Archive for May, 2010
Cameron Park Chiropractor Offers One More Good Reason to Get Rid of That Belly Fat
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Let’s face it, there’s just nothing good to say about belly fat. In fact, when you look at all the studies that have come out recently about the adverse effects of excess weight around the midsection, even Santa Clause doesn’t look all that jolly anymore. As a chiropractor in Cameron Park, I’ve explained to my overweight patients who are experiencing low back pain that too much weight in the middle is likely the culprit. The spine wasn’t designed to haul around excess weight on a regular basis. As an individual puts on extra fat in the belly, the spine starts to distort and compress, which creates pain and discomfort. Belly fat can also cause the pelvis to tilt forward and pinch the sciatic nerve. But, if low back pain and sciatica aren’t enough to get you to change your eating and exercise habits, how about this: A new preliminary study suggests that excess fat in the abdomen during middle age can actually boost the risk of dementia later in life!
It is estimated 24.3 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. In the new study, researchers at Boston University School of Medicine examined the medical records of 733 people with an average age of 60 years. (Note: Nearly 70 percent were women.) The study found that increasing levels of body-mass index in middle-aged individuals corresponded with lower brain volumes when they are older, i.e., lost mental capacity, especially when the excess fat was in the middle.
So, there you have it. You have one more good reason to get rid of those extra pounds, especially around your midsection. Lose the weight, lose your back pain, and don’t lose your mind!
If you’re a young athlete in junior high or high school, or if you’re the parent of one, Thomas Solecki, DC, DACBSP, a sports medicine expert and chiropractic physician, has some tips on how to get the most out of youth fitness and sports activities that will not only maximize the health benefits of youth exercise, but will help to avoid injuries as well. Dr. Solecki is a faculty clinician at National University of Health Sciences’ Whole Health Center, is certified in exercise rehabilitation and exercise performance enhancement, and also serves as a chiropractic physician for athletic teams at DePaul and Northwestern universities. So, when Dr. Solecki offers advice, as your Cameron Park Chiropractor, I say “listen up!”
Sports Safety Tips:
- Warm up with light activity, then progress to moderate activity at least 5-10 minutes before exercising or participating in sports. You should feel “hot” and have a little sweat going if you are properly warmed up.
- Cool down and stretch after every workout. Never just walk away from a sport or activity. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds to one minute without bouncing.
- For safe training, never increase your exercise intensity or the amount of weight lifted by a factor of more than 10 percent every two weeks.
- Train specifically for your sport. Each activity uses different muscles and patterns in the body; make sure your body is trained for your sport
- Use heart-rate guidelines in training for endurance sports. Certain formulas can be used to help calculate safe heart rates for training children, teens, and adults. These ranges can be used to train specifically for longer endurance, short bursts of heavy exercise, etc. Talk to a fitness professional to help you find these ranges.
- Give your body a break. Always take one to two days off per week to let your muscles heal and your body repair.
- Cross-train with different activities. This allows your body to repair and helps you gain strength and endurance at the same time. Your body adapts to an exercise program every four to six weeks. Change exercises or types of workouts every four to six to help improve your performance and also to avoid overuse injuries.”
- Don’t use thirst as a guide to drinking. By the time you are thirsty, you are already more than 3 percent dehydrated. Guidelines:
- Drink at least 64 ounces (eight 8 oz. glasses) of water per day
- Drink two to three cups of fluids up to two hours before exercise
- During intense and prolonged exercise sessions, or when exercising in an environment that is hot and/or humid, drink 8-10 ounces of fluid every 20 minutes.
- After exercise, drink enough fluids to quench your thirst plus extra. (A good guideline for hydration is urine. Urine should be clear, if it is dark colored you have dehydrated and need to drink more.
Dr. Solecki advocates using what he calls a “periodization schedule of training” for serious and competitive high school athletes who focus year-round on their fitness and sports training. What does this mean? According to Dr. Solecki, it means that your training should be very different in your off-season versus pre-season. In other words, give yourself periods of time with more strenuous exercise and periods with lighter/recovery types of exercise.
Dr. Solecki also wants you to be aware that if you change workout types or start a new sport, some muscle soreness is normal and even good. The soreness from lactic acid build-up is an indication that you are building stronger muscles. But, not all pain is “gain.” He suggests that if you find yourself much more sore on day two than you were on day one, or if you’re only getting sore on days two or three, this is an indication that you are pushing too hard and need to back off.
And, finally, Dr. Solecki advises that children age 12 and under should avoid using weights or heavy lifting because the growth plates at the end of children’s bones may be damaged by lifting weights too early, which will affect later growth and development. The alternative? Dr. Solecki recommends that younger athletes stick with exercises using only body their own body weight until their growth plates have closed.
Source: National University of health Sciences, www.nuhs.edu
More Evidence of the Efficacy of Chiropractic Treatment for Relieving Low Back Pain
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Chiropractors everywhere will tell you the same thing: Conservative chiropractic treatment should always be considered prior to any back surgery. In fact, an entire chapter in a newly released textbook published by Springer Science+Business Media, Surgery For Low Back Pain, is dedicated to chiropractic treatment. The book was edited by a consummate group spine surgeons from Europe. The inclusion of chiropractic methods in clinical decision marks another example of the global growth and acceptance of healing benefits of chiropractic treatment.
A Pill Won’t Cure Obesity-Related Conditions
Posted by: | CommentsI was talking with a new patient of mine, a fifty-year-old woman who’d come to my chiropractic clinic for relief from hip pain, and as we were discussing her health history, she mentioned that she “used to have” high blood pressure, but now that she was on medication, it was “normal.” She said that she was very happy that she no longer needed to worry about her high blood pressure. She was surprised when I explained to her that her medication merely “regulated” her condition, but that it did not eliminate problem. As this woman was obese, I explained to her that her weight, in addition to causing her hip pain, was also the culprit that continued to cause the high blood pressure for which she needed the medication. I told her that as a chiropractor, I could temporarily relieve her hip pain with chiropractic treatment, but that it would likely come back again unless she lost some of the excess poundage she carried around each day.
Obesity is a serious condition that causes innumerable health problems such as heart disease, risk of stroke, Type 2 diabetes, and a plethora of musculoskeletal problems that, more often than not, lead to osteoarthritis. The only prevention is weight loss. The only “cure” is weight loss. The only hope for a healthy outcome is weight loss. Pharmaceuticals may regulate the symptoms of conditions caused by obesity, and chiropractors can help to temporarily relieve the pain, but there is not a traditional or alternative therapy that can rectify obesity.
There’s no getting around it, either. Losing weight is hard work and the more an individual needs to lose, the harder it can be. And, the indisputable fact is that no one can lose weight for you. But, the health “rewards” are worth it. Just ask anyone who’s lost a significant amount of weight. Health-wise, it’s a life-changer. And, studies have shown that many people with high blood pressure problems who lose their excess weight are often able get off their blood pressure medications altogether.
