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When Stretching Doesn’t Work
1576 days
You think you are stretching your hamstrings? Well, you’re not. At least not likely. Why is it necessary to even discuss stretching?
Why Flexiblity is Important
The ability to move in a full range of motion is important because we use our bodies the way we were meant to move. We use ALL of a muscle instead of only a part. We use ALL of our muscles instead of a specific few. This is healthy, balanced movement.
Once we start losing flexibility, our tightness snowballs. My grandmother would ask me at least once a day to get something out of the cabinet for her that was right above her head. My grandfather didn’t have the flexibility or strength to perform a squat; he died as he fell going to the bathroom, hitting his head on the sink on the way down.
Flexibility allows movement. Movement allows the body to function. You (and your grand-kids) can be happy because you are able to do everything you want and need to do in life.
Bending Your Knees to Lift is Just the Beginning…
1732 days
Proper Lifting Techniques
You have heard it before. “Bend your knees when you pick that up or you’ll hurt your back.” Well, that’s true, to a degree. The fact is though, simply bending your knees is not enough to prevent low back injury.
The reason chiropractors, physical therapists, and personal trainers alike advise bending your knees is because they do not want you to put stress on your low back. The thought is that bending your knees will shift the stress from the back to the knee, but this is not always true. Don’t get me wrong, you should always bend your knees when lifting, but there are other things that must be done as well.
To understand what you need to do to protect your back, you will first need to understand some basic bio mechanics. I promise to keep it very simple. You have 24 vertebrae sitting directly on top of one another that make up your spine. Your spine rests on top of a bone called the sacrum. The sacrum is positioned directly in between two bones called the pelvic bones. In between each of the 24 vertebrae and where the spine meets the sacrum is a disc which you have probably heard of before. While the vertebrae and the sacrum are bones, the discs are made of cartilage and fluid that is structurally not much different than a jelly doughnut; they are hard on the outside and soft in the middle.
Simply put, those vertebrae work together like a spring when you bend over. Imagine bending a spring back and forth over and over again. While that spring might be very strong at first, over time, it would weaken and eventually break. Most commonly with bending, the injury is to your disc. Imagine squeezing a jelly doughnut on one side, all the jelly would squirt out the other direction. This is a simplified example of a bulging or herniated disc. So how do we prevent this from happening? Continue reading “Bending Your Knees to Lift is Just the Beginning…” »
Why You Should Look Beyond Weight Loss for 2010
0781 days
Think beyond the weight...
Well it’s that time of the year again. Time to take a look back at 2009 and review your successes and failures. What goals did you set out to achieve? How long did it take for those goals to be forgotten? What new year’s resolutions are you going to set out to achieve in 2010?
The holidays are a fantastic time of the year to review your successes and failures because it’s a time when we are reminded of the important things in life. Perhaps now is the best time to outline what goals are important to you and begin establishing a detailed plan to attain them.
I don’t like “New Year’s Resolutions”. Even the wording rubs me the wrong way. Why not call them “New Year’s Commitments”? Better yet, last year Chris Guillebeau from “The Art of Noncomformity” talked about the process of conducting your own annual review. According to Chris “The idea is to create a road map for the year ahead – not a rigid daily schedule, but an overall outline of what matters to me and what I hope to achieve in the next year.”
Unique to Chris’s annual review is the concept of having a yearly theme. You see when we choose goals like “Weight Loss” and “Get Rid of Debt” it limits us to only achieving weight loss and becoming debt-free. There are 3 things to consider when making your 2010 New Year’s Commitments. Continue reading “Why You Should Look Beyond Weight Loss for 2010” »
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Chiropractic Neck manipulation and Stroke Risk
3789 days
Is the risk real?
Chiropractic is the largest alternative medicine profession in the United States, and probably the most debated. Undeniably, the hottest debated topic concerning chiropractic is stroke risk. But are you really flirting with death when you visit a Chiropractor? This article, written with common argument headers, attempts to discern if cervical manipulation is a risky treatment, especially when compared with other popular treatment options.
Neck manipulation dissects the vertebral basilar artery leading to stroke…
The most basic argument that needs to be proven for anti-manipulation activists to have a ground to stand on is whether a neck manipulation has the physical means to cause a stroke. Detractors claim that forceful manipulation of the neck dissects the vertebral basilar artery, which passes through the atlas (top neck bone/vertebrae) before it enters the skull. This dissection is caused by either the physical stretching of the artery or by its contact with the bone. This very idea is actually what many chiropractic colleges teach, but its reality becomes doubtful when viewing the research.
Continue reading “Chiropractic Neck manipulation and Stroke Risk” »
Is the Mercury in Thiomersal Dangerous
2839 days
Is the Mercury in Thiomersal Dangerous?
Thiomersal is a preservative that is added to vaccines to prevent contamination. It contains roughly 49% mercury; therefore a vaccine containing the standard Thiomersal dosage of 50mcg contains 25mcg of mercury. For adults, there are thiomersal free and preservative free vaccines. Thiomersal-free has no thiomersal, while preservative free contains trace amounts, or about .3mcg per dose. Although childhood vaccines can no longer contain thiomersal (as of 1999), the government considers the trace amounts in preservative free versions acceptable, plus, any vaccine that was produced prior may be still be used (assuming its shelf date has not expired).
The FDA set the daily safe limit of mercury at 1.0mcg per kg of bodyweight per day to avoid neurological damage. However, paying attention to the weekly average tends to be a more accurate indicator.
The ultimate question of course is, “Is it Safe”? Continue reading “Is the Mercury in Thiomersal Dangerous” »
What is Chiropractic: Part II
0844 days
Before reading this excerpt, it is recommended that you first read what is chiropractic part I, the more philosophical entry.
Now let’s be a little more physical….
When an adjustment or an impulse is put through a joint what happens and what is the large noise that people are afraid of? First the noise; the noise is the escaping of gas through the joint, it is also known as a cavitation. It is a release of pressure from the the synovial joints, it can occur in any area where there are synovial joints in the body, it is like when someone cracks their knuckles.