What Kind of Headache?

 

 

Any headache is too many!

You feel a pounding headache coming on, but what kind of headache is it? Are you aware that there are many different types, each with a unique set of causes and symptoms? The most common types of headaches include:

Tension-type Headaches

There are two types, episodic and chronic. Someone with chronic headaches often wakes up and goes to sleep with a headache and feels a constant tightness or ache in the head and neck areas.

Migraine Headaches

A vascular-type headache, migraines are debilitating and often are accompanied by nausea/vomiting and acute sensitivity to sound and light. Women suffer more from migraines than men, possibly due to frequent hormonal changes.

Cluster Headaches

Occurring more often in men, cluster headaches may actually be the most severe of all headaches. They usually only last 30-60 minutes, however, they may recur several times throughout the day. Chronic smoking and alcohol use often contribute to the onset of cluster headaches.

Hormone Headaches

More frequent among women, hormone headaches usually occur in conjunction with PMS and menstruation. Women who take birth control pills may also experience hormone headaches with greater frequency. Symptoms are similar to those associated with a migraine – a one-sided, throbbing headache that includes light/noise sensitivity.

Rebound Headaches

Caused by the over use/abuse of over-the-counter and prescribed headache remedies that often contain caffeine. Headache sufferers tend to use the medications in higher dosages or more frequently than prescribed, causing a headache “rebound effect.”

Do you know someone who complains frequently of headaches? Based on the success our practice enjoys with all types of headaches, improperly moving bones of the upper neck are common culprits.

An Ear Infection ... AGAIN?

 

Children's Health Issues image

Another visit to the doctor for yet another ear infection… There’s got to be a better solution!

You wake up in the middle of the night to that piercing cry… again. It can’t be… but it is… your child has another ear infection. And while it’s heartbreaking to see any child in pain, when it’s your own and it’s the middle of the night, you feel helpless, knowing that there’s little you can do but wait until morning. 

Ear infections account for more visits to a medical practitioner's office than any other illness or condition. About 50% of all children will have their first ear infection before their first birthday, while two-thirds will have had one or more by the age of three. 

Ear infections can be either bacterial or viral in nature. Fever, cold or other upper respiratory symptoms may also be present along with ear pain. Although antibiotics are frequently prescribed, if the infection is viral, these are of no use at all. 

Unfortunately for some children ear infections keep reoccurring, bringing yet another round of antibiotics, which encourages the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. At some point in this cycle, ear tube surgery may be recommended.

Many parents have found that the number and frequency of ear infections in their children decreased following chiropractic adjustments. And although chiropractors don’t treat ear infections, many young patients experience increased immunity that helps their bodies fight all types of infection.

In one study, 80% of the children who received chiropractic adjustments were ear infection-free for at least six months following their first visit. They also received maintenance adjustments every four to six weeks.

Chiropractic adjustments correct misalignments in the spine that can irritate nerves and interfere with the body’s ability to function properly. These misalignments can occur as the result of a fall, an injury, or even the birth process because of the amount of force that’s exerted on an infant’s neck and spine.

By adjusting your child’s neck with gentle, low force pressure the misalignment can be corrected and normal function can return. Your child’s body is then able to heal on its own, without drugs and surgery.

If you have a child who experiences frequent ear infections, please call our practice so that we may arrange a spinal examination for your child – so that maybe everyone can get a better night’s sleep.

Back Pack Safety

Overloaded Backpacks!

 (see announcement at end of article)

 

More than 40 million students carry school backpacks. Studies have found that over half of children who use backpacks regularly carry more than the recommended safe weight in their school backpacks.

Too Heavy Carrying Wrong Way

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that more than 3,300 children, aged 5-14 years, were treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to backpacks in 1998

  

Although many factors can lead to back pain — increased participation in sports or exercise, poor posture while sitting, and long periods of inactivity — some kids have backaches because they're lugging around their entire locker's worth of books, school supplies, and assorted personal items all day long. But most chiropractors recommend that kids carry no more than 10% to 15% of their body weight in their packs.

  

When a heavy weight, such as a backpack filled with books, is incorrectly placed on the shoulders, the weight's force can pull a child backward. To compensate, a child may bend forward at the hips or arch the back, which can cause the spine to compress unnaturally. The heavy weight might cause some kids to develop shoulder, neck, and back pain.

  

Kids who wear their backpacks over just one shoulder — as many do, because they think it looks better — may end up leaning to one side to offset the extra weight. They might develop lower and upper back pain and strain their shoulders and neck.

 

Also, backpacks with tight, narrow straps that dig into the shoulders can interfere with circulation and nerves. These types of straps can contribute to tingling, numbness, and weakness in the arms and hands.

  

And bulky or heavy backpacks don't just cause back injuries. Other safety issues to consider:

  

• Kids who carry large packs often aren't aware of how much space the packs take up and can hit others with their packs when turning around or moving through tight spaces, such as the aisles of the school bus. 
•  Students are often injured when they trip over large packs or the packs fall on them.
• Carrying a heavy pack changes the way a person walks and increases the risk of falling, particularly on stairs or other places where the backpack puts the student off balance.

Purchasing a Safe Pack

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents look for the following when choosing the right backpack:

 

1. a lightweight pack that doesn't add a lot of weight to your child's load (for example, even though leather packs look cool, they weigh more than traditional canvas backpacks) Using a backpack with one strap, not two, puts all the pressure on one shoulder. It pulls the shoulder down and can cause back, neck, and shoulder pain. Look for a backpack with two straps instead, which splits the weight of the backpack across the shoulders.

 

2. two wide, padded shoulder straps; Padded shoulder straps help prevent the straps from digging into your child's shoulders, back, and neck

 

3. a padded back, which not only provides increased comfort, but also protects kids from being poked by sharp edges on objects (pencils, rulers, notebooks, etc.) inside the pack

 

4. a waist belt, which helps to distribute the weight more evenly across the body

 

5. multiple compartments, which can also help distribute the weight more evenly

 

Although packs on wheels (which look like small, overhead luggage bags) may be good options for students who have to lug around really heavy loads, they're extremely difficult to pull up stairs and to roll through snow. Check with the school before buying a rolling pack; many schools don't allow them because they can pose a tripping hazard in the hallways.

 

Here's a breakdown by body weight for measuring how much your child should be lugging around in his backpack:

 

Child's Weight           Backpack Weight

 

50 pounds                      5 pounds

 

75 pounds                   7.5 pounds

 

100 pounds                  10 pounds

 

125 pounds               12.5 pounds

 

150 pounds                  15 pounds

 

Loading a backpack

 

• Never allow a child to carry more than 15% of his or her body weight. For example, a child who weighs 100 lbs should not carry a backpack weighing more than 15 pounds.
• Load heaviest items closest to the child's back. 
• Pack all items neatly to keep books and materials from sliding around in the pack 
• If a backpack is too heavy, consider using one on wheels.

Using Backpacks Wisely

 

To help kids prevent injury when using a backpack:

 

· Lighten the load. No matter how well-designed the backpack, doctors and physical therapists recommend that kids carry packs of no more than 10% to 15% of their body weight — but less is always better. If you don't know what that 10% to 15% feels like, use the bathroom scale (for example, the backpack of a child who weighs 80 pounds shouldn't weigh more than 8 to 12 pounds).

 

· Use and pick up the backpack properly. Make sure kids use both shoulder straps. Bags that are slung over the shoulder or across the chest — or that only have one strap — aren't as effective at distributing the weight as bags with two wide shoulder straps, and therefore may strain muscles. Also tighten the straps enough for the backpack to fit closely to the body and sit 2 inches (5 centimeters) above the waist.

 

You may need to adjust kids' backpacks and/or reduce how much they carry if they:

 

 

 

 

 · struggle to get the backpack on or off

 

· have back pain

 

· leans forward to carry the backpack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOR ALL OF MY CLIENTS WITH SCHOOL KIDS!

 

After school starts, when your child has all of the books they are going to be carrying, bring them in with their back pack and books and I will do a free evaluation and set up to show them how to carry their book bag with the least chance of hurting themselves.

Your Desk Is Making You Stupid
Sitting around all day isn't just making you unhealthy. It might also be making you dumber.

Your desk, scientists reported recently, is trying to kill you.

Dying to work???

According to the New York Times, scientists discovered that when we sit all day, "electrical activity in the muscles drops… leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects," and sadly even getting regular doses of exercise doesn't offset the damage. But now there's new evidence of the harm of sitting. Not only is it making you fatter, it might also be making you dumber.

Sabine Schaefer, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, recently looked at the effect of walking on working memory. Your mother may have warned you not to walk and chew gum at the same time, but when Schaefer compared the performance of both children and young adults on a standard test of working memory when they were sitting with when they were walking, her results contradicted mom's advice. The British Psychological Society's Research Digest sums up the research results:

The headline finding was that the working memory performance of both age groups improved when walking at their chosen speed compared with when sitting or walking at a fixed speed set by the researchers. This was especially the case for more difficult versions of the working memory task, and was more pronounced among the children than the adults. So, this would appear to be clear case of mental performance actually being superior in a dual-task situation.

Or in other words, rather than assume that walking while thinking splits your mental and physical resources, leaving less to devote to each, the scientists actually found "an increase in arousal or activation associated with physical activity… which then can be invested into the cognition," according to the paper reporting the research. Walking increases your resources of energy, which you can then invest in thinking.

Why didn't walking at "fixed speed" have the same effect on working memory as walking at the subjects' preferred pace? The scientists speculate that, "walking at the fixed speed, which was considerably slower than the preferred speed in both age groups, might simply not have been fast enough to increase arousal sufficiently to achieve an effect," or that the need to "pay some attention to adjusting one's walking speed to the speed of the treadmill" interfered with the main memory task.

Of course, not every mental activity can or should be performed while walking, but this new research reinforces anecdotal evidence and other research findings that suggest being too tightly chained to our desks is bad for our minds as well as our physical health. Science shows we often have creative breakthrough when our minds are disengaged from the problem we're wrestling with, hence the common experience of getting great ideas while relaxing in the shower.

Getting up for a walk or a jog is another way to achieve this sort of head space--after all, it worked for Einstein. Other studies have demonstrated that even five minutes outside in nature can improve your mood and self-esteem.

Nutrient Depletions

As a Doctor of Chiropractic I’m interested in natural health care and eating healthy in order to promote life-long wellness.

I do realize that occasionally we need to take pharmaceuticals like for example antibiotics.  But we need to be aware that medications can cause nutrient deletion especially if patients are on pharmaceuticals for a extended period of time.

Here’s a list of common pharmaceuticals and the nutrients that may deplete from your body.

With long term use of antacids, calcium, Vitamins B12, B1, D, folic acid, iron & zinc.

W/antibiotics, nutrient depletion of biotin, potassium, Vitamin B1-2-3-6-12, C, E, K, inositol, magnesium, zinc, lactobacillus & bifidobacteria.

W/antidepressants, nutrient depletion of EPA (increased need), Vitamin B2, 12, D, folic acid, sodium.

W/anti-diabetics, nutrient depletion of VitaminB12, folic acid & CoQ10.

W/use of anti-histamines, increased need for EPA-DHA.

W/use of anti-retrovirals, nutrient depletion of zinc, cooper, Vitamin B12 & carnitine.

W/use of anti-hypertensives, nutrient depletion of CoQ10, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, calcium, magnesium & Vitamin B1.

W/use of anti-inflammatories, nutrient depletion of folic acid, iron, potassium, sodium. Vitamin C & glutathione.

W/use of bronchodilators , nutrient depletion of potassium.

W/use of cholesterol –lowering drugs, you lose CoQ10, beta carotene, calcium, folic acid, iron, magnesium, Vitamins A B12 D E K & phosphorus.

W/use of corticosteroids, nutrient depletion of calcium, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, selenium, Vitamins A, B6, C, D, K & zinc.

W/use of diuretics, nutrient depletion of calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, Vitamin B1, B6 , C, zinc, CoQ10 & folic acid.

W/use of colchicines for gout, nutrient depletion of Vitamins A, D, B12, folic acid, iron & potassium.

W/use of hormone replacement, nutrient depletion of Vitamin B6 B1, B2 B12 C biotin pantothenic acid & magnesium.

W/use of laxatives, nutrient depletion of Vitamin A D E Calcium sodium potassium.

W/oral contraceptives, u lose beta carotene Vitamin B1 B2 B3 B6 B12 C folic acid biotin pantothenic acid Magnesium Zinc Tryptophan Tyrosine.

W/psychotherapeutics, nutrient depletion of Vitamin B2 & CoQ10.

W/Rheumatoid arthritis drugs, nutrient depletion of folic acid.

W/use of sleep aid drugs, nutrient depletion of biotin, calcium folic acid Vitamin B1, B12, D & K.

W/use of thyroid, nutrient depletion of iron.

10 Stress Busters

10 STRESS BUSTERS

High Energy Meal

HIGH ENERGY MEAL

Much money is spent on advertising high energy drinks and high energy supplements.  A wiser choice is high energy foods.  Copy this receipe from "DOC's KITCHEN" for a high energy source:

Steady Energy Oatmeal

• 1 bowl of rolled oats
• 1 small handful of chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons of flax seed meal
• 1 teaspoon agave syrup
• 1/2 cup raisins
• a sprinkle of sweet cinnamon
• a dash of salt
• 1/2 cup of skim milk

 Cook the oatmeal according to package directions. Add toppings and milk and serve.

(A bowl of this nutrient packed oatmeal will keep you going strong all day long and defeat sugar cravings.  A teaspoon  of agave syrup adds just the right amount of sweetness without upping the glycemic index of this healthy breakfast.  The walnuts and flax seed meal add important essential fatty acids.)