The Facts About Fevers
Our body's first line of defense when invaded by any microbe, virus or bacteria is cells called microphages; a strong, healthy immune system may be able to eliminate the problem with this first step alone. If these fail to contain the microbe/"bug," then the body creates other pryogens and proteins to try to assist. Once these have been created, the hypothalamus in the brain recognizes there is an invader and raises the body temperature to assist in killing it off.
This elevated temperature will generally be just a couple of degrees, but the hypothalamus determines, based on the number of pryogens and proteins, what will be necessary to eliminate the microbe/bug. If the hypothalamus creates additional biochemicals to try to protect the body, then the temperature rises accordingly.
Defining a Fever
For all children above the age of 3 months, a fever is actually a good thing. It's a sign that their immune system is functioning properly. Although many parents will panic when their child has a temperature above 98.6° F (37° C), and this is understandable since many health care providers have called this a "low-grade fever," the reality is that children's temperature may naturally run a little higher than what many consider the norm.
A true low-grade fever is anything between 100° F and 102.2° F (37.8° C and 39° C). This level of fever is beneficial; with most microbes/"bugs" that a child will be exposed to, this fever will assist the body in repelling the invader.
A moderate-grade fever is typically between 102.2° F and 104.5° F (39° C and 40° C). This temperature is still considered beneficial; if a child's body has reached this temperature, it's what's needed to kill whatever bacteria or virus their body is attempting to fight.
A high fever is a fever greater than 104.5° F (40° C). This fever may cause the child some discomfort and result in a bit of crankiness. Generally indicative of a bacterial infection, this fever means that the body is fighting something a little more serious than the common cold. While it will not cause brain damage or any other harm to a child, it is wise to seek assistance from their medical provider.
A serious fever is one that is at or above 108° F (42° C); this fever can be harmful.
Can a Fever Be Dangerous?
Fevers that are caused by the body's immune system are not dangerous, and the hypothalamus will control the body temperature and not allow it to get so high as to cause harm. While it can be frightening to have a child running a moderate to high fever, it is simply their body doing what it was designed to do.
The only body temperature that can actually cause brain damage, despite what many parents believe, is 108° F (42° C), and this body temperature cannot typically be achieved on its own, but requires extreme external environmental temperatures – for instance, if a child is left in a closed car in hot weather.
Preventing Neck Pain
When it comes to neck pain, many people seek relief and ways to make sure they do not have to endure it ever again. This is where prevention comes in. Often times, it is age-related wear and tear that is responsible for many aches and pains in the neck area, but there are also other everyday things that can contribute to ongoing pain and discomfort.
Let's take a look at some of those along with ways on how to prevent neck pain from occurring on a daily basis.
One of the first places to start prevention of neck pain is in the bedroom where you spend most nights asleep – often in the wrong position, which may be contributing to ongoing neck pain.
Here are some tips to make sure you are protecting yourself from neck pain while napping and sleeping throughout the night:- Sleep on your side or your back with a pillow that can support your neck. Look for pillows that offer built-in neck support. When sleeping on your side make sure to keep your neck supported with a high pillow.
- Use memory foam pillows or cervical pillows that can help your neck to adjust properly and avoid neck pain in the morning.
- Try to keep your head leveled when sleeping upright making sure you don't keep your neck to one side the whole time.
- Get enough sleep and rest – Make sure to talk to your chiropractor if you are having Sleeping problems such as difficulty falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, waking early in the mornings, and non-restorative sleep.
Stand Up Straight!
Postural issues are a big contributor to many different aches and pains and injuries to our bodies. Injuries related to poor posture tend to be overuse injuries, which build up over a period of time. Muscle imbalances and joint dysfunctions associated with poor posture can create areas of too much motion in certain spinal segments causing instability. These areas may then wear out prematurely, while other areas may have too little motion in the spine causing range of motion/mobility dysfunctions; anytime you have a right side - left side imbalance, it is called an asymmetry. If you have an asymmetry in your muscles, you are more susceptible to injury.
Some simple ways to begin to improve your posture include becoming aware of the things that you are doing, even the things that you don't even know you are doing that are contributing (harming) to your posture. Think of staying in a "tall spine" posture while sitting, standing, during exercise and also taking frequent breaks from sitting and use the Brugger's postural relief position as one of your style of breaks.
There are also some simple exercises you can do to help you get started on improving your overall posture. Here are a few:
Engage in daily use of the foam roll to provide self-myofascial release and self massage. Spend 3-5 minutes rolling out the thoracic spine and shoulders.
Perform Chair Decompression: Sit in an upright chair with your arms behind you, slightly bent, hands on the seat of the back of the chair. Push downward, straightening the arms and leaving the buttocks in the chair, unloading the trunk and spine. Keep the arms externally rotated; this moves the upper body into something similar to Brugger's.
Perform Brugger's relief position: Sit at the edge of a chair; Put your knees apart (wide) and your feet under the knees: Arch your back; Rotate your arms outward so your palms face forward; Separate your fingers and point your thumb backward; Tuck in your chin; Hold this position while taking a deep breath in though your abdomen. Hold the position for 5 seconds, release for 3 seconds, Repeat 3-5 times.
Perform Cobra: Laying face down on the floor-in prone position, have arms beside your hips. Activate the core by drawing in your navel towards spine and squeezing the glutes. With your core and glutes activated, lift the chest off the floor, lift arms up and back towards the hips rotating thumbs towards the ceiling. Note: hold for 2-3 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
Back Pain Relief
Back pain - the first thought many people have when they hear those words is, "chiropractor." That's true, but in addition to helping ease back pain, there are many other professional services a doctor of chiropractic can provide to help make health and wellness a lifetime endeavor. Advice and assistance related to nutrition, exercise, posture and weight loss are just a few of the ways chiropractors can help improve your health in addition to resolving your back pain:
Nutritional Advice: Dietary and nutritional supplements are an integral part of many chiropractic offices. Doctors of chiropractic realize that extra weight on your body adds to additional stresses on your spine. This additional weight makes you biomechanically more susceptible to injury and greater risk for health problems. Starting a weight loss program under the supervision of a healthcare professional has a greater likelihood of long-term success. Ask your doctor about nutritional supplements that may be helpful in reaching your intended goal.
Postural Support: Chiropractors are experts at analyzing posture and how it relates to spinal problems. They are trained in the art of detection, function, and restoration. A doctor of chiropractic searches for the problems that exist underneath poor posture and its effect on quality of life movement dysfunction. By analyzing spinal curvatures and alignment, your doctor searches for the problems that contribute to the postural pattern and develops a strategy of correction.
The Right Tools: Most chiropractors offer equipment that can help improve your quality of life and assist with activities of daily living, such as bending, lifting, twisting, exercising, sleeping, etc. For example, ask your chiropractor about purchasing spinal support belts to help when lifting objects or working on your feet for long hours. Orthotic foot supports are very prevalent in most chiropractic offices; this is a cost-effective way to help sore feet, achy muscles, and fatigued lower backs. Braces and wraps can be used for arm and leg problems such as knee and elbow pain. Most doctors also offer hot or cold packs for home use and topical analgesic pain relief lotions that are more effective than over-the-counter options. Make sure you ask your chiropractor about using some of these devices to maximize your progress.
Working hand-in-hand with your doctor of chiropractic is the perfect solution to help with your long-term health goals. Reach out and ask for their guidance; you'll be surprised at how pivotal a role they can play in maximizing your whole-body health.
In
general, there is no one cause of neck pain that applies to every patient.
If you have chronic neck pain, you may have received a diagnosis of disc
herniation, whiplash, strain, sprain or something else. Regardless, most of
these conditions have one thing in common: Certain muscles are affected,
and these are the muscles we need to target before progressing to more
challenging exercises or activities.
There are certain muscles in the neck that are designed to help us maintain our normal and healthy curve of the spine. In addition, these muscles are designed to hold our head up all day. The technical names of these muscles are the longus capitus and longus colli, more commonly known as the deep neck flexors. They are the muscles that attach to the front of your spine. Because they're located deep in the front of the neck, we often ignore them.
In people with chronic neck pain, these muscles are often fatigued a lot quicker than in people without neck pain. That means other muscles pick up the slack and begin working harder. The muscles that begin working harder are the ones we generally end up stretching. Have you ever noticed that when you stretch stiff muscles, they feel good for a short period of time, only to get tight again? The thing is, if you don't address the other muscles, the ones that get fatigued and gradually stop working, then your stretching program will not work as well. All these muscles need to be in "balance."
The best way to see if your deep neck flexors fatigue is to try and lift your head off the ground when you are lying down. The technique is simple: Simply tuck your chin in to your chest and lift your head off the ground, and then attempt to hold it there for 10 seconds. If the neck begins shaking, or your chin is unable to stay tucked in, your deep flexors are fatigued and need to be addressed. For most people with chronic neck pain, this can be a difficult exercise. That's why you can begin your exercise program by doing simple chin tucks while sitting or standing.
Simply tucking your chin in and holding it until you fatigue will help reactivate these muscles. You can start with 12 repetitions of this exercise, working your way up to three sets of 12 repetitions each. Ensure you take adequate rest (several minutes) in between each set.
Once you get comfortable with basic sitting/standing chin tucks, you can try doing the exercise lying down. The goal is to be able to do it 12 times, holding each one until you fatigue. The next goal is to work your way up to three sets of 12 repetitions, with rest in between each set. Then work your way to three sets of 15 repetitions and then three sets of 20 repetitions. Remember, this is a marathon, not a race. The goal is to increase the endurance of your muscles rather than their strength. Your neck is designed to carry the weight of your head all day, not to lift trains or buses! That's why building up endurance should be your first priority.
Neck pain is an all-too-common condition that can prove debilitating if left untreated; fortunately, your chiropractor is the perfect health care professional to help you get rid of the pain.
Back Pain: Exercises to Help Healing
When it comes to back
pain, your first thoughts may be to take over-the-counter pain medication
and rest whenever possible. Two bad options. First, medication is only
going to temporarily relieve the pain, if at all, and may be accompanied by
various unpleasant side effects attributable to drugs. Second, rest may
actually hurt more than help. While you're seeing your chiropractor, there
are a few things you can do at home to help the healing process. Believe it
or not, it's based on the simple principle of movement.
When you stop moving, everything tightens up, circulation slows down, and pain chemicals accumulate in your muscles and joints. It's like waking up after sleeping in a cold room on a lousy mattress with a draft. You need to move. Here are two simple exercises to get you started (discuss these with your doctor first):
Exercise #1: Backward Bending (extension of the lumbar spine). An exercise called the McKenzie extension is the first thing you should try if you have sciatica (pain running down your leg). If these exercises work, your pain will diminish and may centralize, which is a good thing. Centralize means your pain goes less far down your leg, and you may feel it closer to the spine. Bending backward may not feel good at first, but you should feel better immediately afterward. If you feel worse afterward or the pain goes farther down your leg, stop, as this is not the exercise for you.
How to Do It: Lie face-down on the floor, arms bent at your sides (sort of like a starting push-up posture). Straighten your arms up slowly, lifting your upper body off the floor as you do so. Your legs and feet should stay on the ground. Hold for 3-5 seconds, then slowly lower your upper body back down. Repeat 10 times, as often as once per hour
Exercise #2: Flexion Exercises (bringing the leg toward the chest). People with lower back pain can also feel better with various types of leg flexion, bringing the bent leg toward the chest, or doing contract-relax and then bringing the bent leg toward the chest. These people usually have sacroiliac joint problems. (The SI joints are located on either side of the spine in the lower back.)
How to Do It: Lie on your back with one leg bent and then other flat on the floor. Bring the bent leg up toward the chest. Wrap your arms around the leg and then try to lower it toward the floor for 3-5 seconds, resisting with your arms. Relax, and then pull the bent leg up farther toward the chest. Repeat the entire process three times.
To reduce your risk of injury, consult with your doctor before doing these exercises for the first time, particularly if your pain is new and/or you would like further explanation of how to perform the exercises correctly.
Common Events That Can Cause Back Pain
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Scenario #1:
You didn't sleep well last night, perhaps from sleeping in an unfamiliar
bed after travel, after sitting too long. You get up, feel stiff, but
ignore it. You sit down in a soft chair to enjoy your morning hot drink.
You get up and get a sudden sharp stab in the back. |
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Scenario #2:
You get up from sleeping, and sit at your laptop, and get entranced by a
video or article. You end up sitting far longer than you planned. You get
up, and can't completely straighten up. |
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Scenario #3:
You get up from sleeping, drink your morning coffee, which wakes up your
gut, and you go to bathroom to empty your bowel. You are a bit
constipated, and have to strain. When you get up from the toilet, your
back spasms. |
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Overnight
sleeping, even a good sleep on your favorite bed, leaves your back
somewhat swollen. Swollen may be an exaggeration, but the reality is that
there is extra fluid in all of your joints. |
Two Ways to Minimize Injury/Pain Risk
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1. |
Don't bend over immediately after sitting. Sitting, even in good posture, puts you at risk. The
longer you sit and the worse the seat, the more at risk you are. Airlines
are very risky; it's hard to get up and move around because of the tight
quarters, and the minute the plane stops, you bend over and get stuff
from under the seat, or reach up, and twist and lift to get your bag from
the overhead compartment. After a long sit, give yourself at least a few
seconds of backward bending and/or moving around to reset your spine.
Then you can carefully, using your hips rather than your back, bend over
to pick up something. |
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2. |
When you sit, don't slump. Slumping reinforces the risks, makes it more likely
for something bad to happen to your discs or joints or muscles. So, sit
up straight, and keep your back in neutral. Neutral means that you keep a
bit of a lordosis in your lower back, keep the lumbar spine from slumping
forward, stay more upright. This simple action can make a huge
difference. Like any habit, this will require you to "Just Do It"
for a few weeks. |
Talk to your doctor about these and other high-risk moments for your lower back and what you can do to relieve low back pain or avoid the pain altogether.
If you've suffered
from low back pain over the past few days, or if you get back pain sometime
in the future, the tendency will be to wait it out and see if it gets
better. Sometimes we even decide to take time off and lie in bed, hoping we
will eventually be feeling better and back to our usual activities or work.
However, more and more research shows that lying in bed or waiting it out
is the worst thing you can do for yourself. Remember, only 10 percent of
people develop chronic low back pain, but those cases account for an
estimated $100 billion a year in health care and other costs. It's a safe
bet that most of them have taken this incorrect "wait and see"
approach.
Research suggests that when it comes to back pain, early intervention is best. There are many reasons for this concept, but here is a basic summary of what current guidelines are saying:
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Low back pain can sometimes be due to something more
serious than a simple sprain.
That's why it's important to see your chiropractor right away so they can
evaluate you for anything more serious. |
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Spinal manipulation is one of the only treatments that is consistently being recommended for those with
acute low back pain - and yet far too many people don't visit a
chiropractor and choose to pop over-the-counter pain medication instead. |
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Avoid bed rest as much as possible. Yes, I know that it feels good and frankly, when I
had an episode of low back pain once, I was tempted to lie in bed all
day, too. On a basic level, it's the most "rational" thing to
do. However, bed rest actually wastes away your muscles, and this effect
lasts even for the lucky ones who improve with their low back pain. For
those who are pain free, the bad news is that the muscles still waste
away. |
So, the next time you experience back pain and feel like you can't do anything, always remember that any movement or activity or treatment that keeps you moving is crucial for your recovery. Another factor is that you may be deconditioned and not fit enough. With back pain, you can become even more deconditioned. That's why starting to move and then progressing to an exercise program is crucial to ensure not only that you get better, but also that you don't get future bouts of low back pain. Talk to your chiropractor for more information.
Serving the 95758, 95757, and 95624 areas as an Elk Grove-Laguna Chiropractor for 12 years
Copyright Greco Chiropractic, Inc.
