Archive for the ‘General Health’ Category
Wellness Adjustments Reduce Back Pain
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
There has been many studies showing the effectiveness of chiropractic manipulation (adjustments) in decreasing pain and disability levels in neck and low back pain. Most of these research projects only have the patient receive treatment for a few months and then discontinue it. For years, chiropractic physicians have noticed that patients who routinely return for preventitive adjustments (we call them wellness adjustments at our office) tend to have less back pain and flare-ups. Most chiropractors left preventitive care decisions up to the individual patient — we didn’t have any concrete proof on its effectiveness — just clinical experience.
In January 2011, the journal Spine published a landmark study that studied the effectiveness on preventitive adjustments on chronic low back pain patients after completing a month of active care treatment. The results surprised everyone. There were 3 groups in the study: (Group #1) Didn’t receive any chiropractic manipulation, (Group #2) Received chiropractic manipulation for one month and (Group #3) Received chiropractic manipulation for one month and then preventitive adjustments every 2 weeks for 10 months. Although Group #2 had lower pain and disability scores than Group #1 (who didn’t receive treatment), Group #3 had the lowest pain and disability scores at the end of the 10 months when compared to the other 2 groups. What this research means is although chiropractic manipulation is effective for treating chronic low back pain as part of a short-term treatment plan, patients who receive ongoing preventitive chiropractic manipulation (wellness visits) experience better long-term results and lower pain/disability levels than those without treatment or only 1 month of chiropractic treatment.
So the next time you are being discharged from active treatment in our office and we offer the option of preventitive wellness visits, you might want to think strongly about taking us up on the offer. Not only have we our clinical experience telling us that patients tend to do better, but now have research that backs us as well (no pun intended!).
It’s time to start paying attention to bone density
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Did you know that your bone density will be at it’s highest at age 30? In other words, whatever bone density or bone strength that you have at age 30 will be the most that you will ever have — it will just go downhill from there. Most people don’t even think about their bone density until they are in their 40′s, 50′s or 60′s and by then it’s really hard to reverse bone loss known as osteopenia or osteoporosis. So if you think that you are too young to worry about bone loss — think again!
To prevent osteoporosis, the best decision you can make is to start taking at least 1000 mg of calcium citrate (not calcium carbonate) as a teen or twentysomething. Men and women should supplement, but it is most important for females because they often eat less calcium containing foods than males. Make sure you are purchasing a good quality calcium supplement that has calcium citrate in it, not calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is what Tums are made from and do not readily absorb into your blood stream. That’s why they are such a good acid buffer in your stomach!
Taking calcium supplements often is not enough to maintain bone density in today’s sedentary society. You must stress your bones through weight training or resistance exercises. Walking or running isn’t enough. You need to perform some time of resistance exercise with your arms, shoulders, spine, hips and knees to maintain bone density throughout your body. If you simply do lower body exercises, your upper body and spine will lose bone density – what’s the point in exercising if you still get osteoporosis in half of your body?
If you are female and above the age of 50, a bone density screening called DEXA can be performed to see if you already have started to develop bone loss. I suggest that you have this test done every couple of years or as your primary care physcian suggests. If you do show up as having bone loss, talk to your doctor about additional calcium supplementation and weight bearing exercise as an alternative to the bone density drugs touted by celebrities. Many studies are showing significant side effects to these drugs including hip fractures (of all things!) And as always, feel free to talk to me on your next visit and I would be glad to help you protect yourself from osteoporosis.