Running Injury Prevention

Running Injury Prevention

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Jogging is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to accomplish great health. It provides a quick and effective aerobic workout. Unfortunately, runners often encounter injuries that can keep them off the pavement and treadmills. It is a very high impact activity that puts a lot of stress on the bodies joints and muscles making them susceptible to injury.

However, training errors account for 70% of all running injuries. If we can correct these training errors, we can significantly reduce the injury rate.

Overuse injuries are the most common type of injury seen in runners. These can be broken up into two categories, excessive mileage and inappropriate progression of distance or intensity. Runners should limit their weekly distance to 45 miles or 70 km. Increasing the weekly mileage above that will not be any more beneficial to your health or your race times and will increase your risk of an overuse injury. The body needs time between workouts to recover and rebuild. If you are new to running, getting back into shape or looking to increase your mileage, it should be increased by no more than ten percent per week. Trying to do too much too quickly only leads to injuries that will set you back and keep you from achieving your fitness goals.

Besides a well designed training regime an appropriate pair of running shoes designed for your type of foot (flat, wide, rigid, etc) is your next best bet for preventing an injury. Every step you take while running creates a force ten times your body weight that travels through your foot into your ankle, knees, hips and back. A good shoe can help absorb some of that force and help to position and stabilize your foot so it can better absorb the impact. Be sure to shop at a shoe store that has knowledgeable employees who are capable of analyzing your foot type so they can make well informed recommendations. PRI clinic offers a variety of shoes that are specifically designed for running.

Even a well fit shoe can cause problems. Running shoes become worn and need replacing well before the tread wears out. Shoes that have logged 400 miles or 640 km need to be replaced. For example, runners averaging 15 miles (or 25 km) a week should replace their shoes every 6 months. A good way to remember when your shoes need replacing is by writing the purchase date on them. By knowing your weekly mileage you can figure out when you’ll need new ones. That way you can plan ahead, buy your next pair and gradually break them in before the old ones wear out.

If foot, leg or back problems have bothered you in the past, custom orthotics could help to alleviate them and prevent them from recurring. See an orthotics specialist such as a chiropractor at PRI clinic to see if you’re a good candidate.

The take home point is listen to your body, limit your weekly mileage and build up your endurance slowly. Don’t let an injury keep you from keeping your running resolutions.

 

Back to Gardening!

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With the snow completely gone and good weather soaking our backyards, many green thumbs are excited to get outside and get their gardens growing. Enjoying the outdoors and getting a little exercise in the process can be a great way to get in shape. But be careful not to do too much too soon, especially if you’ve been sedentary over the winter months.

Here is a quick list of tips that will help keep the aches and pains at bay while keeping your garden beautiful:

Warm up – don’t start by lifting the heavy bag of topsoil. Start with some of your lighter work so your muscles can warm up before doing that heavy lifting.

Lift correctly – keep you back straight, use your powerful leg muscles and keep the load close to your body. If at all possible, split the heavy load into several smaller ones.

Take breaks and alternate between light and heavy – mix up when you do heavy work and light work. Giving your body a little break in between heavy jobs can make a huge difference.

Kneel to plant – this takes the strain off your back and hips. Using knee pads or a kneeling pad will take some pressure off your knees as well.

Change your position often – this will keep you from overstraining any one spot on your body.

Use the right tools – a hose is preferable to a watering can, a wheelbarrow makes moving heavy loads a breeze, and ergonomic lightweight long handled tools are a must.

Most importantly, ease into it. Overdoing it is the most common mistake people make. Start with a few hours and see how you feel over the next few days. Sore muscles often take some time to show up.

Following these tips should make for a pain free start to the gardening season. If you do strain something and the pain last for more than 48 hours seek some care from a health care professional. Don’t let aches and pains keep you out of the garden.

Intramuscular Stimulation

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Polyclinic Rehabilitation Institute has expanded our services to include myofascial trigger point dry needing or intramuscular manual therapy (IMT). Although IMT utilizes a solid monofilament needle, it is important to note that IMT is not acupuncture. IMT is an advanced technique based on the Western medical model.

IMT is a useful technique to decrease acute and chronic pain and facilitate the use of other physical therapy interventions, such as therapeutic exercise.

Myofascial trigger points are taut bands in skeletal muscle and fascia. Janet Travell, MD identified myofascial trigger points as being a source of referred pain. For example, sustained pressure to the trigger points in the upper trapezius muscle can elicit pain in the head, neck, and shoulder. Some people suffering from myofascial trigger points develop allodynia (painful response to a non-painful stimulus) and hyperalgesia (increased pain response). IMT is a useful technique to decrease acute and chronic pain and facilitate the use of other physical therapy interventions, such as therapeutic exercise.

IMT involves inserting a needle directly into the involved myofascial trigger points. A local twitch response occurs during IMT that increases the relaxation of the involved musculature. The patient may feel a sensation in the areas where their pain often radiates. As the patient’s soft tissue becomes more mobile, referred pain from the associated trigger point decreases or is eliminated altogether. Following IMS, soreness typically lasts a few hours to a few days.

Research has shown that IMT is an effective technique for decreasing pain and increasing function in patient populations such as cervical and lumbar radiculopathy due to herniated discs, osteoarthritis, temporomandibular disorder, fibromyalgia, whiplash, headache, and a host of other neuromusculoskeletal disorders.

 

Age Gracefully

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You know the stereotypes of growing old. They include waning health, lack of energy, a near-zero libido, and countless hours watching television during your last days. The get-older narrative says your knees should ache, your memory and concentration should decline, and you should creak and groan getting out of bed in the morning. Well that does not necessarily need to be the case with you.

12 Stress Management Tips to Age Gracefully

A key component of growing old gracefully is learning stress management. How to deal with and relieve stress plays a significant role in healthy aging.

“The key point is that the right food, sleep, exercise, and detoxification can reverse many hormone problems associated with aging,” says Gottfried in Younger. Here are 12 ways to manage stress and age gracefully.

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables

One Australian study with over 60,000 adults over 45 found increasing fruits and vegetables might help reduce psychological distress in middle-aged and older adults. Among their benefits, a wide array of antioxidant-rich, colorful produce including leafy green vegetables and berries can reduce the oxidative stress that Bowden says accelerates aging.

2. Drink more green tea

Green tea might be the perfect way to reduce stress and age well. Among its benefits, researchers show the polyphenols in green tea can protect your skin against premature aging, and the L-theanine can lower stress levels. Look for organic green tea, and if you’re caffeine-sensitive opt for decaffeinated varieties.

3. Get the right nutrients

Researchers find foods rich in polyphenols can protect against age-related diseases including atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. Resveratrol, a polyphenol found in grape and blueberries, has beneficial effects as anti-aging compounds through modulating oxidative damage, inflammation, telomere attrition, and other hallmarks of aging. To get therapeutic amounts of resveratrol and other potentially anti-aging nutrients, you’ll probably want to supplement. Talk with your chiropractor or other healthcare professional to incorporate the correct doses of resveratrol and other anti-aging, stress-lowering nutrients into your diet.

4. Nix the sugar

Sugar should be avoided for stress management and healthy aging. Blood sugar spikes and crashes, which causes mood swings and low energy levels — but that’s only part of the problem. Glycation, which Bowden says contributes to aging, occurs when excess sugar “gums up” up your proteins, making them sticky and ineffective to do their jobs. Glycation creates advanced glycation end products, appropriately called AGEs, that contributes to many conditions including skin aging. Sugar comes in sneaky forms — even in healthy foods including almond milk — so read labels and ingredients. If it has more than five grams of sugar per serving, put it back.

5. Lower inflammation

Research shows many Canadians eat 20 times or more inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids than anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. The results appear around our waistline and overall health. Studies link inflammation to many diseases, including obesity. Inflammatory foods include potential food sensitivities —like dairy and gluten — as well as foods heavy in omega-6 fatty acids, like vegetable oil. Instead, focus on anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich foods including wild-caught seafood, freshly ground flaxseed, chia seeds, berries, and leafy and cruciferous non-starchy vegetables.

6. Try meditation

One of the benefits of meditation is stress reduction. A study among 40 secondary school teachers who taught children with behavioral problems found that Transcendental Meditation helped reduce psychological distress in teachers and support staff.

7. Stay flexible with yoga

Among its benefits, research shows yoga can enhance muscular strength and body flexibility, promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function, reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, improve sleep patterns, and enhance overall well-being and quality of life. Like with meditation, many forms of yoga exist, including gentle yoga, Vinyasa flow, and hot yoga. Finding the style that works for you might include sampling a few classes or trying out some workouts online. A key component of yoga is breathing, which also reduces stress and helps you age gracefully.

8. Lift weights

“As we grow older, we lose muscle—it just disappears,” says Hyman in Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?“ It happens because our bodies produce less testosterone and growth hormone, and higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.” Weight resistance becomes an excellent way to counter muscle loss, reduce stress, and get (and stay) lean into midlife and beyond. You don’t need much time to get these benefits. Even 15–20 minutes a few times a week can produce stellar results. Form is important, so please work with a personal trainer especially if you’re new with weight lifting. Injuring yourself will only create more stress!

9. Get more sleep

Growth hormone is primarily released during the deepest sleep levels. If you’re not regularly getting deep, replenishing sleep, you may not be making enough of this hormone. Additionally, sleep loss can keep cortisol levels high the following evening and affect the resiliency of your stress response. Getting sufficient sleep — around eight hours of deep, uninterrupted sleep — requires solid sleep hygiene. This includes turning off electronics an hour or two before bed and eliminating anything stimulating that could interfere with sleep.

10. Try intermittent fasting

You can effectively raise growth hormone without a potentially dangerous hormone replacement. “The most potent natural stimulus to growth hormone secretion is fasting,” says Fung. “In one study, over a five-day fasting period, growth hormone secretion more than doubled.” If you’re a new to fasting, try intermittent fasting a few times every week. Have dinner, close up the kitchen for the night, and push breakfast as late as possible the next morning. You’ll get a 14-hour or longer fasting window that will naturally boost growth hormone and can help you lose weight.

11. Eat more quality protein

“Protein is required to maintain and build muscle, and with loss of muscle (sarcopenia) come age-related hormonal changes, higher levels of stress hormones like cortisol, and lower levels of anti-aging hormones like growth hormone and testosterone,” says Hyman in Food. “That’s why studies show that as you age you need more protein to prevent disease and death.” Smart protein sources include free-range poultry, grass-fed beef, and wild-caught seafood. Vegans and vegetarians can get good amounts of quality protein from foods like legumes, nuts, and seeds.

12. Visit your chiropractor

One of the best ways to lower stress and reduce or reverse many components of aging — including inflammation, oxidative stress, pain relief, and a strong immune system — is to visit your chiropractor. Chiropractic care provides an optimal way to age gracefully and reduce stress. Along with addressing vertebral misalignments, your chiropractor can develop an individualized protocol that helps you stay healthy, lean, and vibrant as you grow older.

Chronic stress can sabotage your life in so many ways, including aging you faster. Self-care including learning how to handle stress is not a luxury if you want to age gracefully. With these 12 key strategies, you’ll have everything you need to grow older feeling like your best self.

Also, seeing a Chiropractor regularly during the summer months can also help boost your immune system.

 

Lack of sleep can make you fat

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Finding it hard to lose weight? Although many factors can hinder weight loss, one of the sneakier is sleep deprivation. Research shows people who regularly sleep five hours or less a night can gain as much as two pounds in a week. One study showed women who slept five or fewer hours were more likely to gain about 30 pounds over time compared to women who slept at least seven hours per night.

Lack of sleep increases snacking on starchy foods

Lack of sleep increases cravings so people snack more frequently, particularly at night—eating on average an extra 300 calories a day. The sleep-deprived also tend to eat a small breakfast and choose high-carbohydrate snacks, undoubtedly for that quick energy fix, both of which lead to blood sugar imbalances and weight gain.

As one would expect, study subjects who sleep seven or more hours per night also exercise more, and thus burn more calories, while sleep deprivation prevents you from burning calories efficiently. One study of men showed sleep-deprivation reduced general energy expenditure by 5 percent, and reduced energy expenditure after meals by 20 percent. In other words, being tired slows your body’s metabolism down.

Sleep deprivation increases hunger and promotes fat storage

One of the more profound ways lack of sleep promotes weight gain is by influencing the hormones that control hunger and satiety. For instance, chronic sleep deprivation raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol tells the body it needs more energy to meet the demands of stress, which causes an increase of hunger and cravings.

Lack of sleep also increases grehlin, a hormone that promotes hunger and fat storage. In fact, one study showed that although dieters could lose weight while sleep deprived, they lost about a third of the weight compared to the healthy sleepers. Researchers believe this is due to grehlin’s fat storing actions.

Sleep deprivation also decreases leptin, the satiety hormone that tells you when you’ve had enough to eat. So in a double whammy, lack of sleep both increases hunger and inhibits the ability to feel full. The result is a natural inclination to eat more, and more frequently. Adding insult to injury is that the body burns most of its calories during REM, the deeply restful stage of sleep when you dream. Unfortunately, weight gain due to sleep deprivation doesn’t only happen slowly over time. Research shows just a few nights of sleep deprivation can pack on pounds.

Lack of sleep promotes insulin resistance

Sleep deprivation makes fat cells less sensitive to insulin, the hormone that ushers glucose into cells so they can produce energy. In effect, it makes a person more insulin resistant, which is a stepping-stone to obesity and diabetes. After depriving subjects in their twenties of sleep, researchers said their fat cells behaved like those of someone 20 years older.

Sleep deprivation promotes weight gain in people of all ages, including children. Although sleeping more may not necessarily cause you to lose unwanted pounds, getting adequate sleep is a vital component to any weight loss program.

 

Keeogo for Hip Osteoarthritis

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Hip osteoarthritis is a chronic disease affecting the joint and surrounding musculature resulting in structural and functional failure of the hip joint and causing pain, disability, and reduced quality of life.

Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of musculoskeletal pain and disability. A recent Global Burden of Diseases study, published in The Lancet in 2012, found that, of the musculoskeletal conditions, the burden associated with osteoarthritis is amongst the most rapidly increasing. Hip osteoarthritis is extremely debilitating for affected individuals. Pain is a dominant symptom, becoming persistent and more limiting as disease progresses. Patients with hip osteoarthritis also report difficulty with functional activities such as walking, driving, stair-climbing, gardening, and housekeeping as well as higher levels of anxiety and depression. Work productivity is affected with greater absenteeism, while fatigue and sleep problems are common. Furthermore, people with osteoarthritis typically suffer from a range of co-morbid diseases that further increases their likelihood of poor physical function.

Hip osteoarthritis also imposes a substantial economic burden, with most costs related to a range of conservative and surgical treatments, lost productivity, and substantial loss of quality of life. In particular, rates of costly hip joint replacement surgery for advanced disease are increasing including a shift in the demographic of recipients to younger patients. Clearly hip osteoarthritis is associated with considerable individual and societal burden and, given that there is currently no cure for the disease, treatments that reduce symptoms and slow functional decline are needed.

A recent technological breakthrough has allowed patients with hip osteoarthritis to achieve a remarkable improvement in their lifestyle and improve voluntary coordination of muscle movements. Without the KeegoTM device, patients had a difficult time moving their legs, had to stop when taking stairs from exhaustion, had a difficult time picking up objects from the floor, exerted strenuous effort, when getting up from a chair to walk down the hall. Same patients wearing a KeegoTM device were able to achieve healthy movement patterns during several clinical trials. These same patients were able to walk about quicker, had no trouble walking up or down the stairs, picked up objects from the floor with little effort, and were able to easily sit down, and get up from the seat without propping themselves up with their hands.

If you have been affected by Hip Ostearthritis, please see a specialist at the PRI clinic. This multi-disciplinary team is specifically trained to properly introduce your body to the KeegoTM device, which will allow your body to achieve a remarkable improvement in your lifestyle.

 

Chiropractic approach to ear infections

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Ear problems can be excruciatingly painful, especially in children. With 10 million new cases every year, ear infections (otitis media) are the most common illness affecting babies and young children and the number one reason for visits to the pediatrician—accounting for more than 35 percent of all pediatric visits.

Almost half of all children will have at least one middle ear infection before they’re a year old, and two-thirds of them will have had at least one such infection by age 3. The symptoms can include ear pain, fever, and irritability. Otitis media can be either bacterial or viral in origin, and frequently results from another illness such as a cold. For many children, it can become a chronic problem, requiring treatment year after year, and putting the child at risk of permanent hearing damage and associated speech and developmental problems.

Standard treatment for most cases of otitis media is with antibiotics, which can be effective if the culprit is bacterial (antibiotics, of course, do nothing to fight off viruses). But, according to many research studies, antibiotics are often not much more effective than the body’s own immune system. And repeated doses of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant bacteria that scoff at the drugs, while leaving the child screaming in pain.

Frequent ear infections are also the second most common reason for surgery in children under 2 (with circumcision being the first). In severe cases—for example, when fluids from an ear infection haven’t cleared from the ear after several months, and hearing is affected—specialists sometimes prescribe myringotomy and tympanostomy, more commonly known as “ear tubes.” During the surgical procedure, a small opening is made in the eardrum to place a tube inside. The tube relieves pressure in the ear and prevents repeated fluid buildup with the continuous venting of fresh air. In most cases, the membrane pushes the tube out after a couple of months and the hole in the eardrum closes. Although the treatment is effective, it has to be repeated in some 20 to 30 percent of cases. And this kind of surgery requires general anesthesia, never a minor thing in a small child. If the infection persists even after tube placement and removal, children sometimes undergo adenoidectomy (surgical removal of the adenoids)—an option that is effective mostly through the first year after surgery.

Before yet another round of “maybe-they’ll-work-and-maybe-they-won’t” antibiotics or the drastic step of surgery, more parents are considering chiropractic to help children with chronic ear infections. Dr. Joan Fallon, a chiropractor who practices in Yonkers, New York, has published research showing that, after receiving a series of chiropractic adjustments, nearly 80 percent of the children treated were free of ear infections for at least the six-month period following their initial visits (a period that also included maintenance treatments every four to six weeks).

“Chiropractic mobilizes drainage of the ear in children, and if they can continue to drain without a buildup of fluid and subsequent infection, they build up their own antibodies and recover more quickly,” explains Dr. Fallon. She’d like to see her pilot study used as a basis for larger-scale trials of chiropractic as a therapeutic modality for otitis media.

Dr. Fallon used primarily upper-cervical manipulation on children with otitis media, focusing particularly on the occiput, or back of the skull, and atlas, or the first vertebra in the neck. “Adjusting the occiput, in particular, will get the middle ear to drain. Depending on how chronic it’s been and on where they are in their cycle of antibiotics, children generally need to get through one bout of fluid and fight it off themselves.” That means, for the average child, between six and eight treatments. If a child’s case is acute, Dr. Fallon will check the ear every day, using a tympanogram to measure the ear and track the movement of the eardrum to make sure that it’s draining. “I’ll do adjustments every day or every other day for a couple of days if they’re acute, and then decrease frequency over time.”

Dr. Fallon, whose research garnered her acclaim of childrearing magazines like Parenting and Baby Talk, often sees great success when she treats a child for otitis media. “Once they fight it themselves, my kids tend to do very well and stay away from ear infections completely. Unless there are environmental factors like smoking in the house, an abnormally shaped Eustachian tube, or something like that, they do very well,” she says.

“I have two large pediatric groups that refer to me on a regular basis. In the winter, when otitis is most prevalent, I see five or six new children each week from each group,” says Dr. Fallon. “It’s safe and effective and something that parents should try, certainly before inserting tubes in their children’s ears.”

Chiropractic Care Can Help…

Talk to your doctor of chiropractic about your child’s ear infections. Doctors of chiropractic are licensed and trained to diagnose and treat patients of all ages and will use a gentler type of treatment for children.

Hey Desk Jockeys: Get Vertical!

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This month’s theme — “Get Vertical” — focuses on getting off the couch or out of the office chair, and standing or moving more each day.

Most people nowadays know someone with joint pain, and joint replacement surgery—particularly involving hips and knees—is commonplace. What many do not know is that simple lifestyle changes can in some cases help prevent the need for this type of surgery and keep joints healthier longer.

“Remaining physically active and pain-free is an important measure of the quality of someone’s life, and chiropractic physicians can help by providing exercise and lifestyle recommendations, nutritional advice, and natural approaches to managing aches and pains,” said ACA President Keith Overland, DC. “Just a few healthy lifestyle changes, over time, can potentially mean the difference between being scheduled for joint replacement surgery or remaining active and pain-free well into one’s golden years.”

American Chiropractic Association offers these tips to help you get vertical and stay pain-free:

• Stand up: Office dwellers can look into using standing desks or treadmill desks; but if you’re stuck sitting all day, you can still stretch your legs with a short walk about every 20 to 30 minutes.

• Take micro-breaks: Frequently stretch your neck, arms and wrists, back, and legs. Simple stretches include neck rotations, fist clenches, arm dangles, and shoulder shrugs. One of the things we teach at PRI office, are McGill’s micro-breaks, which help you achieve this efficiently.

• Get moving: You don’t have to work out like a pro-athlete, just aim for a minimum of 20 to 30 minutes of exercise three to five days a week.

• Eat right: A healthy diet—rich in fruits, vegetables and healthy fats—can help reduce inflammation and joint pain. Also limit red meat, refined sugar and white flour. Just a few simple changes can help maintain a healthy weight and have a positive impact on your overall health.

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