http://neurosciencenews.com/caffeine-sleep-pain-6619/
May 11, 2017
December 26, 2016
October 22, 2016
Tai Chi To Ease Neck Pain
[I don’t know where this came from but I received it from a tai chi student of mine: I am familiar with the studies cited, and I thought that this laid it out well. DrD]
Practicing tai chi can be as effective as performing conventional neck exercises to relieve long-standing neck pain. This new finding comes from a randomly controlled trial that compared pain reduction in people who performed tai chi for 12 weeks to a group who did conventional neck exercises and members of a control group receiving no treatment. The researchers recruited 114 people age 18 or older who had chronic neck pain for at least three months. The average age of the participants was 49. The tai chi and neck exercise groups took part in weekly sessions that lasted 75 or 90 minutes. At the end of the 12 weeks 37 percent of the participants who practiced tai chi reported that their pain had lessened by 50 percent compared to 50 percent among 46 percent of those who performed the conventional neck exercises. The research team, lead by Harvard medical professor Peter M. Wayne, Ph.D., concluded that tai chi provides moderate benefit for people with chronic, nonspecific neck pain and can be a suitable alternative to conventional neck exercises. Dr. Wayne is also the founder and director of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center in Somerville, MA and coauthor of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi.
My take? I’m not surprised by these findings. Tai chi is a reliable and effective form of mental and physical stimulation and is beneficial for overall health. In addition to the new study results showing tai chi can reduce neck pain, a 2010 study published the New England Journal of Medicine suggested it can be helpful for relief of fibromyalgia pain. And a study published in May (2016) showed that tai chi can be as effective as physical therapy for reducing pain and stiffness due to knee arthritis.
August 15, 2016
Back Pain Facts & Questions
Mechanical low back pain is one of the most common patient complaints expressed to emergency physicians in the United States, accounting for more than 6 million cases annually. Approximately two thirds of adults are affected by mechanical low back pain at some point in their lives, making it the second most common complaint in ambulatory medicine and the third most expensive disorder in terms of healthcare dollars spent, surpassed only by cancer and heart disease.
Low back pain is considered chronic after 3 months because most normal connective tissues heal within 6-12 weeks, unless pathoanatomic instability persists. A slower rate of tissue repair in the relatively avascular intervertebral disk may impair the resolution of some persistent painful cases of chronic low back pain. An estimated 15%-20% develop protracted pain, and approximately 2%-8% have chronic pain. Of those individuals who remain disabled for more than 6 months, fewer than half return to work, and after 2 years of low back pain disability, a return to work is even more unlikely.
You can lower your risk of getting back pain; call to find out how: (425) 348-5207.
And, of course, if prevention is not your thing and you find yourself in the middle of an episode, we can help with that too!
May 15, 2015
Tylenol In The News…Again
And it aint good. Here is the news:http://www.newsmax.com/Health/Health-News/Tylenol-acetaminophen-lifespan-premature/2015/04/29/id/641565/
We have talked about Tylenol before, here.
And here is another analysis of the issue.
June 23, 2014
Foods that Fight Pain
Here is an article that discusses a collections of foods that assist in reducing pain.
I don’t know why they didn’t mention pineapple. It should be high on the list.
Enjoy!
January 3, 2014
Chiropractic, Back Pain, and the Nerve System – A Philosophy of Health
Patients and the public often think of Chiropractic as a “back pain” thing. Not so. The first Chiropractic patient was deaf and had no back pain. After being adjusted his hearing returned. Chiropractic has always been about the nerve system.
Below is an article I have written for the Washington State Chiropractic Association. The audience is Chiropractic doctors, but you may get a better understanding of how Chiropractic helps so many people in so many ways.
The Philosophy of Chiropractic
This is part of the Chiropractic story that we tell ourselves, and others. It is the “why” part, and it is the one and only part that distinguishes us as a profession and gives us a legal right to exit. It is also our unique contribution to the world as a healing service. It guides and informs our “what” and sometimes our “how”.
Google “The Philosophy of Chiropractic” and the results are predictable: Sherman College occupies the first few places, then Palmer of course. And on about page 13 the ACA shows up with Philosophy listed under the major heading of “History” – (just kidding, it’s not page 13). I checked these real quick to see if what I might be thinking would still be in the ballpark of contemporary Chiropractic practice. I didn’t click on any links but from what could be seen, what I have to say might be of interest.
The Philosophy of Chiropractic starts with the acceptance of the fact that we have incomplete knowledge of health and healing – the “nature” of life you could say. Working knowledge and day-to-day use of that understanding is embodied in the phrase “The Big Idea”. Coined by BJ (Do I need to add Palmer, I wonder?) it was meant to, among other things, focus attention on the cause of health rather than the reflexive focus on what causes disease. That cause is an organizing energy inside of each of us. It is what makes us more than the sum of our parts. This force heals the cuts, and beats the heart. And in our acceptance of incomplete knowledge we hold it’s ancient Innate wisdom above our own understanding. Rather we strive to recognize its effect and understand its limitations, so that we can serve it’s cause while we serve our patients.
Getting “The Big Idea” means acquiring a Chiropractor’s “mentality” or understanding. It means being able to apply that perspective in a clinical (or other) setting.
Chaos and confusion rein in the worlds of scope of practice (what we do) and how we do it (science) but, in the words of my mentor, Dr. E.L. “Bud” Crowder, there are “things we do” and “things we talk about”. While he drew a tight noose around what he considered appropriately “Chiropractic”, he could apply chiropractic thinking across a wide range of practices. Dr. Crowder, a 1947 Palmer graduate would have been around to hear BJ’s famous “Green Light” lecture – when the profession was given a “green light” to adjust below C2. (Note: BJ didn’t label the lecture “Green Light”, others did after; he referred to it as One Step Back to Take Two Steps Forward… his noose was pretty tight indeed.)
But, you ask, how does that “mentality” show up in practice today? Here is just one example: I joined Dr. Art Thompson in practice in 1986. He was another 1940’s graduate of Palmer. One day he was telling a story about a patient who didn’t respond immediately to his care. He referred her to the University of Washington, where they found nothing and sent her back. He sent her back the UW again and they eventually found brain cancer.
The story was told to make another point, but I asked the question: “What made you think she wouldn’t respond to chiropractic care, eventually?”
And he said, “It didn’t act like a subluxation.”
Let that soak in, in my view it’s worth deep contemplation.
Michael Gurian, author of The Wonder of Aging, talks about the “Grandparent Brain” referring to the neuroplasticity of being a grandparent. Being a grandparent changes your brain. So does getting The Big Idea, developing a Chiropractic Mentality, and using that to offer something no one else can offer to the sick and suffering as well as to those who seek to experience full health.
This kind of thinking is challenged in our practice every day and in many, many, ways that go under appreciated and un-discussed. Whether it’s a third-party insurance company forcing us to follow a set of guidelines (CareCore) that contain no reference to “subluxation” or to “adjustment”, or a scientific study carefully pointing out that, while tests for finding the subluxation are important enough to talk about, they (or their results) are not why we then do what we do. (See Spine, Volume 33, Number 25, pages 2809-2818, 2008. The Turner study is a classic that should be studied carefully by all chiropractors but I beg to differ on this point, obviously.)
Fortunately we in the State of Washington practice in an environment where what we do, how we do it and why, are still congruent and coherently articulated in the places that matter. Thanks to a long list of Doctors, starting with the BJ’s and the Art Thompson’s clear through to the Doctors Day, Butters, Campbell and all the others, we enjoy the opportunity to participate in third-party schemes while maintaining our unique identity as Chiropractors. Our support of and investments in the State association and the Trust are leveraged to protect what still exists in very few other places.
No discussion of The Philosophy of Chiropractic would be complete without mention of R.W. Stephenson’s Chiropractic Text Book. A beautiful example of branding, this text highlights chiropractic as the un-Medical health care choice. Where medicine chose to focus on dissecting the body into anatomic “systems”, chiropractic chose to appreciate the 9 Primary Functions. Stephenson also articulated a chiropractic point of view in the 33 Chiropractic Principles.
Wordy perhaps, and a little convoluted for our times, his work does something very important: it helps us better understand what is meant by “natural” and “normal” verses their opposites by relating them to common sense and whether or not something (a diet or an exercise for example) causes someone to hold or not hold their adjustments. In this way he not only gives us a way of thinking about things but also enters the conversation about scope of practice with a chiropractic perspective – and an “alternative” practice “objective.”
How else do we truly offer any real alternative?
Dr. Stephenson wouldn’t have gotten far with his text without close coordination with BJ. And I believe BJ’s many trips to Asia informed his thinking in the development of chiropractic. He wouldn’t have had that much exposure to the Orient without comprehending the principles of Yin and Yang. And in discussing the “tone” first articulated by his father, I think BJ incorporated this more wholistic view of the nature of things.
Words are symbols that convey concepts. Their meanings are a matter of convention. In the pursuit of a better appreciation of Reality, we seem to be as close as anyone else. We are certainly fortunate that our chiropractic ancestors hung their hat on the nerve system as supreme – science is in full support of its importance in health and disease. As we use science to gain a more complete understanding, we seem perfectly positioned to advance our profession on the basis of both reason and science-based evidence that it’s safe, effective and affordable when compared to anything other option.
It’s a sad but true fact, however, that whether it’s policy, science, or philosophy being written about, politics is behind the thin veil. It’s also true that how something is defined and described gets decided by those in control of the conversation, with the loudest voice, and with the most perceived authority.
Still, we have the best job in the world. Of course others will be jealous. For all the best and the worst reasons they want what we have; or, if it suits their purposes, they want to change us into something we are not. We are the ones able to benefit from both worlds in our clinical practice, to understand things from both a medical and a chiropractic perspective and apply our skills accordingly.
No one else does what we do for the reasons we do it, and for that reason we will always get results that baffle those who cannot comprehend The Big Idea (see Turner again).
In conclusion I will offer a quote from Bill Esteb who, though not a chiropractor himself, has gotten The Big Idea. For well over 25 years he has shared that big idea in contemporary language for the benefit of chiropractors and their patients.
“Medicine is interested in the problem with the person. Chiropractic is interested in the person with the problem. Medicine focuses on the circulatory system. Chiropractic focuses on the nervous system. Medicine kills germs. Chiropractic strengthens immunity. Medicine attempts to suppress symptoms. Chiropractic attempts to enhance adaptability. Medicine makes the doctor or drugs the hero. Chiropractic makes the individual’s capacity to self heal the hero. Be proud of the differences. It’s why patients seek out and appreciate chiropractic care.”
Dennis Dilday, D.C.
Dr. Dennis Dilday is a seasoned chiropractor and a founding Board member of the Washington State Chiropractic Association. He has won numerous awards for his service to the profession, including the Chiropractic Society of Washington’s 1996 Chiropractor of the Year. Dennis continues to be on the cutting edge of chiropractic care. He sees patients out of his Everett private practice with passion and proficiency.
October 29, 2012
Fibromyalgia and Tai Chi
This from the World Tai Chi & Qi Gong Day group.
NEW HEALTH RESEARCH:
“Below is an article on how Tai Chi has been proven to help treat Fibromyalgia, with a link to the study. In the conclusion of the study it recommends Tai Chi for further study.
In this newsletters title we asked the question “Why Isn’t Tai Chi Revolutionizing Healthcare?” Of course, given that Tai Chi and Qigong dramatically boost immune function, lower high blood pressure, reduce depression and anxiety, lessen chronic pain, build bone mass, improve balance, and so much more … the should be commanding massive research budgets.
In fact, Harvard Health Publications wrote that Tai Chi should be called “medication in motion” because of all its myriad health benefits.
So, again, why aren’t Tai Chi and Qigong revolutionizing healthcare and commanding massive research budgets? It may surprise you to know that only about 1/2 of 1% of the NIH budget goes to fund Complimentary and Alternative Medical Treatments. This means that Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, Aromatherapy, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, etc. etc. have to compete for the tiny crumb of “one half of one percent” of NIH funding for research.
What is wrong with this picture? When a UCLA study found that Tai Chi boosted immune system function by 50% that should have sent an avalanche of funding to Tai Chi and Qigong research, because it portended billions and billions of potential healthcare cost savings if fully explored.
But, it didn’t. Why didn’t it?
It is time to start asking what is wrong with our health care system? Is it a healthcare system or is it a drug system? Are we as a nation dedicated to health, or are we dedicated to a drug industry?
Remember that these NIH dollars are our tax dollars. They belong to us, and we deserve to have some answers.”
Tai Chi for FIBROMYALGIA
The New England Journal of Medicine
Trial conducted from July 2007 through May 2009 at Tufts Medical Center
Results:
Of the 66 randomly assigned patients, the 33 in the tai chi group had clinically important improvements in the FIQ total score and quality of life.
Conclusions:
Tai chi may be a useful treatment for fibromyalgia and merits long-term study in larger study populations. (Funded by the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00515008.)
Read more at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa0912611
October 24, 2012
Back Pain
Hayden after dog bite
Some days are better than others. At a seminar this year I learned that 80% of chiropractors have back pain. Today, I am one of them. It’s a kettle bell thing again, I will get adjusted as soon as I can and a massage sometime – I should have used ice last night. (Kettle bells have no forgiveness:-)
Anyway, it’s just interesting how it affects things. Remember, when a muscle is injured, it hurts to contract the muscle. That is why, doing tai chi yesterday morning and this morning even more, I couldn’t lift or kick well with the left leg (pain). It’s also interesting to observe that, because of the pain, balancing on one leg and doing the tai chi form was much more difficult. The neurology gets all messed up with pain in the picture. This is what I talked about regarding the new research on chiropractic care and exercise from the Post Falls Malic Slosberg Seminar. Recent research is also why it’s important not to do much in the way of exercise until you are pretty much out of pain.
Fortunately, with Tai chi, I could go very slow, make smaller movements, and not bend my legs or twist as much as usual and I could get through the Hand Form ok. I skipped the Sabre and the Spear Forms (both are much faster with greater ranges of motion expected).
Picking Wild Raspberries on the War Creek Trail
