This is the 5th year we are supporting “Sail for the Cure” on Sunday, September 26. This is the on-the-water version of the running race, where 65+ boats regatta on the Columbia River on behalf of pledges made for Breast Cancer Research and Cure. The Susan G. Komen non-profit sponsors this event. Our boat for this year is Escape Artist, which has been a high producer for the last five years in a row.

If you are interested in donating a pledge of (any amount, but let’s say, start thinking at $10…) to sponsor our effort, we will sail on your behalf, or on the behalf of a loved one who is a loving memory, or a survivor, or even a friend or neighbor. We can take their name out on the water and fly it from our rigging.

Call the clinic to ask me about this and we’ll call you back and tell you more, or ask me at your next appointment!  Ask soon!

For more information about Sail For The Cure, see http://www.sailforthecureoregon.net/ but remember to link your tax-deductible pledges to our boat, “Escape Artist”.

Patients ask me about their backs popping…all the time. This can require a complicated answer. The first step would be to understand why a back “pops” and to try to describe that. The second would be to tell apart the good from the bad. Both parts of this will be important to understand.

A joint may “pop” (or “release with a popping sound”) when it moves rapidly over a very short distance (I am talking millimeters here). The gas in the joint then sort of does a compressed “fizz” that sounds like a pop. So long as a “pop” occurs without a burst of pain, that is probably just fine. But why is this “pop” happening? Is it happening because a chiropractor has moved the joint, or because the joint has been held so tightly by muscle spasm that it is so compressed it finally “lets go” just from rolling over in bed?  Or is it happening just from the normal course of relaxing?

So does it happen again and again? Does it happen with pain? Does it feel warm and sore in the area afterwards?

Is it a “pop” in the first place? A joint will not release “pop” again and again if it is not broken down. It’s a physical impossibility – since takes at least 19 minutes for the gas in the joints to re-enter solution and set up for a “fizz” again. If it “pops” every time you move it (and I prefer to call those “snaps” or “clunks”), the joint may be broken down and wobbling.  It’s “clunking” or “catching”. There may be a bone spur above and below that are “hitting eachother” and “getting hung up”. Broken down joints have a “Bone on Bone” aspect to them, and as they rub eachother, they may snap or clunk. Often, this is with pain, and sometimes produces pain afterwards.

It’s for this reason I use special adjusting styles to manipulate joints that I believe have some joint breakdown occurring. I sometimes describe those joints as having some “red stuff” in them (you will remember this from my clinical presentations). One of the things I do is that I decrease my expectations about how much I can move that kind of joint all at once. I move those joints in a very shallow gentle way.

When this occurs for people in their appointment history, I often recommend an X-ray to get a look at the quality of their joint surfaces. If this could apply to you, talk to me about it at your next appointment.

A patient asked me about someone they saw doing an elliptical trainer at the gym – backwards. Not facing backwards mind you; I am speaking of walking/climbing with backwards rotation.  What’s it about?  Well, as long as you don’t get too confused or fall off, it’s really good to add some of this.  Essentially, it works the same muscles, but converts them from contracting concentrically to contracting eccentrically, and vice-versa.  Now, it is important to have both concentric and eccentric contractions.  But do you need to do this on the Elliptical, and is it really useful, and is there any possible repurcussion / negative impact?

The ellipticals are set up to mimic the natural movement of your body through walking, skiing or jogging. Doing this backwards will feel unnatural, but will actually provide your muscles and your workout with an added dimension.  Are there negatives? Not really, in moderation. The balance points and angles of the foot pedals are set up for a forward lean. There is a possibility you could have stress points on your ankles, knees and hips with this movement, if you overdid it, although that’s not clear. Just to be safe, I would not suggest you push for high distance and high speed under a high load in this reverse direction. As you will see, it’s not entirely natural, but not too bad, either.

A reasonable suggestion would be to add a “run out” at the end of your workout like a cool-down, where you go in reverse. Try that one; I did and it both made a lot of sense and felt great.  Here is a link to a website talking about this…  EllipticalsDirect.com

And one to my friend Joe Uveges’ website, to credit his song “Still Climbing” for the inspiration for, and title of today’s installment.  http://www.joeuveges.com/ He is here in Portland on Thursday, August 5, at the Island Cafe on the river. http://www.islandcafepdx.com/

Oh yeah, I don’t recommend you do that backwards thing on a treadmill; if you do, I don’t need to hear about it.

Many of my patients are spending a lot of time on elliptical trainers and such, and I wanted to point out that a very common posture on these things is “Chin thrust forward”.  This can be a part of an overall postural breakdown, even while you are trying to improve yourself! This is made worse when someone is straining to exert themselves, and so I thought I would mention a correction.  Instead of jutting the chin forward, tuck it in, and then shift your head straight back.  The let go of the tuck, and your head will balance at eye level.  Go ahead, try it right now. This creates a more erect posture to the neck that is better anatomically. Don’t strain, but try to get your body to memorize it. Read the rest of this entry »

I am excited to say that I have finally hooked up my “Virtual Dispensary” on my website, and can offer you a 10% discount on supplements that I recommend, as well as many others you can search up. If you can see the “Virtual Dispensary” switch on your screen, click on it and enter the ACCESS CODE that I have given you at your last visit. If you don’t have one yet, come on in and get one! You can get that after a regular appointment. I can’t offer discounts to the general public, based on my agreement with the distributor. But you will find an ordering page showing the items you usually hear about in the clinic, even the ones I use during treatments, and then you can also search up other products. The site does not try to sell you, and you have to click on items to find out what they do, but I think it will be very helpful. Their prices are less expensive than buying direct! And, you can choose from similar products.  If you are already buying something that I recommended at the Health Food Store, it may be available here. If you can’t see the HTML tag on your screen for dispensary,  click here for more instructions. Read the rest of this entry »

According to a study by the University of Copenhagen, runners who reduce their amount of training by 25% and replace that with speed endurance work can improve both their short-term and long-term performance results. Conditioned runners doing short sprints three to four times per week improved their times in 10Km runs by a full minute after six to nine weeks of altered training.

University of Copenhagen 2009 http://www.ku.dk/english/

I have spoken with busy dieters that think that skipping breakfast gets them a head start on cutting calories for the day. However, research shows that breakfast eaters are thinner than people who just rush out the door. Getting an early dose of fiber with some calories keeps your metabolism more stable and moving through the day. Eating in the morning means less hunger late in the afternoon, when you are more likely to be fatigued and thus eat more. Consider a light breakfast with a naturally processed oatmeal, or cereal, mixed with some fruit. Occasionally, a protein source like a piece of turkey bacon can be mixed in to keep things interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

Our American “pop” culture minimizes the value of water (sorry for the pun, but it was too good to pass up). Anyway,the value of water is somewhat “incidental” in our culture, for various reasons. People drink a couple of sips of water and think they are “hydrated”, or they think that because coffee has water in it, they are getting “plenty of water”. Not so. Water with “stuff” in it is not the same as just plain “Aqua Pura”.

People also tend to think that the primary symptom of dehydration is “thirst”. Not so; that’s more of a “late” symptom of dehydration – the earliest symptom is, you guessed it…fatigue. Tiredness. Weariness. At the end of the day, are you most hydrated? More likely, you are your most dehydrated.

Unless you wish to read more, try this – aim to try to drink 50% of number of pounds of your body weight, in ounces of spring water. So if I weigh 185 pounds (I wish) then I would be drinking 7 of those 13 oz bottles of spring water that I give out after your appointment, PER DAY. Not mixed in drinks, etc, I am talking pure water. This allows your body to truly flush out “toxins”, and in this case, we are calling fatigue chemicals and excess acids  “toxins”.  I personally have to set out to do this to make it happen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the rains in the Pacific Northwest are clearing, many of you are returning (or have returned) to your yards and gardens to roto-till, prune, drag, chop, dig, lift, heft and haul. It’s no mystery that a solid percentage of the back injuries in the United States revolve around “farming” injuries… essentially the category we are talking about. Yes, your task may qualify.
Remember to protect your back. Don’t push your lifting limits, and always use proper lifting posture. I can help retrain you for this here at the clinic. Don’t attempt to do something yourself that really should be handled by two persons, just because “I managed to do it alone last year…”. When working low, get low. Wear knee pads to get close to the ground and don’t hesitate to walk on your knees from plant to plant rather than stand and squat again and again. Get your mower tuned before pulling your back out trying to start it. Read the rest of this entry »

The signing into law of the health-care reform bill last week – as
well as the intense back-and-forth rhetoric over the past year – have
created many questions about what the new legislation will mean for
Americans. MSNBC
has analyzed seven health-care fears to determine how true they are.

The highlights:

- Health care will not be ‘rationed’ for the elderly or anyone else
by the government. (In fact, health care is already rationed, in a sense
– by the private insurance companies themselves.)

- The bill will impact Medicare Advantage plans – a program designed
to pay private insurers 14% above normal Medicare rates to administer
Medicare benefits – but will not be as drastic or destructive as
Republican critics have claimed. Most of the changes do not go into
effect until 2015.

- There will not be draconian enforcement measures undertaken by the
IRS, which won’t be drastically expanded by 1/4th of its current payroll
as claimed. The IRS and Department of Health and Human Services both
have a responsibility under the law, though, to ensure that individuals
are purchasing coverage. No penalties will be given to those who do not
report insurance coverage to the IRS.

- There may be longer wait times on average for primary doctor’s
visits, but this will mostly apply to those who are visiting a physician
for the first time, or are switching physicians. Most people will not
notice a difference. At all clinics, however, new insurance/changed insurance terms mean new paperwork.

- TRICARE, the system used to provide benefits to military members
and dependents, will not be ended, nor will it be gutted. The program
meets all the requirements established by the law and will not have its
funding reduced.

- Employees of the federal government will not be forced to switch
coverage or join health-insurance exchanges. President Obama, though,
has voluntarily joined the exchange, and it is likely that federal
employees will eventually be required to join the health-care exchanges
at some point in the future.

- Illegal immigrants will not be entitled to free health care,
although some critics allege that the verification system in place is
weak and will be avoided easily.