Not surprisingly, with new technologies there comes unfortunate side effects.
The new iPads are cool looking and seem to fit somewhere between the smart phone and the laptop in terms of size and potential. With people using their iPads for hours on end, there is the concern that there may be a toll placed on the user’s neck, shoulders and back. This concern is being investigated in a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health.
So far the study finds (and this is not a surprise at all) that iPad users need to not stay in any fixed position while using their iPads and need to keep moving the body and tablet while using for long periods of time. Also not surprising is the conclusion that the best position for the iPad is straight in front of the user as if in a movie theater. This position keeps the neck and body in the most neutral position and keeps stress off of the vertebrae and muscles.
Of course as a chiropractor, I would add that those people who are experiencing head, neck and shoulder problems should also get their necks, shoulders and spines evaluated for misalignment in addition to proper ergonomic use of their media. In addition, keep in mind that repetitive stress injuries to the hands and wrist are more common in today’s tablet and smart phone-addicted society. That, however, is the subject of a future post.
Since February is the month of Valentines Day, I want to talk about the heart for a bit. But first…
I have a secret to share.
It really shouldn’t be a secret but for some reason chiropractors feel the need to limit themselves to neck and back pain because the common person tends to view chiropractors as “back doctors”.
The truth is, the Chiropractic profession is all about nerves. And every part of one’s body has some nerve network supplying it with nervous energy, otherwise it wouldn’t work at all. So to understand Chiropractic mean one has to understand how nerves work.
Understanding nerves starts with recognizing that the largest nerve network in your body, the brain, is the control center of the body. It is in the brain of a healthy person that the complicated processes that healthy people take for granted begin perfectly and are regulated without fail or error. The brain sends and receives the multitude of messages via nerve impulses to and from the various tissues and organs in your body through the spinal cord and nerves that are housed within and about the spine. From there, extensions of these nerves carry the nervous impulses to their target location. How well this information that the brain transmits or receives is dependent on not only health of the brain and target cell, but also on how well the pathway is from nerve cell to tissue cell.
Hope I haven’t lost anyone!
Assuming that a healthy person does not poison their body, get shot or stabbed, or suffer some other external trauma, then the main route to illness and loss of health is if the pathway of vital information that the brain transmits or receives is disturbed or interrupted.
Chiropractors believe that the disturbance in this pathway of nervous transmission is caused by a seemingly simple cause: the spinal bones (vertebrae) lose their normal alignment and in the process impact the normal functioning of nerve cells that are near to them. Vertebrae lose alignment in many different ways, from accidents to lifting incorrectly to poor posture and so on…
The treatment that chiropractors use to restore proper functioning of the vertebrae (and thus restoring proper nerve transmission) is called the adjustment. The adjustment comes in a multitude of approaches which is determined after a proper examination is made and a diagnosis is established.
So what does this long prelude have to do with the title of this post “Chiropractic and the Heart”? Well everything! The heart is an organ, regulated by nervous impulses from the brain. So are the blood vessels that bring blood into and out of the heart. The nerves that regulate the heart and blood vessels travel from the brain down and about the spinal cord and extend out of the spinal region to the heart and blood vessels. Could vertebrae that are out of normal alignment interfere with the normal transmission of nervous energy to the heart and blood vessels? Definitely! Could this interference cause the heart and blood vessels to not function correctly? Absolutely! Could this improper functioning lead to symptoms like altered blood pressure and ultimately lead to a heart attack? Yes! Could this improper functioning contribute to a chronic state of inflammation that may result in clogging of the arteries? I think it is possible!
More importantly, could giving an adjustment to the areas of vertebral dysfunction help the heart and blood vessels improve their function and prevent heart attacks and lower blood pressure? The answer is YES! And for those who need to see to believe, there have been recent studies that support this statement:
It's time to reverse the pattern of obesity in America. (Read article linked below.)
Everyday chiropractors see patients whose problems are tremendously compounded by obesity. The wear and tear of being overweight causes a long list of short and long term health problems — from simple aches and pains to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease — even cancer and death!
For most, the solution is simple and inexpensive and reminds me of a MadTV skit titled, “Eat Less, Move More”, which I’ll share later.
Of course there are holistic factors that must be addressed: structural balance, a health screen before starting an exercise routine, and nutritional analysis.
I recently read an article by a fellow chiropractor who was chosen to appear on a new A&E reality show as the doctor of an obese gentleman. The series explores individuals “facing extreme life-threatening health consequences as a result of their obesity”. In the article, the chiropractor does a great job describing how chiropractic can help the gentleman overcome obesity. For motivation and inspiration, read the story HERE.
Many people make resolutions this time of year — they reflect on the past and make plans for the future. Many of us decide to break old, unhealthy habits. Others resolve to take better care of themselves, improve their diets, lose some weight, or begin a regular exercise program.
Before you begin an exercise program, make sure your routine won’t put wear and tear on malfunctioning spinal joints! Even without obvious symptoms, improper spinal function can diminish the benefits of a toning and strengthening exercise routine.
Start the New Year with a chiropractic checkup.
Join us in making holistic health improvements that will bring great JOY and HOPE for the new year!
This is the first article based on my years of experience as well as the state of our country today. The first of my topics is very general. As a result of its generality, there are exceptions to the statements I make and I am glad that there are. These are my opinions too. I gladly am open to other opinions and comments.
There is no question that America has a problem with their health care system. The news and politicians talk about it all the time. As we are about to enter into a nationwide socialized health care system, we need to understand how and why we got in this situation. It is wise to talk about the past, even though it is impossible to change. Our past actions have led to our situation today, and if we want to create a better future we need to be active in trying to avoid repeating our past failures and personally create a better future for our children.
One thing we all need to face: as a whole, when it comes to our healthcare we have been horribly irresponsible, partly due to our own faults and partly due to the actions (or lack of action) of the people that we trusted to provide health services.
I believe that a great deal of the health care crisis stems from the advent of pharmaceuticals. The advent of new and more powerful drugs that could be created in laboratories seemed to be a Godsend, and for many people it was life changing indeed. However, with the creation of better drugs there started a shift in the ways the doctor and the patient interacted. Gone were the days of the old fashioned home visiting doctor that told you to rest, eat warm broths and take a few days off. Patients now had to make in-office appointments where they had to wait long periods of time in waiting rooms filled with sick people only to quickly be seen and handed a large bill and a prescription.
With the home-spun country doctor with his sage advise and physical approaches out the door and the modern in office drug prescribing doctor in, we the patients began to change our views on medicine. The drugs were what the patient sought and the doctors were the vehicle by which the drugs were acquired. Doctors became well respected because they were the only ones that could get you the drugs. In addition they sounded smart and went through a lot of schooling. But the drugs were really the critical factor. If a drug could get a person to go back to work quicker that was a good thing. If a drug could take away someone’s pain and make them feel better, then that is also a good thing. Why work on one’s health when there is a drug that can do it for you? Slowly, people started getting into the mentality of “have a symptom, take a drug for that symptom”. Drug therapy started having a dark side. A side that had nothing to do with disease, but everything with feeling good.
Enter the “me generation”. Parents went to their doctors for stimulants and depressants while their kids decided to do it their own way. It is no wonder that the younger people decided to “skip the middle man” and get their drugs through non-medical avenues. The older people and their doctors were outraged and demanded the government do something. Richard Nixon’s war on drugs that started 40 years ago did nothing but cost our country trillions of dollars and countless lives, either dead or in prison. We still have drugs on the streets and it is even more refined and lucrative than ever.
The effect on the patient was for the avenue of health to began from the “outside-in”, meaning there was always a pill you could take for whatever ails you. In my lifetime much of my medical doctors visits has ended with a script for some prescription drug, a handful of drug samples that some representative from a pharmaceutical agency gave to my doctor, or a shot of some medication to address the symptoms that I presented with at the time of the visit. All of these treatments started from the outside of my body, entered my body and did some action that would counteract my symptoms. If I had a cold, I would take a cough suppressant; if I had a fever, I would take an antipyretic, if I had inflammation, I would be given an anti-inflammatory drug, and so on… Over time, we the patients have gotten conditioned to expect our doctors to give us some sort of medicine at the end of the visit. Even for viral infections, doctors gave out antibiotics with the excuse that there was probably a secondary bacterial infection that needs to be treated even though there was no indication on the examination. If a doctor were to simply give advise on how to live healthier and what foods to avoid and not give out some type of drug then we as patients would feel gypped and might look for a different doctor.
Now modern medicine has formed a creative union with fancy advertising campaigns. Consider all the drug commercials on television today imploring the viewer to “ask your doctor if ________ is right for you”. You are told what you need. You don’t really need a doctor except for one problem: they can only give out the prescriptions! So you go to your doctor and tell them what you need. Even if your doctor feels you don’t need the medication they may feel pressured to give out the prescription for fear that they will lose you (and your money). From many doctor’s perspectives this mentality makes their job easier. After all, it is simpler to just categorize patients as 1) colds and flu, 2) muscle/joint pains, 3) cardiovascular, 4) arthritic, 5) major named-disease (and so on…) and give them the generic drug du jour that very well might become the focus of some class action law suit in the future. This method of treating patients is faster for the doctor and patient, requires little to no thinking, and is the most profitable.
So as I end this section I hope that one can see the challenge that we face in this world of modern chemistry-assisted living. Our health begins with us, not our doctors, not our insurance plans, not the fads we see on television. We have to determine how we should stay healthy and not necessarily fall into a preventable void of drug-based health care. It is a tightrope. It is not easy to walk and most advice I see being given is usually based on “the easy way out”, meaning requiring little to no work by the patient and most of the job by the drugs. Now do not misunderstand me. There are definitely times that drugs are necessarily and are the best option to take. However, this is not the rule. Most chronic problems can be prevented with taking better life choices and avoiding triggers that create problems. Since it is your body, you (and only you) make your decisions, in spite of what your doctor, family, friends, television, etc… might tell you to do. You need to follow your heart and mind together, a tricky combination that is often hard to discern correctly. You need to find people whom you trust and listen to their opinions. You need to educate yourself and take everything you learn in perspective and question all your sources. And never, ever, make a decision based solely on whether it is covered by your insurance plan. Like I said, it is difficult. It takes time and energy. But it is worth it in the end.
My next article will talk about the health insurance industry and their role in the health care crisis we are in.
So much attention is being made over the TSA check points and the methods they are employing to ensure passengers are safe and no terrorists are on board the flights. One of the methods being used involves scanning, where the prospective fliers are radiated with doses of x-radiation. Is this a safe procedure? One should read this report written by qualified scientists regarding the possibility of health issues arising from does of this type of radiation into the human body.
Don't let the term "state-of-the-art" fool you...
In the report, the following concerns are addressed regarding to x-ray exposure:
• A) The large population of older travelers, >65 years of age, is particularly at
risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of
melanocyte aging.
• B) A fraction of the female population is especially sensitive to mutagenesisprovoking
radiation leading to breast cancer. Notably, because these women,
who have defects in DNA repair mechanisms, are particularly prone to cancer,
X-ray mammograms are not performed on them. The dose to breast tissue
beneath the skin represents a similar risk.
• C) Blood (white blood cells) perfusing the skin is also at risk.
• D) The population of immunocompromised individuals–HIV and cancer
patients (see above) is likely to be at risk for cancer induction by the high skin
dose.
• E) The risk of radiation emission to children and adolescents does not appear to
have been fully evaluated.
• F) The policy towards pregnant women needs to be defined once the theoretical
risks to the fetus are determined.
• G) Because of the proximity of the testicles to skin, this tissue is at risk for
sperm mutagenesis.
• H) Have the effects of the radiation on the cornea and thymus been determined?
The bottom line is there really is no true understanding of what a safe dose of x-radiation is to the human body. You will walk away from the scan alive there is no question. But what are the long range possibilities? As Americans, we tend to not think that far ahead in our life until they meet us face to face. By that time it is too late.
It’s your choice to travel by air. It’s also your choice to allow yourself to be subjected to potentially harmful procedures. Personally, I will be waiting a while to fly around until all this TSA nonsense gets worked out.
Remember last year’s swine flu scare? I sure do. I visited many hospitals in this time period, especially from November to March, due to my mother’s failing health. The anti-bacterial hand soap dispensers were everywhere. The doctors and nurses wore protective gloves, masks and clothing at times. The patient floors were restricted to allowing only persons over 16 years of age, making it difficult for my younger children to visit their grandmother. In keeping with these rules there was a lot of “control games” played in those hospitals and we had to play along with these games or my kids couldn’t catch a last chance to be with their grandma. No problem, don’t want to be a bother. Then one day in March, all the signs disappeared and the restrictions for children were lifted. I guess the H1N1 left the building.
My mother died on March 16, 2010. That is a long story to tell, maybe in a different post.
After the passing of my mother it dawned upon us that none of my kids, myself, my wife or my extended family got H1N1, or for that matter MRSA, or C-diff, or pseudomonas aeruginosa (common hospital acquired infections). They didn’t even get a cold or the flu. Were we lucky? To many of the medical staff, it was as though we all walked through a raging battlefield unharmed, a medical miracle. To us, however, we were not too surprised, as we were getting adjustments regularly, exercising often and trying to eat healthy. We had to. If we did not, then getting sick would have been expected and the natural response. Healthy bodies are not a good place for infections to start. Worn down, stressed out bodies are breeding grounds for disease.
Now that the H1N1 scare is ended (last week it was officially declared over), was it as bad as the news and the doctor and nurses had warned? The CDC claims that as many as 17,000 people in the US died. This number is a guess as the range was stated as between 8,330 and 17,160 persons. That seems like a lot of people, but let’s look at other death statistics:
Ten years ago the number one cause of death in the US was tobacco use (435,000 deaths) followed by poor diet/inactivity (365,000), alcohol, (85,000), microbial agents (75,000), toxic agents (55,000), motor vehicle crashes (26,347), adverse reactions to prescription drugs (32,000), suicide (30,622), Firearm incidents (29,000), homicide (20,308), STD’s (20,000), illicit drug use (17,000), and NSAIDS (like aspirin) (7,600). SOURCE
Granted this list is 10 years old and quite frankly I am doubtful of the accuracy of the numbers as reporting of these deaths are often subjective (I believe more people die due to medical complications than are reported as doctors often use the “big words” they learned in med school to avert their malpractice when listing cause of death). However they are a good indicator of the relative magnitude of different types of causes of death.
Now we have to ask ourselves if the 17,000 (or so) deaths due to H1N1 were really worth all the time, energy, news attention, money, and panic that came about when the H1N1 was first reported. I had many patients who were literally scared they were going to die and were frustrated at the lack of access to the vaccine at first.
To me, I think the only people who gained in the end were the pharmaceutical companies who made the vaccine, the doctors who got more business due to scare tactics, the drug stores who administered the flu shots and the researchers who got big government grants to push their drug agenda. The tax payers got the short end of the stick.
What about all the poor people who died from H1N1. That is indeed a shame, but when one looks at the general statistics, we should be more saddened with how tobacco, obesity, poisons, prescription drug misuse, illegal drugs, car accidents, other microbial agents than H1N1, suicide, and gun-related incidents kill even more people than the H1N1.
All I am saying is when we spend too much energy on the small stuff, we lose perspective of the reality of things. And when I feel I am being pushed into a way of thinking that is disproportionate to the magnitude of its reality then I feel I am being manipulated. Follow the money and the wise person finds out what is really behind the push: money, power and control.
Now fast-forward to today. As Gomer Pyle stated succinctly, “Surprise, surprise!”. A new, even more deadly than the H1N1 virus (that isn’t a big statement) germ is coming to your town intending to kill every man woman and child. It is called the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1. This super-duper germ is so bad that it makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics (even the strongest ones). To the detriment of drug companies, there is no current drug that will keep it at bay. One of the biggest ways this bad-bug will spread is by medical tourism. That is a fancy term for how Americans (for example) will go overseas to another country (in this case India seems to be the country of problem) to get cheaper or more frowned upon medical procedures. The surgeries of choice are mostly cosmetic in nature. So, in general we are talking about cheap thrifty, vain self conscious, and ugly physically repulsive people who may be contributing to a potential pandemic. While they get their plastic surgery they acquire the bug and bring it home to share with friends and others, including you and myself.
So what will happen? Well, the NDM-1 might fizzle out naturally (I would love to see this happen). Possibly, the media will turn it into another big time scare that will rival the H1N1 scare. This would be helped along if there was some sort of treatment (that would make some people rich – VERY NICE!!! /sarc). So there needs to be developed a drug or vaccine that will kill the NDM-1. That will require research which means big grants by our government and more tax money to be spent. And then there will be the vaccine demands and the supplies will be limited at first, creating more scared people. Then people will rush into the ER’s when they think they have a symptom of NDM-1 causing overcrowding and spreading of other bugs. Then the hospitals can ban children from the patient floors (who wants pesky kids roaming the halls anyway?). Then there will be the fear mongers who will convince other people that they are negligent to society if they don’t vaccinate every man, woman and child in their family. And so on, and so on……
Sounds a bit familiar? Welcome my friend, welcome to the machine.
What can you do to help yourself now and avoid becoming next year’s potential casualty?
Naturally speaking, the first thing to do is keep your body in optimal condition. That means getting adjusted regularly, regardless of if you are in pain. This keeps the nerve system working optimally, and the nerve system controls everything. Secondly, eat a good balanced and predominantly alkaline diet, avoiding excess alcohol, sodas, fried foods, and cooked foods (raw is best). Eat in more often. Thirdly, limit tobacco and unnecessary medications or drugs. Fourth of all, exercise daily. Even a 20 minute walk is good to get your circulation going and burn off excess calories. Fifth, stay of sound mind. Do not fall for “chicken little” scares. Pray for wisdom to know the difference between an overblown panic and a real-deal concern. Stay away from people who try to get you to fall for their scare tactics, they will only bring you down to their level. Finally, supplement as necessary and be sure to include enzymes in your list to help digest food and keep down any level of inflammation in your body.
By all means, avoid medical tourism and encourage others to postpone their surgeries in other countries, especially India. And don’t fall for sucker scams like one: click here.
The natural approach is the superior approach. It is also the “road less traveled”, meaning you have to be a strong individual who investigates and researches their opinions and does not spew out the garbage that the media or a friend or even their doctor throws at them without any back up proof other than “trust me”.
Take a moment and ask yourself what 9/11 means to you. Maybe it means hugging a loved one or a friend, maybe it means saying thanks a police officer and a firefighter, maybe it means making a new connection or contacting an old friend, or maybe it means remembering those who were lost on this day 8 years ago. Whatever today means to you, remember that personal connections are too often neglected and sometimes taken lightly, especially with so many distractions in today’s world.
