Fall Seasonal Aches & Pains

With Summer winding down and Fall around the corner, many of us are rushing to complete annual fall chores in preparation for the winter rainy season. Raking leaves, clearing brush, unclogging gutters, repairing leaks and gaps in housing foundation, and adding a protectant coating to your deck are all common and necessary activities that can leave even the most fit participants sore and tense, and sometimes worse. Follow the suggestions below from the CDC and Yahoo HealthDay to prevent injuries do to falls and general strain!


In 2008 in the United States, about 617,000 people suffered injuries caused by rakes, other outdoor garden supplies and ladders, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission noted.

So to help avoid becoming one of those statistics, the AAOS offers the following autumn chore safety tips:

* Warm up for at least 10 minutes with some stretching and light exercise before beginning work in the yard.
* Use a rake that's comfortable for your height and strength. You can prevent blisters by wearing gloves or using a rake with a padded handle.
* Make sure that hats or scarves don't block your vision, and watch out for large rocks, low branches, tree stumps or uneven surfaces.
* Vary your movements and alternate your leg and arm positions often. When picking up leaves, bend at the knees, not at the waist.
* Wear shoes or boots with slip-resistant soles.
* Don't overfill leaf bags, especially if the leaves are wet. You should be able to carry bags comfortably.
* Don't throw leaves over your shoulder or to the side. That kind of twisting motion places undue stress on your back.
* Inspect ladders for loose screws, hinges or rungs, and make sure it is free of mud, dirt or liquids.
* Make sure all ladder legs rest on a firm, level surface. Don't use ladders on uneven ground or soft, muddy earth.
* Always face a ladder when climbing and descending.
* Confirm that the ladder is fully open and locked before you climb it.
* Angle ladders about 75 degrees from the ground.
* Don't sit or stand on the top of the ladder or on its pail shelf.
* Use the right ladder for the job. Step stools or utility ladders are good for working at low or medium heights, while extension ladders should be used outdoors to reach high places.

And remember, even the general strain caused by these activities can cause adverse reactions to your body! See your chiropractor after strenuous activity to ensure that your alignment is adequate as your fatigued muscles heal!

Our Patients Speak

September 23, 2009

Dear Dr. Lachuta.

I am writing to tell you how much you have helped me since I first started seeing you for chiropractic treatments. Beginning with my first appointment, I have experienced much improvement in my physical condition.

In addition to the improvements in my spinal alignment, which I expected, I have brought some things to your attention which you treated with fine results. For example, one time I mentioned to you that I had been experiencing some spasms in my left arm. What you did that day resulted in no more spasms in that arm.

I also told you about my toes seeming to be "curling" and possibly becoming "hammer toes." You have been treating that, as well as other conditions. My toes, too, are much more straight.

In general, I know that the professional skill and expertise you have and have been using with me have benefited my body health very significantly. I thank you very much for all you have done and I look forward to seeing you to maintain the good results and to correct any future problems which may occur. Thank you again.

Very truly yours,

Mary Anna Mohrman


(reprinted with permission)

Controversial Vaccines: To Flu Shot or Not?

Vaccination is a very controversial and emotional issue today. It is not a chiropractic issue, nor has it ever been. It is a freedom of choice issue. You as the parent have the ultimate responsibility for your child’s health and well-being, and you, not your doctor, state, or federal health officials, will live with and be responsible for the consequences of your decision. Vaccines are portrayed as being indispensable and somehow better at disease protection than our innate biological defenses and nutritional resources have accomplished for thousands of years.
The Anthon reports that medical experts with financial ties to the vaccine manufacturers heavily influence the government’s decisions endangering the health of innocent children to enhance profit. In the U.S. alone, they estimated that over $1 billion is generated each year from profits.

“Although I administered them myself during my early years of practice, I have become a steadfast opponent of mass inoculations because of the myriad hazards they present.”
Robert Mendelson, M.D.

“Immunizations promote certain types of chronic diseases. And far from providing a genuine immunity, the vaccines are actually a form of immunosuppression…I could no longer bring myself to give the injections to children even when the parents wished me to.”
Richard Moskowitz, M.D.
“Isn’t it ironic that we require or recommend immunizations in order to start school only to, in some cases, compromise some of the children by the very method we are using to supposedly protect them.”
Mark Thoman, M.D.

Not only are vaccinations not able to completely prevent us from contracting a certain disease, but they also have many ingredients that have known reactions in the body. These ingredients include: Ethel Glycol (antifreeze), formaldehyde (preserving-bodies), acetone (finger nail polish remover), aluminum phosphate (carcinogens), mercury (cancer causing agent), phenol (carbon acid – disinfectant), and Thimerosal (carcinogen). On average before the age of six, your child will have been vaccinated 34 times. Many childhood diseases have declined steadily due to the increases in technology, such as improved sanitation, nutrition and health care, but not because of vaccines. In a whooping cough outbreak in Cincinnati in 1993, 80% of those under the age of five who got whooping cough had been fully vaccinated. Every year 8 cases of Polio occur as a result of the vaccine. There has not been a naturally occurring case of Polio since 1979. Vaccination promises protection against a select number of chronic diseases that, for some mysterious reason, our own immune system and natural health resources cannot deal with effectively on their own. The common side effects that have been documented after vaccinations include chronic
immunological and neurological disorders such as autism, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, allergies, cancer and other conditions. These diseases barely existed 30 years ago before mass vaccination programs.
Reactions to vaccinations can consist of persistent screaming, a high-pitched unusual cry, a state of unresponsiveness, fever with or without seizures or convulsions, excessive drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, nausea or apparent dizziness. If any of these symptoms occur any time, you should contact your physician, but this is especially important after a recent vaccination. It is estimated that physicians report less than 10% of vaccine damage and 97.5% vaccine related deaths go unreported. The U.S. pays more than $11 million each year in settlements and paid a total of $750 million in damages presently.
CHIROPRACTIC IS THE #1 SOURCE FOR A PROPERLY FUNCTIONING NERVOUS AND IMMUNE SYSTEM
Chiropractic is a natural, simpler and holistic way of improving your child’s immune system. Chiropractors look directly for a SUBLUXATION; this is a misalignment of a bone that is putting pressure on a nerve creating an interference or dysfunction in a body. There are three ways that a child or an adult gets a subluxation: Trauma – birth process (Dr. Towbin states that 80% of all children are subluxated at Birth), slips, or falls, stress – emotional, family dynamics, chemicals or drugs – antibiotics, vaccination, sugar, NutraSweet, 2nd hand smoke, and pollution. Chiropractors are the only health care professionals who can detect and correct your child’s subluxation. Chiropractors look for the cause of your son/daughter’s weakened immune and nervous system. In a recent study, children under chiropractic care can get sick less often and less severely, and they will rarely miss days from school. Recent studies show that they have fewer emotional and learning disabilities and other neurological problems connected with childhood. Chiropractic Kids also have less need for antibiotics, less occurrence of ear infections, tonsillitis and the immune system strength is doubled.
It is clear that American health care consumers are not going to win the right to make informed, independent health care decisions, including vaccination decisions, for themselves and their children unless they actively push for a change in state mandatory vaccination laws and support large scale reform of the mass vaccination system.


MOMS SPEAK OUT

“I feel the body’s own immune system is far better than injecting an unnatural substance. Most common childhood diseases are not life threatening. Once the child has the disease he/she is immune for life.”
S.G.




For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

Bed Wetter?

Wet linens and a child both physically and emotionally uncomfortable – this is the picture of bed-wetting to millions of children. Nocturnal enuresis, simply stated, is bed-wetting past the usual time a child is potty trained. It is estimated that one out of five children wets regularly. This means that 20% of 5-8 year olds wet their bed. Imagine what this does to a child’s self esteem. Incidentally, the oldest patient that I have ever seen with bed-wetting was a 15 year-old high school student. Over a time period, various reasons have been proposed as a cause of bed-wetting – is it psychological, habitual, behavioral, trauma, etc.? Many methods have been used to treat this affliction. Alarm systems in the bed, hypnosis, psychotherapy, electric shock, drugs, waking the child, etc. However, none of these have had much effect.
Bed-wetting occurs when there is improper function of the valves (sphincters), which control the flow of urine to the bladder. One of these sphincters is under voluntary control, which means you go whenever you want. The other is on autopilot, or is automatic, in other words, the child has no voluntary control over this particular valve. The function of these two is controlled by the child’s nervous system, which keeps both in check and balance.
Beware of ads suggesting that it is okay that children wet the bed, because now there are school age diapers available. These ads seem to suggest that some children’s bladders have not developed properly, so a diaper is the answer. Nonsense! This is called marketing.
Early in my practice, I found (as have most chiropractors who deal with kids) that children who are bed-wetters have responded very well to chiropractic care. The reason is actually quite simple.
One mom said, “My ten-year-old son was fearful of sleeping over his friends house because of his bed-wetting. After six weeks of adjustments, the sheets were dry and my son was able to sleep over without being afraid of wetting the bed.”
Chiropractic deals with removing any interference of the normal functions in the nervous system. Applying this concept to a child with bed-wetting problems can have amazing results.
Remember, 10% of your nervous system controls pain and 90% controls functions like breathing, eating and eliminating wastes. When the spine becomes misaligned, or subluxated, the nervous system becomes short-circuited and does not function properly.


For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.

The hits keep coming...

Conveniently the same week we began to build our case against ibuprofen and other NSAIDS, the American Chiropractic Association monthly News magazine decided in their new issue to target that other common medicine cabinet companion to ibuprofen--acetaminophen--in an article provokingly titled "Poison in the Medicine Cabinet". Dr. William Morgan makes the case against acetaminophen based largely on objective and statistical grounds....can't argue with the facts! Read on to learn more and discover if you too are guilty of unintentional overdosing like so many Americans.

Overdosing on acetaminophen leads to serious health complications. In fact, it is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. and Great Britain, with 50% of all acute liver failure in the U.S. attributed to acetaminophen. Even adhering to the proper dosage recommendations listed on the bottle has been linked to causing liver damage, liver failure, and deaths. Some numbers attributed to acetaminophen consumption per year:
56,000 = liver injuries requiring emergency treatment
26,000 = hospitalizations
458 = deaths

The problem is, acetaminophen is such a popularly used drug that unintentionial overdosing is easier than it seems. Acetaminophen tops the ingredient list for the household staple Tylenol, but it also appears in small amounts in dozens of common over the counter products, including head and backache pills, cold and flu remedies, and sore-throat medications. Now imagine when you are sick--can you see yourself taking a Tylenol or two for a fever? Something to soothe the cough? A decongestant for the sinuses? How about one of those flu pills to curb any symptoms? Without a thought, a patient can easily overdose. Account for the added risk of fasting, alcohol consumption or genetic predisposition to liver disease, and it becomes easy to destroy your own liver.

In response to developing awareness of the potential damage caused by this potent drug, the FDA in 2002 recommended stronger warning labels for acetaminophen products. (This is probably when awareness of acetaminophen usage guidelines appeared on your radar.) In 2009, the FDA made a second recommendation, that the standard dosage be lowered.

On paper, chiropractic care for pain management may seem at a heightened cost compared to "usual and customary care", or, use of acetaminophen, ibruprofen, and other analgesics or NSAIDS. But when you look at the long term cost, both financial and in personal health, of caring for liver dysfunction or failure, transplant or even death, then chiropractic care becomes the much more valuable option.

Some exceptional risk factors for Acetaminophen poisoning are:
-Fasting (either intentionally or in response to illness or pain)
-Dieting
-Alcohol Consumption
-Mixing Medications
-AIDS
-Liver Disease
-Malnutrition
-Anorexia
-Kidney Disease

According the Morgan, "Make no mistake about it: This medication can be dangerous, and the consequences for its adverse effects are grave. Surprising is the fact that we really do not have a firm grasp of how acetaminophen works or what the appropriate dose is...Chiropractic, as a profession, remains committed to wellness and avoiding the unnecessary use of medications. It is our responsibility to share this information with both our patients and their medical providers. Acetaminophen should be used sparingly, if at all."



You can read the full article "Poison in the Medicine Cabinet" by William Morgan, DC, at The American Chiropractic Association online at http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=3549

Now what do we always tell you about IBUPROFEN!?

Finally! Some evidence from the exercise physiology community to support what we've been telling you all along about popping painkillers! It may seem harmless to take a couple ibuprofen daily, but what are you really taking it for? Is it really helping what you think it will? Does it prevent your pain throughout the day? How do you know? Take a look at this article from the New York Times Online Health page from September 1, 2009. As you read, think about how the physiological principles of ibuprofen use documented apply to YOUR use of painkillers in prevention of daily perceived back pain.

Phys Ed: Does Ibuprofen Help or Hurt During Exercise?

By Gretchen Reynolds

Several years ago, David Nieman set out to study racers at the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile test of human stamina held annually in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The race directors had asked Nieman, a well-regarded physiologist and director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus, to look at the stresses that the race places on the bodies of participants. Nieman and the race authorities had anticipated that the rigorous distance and altitude would affect runners’ immune systems and muscles, and they did. But one of Nieman’s other findings surprised everyone.

After looking at racers’ blood work, he determined that some of the ultramarathoners were supplying their own physiological stress, in tablet form. Those runners who’d popped over-the-counter ibuprofen pills before and during the race displayed significantly more inflammation and other markers of high immune system response afterward than the runners who hadn’t taken anti-inflammatories. The ibuprofen users also showed signs of mild kidney impairment and, both before and after the race, of low-level endotoxemia, a condition in which bacteria leak from the colon into the bloodstream.
These findings were “disturbing,” Nieman says, especially since “this wasn’t a minority of the racers.” Seven out of ten of the runners were using ibuprofen before and, in most cases, at regular intervals throughout the race, he says. “There was widespread use and very little understanding of the consequences.”
Athletes at all levels and in a wide variety of sports swear by their painkillers. A study published earlier this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that, at the 2008 Ironman Triathlon in Brazil, almost 60 percent of the racers reported using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers (or NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen) at some point in the three months before the event, with almost half downing pills during the race itself. In another study, about 13 percent of participants in a 2002 marathon in New Zealand had popped NSAIDs before the race. A study of professional Italian soccer players found that 86 percent used anti-inflammatories during the 2002-2003 season.
A wider-ranging look at all of the legal substances prescribed to players during the 2002 and 2006 Men’s World Cup tournaments worldwide found that more than half of these elite players were taking NSAIDS at least once during the tournament, with more than 10 percent using them before every match.
“For a lot of athletes, taking painkillers has become a ritual,” says Stuart Warden, an assistant professor and director of physical therapy research at Indiana University, who has extensively studied the physiological impacts of the drugs. “They put on their uniform” or pull on their running shoes and pop a few Advil. “It’s like candy” or Vitamin I, as some athletes refer to ibuprofen.
Why are so many active people swallowing so many painkillers?
One of the most common reasons cited by the triathletes in Brazil was “pain prevention.” Similarly, when the Western States runners were polled, most told the researchers that “they thought ibuprofen would get them through the pain and discomfort of the race,” Nieman says, “and would prevent soreness afterward.” But the latest research into the physiological effects of ibuprofen and other NSAIDs suggests that the drugs in fact, have the opposite effect. In a number of studies conducted both in the field and in human performance laboratories in recent years, NSAIDs did not lessen people’s perception of pain during activity or decrease muscle soreness later. “We had researchers at water stops” during the Western States event, Nieman says, asking the racers how the hours of exertion felt to them. “There was no difference between the runners using ibuprofen and those who weren’t. So the painkillers were not useful for reducing pain” during the long race, he says, and afterward, the runners using ibuprofen reported having legs that were just as sore as those who hadn’t used the drugs.
Moreover, Warden and other researchers have found that, in laboratory experiments on animal tissues, NSAIDs actually slowed the healing of injured muscles, tendons, ligament, and bones. “NSAIDs work by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins,” substances that are involved in pain and also in the creation of collagen, Warden says. Collagen is the building block of most tissues. So fewer prostaglandins mean less collagen, “which inhibits the healing of tissue and bone injuries,” Warden says, including the micro-tears and other trauma to muscles and tissues that can occur after any strenuous workout or race.
The painkillers also blunt the body’s response to exercise at a deeper level. Normally, the stresses of exercise activate a particular molecular pathway that increases collagen, and leads, eventually, to creating denser bones and stronger tissues. If “you’re taking ibuprofen before every workout, you lessen this training response,” Warden says. Your bones don’t thicken and your tissues don’t strengthen as they should. They may be less able to withstand the next workout. In essence, the pills athletes take to reduce the chances that they’ll feel sore may increase the odds that they’ll wind up injured — and sore.
All of which has researchers concerned. Warden wrote in an editorial this year on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine that “there is no indication or rationale for the current prophylactic use of NSAIDs by athletes, and such ritual use represents misuse.”
When, then, are ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory painkillers justified? “When you have inflammation and pain from an acute injury,” Warden says. “In that situation, NSAIDs are very effective.” But to take them “before every workout or match is a mistake.”

Growing Pains

How many of you have experienced the heartbreak of having your little one cry at bedtime with what seems to be indescribable pains in her/his legs?

You have probably tried all the standard parent remedies: wet towels, walking, reading to your child, cuddling, massaging the legs, all to no avail. The pain still persists. Eventually, your child finally falls asleep out of sheer fatigue and you simply dread this same event occurring tomorrow. Your heartstrings and nerves have had it! Finally, out of pure frustration, you seek professional help only to be told that “it’s simply growing pains” and that your child will eventually “grow out of it.” You can’t wait.

Worried parents often hear such comments. You have probably been told that your child’s legs hurt because the bones, ligaments, muscles, etc., are growing and therefore “stretching,” so it is perfectly normal that they should hurt. This has traditionally been explained away as a normal part of childhood. Does this sound all too familiar?

Many concerned parents believe this theory, for on the surface it seems sound. When you really think about it, however, those explanations simply do not make any sense. After all, when did it ever hurt to grow? And why only the legs? Don’t the arms, the nose, the fingers and other body parts also grow? Why don’t they hurt?
The vast majority of children with “growing pains” are in the very active, physical years. The sudden bumps, jolts, and stresses of vigorous play often produce vertebral subluxations (misalignments) of some of the spinal bones. These vertebral subluxations affect the way nerves control the function of your child’s legs and knees. In adults, this is called sciatica: pain in the leg.

Many parents are surprised to learn that most of the problems I see in adults can be traced to some childhood incident, which caused a vertebral subluxation. Consider this: those of you who are bothered by low back and/or leg pain today (as adults), most likely also experienced “growing pains” when you were little. You may not realize that having your subluxations corrected when you were a child, may very well have eliminated the difficulties you are experiencing now!

If your child is experiencing pain in the legs, or “restless legs,” a visit to a chiropractor with pediatric experience should be a priority.


For additional information, please call Northgate Chiropractic at
(206) 367-2224.