Archive for March, 2011
The problem with stress balls…
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
How many of you squeeze stress balls to strengthen your hands? Stop! It’s a big mistake. Using stress balls on a frequent basis has been linked to tingling in the hands, weakness in your grip and a variety of tendonitis complaints including tennis and golfer’s elbow.
From a doctor’s view, stress balls should have a warning label on them (as should cell phones, computers and video games) telling the unsuspecting public that they are hazardous to their health. Since the FDA is unlikely to mandate these labels in the near future, let me explain the dangers and let you decide for yourself!
When you squeeze a stress ball, you strengthen the flexor muscles of the forearm that run along the inside part of your elbow to your palm. These flexor muscles already tend to be over-strong and tight in the majority of the population because we use our hands all day to write, type, text or handle materials at work. The stronger the flexor muscles become, the weaker the extensor muscles on the opposite side of your forearm become.
If your flexor muscles are over-strong, they can compress the median nerve that runs inside of your carpal tunnel, causing tingling in your hands. In addition when you have the imbalance of tight/weak muscles in the forearm, it leads you open to tendonitis such as tennis and golfer’s elbow — which are not fun!
So instead of strengthening the over-strong flexor muscles, start strengthening the extensor muscles of your forearm by putting a tight elastic band around all of your finger tips and stretching open all of your fingers at once. We even have special elastic bands available at our office, free of charge, and can show you how to do this exercise safely and effectively.
The next time you see a co-worker using a stress ball, tell them the risks and get them a band to use instead!
Using your brain helps you stay pain-free
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
What’s the difference between doing exercises in our office and strengthening your core/back at home? The rehab exercises don’t seem that hard. At other therapy places, they get you started and just walk away. Can’t you just watch the videos at home and do it by yourself?
If you want results from rehab exercises, the answer is that you need someone to assist you, hands-on, to get your brain to re-wire and strengthen muscles weakened by injury. New research out of Australia studied low back pain patients who had weakened back and abdominal muscles contributing to their pain. They connected the patients to EMG machines to measure muscle contractions in the weakened areas as well as monitored brain activity to see if the patient was actively focusing on their exercises when performing them.
The patients who had hands-on direction from trained assistants who helped them cognitively think about the motions and muscle activation behind the exercise showed greater strength gains in the weakened muscles than the patient who were given simple instructions and allowed to do the exercises on their own.
So the take home message is two-fold from this research study: (1) In order to help our patients get better and become stronger, we have to engage your body and your brain to get you to focus on your movements in the rehab department and just not go through the motions; and (2) Patients shouldn’t be frustrated when they are not getting results from just strengthening at home after an injury — they simply need direct instruction to help them re-wire their brains.
Is it really a sinus headache?
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011Many patients confuse tension or TMJ (jaw tightness) headaches with sinus headaches because they feel pain across the forehead, behind the eyes or even across the cheeks. This can lead to a lot of frustration because they will be taking allergy medications, buying air filters or even giving away their pets without any improvements in their pain levels. That’s because the headache is coming from your muscles, joints and nerves — not from sinus pressure!
A common tip-off that your headache is being caused by tension or tight jaw muscles and not your sinuses is a lack of mucous production. If you are not noticing the urge to blow your nose, post-nasal drip, itchy eyes or itchy ears, it is not likely that you are having a sinus headache. Even though many sinus headaches are caused by inflammation and not from the mucous itself, you will still notice some of these other symptoms if you are having a sinus headache.
Another trademark sign that your headache is coming from muscle tension and not your sinuses is the presence of tight muscles and restricted range of motion in your neck, shoulder blades and/or jaw. Remember you are supposed to be able to turn your neck 85 degrees when you look over your shoulder (almost a 90 degree turn!). If you can’t do this, you likely have a tension headache. If you grind your teeth or have “clicking” when opening your jaw, that’s another sign that you have TMJ/jaw problems and that is a likely cause of headache pain.
If you are still unsure about the cause of your headaches or are sufferring from chronic pain, please don’t hesitate to ask us for help! We would be glad to help you sort out your symptoms and find a treatment that works.
3 Steps to Prevent Fitness & Sports Injuries
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011This article was originally written to be published in “The Park Bench News” for the Bloomingdale Park District this Summer. As every one is becoming more active with warmer weather around the corner, I thought that all of you might find these tips helpful.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Most doctors and patients agree that it is much easier to prevent an injury than to fix it after the damage is done. But when it comes to fitness and sports-related injuries, patients are often confused by the newest training fads and don’t know where to start when it comes to prevention.
As the sports medicine provider for the Bloomingdale Park District, I have been able to identify three easy steps that anyone can take to prevent spinal, shoulder, arm and leg injuries while being active — no matter what your age or where your fitness level is.
1. Make Stretching A Daily Habit
We need flexibility just as much as our cats or dogs do. The problem is that we rarely stretch on a daily basis, unlike Fluffy or Fido. Starting a daily stretching program is vital for injury prevention. Learn how to stretch by watching the videos posted on www.ducatchiropractic.com under “Injury Prevention”.
2. There’s A Reason It’s Called Proper Form
No matter what exercise or sport you’re participating in, it’s important to make sure that you understand how to properly perform the movements involved. Small changes in angle or speed can create dangerous pressures on your muscles and joints. Talk to a personal trainer or ask your coach to help you perfect your form and you’ll prevent injuries while improving your performance.
3. Never Work Through Bad Pain
The motto “No pain, no gain” is only true if the pain you’re experiencing is good muscle soreness that comes from working out. If you notice that your pain is sharp or lasts for more than 24 hrs, you need to rest, stretch and ice the area, not work through the discomfort. Visit a sports physician if the pain persists for more than two weeks or is accompanied with trauma, swelling, numbness or tingling.
Although you can never entirely prevent discomfort while working out or playing sports, following these simple guidelines have been shown to decrease the chance of injuries. Just make these steps a part of your healthy lifestyle and enjoy your activities with fewer interruptions!
Which is more important? Flexibility or Strength?
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011In the field of sports medicine, there are generally two camps of thought: doctors who think a lack of flexibility is the cause of most injuries and doctors who think a lack of strength is the cause of most injuries. Those two groups of doctors influence athletic trainers, personal trainers, coaches and parents to either teach their athletes to be constantly stretching or constantly strengthening. Since these two camps have been entrenched in sports medicine several years, we are now able to see if an emphasis on stretching or strengthening helps prevent athletic injuries. Interestingly enough, athletes in both groups have just about the same number of injuries.
So does that mean that stretching and strengthening are both a waste of time? Although it’s easy to make that argument, new research is now showing that both flexibility and functional strength play a large role not only in injury prevention, but in athlete performance as well. The problem is that many of the measurements that we commonly use on athletes to guage their flexibility and strength are looking at the wrong parameters.
Take for instance the sit-and-reach test. This tool has been used to measure athlete flexibility in sports ranging from baseball to track to basketball. The test itself is flawed. Although we think that we are measuring pure hamstring flexibility (hip flexion), we are really measuring hamstring flexibility coupled with low back flexion. Just look at this picture. See how the low back is rounded? That biases the results and doesn’t tell you anything about your athlete’s true hamstring flexibility.
On the strengthening side, many times we monitor how much our athletes can chest press or squat in the weight training room. What do those movements have to do with your athlete’s pitching technique or running efficiency? Little to nothing. Those strengthening exercises train athletes for gross strength (big, powerful movements), not agility or core strength (small, fine movements that protect from injury and also increase performance).
In response to this new research, there is a new movement in sports medicine called functional strengthening. The keystone of this philosophy is that we need to measure athlete risk by taking them through functional tests that include both flexibility and agility/core strength parameters to determine areas that are tight, tender, weak or deconditioned. Examples of these tests include the squat test (pictured here), and wall angel tests.
If the athlete can pass these tests, their risk of injury is very low and can often continue with a basic strength/conditioning program. If the athlete cannot pass these tests and are pain-free, they can start an individualized training program to loosen restricted areas and increase strength in their weak spots. Often they are released from the individual program within 4-6 weeks and can then continue with a basic strength/conditioning program. If the athlete cannot pass these test and has signs of injury/pain, they need to start rehabilitation ASAP (even if the pain isn’t stopping them from competing) to reverse these tight/weak muscle patterns and prevent a career-ending injury.
We take every patient (athletic or not) through these functional tests so that we can not only help eliminate their pain, but prevent it from returning by treating it from its source. As part of our sports clinic outreach, we also conduct workshops for coaches and athletic trainers on the basic functional tests and how to triage injuries so that they can help their athletes improve performance and return to play. If you have further questions on functional strength testing or would like us to come conduct a workshop for your group, please email drerin@ducatchiropractic.com.