Medicated Nation

How many of you have gone to your family physician because of a health problem you felt you had and left with OUT a prescription? How many of you expect your family doctor to prescribe something if you show up with a concern? After all…that’s why your there and that’s what they do.

According to Men’s Journal, in 1996 13 million Americans were prescribed an antidepressant. In 9 years that number more than doubled to 27 million. From 1999, pharmaceutical companies spent $32 million dollars on antidepressants and by 2005 (6 years later) they were spending $122 million. Are they doing it for a reason? Are they convincing you that you might have a problem before you even get another opinion about it? In 2009 Americans spent $10 Billion on antidepressant medication.

Antidepressant medication may be the most over prescribed and under prescribed drug in America. I am in no way saying that Depression doesn’t exist and it’s not something that can be helped by medication. But are we really so much more depressed now than we were even 20 years ago?

Americans may have been sold on the idea that life is perfect, and that you should be happy all the time. That life always has a happy ending. But we are starting to see that happiness is relative. We know we are happy based off of when we are sad. We listen to the antidepressant commercials that tell us that if we have trouble sleeping, having bad thoughts, or feel that we aren’t where we should be we need to be taking their drug; then following that idea is 40 seconds of side effects including thoughts of suicide or worsening of depression.

There is absolutely a time and a need for antidepressants. But according to Columbia University psychiatrist Mark Olfson there is 10% of Americans that are prescribed antidepressants every year, and there is a good chance that some of them don’t need it. He also states that there are 15 million Americans that probably aren’t getting the medication they need to treat their depression.

Financial incentives for health insurance companies and the willingness of primary care physicians to hand out those prescriptions are a few of the reasons for this sharp increase. Unfortunately, psychiatry doesn’t have biologically based tests to help guide us in making decisions on diagnosis. Depression clinically requires five symptoms:

·        Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities

·        Anxiety; feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, and despair

·        Memory problems

·        Changes in sleep patterns

·        Changes in weight

Seeing these spelled out many of you can recall a time where you have had one or more of these symptoms, possibly all five.

Most people understand that the drugs they take aren’t a cure. They realize that if they are suffering from depression or another illness, it’s not because they aren’t taking enough medication. But in reality most people don’t take the steps they need to figure out the cause and a solution that actually addresses the cause.

Stop and think for a moment if the problems you suffer from are something you were seeking a solution for, or if you were told you have a problem and there is a solution out there.

Does that toy come with fries?

A popular debate has risen based off the suggestion from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that obese children should be put into foster care so they can get the dietary help they need to reduce their weight and protect them from long term health problems caused by obesity. This is not a new idea, another article in Pediatrics mentioned similar ideas in 2009. To me the main argument of this debate comes down to “who’s responsible?”

There is no argument that weight gain in children and adolescents has grown to epic proportions. The focus of the article centered around a 3 year old that weighed 90 lbs, and by 12 years of age grew to 400 lbs. To most parents there is no debate on whether or not this child was obese. A closer look at the family showed that the parents had some physical disabilities and financial difficulties. Other examples were teenagers who weighed four and five hundred pounds, all of them with health problems that stemmed from their weight.

Are parents responsible for having children that are overweight? Absolutely, just as responsible as they are for their children’s behavior in every other area. Despite arguments about thyroid problems, slow metabolisms, depression, hormone imbalances and evil marketing ploys by fast food chains, until we can absorb calories through the air, obesity is a behavioral choice. And parents are responsible for their children’s behavior.  Do I agree that the government should step in and use foster care to help children get back on the right track and make better diet choices? Absolutely not.

This is one more area that government does not need to take responsibility. Any effort to help overweight children should be addressed in education, at school and in some cases possibly with social services making house calls to help parents make better choices as well. As we learned with the 90 lb. 3 year old there might be some home problems that need to be addressed before a solution to the child’s weight problem can be helped. What we don’t need is the government monitoring our children with the threat of taking them away. Not only is this dangerously leading to other areas of restrictions, but at some point there will and has to be a magic number that this happens with. What number is that? And who makes that decision? What about children who are too thin?

One argument for putting children into foster care homes is child abuse.  There are obvious dangers to letting children become obese, and some of those dangers may not affect the child until they are an adult. In some cases, there may be more abuse than just lack of diet control. But in cases where poor food choices are the reason for obesity, there is no intent of abuse. Education and follow up should be adequate.

It’s time to take responsibility for our own health choices, and those of our children. I do not want to see that responsibility in the government’s hands either taken forcibly or in apathy. Teach children and families to make healthy decisions and hold them accountable for their actions, but let them have the responsibility.

Please give me your opinions and ideas! If I’m wrong, show me!

Getting old ain't for wimps!

Arthritis is a term you hear from just about every pain pill and infomercial on TV today. I’m sure everyone knows someone who suffers from the pain of arthritis, and maybe know someone who is debilitated by it. So how do you avoid it? What do you do once you have it? Can it be cured?

To begin with, let’s explain what arthritis really is: Joint inflammation. There are many different kinds, some you are genetically predisposed to (thanks Mom and Dad), and others you get like wear and tear from a car. Some can be caught from an infection; others can be influenced by diet. It’s very important to understand which type you have because treatment can differ a lot between them.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a progressive arthritis that is very destructive. Unfortunately this comes on through no fault of your own. Typically the symptoms start from middle to late middle age, and usually occur in women more than men. Symptoms tend to start in both sides of the body at once, especially in the hands. Rheumatoid occurs from your body attacking healthy tissues, mainly cartilage in your joints. Other organs can be affected, and severity depends on how early the disease starts. Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JVRA) starts at a very young age, usually early teens, and can be devastating if not treated early. Corticosteroids are the medication most commonly used, and while they can have damaging side effects of their own, often are minimal compared with living with RA or JVRA.

Gout, or gouty arthritis, may have a genetic component, but diet influences the flare ups. Uric acid, which is not properly metabolized, can build up in the joints and cause pain. Usually one joint is affected at a time, a toe, ankle or foot. These attacks can come once and not appear again, or some have many episodes. Diet restrictions help, but there are medications that can help reduce the uric acid in your blood as well as corticosteroids to reduce inflammation.

Some arthritis may come about due to joint infections, called bacterial arthritis or septic arthritis. Typically once the infection is stopped the arthritis goes away.   The most common causes of septic arthritis are injuries to the joint and surgeries, especially joint replacements. IV antibiotics are usually given, and as long as the synovial fluid hasn’t built up (fluid found inside the joint), there are no side effects. This type of arthritis can also be found in infants, most commonly the hip joint. Watch for fever, redness, and unwillingness to move hip.

A group of arthritis called spondyloarthropathies is due to some genetic variant. The most common of these, Psoriatic Arthritis, happens to about 1 out of 20 people. It is usually associated with psoriasis of the skin and affects the hips and low back most often. Ankylosing Spondylitis and Reiter’s Syndrome are two other spondyloarthropathies. Both are generally managed with corticosteroids. Although they can do damage to the joints, usually they are not as aggressive as rheumatoid arthritis.

The most common arthritis is osteoarthritis. This is due to wear and tear on the joints. Everyone has or will have osteoarthritis, but those that get this type early are in for many problems in the future. It is also one of the leading causes for consumption of pain medication. Unfortunately there is no “cure” for osteoarthritis, and it’s usually a one way street. The best way to avoid getting it is to keep your joints healthy with full range of motion activities. Joints get nutrition from movement of fluid that comes naturally with joint movement. When this stops, the joints become desiccated, or dry up, and your body starts breaking the joint down and adding bone, which become bone spurs. Bone spurs, or osteophytes, reduce the joint’s natural range of motion, cause pressure and wear on surrounding soft tissue, and along the spine can cause stenosis, or narrowing of the much needed room for nerves. Stretching and gentle exercise can help joints stay healthy. For those joints that are fixated due to muscle tension or inflammation, chiropractic adjustments restore normal movement. The more freely moveable a joint is the healthier it stays, no matter what kind of arthritis you have!

For those of you suffering from arthritis, or pain you believe is coming from arthritis, the first step is to find out what kind you may have, then get on track to slowing it down with the proper treatment. The longer you wait, the less recovery you will have!

Who's picking up the check?

Recently a story of a man willing to go to jail has hit the media. For those of you who've missed this, here is a quick recap and a link if you would like more info:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43479572/ns/health-health_care/?GT1=43001


Basically he's not financially stable and has no insurance, and while this may cover a majority of Americans right now, this man believes he has a health problem and needs to get it taken care of. And to get that done for free, he is willing to sacrifice his freedom. 


This isn't the first story someone taking advantage of our current system, nor will it be the last. Although going to jail might seem extreme, others make major sacrifices to get the perks that the government offers. The other day while listening to a popular call in radio show that dealt with personal finance, a lady who was unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with a debilitating disease called in to get financial advice on how to distance herself from her family. She was willing to divorce the husband she loved in order to preserve their nest egg they had grown to retire on. Her idea was to divorce and show no possessions as to be eligible for welfare and medicaid when her disease got so bad that she would need full time care. As heart breaking of a story this is for the family, I think she's missing the point. 


I have also heard stories of inmates in immigration holding facilities getting hip replacements, definitely not a life threatening surgery. Unfortunate things happen in life, and these things happen whether you are prepared or not financially. There is no shortage of sad stories involving health care, natural disasters, or even random violence. These are people that have taken no excessive risk but fall under the consequences. But the ideas that the government should be responsible for them are not only harbored by a few that live below the poverty level, but those that think it is a more attractive option than dealing with it themselves. 


I would love to hear feedback about your ideas or solutions to this problem. Personally from a health standpoint I think it is our own responsibility to stay proactive with our health care. While certain problems arise that we cannot foresee, many chronic health care problems that are extremely costly are avoidable. No matter what health problem you may have, there are many hospitals and clinics that will work with you on cost and payment plans. Many communities have groups that have money available for those that can not afford high medical costs. All of these may take some effort, but still fall in your responsibility. 


Please leave a comment on ideas that you feel would work to help people get the care they need with out having to "cheat" the system, leaving someone else with the bill. Or if you feel that too much of the health care burden is placed on us and we should be getting government support, state that as well! 

In case you lost sleep over it...

How important is sleep for staying healthy? Most of what we know about sleep we have discovered in the past 20 years. Unfortunately it has kept us up at nights! The 2002 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) Sleep in America poll found that 74 percent of American adults are experiencing a sleeping problem a few nights a week or more, 39% get less than seven hours of sleep each weeknight, and more than one in three (37%) are so sleepy during the day that it interferes with daily activities. Some studies show that one in six fatal car accidents are due to being sleepy. Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

So how much is enough? And how do I know if I’m getting enough? Although everyone is different, there are some basic guidelines: Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal. As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults. Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.

Some research has shown that even those who aren’t getting enough sleep regularly may not know it. Although they feel the effects early on, their body starts to get used to those indicators and ignores them after a few days. Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day. Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep.

To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 64 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 73 and 77 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.

As we get older, sleep can be disrupted due to pain or discomfort, the need to go to the bathroom, medical problems, medications, and sleep disorders as well as poor or irregular sleep schedules. Establishing a regular bed and wake schedule and achieving continuous sleep helps you sleep in accordance with your internal biological circadian clock and experience all of the sleep stages necessary to reap the restorative, energizing and revitalizing benefits of sleep. At the start of the 20^th century, sleeping schedules were kept with the setting and rising of the sun. In today’s reality, especially with the advent of 24 hour entertainment on the internet, our sleeping schedule is getting smaller and smaller. Night shifts ad to the problem, since a lot of your body’s internal clock runs on the sun’s schedule.

So what steps can you take to improve your sleeping habits? Many of my patients suffer from chronic pain, which is exacerbated by higher stress hormones, which you guessed it, get higher with less sleep. Here are some simple steps I suggest to those who aren’t sleeping great:

• ·         Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate) and nicotine (cigarettes, tobacco products) close to bedtime.
• ·         Avoid alcohol as it can lead to disrupted sleep.
• ·         Exercise regularly, but complete your workout at least 3 hours before bedtime.
• ·         Establish a regular relaxing, not alerting, bedtime routine (e.g. taking a bath or relaxing in a hot tub).
• ·         Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet and preferably cool and comfortable. Do not read or watch TV in bed and regardless of your work or holiday schedule, go to bed and get up at the same time.

Back pain and tightness can decrease quality of sleep, getting adjusted helps you stay relaxed and decreases stress that will keep you up wondering why you didn’t see your chiropractor!

Cooties

One day while having lunch with a friend I was asked skeptically..."So like...do you believe in germs? Because I knew a chiropractor that doesn't..." This got me thinking. I'm sure this quack believes there are germs out there, right? We all had biology class, we even got to see them under a microscope. So what's his deal? Most likely he was talking about the Germ Theory, which is popularly under scrutiny with chiropractors. 


What about you? Do you believe in the germ theory? For those of you that aren't sure, the germ theory basically states that germs are the cause of disease and sickness. Sounds pretty believable right? I mean...you wash your hands before you eat, and you don't want someone sick to sneeze in your direction. And we all know that germs are fairly slow because it takes 5 seconds for them to grab onto food that falls on the floor...


I'm betting you actually don't believe in the germ theory! Lets back away from the health part of it. Lets talk about...your roof. What causes a roof leak? Rain of course! I mean, if it doesn't rain...it doesn't leak. So what do you do if you have a roof leak? These aren't hardball questions, you put a giant umbrella over it, silly! Stop the rain...stop the leak. What better way to stop the rain than to get rid of the rain! The Chinese are already looking into ways to disperse rain clouds with rockets. How great would that be? Just get rid of the rain and no one would have a roof leak! 


In all seriousness, you can't stop the rain. There are too many rain drops out there to fight. Just as there are too many germs out there to fight. Germs are on your fork, your door handles, your cell phone, in the air you breath and...ew...I don't even want to think about your key board. I bet right now you can probably see a colony of them building up on the raised dot on letter "F" and "J" now! So how are we all not dead, or at least sick all the time? If the germ theory were true, we probably wouldn't be around to talk about it. 


So why get antibiotics? Well, even during a rain storm you probably don't want to do a lot of roof patching, so it'd be smart to get some help with a tarp or something to block the rain temporarily. But in the long run it's better to actually fix your roof. This goes for your body too. Sometimes we need help fighting them off, they can gain the upper hand because we aren't functioning at our best. But in the long run, fix your roof! Make sure your body has the defense to fight off the germs themselves. 


So in defense of that poor nut that doesn't believe in the germ theory, yes there are germs. But sickness and disease comes from your body not being able to defend itself, which is the primary problem you need to get fixed. Good nutrition, exercise and mobility will help keep you healthy enough to do this. Chiropractic care has been shown to boost immune function and may help resolve the original weakness that lead to getting sick in the first place! 

That's personal!

How much information is too much? In today’s hi-tech world, personal identity has become a major concern. And while try to become more and more careful with who you share your information, it seems more and more companies are demanding it. Businesses all over have keyed in to your shopping habits on line and at the store with your key tags. It’s hard to buck the system when they promise such great savings for just a little bit of your personal information.

Many high tech companies, like Facebook and some cell phone makers, have been questioned recently about how much information they are getting, and where that information is going. Some cell phone applications record a history of where you go and the time of day you are there. Great for checking up on your elusive teenager, bad for criminals who want to learn your daily habits.

What about your health care provider? How much information do they need? The government has made some laws to protect the information you give your healthcare provider. Assuming they follow these rules, your information can not be sold or distributed without your approval. Not even to a family member or another medical provider. But does your eye doctor really need to know about your cholesterol problem? Or does your chiropractor need to document your cosmetic surgery? In general…yes.

While many health issues do not concern one another, there are many things that do, as well as treatments for those health issues. For some of us we become our own judge when deciding the important issues regarding our back pain or poor eye sight. But some problems and treatments do cross body regions. For example, did you know that certain cholesterol medications have shown to weaken and even cause rupture in ligaments. This is important when dealing with joint injuries. Medications alone have a long list of side effects that are made up of body aches and pains. And while you’re seeing your podiatrist for a bunion on your foot, that problem may lead to limping, which affects your hips and low back.

Generally people understand that medications can cause side effects, but your supplements may have some important unwanted side effects as well, especially with medications you might be prescribed or other treatment such as surgeries. Just because they may be all natural doesn’t mean they aren’t important to tell your doctor about.

In a day in age where identity theft is rampant and personal information is all too easily available, be sure that you aren’t hiding anything from your doctor. Let them decide if it’s relevant or not so they can make an educated diagnosis and treatment plan for you.  It’s not a bad idea to have your medical records shared between offices as well. As far as the computer goes, I wouldn’t trust your great uncle’s attorney in Somalia with your bank account number and pin, I’ve already been mailed the $50 million he left…I’m just waiting on it to get here.

Crack Addict

For those of you who have been adjusted before, you are very familiar with the “crack” of relief that often comes from an adjustment. To some this sound brings feelings of relaxation and pain relief, to others the sound causes them to cringe. So what is this crack noise? And how does it help? Is it dangerous to do on my own?

Let’s start with the basics. The noise you hear is called a cavitation. It occurs when there is a negative pressure on the fluid in your joint, which allows the nitrogen gas to expand to bubbles. It’s very similar to releasing the pressure on a bottle of Pepsi and watching the carbon dioxide bubbles appear and rise to the surface.  The negative pressure comes from moving your joint to its end range of motion, or stretching it as far as it will go before any damage is done.  This pop you hear has nothing to do with bones crunching, nor will it lead to arthritis in your knuckles (sorry moms).  After about 15 minutes the nitrogen gas dissolves back into the fluid in your joint and you can do it again.

So how do these bubbles help you feel better? The truth is they don’t. But the movement from an adjustment helps restore motion to the vertebrae or joint, taking pressure off the surrounding tissue, sometimes nerve cells, and also creates some feel good chemicals that your body makes on its own.  Joints, unlike muscle tissue, do not have a lot of vascularization, or blood flow. So a vertebra that isn’t moving well has irritated tissue around it, which brings in inflammatory cells that sit and can be very destructive. This can create a painful spot, as well as lead to nerve irritation which will affect where ever that nerve ends up going.  The adjustment restores normal motion and helps flush out this ‘inflammatory soup’ that has been sitting there.

One of the most common questions I get from people is “(so and so) cracks his back all the time, is this dangerous?” I think all of us have stretched at one time and felt that pop that brings some relief. In general this is not bad for you at all. What it does tell you is that you may not be moving to your maximum range of motion due to a restricted joint, and other joints around it might become hypermobile, creating the cavitation you hear. What can be dangerous is applying a lot of force to your back to get that pop. Chiropractors go through a lot of training to learn the proper direction a joint should move, and also the accepted amount of force it can take to move that direction. So leave it up to the professionals to help you restore movement back into your spine, and avoid ‘self-adjusting’ when you can.

Fun Facts!

Some fun facts about you that you didn’t even know!

• ·         Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour. That works out to about 1.5 pounds each year, so the average person will lose around 105 pounds of skin by age 70.
• ·         An adult has fewer bones than a baby. We start off life with 350 bones, but because bones fuse together during growth, we end up with only 206 as adults.
• ·         Every square inch of skin on the human body has about 32 million bacteria on it, but fortunately, the vast majority of them are harmless.
• ·         Laid end to end, there are about 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. And the hard-working heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood through those vessels every day.
• ·         Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour.
• ·         Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress. That high stress job you have could be doing more than just wearing you down each day. It could also be increasing your chances of having a variety of serious medical conditions like depression, high blood pressure and heart disease.
• ·         You use 200 muscles to take one step.
• ·         Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute.
• ·         Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
• ·         If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Ergonomics

Imagine yourself in a brand spankin’ new Honda Accord, burning down the Nascar oval making turn after turn…all left of course. This is your job, and you do this five days a week, 52 weeks a year, for years. As you can guess your new Accord probably won’t wear evenly. It’s turning only to the left, and your wheels will wear more on one side, your steering will start to pull, and your brakes will wear faster on one side. After all, you are always turning to your left with only a few straight lengths.

Reality sets in and you are at your desk where you have been five days a week, 52 weeks a year, for hundreds of years…or maybe it just feels that way. Chances are you do those same office tasks as often as you would turning left on an oval track. Those repetitive tasks add up and can cause the same wear and tear that your car would have. Over a long period of time your body, through tense, over-developed muscles, can pull you into poor posture. Someone who spends 8-10 hours a day at a computer will have rounded shoulders and a forward head posture. This adds a lot of excess pressure to your spine, neck, and back, even if you don’t notice the gradual change. An assembly line worker will also develop repetitive motion injuries, as well as the person that lays carpet or tiles.

Slightly altered posture or biomechanics can add pressure to your joints. Joints, which for the most part do not have a lot of blood flow (avascular), and need motion to get nutrients and water. When excess pressure builds, the joint moves less and less, meaning the water is no longer getting to where it needs to go and you develop degeneration, or osteoarthritis.  A forward head posture not only can be hard on your neck, but can give you TMJ problems, mid and low back pain as well as tension headaches. For every inch your head moves past your center of gravity, 10 pounds of weight is added to the stress on your neck. It’s not uncommon for someone to be two inches past, just imagine having an extra 20 pounds of stress on your neck!

The solution to poor ergonomics is to balance yourself. Proper sitting or working position is important, but sometimes our job requires us to be in a certain position for long periods of time. Certain exercises can help balance those problems. For someone who sits at a desk it is important to strengthen and tone your back muscles as well as the back of your shoulders. For someone who wears a heavy tool belt, it’s important to strengthen your abdominal muscles and your hamstrings. These muscles will help pull in the opposite direction that you work in all day.

Repetitive stress injuries also occur from poor biomechanics as well as, you guessed it, repetitive motion. Repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) account for the most work place injuries and can take months or years to develop, and often times that long or longer to heal. According to Consumer Watch Report, RSI claims can cost $20,000 to $100,000 in workman’s compensation claims. Over $20 Billion is spent each year to treat RSIs through employers, which makes that pricey ergonomic computer and chair not so pricey!

Symptoms are never the first thing to pop up in an injury, so by the time you start hurting or noticing numbness you can be assured that problem has already been there for a good deal of time. I hear often in my practice, "this just started, I don't think it's that big of a deal". Don’t ignore these smaller, less frequent irritations, because they can and will lead to bigger ones that are more difficult to treat.

Chiropractors can help restore motion into those joints that have been under all the excessive stress, which helps bring new nutrients and water into that joint.  But unless you work to balance your body through exercise and stretching, those poor biomechanics will bring the problem back. Anti-inflammatory meds can help reduce your pain and swelling in an RSI, but again, there is no fix there without effort from a change in lifestyle. 

So think of your average day and what you do the most of. Whatever that activity is, you should adjust your exercise routine to counter those forces and avoid future injuries or degeneration. Do not wait for symptoms to appear, or assume that just because you’re active at your job that qualifies as exercise. Being proactive can help you avoid these injuries and save a lot of time and money!

Headaches

Some of you may deal with headaches on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. For some they have become as regular to life as the alarm clock. For a lucky few, headaches are only something they hear others complain about. 45 million Americans per year suffer with headaches, or roughly 1 out of 6 people. But there are only an estimated 1% of people who never experience a headache. Are these people affected by others that do? Migraines alone are the cause of 157 million days of work missed last year in the United States, and almost 10 million doctor visits. This affects everyone’s pocket book!

Understanding your head ache will help you understand how to treat it, or avoid it all together if possible. There are many different causes for headaches, and they are divided into two groups: Primary and Secondary. Secondary headaches are caused by something else. Getting hit in the head with a baseball bat is a good example. More commonly are sinus headaches, allergy headaches, or even tumors. All of these have one thing in common, it’s not the head ache that needs treatment, fix the cause and you will fix the head ache.

Primary headaches are known to be problem itself. Migraine, cluster and tension headaches fall in the category. Tension headaches are the most common in this group, and tend to have dull, vice like pain that is progressive, usually starting at the neck or back of the head. Tension headaches are also known as stress headaches, mainly because stress can trigger them.

Cluster headaches are sudden headaches that are severe. Often they are believed to be migraines by the people who have them. Usually one sided and settle behind the eye on that side of your head. They usually come in clusters and can last hours or days. The eye affected may have a droopy lid or small pupil. The eyelid may be swollen or red.

Migraine headaches are a specific class, even though people assume that any severe headache is a migraine. Classic migraines have precursors known as the aura phase that let you know they are coming. They can be ringing in the ears, halos of light, nausea or dizziness. Most migraine suffers are also photophobic, or light sensitive, during their headache. Some research points to an even earlier phase known as the premonition phase that may be hours or days before the headache, made up of a change in mood or behavior.

Treatments can vary even for the same type of headache. Most commonly they are treated with over the counter medications, or OTCs. Many people who have suffered with headaches for a long period of time routinely take OTCs to make it through their day. This can be very harmful, most medications are not meant to be taken for extended periods of time. I am sure most of you have never read the warnings on a bottle of aspirin or Tylenol stating that you should discontinue use after 10 days. Both have damaging effects, aspirin on your kidneys and Tylenol on your liver. These damages can compound problems when taken with other medications.

Some prescriptions are given for chronic headaches, and while they are a life saver for many, they can still have severe side effects. Many people choose to fight the headache verses dealing with the foggy feeling of migraine medications.

Remember the important thing is to deal with the cause or triggers to avoid your headaches. Allergies in food and the environment can be avoided for those who know which are their triggers. Changing your eating habits as well as a good exercise program may also improve your headache severity and frequency.

Drink water! Dehydration is a very common cause of headaches. For those of you that exercise hard, you know that a pounding head ache can occur when you aren’t properly hydrated. For those of you that party hard, nothing fights a hangover better than staying hydrated with water.

A report released in 2001 by researchers at the Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center in Durham, NC, found that spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headache than a commonly prescribed medication. People who get regular adjustments know they best way to avoid the headache in the first place is to stay tension free with adjustments.

There are headaches that need prompt attention. If you experience headaches that worsen with coughing, or are affecting your vision, speech, or motor skills, see your doctor immediately. While headaches are common in our society, remember that they are never normal.

Insurance: Part 2

Many of you in Arizona recently read in the paper or on the web about the “pinch” chiropractors are feeling from new insurance policies. To summarize, third party companies are now managing your alternative health care provider and deciding what treatment is and isn’t allowed, regardless of your insurance policy. To some this might seem like fraud, you paying for something and not being able to get it, but never the less, it is happening.

This brings up the question: whose choice is it when it comes to your health care? Yours? Your doctor? Your insurance provider? The Government??? Unfortunately many of us think we have control over our health choices, and take advice from the doctors to make the best choices. But in most cases, like the current situation in Arizona, despite what you think you pay for someone else is watching the bottom line and making those choices for you; even someone that hasn’t examined you or even knows you.  This is not a new issue.

Let’s be honest, insurance companies cannot be expected to pay for it all. They are in the business to make money, and health care costs are getting out of control. Always keep in mind that insurance companies are a business, and not there to make any and all health care available for you.

Government health care is a hot topic, and many feel that it’s needed to bring health care to those who can’t afford it. But these health care decisions won’t be handed over to you, because just like insurance companies today, they have a budget to run on. And insuring everyone is certainly going to be costly. Ask anyone from England or Canada, many health care costs are out of pocket for them, and accessibility is still an issue.

While insurance coverage is sky rocketing, and deductibles are growing, who’s making the money? It must be the medical profession! Let me let you in on a little secret, the fees you see on your doctor’s bill isn’t what they are getting from the insurance company. As the Arizona article stated, current reimbursement for a chiropractic adjustment is about $44 from the insurance company. $40 of that is probably your copay! So some might think that hiring staff at an hourly rate to bill your insurance company, and fill out loads of forms to do so, might not be worth the $4 they will get in return in 4 weeks. 

Is there a solution? Not in the near future. Some places, like The Joint, are making it a little easier by offering affordable care and bypassing the hassles of insurance. This is a rare option in the medical field but hopefully a more common one in the future. Insurance won’t be going away soon, and options like government insurance will only bring new problems that are just as difficult. In the meantime, we need to start making smarter health choices for ourselves, taking care of our self before costly health problems arise, and fully understand our choices when it comes to our health care.

STRESS!

Ask someone to define the past three years of life in America and you might hear “recession”, or “unemployment”, possibly “housing crisis”. But one word that better sums up our recent past, and probably recent future: Stress. There is no doubt that stress is becoming a larger problem and unfortunately a common one for most people. What’s worse is while there isn’t a foreseeable end in sight; it’s affecting our population at a younger and younger age. Many teenagers are developing the same stress related symptoms which used to be found with the responsibilities associated being an adult. There aren’t many people who can claim to be immune from stress. What we need to realize are the types of stress and the effects they can have on us.

Everyone has their own causes of stress, no matter what types they are dealing with. Your body, however, responds the same to all stress. Mental stress is usually the one we think of first. According to the National Health Interview Survey, 75% of the population experience some stress at least once within two weeks. Half of those say their stress is moderate to severe.

Work tops the list of most common causes of mental stress. Increasing hours, increasing responsibility, and declining markets have added to this over the past few years.  Money, or lack of, is a close second. Recent surveys have pointed to more stress from a job someone is unhappy with than the amount of stress that comes with no job. Obviously someone with a family to support may not have the option of the two.

Families bring a high percentage of stress as well. Divorce has become common place in America, and the declining economy has forced families to rely more heavily on each other than they have in the recent past.

Worries about health rounds out the top for causes for mental stress, which can be tied into family and money stress as well. Health care is getting more and more complicated and the costs associated with it. While we make leaps and bounds into treatments for various health problems, we add to the stress of it, possibly making your health worse!

Physical stress hits everyone as well. Anything from sickness, poor nutrition, fatigue or a broken bone all cause physical stress. Even that nagging back pain that you have learned to “deal with” adds to physical stress.

Chemical stress is becoming more prevalent. While 50 years ago, chemical stress may have affected only a small percent of the population, now it’s hard not to be affected. Chemicals in your food, insecticides, air pollution, and legal/illegal drugs add stress to your body. All those things that you ingest or breathe in have to be dealt with at some point, and there are usually effects of that felt through every bodily system.

What are the effects of stress? We know stress is bad, and we don’t feel well when we are stressed out, but are there long term problems, or are we just being wimpy?

Stress definitely affects your health. As I mentioned before, your body reacts to all these in a similar fashion. Hormones are released to help you deal with immediate stress. This is the “fight or flight” reaction. Increased heart rate, alertness, energy all are survival necessities. But long term stress causes chronic problems with these hormones.  Cortisone is the most common stress hormone, and causes weight gain, increased pain sensitivity, and loss of sleep. Sound familiar?  Heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes are also associated with chronic stress, as well as a weakened immune system, which leads to increased sickness and infections. Your immune system also keeps cancer cells in check, so there is good reason to think that chronic stress can increase your chances of cancer.  Obesity can occur with chronic stress, not just from comfort food, but the increased cortisone causing you to pack on pounds.

Social affects show in both family and friends. Someone who carries high levels of stress may have problems relating to friends, or may add to the stress that occurs in families. Children are affected by parents who carry a high level of stress, and some believe this leads the children to poor stress management. Many addictive behaviors are reinforced by high levels of stress, such as alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, and legal and illegal drug use.

Should your work place be concerned about your stress levels, or is this a personal problem? According to the American Institute of Stress, 25% of workers admit to taking “mental health days”. This means loss of work for those companies they work for. An estimated $300 billion per year is lost to stress related illness or lost work in America’s economy every year. While business struggles to stay competitive in the world market, one can only wonder if they worked on lowering the stress if production would improve! The costs for health care for companies go up as well. Workers report an increase of 46% in health care costs per year, or $600 more, due to high stress. This raises not only your cost, but the cost of insurance coverage for the company.

We know that stress is everywhere, and it’s not good for us, our friends and family, and our job. So what do we do about it? To start, take care of yourself. Exercise is a great stress reliever and combats several side effects of stress.  Take time to decompress, do something to take your mind off work before you go to bed, or go home to your family. Eat right, with all the stresses involved in daily life don’t add to it by eating junk food and taking chemical infused drugs that add to your bodies work load. Adjustments and a healthy diet can help keep your immune system working better and relieve the physical stress from pain and inflammation.

When stress seems to be winning, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Talking with a friend or professional can help with the mental stress and possibly find solutions in life to reduce some of the stress. Stress isn’t going away, so learning to manage it is the best life solution.

Dieting

How many of you are still trying to lose weight as part of your new year’s resolution? How many of you made losing weight your new year’s resolution? Weight loss has become a major part of our society, and a major money maker too. Watch TV or listen to the radio and you’re sure to hear ads for different supplements, dieting centers, or low calorie meals to help you get that model figure. Yet while we are obsessed with weight loss, we certainly have trouble reaching it.

Despite all the information you hear in commercials and the new medical miracle secrets they come out with yearly, weight loss is a fairly easy concept. Let’s talk about cars…

Cars run on gas, and if you are driving much in the U.S. today, you might think your car runs on too much gas. Gas mileage differs from engine to engine, and even if you let them idle in your garage (keep the garage door open), they will still burn gas. If your car burned 15 gallons a day idling in your garage and you kept adding 20 gallons every night…some simple math would tell you that you will end up over flowing your tank. Your body is no different. You have a gas mileage too, but it’s called your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate.

This is the key to weight loss or gain. This number will tell you how many calories you burn a day. Eat more, gain weight. Eat less, lose weight. Simple, huh? So what about all these supplements and special diets, why can’t we just eat a lot less, but eat Twinkies? We can! And guess what, you will lose weight! Is it healthy? Probably not. But no matter what you hear or are “sold” on, the simple truth is if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

What if you really don’t eat much, or have been dieting for a long time and you don’t seem to lose any more weight? Well, you could just eat even less…but there comes a point when your nutrition and basic body function is at risk. So instead…get a bigger engine! While we want our cars to be efficient and get 500 miles per gallon, we want our bodies to be inefficient. Several things slow your metabolism, which means your BMR drops. Dieting does this, which is why you plateau in your weight loss. Age does this too, and even your diet can change your metabolism.

Muscle burns more calories than fat, so increasing your muscle mass will boost your metabolism. While cardio exercises will burn a lot of calories, having bigger muscles will burn those calories too…even while sitting on the couch! Nice huh?

Your food can affect your metabolism. Insulin, which is critical to live, helps shove sugar into fat cells. So although it’s important, you don’t want much. Insulin is produced in heavy quantities from a rush of simple sugars. You can drink a sugary soda or eat a pound of broccoli, and even though they might have the same amount of carbs, you will produce more insulin with the soda because all of those carbs are absorbed at once.  Sorry kids, if you were trying to use this analogy to avoid eating your vegetables. Simple carbohydrates should be avoided.

Glucagon, which is the opposite hormone, is produced more when your body eats protein. This actually makes you burn fat! This is another reason the Adkins diet was so popular. But be careful, your brain can’t use protein for energy, so you need some carbs.

Remember, your body burns energy all day, even if you are watching the Rocky Marathon on the couch. Want to increase your metabolism? Exercise and stay active. Can’t get motivated to break away from the TV? Eat fewer calories! Knowing your body’s gas mileage, or BMR, will help you make good decisions when choosing food and maintaining your weight.

Back Pain

We’ve all heard the statistics about back pain affecting 80% of people and being the leading cause for missed work. So why is back pain so prevalent and so hard to treat?

 Your back is complicated, and although symptoms may vary, they are often the same even if the problem is different. That makes diagnosis more difficult. Your joints are for the most part avascular. That means there isn’t much blood flow, so nutrition isn’t as accessible as it is in your muscle, which has a lot of blood flow.  Cartilage gets most of its water and nutrition through movement, just like squeezing a sponge under water. Many of our daily activities put a lot of pressure on your joints in your back without a lot of movement.  This leads to desiccation, or water loss. Eventually your joints will break down and arthritis forms. Injured joints also develop inflammation, and because there isn’t a lot of movement, healing time is pretty slow.

There are as many types of treatment for back pain as there are reasons for it. Pain medication and steroids are very common, but as you know, they do nothing to fix the cause, so let’s ignore those for now.  Surgery can be risky, and as a few years ago, the American Medical Association stated that most patients experiencing back pain that received surgery were no better off after two years than those that didn’t. Is this because surgery doesn’t work? Often time, surgery does exactly what it’s supposed to, and can be beneficial…if it’s done for the right reasons. As I stated, it’s hard to diagnose exactly where the pain is coming from. There are many different structures, ligaments, muscles and nerves in your back. Narrowing down where the problem is coming from isn’t as easy as checking your symptoms because they can mimic other problems.

Conservative treatments are best to try first. Most physical therapy and chiropractic treatments address the source of the problem with minimal risk of side effects.  Even a minor surgery comes with long term risk and almost all have side effects of scar tissue.  Chiropractic care works by restoring motion into the joint, which brings nutrition and water to the injured area, and allows your body to heal itself more quickly. Pressure and irritation are removed from the nerves, which act as communication for every system in your body.  And while the exact cause of pain may not be that easy to pin down, adjustments and exercise work on broad areas of your back, improving the chances that the affected area will improve.

No one wants to be in pain, so it’s understandable that pain medication and steroid injections are very popular, and sometimes necessary to be productive during the day. Just remember that while you may feel better, you need to actively address the cause of your pain too, to make sure that it doesn’t become a worse problem later.

Insurance care

People take better care of their car than they do themselves. Ask any car owner, “How often should you get your oil changed?” 3-5000 miles. It’s been ingrained in us. Why do we do it? Because we know if we don’t take care of our car, more expensive problems are soon to come. If we don’t fix our brakes it could lead to an accident. If we don’t change our oil, it could lead to our engine overheating and freezing up. That will cost a lot more than a $25 oil change. None of these maintenance items are covered by insurance, yet we all get them done. So how come we don’t do the preventative maintenance on ourselves?

People are no different than cars. We need maintenance too, and without it, costlier problems will arise. Waiting until you have an ache or pain to take care of yourself is the same as waiting until your oil light goes on before you get your oil changed. Sure it may be minor, but it’s telling you there is already a problem.  We know that we don’t wait for our teeth to hurt before we see a dentist.

Why don’t people get regular adjustments, teeth cleanings, or physicals? Many times it’s because our insurance coverage isn’t enough to cover it. And with health insurance premiums on the rise and benefits dropping, it’s time we started treating our bodies like we do our cars.

Taking care of yourself regularly will help prevent more dangerous and chronic health conditions. The U.S. spends $16 billion a year on back surgery alone, not counting the rehabilitation and loss of work that goes along with surgery. And very few health plans cover 100% of costs.

We no longer have the benefit of insurances that cover what we need.  Insurances are a business; don’t ever assume they have your heath as a priority. The Joint is working to help you stay healthy…affordably. Our cash prices are probably cheaper than your co-pays through insurance; and with regular adjustments you can avoid more chronic health problems.  Take responsibility for your own health with regular chiropractic care, dental cleanings, and health screenings from your primary doctor.