Keeping the Curve

When we look at the spine, it should be straight from the back, but from the side view we should see three distinct curves.  These curves in the spine are there to provide shock absorption like a spring to limit stress and trauma to the bones and discs of the spine.  Despite the importance of these curves, after observing literally thousands of x-rays, I’ve seen that very few adults, probably only 10-20%, actually maintain these curves.

At birth, the spine is in a C-shape from being in the fetal position.  The normal curvatures of the spine develop as an infant begins to crawl.  Gravity seems to draw the low back or lumbar spine forward toward the floor and holding the head up while moving on all fours causes a forward curvature of the neck or cervical spine.  Just like a dam or a bridge, these curvatures create strength and stability in the spine and by placing the weight on the back sides of the vertebrae where the joints are designed to carry these forces.  This, in turn, keeps pressure off the discs and helps maintain normal alignment of the individual bones.  This is how things are supposed to work, but then life happens.  Over time, the muscles will change tension and the ligaments that hold the bones together will be compromised allowing the spine to take on the position of the postures that we maintain through our daily lives.  Let’s face it, we sit at computers, we drive with our neck and shoulders forward, we use pillows that push our head forward.  Perhaps the biggest concern for the future is all the time kids (and adults) spend looking down at Ipads and phones.  This all takes a toll over time and the curvature of the neck becomes straight or sometimes even reversed.  What are the implications of this?  As the weight of the spine shifts forward this causes excessive wear and tear on the discs and the fronts of the vertebrae resulting in degeneration and permanent arthritic changes of the spine.  As the curve is lost, the muscles on the back side of the spine are stretched resulting in tension up the back of the neck to the head causing chronic neck pain and tension headaches.  If this isn’t enough, straightening of the neck causes a loss of range of motion not only in your neck but also in your shoulders.  You can try this yourself by pushing your head forward and trying to move your neck and raise your arms over your head.  Numerous studies have shown that breathing capacity is decreased as the curvature of the neck is lost.  There are even a few studies that show a straight or reversed neck creates increased tension on the spinal cord that can cause people to live 2-3 years less than those fortunate enough to maintain their cervical curves.

The good news is that the curvature can be maintained and even restored.  Of course, watching your posture to begin with is paramount.  Learning to become a back sleeper and using a contoured cervical pillow also helps.  However, if the curve is already lost or reversed, you have to do more than this.  Neck and shoulder exercises to improve posture and strengthen the muscles on the back of the neck are necessary.  And, even though it’s a process that can take 6-12 months, using some form of cervical traction unit where you let your head lie back over a fulcrum for several minutes per day will slowly reverse the changes.  Nearly any chiropractor can assess for these postural changes and make recommendations to restore the integrity to the spine.

Happy Birthday

It was 124 years ago that D.D. Palmer of Davenport Iowa laid Harvey Lillard, the janitor of his building, on a table and placed his hand on the boney lever of Harvey’s 3^rd thoracic vertebrae and gave a thrust in hopes of restoring the bone back to its normal alignment and movement.  You see, Harvey had gone almost completely deaf 17 years earlier when he felt something pop in his back.  D.D., who at the time was titled a magnetic healer, examined Mr. Lillard and found an abnormal boney spot out of position.  The two men agreed that the bone would likely be better off if it were placed back in its normal position and in an instant what would come to be known as the first chiropractic adjustment was performed.

The story goes that Harvey sat up off the table and said for the first time in years he, “could hear the racket of the wagon wheels in the street” and his hearing was restored.  D.D. proceeded to send out letters inviting those with hearing loss from around the country to visit Davenport, Iowa.  Many came, but unfortunately no others had their hearing restored.  But many of these people had other conditions and problems in addition to hearing loss that improved with D.D.’s new discovery.  In time and with diligent study of the anatomy and physiology, Dr. Palmer learned that chiropractic wasn’t really a “treatment” for any of these conditions.  Rather, this new form of healthcare was a means of restoring balance back to the structure of the body so as to relieve tension and pressure off the nervous system allowing the body can function normally or function within what is known as homeostasis.  When the body is functioning in homeostasis, it has the ability to regulate all the different organs and systems and it has the best ability to heal and recover from different conditions or ailments.

Today we know this is true.  Health is defined as your ability to respond to physical, chemical, and emotional stresses.  So health is about adaptability.  When pressure or tension exists on the nerves and spinal cord, your ability to adapt to these stressors is diminished.  When this pressure is reduced, the nervous system functions more efficiently and your ability to respond and adapt to stress is improved.  So this Wednesday, I say Happy Birthday chiropractic and thanks Dr. Palmer for you hard work, intuition, and wisdom!

Common vs. Normal

One of the hardest things for me to deal with as a chiropractor is all the unnecessary struggling that presents into my office.  The Annals of Chronic Disease report that 80% of Americans will die of a chronic disease.  However, the New England Journal of Medicine has stated that, “Preventable illness makes up 70% of the burden of illness and the associated expenses.”  So we’re afflicted with all these ailments that should have been avoidable in the first place.  This is the very essence of the “healthcare crisis” we hear so much about on television and from our politicians.  The problem as I see it is that we Americans have become complacent and reserved to the idea that disease is normal – that it is to be expected as a part or routine aging.  Science simply does not support this!  While the disease rates we experience in this country have become very common, this phenomenon is far from normal.

When you look at the statistics, America leads the world in degenerative diseases as well as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer and the numbers are markedly higher than they were just a few decades ago.  If all this were “normal”, these rates would not change and the rest of the world would share a similar plight.  As a chiropractor, I was taught that the body developed from two cells using its own innate intelligence and this same intelligence is there throughout life to organize, regulate, and heal the body naturally.  Disease is merely a state of dis-ease where the body is not in homeostasis (balance) and health is not being expressed.  This philosophy is similar to the concept that darkness is merely a lack of light.  If our bodies have this intelligence, could it possibly be normal for things to just break down and begin to fail after 30-50 years?  If you can accept this, then why do we have such high rates of disease and why are these rates so much worse than a half century ago?  Obviously there can be only one answer.  Lifestyle!  Our habits are not only keeping us from performing and functioning at our best, they are literally robbing us of our “light” that is our health and vitality resulting in alarming rates of disease.  If I’m right about this (and I know I am), then we should be able to observe disease processes reverse when people drop their bad habits and begin practicing a healthier lifestyle.  This is the best part of my job – on the occasion when I see a person take responsibility for their health and begin to work on their diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and improve the function of their nervous system through chiropractic adjustments, I get to observe these changes first hand.  Once health is enhanced, disease begins to diminish every time.

Recognize that our bodies perform miracles every day.  There are over a million chemical reactions going on inside every second that are controlled automatically.  You have an amazing potential to heal when health is allowed to be expressed.  However, to express health and wellness, we have to practice healthy habits and lifestyles.  Just don’t wait until health is completely lost to start making those changes and making better choices and don’t accept that disease is just a normal part of life.

Posture Proof

In the past, I’ve discussed the importance of regarding your posture and maintaining the proper position of the neck.  I’ve also warned of habits such as texting, gaming, sewing, and even reading with head bent forward and how this can lead to numerous problems.  While I hope this makes some common sense, part of me presumes you would expect this kind of advice from one of those crazy chiropractors much in the same way those crazy dentists are always hounding us about flossing our teeth.  But just why is neck posture so important?

Beyond the painful symptoms of neck pain, shoulder problems and tension headaches, proper position and curvature of the neck relates to some very real and critical health functions.  For example, multiple research studies show a loss of the normal curvature of the neck will reduce lung capacity by up to 30%.  Calliet, M.D. reported that decreased spinal curves and position affect the heart, lungs, and digestive systems.  In 1979, Korr displayed that faulty posture of the neck weakens the immune system and increases sensitivity to pain.  In a 2001 edition of Neurology India, it was reported that upper neck problems often result in disturbances in gait, dizziness, and loss of balance.  In 1974, Reich, M.D. reported that the decreased blood from abnormal posture is a major factor in all disease including cancer.  Dr. Freeman reported in 1997 that posture deviations result in overall poor health and quality of life as well as shortened lifespan.  Similar findings were reported in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 1981 stating that loss of spinal curves increase mortality and can take up to 14 years off your life.

So don’t just take my word for it!  Maintain proper posture with good habits, exercise, chiropractic and massage.  Impress upon your kids that this is so important because like everything else, the mistakes they make now will be paid for later in life.  Look better, feel better and minimize these health problems simply by taking pride in your posture!  Oh, and keep flossing those teeth as well.

Two Studies

As a chiropractor, I’ve always considered it my job to help people age gracefully and deal with any health concerns without taking a bunch of drugs.  Obviously, this objective is a more holistic view focused on overall health.  Unfortunately, due to the branding of the profession through the 70’s and 80’s the chiropractor became known merely as a lower cost treatment for neck pain, back pain, and headaches.  While there’s certainly value in this to the person in pain, it doesn’t have much to do with overall health.  With this in mind, I wanted to look for studies that showed a correlation between chiropractic care and improved health and wellness.  I quickly found two similar studies that were published in recent years.

In the first study, the researchers looked at individuals over 75 years of age and they compared those who were chiropractic patients to those who had not seen a chiropractor for any health concern.  The individuals in the chiropractic group reported, “Better overall health, fewer prescription drugs, and more activity.”  Even more impressively, the chiropractic group on average had 21% less time in hospitals over the three year period prior to the study.

In the second study, they looked at senior citizens over the age of 65.  But in this study, they wanted to look only at those individuals who had been under regular chiropractic or “maintenance care” at a frequency of at least once per month for five years or longer.  In this study, they found that the chiropractic group had 50% fewer medical provider visits and 95.8% of those surveyed found their chiropractic care to be “considerably” or “extremely” valuable.

How can this be?  It starts by recognizing that health is an inside job.  Our bodies are designed to be self-healing and self-regulating.  The brain and nervous system control all the functions of the body through the nerve signals that travel down through the bones of the spine.  When, from various lifestyle stresses, those bones of the spine should become misaligned, they will place tension and pressure on the delicate nerves causing interference or a lack of communication between the brain and the body.  A chiropractor’s job is to detect and correct these misalignments so that the nervous system can function as it was designed and the body can better express its full potential.  While both of these studies cited were looking at individuals over 65, please recognize that what’s true for an older population who likely has more accumulated life stresses and health problems, will be every bit as true for younger populations as well.

Starting a Program

You’ve likely heard by now that sitting is considered the new smoking; meaning that the health detriments of prolonged sitting day in and day out are just as dangerous if not worse than smoking cigarettes.  I recently read a report that two hours of continuous sitting will undo the benefits of 20 minutes of exercise.  This is just more evidence that we need to get up and get moving and get out of our seats at home and at the office.  Obviously any form of exercise is better than none at all, but what type of exercise should you be doing to gain the greatest return on investment for you overall health and wellness?

As I’ve reported before, the best exercise programs include dimensions for strength, cardiovascular, as well as balance, coordination, and flexibility.  Most people simply don’t do this.  The weight lifters are often lacking the flexibility and cardiovascular components.  The walkers/runners are often lacking the strength and flexibility.  The yoga enthusiasts could do better with strength and cardio.  Again, this is not to downplay any of these forms of exercise as they’re all equally great in their own right; they’re simply incomplete by themselves.  The standard recommendations that are most widely accepted are to do strength training twice per week where you work on all the major muscle groups at least once each week.  Try to make your strength training as “functional” as possible where you are performing common, real-life movements with resistance rather than isolated muscle training.  A personal trainer can help you with this.  In addition to strength, cardiovascular training three times per week is the most commonly accepted schedule.  In order to get the greatest health benefits and weight loss out of your cardio work, practice what is referred to as HIIT or high intensity interval training.  This type of training is so important on many levels and it is where I’d recommend getting started if you’re just getting back into exercise.  The advantages of this training include insulin regulation, maximized growth hormone, but also time management.  Through HIIT training you can get a better workout in just 20 minutes than what you would otherwise do in an hour on a treadmill or bike with a steady heart rate.  Again, a trainer can provide different options for HIIT.  In regard to flexibility and coordination, it’s a good practice to include 10 minutes of this at the end of every workout.  This practice will relieve stress off your muscles and joints that can lead to injury but more importantly, working on balance will help prevent dangerous falls as we age.

What I’ve just described is the type of workouts provided in our wellness program.  This program was designed using the latest science and research.  In addition to this, our trainers focus on core strength and posture to retrain the posture patterns that cause much of the back and hip as well as neck and shoulder problems that people suffer from.  We have three trainers in the office doing this work and they’re eager to help. Contact us to get started with your personal wellness program and let us help you reach your goals.

Sleep Soundly

I had someone come into the office without physical complaints, but rather to be checked to see if something was going on with his nervous system that would keep him from sleeping.  He reported to me that he had not slept normally in over a year!  This case alerted me to what a big problem insomnia and other sleep disorders are to people and how important it is to have some strategies to get the necessary rest for proper health.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans suffer from occasional sleeplessness.  Of those polled, 40% said they wake throughout the night and more 25% reported that they don’t fall asleep or wake too early.  Improper sleep causes numerous problems including poor memory, confusion, poor immune function and healing response, increased stress response, low mental and physical energy, difficulty losing weight, coordination problems, moodiness, depression, and hormonal imbalances amongst other things.  A recent study showed that just one night of low sleep reduced your ability to function the next day by 30%. 

Barring those who have breathing problems, sleeping problems are almost always related to hormonal imbalances as a result of chronic stress.  As I’ve said numerous times, stress is a learned response.  We experience stress, and then we practice it until we get really good at it.  By this time, adrenal, thyroid and pituitary hormones are out of whack and the brain begins to respond in a manner of stress physiology.  Within a stress response, lack of sleep is perfectly normal.  When this is the case, the only way to increase sleep is to decrease the stress.  Exercise is very important for this, but 10 minutes of meditation per day is what I have found to be the most effective.  Eliminating caffeine, nicotine, sugar and white flour from the diet can be very important for some people as well.  I also advocate the habit of writing in a gratitude journal right before bed.  You cannot be in a state of gratitude and stress at the same time.  If you’re waking at the same time every night about 4-5 hours after you go to bed, this is a sign of liver toxicity and a detoxification can be enormously helpful.  Eating foods high in tryptophan such as turkey or consuming something with fat in it like milk or cheese can be helpful before bed.  When all these suggestions fail, I recommend supplementing with melatonin. This is a chemical released in the brain to stimulate sleep, but it gets out of balance due to stress and irregular sleep habits.  Melatonin will not make you drowsy the next day and many times it only needs to be taken for a short while. Benesom, from Metagenics, is a sleep supplement we carry that has melatonin as an active ingredient. In addition to melatonin, CBD oil has been shown to improve sleep. For more information on CBD oil, please contact our office.

Either way, adequate and sound sleep is critical for health.  If you’re one of the two-thirds of Americans that suffer, try some of these strategies to break the cycle.  As for the young man who came to the office, fortunately for him, after just a couple easy adjustments to remove pressure off the nerves in his upper neck, he is sleeping soundly.