Sitting Is The New Smoking

There has been a lot of poignant information that has come out that has viewed sitting for periods of time to labeled as the "new smoking". I believe this is scaring a lot of people and causing a lot of misinformation. I think the main point is that sitting for long periods of time is obviously not healthy, but are nowhere near as dangerous as smoking. Sitting, while not the optional position to carry out long days is far better than other activities. It can be said it's not sitting which is the exact problem it's more like how you are sitting that causes problems. In recent studies it was been found that the optimal position for sitting is 135 degrees, reclining back. The worst position it has been found was the slouched over position making your spine less than ninety degree. The angle of ninety degree is where your spine is at a right angle, while this is better than slouched over reclining is the better position. Don't sit for more than one hour without getting up and taking a five minute walking break. Just do these easy objectives to help make your sitting not so strenuous.  

Alterations of Sympathetic Vascular Tone in Arteries

We are jumping into a very complex and in-depth discussion of something that may be a little confusing so I will try to go slow and not go off on a tangent. As we start the most important thing we need to talk about is a little bit of the anatomy and how the body works. I'm sure you know that tone and texture of the inside of your arteries and vein are very important. The veins are on the lower pressure side and the arteries are on the high pressure side. The veins are very distensible so they can act to store large amounts of blood in a time of relaxation and contract and push the blood into the arterial side when the heart needs to increase cardiac output. The arteries are relaxed or constricted  based certain physiological needs to that tissue. If a tissue needs more blood it constricts arteries to other areas that do not need blood at that certain time. Hormones also play important roll in this system as well, hormones like cortisol causes an activation of the sympathetic system. When the sympathetic are active under either hormonal or neural control the arteries increases their muscle tone to slow the blood flow from organs which are not used in a period of distress or intense activity. This is how the system should work properly.

The way this system works in a lot of people is problematic, first people are stressed, stress causes the release of cortisol, the release of cortisol causes the increase of the sympathetic nerve system systemically. The activation of the sympathetic nervous system causes a decrease of lumen diameter, thus increasing overall blood pressure. You see how this is a slippery slope of how the body works. I will say that arterial lumen pressure is inversely proportional to diameter, meaning as the lumen gets small pressure goes up. There are two ways the body can increase blood pressure, increase the cardiac output, and decrease artery diameter. The only way the heart can increase cardiac output or work is to do two things, first increase the force of contraction of the ventricles and increase the amount of blood pumped by the ventricles. So if you are always running on your sympathetic system invariably you will have a higher blood pressure, but how do we fix this?

With the sympathetic nervous system on overall you must break the brain-body communication so to speak we must reboot the system but how? How about we preform something that going to overload the whole system to restart, something call afferent barrage, now I'm using afferent barrage very loosely. When I use this term it is in the context of applying numerous sensory stimuli to a certain area in the body. It's possible to reset the system from sensory input. When spinal manipulation is applied to a segment, it's creating many synaptic connection, which could reset the system, of course more evidence is needed to fully valid the effectiveness. The afferent input could in turn lower the force of heart contraction, reduce the amount of blood pumped for contraction, and dilate the arterial lumen. There have been studies that show spinal manipulation could decrease blood pressure but they have some decrease of bias. However, it's exciting to see the possibility of an external stimuli causing a sympathetic change.            

Plano Chiropractors Have New Tools To Help With Spinal Corrections

Many people we find in our Plano Chiropractor office have, of course, issues with their spine. The patient usually wants to know a few things, can we help them, how long will it take, and how much will it cost. While all of these are excellent and important questions, we are always trying to improve the model in which we correct spinal alignments. We are always going to try and do it fast and better, with less visits. As of late technology has allowed us to do this. We have recently purchased new tools that will facilitate the healing process. The ArthroStim puts a gentle impulse of between 12-14 thrust a second into the vertebral segment in question moving it. Since the sensory motor cortex is on the same 12-14 frequency the ArthroStim sends the signal to the brain where the proper alignment is due to where the force is applied. The Vibracussor is another tool that allows muscle spasms to decrease and spreads out inflammation which allows it to be re-absorbed easier, which helps decrease overall pain levels. We are help to have these tools in our office, which many other chiropractors do not have, to help you get better sooner and keep you healthier long.      

Can Chiropractic Help With Herniated Discs?

We treat a plethora of patients in our Plano Chiropractic office that have herniated discs, and most of them responded very well to care. A herniated disc is when a portion of the gelatinous material inside the outer annulus breaks through and puts pressure on the nerve or causes inflammation which them puts pressure on the nerve.

There are a few options that can be done to treat a herniated disc. The first option is medication, while there can be serious reactions to medication it can be effective, although it is rated the lowest in effectiveness compare to the other options. Most people do not like medication and it seems that every person reacts differently. In this case the medication will usually be in the form of an analgesic and anti-inflammatory. This option could further lead to epidural steroid injections and surgery which could equally be ineffective as well as surgery carries an increased risk of permanent injuries or death. It has been estimated that while some surgeries do work up to seventy percent of lower back surgeries fail. Surgery should always be the last option.

Another option is physical therapy, while physical therapy can be effected and is more effective than medication it is still less effective than chiropractic. Physical therapy usually employees stretching and exercises as well as some passive modalities. Many physical therapy patients get frustrated easily because care can be mundane and usually centers around the physical therapist babysitting the patient in doing exercises. Most active patient learn the exercise then don't see the need for the therapist any more. Chiropractors usually incorporate some sort of physical therapy into their treatment protocol as well which is one of the reasons chiropractic is rated the most effective for lower back pain and disc herniations.

Chiropractic is by far the most effective for treating lower back pain and herniated disc as reported by the patient. Most patients report better customer service due to more doctor face time and report that the therapies overall are more effective. The chiropractic adjustments which work on increasing the zygapophyseal joint space as shown via MRI will increase the overall size of neural foramina allowing greater area for the nerve is question to traverse. Chiropractic is the only conservative treatment that does this. In addition to the above chiropractic increases the range of motion, breaks joint adhesions and helps in decrease inflammation. Including chiropractic with physical therapy is the best choice and since physical therapist cannot preform chiropractic adjustments, the chiropractor should be the first line of defense in lower back pain and disc herniations. If you want help due to a herniated disc or lower back pain we are here to help.     

         

What Causes Numbness?

Many people feel numbness or numbness like symptoms and they can be very annoying and aggravating. We treatment many patient who have numbness, but numbness is usually not their only symptom. Their numbness is usually accompanied by neck pain or lumbar spine pain. Numbness can also be called transient sensory neurapraxia, which is the scientific name. The point is numbness usually does not happen unless there is nerve involvement, meaning a nerve is injured or is pinched. Most of the time in chiropractic we find that a patient has spinal dysfunction which causes the nerve to be irritated, injured, or pinched. When the nerve is affect where ever that nerve goes to is going to be equally effected with numbness or symptoms.

As chiropractors, we can find out what is causing the spinal dysfunction and also find what is causing the numbness. More often than not if the spinal dysfunction is alleviated then the numbness usually clear up when the nerve heals. Numbness can also occur out of the spine as well, although we find the spine to be most common area. The problem is that nerves are all throughout the body and sometimes they have to travel near the skin and have to go through little holes in the bone called foramina, there is a possibility the problem can arise from these area as well. The good news is that chiropractors are well versed in finding where the nerve is injured at and where to fix it. If you have numbness and it's driving you crazy, check out Twisted Spine and Joint Center in Plano to see if they can help.

Why Everyone Should Use Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a discipline of the healing art and not just an adjustment, while adjustments are the cornerstone of care there is literal hundreds of different treatment protocols that could help. The protocols recommended will be based on what the condition is, the experience of the doctor to treat that condition, and what kind of treatment that the patient is looking for. The most important aspect of chiropractic is that they will try to find the solution to your problem inside instead of using drugs and surgery as an option. It was been found that chiropractic care as a whole is much more cost effective than traditional medicine and also has higher patient satisfaction. With these two points it should be a no brainer that all musculoskeletal pain and functional problems should go to a chiropractor to be triaged first. However most people don't choose this method, why? I have concluded that people have been bombarded with medical propaganda from ads from medical devises to medication.

There are startling facts that we see to suggest that natural healthcare is the way to go first. First if medicine is the way to heal people than why are we as a society not the healthiest population in the world since we consume fifty percent of the worldwide medication? Yet, we are the thirty third healthiest country. The countries above us use the hard facts of healthy diet, lots of exercise, and natural healthcare first. The fact of the matter is if you go to a chiropractor first for lower back pain you only go to surgery 1.5 percent of the time, but if you go to a medical doctor you go to surgery 42 percent of the time and most likely get medicated one hundred percent of the time. I will also point out that the failure rate for back surgery is above fifty percent as well. If you want to do the healthy and smart thing choose chiropractic first. Remember true health lies within and not from a pill.        

Why Are Exercises So Important In Our Plano Chiropractic Office?

 We offer a wide range of exercises in our Plano Chiropractic office and the reason is quite simple, to get the patient better quicker. We know that Chiropractic is the most effective and safest healthcare delivery system for musculoskeletal pain in the world, but we can still make it better. There are tons of evidence to suggest that Chiropractic care is effective in helping spine pain and there is also evidence that suggest Chiropractic in combination with exercise is the most effective. Patients are paying us their hard earned money and we owe it to them to do the most effective treatment to get them healthy quicker. Not only will the patient start to feel better but overall they will be stronger and have more endurance. Once we get the pain subdued and the spine moving properly it is the best time to usher in the strengthening phase of treatment. If you know someone who want to get the best out of their treatment we are here to help.   

Can Chiropractic Help Me With My Shoulder Pain?

Shoulder pain is a very common symptom we find in our Plano Chiropractic office, as we spend more and more time in front of a computer and at our desk. You are probably at a computer right now or perhaps your phone reading this article. Take note of your shoulders, do you see how your shoulders are protracted frontward and your head is over the keyboard, which is call forward head carriage because you carrying your head forward from the normal line. The muscle that makes the shoulders protract forward are the pectoralis minor muscles which are a tightness prone muscle and conversely the rhomboids which counteract the pectoralis minor muscles are weakness prone muscles. The scalene muscles are the muscle group in the neck that is responsible for forward head carriage and tend to tighten up in the neck causing pain and compressing anatomy.

The best way to treat shoulder pain is to find the pain generating tissues, where is the dysfunction coming from? In my experience we tend to find that shoulder pain is usually caused by dysfunction in the cervical spine as well as in the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle muscles. The problem typically involves the cervical spine first, as the cervical vertebra can get misaligned and cause improper nerve impulses to the shoulder muscles which than function improperly and the improper muscles cause the shoulder joint itself to have improper biomechanics due to the muscles not working in synergy during normal motion. Treatment would include removing the cervical dysfunction in the cervical spine as well as stretching the tightness prone muscles of the scalenes and pectoris minor. Equally it is also important to strengthen the rhomboid muscles in the back to stop the shoulder protraction. Once the muscles are working proper the shoulder joint itself should start to work with correct biomechanics which will help the pain. If the pain is still present pain modalities can help to easy the progression along.       

Is Chiropractic A Belief Or Science?

In my experience as a chiropractor chiropractic has evolved, granted not as much evolution from the inception of chiropractic to present day, which is more than a hundred years. However, things are changing and they can only be for the better. When chiropractic was in it's infancy there was not a lot scientific methodology explaining why protocols work, there was a limited scientific method in medicine as well, all the evidence collected was almost strictly anecdotal. In the past it use to be common to say I believe in medicine or chiropractor, because quite frankly, you had to. You had to trust in the word of the doctor that a procedure was effective based on the success of the treatment in his eyes. Today, I still hear a lot of people say "I believe in chiropractic" or "I was not a believer until I met you". Why is it that people will take medicine as truth, despite no evidence for the efficacy of a drug, yet still say they need to believe in chiropractic in face of a mound of effective evidence. Chiropractic or medicine is not a belief system today if there is research published, it's either evidence suggest, doesn't suggest, or not sure we need more studies.

It is safe to say, if you do or do not believe a certain therapy or medication is ineffective only if there is no research available, but you can not quantify that to the whole field of medicine or chiropractic. There is research that certain protocols in medicine and chiropractic are effective and other protocols are ineffective. The ineffective protocols should be passed by the way side and new effective protocol should be developed to make patient satisfaction and efficacy paramount. Part of the problem is that for a long time chiropractors while having great patient satisfaction and showed great anecdotal evidence lack the superior research methodology. Chiropractor were painfully behind the medical profession in researching their methods due to a lack of funds and research construct, for example it is hard give real treatments versus sham treatments.

With the recent published data it puts chiropractors in the forefront in not needing to believe chiropractor is effective, but knowing chiropractic is effective through research. Chiropractic has now been proven to been more effective than medication for lower back pain and a host of other condition. Patients report a greater satisfaction of care, felted better, and had more long term benefits. Consumer report recently published a survey done where chiropractors have the greatest patient satisfaction score of any other healthcare provider. I hope with the pile of data many patients and the public will turn where they now not believe in chiropractic but simply know chiropractic is of a great benefit in combating against musculoskeletal symptoms.                     

Do You Really Understand Your Medication?

Do you know the effects of your medication and why you are taking it? Many people don't and they are not explained the risks or benefits of the medication from their doctor. Better yet does the doctor understand the medication he/she is prescribing to you. Has your doctor done extensive research on the medication or is he/she only going by what the pharmaceutical companies are telling him/her? Are the pharmaceutical companies being truthful in what they are telling a doctor? Do the pharmaceutical companies care about you getting better or keeping you sick? They are in a business and that business is making money. Americans are a very small portion of the world population but we take fifty percent of the drugs, why?

In this day and age it is very important to understand how big pharm has ushered their evil head into main street. Big pharm has been caught red handed, bribing doctor, withholding evidence, withhold risk, and misleading the public in what their drugs do and don't do. The pharmaceutical companies have been fined billions of dollars for misrepresenting drugs and hiding risk and outcome. They have literally been fined billions of dollars in just one lawsuit and they chalk this up to the cost of doing business. Thousands of people of have died because of pharmaceutical companies are not telling the truth. People dying and countless lawsuits is just the cost of doing business to them. They are a business they do not care if you live, die, get better or stay sick, as long as you are buying their drug and they are making money off you.

This example caught my eye and I felt like I needed to share it, while of course drugs are very important I am against the way drugs are used in this county, all to the benefit of a company and at the expense of the general public. Merck recently paid a law suit in the amount of $688 million dollars for withholding evidence about one of their cholesterol drugs named Vytorin. They did a study called the Enhanced study which was a double blind randomized control trail in which they were testing if Vytorin decreased the risk of atherosclerosis by decreasing thickness of the carotid artery. It was found in 2006, that indeed Vytorin did not reduce the risk of atherosclerosis but actually worsen the carotid artery thus increase the risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. So in essence the drug was actually making patients more likely to have a heart attack. The drug did lower cholesterol but did not stop atherosclerosis which is why you want your cholesterol to be low in the first place.

So with Merck knowing that their drug was an epic failure and did harm to a certain extend, do you know who they told? Nobody! This was keep quiet while Merck made over 5 billion dollars from 2006-2008 off this drug. Once the release of this information in 2008 that their drug was a failure and did not work doctors continued to prescribe it, either not caring or not knowing (which is worst), making Merck in 2012 4.4 billion dollars from Vytorin. It needs to be noted that statin drugs (cholesterol lowering drugs) which include Vytorin and other drugs have never been shown to decrease atherosclerosis, or decrease the risk of stoke and heart attacks. Cholesterol-lowering medications have never been shown to prevent a heart attack.  The only benefit these drugs have shown to do is to lower the risk of mortality by about 1% in patients who have already had a cardiovascular event. So why are we taking these drugs. Lowering your cholesterol does not equal lower risk of cardiovascular events.

Please be leery of what you are prescribed and question who has your best interest in mind. Remember the best medicine on earth is eating right, exercising and talking care of your body. Your Plano Chiropractors at Twisted Spine and Joint Center want to help you achieve your health and wellness goals whatever they may be. Yours in great health!         

Why Get Chiropractic When I Can Take Drugs?

This is a question I'm sure many patient have on a day to day basis. The sad truth is many people are brainwashed or convinced that health comes in a pill or drug. They are led to believe this by the pharmaceutical companies and then by their doctor who usually only prescribes a drug. The fact is health does not come in a pill it never has and never will. True health only comes from one place and that's from within. No pill or doctor can heal you, the only one to heal you is yourself. The body has this form of innate intelligence, which is responsible for the vitality of one's self. The only thing we can you as doctors is listen to the innate intelligence and facilitate the body to heal and function properly.

It may be easier to take a pill to get rid of symptoms, but the truth is health is not easy or hard it just is. Giving yourself a foreign compound to quell the symptoms, or the voice your body tells your brain is the exact opposite of healthy. The body is trying to tell the brain something, but why and what? The body tell the brain things all the time, I'm hungry, I'm tried, I'm thirsty, I've got to go to the bathroom. Why would we try to stop the body from communicating with the brain? Can you image if we cut off the communication from our body trying to tell our brain our daily necessary functions? We would die!

Pain seems to be the only acceptable body-brain communication which can be circumvented, but then again why? Pain is your body telling the brain there is a problem it's important to feel pain, it's a normal function on how you judge health. We need to be in touch with our body all the time, severing the communication is not only unhealthy but very dangerous as well. Over 125,000 people die from drug overdoes and drug interactions a every single year by a doctor they think has their best interest. I am not against drugs at all, what I am against is the overutilization of drugs. The United States is only five percent of the world population, yet we consume fifty percent of all the drugs in the world and are one of the unhealthiest populations on earth.

Choosing chiropractic and/or alternative healthcare provides may not be the fancy or easy way, but it's right way. Start with the least invasive treatment first and progress up from there. Chiropractors use a safe, healthy, and effective approached to treating very common problems with our population, such as musculoskeletal pain. Chiropractic will take time it's not an overnight process, the body did not get damaged overnight so it won't be fixed overnight. The best thing about chiropractic is the feeling that you get when your body healed itself with the help of a chiropractor and you did not have to take any side-effect laden or habit forming schedule 2 narcotics. If you have a lower back problem imaging taking a pill and dying from it, something as simple as lower back pain can get you addicted to a drug and kill you. Choose chiropractic and choose health, your body will thank you for it.