Health and Wellness

Dec 11 2013

What’s The Deal With Cracking Knuckles?

knuckles01

Ah yes the age old question. I thought that cracking your knuckles was bad for you? At least that is what my mother always said. And isn’t that popping sound that occurs during a chiropractic adjustment the same thing?

Quick answers: No; mom is often right but not always (sorry mom); and yes. Let’s take a closer look.

First off what is that sound? Synovial fluid in your joints contains oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas. When a joint is rapidly pulled apart (think chiropractic adjustment or cracking your knuckles) the volume of the joint increases by 15-20%. This creates a partial vacuum (decrease in pressure) and the gas rapidly releases due to the pressure change. (Boyle’s Law, 1662). The ligaments of the joint that just got stretched out will slowly return back to a normal position and the gases will be compressed back into the synovial fluid. This takes about 20 minutes for smaller joints (hands) and longer in larger joints.

Try this: Crack your knuckles. Then immediately try again. No popping sound the second time. Now wait    20-30 minutes and try again. More popping.

The Missed Adjustment? Sometimes when you get adjusted there is no popping sound, why is that? Simple the joint was not pulled apart far enough and/or fast enough. This is typically because the patient’s muscles are too tight and will not allow the joint to be pulled apart.

Okay, so good or bad? Does cracking knuckles cause arthritis?

Previous studies had NOT shown a link between knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis. One study even suggested that knuckle cracking helped prevent osteoarthritis.

Knuckle cracking and hand osteoarthritis, Journal American Board of Family Medicine, April 2011.

This study involved 215 people, of whom 135 had x-rays that showed they had osteoarthritis in their hands and 80 did not (healthy controls). The participants were aged from 50-89 years; they all had an x-ray of the right hand during the previous 5 years.

The results:

  • 20% of all the 215 participants cracked their knuckles regularly
  • 18.1% of those who cracked their knuckles regularly had hand osteoarthritis
  • 21.5% of those who did not crack their knuckles had hand osteoarthritis

None of them had evidence of neuromuscular, inflammatory or malignant diseases, factors associated with lower grip strength and hand osteoarthritis.

Cool Story! Dr. Donald Unger spent 60 years cracking the knuckles of his left hand but never his right. He reported no arthritis or other problems in either hand. He earned the Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine for this in 2009.

So there you have it, that popping sound is not bad for your joints.

See you soon…

If you have more questions about the organic foods and the benefits of chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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By • Chiropractic Treatments, Health and Wellness, Pain Management • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Nov 27 2013

How To Eat? Part II Organic Foods

English: Organic cultivation of mixed vegetabl...

So now that we know what to eat and some nice eating habit tips from our last blog, let’s explore the quality of our foods. In other words how important is organic?

Scary study! I know we already had Halloween but check out this frightening study:

Farmed Out? Most US citizens are suffering from dangerous diet deficiencies. The alarming fact – fruits, vegetables & grains – are now being raised on millions of acres that no longer contain enough minerals! No matter how much of them we eat, these foods are starving us! It’s bad news to learn from our leading authorities that 99% of North Americans are deficient in vital minerals. A marked deficiency in any of these results in disease. Senate Document No. 264, 1936.

Did you see the date on that study! 1936! So our farm lands have been over used and most of the nutrients we expect to be in our foods are not!

More scary. 80% of organic farmers report GMO‘s (genetically modified foods) being carried by wind or water into their fields. Commingled crops during harvest or  cross-pollination can also cause contamination.

53% of the public say they won’t buy GMO food, but there are no current labeling requirements in US.

92% of soybeans (soybean oil) & 80% of corn (high fructose corn syrup) are said to be GMO!

Whole Foods Magazine, 2008

Okay, okay so you’re scared, so we need to be sure we are getting our foods from good sources.

Labeling for products that meet the USDA-NOP s...

 

What’s Organic? USDA

Single-Ingredient Foods. On foods like fruits & vegetables, look for sticker version of the USDA Organic label or check the signage in the produce section for the seal. The word “organic” & the seal may also appear on meat packages, egg or milk cartons, cheese & other single-ingredient foods.

Multi-Ingredient Foods. Beverages, snacks & other processed foods use the following classification system to indicate their use of organic ingredients.

100% Organic. Foods with this label are made with 100% organic ingredients & may display the USDA Organic seal.

Organic. These products contain at least 95-99% organic ingredients (by weight). The remaining ingredients are not available organically but have been approved by the National Organic Program. These products may display the USDA Organic seal.

Made With Organic Ingredients Food packages that read “Made With Organic Ingredients” contain 70-94% organic ingredients. These products may list up to 3 ingredients on the front of the package & can’t bear the USDA Organic seal.

Other Products with less than 70% organic ingredients may only list organic ingredients on the information panel of the package. These products will not bear the USDA Organic seal. Even if a producer is certified organic, the use of the USDA Organic label is voluntary. Not everyone goes through the process of becoming certified, especially small farming operations. When shopping at a farmers’ market, consumers should ask vendors how the food was grown.

Eat right, eat well!

See you soon…

If you have more questions about the organic foods and the benefits of chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Nov 13 2013

How To Eat?

Ah yes the last two months of the year! A Thanksgiving feast, Holiday parties, food is everywhere and extremely tempting. So November’s blogs are dedicated to eating habits and good organic foods, enjoy…

Healthy Berries are Good Food for Health

10 Tips To Healthy Eating from the International Food Information Council Foundation

  1. Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods. You need more than 40 different nutrients. Include bread & other whole-grain products, fruits, vegetables, dairy products & meat, poultry, fish & other protein foods.
  2. Eat whole grains, fruits & vegetables. 6-11 servings from the bread, rice, cereal & pasta group, 3 should be whole grains. 2-4 servings of fruit & 3-5 servings of vegetables.
  3. Maintain a healthy weight. Your best weight depends on: your sex, height, age & heredity. Excess body fat increases your chances for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, some types of cancer & other illnesses. Being too thin can increase your risk for osteoporosis, menstrual irregularities & other health problems. Regular exercise is important to maintain a healthy weight.
  4. Eat moderate portions. If you keep portion sizes reasonable, it’s easier to eat the foods you want & stay healthy. The recommended serving of cooked meat is 3 ounces, similar in size to a deck of playing cards. A medium piece of fruit is 1 serving & a cup of pasta is 2 servings. A pint of ice cream contains 4 servings.
  5. Eat regular meals. Skipping meals can lead to out-of-control hunger, resulting in overeating. When you’re hungry, it’s also tempting to forget about good nutrition. Snacking between meals can help curb hunger.
  6. Reduce, don’t eliminate certain foods. Most people eat for pleasure as well as nutrition. If your favorite foods are high in fat, salt or sugar, the key is moderating how much of these foods you eat & how often you eat them. Choose skim or low-fat dairy products & lean cuts of meat to reduce fat intake. If you love fried chicken you don’t have to give it up. Just eat it less often. When dining out, ask for a take-home bag or a smaller portion.
  7. Balance your food choices over time. Not every food has to be “perfect.” When eating a food high in fat, salt or sugar, select other foods that are low in these ingredients. If you miss out on any food group one day, make up for it the next. Your food choices over several days should fit together into a healthy pattern.
  8. Know your diet pitfalls. To improve your eating habits, you first have to know what’s wrong with them. Write down everything you eat for 3 days. Then check your list according to the rest of these tips. Do you add a lot of butter, creamy sauces or salad dressings? Rather than eliminating these foods, just cut back your portions.
  9. Make changes gradually. Just as there are no “super foods” or easy answers to a healthy diet, don’t expect to totally revamp your eating habits overnight. Changing too much, too fast can get in the way of success. For instance, if you don’t like the taste of skim milk, try low-fat. Eventually you may find you like skim, too.
  10. Remember, foods are not good or bad. Select foods based on your total eating patterns. Don’t feel guilty if you love foods such as apple pie, potato chips, candy bars or ice cream. Eat them in moderation & choose other foods to provide the balance & variety that are vital to good health.

Some Yummy Studies!

People who eat breakfast every morning are half as likely to be overweight or show signs of diabetes.
Children’s Hospital in Boston, 2003

Skipping breakfast can decrease your metabolic rate by 5%, adding up to 10lbs of body weight per year!
Medical College of Cornell University

How Many Meals? The ideal diet is 4-6 small meals. Not eating for long periods can lower your metabolic rate 10-20% preventing the use of 250-300 calories a day. Dr. Sears, The Zone

10 Reasons To Eat Your Veggies

  1. Keep trim
  2. Prevent heart disease
  3. Control diabetes
  4. Avoid diverticulosis
  5. Reduce the risk of certain cancers
  6. Prevent stroke & other diseases/illnesses
  7. Lower blood pressure
  8. Lower risk of adult blindness,
  9. Satisfy your sweet tooth
  10. Pure pleasure

See you soon…

If you have more questions about the eating right and the benefits of chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Oct 15 2013

Chiropractic Even Without Pain?

Collage of several of Gray's muscle pictures

So a few weekends ago I was attending a seminar for chiropractors and the speaker asked all the attendees if they would want to get adjusted if they were pain free. Every chiropractor immediately responded YES!

I was not surprised by this one bit. The speaker went on to say that most people in the general population would be shocked and confused on why chiropractors would want care in the absence of pain. So I thought I would explain why I want an adjustment even if I am not in pain.

What’s going on here?

First we need to understand why any joint should be adjusted if it is pain free.

With routine daily activities, (driving, sitting at a computer, house chores, etc) in time the soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, discs, tendons, fascia) slowly begin to fatigue and fail.

What happens?

  1. Muscles go into a contractile state with acute or chronic overuse, pain or not.
  2. Acute and/or chronic inflammatory chemicals flow into your muscles and other soft tissues, and they do not always cause pain but they begin to build-up.
  3. Acute and/or chronic inflammatory chemicals get trapped in your muscles and other soft tissues, and they do not always cause pain but they begin to build-up.
  4. Soft tissue adhesions begin to form (starting in 4 days of lack of proper motion) and tighten the tissues.
  5. All of these led to a decrease in proper joint motion, whether it is you low back, neck, shoulder, ankle etc. the same mechanism is occurring.

Then the adjustment!! 

The benefits of the adjustment

  1. Restores motion – both symmetry and range of motion
  2. Normalize biomechanics and load distribution of the joints
  3. Pumps out waste products and edematous fluid that had been trapped
  4. Improves blood flow, thus nutrition to the discs and articular cartilage
  5. Relaxes tight muscles
  6. Normalizes proprioception – position sense and kinesthesia
  7. Stimulates sensory-motor reflexes which improve dynamic muscular stabilization of joints
  8. Accelerates healing – as movement:
    1. increases metabolic rate of injured tissues
    2. increases collagen and protein production as the damaged tissue repairs
  9. Improves the alignment of new connective tissue to strengthen the soft tissue.
  10. Thoracic spine adjustments aid in improving your ability to breath.
  11. Oh yeah, and you feel amazing!!

Note: This is just the beginning of all the reasons I want to get adjusted as every part of your body functions at a higher level after a chiropractic adjustment.

See you soon…

If you have more questions about the benefits of chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Aug 23 2013

Exercise: How To Work Those Abdominals?

Collage of varius Gray's muscle pictures by Mi...

Back In School?

Remember back in grade school when you did the Presidential fitness testing? First you found the heaviest kid in class to sit on your feet. Then with your knees bent and fingers interlocked behind your head you attempted to do as many “sit-ups” as possible in 60 seconds. Supposedly this was testing abdominal strength. Wrong!

In The Gym

Then we got older, finished school, got a job and joined the gym. A trainer (in great shape) showed you how to do “ab crunches”. So next thing you know you are on your back (again) and doing 100 crunches and not feeling your abs fatigue. Reason: you likely were using all momentum (cheating) as you rapidly went back and forth. The only thing that really happened was strain on your neck! Not good.

Basic Anatomy

How muscles are attached to bone dictate the action or function. The abdominal muscles attach from the rib cage to the pelvis. When they contract they pull the rib cage closer to the pelvis or your pelvis closer to your rib cage, that’s it. The abs DO NOT attach to your femur (thigh bone), so any exercise where the knee comes closer to your chest or chest closer to your knee, the primary muscle working is NOT the abs. In this scenario the abs act as a stabilizing muscle group so you will feel them contract, but the primary muscle working is the iliopsoas (hip flexor group).

Why All The Fuss?

The problem is that in most people the iliopsoas group is stronger than the abs. This causes a hyperlordosis (increased low back curve) allowing low back muscles and ligaments to shorten. So if you strengthen them simultaneously you will never overcome this muscular imbalance.

The Neurology

Okay so the basic neurology is that when low back muscles/hip flexors are shortened they are neurologically overly excited, and since they work opposite of the abs they actually neurologically inhibit (turn-off/weaken) the abs. Not good. To properly strengthen the abs we need to change the neurology of these muscle groups BEFORE we do our ab workout. Read on please.

Maximizing Your Ab Workout

So how do we “turn-off” the low back muscles and “turn-on” our abs? The easiest fastest way would be a chiropractic adjustment as that will inhibit the low back muscles and allow the abs to function at a higher level. But if you are at the gym then try this: Find a bench and lie on your side with your leg hanging over the edge. Now contract your low back muscles for 2-5 seconds. (This will actually help turn the low back muscles off). Now take a big breathe in and out and stretch your low back for 15-30 seconds. Repeat this on the other side. This will help “turn-off” your low back muscles and allow your abs to “turn-on” by about 5-15%!

Proper Ab Technique

Now for the crunch. Most people will struggle with crunches on their back as they will likely strain their neck.

So try this: In a seated position with good posture, slowly contract your abs, bring shoulders straight done towards your belt line. (DO NOT bend at the waist as this causes the hip flexors to contract, we just covered that). Each contraction should last for 2-5 seconds and you should “feel it”! If you do not you are doing something wrong. Try 3 sets of 10 repetitions. This should definitely be a good and safe ab workout. Enjoy!

If you have more questions about exercise or chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Aug 8 2013

Exercise: How Important Is It?

Working Out

Let’s Start With Some Quotes And Studies:

“Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

– Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby

“Failure to exercise a minimum of 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes in duration each time is the equivalent of smoking one pack of cigarettes each day. What this means is that exercise is no longer just good for you, it is bad for you if you don’t exercise.” Surgeon General, July 11, 1996.

Exercise Is Just Good For You! This is definitely a wow study!

2½ hours of exercise per week, decreases the risk of all disease by 60%! Framington Heart Study

What If You Don’t?

People 70lbs overweight will spend $30,000 extra in their lifetime for health care. Scientific American, 2011

Metabolism… Beginning in your 30’s your metabolism slows by 5% a decade due to muscle loss.

By 65 you can lose half your muscle mass and decrease your metabolic burn by 200-300 calories.

Can I Turn It Around?

It is never too late! People who became more active in their 40’s cut their risk of heart disease by nearly the same amount as those who had maintained a lifetime of activity. University of Heidelberg, 2006

Top 15 Benefits of Exercise

  1. Increases metabolism to burn calories by increasing oxidation (breakdown & use) of fat.
  2. Improves blood sugar control. With inactivity the body becomes more resistant to insulin, increasing the risk for type 2 diabetes.
  3. Improves immune system function.
  4. Protects the body from cancer & increases digestive efficiency decreasing the risk of colon cancer 30-40%.
  5. Increases aerobic capacity.
  6. Develops new blood vessels in the heart & muscles.
  7. Increases hemoglobin level, for better oxygen transport.
  8. Decreases blood pressure, increases HDL cholesterol & decreases risk of blood clots, heart disease & stroke.
  9. Maintains, tones & strengthens muscles & increases muscular endurance. Inactivity causes muscles to atrophy, for women in their 40s & men in their 50s.
  10. Increases bone strength. Lack of activity leads to bone weakness, osteoporosis & bone loss.
  11. Increases thickness of joint cartilage.
  12. Increases blood flow to the skin.
  13. Improves sleep patterns.
  14. Decreases risk of cognitive decline & dementia.
  15. Decreases risk of depression & symptoms of those already depressed.

What Should I Do?

Current recommendations: 30 minutes of exercise 5 days per week.

Remember there are 1,440 minutes in a day and 168 hours in a week, 30 minutes is only 2% of a day!

If you have more questions about exercise or chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Jul 21 2013

Inflammation & Pain: Good or Bad?

Inflammation and Pain - Good or Bad?

Okay, so let’s take a look at inflammation. Many people think that inflammation is a bad thing. Well sometimes it is and sometimes not.

Acute Inflammation

Remember the acute inflammatory process is what helps heal the tissue. Hypothetically, if it were possible to remove all the inflammatory chemicals after an injury, the damaged tissue would NOT heal. The key is to control inflammation versus stopping it.

Ice vs. Heat

So if the injury is severe and there are obvious signs of inflammation; (pain, heat, redness, swelling and loss of function), then ice works well as it causes the blood vessels to vasoconstrict thus slowing down the flow of inflammatory chemicals into the injured soft tissue.

If the injury is mild and there are minimal or no signs of inflammation then heat works well. Think about what works best after a hard day’s work. A nice hot tub is effective as your muscles are tight and even though there is some minor inflammation occurring it is best to keep the blood vessels open and encourage the fluids to flow on through! NOTE: Always consult with me first in terms of using ice or heat, if you are uncertain.

Chronic Inflammation

This is a bit different. Chronic inflammation may occur in soft tissue from old nagging injuries that never heeled properly or from serious disease processes of visceral organs. This can be serious stuff!

Now For Pain!

Pain should be seen is neither good or bad, rather as an indicator that something is happening. The severity of pain does not always correlate with the severity of the injury. Here are some examples: Calf cramps, paper cuts, hitting your shin on the coffee table, these all hurt like crazy but are no big deal. Certainly you are not headed to the ER.

Try this. Pinch the skin on your forearm. Go ahead. That really hurts, but the lesson is a high degree of pain is not always a big problem.

And try this. Bend your finger back until it’s painful. (I know crazy, silly stuff). A biopsy of the tissue won’t reveal a tumor, infection or any lesion. But releasing the finger and letting it return to its “position of comfort” will allow the pain to subside. We need to think about low back and neck pain in a similar way -functionally.  97% of back pain seen by primary care physicians is mechanical in origin -there’s something wrong with the muscles, ligaments or connective tissues. Physician & Sports Medicine, 1997.

The Potential Bad News. On the flip side many deadly diseases, cancer and diabetes, are life threatening but can cause virtually no pain in the early stages.

Chiropractic Edge! So many people are fearful of chiropractic because it may hurt or it looks like it hurts.

The reality is that for most patients it is a painless event. More importantly it can give you great relief! It is possible that you may be sore for a few days after the initial adjustment or two, but that is just old trapped inflammatory chemicals releasing and new chemicals flowing in. This can last 1-3 days and is a NORMAL part of the healing process.

If you have more questions about inflammation or chiropractic just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Jun 13 2013

Proper Stretching – How and Why to Do It

Tight Muscles. First we need to understand why a muscle is tight.

Muscles can be short and tight for many reasons:

  1. physiologically the muscle is in a partially contracted state from posture or overuse
  2. neurologically the muscle is in an “on” state or excited overly contracted state
  3. adhesions have formed in and around the joint and/or muscle causing restriction
  4. decreased blood flow, which means less oxygen and nutrients (electrolytes) that allow for proper muscular function

There are many stretching techniques. All stretching methods can be effective, but there are a couple tricks that can make your stretching even more beneficial.  Let’s take a look.

Collage of several of Gray's muscle pictures, ...
Collage of several of Gray’s muscle pictures, by Mikael Häggström (User:Mikael Häggström) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Classic Stretching. What we learned in high school was just stretch the tight muscle. This is relatively ineffective because the tight muscle is still attempting to contract or is in a partially contracted state. You will still gain some flexibility but this is the least effective method.

Try This. Sit on the floor and with your feet out in front of you and knees open and extended try and touch your toes. This is your baseline study. Now take a big breathe in (2-5 seconds) and then blow it out and try to touch your toes again. You will likely notice a big difference. Lesson: muscles love oxygen, this is why when you go for a hike you breathe harder as your muscles are simply demanding more oxygen!

Another Trick. Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Stretching (What is that?)

Try This. Sit on the floor and with your feet out in front of you and knees open and extended contract all of your posterior muscles, that is your calves, hamstrings and gluts (butt muscles), effectively your toes will be pointing away, (plantar flexion). Contract these muscles for 5-10 seconds, then relax for 1-2 seconds, while you take a slow deep breath, (2-5 seconds). Now stretch again and try and touch your toes. Again you will likely notice a marked difference.

This technique is called “Contract-Relax-Passive Stretch” and should be used for all stretches.

Here is the protocol for all muscles:

Contract muscle to be stretched for 5-10 seconds.

Relax it for 1-2 seconds, while taking a slow deep breath for 2-5 seconds.

Passively stretch the muscle & hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds or less based on your tolerance/comfort.

Repeat 3-5x or less based on your tolerance/comfort or need.

Allow 30-60 seconds of rest between repetitions.

In the next blog we will discuss bad stretches and what to avoid, until then stay loose!

If you have more questions about stretching just ask: Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Mar 25 2013

The Importance of Good Posture

English: Bad posture

We always hear about the importance of posture. Your mom or a teacher constantly reminded you when you were young to “sit-up straight”! So let’s take a closer look and see if they were onto something.

First a study and the importance of posture?

Posture affects and moderates: spinal pain, headache, mood, blood pressure, pulse, respiration, sympathetic function, homeostasis, autonomic regulation, breathing and hormone production. Sound pretty important!

American Journal of Pain Management, 1994

Dramatic respiratory changes.

Did you know that after age 20 that your vital capacity, (maximum volume of air that a person can exhale after maximum inhalation), decreases 5-20% per decade! Mostly due to postural changes! Brian K Ross MD, University of Washington

A quote from someone in the know:

“Better than 90% of the energy output of the brain is used in relating to the physical body in its gravitational field. The more mechanically distorted a person is (bad posture), the less energy available for thinking, metabolism and healing.” – Dr. Roger Sperry, Nobel Laureate

Sit-up Straight! Loss of proper joint structure and function (due to poor posture) increases adhesion formation in the soft tissue in and around the spine. Grieve, Common Vertebral Joint Problems, 1988

Now go take a look. Next time you are out, start observing people over 50. First ask yourself; do they have good or bad posture. Then ask yourself if they look healthy or not. You will discover that almost always people with good posture look younger and healthier than those with bad posture. Very interesting indeed.

How about a couple of demonstrations? Try this.

First sit-up straight and take a big breath in and out. Notice how full a breath you can take.  Now hunch over and breathe again. The difference is obvious. With chiropractic adjustments and proper stretching you can maintain or improve your ability to breathe.

Here is another demonstration. Try this.

Stand up straight with good posture, (head directly over shoulders, no tilted head) and put your arm out at 90° to your side. Have someone behind you push down on your arm as you resist their effort. Your shoulder should hold strong. Now slump over (anterior head translation and flexion) with bad posture and have your partner push down again, your shoulder should be weak and you should have some difficulty holding it up. That does seem odd, it is as if your muscle was shut off. Try this on your family and friends.

Explanation. With good posture your brain can communicate through your spinal cord to all your muscles and vital organs. In turn your muscles and vital organs can communicate back to your brain. This is your autonomic nervous system at work. There is a constant two-way flow of information that helps run all your systems and keeps you alive. With poor posture you can see that information is slowed and the systems do not work at 100%. With proper posture you can maintain proper nervous system function.

Big benefit! Maintaining your autonomic nervous system function is one of many benefits of chiropractic care that has nothing to do with pain. All too often the public thinks that chiropractic care is only useful for low back pain. Not so, in future blogs we will continue to discuss other benefits of care that are not pain related.

Chiropractic adjustments: Routine care is the best way to maintain proper posture. If you have more questions about the importance of posture and how chiropractic care can help, talk to Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Mar 11 2013

Weak, Thin Bones (Osteoporosis)?

10 million Americans have osteoporosis and 34 million more have low bone mass, called osteopenia, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Bones are NOT dead sticks holding you up. Bones continually change throughout your life, with some bone cells dissolving and new bone cells growing back in a process called remodeling. With this lifelong turnover of bone cells, you replace most of your skeleton every 10 years!

bones with osteoporosisspine_2spine_1

Some pictures! For people with osteoporosis, bone loss outpaces the growth of new bone. Remember Wolff’s law? (please review December 2012 blog on bone spurs). The idea of “if you don’t use it, you lose it” applies to bone! If the loading on a bone decreases, the bone will become weaker due to lack of proper turnover, with decreased bony stimulus the remodeling of bone slows and new bone is not formed at the proper rate, so there is a net loss of bone mass.

Consequently bones become porous, brittle, and prone to fracture, (see picture comparison on upper left). Now look at an X-ray of the spine with normal bone density, (x-ray on left), and you see a dense matrix of bone cells or a whiter vertebral body. The arrow in the x-ray on the left is pointing to a degenerated disc, notice the decreased disc height and signs of degeneration (please review December 2012 blog on bone spurs).

Now look at the spinal x-ray on the right with osteoporosis, and you see mostly air (blackness or darkening). The bony matrix has mostly dissolved, you only see a thin white outline of each vertebra.

spine_3

With the bone thinning you are at a higher risk of a compression fracture, (see below).

Why does the bone thin? There are many reasons this can occur. Here is a list the primary culprits: low estrogen levels in women, low testosterone in men, lack of calcium, lack of Vitamin D, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and medications.

What to do?

Bone density: First get your bone density checked. Always think of prevention versus waiting for this to happen and then trying to correct the problem.

Stretching/exercise: Bones demand to be stressed to stay healthy. So daily activity, weight lifting, stretching, outdoor activities, all will help decrease your risk.

Proper nutrition: Make sure you get your proper amount of Vitamin D and Calcium.

Chiropractic adjustments: Again routine care is the best way to maintain proper joint motion allowing. Proper joint motion will increase the effectiveness of the exercise and nutrition.

If you have more questions about osteoporosis, chiropractic adjustments, exercise, or diet talk to Dr. Lance Casazza.

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Casazza Chiropractic
2716 V Street, Sacramento CA 95818
Office: (916) 447-2200 – Fax (916) 447-7930
Email Dr. Casazza: doctorlance@hotmail.com

Hours
Mon. 8-1 and 3-5; Tues. 8-1 and 4-6
Wed. 7-10:30; Thurs. 8-1  and 4-6
Fri. 8-1 and 3-5; Sat. 8:30-11

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