Archive for the ‘April 2010’ Category

Although patients always hear me talking about keeping their muscle strength in balance, it’s also important to keep your heart and lungs strong through aerobic exercise.  Most of my patients do not get enough aerobic activities into their lifestyle.  A good rule of thumb is to any activity such as walking, biking or swimming for at least 30 min on 5 days per week.  This is the bare minimum to keep our hearts healthy and our blood pressure (and weight) within normal ranges.

In the Chicago Tribune, they had an interesting article by Dr Eric Heiden on how you can calculate your cardiovascular fitness (VO2 Max) without going to a fitness lab.  All you need is a flat surface to walk on (like a track) and a watch with a second hand.  Check this article out by, clicking here. 

If you are just starting an aerobic fitness program, I encourage you to calculate your baseline VO2 max and then reassess it in 4 weeks.  Seeing your progress in the numbers (and your waistline) will help you keep motivated!

I’m writing this blog post just before leaving for Midway Airport to fly to Dallas, TX for a continuing education weekend.  As most of my patients know, I pick up and leave at least every 3 months for some type of class, seminar or convention focusing on chiropractic, physical therapy or sports medicine.  In fact, I’m taking the sports medicine board examination next Thursday and Friday (wish me luck!).  Booking two continuing education events back to back may have been a stupid move, but I’m sure I’ll survive.

You may be thinking that going to classes every 3 months may be excessive, but in the State of Illinois, all doctors (including chiropractic physicians) are required to take 150 hours of classroom time in order to renew our licenses every 3 years.  That averages out to about 50 hours per year!

Some of my colleagues roll their eyes or complain about having to take continuing education, but I just think of it this way – - Continuing Education allows me to know the latest research, methods and techniques that are working for patients.  The more information I know, the better outcomes my patients will have.  I stopped counting hours or credits a few years ago and simply sign up for any class that I think will help me treat my patients more effectively.  Since doing so, I have really seen some great results and mini-miracles on patient cases that had difficult-to-treat diagnosis.

No matter what profession or occupation that you are in, school never really ends.  Take that class, read that book and enrich your mind!

That’s exactly what I used to say.  It all started while I was in chiropractic school.  I took my first step towards fitness by getting on an exercise bike.  5 minutes was all that I could do and my knees were killing me.  It was a start towards a new me and a new lifestyle.

Slowly I started to last for 10 minutes, then 30 minutes and then I could even start walking on the treadmill.  Next came learning how to use the weight machines and exercise with a ball for my core.  Man, was I sore after trying that for the first time.  Soon I was noticing a big difference in my body, my weight and my fitness.  I could do more and still feel great!

Later that year, I hear an announcement for a 20 mile fundraising event for suicide prevention.  I decided that I could walk 20 miles and dedicated myself to the training schedule.  That’s when I discovered the Prairie Path and Western Trail system in DuPage county and realized how relaxing walking could really be on a Saturday morning.  Before I knew it, I completed the 20 mile event in 4 hrs and 40 minutes and also raised $1000 for charity.

After walking/jogging 20 miles, I could do anything.  Because of time, I started doing a lot of interval training on the treadmill (run/walk) and weight lifting.  In 2009, I joined the Walk 2 Run program at Dick Pond Athletics in Schaumburg and ran 3.1 miles.  This summer, I’m stepping up my program and running 4-6 miles 3x/wk with an eye on registering for a few 5k races.

Remember, this all started with the phrase, “I can’t run, are you kidding me?”  If I can do it, you can too!

In the 04/05/2010 issue of the Daily Herald, there was an article discussing the epidemic of prescription painkiller additions and dependency in the United States.    According to the DEA, these prescription medications cause more drug overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.  Why is this happenning?

Being in the natural health care field, I may look at this problem a little differently that a traditional medical doctor.  Instead of blaming the drug or the overuse of the drug, I think that we need to pay more attention to the reason why patients are being prescribed these medications — pain. 

Pain is a natural and good response from the body to let you know something is wrong and needs your attention.  You feel pain whether you broke your arm, got a paper cut or have too much pressure on your low back joints.  It’s like the “check engine” light on your car’s dashboard.  You would never disconnect your dashboard’s wiring when the light goes off for the engine.  You take the car to the mechanic to find out why the light went off.  Why then do we effectively disconnect our own “pain wiring” by ingesting chemicals that dull pain?

Prescription painkiller dependency will never decrease until we all start treating the cause of our pain instead of masking it with chemicals.  There is nothing that gives me more joy than a patient that tells me that they no longer need their pain pills because they addressed the cause of their chronic pain.  It’s my mission to make sure that everyone understands that the body does have the ability to heal and that they can live drug-free and pain-free. 

If you know of someone who is dependent on painkillers, please forward this blog post to them.  I’ll make sure they find a doctor who can help them break free!