Monday, February 24, 2020

Think Posture is Insignificant?


As a professional who looks at the spine, I believe we’re at an all-time low in postural awareness.  In my experience, you will find less than 10% of the general population who displays the ideal anatomical posture.  Why is this?  Most likely there are a multitude of reasons from too much time sitting in desks, in cars, on the couch or in front of the computer, to a general lack of exercise, to the stress of heavy backpacks and purses, to improper mattresses and chairs.  In regard to the neck and shoulders I believe all the time people spend looking down to play handheld games, to text, and even to read, places undo stress on the neck and shoulders.  Get the books and gadgets up so that you aren’t looking straight down!  More than anything, I believe the problem is poor habits simply because most people don’t care that much about proper posture.  Here’s some research to hopefully make you care.

In the past I’ve discussed the model of tensegrity which proves that the bones of our spine and skeleton are never supposed to be rubbing together.  Only when posture and alignment are compromised do our joints “rub” creating the imbalanced stress that contributes to arthritis.  If this greater risk of arthritis is not motivation enough, a recent journal article proved the relationship between head/neck posture and pulmonary (lung) function.  As the head goes forward in posture (as it does with most) the resulting loss of the proper curvature of the neck will reduce normal motion of the head neck and shoulders and as the study showed, it will reduce breathing, oxygenation to the cells, and proper nerve flow.  They even found that incidence of asthma was greater in those with improper neck curvature.  This really should come as no surprise as the first chapter of any physiology book will state that our anatomy dictates our physiology!  The researchers found that proper posture is critical to your autonomic nervous system which contains the nerves that run all your organs and glands.  In particular, they found that changes in neck posture affected the Vagus nerve that controls the heart, lungs, and much of the digestive system.  The positive side of the study is that they found that loss of curvature to the neck could be restored through, chiropractic, specific exercises and improved habits and awareness.  And when the curvature improved, so did breathing, oxygenation, and nerve flow to the organs.  Watch your posture and especially make proper posture a priority to your kids!

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Inflammatory Insights


In the past I’ve vilified inflammation and pointed out that inflammation is at the root of every disease.  However, I’ve also been known to point out that the body is always smart and most everything that occurs inside the body is actually a perfect response to a stimulus or stressor from our environment.  Thus, if the latter is true, there must be a reason for the redness, swelling, and pain associated with inflammation.  In this article I’d like to point out some of the benefits of this natural reaction of the body and provide strategies for dealing with chronic inflammation.

The inflammatory response is a natural defense mechanism that is triggered whenever body tissues are damaged or threatened by trauma, irritating chemical toxins or viral/bacterial infection. Most of the body’s defense tools are located in the blood and inflammation causes swelling and stretching of the blood vessels so that white bloods cells, large proteins focused on tissue repair and different hormones can move into the tissue to initiate the healing process.  The swelling also helps to dilute any harmful chemicals in the area and bring in large amounts of oxygen and nutrients.  Acute inflammation has even been shown to be important for immune function including increasing the body’s ability to mediate T-lymphocytes which are the white bloods cells associated with fighting infection and eliminating cancer cells.

The problem occurs when acute inflammation becomes chronic as this is a sign that the body is not healing appropriately.  This phenomenon is much more common with people that have a lower level of health due to high stress, poor sleep, lack of exercise, poor diet, toxicity, and a generally weakened immune and/or nervous system function.  The typical approach to treat chronic inflammation is to use corticosteroids.  Dr. Andrew Weil, in his book Spontaneous Healing, reports “I consider them (steroids) dangerous drugs, much misunderstood, abused and over prescribed. Steroids are toxic, cause dependence, suppress, rather than cure disease, and reduce the chance of healing by natural treatment. Moreover, they weaken immunity.”

My experience is that you have to start by restoring health to the body in order to heal from chronic inflammation.  First, get rid of the chemical toxins by doing a detox and cleaning up the diet while drinking large amounts of water.  This is imperative!  Next, supplement with an omega 3 such as fish oil, heal the gut with probiotics, and take in adequate minerals or green food supplements to alkalize the body’s pH.  Focus on stress reducing methods such as meditation and yoga and make proper sleep a priority.  Chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, cold laser, and physical therapy can often be of huge benefit.  Finally, once you start feeling better, start off slow, but commit to regular exercise to finish it off.  While there are other factors that can help, this is a basic formula for recovering from any chronic inflammatory condition.