Archive for July, 2010

I had a patient ask me the other day about an article that they read about how people that regularly exercise (walking, running, weight lifting, yoga) have a decreased risk of breast and colon cancer.  They were trying to figure out what the connection was between exercising their muscles and cancer cells multiplying. 

All of us have cancer cells that pop up in our bodies on a regular basis.  When our immune system is functioning well, our body detects these abnormal cells and disposes of them.  If our body doesn’t recognize that there is an abnormal cell, it will multiply and turn into cancer. 

These abnormal cells become damaged by being exposed to free radicals (radiation, bad chemicals in our diet or environment or from stress on our cells from poor lifestyle choices).  When you exercise, your cells become stronger and more resilient to these free radicals and therefore do not mutate as much.  Exercise increases our own natural anti-oxidants. 

People who exercise also tend to eat more vegetables and fruits, drink less alcohol and smoke less.  All of these factors also decrease our exposure to free radicals and reduces our cancer risk.  Another side benefit of exercise is that you tend to maintain a healthier weight when you are working out.  This helps decrease breast cancer risk specifically because your hormones will be in better balance with a healthy weight!

For most of my patients, I suggest participating in moderate cardiovascular exercise 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes per session (walking, jogging, runnning, biking, swimming, dance).  In addition, doing strength training 2 times a week for at least 30 minutes per session helps decrease your osteoporosis risk and also helps you manage your weight better.  Strength training could be yoga, pilates, free weights, circuit training or traditional weight lifting.

In the summer months, many of us start to feel fatigued, light headed and lethargic from our chronic dehyrdration.  With the heat, our body finally screams out “Give me water!”  Sometimes it’s easy to blame are parched state on the warm weather, our sweating and working outside.  At other times, I think it’s simply our bad water drinking habits that get us into trouble.

For instance, let’s say you normally drink 2 cups of coffee, a diet coke and 2 cups of water each day.  Since coffee and diet coke are both diuretics (make you urinate!), we really can’t count them as a hydration source.  That means your body is operating on 2 cups of water and whatever water content there is in your food.  This may just barely get you by in the winter, but as soon as you start to sweat, your body can’t handle it any more.

Most experts suggest drinking about 8 servings of 8 oz of water per day.  That 64 oz or approximately 2 quarts.  If you drink caffinated or alcoholic beverages, they do not count towards this total.  Also if you are exercising or working in the heat, you should drink even more water than this – about 4 oz every 15 minutes.

When you first start drinking more water, you will go to the bathroom more often.  That’s normal.  After a few days, your body will begin to adapt and you’ll be able to go back to your urination levels.  So don’t let tha keep you from giving your body the water it needs!

As the American population ages, we see more articles and advertisements touting “anti-aging” serums, breakthrough products to help us grow hair and injections to plump out wrinkles.  We all know that we don’t want to look “old,” but has anyone really thought about the process of aging and what it really is?

Age is not a number, its the amount of degeneration (wear and tear) on your body at a cellular level.  The more times a skin cell is exposed to UV light from the sun, the more damage it receives.  If that happens long enough, the skin cell might start forming a freckle, a mole, start wrinkling or even change into a cancerous cell.  A 40 year old who is a sun goddess will have more “aged” skin than a 40 year old computer nerd who never sees day light.

The same is true for your muscles and joints.  Arthritis, scar tissue and stiffness are by-products of wear and tear on these structures over time.  Children and teens have less of this degeneration than adults.  You can control the amount of degeneration in your muscles and joints by staying flexible, keeping your spine moving and your muscles in proper balance.  That’s why we see 35 year old patients who are in the same state of degeneration as a 70 year old patient.  The 35 year old is building up degeneration faster than their peers and the 70 year old did a great job maintaining their body.

So the next time you “feel old” and your joints need some oil, give us a call and we’ll make sure that you are doing everything that you can do to avoid the dreaded “aging.”

For the past year, I’ve been working towards my board-certification in sports medicine (CCSP).  Many of my patients have been asking me what the difference is between a sports chiropractor and a general practice chiropractor.  In fact, most people don’t even realize that chiropractors can specialize just like medical or osteopathic doctors! 

Obtaining the CCSP designation requires the doctor to attend a 120 hour post-graduate program.  These classes are specific to physical fitness, emergency medicine and the evaluation/treatment of injuries encountered in sports such as sprains/strains, rotator cuff injuries, knee problems and foot/ankle injuries.  Following the completion of these hours, the doctor must take and successfully pass a comprehensive written examination.  This training will aid the doctor in the prevention and treatment of athletic injuries and provide a uniform standard of education that assures teams and athletes that the doctor has met a minimum level of competency in chiropractic sports medicine.

As my patients know, I have always taken a “functional approach” to helping patients achieve their goals by pinpointing areas that are tight, tender, weak and deconditioned and customizing a treatment plan to get the back to 100%.  Having this additional education helps me diagnose and treat a variety of patients from someone in their 80′s with foot tendonitis to a high school athlete with shoulder pain after pitching in baseball. 

As I expand this part of my practice, I look forward to being the non-surgical sports specialist in NE DuPage County assisting weekend warriors as well as local school districts and travel teams.  If you know a coach, athletic trainer or athletic director who might be interested in complementary injury prevention programs for their team, please have them call me at 224-653-8094 or email drerin@ducatchiropractic.com

For more information on our sports medicine services, please check out “The Sports Clinic” page.