Chiropractic Works

Archive for August, 2009

Does hip pain wake you up in the night and make it hard to get a good night’s rest? When you get out of bed in the morning, or when you get out of your car, are you stiff and do you find it hard, at first, to move your legs? Do you feel pain in one or both hips whenever you twist or rotate them or when you cross your legs? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions you are likely suffering from imbalances and alignment problems in the lower part of your body that, in addition to creating hip pain, can in the course of time produce degenerative hip joint disease if not treated.

Even though hip pain and related problems are often signs of age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the perpetrator. In fact, instead of causing the original problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of injury to your hips earlier.

Gait changes as the result of biomechanical problems such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can cause hip pain. Also, if you change jobs, alter the way you sit, take on a new sport or activity, or start driving for long periods of a regular basis, your gait may alter to compensate for these new changes.

In addition, gait imbalances can be caused by carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length dissimilarities, or foot pronation problems. Strictly speaking, anything that creates an asymmetry or imbalance when you are moving can cause painful hip problems.

As part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem, along with adjustments, your chiropractor may determine that you require orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer suitable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.

Hip pain won’t disappear on its own. Hip pain is a sign that something needs correcting. Get out of pain, get back in balance, and get your life back now!

Technorati Tags: chiropractic, chiropractor, hip pain, osteoarthritis

Attempting to keep up with an active five-year-old can seem draining at times. If you have an active child of this age, or if you’ve ever been around one for any length of time, you may have found yourself longing for the kid to just sit still for a moment. However, recent research is validating the long-term health benefits of this whirlwind of activity. In fact, rather than attempting to slow these little ones down, five-year-olds should be aided in being as active as possible, according to a new University of Iowa study. Why? “Because it pays off as they grow older,” said Kathleen Janz, lead author of the study and professor of health and sport studies in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Even if kids don’t remain as active later in childhood, being active at age five helps them to stay lean as they get older. “We call this effect ‘banking’ because the kids benefit later on, similar to having a savings account at a bank. The protective effect is independent of what happens in between,” Janz went on to say.

The UI team tested the body fat and activity level of 333 kids at ages five, eight and eleven using a special scanner that accurately measures bone, fat and muscle tissue, and an accelerometer that measures movement every minute. Rather than depending on kids or parents to track minutes of exercise, the kids wore accelerometers to record their activity level for up to five days.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, indicates that kids who are active at age five end up with less fat at age eight and eleven, even when controlling for their accumulated level of activity. The average five-year-old in the study got thirty minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day. For every ten minutes on top of that, kids had one-third of a pound less fat tissue at ages eight and eleven.

Although further research is necessary to discover what happens to the bodies of the active kids that keeps them in better shape down the road, Janz said that it could be that the active 5-year-olds didn’t develop as many fat cells, improved their insulin response, or that something happened metabolically that offered some protection even as they became less active.

Nonetheless, as exciting as this study is, weight moderation is not the only benefit of early exercise. As a chiropractor I have observed in my own practice that active kids have far less of the usual childhood health issues, like catching colds and the flu. Chiropractic care is, of course, exceptionally beneficial in helping kids to stay healthier. But, in addition, the stimulation to the brain that occurs during activities, especially those that require “cross pattern” motor movements of the larger muscles, i.e., right hand/left leg and left hand/right leg, such as crawling, running, climbing, and skipping, also boosts the autoimmune system and keeps kids healthier.

A large number children today are overweight and unhealthy. Though part of the problem is an inappropriate diet, inactivity is also a major contributing factor. If you have a five-year-old who prefers to watch television or play video games rather than to participate in more active play, help your child to get up and get moving into healthier activities. Moderate to vigorous activity will not only benefit your child now, but will assist in building a healthier future. You can bank on it!

Technorati Tags: childrens health, chiropractic, chiropractor