A Healthy Pumpkin Pie Recipe!
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Benefits of Zinc
Zinc is the second most common mineral in the human body (after iron) and is found in every one of our cells. It plays a vital role in many of the body’s functions, so ensuring that you get enough zinc in your diet is important. It is essential for helping the body to heal and for the maintenance of a healthy immune system. It is also important is supporting the senses (taste, sight, and smell), blood clotting and healthy thyroid function.
Zinc is one of the most important minerals for fertility and general reproductive health. It is necessary for proper levels of testosterone in men and the maintenance of a healthy libido. The mineral also plays a key role in the healthy development of sperm, and abundant levels of zinc have been shown to be protective of the prostate, reducing the risk of prostate cancer. The belief that oysters have aphrodisiac properties actually does have some basis in truth. Oysters have one of the highest concentrations of zinc of any food. In women it regulates estrogen and progesterone and supports the proper maturation of the egg in preparation for fertilization.
Ensuring you have an adequate level of zinc can help reduce your risk of insulin sensitivity, one of the precursors to diabetes. It supports T-cell function, which boosts the immune system when the body is under attack by bacteria and viruses.
Zinc deficiency is not common in the developed world, but those with anorexia, alcoholics, the elderly and anyone with a malabsorption syndrome such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease is at higher risk. Zinc deficiency symptoms include frequent colds, poor wound healing, poor growth, loss of appetite, weight loss, dermatitis, psoriasis, hair loss, white spots on the nails, night blindness and depression.
Following is the recommended daily intake of zinc for different age groups:
Infants birth – 6 months: 2 mg/day
Infants 7 – 12 months: 3 mg/day
Children 1 – 3 years: 3 mg/day
Children 4 – 8 years: 5 mg/day
Children 9 – 13 years: 8 mg/day
Adolescent boys 14 – 18 years: 11 mg/day
Adolescent girls 14 – 18 years: 9 mg/day
Men 19 years and older: 11 mg/day
Women 19 years and older: 8 mg/day
Pregnant women 14 – 18 years: 12 mg/day
Pregnant women 19 years and older: 11 mg/day
Breastfeeding women 14 – 18 years: 13 mg/day
Breastfeeding women over 18 years: 12 mg/day
Children should never be given zinc supplements without first consulting with a pediatrician. If supplements are necessary, a copper supplement should be taken as well, as a high intake of zinc can deplete levels of copper.
You should be able to get adequate zinc from eating a healthy, balanced diet rich in whole foods. The body absorbs between 20% and 40% of the zinc present in food. The best sources of zinc are oysters, red meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, cheese, legumes (such as soybeans, black-eyed peas, and peanuts), cooked greens and seeds (such as pumpkin and sunflower).
Here’s a healthy alternative to Canned Soup with MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)!
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Can Chiropractic Adjustments Reduce or Reverse Autism?
Today, we want to share an interesting article from Natural News. Chiropractic adjustments can facilitate amazing healing! We have been blessed to see it! While we cannot claim that chiropractic adjustments can cure or alleviate every condition, we hope this article will give our readers a sense of its potential! It is truly incredible what chiropractic adjustments can do!
Chiropractic adjustments shown to reverse autism in three-year old girl
(NaturalNews) A recent case study reported in the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research suggests that chiropractic adjustments can help reverse and prevent autism and issues related to the autism spectrum. The patient was an adopted three-year-old girl who was born at 28 weeks weighing 2 pounds, 5 ounces by a woman who had a history of prior drug abuse. After two years of abnormal behavior and receiving multiple “autism” diagnoses from medical doctors, her parents decided to take her in for a thorough developmental evaluation. Five critical items were failed: social/emotional, communication, cognitive, adaptive/self-help and sensory.
Little girl’s life changed by chiropractic
The child’s parents brought her to a local chiropractor, presenting with a cocktail of horrible symptoms including common neurological autism manifestations, unrelenting headaches, acid reflux, vomiting, sleeplessness and seizures. Subluxation-based specific chiropractic care was performed on the patient, which resulted in complete resolution of her headaches, acid reflux, vomiting and sleeplessness within one month. Significant improvements in autism-related issues were also noted, including calm behavior, increased eye contact, happier demeanor, improved attitude, increased focus and attention, and an initiation to sound out words. The study reports that the girl continues to progress as evidenced by a significantly increased vocabulary, continued improvement in attention and focus, and complete lack of epileptic episodes.
According to her mother, the patient from this case study has been “off all of her medications, she’s making improvements with her occupational therapists, speech therapists, even her pre-school teachers are noticing a big difference. I’m getting my little girl back – look, she’s making eye contact with me, and even starting to say a few words! She’ll use her hands to do the motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider song!” Her mother cannot stress enough the impact that chiropractic care has had on her daughter.
Natural health experts speak out
According to Dr. Matthew McCoy, a chiropractor, public health researcher and editor of the journal that published the study, “If you damage or compress or otherwise interfere with the neurological structures in the spine this can have far reaching implications on the functioning of the body. Through research reports like this we are finding that correcting the misalignments or abnormal motion associated with these spinal problems reduces the nerve interference and people experience improvement.”
The authors of the study stated, “We believe that working together, chiropractors, MDs, occupational therapists, and other health care provides will see results by managing the root cause(s) and not just the various symptoms presented by ASD children.”
Vertebral subluxation
“Finding the cause of autism, and not simply masking the symptoms, is the most effective way of managing the disease,” one author of the study says. One such risk is thought to be spinal misalignments and/or abnormal motion of the spine, termed “vertebral subluxations” by chiropractors, which result in structural and neurological interference to the spine and nervous system. It is this interference that may cause a cascade of neuroendocrine events that lead to abnormal cholesterol metabolism. The theory is that, once those spinal distortions are corrected, the body is better able to balance its physiology.
Not surprisingly, other researchers have found similar results in regard to diseases in the autism spectrum being managed by chiropractic adjustments, and this case is one of several emerging studies describing this phenomena.
The authors call for further study in a controlled environment.
Sources:
Amalu WC. Autism, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, strabismus and illness susceptibility: a case study in chiropractic management. Todays Chiropr 1998;27(5):32-47.
Marini NSC, Marini SC. Improvement in autism in a child coupled with reduction in vertebral subluxations; a case study and selective review of the literature: case report; review. J Pediatr Matern & Fam Health Chiropr 2010; 3:107-115.
Cleave J, Alcantara J, Holt K. Improvement in autistic behaviors following chiropractic care: a case series. J Pediatr Matern & Fam Health Chiropr 2011; 4:12-13.
Hoffman N, Russel D. Improvement in a 3 1/2-year-old autistic child following chiropractic intervention to reduce vertebral subluxation. J Vert Sublux Res 2008; 7:1-4.
Cohn A. Improvement in autism spectrum disorder following vertebral subluxation reduction: a case study. J Pediatr Matern & Fam Health 2011; 4:87-91.
http://science.naturalnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
About the author:
Eric L. Zielinski, DC (c), MPH (c) has devoted his life to natural health and wellness for over a decade. Inspired by the timeless principles in the Bible, Eric’s mission is to seek out ways to provide people with simple, evidenced-based tools that they need to achieve the Abundant Life. Formally trained as a chiropractor, Eric’s primary approach is to serve his patients and clients through natural health care, nutrition counseling, spiritual mentorship, and empowering life strategies!
The Key to More Independence in Your Senior Years? Start Walking Now!
Will you be able to maintain your independence as you reach your golden years? Recent research indicates that the answer to that question may actually depend on how you answer another question: “Can you comfortably walk a quarter of a mile?”
If your answer is “No” you’re not alone. 24 million older Americans have trouble walking that far, and 13 million more can’t walk a quarter-mile at all. According to a new article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), this puts these people at a huge risk of becoming disabled and losing their independence.
In recent years, inactivity (leading a sedentary lifestyle) has been found to be a major risk factor for serious conditions like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report suggesting that inactivity is now killing more people every year than smoking. Inactivity is an even larger problem for older people because without exercise they begin to lose muscle mass and their sense of balance deteriorates more quickly. This puts them at increased risk of injury from falls—the leading injury-related cause of death among seniors.
In the JAMA study, researchers in eight states worked with people in their 70s and 80s who reported that they had developed a sedentary, inactive lifestyle. At the beginning of the study, these people were (on average) active less than 20 minutes a week. As a result, they were considered at high risk of becoming disabled due to lack of strength in their legs.
The study participants met twice a week to perform simple exercises to strengthen their legs and walk in a group, and were also asked to walk more at home. The goal for all participants was to engage in 150 minutes of activity each week and to become fit enough to walk a quarter of a mile without any outside assistance (other than using a cane). Interestingly, the quarter-mile distance wasn’t chosen by researchers at random. Rather, this distance is significant because city planners use it as a “livability” reference point. A city is considered “livable” if all the goods and services you need for day-to-day life are attainable within a quarter-mile of the closest public transportation stop. This means that if you can’t easily walk a quarter-mile, you may have effectively lost your ability to lead an independent life.
At the end of the 2.6-year JAMA study, all participants were able to comfortably walk that distance, and all felt that their general health and mobility had improved. Even more important, a significantly smaller percentage of them had become temporarily or permanently disabled, compared to people of the same age who had maintained a sedentary lifestyle.
The clear message from this study is that you can (quite literally) take steps TODAY to improve your own odds of staying healthy, happy, and independent in the future. Developing a new walking habit is a great way to ensure that you’re getting enough exercise while maintaining your mobility. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything and it doesn’t require any equipment more elaborate than a comfortable pair of shoes. And—maybe best of all—walking is an activity that you can do either socially as part of a group or on your own. Many local communities around the country even have seniors clubs that organize walks on a regular basis.
The key to aging well is to stay healthy, stay active and stay engaged. Building good habits now can make all the difference years from now. If you’d like to learn more about how you can keep your musculoskeletal system in good working order, just call or visit our office at Oblander Chiropractic today! Our phone number is 406-652-3553.
Whiplash Symptoms and Associated Disorders
For some people, whiplash symptoms can be so minor that they go away within a couple days. For others, the symptoms can become varied and chronic, ranging from severe pain to cognitive and emotional problems.
Whiplash symptoms might manifest immediately following the acceleration-deceleration accident, or they can take a few hours or days to appear. Oftentimes the exact underlying cause remains unknown for some whiplash symptoms despite today’s best diagnostic techniques. Due to the potentially high number and varied complexity of whiplash symptoms, they are sometimes collectively referred to as whiplash-associated disorders.
Common Whiplash Symptoms
Some of the most common symptoms of whiplash include:
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- Neck pain. The pain could range anywhere from mild to severe. It might be located in one spot or general area, or it could also radiate down the shoulder into the arm and/or hand. Typically, neck pain from whiplash is caused by ligament sprains or muscle strains, but it can also be caused by injuries to discs, nerves, joints, and/or bones.
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- Neck stiffness or reduced range of motion. Reduced neck mobility could be from pain, tightening of a muscle, or a mechanical problem, such as with a joint.
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- Headache. A neck muscle tightening, or a nerve or joint of the cervical spine becoming irritated could cause headaches.
- Neck instability. This whiplash symptom commonly results from stretched or torn soft tissues, such as ligaments. Although, it could also be caused by a fracture.
- Shoulder and/or upper back pain. If the neck’s soft tissues, such as muscles or ligaments, are torn or strained during whiplash, then sometimes that pain can also be referred to other soft tissues in the upper back and shoulders.
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- Radiating tingling, weakness, or numbness. Sometimes whiplash can cause one of the neck’s spinal nerve roots to become compressed or inflamed, which can lead to cervical radiculopathy symptoms of tingling, weakness, and/or numbness radiating down the shoulder, arm, hand, and/or fingers. Typically, cervical radiculopathy is only felt on one side of the body, but in rare cases, it can be felt on both sides if more than one nerve root is affected.
Anywhere from just one whiplash symptom all the way up to numerous symptoms can present at once. Symptoms can also come and go at various times.
Other Whiplash Symptoms and Associated Disorders
Other whiplash-associated disorders can include:
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- Dizziness. Whiplash-related dizziness could be from neck instability or even a concussion (mild traumatic brain injury).
- Vision problems. Blurry vision or other visual deficits could result from any number of causes, including concussion or damage to a nerve. A vision problem could also contribute to dizziness.
- Emotional changes. A person might become more irritable, anxious, or even depressed. It can be hard to know if these changes are due to a concussion, post-traumatic stress syndrome, pain from the neck injury, or stress from the accident’s aftermath which could include litigation, financial worries, and/or the involvement of loved ones who were also injured.
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- Ringing in ears. Also called tinnitus, this ringing or buzzing in one or both ears can range from intermittent and minor to constant and highly distracting. Any number of problems from whiplash could lead to tinnitus, such as an injury to the part of the brain that controls hearing, nerve or vascular damage, jaw injury, or even stress.
- Trouble getting good sleep. A person might find it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep. These problems with sleeping well and waking refreshed could be due to various whiplash-related factors, such as pain, stress, or concussion.
- Fatigue. Lack of energy could be related to difficulty sleeping, depression, stress, pain, concussion, or various other causes.
- Memory and/or concentration problems. It’s possible for someone to develop cognitive symptoms after a whiplash injury. These troubles could involve difficulty with memory or thinking. Sometimes these symptoms start shortly after the injury, or they might not show up until hours or days later. Cognitive problems could be from a brain injury, or perhaps they could be related to various types of stress.
- Challenges with chewing, swallowing, or speaking. Sometimes trauma to muscles around the jaw can cause chewing or yawning to be painful.
- Difficulty swallowing. Injury to the larynx or esophagus could make swallowing painful or more difficult.
This article was written by Zinovy Meyler, DO and is shared from the following website: https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/neck-pain/whiplash-symptoms-and-associated-disorders
Building a Better Workout: Muscle Confusion 101
Whether you train seriously or have a more casual interest in personal fitness, you’ve probably heard the term “muscle confusion” at some point. Muscle confusion has been strongly associated with several at-home workout programs over the past few years (P90X is probably the best known), but the underlying training principle is much more than just marketing. In fact, it’s been producing results in one form or the other since it was introduced in the 1970s.
While there’s been a lot of debate—and, yes, confusion—in the fitness world about the general concept, much of it has to do with exactly how the term is defined and the best techniques for actually applying the idea. There’s very little meaningful disagreement about why muscles need to be challenged in different ways in order for them to continue to develop.
Over time, muscles stop responding to the same workouts with the same improvements. This is because muscles naturally adapt if they perform the same types of exercises, with the same amount of resistance, for the same number of repetitions, on the same days, week after week. At some point, they simply no longer have to grow in size or strength to accomplish what’s expected of them. This is known as a workout plateau.
The goal of muscle confusion is to take the “routine” out of a workout routine by challenging the muscles in a variety of ways that encourage them to continue adapting. This is one way to avoid or minimize plateaus. Muscle confusion falls into a category of workout techniques known as periodization and more specifically, non-linear periodization. This technique changes each week’s workout sessions to focus on different muscle properties in order to achieve specific gains in size, power and stamina. These changes also tend to burn more calories, which aids in weight loss and weight management.
Muscle confusion workouts typically use traditional strength-training exercises such as the bench press, lat pull-down, biceps curl, triceps extension, leg press, leg curl and leg extension. However, these workouts “mix them up” in at least three important ways:
- Varying the amount of resistance from heavy to light
- Changing the number of repetitions in each set
- Altering the speed or pace at which the exercises are performed
A simplified example of a muscle confusion workout program might include one day a week of heavy lifting with one to four repetitions per set. The next workout day, a medium resistance might be lifted at a faster speed with one to four repetitions. The third workout day of the week, a lighter resistance might be lifted between six and 10 times starting out at a faster pace and slowing as muscle fatigue sets in.
In addition to changing the amount of weight, number of repetitions and speed involved in performing individual exercises, some experienced trainers increase the amount of muscle confusion even further by changing the order of the exercises themselves and varying the amount of time between sets. The change in exercise sequence can be used to pre-fatigue certain muscles (for instance, by performing the triceps extension before the larger-muscle-group bench press), while a reduction in time between sets (perhaps from two minutes to 30 seconds) can be used to accelerate the break-down in muscle tissue that stimulates repair and growth. Of course, no matter which muscle confusion variations are used, the usual precautions about warming up, exercising through a full range of motion and cooling down properly all still apply. And it’s always important to allow enough time between workouts for muscles to recover.
Beyond athletic performance and looking better in a swimsuit, there are lots of good reasons to consider a weight training program. Strong, healthy muscles help to support your frame, reduce wear-and-tear on your joints and keep the body in proper alignment. Plus, researchers have discovered that building lean muscle mass can increase metabolism, which helps with weight loss and weight maintenance since muscles use more calories to sustain themselves. They’ve also found that building more muscle mass (and bone mass) throughout your early adulthood and middle-age years may translate into a lower risk of disability and a healthier, more active lifestyle in your 60s and beyond.
A well-designed weight training program—perhaps built with ideas like muscle confusion in mind—can have many benefits that last a lifetime. But remember to talk with your chiropractic physician or other healthcare provider before you begin any new fitness program, especially if you haven’t been active in a while, are recovering from an injury or illness or suspect you may have health problems. As experts in helping patients recover, maintain and improve their musculoskeletal health, we can work with you to develop a well-rounded program that achieves your goals while reducing the risk of injury. Just call or visit the office today to learn more!
Happy Independence Day!
We hope that you and yours have a wonderful 4th of July! We have much to be grateful for in this country! Be safe and let’s celebrate the blessings and freedoms of this country!
Chiropractic Adjustments Help with Pain Relief
Johns Hopkins Medicine defines pain as “an uncomfortable feeling that tells you something may be wrong.” Depending on its cause, this feeling can range from being mildly annoying to absolutely debilitating in nature, potentially preventing a person from having any quality of life whatsoever. Additionally, some pains are constant and steady, whereas others tend to come and go.
Regardless of the type, intensity, and consistency of the pain, at some point in our lives, we all experience this feeling in one form or another. However, whether or not we’re able to effectively handle it is largely determined by our individual pressure pain thresholds. In other words, the higher our thresholds, the less impact these pains have on our lives, and one fairly new study has found that chiropractic may just increase that limit.
In December of 2016, Chiropractic & Manual Therapies published a piece of research which set out to determine what effect, if any, spinal manipulation therapy (SMT) had on pressure pain threshold. Individuals were recruited from Murdoch University campus in Western Australia and, ultimately, 34 subjects ranging in age from 18 to 36 qualified for inclusion. Twenty of the participants were male, with the remaining 14 being female, all of whom were assessed at the beginning of the study and declared asymptomatic.
Using an algometer with a 1cm2 rubber probe, the participants’ deep mechanical pain sensitivity was assessed multiple times at four different sites on the body (calf, lumbar, scapula, and forehead) by asking each one to indicate the point in which the pressure turned into pain. The average of the second and third recordings was used as a baseline.
Once the initial data was recorded, each participant was then subjected to a high-velocity, low-amplitude spinal manipulation using the hypothenar mammillary push while the subject lay on his or her side. Furthermore, the thrust was aimed at the portion of the participants’ spine located between the L5 and S1 vertebrae. Upon completion, the pressure pain threshold was collected again, and then again at 10, 20, and 30 minutes after the conclusion of the treatment session.
Researchers found that, after engaging in just one session of SMT, subjects reported increases in pressure pain threshold in the calf and lumbar spine areas, with no notable reduction in the scapula or forehead. Additionally, the thresholds that did increase did so at a higher rate on the right side of the participants’ bodies than on the left.
This study shows promise for patients dealing with chronic pain issues as chiropractic adjustments seem to provide an instantaneous reduction in pain. Further research with a larger group of test subjects is warranted.
Dorron SL, Losco BE, Drummond PD, Walker BF. Effect of lumbar spinal manipulation on local and remote pressure pain threshold and pinprick sensitivity in asymptomatic individuals: a randomized trial. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies 2016;24:47.10.1186/s12998-016-0128-5
What is Pain/Types of Pain Treated? Johns Hopkins Medicine: Blaustein Pain Treatment Center.
Good Workplace Ergonomics Matter! Lessons from Medical Lab Technicians
Are the bad ergonomics of your workplace causing you chronic back or neck pain? If so, you’re not alone. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are one of the leading causes of occupational injuries and disability throughout the world. In the United States, WRMSDs cause over 647,000 days of lost work every year and result in workman’s compensation claims costing anywhere from $45 billion to $60 billion. They also account for 34% of all work-related injuries and illnesses. Examples of WRMSDs include chronic back and neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, sprains, and hernias. While you might assume that these types of injuries are the result of unrelated incidents or isolated situations playing out in many different environments across the country on any given day, there is actually a pattern. Many of them are caused by badly designed workplaces.
This pattern became evident in a study recently published in the Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation. The researchers wanted to analyze the postures of workers in a high-tech medical laboratory to determine the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and to investigate the relationship of these musculoskeletal disorders to workers’ individual factors, their work characteristics, and their working postures.
They gathered data from the medical lab technicians, using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ, a standardized scale for measuring musculoskeletal disorders and occupational health), the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS, a type of self-reporting measurement), and RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment, a self-reported scale by which workers assess the postures that most accurately reflect their working positions). They then assessed the positions that the technicians’ lab workstations and equipment forced them to adopt for long periods of time each day and compared them with the technicians’ medical problems.
What they found was that poor lab workstation design was causing musculoskeletal problems in 73.3% of the workers. The poorer their posture was on the VAS and RULA scales, the more musculoskeletal problems they had. In addition, there was a significant difference between pre-work and post-shift reports of neck, lower back, and knee pain. In summation, the workplace design was definitely causing the WRMSDs.
There is a very real possibility that your own workplace is just as likely to put you at an increased risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Symptoms of WRMSDs are not limited to back and neck pain—they also include joint discomfort, muscle tightening and swelling, stiffness, and feelings of numbness or “pins and needles.”
If you or your fellow workers have noticed such symptoms, you should report them to your employer and expect that they will take steps to correct any problem-causing ergonomics. In the interim, you can take some steps on your own to protect yourself from WRMSDs. You don’t have to sit at a desk that is too high or low or in a chair that puts you in an uncomfortable and unhealthy position. Modern desks and their accompanying desk chairs have controls that can be used to lower or raise them. The same applies to computers or other equipment you use every day—you can put your monitor on top of some books so that it’s more in your line of sight or make other changes to help make your workspace more ergonomic. A good place to start looking for tips on how to improve the ergonomics of your office workspace is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration Computer Workstations guide. OSHA also has similar guides for other types of work environments.