for Kentuckiana. 

Zinc Deficiency, Age, and Cancer

Sometimes findings from medical studies seem to make so much sense it is difficult to understand why anyone had to spent good money on an expensive study to find the simple solution to confounding problems. Such is the case of the nutrient zinc as it pertains to inflammatory responses within the body and cancer formation. Zinc has been found to be helpful in repairing damage to DNA which is very important because DNA damage has been linked to an increased risk of developing cancer.

The information we are discussing can be found in an article published in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. The study found that supplementing the diet with zinc helps to control inflammation which is associated with cancer formation, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and diabetes. An important aspect of this study is that it points to the importance of increasing dietary zinc supplementation as people age.

Findings from this study used laboratory animals to make determinations regarding the effects of aging on the absorption of zinc and the effects of age-related zinc deficiencies. In other words, as these laboratory animals aged their ability to assimilate zinc into their body was reduced to the point of zinc being found in deficient quantities below the levels necessary to keep DNA damage and cancer in check. This inability to absorb zinc into the body occurred even when sufficient amounts of zinc were supplied in the diet. It was necessary to increase the dietary requirement of zinc tenfold before anti-inflammatory markers were restored to levels normally found in younger animals. 

So, how big of a problem is zinc deficiency in people? Well, studies show that approximately 40 percent of elderly Americans are deficient in zinc, and this could be problematic for them. Why would this situation be problematic?

The answer is simple.

Elderly people exhibit a combination of not consuming an adequate amount of zinc in their daily diet with an impaired ability to absorb the zinc they do consume. This is essentially a double whammy leading to a serious zinc deficiency problem. It is a double whammy because more cellular and genetic damage is taking place due to aging while there is less zinc available to repair that damaged genetic material.

In the elderly this is significant because the amount of genetic damage is increasing while their ability to repair that damage is decreasing. This situation can lead to an increased risk of cancer as well as other degenerative diseases including arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease. Zinc deficiency has been implicated in all of these deleterious processes.

Having sufficient amounts of zinc in your body can aid immune function, wound healing, eye health, and prevention of cancer in addition to the inflammatory diseases listed above. However, taking more than 40 milligrams of zinc per day can cause problems so avoid taking more than this amount.

Low Back Pain on the Increase: Are Knees to Blame?

It is surmised that the aging population is experiencing more chronic low back pain and this trend is expected to continue.

According to a study entitled, “Aging Baby Boomers and the Rising Cost of Chronic Back Pain” the incidence of chronic low back pain is on the increase. This study found that the incidence of low back pain has increased by 29% but the incidence of chronic low back pain has skyrocketed to 64%. The difference is between low back pain that occurs for a short period of time compared to chronic low back pain that is unremitting or occurs very frequently.

The cost of chronic low back pain has also increased. The cost of chronic low back pain has increased 129% from 15.6 billion dollars in the year 2000 to 35.7 billion dollars in 2006. Those figures have been adjusted for inflation and consist of only ambulatory services for chronic low back pain.

While Doctors of Chiropractic are known as “back doctors” and commonly treat the conditions causing low back pain they are in reality much broader based and must take the condition of a patient’s knees into consideration when someone presents to their office with low back pain. Knee and other extremity conditions are very common and Doctors of Chiropractic are well versed in treating the ailments affecting them.

The knees become affected when the arches of the feet fall unevenly which places unnatural stress on the inner foot, ankle, and knee. These abnormal stressors can lead to damage of the various components of the knee which eventually leads to pain. However, pain may appear in a number of different ways and under varying circumstances.

Knee pain caused by fallen arches in the feet can develop slowly over time with the initial stages of pain being quite manageable and not affecting an individual’s daily activities much if at all. At other times the pain may appear very suddenly and cannot be associated with any traumatic event. Either of these presentations can be very upsetting to the patient especially if their medical doctors cannot determine the cause of the pain. This is a good indication that the problem is chiropractic in nature.

The good news is that your local Doctor of Chiropractic can be of tremendous help in these types of situations.

In most of these types of cases involving knee pain, the bones of the leg have misaligned due to fallen arches of the feet. The torque and torsion placed upon the tibia, fibula, femur, and patella (knee cap) of the leg places tremendous stress on the soft tissues of the knee which consist mainly of ligaments, tendons, the cartilage lining the knee joint itself, and other connective tissues.

So what is the key to taking the stress off these delicate tissues of the knees?

The key is to fit each person suffering knee pain with flexible orthotics that fit in the shoes and support all three arches of the feet. The placement of orthotics into patient’s shoes is followed by gentle adjustments to the ankles, knees, hips, and spine to assure the return of normal biomechanics to these areas.

As you can see, the treatment for knee pain and low back pain is the same because each area affects the other. So, it really isn’t very surprising that our aging population is experiencing more chronic low back pain because of the amount of time their flat feet have had to ruin their low back areas.

Don’t suffer any longer than you already have. If you or your loved ones have either low back or knee pain see your local Doctor of Chiropractic as soon as possible to begin your journey down the road to recovery.

Mid Back Pain Due to Rib Misalignment

Many patients presenting to chiropractic offices are suffering from upper back or mid back area pain that is not only destroying their ability to live fulfilling lives but may also be ruining their posture. Most other types of doctors other than Doctors of Chiropractic do not even consider that such pain can be emanating from the small joints where ribs meet the vertebra in the upper and mid back areas. The same can be said when rib misalignments (also referred to as rib subluxations) are causing pain in the front of the chest where ribs join the breast bone (sternum).

Ribs are designed to protect the vital organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, etc. found in your thoracic (chest) area  so they perform a crucial function essential to life. Because the 12 pairs of ribs have so many attachment points forming the thoracic cage area there is significant stability of the rib cage itself and the thoracic spine to which it attaches.

The top seven pairs of ribs are considered to be true ribs with the eighth, ninth, and tenth pairs of ribs being referred to as false ribs. The 11^th and 12^th pairs of ribs are called floating ribs because they do not attach to a bony structure on the front. This leads to them being described as “floating” in the soft tissues of the thoracic area.

Any of these ribs can subluxate (misalign) causing excruciating pain that is sometimes accompanied by an inability to take a deep breath.  Each pair of ribs extends from the thoracic spine in back, around the sides of your chest wall, and attach to the breast bone in the middle of the front of your chest. When you breathe, each of these pairs of ribs must rise freely in a fashion and movement pattern similar to a bucket handle rising on each side of your chest. Any subluxation of a rib disrupts the smooth movement pattern causing pain and an inability to breathe deeply. When the subluxation occurs at the rib/sternum junction the inability to take a deep breath combined with excruciating pain in the chest area lead many people to think they are suffering a heart attack.

It is common for patients to present to their chiropractor’s office after leaving the hospital emergency room where they first presented in the belief they were in the midst of a heart attack.

This is OK. And in all truthfulness, it is the way this type of situation should be handled.

It is always a smart move to first take care of the condition that may kill you then work on the less severe health conditions. It is always best to rule out heart attack before seeking care for other problems you may be experiencing. Never assume that a serious health condition that may be life threatening is a less serious non-life threatening condition. It is always best to first rule out any condition that may kill you. The doctors at the hospital will not be able to find the cause of your pain and may offer a diagnosis such as “heartburn” or similar plausible explanation for what is affecting you. That’s OK, at least you will have had heart attack ruled out, which is very important.

In such situations the pain may feel like a knife or sword passing through your chest from front to back. At other times you may experience a dull, achy pain in your upper or mid back regions accompanied by a desire to not move your arm. Arm movement will increase rib movement leading to increased pain so you simply do not move your arm any more than necessary to carry out the tasks you must accomplish. Sleep may be impossible due to pain regardless of whether the pain is sharp and stabbing or dull and achy.

The good news is that the correction is usually not complicated and good results are often rapid. So don’t wait, contact your local Doctor of Chiropractic as soon as possible so you can begin your journey to health and pain free function.