Honolulu Chiropractor

Exactly what does the word, “vertigo, ” mean? Vertigo is a name for the dizzy disturbance a person suffers within a fixed location. The perception is that the outer world is tilting and even spinning. Vertigo might be quick and short- lived or chronic. Regardless, no matter what, the particular source of vertigo needs to be diagnosed and the proper treatment plan undertaken.

There are lots of reasons for the symptoms of Vertigo. An inner ear malady, known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, will occasionally show up as the impact of a sustained head injury or intense cold. On occasion this particular vertigo may be the result of the aging process. The trigger, nevertheless, fairly often is unknown. Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo is a wordy diagnosis, but it characterizes perfectly this non- progressive condition that is a result of, as its name implies, a unexpected change in head position. The difficulties are by and large surprising and variable.

It will be facilitative to look at the function of the inner ear in an endeavor recognize what causes this frequently disabling symptoms of this type of vertigo. The brain senses movement and keeps equilibrium employing the fluid found in the inner ear. Also in the inner ear are miniature calcium carbonate crystals, medically known as otoconia. The crystals usually float in the inner ear fluid if dislodged. As the crystals strike against the reactive nerve endings in the inner ear, they lead to the complaints of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV.

The good news is that chiropractic treatment can minimize the discomforts of BPPV very quickly and effectively using a technique called the Epley maneuver. By means of the use of this process, a chiropractor rotates the head of a BPPV victim into a number of the different positions, letting gravity shift the calcium carbonate crystals into a space of the inner ear that is away from the nerve endings where they will induce no subsequent dizziness.

Your chiropractor has aided hundreds of persons for Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo using the Epley Maneuver technique. Quite often, with just one treatment the majority of patients no longer suffer from vertigo.  Call your Honolulu Chiropractor today!

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Knee X-ray

New research coming out of Tufts University School of Medicine has determined that patients 65 years of age and over who’ve been diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis (OA), and who practice Tai Chi, increased their physical capability and experienced less pain. Osteoarthritis is a common form of arthritis that brings about a breakdown of joint cartilage. Chiropractors provide therapy for many men and women suffering from OA in a number of areas of the body, including the joints of the knee. Knee pain and disability is one of the most prevalent conditions of the musculoskeletal system, second only to spinal complaints. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are a surprising 4.3 million people in this country over 60 years of ag diagnosed with knee OA, and the CDC predicts that by age 85, half of American adults may incur symptoms of OA. Knee osteoarthritis results in pain, immobility, functional disabilities, and a reduced quality of life.

Are you wondering why so many adults develop OA? As with the majority of the musculoskeletal dysfunctions that we develop as we age, abnormal stress to a joint day after day is a major determinant. That is why as people age they are more likely to develop OA in their joints, including the knees. Incorrect mechanics of the knee, poor gait, compensatory foot mechanics as a consequence of foot pain, and overload of the knee joint all produce undue stress on the knees. Consequently arthritic changes in the knee joint develop. In addition to chiropractic treatment, chiropractors wholeheartedly endorse natural, drug-free practices, such as Tai Chi (Chuan), that can mitigate knee pain. Tai Chi (Chuan) is a traditional style of Chinese martial arts that features slow, rhythmic movements that create peace of mind, as well as an enhancement of balance, an increase in strength, and more flexibility.

The 40 men and women selected for the Tufts study were on an average 65 years of age, overweight, and with confirmed OA, but in otherwise good health. Patients were chosen at random to take part in 60-minute “Yang style” Tai Chi sessions twice weekly for 12 weeks. Each session included a 10-minute self-massage and a review of Tai Chi principles, 30 minutes of Tai Chi movement, 10 minutes of breathing technique, and 10 minutes of relaxation.

Tai Chi practice involves the type of range of motion, flexibility, muscle conditioning, and aerobic workout that is compatible with current exercise recommendations for osteoarthritis. Furthermore, researchers found that the “mental feature” of Tai Chi promoted a sense of well-being, life enjoyments, and perceptions of health that aided the participants in dealing differently with chronic pain. Significantly, the group practicing Tai Chi displayed a considerable decrease in knee pain compared with those in the control group.

Full findings of the study are published in the November 2009 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

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Do you experience pain in one or both hips whenever you twist them or when you cross your legs?  Does the pain keep you awake at night and make it hard to get a good night’s sleep? When you get out of bed in the morning, or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it initially difficult to move your legs? If you answered “yes” to any or all of the previous questions you may have imbalances and alignment problems in the lower part of your body that, in addition to creating hip pain, can in the course of time produce degenerative joint disease in your hips if not addressed.

Even though hip pain and related problems can often be traced to age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the “bad guy”. In fact, instead of creating the original problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of damage to your hips earlier.

Damage as the result of biomechanical problems, such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can cause changes in your gait that create hip pain. Furthermore, your gait may vary to compensate for new activities such as a job change, an alteration in the way you sit, a new sport or activity, or if you start driving for long periods of time on a regular basis..

In addition, gait imbalances can be caused by carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length discrepancies, or foot pronation challenges. Strictly speaking, anything that generates an asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion can cause painful hip problems.

As part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem, along with adjustments, your chiropractor may prescribe orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer suitable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.

Hip pain won’t vanish on its own. Hip pain is a sign that something needs to be corrected. Your chiropractor can help to get you out of pain, get back into balance, and get your life back!

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Striving to keep up with an active five-year-old can feel tiring from time to time. If you have an active child of this age, or if you’ve ever been around one for any length of time, you may have found yourself wishing that the kid would just “veg out” for a little while. However, recent research is validating the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity. In fact, according to a new University of Iowa study, rather than attempting to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds ought be aided in being as active as possible. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Even if kids don’t stay as active later in childhood, being active at age five assists them in avoiding excess fat as they age. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.

The UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages five, eight and eleven using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute. The kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days, providing much more solid data than relying on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicates that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven, even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity.  The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.

Although further research is required to learn what happens to the active kids’ bodies that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it may be possible that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something happened metabolically that provided some protection even as they became less active.

Weight moderation, however, isn’t the only benefit of early exercise. As a chiropractor I have observed over the years that active kids have far less ordinary childhood health issues, like catching colds and the flu. chiropractic treatment is, of course, extraordinarily beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that happens during activities, especially those that require “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.

A large number children these days are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an inappropriate diet, lack of exercise is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who chooses to watch television or play video games rather than to participate in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will assist in building a healthier future. You can bank on it!

Technorati Tags: childrens health, chiropractic, chiropractor

Just the other day I saw an article on sciencedaily.com how caffeine improved memory loss in aged mice raised to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The article started with the angle that “Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup.”  It continued by reporting on coterminous studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that demonstrated that caffeine considerably decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice that had developed symptoms of the disease.

However, before you make a decision to add an extra cuppa to your morning ritual, let me add that also on the website, under “Related Stories,” were a couple of articles about studies that professed to prove the non-beneficial effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”

In my experience, I’ve noticed that there are probably studies that will affirm, or at least support, nearly any view point, in particular when it comes to health and longevity. The “good/bad” studies related to caffeine certainly aren’t, of course, the only ones. Nonetheless, it did get me to pondering about the likelihood that there will never be any “one thing” that will with absolute certainty aid we, humans, in living longer, healthier lives. We are dynamic, biological beings. We are free to make choices in life. We’re not confined to a cage! And, furthermore, though Alzheimer’s disease may be on the rise, obviously none of us has been “artificially induced to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” therefore caffeine isn’t entirely the “one thing” that is going to reverse or prevent it.

The human body is an exquisite, intricate system that is based on homeostasis or balance. It is likely, then, that good health is about a healthy, balanced attitude towards living, rather than our jumping on the bandwagon of the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one specific thing under the illusion that it will reverse all of the other excessive and unhealthy things we have done to our bodies.

As a doctor of chiropractic, it is my belief that every single day we have an opportunity to make decisions that will assist us to live longer, healthier lives, healthy choices for our body and mind. When it comes to what is good for us, we know what truly “feels” right and what doesn’t. So, the if you reach for that extra cup of coffee or that second glass of red wine, I hope that you’ll think about this. There is no “one thing” that will do “everything” for your age-related health issues.

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We all know that movement is good for the whole body, right? From our head to our toes, our good health is determined by how much physical activity we get on a regular basis. So, why do so many people suffer from aches and pains in their feet? After all, aren’t our feet made for walking? Yes, but they weren’t designed for abuse. The average, healthy person takes 3,000-5,000 steps each day, not including activities such as running and aerobic exercise. But, often those steps are made by people walking incorrectly, with poor gait patterns and bad posture. In addition, a large number of people wear badly-designed, poorly-fitting shoes. Moving the body through space incorrectly on feet that are inhibited from functioning correctly cannot help but to cause aches and pains not only in a number of places in our feet, but in other parts of our body.  For example, if an individual over-pronates (walks like a duck) in a pair of poorly made or unevenly-worn shoes, or in a pair of high heels, that person is not only likely to develop foot and ankle problems, but will probably experience problems of the back, knees and legs.

One of the most well known foot problems is Plantar Fascitis (heel pain), which is usually caused by inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a wonderful, multi-tasking band of connective tissue that encircles the muscles on the bottom of the foot, adheres the heel bone to the ball of the foot, supports the arch, protects the foot, and absorbs shock.

There are many factors that contribute to the development of Plantar Fascitis. One such factor is short and tight calf muscles. When calf muscles get short and tight they exert a strong pull on the back of the heel bone, producing undue stress on the smaller and weaker plantar muscles and fascia. How do calf muscles get short and tight? In addition to running and jumping activities such as aerobics, volleyball, running, basketball, and tennis, the wearing of high heels can cause the problem.

Other factors that contribute to Plantar Fascitis include sudden strenuous activity after a period of prolonged inactivity, abnormal walking patterns (such as over-pronation), improper footwear, walking on hard or uneven surfaces (especially barefooted), and obesity.

Once an individual develops Plantar Fascitis, the condition is frequently not easy to manage and can become intensely painful and persistent. If you are suffering from heel pain, your chiropractor will be able to determine the cause of your problem and what chiropractic management is best suited. Such care might include ultrasound therapy, laser, joint manipulation, muscle stretching and strengthening exercises, special taping and, in some cases, orthotics.

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Today, as never before, more and more Americans are suffering from asthma. It is one of this country’s most common and costly diseases. In fact, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, each day 40,000 people are absent from school or work due to asthma; 30,000 people experience an asthma attack; 5,000 people are seen in the emergency room due to asthma;1,000 people are admitted to the hospital due to asthma;and, 11 people die from asthma.

Asthma symptoms can be generated by allergens or irritants that are inhaled into the lungs, resulting in inflamed, clogged and constricted airways. Symptoms include laborious breathing, wheezing, coughing, and tightness in the chest. In extreme cases, asthma can be fatal. Pharmaceuticals may temporarily decrease the symptoms of asthma,but there is no medical cure.

Although chiropractic is not a therapy for asthma, per se, recent research published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research documented the results experienced by 81 children with asthma who received chiropractic care. The two-month study revealed that those under care saw a 45% decrease in the number of “attacks” and that 31% of the those involved in the study voluntarily decided to take less of their medication.

How can chiropractic care assist in reducing the persistence and severity of asthma attacks? What does an adjustment of the spine have to do with respiration? Chiropractic adjustments remove nervous system interference. The majority of nerves that are in charge of bodily functions exit between the spinal vertebrae and carry on to their destination. This includes those nerves that affect the respiratory system. If impeded, nerves that are in charge of the diaphragm can have a detrimental effect on how well the respiratory system functions. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, why so many adults and children receiving chiropractic treatment report better breathing and an abatement in their asthmatic symptoms.

If you or someone you love has asthma, and it is generated by, or aggravated because of spinal subluxations, chiropractic may be beneficial. Chiropractic could help you to breathe a little easier. Call your chiropractor today!

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If you sit for extended periods at a computer, you may be experiencing lower back pain, upper back pain, and/or neck pain that also radiates down one or both of your arms generating additional pain, pins and needles, or numbness. Neck and shoulder pain are, in fact, the most common upper-extremity musculoskeletal problems among computer users. In a 2002 study tracking 632 computer users newly hired at major Atlanta companies, Dr. Fredric E. Gerr, an occupational medicine physician and ergonomics investigator at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and colleagues observed that roughly 60 percent developed neck or shoulder pain in the first year, though the study did not track how long symptoms persisted.

Younger generations growing up in the digital age are also joining the ranks of the “typing wounded.” Surveys at two universities found that 40 to 50 percent of undergraduates experienced upper-extremity pain from using their computers. Colleges do not build dormitory furniture to be ergonomically adjustable, said Dr. Benjamin Amick, scientific director of the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto, who was a co-author of those studies. “They build it to be indestructible.”

In addition to repetitive stress problems, sitting at your computer too long places your upper back in a sustained, stressful posture, especially if you tend to lean forward when you’re working. This also puts your neck at an unnatural and strained angle. Lower back pain, in addition to being generated by simply sitting for long periods of time without getting up and moving around, is aggravated by bad posture.

Problems caused by extended computer use can not only lead to an inability to perform your work duties, but can keep you from enjoying the rest of your life, too. Your Honolulu chiropractor can assist in eliminating the lower back pain, upper back pain, and/or neck pain that you are currently experiencing. After that, it is important for you to become mindful of your body as you sit at your computer, and to give your body what it naturally needs. You can cultivate the habit of both sitting straight in your chair (as opposed to slouching) and relaxing your shoulders. This will help to relieve tension in your lower and upper back and neck. Take time to stretch periodically to ease muscle tension and encourage healthy blood flow. If your work station permits, sitting on an exercise ball can not only aide in keeping you in a beneficial posture, but can help to strengthen your core muscles as well. (Make sure that the ball is the right size so that when you are seated on it your arms are at a ninety-degree angle to your keyboard.)

Good posture for ease of movement, variety in the motions that you do, and short breaks to relax and stretch will go a long way in keeping your computer work (or play) pain-free.

Partial source: The New York Times, Health Review, June 22, 2009

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Chiropractors, like me, agree that “motion is life.” We, humans, were designed to walk, to run, to dance, and to move all the muscles of our body for our entire lifespan. So, naturally, it follows that we either “move it or lose it!” Our aging “Baby Boomer” population is discovering just how true this cautionary advice is when it comes to energy, vitality, mobility, and good health in later years. With every year of our life, we have much to gain from being physically active…and plenty to lose by living an immobile or sedentary lifestyle.

As our age-related risks of chronic disease increase, regular physical activity can actually slow down the trend. In addition, research has shown that people who have already developed coronary artery disease, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Type 2 diabetes, and other age-related chronic diseases can benefit substantially by increasing their physical activity and, therefore, often can manage their chronic illness with fewer medicines.

Furthermore, some studies suggest that the cardiovascular benefits an individual gets from physical activity may also help the brain stay healthy. “Physical activity influences the frontal region of the brain,” says Dr. Bradley Hatfield, professor of Sports Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. So, if you’ve been wondering what the best thing is that you can do to keep your brain young, the answer may be for you to take a long walk. A key factor is that exercise thickens the brain tissue and builds more synapses in the brain.  The brain has 10 billion nerve cells, called neurons, and on average, neurons are connected to each other through 10,000 synapses.  Every time we exercise, more synapses form and the active brain gets stronger.

On a regular basis, being physically active increases the quality of life (period). Some of the benefits include improved energy levels, mental sharpness, balance, strength, flexibility, and weight control. Moreover, regular aerobic exericise has been shown to help in the management of depression, anxiety, and stress.

So, even though the facts point conclusively to the validity of the “move it or lose it!” warning, they also confirm that it is never to late for you to “move it” and regain your health!

Technorati Tags: chiropractor, chronic disease, exercise, health

You may have read on this website, or elsewhere, about recent studies that have shown that physical activity is requisite to getting and staying healthy, especially as we age. But, if you’ve been inactive for awhile, even the idea of exercise might seem “exhausting.” The best way, then, to approach this much-needed addition to your lifestyle is, literally and figuratively, to do it one step at a time. A smart “first step” is to see a health care professional, like your chiropractor, for a full physical examination. Once it is confirmed that you won’t make matters worse through movement, then the next step is simply to start moving a bit each day.

Any movement is a step towards better health and physical fitness. Walk a lap (or two) around your house or apartment. Put that TV remote away and get up to change the channels. As your body becomes accustomed to moving again, you will probably discover that you actually want to move more. Then you can slowly add additional movement to your daily routine. Increase the walk around your house to a walk around the block, a walk in the park, or even a walk through the shopping mall. Walking with a friend can often help to keep you on track(especially on those days when you’d rather sit and veg, then get your body moving). If you are physically able, take the stairs instead of using the elevator as often as you can. Park farther away from the entrance to the supermarket and make it a goal to put more and more parking spots between you and the entrance.

After a few weeks of regular physical activity, you will begin to feel the healthful benefits of movement. Then you’ll be ready for new ways to build flexibility, fitness, and muscle strength. Your chiropractor can advise you on how to become more physically active and help you to development an individualized program.

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