For many people, the thought of getting a massage often times sounds like a luxury, but recent studies continue to show a massage is one of the best ways to help anyone overcome back pain.
Massage along with chiropractic care is essential for a healthy back. A recent study showed that massage not only helped people feel better, but also seemed to help cells recover by boosting amounts of another protein called PGC-1alpha, which spurs production of new mitochondria — tiny organelles inside cells that are crucial for muscle energy generation and adaptation to endurance exercise.
Another study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Dr. Daniel C. Cherkin and his colleagues at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, compared massage plus usual care to usual care alone in their study of participants, ages 20 to 65 years old (n=401). Study findings; "suggest that both relaxation massage and structural massage are reasonable treatment options for persons with chronic low back pain." Participants in the study received 10 weekly treatments at no cost, which consisted of either relaxation massage or structural massage, randomly assigned. Twenty-seven licensed massage practitioners, all of whom had a minimum of five years experience, received 1.5 days of protocol training and provided massage treatments. The LMPs knew which type of massage they were performing, which they did not disclose with participants. Additionally, participants were provided kinesthetic exercises to do in the home setting to help relieve their back pain between treatments.
Study findings suggest, "massage therapy improved function and decreased pain more than usual care in patients with uncomplicated chronic lower back pain [LBP] after 10 weeks." The participants who received massage in addition to usual care reported significantly lower Roland Disability Quotient scores (p=<0.001) and symptom bothersomeness scores (p=<0.001). The beneficial effects of massage lasted at twenty-six weeks (p=0.007) and fifty-two weeks (p=0.049) when measured by the Roland Disability Quotient. Symptom bothersomeness was only significantly reduced at the end of the ten-week trial. The authors note that "massage recipients were more likely than participants in the usual care group to experience clinically meaningful reductions" in functional limitations and low back pain symptoms.
If back pain is an issue for you, check with your chiropractor about massage therapy. Many chiropractors offer massage therapy in their practice.
There is a saying in the world of chiropractic, "Your spine is the window to your health." How can the condition of your spine divulge so much information about your overall health? Your spine is the central support column of your body and its primary role is to protect your spinal cord. Think of it like the foundational frame of a house holding everything together. If the frame becomes dysfunctional, many problems will begin to manifest themselves.
The good news is you can perform a simple spinal health checklist to determine if you may benefit from the expert intervention of a chiropractor or other health care professional. Becoming familiar with simple spinal anatomy, structure and function will help empower you to take control of your health.
Through life's stresses, genetics, trauma, injuries, and neglect the spine can develop dysfunctions in these curvatures and the body must compensate by changing posture as a protective mechanism. What are some of the compensations your body develops and what can they tell you about your spinal health? Here are a few of the most common ones:
Rounded Shoulders: This is a very common postural distortion resulting from sedentary lifestyles. This poor posture pattern adds increased stress to the upper back and neck. Common effects are headaches, shoulder, pain, neck pain, and even tingling and numbness in the arms.
Uneven shoulders: One shoulder higher than the other is indicative of a muscular imbalance or spinal curvature. Stand in front of a mirror and you can easily see if this asymmetry is present. This asymmetry is a common precursor for shoulder injuries, headaches, neck pain and elbow injuries.
Uneven hips: Hips that are not level are like the foundation of a house that is not level. You begin to develop compensations further up the body so you remain balanced when walking. You develop altered spinal curvatures, shoulder positions, and head tilts. Signs of unbalanced hips may manifest in abnormal shoe wear, typically on the outside edges; and pants will fit unevenly in the leg length.
When you visit a chiropractor for a spinal evaluation, some of the things they will look for during your evaluation are underlying signs of spinal damage that you can't see. If problems are detected, corrective or preventive measures can be implemented to help your body function at optimum. The bottom line: See your chiropractor today to avoid health problems in the future.
Earlier this year, the journal of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging published a study showing that in just eight weeks of mindfulness meditation practice, structural changes in gray matter were observed.
The study had participants meditating for as little as 27 minutes each day. This is the first study documenting that meditating actually changes the brain.
Previously, comparisons of meditators to non-meditators had shown that the brains of those who meditated were different in areas of attention and focus, compassion and emotional intelligence, but this was only correlative. In addition, previous functional MRI studies have showed metabolic changes occurring during meditation, but these studies were not designed to document that these changes lasted beyond the meditation session. Now we have evidence of what many people already know intuitively, that meditation produces significant effects on our brains/minds/consciousness that last far beyond the time on the cushion, and affect our daily lives in profound ways.
Most of our waking hours are spent in unconsciousness. We drive unconsciously, we walk unconsciously, we eat, brush our teeth, even have conversations unconsciously. Our time is spent thinking about the future and the past. We are not aware of what is happening in the present moment. Many of us strive to become more aware of the present moment, to become more conscious, more engaged and more present. Most who have this aspiration will engage in some form of meditative practice.
Instead of moving through life mostly on autopilot or as a prisoner of past conditioning, meditation can be used as a way to create "a more passionate, full and delightful life," as Chodron put it. The creativity comes when the mind disengages with discursive thinking and is allowed to become spacious.
Evolution has created a strategy to respond to life-threatening situations. When we perceive a threat, our survival wiring takes over. The amygdala is in charge of emergencies and gets priority in such a situation. The problem is that in modern times many things trigger this response that are not really life-threatening, think PTSD or anxiety. When the amygdala has hijacked our consciousness we can only focus on the perceived threat to the exclusion of all else. In addition, the amygdala is only good at seeing the basic outline of the problem and can't sort out details. We respond from conditioned training to these situations and do not bring much thought to the process. This is good if a lion is in the room, but not so good if our boss just criticized our project.
According to Dan Goleman, author of "The Brain and Emotional Intelligence," the top five triggers of an amygdala hijack in our modern world are:
1.Condescension and lack of respect.Meditation trains the brain to keep the pathways open between the emotional centers and the thinking centers, specifically the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Basically, meditation trains us to use more of our brain for any given situation. Meditation practices offer natural, drug-free, self-administered ways to manage stress and to skillfully manage ourselves and our behavior towards others. Being able to modulate our initial feelings and thoughts and create a measured response is what makes us responsible citizens.
We strive for this because we have been told by most of the ancient traditions that this is where the truth lies. Where health derives from. Where happiness lies. We know this intuitively. More and more we have the help of modern science to substantiate this intuitive knowledge. Until recently, only those who had some degree of faith and spiritual inclinations would avail themselves of these techniques of mind cultivation. Now, those who only trust science can get into the act, and for their own good too!
Heart disease is bad news, pure and simple: In the United States, the condition causes more than one in four deaths, making it the leading cause of death for both men and women. Coronary heart disease, the most common form of heart disease, occurs when plaque accumulates inside the coronary arteries.
Since the coronary arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart, it's a major problem whenever they become constricted by plaque.
While there are several causes of coronary heart disease, most notably excess consumption of cholesterol-containing foods (which lead to plaque build-up), a recent study suggests another risk factor: working for too many hours. People generally understand that being overworked can be stressful, but now a study shows that the number of hours you work can be a direct indicator of disease risk.
According to the study, which involved 7,095 adults (2,109 women and 4,986 men) ages 39 to 62 years, working full-time and without diagnosed heart disease the start of the study, the risk of developing coronary heart disease increased by 167% for people who worked more than 11 hours a day on average compared to those who worked only 7-8 hours daily. The study appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
As mentioned, there are several causes of CHD. Your doctor of chiropractic can give you more information about coronary heart disease and offer suggestions for reducing your risk of developing CHD by reducing stress, exercising consistently and improving your diet.
Are colonics the way to go when it comes to detoxing the body of toxins? The answer is plain and simple - no. The natural function of our intestinal tract is to cleanse itself. There is no physiological need to further clean above and beyond what it naturally does as its inherent function.
Some people may want the colonic because they are constipated, but it would be better to place someone who has constipation on a regular bowel regimen, rather than an occasional colonic. Other people may want the colonic because they lose some weight with it, but that will come back once they resume eating and regular bowel functioning.
The process of the colonics is concerning because it disrupts natural intestinal micro-flora and has the potential to cause either microscopic or clinically significant intestinal tears. So, based on this idea of unnecessary trauma and risk to our bowel, the usual recommendation for those seeking "cleanses" is to use food as a natural non-harmful cleanse. Here's how...
Fiber acts as a natural cleansing tool for the body. By eating a stringent vegan/vegetarian diet for a few days, you can utilize the natural minerals, vitamins, fiber, phytonutrients, and water in the plant-based diet to "cleanse" your system without having to worry about potential mechanical trauma to your intestinal tract or physiological risk.
My usual recommendation for patients who are looking for a stringent cleanse to help calm and clean their system every few weeks or months is for the patients to eat vegan/vegetarian for 3 days before a vegetable-based juice fast for 2-3 days and again for 3 days after the juice fast.
This regimen can cause some fatigue when you first do the dietary cleanse and thus the juicing days should be on days where you do not need to be very active and can rest; weekends are likely the best time to be doing the juicing days. To make the juice, you would use a wide variety of vegetables and put them through a juicer machine and drink it fresh at each meal time.
I would recommend about 5 8-ounce glasses per day of the vegetable juice for those 2-3 days that you are consuming just the juice. Do not add sugars or processed foods or additives in the juice.
This juice cleanse should only be implemented once you have obtained approval and clearance by your physician first. It can be dangerous for those on certain medications (i.e., warfarin/Coumadin) and those with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, kidney problems, hormonal issues, liver diseases, and electrolyte/mineral disorders, just to name a few. This is because the types of food, fluid shifts/amounts, and minerals/vitamins, just to name a few factors, are altered from your natural diet and can cause issues in an otherwise stable medical condition.
So, for those of you interested in doing a "cleanse," consider food as your friend and not your enemy. It's just a matter of choosing the right foods. And this method of 'cleansing' is much less risky and significantly less medically concerning than colonics.
So, the five natural detox methods we can safely use at any time are:
1.High fiber diet
2.Avoidance of processed foods or sugars
3.Staying hydrated with water and antioxidant teas
4.Eating the colors of the rainbow in plant-based foods on a daily basis at every meal
5.Get plenty of sleep and relaxation
These general rules help to maximize your body's natural tendency towards "detoxing" and "rebalancing." By eating a wide variety of plant-based vegetables at every meal, you are naturally absorbing all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to maximize your body's physiological functioning. When you rest and allow your body to relax, your body naturally turns toward cellular recovery and repair. So, instead of making drastic changes that may be too harsh on your body, why not just provide your body what it needs to naturally detox and repair.
Your money would be better off spent on purchasing healthy nutritious foods that act as a natural cleansing tool for our system; as Mother Nature had originally intended them to be, when she created the vast array of colorful fruits and vegetables grown in nature and made easily available to us at our neighborhood grocery stores.
Serving the 95758, 95757, and 95624 areas as an Elk Grove-Laguna Chiropractor for 12 years
Copyright Greco Chiropractic, Inc.
