chiropractic – Page 24

Who is Most at Risk for Whiplash Injuries?

March 1, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Whiplash is a type of injury that occurs when the neck is forcefully moved back and forth. It is most commonly a result of rear-end auto accidents, and it causes a number of painful symptoms, including headaches as well as discomfort and stiffness in the neck. While whiplash injuries can happen to anyone, some people are more at risk than others.

Who is most at risk for whiplash injuries?

Generally speaking, the better your body is at stabilizing itself, the less likely you are to suffer whiplash. Therefore, you are more at risk for whiplash if your physical condition is poor, if you are unaware of an incoming impact, if you are over the age of 65, or if you are female.

While you may not realize it, your body has an automatic stabilization system that responds very, very quickly as soon as you become aware that you’re about to experience an impact. The muscles in your neck will quickly contract in order to protect your discs and ligaments from the impact. Drivers who can see a vehicle coming up behind them in the rear view mirror are more likely to be protected by this stabilization process, making passengers who can’t see the approaching vehicle more at risk for neck injuries.

This stabilization process is also more effective if your overall physical condition is high. Having a larger frame, stronger musculature and a well-functioning nervous system helps to ensure your body responds appropriately to an incoming collision. This can help explain why women are naturally more susceptible to whiplash than men. Because they tend to have less muscle mass in their necks, there is less protection, making injuries more likely. The same is true of people over the age of 65.

What can be done to recover from a whiplash injury?

Unfortunately, whiplash injuries are very common among drivers in the United States. More than 1 million drivers are affected by whiplash every year, and most injuries take place at speeds below 12 mph. Even seemingly mild impacts can result in chronic pain that can interfere with your ability to live your life. While in many cases there isn’t much to be done to prevent a whiplash injury, there are many options to address it. Chiropractic care is one such option.

The first priority after an accident should be to address any serious or life-threatening injuries, such as trauma to the head, significant blood loss, damage to internal organs, bone fractures, etc. If these injuries are not an issue, it is a good idea to get a thorough evaluation from your chiropractor so that he or she can assess the health of your musculoskeletal system. He or she will ask you to describe the accident in detail, perform a complete physical examination, and do any diagnostic imaging necessary to fully understand your condition. Depending on the results, your chiropractor will then work with you to build a treatment plan. This plan might include adjustments to help correct any alignment issues, massage and soft-tissue manipulation, laser pain relief therapy and other treatments designed to relieve pain and restore function. The goal is always to help you heal more completely and more quickly.

Whiplash injuries are common, but there is no need for them to rob you of your ability to live a pain-free life. Contact our office today to learn more about how we can help eliminate your neck pain.

How Chiropractic Care Keeps a Body in Motion

February 25, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Most of us are probably aware that staying in good physical condition is essential to maintaining an active lifestyle, especially as we get older. And some of us may even be aware of the links between mobility and independence and social and psychological well-being. Unfortunately, as we age, many of us are challenged to remain active because of disease, pain, stiffness or chronic or acute injuries. These problems are affecting larger numbers of people as we are living longer lifespans.

Now, a very interesting study from the University of Iowa suggests that older people who receive chiropractic care may benefit from a “protective effect” with respect to their overall health and physical capabilities. The research team came to its conclusions by comparing the experience of a group of Medicare recipients who received chiropractic care to the experience of a group of Medicare recipients who did not receive it.

Chiropractic Care vs. Standard Medical Care

The study, which was published recently in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, examined the medical records of over 1,000 senior citizens (minimum age 70) who had a back-related condition such as a musculoskeletal disease, sprain or strain, or dislocation that led to a Medicare claim. The researchers compared the experience of those who received 12 chiropractic care visits over several weeks for their condition with the experience of those who received standard medical care, which was comprised of 1-2 visits with a medical doctor over the same time period. The aim was to determine whether there was a difference in health outcomes, physical limitations and the ability to carry out daily activities between the two groups. The researchers obtained the data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and looked at specific variables such as patients’ ability to eat, dress and bathe, sit in or get up from a chair, reach, stoop, or walk across a room. They also considered depressive symptoms and overall self-reports of satisfaction with their care based on the treatment and its cost.

Conclusions: Chiropractic Care is Protective for the Senior Population

The researchers concluded that those senior citizens at least 70 years of age who had chiropractic care had less physical deterioration and reported better overall health. Specifically, they had less difficulty with daily activities such as walking and lifting, and fewer doctor visits and hospitalizations. They were also generally more satisfied with their care and its cost, both during and after the treatment. What’s more, the patients who had chiropractic care exercised more and even reported fewer depressive symptoms. The authors concluded that chiropractic care had a protective effect on this group of patients—making it less likely that they would experience declines in overall health and physical activity levels, thus promoting a higher quality of life.

This research demonstrates that chiropractic care can provide benefits for seniors that go far beyond just relieving back pain. It can have a profound impact on all dimensions of life, from the physical to the psychological, just when we need it most.

Health Benefits of Breathing Deeply

February 23, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

woman-deep-breathing-200-300 “Take a deep breath.” It’s something we say to each other—and even to ourselves—when the going gets rough and we need to get our emotions under control. But it turns out that this bit of advice isn’t only useful in helping us recover our composure. When practiced on a regular basis, deep breathing can have real physical and mental health benefits.

Many health researchers and clinicians recommend controlling your breath as an easy way to improve your health. The benefits of slow, deep breathing include decreasing inflammation, reducing anxiety, improving heart health, reducing pain, and boosting your immune system. In addition, people with migraines and irritable bowel syndrome may also experience benefits from deep, consistent breathing.

How does it work?

Deep and slow breathing stimulates the vagus nerve. This nerve connects the brain stem with the abdomen, and it is part of the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is responsible for so-called “rest and digest” activities. For example, it causes the heart rate to decline when we exhale. The sympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, controls our “fight or flight” responses.

The vagus nerve is activated when we slow our breathing to around 5 to 7 breaths per minute (our usual pace is around 12 to 18 per minute). In addition to slowing our heart rate, the vagus nerve controls the release of various neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine. Acetylcholine slows both our heart rate and digestion and has anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, for people with severe conditions such as epilepsy, there are devices available that can stimulate the vagus nerve.

How can we learn to breathe more deeply?

Deep breathing is often taught in meditation and yoga classes. Experts say it is important to breathe in through the nose and exhale through the mouth, ensuring that the exhale is longer than the inhale. Breathing should focus on the abdomen, particularly on the inhale, rather than the chest and shoulders.

To help people become more aware of their own breathing patterns, a San Francisco startup company has developed a wearable device called Spire, which helps users track their breathing and know when to slow down and take a deep breath. The basic idea is that you don’t have to stop what you are doing in order to shift into a calmer, more healthful breathing state. This device may be particularly useful for some computer users, whose breathing seems to change significantly while they’re doing their work. At one end of the spectrum, some individuals tend to hold their breath—a condition known as “screen apnea”. At the other end of the spectrum are the rapid breathers. A small study by Neema Moraveji, co-founder of Spire and director of the Calming Technology Lab at Stanford University, showed that people working on a computer took an average of 16.7 breaths per minute, versus 9.3 breaths a minute when relaxed.

However we choose to approach our own breathing, whether through meditation, yoga, or wearable devices, there’s growing evidence that becoming more mindful—and taking greater control—has real health benefits. So take a deep breath and get started!

Why See a Chiropractor After Symptoms are Gone?

February 11, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Chiropractor - Gentle Neck Adjustment — Chiropractor – Gentle Neck Adjustment

At some point in your life, you’ve probably heard an acquaintance, friend or family member say something like this: “Once you start going to a chiropractor, you’ll have to keep going back forever.” Most of the time, this is meant as a caution—a warning that chiropractic care is somehow addictive, cultish or (at worst) ineffective.

As chiropractic physicians, we believe that it’s very important for our patients to understand the nature of what we do and the kind of relationship we work to build with them. We also think it’s important to explain the phenomenon that these acquaintances, friends or family members are referring to.

There are indeed many people who return to our office even after their initial symptoms have disappeared. But they don’t return because they “have to”. They return because they CHOOSE to. And patients make this choice for a variety of different reasons. Sometime the reason has to do with a chronic or recurring condition that requires ongoing or periodic attention. Sometimes it has to do with a different health issue altogether. And still other times it has to do with their overall wellness. But in every case, they return to chiropractic because it helps them feel better than they feel without it.

Whether or not you choose to return to your chiropractor for regular treatment will depend on your own physical condition as well as your broader health and wellness goals. We understand that every patient is different, and we will do our best to work with you to design a treatment plan that meets your specific needs. This is true whether your priority is short-term pain relief, physical rehabilitation or general health and wellness. Our goal is always to provide the right combination of in-office care, exercise and stretching recommendations and lifestyle counseling to help you achieve your objectives.

Of course, you don’t have to keep going back to the chiropractor after your symptoms have been resolved. But the simple truth is that those symptoms are likely to reappear at some point if you don’t address the underlying source of the problem. Over time, pain, poor joint function and other signs of bodily wear can begin to creep up again without regular maintenance.

Why Regular Chiropractic Care is Important

Going to your chiropractor for a regular checkup and any necessary treatment is really no different from visiting your dentist or eye doctor. It’s fundamentally about prevention and early detection. The wear-and-tear of everyday living (not to mention the special demands of athletics or certain professions and workplaces) can take a serious toll on your musculoskeletal system in general. And it can be especially hard on your back and neck if your general posture is compromised. Unfortunately, it can take time for the cumulative effects to become obvious and for to you to begin experiencing pain and reduced function. And by the time you do experience these, whatever problems you have may be more difficult to treat.

The keys to good musculoskeletal health (especially spinal health) are:

Regular exercise that maintains or improves your posture, balance, flexibility, strength and stamina. Your chiropractor can recommend a specific program that accomplishes just that.
A healthy diet that provides the right nutrients for growth and recovery of bones, muscles and joints.
A weight loss or weight management approach that reduces (or prevents) unnecessary stress and strain on your joints.
Good ergonomics at work and play.
Avoidance of unhealthy habits that have been associated with musculoskeletal problems, including excessive sitting, alcohol and smoking.
Regular chiropractic check-ups and treatment.

For many of our patients, chiropractic care has become an important part of their overall wellness lifestyle. It’s simply something they do for themselves and their families to protect their overall health and help them feel (and perform) at their best. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you, please call or visit our office today!

Ever Wonder Who’s Really Responsible for Your Healthcare? You Are!

February 9, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

It’s hardly surprising that people take different approaches to healthcare depending on their situation. After all, being in an auto accident creates a different set of priorities than expecting a first child. And discovering that you have a chronic medical condition is different from recovering from a fall down the stairs. However, the themes of prevention and early intervention are becoming more and more important as society addresses the healthcare costs associated with longer lifespans and so-called “lifestyle diseases”.

Need evidence? At the level of national healthcare policy, the Affordable Care Act places a new emphasis on preventive care by requiring that certain services be covered. Many private insurers and healthcare systems are taking an even more active role in advising their subscribers about what types of tests they should get at various ages and how to manage medications for the best results. Even employers are introducing or expanding workplace wellness programs aimed at preventing common health problems.

With all of these public- and private-sector organizations involved in healthcare with a capital “H”, it’s tempting to view health and wellness as an institutional challenge—a problem for someone else to solve. But this misses a very, very important point. No one has a greater stake in your own health and wellness than YOU do! This means that no one has a stronger interest in prevention and early detection.

Reasons Your Musculoskeletal Health May Need More Attention than You Think

A variety of injuries and health conditions can compromise your musculoskeletal system, resulting in pain and reduced function of bones, muscles and joints. And the regular wear and tear we associate with aging can also reduce our strength, stamina, balance, flexibility and coordination over time. For this reason, many people simply accept the onset of back, neck and joint pain as an inevitable result of getting older. But the truth is that we do have some control over how well our musculoskeletal system ages. By adopting healthy lifestyle habits related to nutrition, exercise, sleep and regular chiropractic care, we can avoid or delay certain types of common health problems.

How Doctors of Chiropractic Help Reduce Back Pain and Restore Mobility

The spine is a complex structure that is made up of bones, joints and the surrounding musculature. Doctors of chiropractic use specialized manipulation and mobilization techniques (often referred to as “adjustments”) to restore proper spinal alignment, thereby reducing pain and restoring mobility.

Taking a Holistic View of Health and Embracing Prevention

Although your immediate motivation in visiting a chiropractor may be to get pain relief without the risks of drugs or surgery, chiropractic treatment can also improve your overall health and longer-term quality of life. Chiropractic physicians are trained to take a holistic view of health and place a very high value on prevention. In part, this is because we recognize that our patients’ day-to-day decisions and behaviors have a cumulative effect on their musculoskeletal health as well as their general well-being. Prevention is something you can do for yourself!

Eat a healthy diet.
Keep moving and live an active lifestyle.
Lose weight if needed.
Maintain proper posture while sitting and standing.
Avoid high-heeled shoes, heavy backpacks and purses.
Lift correctly, using your legs instead of your back. Never lift anything that is heavier than 25% of your body weight and do not twist while lifting.
Get enough sleep.
Don’t use tobacco.
Moderate your use of alcohol.
Be proactive in obtaining chiropractic care for your back and overall health

Taking responsibility for your own health—and healthcare—means learning everything you can about your options and taking action. Call or visit our office today. We can help!

Understanding Inflammation

February 4, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Your body employs a number of powerful biological responses to keep you alive and healthy. Some of these responses can be triggered without much notice, but others are difficult to ignore. One of these more obvious responses is inflammation. Inflammation has an important role to play in the body’s ability to heal, but in some situations it can become problematic. Read on to understand more about this important function.

What is Inflammation?

When your body undergoes an injury or encounters an infection or irritant, it uses inflammation to aid in the healing process. The body releases chemical substances into the tissue around the injury or infection, which allows blood more access to the problematic area. The skin around the inflamed area often grows red and might feel warm to the touch. Inflammation can also cause pain as the released chemicals stimulate nerve endings and make the area more sensitive. This sensitivity prompts you to give the injured area plenty of rest, helping to improve the body’s ability to heal.

Inflammation Gone Awry

In the short term, inflammation provides a valuable service. However, inflammation can become chronic, meaning that it can last for months or even years. Chronic inflammation can occur if the body’s natural systems fail to address the root cause of the inflammatory response, or if the immune response mistakenly starts to attack healthy tissue. This type of inflammation plays a role in a variety of chronic conditions, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. Inflammation can also interfere with your life by causing congestion, fatigue, high blood pressure, allergies, and weight gain.

While everyone experiences inflammation from time to time in response to injury or irritation, some lifestyle factors can make you more prone to unnecessary inflammation. A study conducted by the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia found that sleep deprivation raises the body’s levels of inflammatory markers, substances in the blood that show that inflammation is present. People who are overweight and obese also tend to show higher levels of these markers. However, a study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, found that postmenopausal women who were overweight or obese showed a measurable decrease in inflammation markers when they lost 5% of their body weight.

Keeping Inflammation Under Control

If you believe you are suffering from uncontrolled inflammation, check in with your primary care provider to rule out any life-threatening conditions. Then, schedule a time to talk with your chiropractor. A 2010 study by the University of Quebec at Montreal found evidence that chiropractic manipulation can cause inflammation markers to normalize. A chiropractor can also make lifestyle suggestions to help make sure your diet, exercise and sleep levels support a healthy inflammation response.

Inflammation is a very good thing in the right circumstances, but it can cause many problems in the wrong ones. There are solutions, however, so there is no need to keep living with painful chronic inflammation.

Chiropractor vs. Physical Therapist: Which Type of Doctor Is Better for Treating Back Pain?

February 2, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

chiropractic-physical-therapy-200-300 If you’re suffering from acute or chronic back pain–whether it’s been caused by an injury or some type of medical condition–chances are that you’re more interested in finding relief NOW than learning about the many different types of doctors who are part of the healthcare community. But the simple truth is that different types of doctors tend to approach their work in particular ways because of basic differences in their training and clinical experience. This means that it’s worthwhile for a back pain patient to understand at least a little bit about how a physician’s chosen discipline can influence his or her perspective and priorities when it comes to treatment.

The back and neck are very complex structures, and it can sometimes be difficult to identify the specific source of a patient’s pain and treat it effectively. This is why it is common for general practitioners to refer patients who are experiencing back problems more complicated than the typical muscle strain to physicians who specialize in diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal disorders. Depending on the circumstances, your general practitioner may recommend a chiropractor or a physical therapist. Some cases may also benefit from a multidisciplinary or integrated care approach that draws on the expertise of multiple specialists. So, in what ways are chiropractic physicians and physical therapists similar? And how are they different?

The Chiropractor

A doctor of chiropractic diagnoses and treats disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, and works with patients to prevent disorders from occurring. This type of healthcare professional will attempt to identify the underlying cause of back pain and treat it using a variety of techniques that realign the spine to relieve pressure, restore stability and improve function. Chiropractic treatments are usually referred to as “manipulation”, “adjustment” or “mobilization”. They involve applying varying degrees of highly-targeted force (either manually or with the help of specialized instruments) to move vertebrae back into their proper position.

When a patient is experiencing acute or chronic back pain and/or has lost function, a chiropractor will also use manipulation and mobilization techniques on the joints and other soft tissues in the affected area to increase range of motion.

The Physical Therapist

A doctor of physical therapy also diagnoses and treats back pain, though most often in connection with a specific injury or following surgery. His or her goal is usually to help a patient regain normal function by building strength and stamina, increasing balance and flexibility, and improving coordination.

Back pain that results from injury, disease, general wear-and-tear or other environmental factors can prevent a person from being able to lead a normal life by limiting their mobility. Day-to-day activities like walking, climbing stairs and getting into or out of chairs can become difficult or impossible. For athletes, the impact can be particularly profound–limiting their ability to train and compete. A physical therapist considers how the individual’s condition is impacting their ability to move and develops a therapy program intended to improve their condition. Where the chiropractor will often use manipulation and mobilization techniques as the foundation of a treatment plan and reinforce these with structured stretching and exercise programs, the physical therapist will tend to focus more on supervised exercise.

For patients with debilitating injuries and those who have recently had surgery, both chiropractic care and physical therapy can be very good options. Well-trained and experienced doctors will provide customized treatment plans designed to help patients recover as quickly and completely as possible. The diagnostic and treatment techniques each type of doctor uses (as well as their general philosophy) may differ to some extent, but there is also substantial overlap. Both kinds of physicians use non-invasive, hands-on treatment techniques as well as high-tech therapies such as low level laser therapy (LLLT) and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to relieve pain, reduce inflammation and accelerate healing.

When the time comes to make a decision to see one type of doctor or the other for back pain, patients often make their choice based on referrals from their primary care physician or on reviews from other patients. But the most important thing to remember is that you DO have options, and that having the RIGHT doctor matters just as much as having the right kind of doctor. We believe that our relationship with patients–especially the way we communicate–is just as important as our technical skills in diagnosing and treating your pain.

If you’d like to learn more about our approach, we invite you to call or visit our office today.

A Day in the Life of a Crash Test Dummy

January 28, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

Crash test dummies. You probably don’t think about them very much (if at all), but you may owe them much more than you realize when it comes to your health and safety on the nation’s roads. Automobile makers use crash test dummies—that is, inanimate, human-like mannequins—to simulate the type and scale of injury that may occur in an automobile accident. Car and truck manufacturers go to great lengths to design and build safe vehicles, and these “full-scale anthropomorphic test devices” or “ADTs” take a real beating day after day as they provide data regarding velocity of impact, crushing force, bending, folding, or torque of the body, as well as deceleration rates during test collisions.

U.S., car accidents kill more than 30,000 people each year and injure many more. However, manufacturers work continually to make cars safer and accidents more survivable through crash-testing programs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, from 1994 to 2009, the fatality rate decreased from 23 to 16 fatalities per 100,000 licensed drivers. Crash test dummies have played an important part in that achievement as a result of their role in car testing and design. They’ve also played an important part in reducing the severity of auto accident injuries.

In order to survive a car accident and walk away with minimal injuries, drivers and passengers must be able to withstand the changes in kinetic energy that occur when bodies in motion suddenly come to a stop or when bodies at rest are suddenly accelerated. A car’s safety features, including seat belts and air bags, are made to help mitigate the damage that these abrupt changes can cause to the human body. Crash test dummies allow safety engineers to identify how the changes in kinetic energy caused by car crashes affect the human body and its musculoskeletal system. Researchers use this data to identify areas where changes could improve a car’s safety rating. Additionally, the data is useful to gauge the effectiveness of these improvements once they have been made.

Anthropomorphic test devices, or ATDs, have become enormously sophisticated since the first crash test dummy was created. Dubbed Sierra Sam, the first ATD was made in 1949 to test how ejection seats in aircraft affected people. Today’s crash test dummies are designed to simulate human anatomy in great detail, and to respond as the human body would respond to the forces and impacts generated by auto accidents. Using a wide variety of advanced materials and sensor technologies, they can tell a researcher what types of injuries would likely have been sustained by vehicle occupants in a crash—anything from surface skin abrasions and contusions to soft tissue damage, broken bones and life-threatening internal injuries.

Combined with sensors in the test car itself and an array of slow-motion video cameras, ATDs have helped designers and engineers understand better than ever before exactly what happens in different kinds of accidents so that they can protect vehicle drivers and passengers. And there’s no doubt they’re very valuable members of the safety team—they can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000!

ATDs are built in a variety of shapes and sizes to mimic human differences. However, they’re also used in ways that allow carefully controlled testing from crash scenario to crash scenario and from vehicle to vehicle. Before each test, engineers paint different parts of the crash test dummy’s body with different colors, allowing them to identify how each part of the body impacts parts of the vehicle’s interior.

Car accidents can be particularly hard on the musculoskeletal system—injuries to the back, neck, and extremities are common. Unfortunately, many of these injuries may go undetected immediately after a collision, when adrenalin is flowing and participants are generally eager to leave the scene and move on with their lives. Symptoms may appear days, weeks or even months afterward. Plus the injuries sustained in a car crash may cause a host of ongoing health complications, such as recurring headaches, neck stiffness, TMJ, dizziness and chronic back pain as well as reduced mobility.

Chiropractic physicians are specially trained to diagnose and treat the types of musculoskeletal injuries that many people suffer as a result of care accidents. If you or someone you care about has been involved in a car accident, it’s very important that they receive a prompt medical evaluation from a qualitied healthcare professional—even if they feel fine or are only experiencing minor symptoms. Detecting injuries as soon as possible often allows auto accident victims to recover more quickly and more completely, with less pain and less disability.

Building Better Bones for the Long Run

January 19, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

When it comes to leading a healthy, active lifestyle in middle age and beyond, maintaining your bone density (also called “bone mass”) is very important. To really understand the challenges associated with this—and to appreciate the opportunities—it’s necessary to know a little bit about how your skeleton grows and develops over the years.

Your bones are actually a lot more active than most people realize. Even if you’re an adult, somewhere between 7% and 10% of the cells in your bones are replaced during any given year. This means that your entire skeleton will be replaced in about a decade. The bones in the human body are constantly being broken down, reabsorbed and rebuilt, with those experiencing the most daily wear-and-tear being rebuilt the most frequently. This is referred to as “remodeling” or “bone turnover.”

Even though your bones stop growing in length in early adulthood, they can continue to grow in diameter throughout your life in response to activity. When this happens, special cells called osteoblasts form compact bone around the outside of the bone surface while other cells called osteoclasts break down and reabsorb older bone tissue from the internal bone surface. These two processes work together to increase the diameter of the bone while preventing it from becoming too thick and heavy.

Girls achieve up to 90% of their peak bone mass (the amount of bone tissue in the skeleton) by their 18^th birthday. Boys hit that same milestone by the time they’re about 20 years old. Bone mass can keep growing until around age 30 for both men and women. After this point, bone mass tends to remain stable for a number of decades as bone building activities remain roughly in balance with bone resorption activities. However, this balance begins to change and bone mass begins to decline when you reach more advanced years. For women, this drop in bone density is closely related to menopause.

There are essentially three things you can do to maintain healthy bone mass:

Stimulate as much bone growth as possible while you are still young. Timing counts—the higher your peak bone mass is when you hit your early 20s and 30s, the more bone loss you can experience later in life without the risk of osteopenia or osteoporosis. We recognize that, for many readers, this bit of information will come too late. We include it here for the benefit of parents who are still in a position to help their children.
Eat a bone-healthy diet. Calcium, vitamin K and vitamin D are the keys, but vitamin A, vitamin B12 and vitamin C matter too!
Calcium is integral to maintaining bone strength. Dark green, leafy vegetables are the single best source of this mineral. Ounce for ounce, they’re even better than dairy products (which are also good). So the key to feeding your bones is to incorporate more spinach, collard greens, broccoli and bok choy into your diet in addition to dairy (milk, yogurt and cheese). Tofu is often fortified with calcium as well, so a quick stir-fry including tofu, bok choy and sesame seeds (another great source of calcium) makes an excellent bone-healthy meal.

Vitamin K is key to the production of osteocalcin, a bone protein. Vitamin K is needed to bind calcium to the bones and reduces the amount of calcium that is excreted in the urine. It has been shown to promote higher bone density and reduce the risk of fractures. Fortunately, the same dark green, leafy vegetables that are chock full of calcium are also a great source of vitamin K.

Vitamin D is critical for calcium absorption. However, many experts believe that most Americans may be vitamin D deficient, particularly during the winter months when days are short and there is little sunlight. However, the general trends toward less outdoor activity at other times of the year and more sunscreen use may increase the risk of year-round vitamin D deficiency. According to Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D expert, “We want everyone to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter,” Holick says, “but currently in the United States, Caucasians average 18 to 22 nanograms and African-Americans average 13 to 15 nanograms.” This is perhaps the best argument for vitamin D-enriched milk and supplementation.
Weight-bearing exercise stimulates bone formation and lowers the rate of calcium loss. You can help to increase your bone density at any age by practicing weight-bearing exercise three times per week for 20 to 30 minutes. This can include activities such as lifting weights, walking or running, dancing, playing tennis, climbing stairs, or jumping rope. Remember—even if you get bone-friendly vitamins and minerals, you will still lose bone mass more quickly if you are a couch potato.
Gary Null, in his book Power Aging notes “Weight lifting, including curls and bench presses, is a beneficial activity.” And for those who’d rather not visit the health club, “Dancing, stair-climbing and brisk walking are all weight-bearing exercises, which promote (good) mechanical stress in the skeletal system, contributing to the placement of calcium in bones.” But what about aerobic exercises? While they are very good for your cardiovascular system, “aerobic exercises such as biking, rowing and swimming do not strengthen the bones.” They simply don’t place enough stress on the skeletal system to stimulate bone growth.

Beyond their role in giving your body its shape as well as supporting and moving it, the bones that make up your skeleton do a number of other really important things that are less obvious:

They provide protection for your body’s vital organs.
They are where your red blood cells and lymphocytes are produced (within your bone marrow).
They store important minerals, including calcium and iron, and are involved in metabolizing them.
They help regulate your body’s endocrine system (including regulation of blood sugar and storing fat).

Be good to your bones and they’ll be good to you!

Have any questions? If so, please call or visit our office today!

Additional Resources

To Ensure Bone Health, Start Early. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/05/to-ensure-bone-health-start-early/

Bone Health: Tips to Keep Your Bones Healthy. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/in-depth/bone-health/art-20045060

Maintaining Bone Health: Why Bone Health is Important. http://nihseniorhealth.gov/falls/bonehealth/01.html

Exercise and Physical Activity. http://www.americanbonehealth.org/what-you-should-know/exercise

Are Energy Drinks Actually Dangerous?

January 14, 2016 oblanderchiropractic

yippie - saut de joie — yippie – saut de joie

There’s no doubt that many of us live very fast-paced lives. “Too much to do in too little time…” It’s this common complaint that’s helping to drive the popularity of energy drinks. After all, who couldn’t use a little boost to help get through another busy day? And it’s not only adults who are fueling the craze. Teenagers are among the biggest users of energy drinks when they need to be awake for morning classes after staying out late or studying all night.

So what’s the problem? Energy drink-related visits to the emergency room have doubled over the past four years, and most of these cases have involved teens and young adults.

Energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster, Full Throttle and Rock Star are starting to attract the attention of medical researchers and public health officials alike. This is leading to some troubling discoveries about what the ingredients in these drinks can do to our bodies. It’s also putting a spotlight on how these products are marketed. It turns out that energy drinks—unregulated and usually sold right alongside soft drinks in the supermarket—may be dangerous for our health.

What’s in the can? In addition to large amounts of caffeine and sugar, other ingredients commonly include taurine, glucuronolactone and guarana, as well as B-vitamins and a variety of herbal supplements such as ginseng, milk thistle and gingko biloba. The primary concern so far is the effect the combined stimulants in these drinks have on the heart. A typical energy drink contains up to three times as much caffeine as an equivalent amount of coffee or soda.

Energy drinks have been shown to produce arrhythmias (which are potentially life-threatening changes in your heart rhythm) and to raise blood pressure. Heart palpitations, seizures and sudden death can be caused when someone with an arrhythmia consumes an energy drink.

A study conducted by Dr. Jonas Dorner and colleagues from the University of Bonn in Germany found that energy drinks increase heart contractions. Dorner said “Until now, we haven’t known exactly what effect these energy drinks have on the function of the heart. There are concerns about the products’ potential adverse side effects on heart function, especially in adolescents and young adults, but there is little or no regulation of energy drink sales.”

The study involved 18 healthy volunteers, most of whom were male, who consumed an energy drink containing caffeine and taurine. They underwent an MRI an hour after taking the drink, and the results showed a significant increase in peak strain in the left ventricle of the heart.

Although these results may not cause problems in the short term for those who are young and healthy, these drinks may be a problem for anyone with heart disease. There are also no studies yet measuring the long-term effect that these energy drinks have on heart health.

Experts advise that children and anyone with a heart condition such as arrhythmia avoid consuming energy drinks due to the potential risks they pose.

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