Archive for September, 2010
Cameron Park Chiropractor: When It Comes to Pain Relief, Two Hands are Better Than One
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As a Cameron Park Chiropractor I know plenty about the therapeutic effects of “touch” in healing. My hands are my “instruments” in helping people get out of pain. So, anytime “hands” are given credit where credit is due, I am the first to pass it along. And, in this case, the hands are yours! A new study shows that self-touch offers significant relief for acute pain under experimental conditions. That’s right…not just your chiropractor’s hands are therapeutic! So, how do your “untrained” hands help to relieve pain? The researcher suggests that the relief comes from a change in the brain’s representation of the rest of the body.
What specifically did the researchers discover? “We show that levels of acute pain depend not just on the signals sent to the brain, but also on how the brain integrates these signals into a coherent representation of the body as a whole,” said researcher, Patrick Haggard, of the University College London. He, and his colleague, Marjolein Kammers, also of University College London, made the discovery by studying the effects of self-touch in people who were made to feel pain using an experimental condition known as the thermal grill illusion (TGI). When TGI was induced in an individual’s two hands and then the three fingers of one hand were touched to the same fingers on the other hand immediately afterwards, the painful heat experienced by the middle finger dropped by 64 percent compared to a condition without self-touch. Now, before you start thinking that you don’t need your chiropractor anymore because your hand is singularly healing, the study also found that relief didn’t come when only one hand was placed under TGI conditions. Partial self-touch, in which only one or two fingers were pressed against each other, didn’t work either. Nor did it work to press the affected hand against an experimenter’s hand (though none of those hands were a chiropractor’s!) that had also been warmed and cooled in the same way.
The bottom line? The researchers’ believe that their findings might be put to practical use: “Our work suggests that therapies aimed at strengthening the multisensory representation of the body may be effective in reducing pain,” Haggard said. And, that’s just what chiropractic treatment is all about!
Source:
Cell Press
2555 Greenwood Ln Cameron Park, CA, 95682 USA
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Well, here I go again, touting the benefits of exercise. But, I have to tell you that, as a Cameron Park Chiropractor, over the years I’ve adjusted the spines of people who exercise regularly and people who don’t. The differences in the strength, function, and overall health, not only of their musculoskeletal systems, but in the healthy function of all the systems of the body, is dramatic. For this reason, I’m passing along the results of yet another study on the benefits of exercise.
New research at Mid Sweden University and the Karolinska Institue found that the maximum capacity for oxygen uptake is twice as great among active senior men compared with men who do not exercise. (Twice as much oxygen intake!) “The high values for maximum oxygen-uptake capacity that we have measured have never been reported before in a population of men of advanced age,” says Per Tesch, professor of sports science who led the study of seniors who are still active skiers. (Some of Sweden’s skiing icons, some now more than 90 years old, took part!)
The conclusion of this study is that “humans have a great potential to maintain a high level of physical work capacity and, thereby, a better quality of life even at advanced ages.” The study is part of a larger collaborative project whose ultimate purpose is to study how musculature, the circulatory apparatus, and performance are affected by lifelong exercising well into senior years.
So, there you have it… One more good reason to get your body moving and to keep going no matter what your age!
Sources: Expertanswer, AlphaGalileo Foundation.
Have you heard the saying, “Getting old takes courage”? If so, have you ever wondered what that means? Of course, if you are already a senior, then you probably already know the answer: The older we get, the more health risks, and even death risks, we incur. As a Cameron Park chiropractor I know from treating hundreds of patients through the years, that the aging process stresses the musculoskeletal system. Joints degenerate often due to poor posture, improper gait, and repetitive movement. In addition, the nervous system often becomes impaired causing balance problems. Falls are a major cause of injury and death among seniors. The good news is that there are screening tests available that can assess the physicl abilities of those who are middle-aged and above to help identify individuals who are at increased risk of accident, injury, and death, so that interventions such as strength training and balance issues can be made.
The tests involve simple physical activities that people perform on a regular basis. Grip strength, walking speed, rising from a chair, and balancing on one leg can reveal a person’s capacity to perform everyday tasks safely. To bring the point home, so to speak, in order to help people understand the importance of strength and balance, researchers at the University College London analyzed 33 studies that examined physical capabilities in people of any age and recorded subsequent deaths among the participants. Overall, those who had poorer results on physical function tests had a consistently higher risk of death.
What did the tests reveal specifically? Here are some of the test results:
- In 14 studies that included a total of 53,476 people, the death rate was 1.67 times higher for people with the weakest grip strength than for those with the strongest grip.
- Five studies that included a total of 14,692 people found that the death rate was 2.87 times higher for the slowest walkers than for the fastest walkers.
- Five studies that included a total of 28,036 people found that the death rate was nearly twice as high for people who were slowest to rise from a chair than for those who were quickest at this task.
It is important to not that while most of the studies included older people, the association between grip strength and death risk was also found in younger adults. The study was published online Sept. 10 in the BMJ.
So, the good news is that such screenings are available. But, even better news is that your chiropractor can not only also assess your abilities in these areas, but can recommend individualized strength exercises and reassess your abilities. And, in addition, chiropractic care has been shown to be relieve balance problems such as vertigo and those relating to improper alignment and nervous system interference. So, if you’d like an evaluation of your risk potential, as well as help with lowering that risk, see your chiropractor in Cameron Park today!
For more information on seniors and exercise, go to: The U.S. National Institute on Aging
I see a lot of children as patients in my Cameron Park chiropractic office. And, as a chiropractor Cameron Park, I’m concerned with many things that affect their growing musculoskeletal system, from sports injuries to carrying a backpack, either improperly or packed too heavily. Now that it’s back-to-school time again, I’d like to add a health warning that you don’t always hear from a chiropractor, but one that is important, indeed. I know that parents are super-busy not only buying their kids back-to-school clothes, but also equipping them with all the sports gear they need for safe play, such as helmets, pads, braces and mouth guards. I applaud all parents who take that extra step to prevent broken bones, bruises and chipped teeth. But, there is one more danger zone that needs parental attention. Your child’s eyes. Eye injuries such as a scratched cornea, fractured eye socket, or permanent vision loss, can be avoided with taking these steps, encouraged by The Pennsylvania Association for the Blind what are they doing to prevent possible permanent vision loss, a scratched cornea, or fractured eye sockets? Here are several ways to help your child to enjoy their favorite sports this season safely:
- Wear proper eye guards (lensed polycarbonate protectors) for racket sports, basket ball, tennis or volleyball;
- Use batting helmets with polycarbonate face shields for baseball and softball;
- Use helmets and face shields approved by the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association when playing hockey.
It is important for parents to know that regular reading glasses, sunglasses, or even safety glasses do not provide the adequate eye protection for many sports. Eye guards can be purchased at sports stores or local optical store. But, be sure to ask someone familiar with your child’s eyesight to fit them properly, making certain that the eye guard contains cushioning along the eyebrow and the edge of the nose to help prevent your young athlete from cutting or damaging his or her face.
Source: Pennsylvania Association for the Blind
