Whiplash. Most commonly associated with car accidents, whiplash can occur in a trip and fall or in attempt to catch your balance, playing on a trampoline, riding a horse, sports activities, or experiencing the thrill of a rollercoaster ride! Whiplash is any damage caused to the neck area when a sudden “whip like” action occurs along the spine. In most cases, injuries are to the soft tissues, such as the disks, muscles, and ligaments.

Symptoms can include tightness and limited mobility to neck, shoulder tension and/ or arm pain, ear ringing, and headache radiating from base of neck. Severe whiplash can cause whole spine pain, nerve pain, dizziness, confusion, and concussion. Symptoms can occur immediately or most commonly, the next day.

Old school treatments were to immobilze with a neck collar and load up on pain killers and muscle relaxers. While there is a time and place for these measures to ensure more serious injuries are not present and to prevent further damage, new research is finding in most cases, gentle movement and ice as soon as possible is best.  For more severe problems, treatment for the three possible levels of spinal damage – muscle, bone, and nerve is appropriate.

Whiplash can involve up to three levels of spinal damage.  The top level is the muscle level and is the most common injury sustained in a whiplash.  The next level is the bone or spine level.  Bone level injuries occur when the whiplash is bad enough for the spinal bones misalign, which causes arthritis later in life. The deepest level is the nerve level of damage.  At this level, the nerves that carry all communication to and from the organs (28 billion impulses per day) are altered – leading to potential health problems.

Things you can do for muscle level damage:

1. A series of massages eliminates use of pain killers and muscle relaxers that may cause slow recovery time and set up longer term damage. Massage relaxes muscles, breaks up scar tissue and adhesions, releases toxins, as well as stimulating chemicals within your brain to naturally speed up the physical and mental healing process.
2. Spinal Rehab. Targeted exercises aide in stabilization of an injured or weak area, protecting ligaments and tendons, while stretching increases flexibility and range of motion to cut down on re-injury.
3. Hot and cold packs. Talk to your doctor before applying hot or cold packs to an injured area to prevent possible inflammation or irritation.

Things you can do for bone and nerve level damage:

1. Chiropractic Adjustments. Chiropractic care removes nerve interference by correcting spinal misalignment. This helps prevent arthritis and increase nerve flow, restoring proper organ function.  Most chiropractors are specialists in whiplash injuries.  

Going through a whiplash injury is an unpleasant experience, with potential life changing affects.  Visit www.holtchiropractic.net for more information.

Click this link for a story about resolving peripheral neuropathy with chiropractic care.  This story comes from Dr. Kaden in Hermosa Beach, CA.  

3 Arrested Over Raw Milk

1.  Plan meals one week in advance.  Planning organizes your kitchen and saves money.  It enables you to clip coupons for the week ahead and to plan for healthy meals.

2.  Always have a list.  Being prepared helps you avoid spontaneous buys (which really add to the bottom line).  It also helps you focus on the healthy choices, rather than the hugely promoted “junk foods”.

3.  Shop in the outskirts of the store.  The healthy whole food products are located around the perimeter.

4.  Buy organic.  Certified organic produce is guaranteed not to have pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or use ionizing radiation.

5.  Avoid processed foods.  Anything that is canned, packaged, or wrapped is a processed food and as far as the FDA is concerned, the package label can be “anything goes”.  First, there is no requirement on revealing if genetically modified organisms (GMO) are in the food.  Second, there are no standardized serving sizes and many companies will use a serving size so small that any attempt to calculate actually calories consumed can become a daunting task.  And thirdly, things such as trans – fats may not make the nutrition label at all, if the amount present in the serving size falls under the minimum FDA requirements.

6.  Avoid genetically modified organisms (GMO).  The American Academy of Environmental Medicine has stated that “GM foods pose a serious health risk.”  There has been very little research on the dangers of GM foods in humans, but animal studies have shown smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partial atrophy or increased density of the liver, odd shaped nuclei, and other anomalies in animals consuming GM foods.

7.  Read labels for “at risk” ingredients. 90% of corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed is genetically modified.  If the nutritional label contains these items, it is a safe bet the food contains genetically modified ingredients.

Use these tips to save money, shop healthy, and shop wise!

Dr. Tom

Nine out of ten Americans suffer from headaches.  Some have them occassionally, some are frequent – even occurring daily.  Headaches are debilitating.  They can cause a loss of concentration, throbbing, pounding, nausea, moodiness, inability to work, and a diminishment in quality of life.  Most Americans use over counter pain medications in the form of aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or a variety of muscle relaxors to combat a headache.  The problem is that this only covers up the symptom and the headaches will return.  There are also side effects from use of over the counter pain medication listed above including ulcers, liver damage, and kidney failure. 

Here are 12 tips to help naturally control your headaches:

1.  Avoid Stress:  Anything that boosts your stress levels will aggravate a headache.  Tension headaches occur with increase in muscle tension at the base of the skull or the upper neck.  Migraine headaches are caused from altered blood flow from within the brain itself.  Stress changes both the tension of the muscles and the amount of blood flow to the brain.  Control of stress will mean less muscle tension, balanced blood flow and less headache.  Exercise, consistently good diet, proper sleep, and a healthy spine and nerve system are ways to help your body disappate stress.

2.  Heat:  Statisically, headaches increase by 7.5% for every 9 degrees of rise in temperature.  As summer approaches, monitor your time in the sun.  Drink a lot of water and allow your body time to cool off in the shade.  

3.  Strong Smells:  Pleasant smells like perfume and deoderants, or toxic smells like paint or gasoline can be triggers for headaches.  If you are sensitive to smells, avoid them.

4.  Hair Accessories:  Believe it or not – pulling your hair tightly into a pony tail can trigger headaches.  Let your hair down…literally.

5.  Cheese:  Certain aged cheeses have a chemical called tyramine which, when broken down, creates a protein that some people are sensitive to.  Blue cheese, cheddar, brie, feta, mozarella, parmasean, and Swiss all contain tyramine.  The longer a cheese ages, the more tyramine it has.  

6.  Red Wine:  Tyramine is also found in red wine, beer, and hard liquors according to the University of New Hampshire.  If these trigger your headaches, avoid them.  

7.  Diet Soda:  Diet sodas contain a toxic chemical known as Aspartame.  It is also known by the trade names of Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal Measure.  According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a professor of neurosurgery at the Medical School of Mississippi, an excess of Aspartame kills neurons (brain cells).  This can result in headaches in addition to a host of neurodegenerative diseases.  Watch for more on Aspartame in another post.  For now, ditch the diet pop.

8.  Caffeine:  Caffeine can both be the cause and the cure for headaches.  According to a Norwegian study, those with low caffeine consumptions tended to have more chronic headaches and those who consumed higher doses of caffeine tended to get occasional headaches.  Their recommmendation:  If you have chronic headaches (more than 14 headaches per month) increase your caffeine intake slightly.  Occasional headache sufferers should try cutting back on caffeine.  

9.  Pain Medications:  I know, these are supposed to help headaches, and many do.  However, if you take them consistently, it can lead to rebound headaches.  If you can, it is best to avoid them.

10.  Skipping Meals:  Low blood sugar is a problem that is interpreted as a chemical stress by your body.  Headaches are often the first symptom of low blood sugar.  Be sure to eat three balanced meals a day.

11.  Dehydration:  Much like low blood sugar, dehydration is also a chemical stress to your body that can trigger headaches.  Children and seniors are more susceptible to dehydration, especially on hot days.  The best way to judge your level of hydration is through the color of your urine.  White or pale is good, dark yellow is bad.  Plan your water consumption throughout the day so your urine is consistently pale yellow or clear.  

12.  Subluxation:  Poor posture, inadequate movement of the spinal bones (vertebrae), stiff neck, and poor range of motion are all causes of headaches.  Subluxation is most often the underlying cause of most of the “triggers” noted above.  This means that if the subluxations are removed or reduced, you are less susceptible to stress, heat, strong smells, etc. that are the “triggers” ofyour headaches.

There are many more causes for headaches, these are some of the more common ones that I see on a daily basis in practice.  Hope this helps!

Dr. Tom

Carolyn Rosenblatt of Forbes magazine posted the following article on maintaining brain matter.  Basically, if you exercise, you get to keep your brain.  If you don’t like exercise, it shrivels as we age, just like dried fruit.  Click on the following link for the full article, How to Keep Your Brain from Shrinking.

It is important to exercise as part of the 3 legged stool of health and wellness that we teach at Holt Chiropractic and Massagein Port Orchard, WA.  Leg #1 – Have a healthy spine and nerve system.  Leg #2 – Have a well balanced, sensibly portioned diet.  Leg #3 – Exercise.  Without any one of the legs, the stool will topple – all three must be a priority for proper health.

As far as the type of exercise:  Pick something you enjoy and stick with it.  If you get bored (as I do) with a particular exercise routine, change it.  Whether it is walking, Pilates, P90X, Crossfit, or swimming doesn’t matter…as long as you are participating in it.  After all, it will preserve your brain!

Until next time,

Dr. Tom

Great link on health and wellness.

Fit or FAT?

What effect do intent, touch, and thoughts have on healing?  Stories have abounded over the years about terminal cancer patients surviving through the power of prayer.  One well recorded incident of this was Norman Cousins, a journalist, author and professor. Upon receiving a diagnosis of a life threatening and painful illness, he literally laughed himself well by watching Marx Brothers movies.

But what is the medical evidence of this supposed healing effect?

In a study on “healing with intent”, appearing in a 1999 edition of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the enzyme pepsin was used to break down egg protein.  This was done in 20 separate trials to reduce the chance of placebo effect.  For those petri dishes that were “healed with intent”, there was a statistically significant increase in enzyme activity.

In a 2000 study that appeared in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the researchers used “laying on of hands” as a treatment methodology for mice with breast cancer.  Five mice were obtained with breast cancer, a disease with a 100% fatality rate within 14 – 27 days.  “Laying on of hands” was used for 1 hour per day for one month.  The results?  The tumors of the five mice blackened, ulcerated, imploded, and then closed.  All five mice lived their normal life spans.  Control mice, left untreated and sent to another city, died within the predicted time span.

The study was repeated 3 separate times using skeptical volunteer “healers” and 33 mice in two different locations.  Overall, they boasted an 87.9% cure rate!  What’s more, when the mice were re-injected with cancer cells, the mice remained in remission.

In a 2000 study that appeared in the journal Alternative Therapies, the researchers wanted to find out if laughter had an effect on immune function.  Fifty-two healthy men had blood drawn before, during and after a one hour humerous video.  The authors’ conclusions?  “Modulation of neuroimmune parameters during and following the humor-associated eustress [pleasant or curative stress] of laughter may provide beneficial health effects for wellness…”

So what does it all mean?

The way in which we touch and what we are thinking makes a difference in the lives of the people we encounter.  Do you pray for those you love?  When you hug your children or your spouse, what are you thinking about? Do you laugh regularly?  Are you focusing on the challenges of your life or do you emphasize the positive?  Are you encouraging to those around you (and to yourself)?

You could be making a bigger impact on their health than you realized!

This is a great article from our friends at Forbes called Pharma Be Aware:  The Next Killers.  The next killers are diseases that, in the opinion of the author, are not getting enough attention on the world stage.  For instance, there are 32 million people in the world today inflicted with HIV/AIDS, but over 300 million suffer from diabetes.  Diabetes, heart disease and cancer are predicted to account for 73% of all deaths by the year 2020 and 19% of deaths in the developing world over the next five years.  The World Economic Forum has determined that these diseases are one of the top four global risks.  Whats more, as processing and centralization of food spreads to other countries, there are a growing number of cases of diabetes in the developing world.

The author implies that it is important that the pharmacological companies take note of the new market for their drugs – that you can live well with diabetes if you receive the right treatment.  He is right – it is important to control diabetes using insulin and other medications as needed.

But at the same time, he has missed the point – the growing epidemic in developing countries can be PREVENTED if the countries in question return to their traditional diets.  Modern diets that are rich in sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and genetically modified foods in combination with a sedentary lifestyle lead to the most common form of diabetes (type II).  As our friends in developing countries prosper, they are adopting some of our nasty habits…and acquiring some of our diseases as a result.

Returning to a traditional diet includes naturally grown, non pesticided, unprocessed, free range, organic foods.  For more information on how to eat a traditional diet please visit the Westin A. Price Foundation website.

Dr. Oz has some great things to say about chiropractic and low back pain.  Quick link.  Dr. Oz Shows Reason for Back Pain and Chiropractic Treatment | newsFuzion.