CONTENTS
1.…Chiropractic 101
2….New Study Shows Shoe Orthotics Plus Chiropractic Care Significantly Reduced LBP
3….Custom Orthotic Information Seminar – Saturday December 2, 2017 @ BCC
4….Mindful Meditation vs Chronic Pain
5.…Website www.bridlewoodchiropractic.ca
6….Waist Circumference is Competing with BMI for Health Measure Risk
7.…Positive Anabolic Balance for Health
8….How to Fix Forward Head Posture
9….Clinic Hours and Services
CHIROPRACTIC 101: – by Dr. Rick Lee
Welcome back to our newsletter. Since my last print, I was involved in another project in Ajax, developed by an MD colleague and high school alumnus. The idea was to treat people with chronic pain without the use of opioids and instead focusing on complementary health protocols (in my case, chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture and Active Release Technique), training alpha brain waves through audiovisual and electrostimulation, nutrition for body and brain health, while also using nerve blocks and Botox treatments for pain. We started in September 2014 and as most of you know we had moved our office and hours to accommodate the project, however after a few setbacks, the project had come to a close over this past summer.
I learned a great deal about the treatment protocols and also sharpened my diagnostic skills during the time spent there and we want to thank you for your patience as we went through the move AND BACK again.
I have had a number of things on my plate over that time. My nutritional knowledge has also expanded about helping people to eat healthier to control body inflammation as well as brain chemistry. Most of what has created the challenges for our health problems is our poor lifestyle choices. It is not a lack of knowledge as much as it is a poor decision that seems to cycle and beget the next poor choice, until we are riding that proverbial hamster wheel and cannot get off. You are not the only one, otherwise we would not be in the midst of the health crisis that exists today.
My job is to help educate you to make informed choices about your health. Many times we are swayed by the latest fads or news flash that comes up with a new thing that will instantly produce results. In a “have it now” society, this gets all of the headlines and glitz, but as you know our habits will dictate our health. So your lifestyle habits will either take you toward or away from optimal health.
I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation. I am slowly accepting that I am part of that aging population that is trying to age gracefully and slow the process with my lifestyle habits. I want to share with you what you can do for yourselves that will assist you in life, not only from a physical perspective, but also from a mental emotional and social one.
You have heard me say this time and again that mind and body are in fact one and that we only separate them for the convenience of study. A healthy mind helps a healthy body and vice versa, so don’t tell me that you’re doing brain puzzles to keep your brain active only to ignore the body. Studies have shown that physical exercise increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that can lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Exercise may also enhance the effects of helpful brain chemicals and protect brain cells.
Throughout our newsletters, we will discuss different aspects of lifestyle that will help you reach your health potential, no matter what age we are!
NEW STUDY SHOWS SHOE ORTHOTICS PLUS CHIROPRACTIC CARE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED LOW BACK PAIN – August 2017
Shoe orthotics alone or combined with chiropractic care can significantly improve the low back pain experienced by millions of Americans, according to a new study conducted by National University of Health Sciences (NUHS).
The research, released in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is the first large-scale study to assess the effectiveness of shoe orthotics for back pain, instead of just foot pain. In a six-week randomized controlled trial, researchers divided 225 adult subjects into three different groups. The control group received no care. Another group received custom-made shoe orthotics from Foot Levelers and a third received custom-made shoe orthotics from Foot Levelers plus chiropractic care that included adjustments, hot or cold packs, and manual soft tissue massage. The results showed that although all groups demonstrated pain improvement in six weeks, only the patients using shoe orthotics had statistically significant improvements in both function and pain.
“Chiropractic physicians have long prescribed custom shoe orthotics to their patients with the thought that back pain treatment might work best when addressing not only the back but also the hips, knees, ankles, and/or feet,” said Jerrilyn Cambron, DC, MPH, PhD, LMT, the principal investigator of the study, who is also a research professor and chair of the NUHS College of Allied Health Sciences and Distance Education. “This newly published clinical trial demonstrates that shoe orthotics plus chiropractic care may be a highly effective treatment combination.”
The study used custom shoe orthotics exclusively, which are specifically designed to improve function of the lower extremities and low back. Pain can be caused by a disruption of the kinetic chain, an engineering concept used to describe the way segments of the body are connected. Such a disruption can move from the feet up to the low back, or from the low back down to the feet.
“Using Custom Orthotics to balance and support the feet–the foundation of the body–helps balance and support the spine,” said Foot Levelers CEO Kent S. Greenawalt. “The study supports what we have known for over 65 years, thanks to the testimony of millions of patients and tens of thousands of doctors. Custom orthotics plus chiropractic care are a winning combination and a powerful first-line treatment in the battle against low back pain.”
Dr. Cambron believes the study will encourage further research into the way functional shoe orthotics can help improve other complex joint issues such as knee and hip pain.
Back pain, now considered a global epidemic, continues to affect about 80 percent of Americans. Meanwhile, widespread opioid addiction has caused physicians to limit the amount of opioids they prescribe to relieve pain.
The study adds to recent research supporting spinal adjustment for low back pain including an April 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Spinal adjustment is also recommended as a first line treatment for low back pain, according to new guidelines published by the American College of Physicians in February 2017.
CUSTOM ORTHOTIC INFORMATION SEMINAR – SATURDAY DECEMBER 2ND, 2017 @ 9:30 am
From 9:30 – 10:00 am I will be presenting an information seminar about the What, Why, When and How of Orthotics. There will also be appointment times set up if you would like to see if you would benefit from custom orthotics or be fitted for a pair of custom orthotics (The normal fee for orthotic assessment and fitting of $50 will be waived on this day).
Please note that most health care insurance benefits cover the cost of custom fit orthotics and with the calendar year end coming up, it would be a good time to “use them before you lose them”. We can help answer any questions regarding insurance plans and what is required before we get them ordered.
You are welcome to bring guests for this presentation, please RSVP to Larissa at 416-756-3833.
I look forward to seeing you then!
MINDFUL MEDITATION VS CHRONIC PAIN – Article by Stephanie Burke
[https://www.spine-health.com/blog/mindful-meditation-vs-chronic-pain]
This article gives a nice outline about the benefits of meditation. Once viewed as an “airy-fairy” practice, the science and brain researchers are now only catching up and have seen many breakthroughs with these techniques. By learning how you can control and stimulate particular brain signals can help to ease chronic pain. The links underlined are only available if you receive this as an original copy on e-mail.
Another good place to start is with Jon Kabat-Zinn Ph.D., who uses mindful meditation to help with chronic pain. You can google his name for more information and exercises to help guide you through.
If you suffer from chronic pain, you’ve probably tried all kinds of treatment options. But have you considered mindful meditation?
Mindful mediation is an appealing option for treating your pain because it has an unusual benefit; it places you in a position of control. Unlike pain medications or surgical procedures, meditation is not done to you—but rather it is something you do for yourself.
See Chronic Pain Coping Techniques – Pain Management
Learning to relax your body and mind takes practice—especially if you are experiencing pain.
See 11 Chronic Pain Control Techniques
Of course, you may not have the time to become an expert in various meditation techniques. But a recent study has demonstrated that committing even a minimal amount of time to learning mediation techniques can in turn have a positive impact on your pain.1
Studies – Here are the 3 insights of the study conducted on mindful mediation and perceptions of pain:
- Minimal meditation quickly and substantially reduces pain
The study demonstrated that the participants’ perception of pain was significantly reduced after three 20-minute sessions of mindful meditation (spread out over three days). Other studies have demonstrated that meditation produces analgesic benefits that can alter your perception of pain—but it was thought that these benefits were available only after extensive mediation training.
So then, a short, simple course on mediation may be able to significantly reduce your perception of your pain. And for many, self-administered training may be effective.
See The Gate Control Theory of Chronic Pain
- Meditation produces lasting results
Another interesting finding from the study is that participants who practiced meditation experienced a reduction in their perception of pain even after the conclusion of their meditation sessions. This indicates that meditation may result in an overall reduction in perceptions of pain, not just during or around the time of a meditation session.
These findings are in contrast to a control group that was tested using distraction, which had some analgesic effect—but only during the time of the distraction.
See Modern Theories of Chronic Pain
- Mindful meditation is more effective than distraction
For the purposes of the study, the analgesic effects of meditation were compared with relaxation techniques and distraction. While all three interventions lessened the participants’ perceptions of pain, meditation was more effective in producing an overall analgesic effect (not just in addressing the most intense pain sensations).
See Chronic Pain As a Disease: Why Does It Still Hurt?
What does this mean for you?
If your chronic pain is severe, mindful meditation is not likely to be a cure-all for all of your pain-related issues. But the study discussed above provides more than enough reasons to try mindful meditation to see if it can bring you meaningful relief.
There is no right or wrong way to meditate—and typically all you need is a quiet, dark room. You can start with as little as 5-10 minutes in the morning, or try it during your lunch break at work.
See Pain Management for Chronic Back Pain
They key to establishing a program of mindful meditation is to start right away. So don’t put it off, set aside several 10-minute blocks over the next few days and you may find significant relief from your chronic pain.
References:
- Zeidan F, Gordon NS, Merchant J, Goolkasian P. The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain. J Pain. 2010;11(3):199-209.
WEBSITE: www.bridlewoodchiropractic.ca
If you’re reading this newsletter online, then of course this is NOT news, however for those who want to find out more about our clinic and what we do, this is a great reference. It is also good for those who have family members or friends who want to learn more about what Chiropractic is and what it is not. Look us up on the web and our current newsletter along with future newsletters, all will be available online.
WAIST CIRCUMFERENCE IS COMPETING WITH BMI FOR HEALTH RISK MEASURE, EXPERT SAYS – The Record (Kitchener/Cambridge/Waterloo,ON), 2013
Waist-to-height ratio may be a more accurate measure of cardiovascular health risk than the current standard, the body mass index (BMI), says Dr. Mario Morales, medical director of the SSM Weight-Loss Institute at DePaul Health Center.
He’s confident that the waist-to-height ratio may soon eclipse the BMI as a measure of risk for lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
Not so fast, says another expert: While the height-weight ratio has value, it needs to mature a bit to be more precise.
The ratio says waistlines should be no more than half of height, said Dr. Morales. For example, a 6-foot (72 inches) person should maintain a waistline of 36 inches. Growing past that can lead to health risks, he said.
Recent studies show risks that developed from the 50 percent point grow with the waistlines, he said, to the point that people whose waistlines reach 80 percent of their height shortened their life spans by 17 years.
The latest research that excited Morales, a bariatric surgeon, was delivered in May at the 19th Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France. Researchers there told European media flatly: “Keeping the waist circumference to less than half of height can help increase life expectancy for every person in the world.”
The European researchers suggested using the waist-to-height ratio as a screening tool to predict health risks. The study analyzed the health of more than 300,000 people and found the ratio was better able to predict high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes than BMI.
The new measure is “much more sensitive to (health risks) than BMI,” because weight-to-height ratio takes into account “where the patients hold their weight – apple shape, pear shape,” Morales said. “Fat that’s behind the abdominal wall is not just cells; it’s called metabolic reactive fat. It creates (chemicals) that cause inflammation. Inflammation results in scar formation and can cause malfunction of the organs.”
So organs are exposed to “… adverse hormones and inflammation chemicals that cause diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease-those types of things,” Morales said.
Carrying weight in other parts of the body is not so dangerous, he said. “If you carry weight in your hips or up around your chest, it’s not so significant,” he said. But, “Weight in the central region is metabolically reactive and causes metabolic syndrome.” And the BMI doesn’t address that, he said.
Instead, the BMI measures the ratio of height to weight and nothing else. The resulting numbers categorize people as normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese.
Another weight-loss expert wasn’t so excited. He called the measure promising, but “young.”
“Waist to height ratio may be a better predictor of cardiometabolic risk-cardiovascular disease and diabetes-than a body mass index assessment,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University. But, “the relationship between waist to height ratio and disease risk is a continuum. The problem is that we do not know what are the optimal ‘cut points’ (categorized measures) on this continuum that will best identify people at increased risk. However the BMI is more precise.”
Cut points have been established for BMI (normal, 18.5 to 25; overweight, 25 to 30; moderately obese, 30 to 35; severely obese, 35 to 40; and very severely obese, 40 and over) but not for waist-to-height ratio, he said.
Granted, the BMI can be an inaccurate predictor of risk for people who have excess muscle mass, such as athletes, Klein said, as well as be inaccurate for people who have lower BMIs but excess body fat and decreased muscle mass.
But that just means the measures should be used as one of many tools for physicians to diagnose a person’s health risks, he said.
The BMI was developed in about 1850 in Belgium by researchers seeking a way to categorize degrees of weight in people. In the 1990s it became a popular tool for doctors and insurance companies to gauge health risks. However, the BMI has shortcomings.
It was found to be useless to the point of humorous for athletes whose weight is due to muscle mass rather than body fat. The most commonly used example is that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s BMI was 30.8 during his peak years, which would categorize him as obese.
The waist-to-height ratio is consistent for all groups regardless of fitness, ethnicity, gender or age, Morales said.
So what is your waist-to-height ratio?
POSITIVE ANABOLIC BALANCE FOR HEALTH – by Dr. Rick Lee
Over this past weekend, I attended a nutrition seminar that my friend Dr. Paul Anderson, MD spoke about this particular topic. In the coming months, we will be discussing this and the different aspects of lifestyle that you can address to help place you into this metabolic balance for health.
Anabolic comes from the term anabolism, which involves all of the metabolic processes that build biomolecules. In other words, think of it as building you up versus its opposite which is catabolism, which involves all metabolic processes that tear down biomolecules.
Anabolic processes use simple molecules within the organism to create more complex and specialized compounds. This synthesis, the creation of a product from a series of components, is why anabolism is also called “biosynthesis.” The process uses energy to create its end products, which the organism can use to sustain itself, grow, heal, reproduce or adjust to changes in its environment. Growing in height and muscle mass are two basic anabolic processes.
Catabolic processes break down complex compounds and molecules to release energy. This creates the metabolic cycle, where anabolism then creates other molecules that catabolism breaks down, many of which remain in the organism to be used again.
The bottom line for better health is that we want to do things that will build lean muscle and burn fat. You will recognize these topics as they are much of what we discuss in the centre:
- Nutrition – Cleansing/Intermittent Fasting
- Stress, its Many Catabolic Affects
- Types of Exercise for the Body
- Sleep and its Importance
- Mental-Emotional Balance (Stress)
- Meditation (Stress)
HOW TO FIX FORWARD HEAD POSTURE – taken from article by Dr. Shaddock
Forward head posture occurs when your neck slants forward, placing your head in front of your shoulders. It’s caused by bad habits, such as spending long periods sitting at your computer or looking down at your cellphone (Text Neck). Forward head posture forces the muscles in your neck and back to work harder to keep your head upright.
Tips for Fixing Forward Head Posture
The best way to correct your forward head posture is to keep your neck supported at all times. Here are four things to help you get started:
- Exercise
- Supportive pillow
- Ergonomic workstation
- Properly sized backback or bag
- 1. Exercise Your Neck
Exercise can help strengthen your muscles and improve your posture. Repeat these exercises two to three times a day.
- Head tilt: Tilt your head slowly forward and rest your chin on your chest. Hold for five seconds. Return to a neutral position.
- Head turn: Turn your head to the left until you feel a stretch. Hold for five seconds. Return to a neutral position. Repeat on the right side.
- Neck stretch: Push your chin forward until you feel your throat stretch. Hold for five seconds. Pull your chin back in to return to a neutral position.
- Side head tilt: Tilt your head toward your left shoulder until you feel a stretch. Hold for five seconds. Repeat on the right side.
- 2. Use a Firm Pillow
Choose a firm pillow that supports the natural curve of your neck. Avoid using two or more pillows or pillows that are too high or too stiff. Using too many pillows or the wrong type of pillows can cause neck strain.
- 3. Set Up An Ergonomic Workstation
Setting up an ergonomic workstation can help you adopt and maintain a neutral posture. For best results, adjust your chair’s height so that your feet are flat on the floor and your elbows are at a 90-degree angle when you’re resting your arms on your work surface. You should also position your computer screen so that it’s an arm’s length away from the rest of your body, and your gaze is level with the top of the screen.
- 4. Avoid Carrying a Heavy Backpack
Carrying a heavy or oversized backpack can cause neck, back, and shoulder pain, as well as poor posture. Avoid postural problems by selecting a backpack that’s proportionate to your body size and organizing your load so that heavy items are closest to the center of your back. You should also avoid carrying your backpack over one shoulder.
Regular Chiropractic adjustments will keep your joints mobile and allow nerves and muscles to rebalance.
OFFICE HOURS
Bridlewood
Dr. Rick
Monday 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Wednesday 10:00 am – 12:00 pm 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Friday 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Desmond Fan, RMT
Please call Larissa at 416-756-3833 to arrange an appointment. Des has varying hours because he is still working as a Paramedic.
Please note that we also offer customized orthotics, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, computerized nerve scans and health & wellness workshops.
Bridlewood Chiropractic Centre 