Friday, October 14, 2016

Chiropractic Care for Digestion




Digestive disorders are an extremely common problem that people face today and the epidemic only seems to be getting worse. We have all experienced digestive discomfort in some form, but far too many people deal with this on a chronic level. Most people even choose to live with it until it becomes too unbearable without assistance of drugs for relief. Every year we spend 80 billion dollars on drugs related to digestive issues like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid re-flux, and heartburn (NewsTarget). Yet, our body has all of the necessary tools properly digest. So, why are we being pushed to rely on these drugs for relief?

There are many different factors that could contribute to digestive issues, but first thing is first, you must evaluate what you are eating. Just because your neighbor can effortlessly digest a cheeseburger and fries, does not mean your body should as well. Avoiding fried, spicy, fatty, processed foods can alleviate the systems of digestive dysfunction almost immediately.
 
Changing your diet is a great quick-fix to these issues, but it still may not be getting to the root of the problem. You must understand what’s going on internally. There are many different nerves that operate our digestive system. For example, the Vagus nerve runs from the brain stem to the atlas bone (connecting the skull to the spine) and controls all organs that operate digestion. Often a subluxation, or misaligned vertebra, will block nerves from firing in this region and digestive functions then struggle to perform. When this misalignment occurs it can be seemingly impossible to rid the discomfort, tempting us to rely on drugs for relief.

The all-natural solution: regular chiropractic adjustments.

Chiropractic care to maintain alignment in your spine will prevent these subluxations from happening and cure that stubborn stomach discomfort with no medication needed. A recent study taking on individuals with chronic digestive problems showed that 70% of these participants were able to cure their digestive problems and keep them under control after just 12 weeks of chiropractic care and no help from drugs whatsoever.

It’s important to understand that you should first consider how to maintain the tools your body has given you before running to foreign substances like laxatives and antacids for temporary relief. There is no need to waste money on, or risk the integrity of your health for drugs. Your body is a powerful healing machine and when you help to assist it in performing its natural functions it is capable of anything.

Start solving your digestive issues and contact us to schedule your visit with Dr. Tri Myers now:








Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
527 Keisler Dr. Suite #204
Cary, NC 27518
919-462-0016
Twitter: @DrTiMyers


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Helping the lower back stability and improving posture!!!

There are numerous exercises that can help to target the low back. Two of my personal favorites are low back extensions and reverse extensions on a stability ball. You can also do these off the edge of your bed, but use of a stability ball further engages your core and provides the best grounding to prevent injury from occurring during the exercise. The difference between these two exercises is the part of your body that is being moved. 

1. To do reverse extensions, lie face-down on the ball and walk your hands forward until your feet leave the ground. Steadily lift your legs until they are higher than parallel to the floor. Keeping your legs and feet together and your butt muscles tight, slowly lower them back down and repeat. 



2. To do back extensions, continue in a face-down position on the ball with your hips near the top, hands behind your head and toes spread apart in a wide position on the floor behind you. Slowly fold forward over the ball, rise back up until your body is just beyond forming a straight line and repeat. With each exercise, keep your abs tight, and don't go so far that you feel a pinching pain in along your tailbone. (If you do- it's a good indication that your alignment is off and you're due for an adjustment) Perform 2-3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions of each exercise.





Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
twitter:  @DrTriMyers

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

New Guidelines


The new State of Oregon Evidence-Based Clinical Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Low Back Pain recommend spinal manipulation as the only non pharmacological treatment for acute lower back pain.

(
Image 1) The guidelines, which have been adopted by the Oregon Health Authority, are a collaborative effort between the Center for Evidence-Based Practice, Oregon Corporation for Health Care Quality, Oregon Health and Sciences University's Center for Evidence-based Policy, and the new Oregon Health Evidence Review Commission.

The Oregon Chiropractic Association (OCA) repeatedly gave written and oral testimony that the original draft guidelines placed too much emphasis on drugs and surgery. A close review of the original algorithm, "Management of Low Back Pain (LBP) (Image 2), relative to "#23 Signs or symptoms of radiculopathy or spinal stenosis," reveals this. For example, if subsequent special imaging (MRI) revealed concordant nerve root impingement or spinal stenosis (#25), the original draft algorithm led the clinician into a surgical or other invasive procedure "dead end," meaning there was no contingency for conservative chiropractic treatment (#26).
Oregon LBP GuidelinesThe OCA responded with this author providing fellow Health Evidence Review Commission members with scientific clinical journal articles validating the efficacy of chiropractic spinal manipulation for lumbar radiculopathy and stenosis, with an emphasis on Dr. James Cox's flexion-distraction technique research. Our evidence-based input resulted in a much-improved final version (Image 3) now recommending "#25 & #27 … continued conservative management, intensive interdisciplinary approach," rather than leading medical clinicians down a path which led only to surgery or other invasive procedures.
Next, the OCA gave input relative to the original draft that emphasized pharmacological over non-pharmacological interventions, not the least of which was spinal manipulation. (Image 4) We vehemently opposed the emphasis on drug therapy, citing the considerable downside to all the pharmacology currently in health care. A close look at this original draft chart's far left column reveals that after the listed "Self-care," the chart originally listed "Pharmacologic therapy" ahead of "Nonpharmacologic therapy." Following our input, the chart was significantly changed, placing nonpharmacologic therapy ahead of pharmacologic therapy, with an additional note of the greater risk for NSAIDs, benzodiazepines, and opioids. (Image 5)
We made our suggestions in consideration of the risk versus benefit favoring spinal manipulation over the use of pharmacologic therapy including "first-line medications," e.g., acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. We referred to the landmark Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) acute low back pain guidelines (1994), which have not been refuted by any subsequent research or guidelines; and which state that spinal manipulation both relieves pain and restores function, while pain medications (NSAIDs and analgesics) relieve pain but do not restore function.
Oregon LBP Guidelines 1

Image 1

Oregon LBP Guidelines 2

Image 2

Oregon LBP Guidelines 3

Image 3

Oregon LBP Guidelines 4

Image 4

Oregon LBP Guidelines 5

Image 5

We also pointed out that the risk-to-benefit ratio favored less invasive spinal manipulation over drug therapy, including the recommended first-line medications acetaminophen and NSAIDs, and most certainly over narcotic medications. We did so using the following sobering facts:
Acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol) is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the United States, resulting in approximately 140,000 poisoning cases, 56,000 ER visits and approximately 100 deaths each year. Oregonians were unknowingly taking more than one product that contained acetaminophen, increasing the likelihood of unintentional overdoses and poisoning. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the second leading cause of peptic ulcers, resulting in more than 100,000 hospitalizations at an estimated $2 billion in additional health care costs and 17,000 deaths yearly in the U.S. - NSAID use is also associated with cardiovascular mortality, particularly in the elderly. These associations exist for both COX-2 inhibitors such as Celebrex and non-selective NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen.
We noted that Oregon's narcotic statistics reveal that between 1997-2007, hydrocodone sales increased by 280 percent, oxycodone by 866 percent and methodone by 1,293 percent, and resulted in 700 poisoning deaths from 2003-2007, with the increasing availability of opioids closely paralleling increased mortality from opioid overdoses.
Fifty-three percent of drug overdoses in Oregon are associated with prescription opioids, an overall increase of 540 percent since 1999 and a 1,500 percent increase in deaths from methodone alone. Prescription drug overdoses account for the most drug-related deaths in Oregon and the opioid methodone is the leading cause of those deaths.
We explained that in regards to increased costs to Oregon's health care system, the number of treatment admissions for opioid use increased 130 percent between 1999-2005. As a consequence, the OCA stood strong stating that for the State of Oregon to recommend the use of dangerous narcotics ahead of proven spinal manipulation conflicts with the stated goals of the Oregon Health Policy Board to "lead Oregon to a more affordable, world-class health care system." To "set standards for safe and effective care" was nonsense. The OCA stood strong for our profession and our patients, demanding that based on the scientific evidence, safer spinal manipulation must be placed in a first-tier status ahead of any recommendations for narcotics.
We are a nation of "pill poppers" and are quickly approaching the 4 billion annual prescription purchase mark, which will result in an estimated annual cost of $500 billion by 2015 when Oregon's universal health care system comes fully online. We explained that this represents only the direct drug costs and does not include the indirect cost of treating consumers who suffer the estimated 2.2 million adverse drug side effects, resulting in over 700,000 ER visits and 1 million hospitalizations each year; nor does it include the economic costs of lost work capacity or lost work days due to these adverse drug events.
We pointed out that recently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nine out of 10 poisonings are related to the abuse of prescription drugs, 40 percent being related to pain medications alone. We concluded with the reality that chiropractic physicians have a proven track record of providing overall health promotion and wellness while also treating an individual's particular health care needs – without all the harmful synthetic pharmacology.
There are so many evidence-based natural remedies that work and so many drugs that don't; it's time to make a change here in Oregon and the Oregon Chiropractic Association made a difference. I am proud of our state association, which stayed resoundingly true to our philosophy and by so doing changed a significant piece of health care reform here in Oregon.
References
  1. Acute Low Back Pain Problems in Adults: Assessment and Treatment, Guideline 14. U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, publication No. 95-0642, December 1994.
  2. Schilling A, Corey R, Leonard M, Eghtesad B. Acetaminophen: old drug, new warnings.Cleveland Clinic Jol of Med, 2010;77(1):19-27.
  3. Lanas A, Perez-Aisa MA, Feu F, A nationwide study of mortality associated with hospital admission due to severe gastrointestinal events and those associated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use. Am J Gastroenterol, 2005;100:1685-93.
  4. Frech E, Go M. Treatment and chemoprevention of NSAID-associated gastrointestinal complications. Therapeutics and Clin Risk Manag, 2009:65-73.
  5. Hochman JS, Shah NR. What price pain relief? Circulation, 2006;113:2868-70.
  6. Oregon Public Health Division, Dept of Human Services. CD Summary, Sept. 29, 2009.
  7. Hedberg K. Prescription Opioid Overdose in Oregon: A Public Health Perspective. Oregon Health Authority, 2011.
Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
twitter:  @DrTriMyers

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Things not to Eat after high intense exercise


       
It would be best to AVOID all sugar (look at the back of the protein powder and protein bars) and fruit juice for two hours after your workout, otherwise you will obliterate the growth hormone response and ruin the major benefit of the workout, (remember the 3rd article I sent about Peak 8 exercises?) which is to increase your growth hormone level. Remember that after age 35, your growth hormone levels radically decrease
A recent study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that eating a low-carbohydrate meal after aerobic exercise enhances your insulin sensitivity. This is highly beneficial, since impaired insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, is the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes and a significant risk factor for other chronic diseases, such as heart disease.

Back to the Growth Horomone (b/c you should be doing the High intensity Innate workout that I showed you before)



The reason why restricting these carbs after exercise works is that they will prevent the production of the hormone somatostatin. One of the primary purposes of this hormone is to inhibit the production of human growth hormone.


Virtually all exercises, certainly nearly all cardio or standard aerobics, fail miserably when it comes to increasing growth hormone. So if you decide to use the only type of exercise that will increase growth hormone, then it would be a shame to make a foolish food choice that would wipe out most of the benefit from doing these amazing types of exercise.


When you break your exercise session into intervals like this -- short segments that alternate high intensity with a rest period in-between - you can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities in a fraction of the time.

This makes logical sense when you consider that, historically, long-duration exercise isn't "natural." Our ancient ancestors never ran for mile after mile without rest or recovery. Their exercise was primarily hunting -- short bursts of exertion, followed by periods of rest.
By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health, and that includes both the production of growth hormones and the burning of excess body fat.
Please understand that the sugar and juice restriction are really intended for nearly everyone reading this whose primary purpose is to increase human growth hormone naturally, through exercise, to improve their health.

There is a very small group of elite and professional athletes who are actively competing, where increasing growth hormone is not their primary goal. For these athletes, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve their recovery time, as they are competing and not so concerned about long-term growth hormone levels.

It is also important to understand that the two hour post workout sugar restriction is for Peak 8 exercises NOT for strength training or, if you chose to, aerobic exercises. Since neither of these exercises increases growth hormone, there is not an issue with the sugar restriction within the bounds of replacing needs generated from the exercise.


Here is a coupon to Sports HQ!! one of the best places to do this type of workout routine!! Take advantage of it!!

 
Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
facebook: facebook link
twitter:  @DrTriMyers
Link to Blog: Blog Link
 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Is your Cardio Working for you?


Which Cardio Are You Doing??



Which one of these athletes bodies appeals to you? The fellow on the left is a long distance runner, the fellow on the right, a sprinter.
The choice is quite easy for me, the long distance, marathoner look is not what I like on me or anyone else. It looks haggard, unhealthy, old, tired, weak, frail, not strong at all.
The sprinter? Holy Cow! Now that's a body! This guy is what women must be naturally attracted to, when they are unconsciously looking for a mate- strong, virile, healthy, protective, full of energy.


Now if you are a woman, consider  these two athletes:


Again, the marathoner looks anything but healthy.

Keep the bodies in mind when you plan your cardio. Do you hit the gym and all you ever do is an hour or even longer on a cardio machine?

Endless, slow cardio will just eat away at your body producing an emaciated look, like our marathoners in the pictures above. You must stop doing this!

Ladies... Want firmer, toner legs and glutes??



You can do this type of training on a machine, like an elliptical or a treadmill!!
Here's a summary of what a typical High intensity (Innate cardio) routine might look like using a recumbent bike:
  1. Warm up for three minutes
  2. Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds
  3. Recover for 90 seconds, still pedaling, but at slower pace and decreased resistance
  4. Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times
Below is a sample chart showing how your heart rate "peaks" eight times during a interval session. Also note how the anaerobic threshold rises with each repetition.
Dr. Mercola's Heart Rate for Complete Peak Workout
You will certainly want to work your way up to this point, but ultimately you want to exercise vigorously enough so you reach your anaerobic threshold as this is where the "magic" happens that will trigger your growth hormone release.
By the end of your 30 second period you will want to reach these markers:
  • It will be relatively hard to breathe and talk because you are in oxygen debt
  • You will start to sweat profusely. Typically this occurs in the second or third repetition unless you have a thyroid issue and don't sweat much normally.
  • Your body temperature will rise
  • Lactic acid increases and you will feel a muscle "burn"
Be mindful of your current fitness level and don't overdo it when you first start out. Also keep in mind that there's no "magical" speed here. It's entirely individual, based on your current level of fitness. Some may reach their anabolic threshold by walking at a quick pace, while others may need to perform a mad-dash to get the same effect.
If you are out of shape you may want to start with just two or three repetitions, and work your way up to eight, which is where the magic really starts to happen. If you can do a Innate Cardio workout twice a week you will increase your production of growth hormone (future article) and start to loose the weight and gain the muscle you are working sooo hard to acquire.  
Try it and I promise you will succeed.


P.S. if any of you are interested in doing a program like this Please visit New Order Crossfit and Get an additional 10% OFF!!!
Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
facebook: facebook link
twitter:  @DrTriMyers
Link to Blog: Blog Link

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Myofascial Lines? What are you talking about?


Some of you guys have been treated by me lately and I have been talking about myofascial lines. I try to explain it to you, and you shake your head "yeah" but have a glassy look in your eye. Its OK it took me a while to grasp it also. Because we are always taught each specific muscle and thats about the gist of it. Well I found this article in Mens Health that actually started my shift in how I treat, thought I would share it with you. GREAT STUFF



Everything You Know About Muscle is Wrong
Discover the secret to building a stronger, faster, more athletic body
Reported by: Christopher McDougall, Photographs by: Craig Cutler

It's horrifying. Right in front of me, a gorgeous young woman named Andria has slipped out of her clothes and is transforming herself into...me. She's removed her shirt and her black
capris. Now she shakes out her blonde bob and stands in her sports bra and panties, a hand on her slender hip, looking like Brandi Chastain about to hit the showers after practice.
Until... "Head, anterior shift," a woman nearby calls out. She checks her clipboard. "With a posterior tilt."
Andria juts her neck like a tortoise, and then lifts her chin. "Shoulder girdle -- anterior tilt," adds James Ready, a trainer for the Arizona Diamondbacks.Obediently, Andria hunches her back, as if she's been punched in the gut.Four people surround Andria. They're holding clipboards with anatomical sketches and hand-scrawled notes snapped to them. We're in a sports training studio in Tempe, Arizona, for a seminar on the new science of strength, an event focusing almost entirely on human connective tissue. Until recently, very little was understood about these elastic wrappings that surround your muscles and bones. But a series of research breakthroughs now reveals that they might be your body's greatest untapped resource for improving the efficiency of your muscles and preventing injuries.
At this moment I'm receiving a firsthand lesson in elastic power, as the four members of my working group continue to feed instructions to Andria. Suddenly, they order her to freeze.
"Perfect!" one of the women says. Then she turns to me. "That's you."
"You to a T," Ready agrees.
Before the session with Andria, they'd assessed my posture. I'd come in with nagging heel pain, but as they eyed me up and down, that was the one part of my body they ignored.
Pain and power, they believe, are all about posture. Unfortunately, so is pride. During my assessment, I'd done my cheating best to throw my shoulders back and stand tall. But now
as I look at my reflection in Andria's body, I can see that my muscles had no chance against the steady pull of my elastic tissue. One of her shoulders is caved, her head juts like a
Neanderthal's, her hips are crooked. I'm still not sure what that has to do with my heel, but even though she's the one in her underwear, I've never felt more naked in my life.
What's so special about muscles, anyway?
That's what Thomas Myers, who's leading the seminar, wonders. Myers is the author of Anatomy Trains and a top expert in the field of connective tissue. He's been exploring muscle
manipulation and human movement for more than 30 years, traveling the world on an academic odyssey that has allowed him to study under giants in the field. He's also been
personally tutored by Ida Rolf, Ph. D., and Moshe Feldenkrais, Ph. D., who were pioneers in human structural studies, and even Buckminster Fuller, the architectural genius whose
engineering designs contributed to a new understanding of human movement.
Myers became a master of Rolf's technique of manipulating soft tissue (a.k.a. Rolfing) in order to release blockages and allow greater range of motion of the joints and muscles. But
once he got a knife in his hands, he was able to take his mentor's work one step further. As he was assisting in a dissection, he became intrigued by the "rubbery gunk beneath the
skin," as he describes it. The anatomists he was working with were slicing right through it because they wanted a good, unobstructed view of the Kagan McLeod ( i l lust rat ions)
muscle underneath. But there was a lot more gunk than muscle, and cutting through it wasn't easy. In fact, this fascia profundis was everywhere. In some places it sheathed the
muscle like the gooey film around a chicken breast. In others, like the abdominal area, it was woven in and around the muscles like netting. Think of your rectus abdominis, or
six-pack muscle: The fascia is what separates and connects each of its ice-cube-shaped segments.

Maybe, Myers thought, the fascia profundis is more than just a condomlike casing that helps keep bones and muscles in place; maybe all that tensile strength is a source of power in
its own right. There was only one way to find out. In examining the fascia linking the muscles below the profundis layer, "all I had to do was turn my scalpel sideways," Myers recalls.
Instead of slicing through the gunk, he sliced along it, gently freeing it from the bone. He found that even though each individual muscle had a starting and ending point, the fascia
kept going. Think of sausages: Each link (a muscle group) is wrapped in casing (fascia) that stretches to the next link, creating a long, connected chain. By the time Myers finished
slicing, he was looking at a full-length body sleeve that resembled a lumpy wetsuit. As he examined it more closely, he was intrigued to see that the flesh suit wasn't simply one slick
sheet of tissue; it was more like a webbing of crisscrossing fibers, strands, and cables, all interconnected like complex pulleys around levers of the bones.


What if everything we thought we knew about muscles was wrong? Myers thought. Does the body even think in terms of individual muscles? Are there really 600 muscles, or is there
only one? Biologists had examined fascia tissue before, of course, but they generally considered it little more than a mixed assortment of support straps and packing material -- the
body's version of tarps and bungees. But Myers's twist-of-the-scalpel technique demonstrated that the link between muscle and connective tissue was more like a series of very
specific straight and spiral lines that run from foot to forehead and back again.
For example, one line of fascia tissue crisscrosses your abdomen and drops over your hip and down your shin to your foot, where it loops under your arch like a stirrup. Meaning?
The angle of your pelvis affects the strength of your arches. Similarly, your thumbs are ultimately connected to your pecs by fascia. Which is why Myers says that people who
frequently use a PDA in a slumped posture are setting themselves up for problems. (See Beware the BlackBerry Syndrome)

Fascia is also a key part of LeBron James's ability to take flight. While everyone's eyes are focused on the ball in his outstretched hand, an eye trained in the functions of elastic
tissue recognizes that all the other tiny details of his classic slam-dunk pose are just as important. Notice the way his trailing arm stretches wide behind his body; how the toes of his
lead leg point upward and the fingers of his idle hand splay wide. They're all part of his blast off the paint, not as coincidence, but as tiny adjustments that make a big difference in
overall performance.
It took a while for technology to catch up with fascia theory, but by 2007, researchers were able to thread ultrasound sensors into living humans to watch what happens in real time
when, for instance, a weightlifter explodes upward from a squat. "In the classical model, you'd expect the muscle fibers to shorten, the calf muscles to pull on the Achilles tendons,
and the fascia to remain passive," Myers explains. "But the fascia actually recoils, allowing you to use far more of the force you generate than would be otherwise possible." That's
why when you rifle a fastball, the size of your muscles is rarely the most important factor. You want to lengthen your range of rubbery, fascia motion to develop better recoil. 
For example, take Tim Lincecum, the 5'11", 170-pound all-star pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. It's likely his ability to maximize fascial recoil that allows him to hurl a baseball at has
traveled to the U.K. to present his latest findings. Recently, Schleip made a startling discovery: Fascia isn't just a bunch of rubbery cables, but actually sensory organs packed
upwards of 100 mph, despite his relatively slight build.
"For many people, fitness is still all about lifting weights to build bulk," Myers says. "But what does that make you fit for? I'd argue that this . . ." -- he taps a key on his laptop and
brings up a slide -- "is a much more physically fit human than a bodybuilder is." On the screen is a photo of a baby boy rolling on his back, blissfully drinking a bottle that he holds with
his feet. Cute, sure; but more important, the little nipper is limber, balanced, and able to match impulse with action. "You are fit if you can adapt to the demands of your environment
with ease and imagination," Myers says.
That kind of thinking recently led the Arizona Diamondbacks to revamp their strength and conditioning program, says James Ready, the trainer in the Diamondbacks system who has
already begun employing Myers's fascia approach. "These days, our big emphasis with weights is about posture, not big plates," Ready says. He has also reassessed the way he
diagnoses injuries. "I've had to step back and take a deeper look at everything I learned in school. We were taught to find the point of pain and treat it. But take hamstring injuries; the
hamstring is usually just the smoke. You have to look elsewhere for the fire."
Power and pain, in other words, are often generated far from their exit points. A fastball leaves your hand at 70 mph, but that speed was generated much farther up your elastic-tissue
chain. Maybe the same was true for my mysteriously throbbing heel; maybe it wasn't falling apart, but was being torn apart by pressure from other parts of my body. My heel was the
scene of the crime, but the perpetrators were hidden somewhere else far away.
You might liken it to the old song about ankle bones connecting to leg bones, leg bones connecting to knee bones, and so on. It's the same with your muscles. Ultimately, they're all
connected -- from head to toe -- by your fascia. So a tight muscle in your foot could cause a chain-reaction pull that leads to tighter hamstrings. And vice versa.
Recently, biomechanics researchers at the University of Calgary reached that same conclusion. The scientists found that most running injuries, which occur below the knee, are
caused by what's above the knee. After reviewing 28 years of studies, they determined that the most likely culprit for an aching arch or a strained Achilles tendon wasn't the foot or the
knee, but the hip. That same idea was tested as far back as 2000, when Michael Fredericson, M. D., a professor of orthopedics and sports medicine at Stanford, decided to treat 24
runners who had sore knees by focusing exclusively on their hips. The results? Six weeks later, 22 of the runners were cured.
"Exactly," Myers says. "Don't punish the victims. Chase the criminals."
IN PURSUIT OF MY TRUE CRIMINALS, I go to London to find the man who, even more than Myers, is the world authority in all things elastic. Robert Schleip, Ph. D., head of the
Fascia Research Project at Germany's Ulm University, with nerve endings. In fact, the fascia is as rich in sensory input as your tongue and eyes are, Schleip found. The upshot:
Fascia isn't just taking orders, it's also issuing them. It reacts to your environment and ultimately creates what Schleip calls "structural compensation." The mechanism works like this:
Every move you make is a physical experiment. If the experiment works -- say, you swish a jumper while cocking your head to the side -- it becomes a habit. All those little habits
become locked in as posture. Over time, posture becomes structure: The man who accidentally nailed a three while his ear was itchy now feels comfortable only when his head is
slightly off kilter.

"Connective tissue is the Saint Bernard dog of the body -- it's slow and loyal," Schleip says. "Once it's formed into position, it'll stick there." (See Is Your Job Ruining Your Body?)
You can contort all you want in search of that mythical ideal alignment, but the odds are against you. The pull of your fascia is so ingrained in your movements, your friends can
recognize you instantly at a distance before they even see your face. Making some kind of fundamental shift in those movement patterns is unlikely, at least in the short term. So if
you can't make the fascia instantly obey, what's the alternative to injury?
"Easy," Schleip says. "Recruit one movement to enable another. Instead of straining to loosen a major fascia and muscle area, loosen a minor one instead."
To demonstrate, he has me stand up and try lifting my right knee until I can grab my foot with both hands. I make it only halfway before I'm tense and wobbling.
"Now grab your knee and swing your leg around," Schleip says. I lift my knee to waist height, grip it with both hands, and swirl my entire thigh for a few rotations. Then I try grabbing
my foot again. This time it comes up easily. "You just loosened the minor fascia around the hip-joint capsule," he says. "You've increased the range of motion in your hamstring
instantly, without stretching or working the muscle at all." If you've ever watched a cat yawn or a horse stiff en its rear legs, you're watching the same kind of joint extension in action.
"That's why you feel such a feeling of satisfaction after yawning. You just popped a few joints loose."
But the real trick is learning how to stop fighting criminals and start putting them to work. For that, you need the real experts.
Old guys and kids.
"The old-timers knew what was up with fascia long before we even had a word for it," says Steve Maxwell, a former world champion Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter who is now a strength
and conditioning coach and an international authority on kettlebell workouts. "You'll always be safe if you go back to the mighty men of old, the guys before the 1950s. Look at the old
gyms, with their Indian clubs and medicine balls. What's that all about if not balance, range of motion, being fluid, using elastic recoil?"
Maxwell learned most of his fascia-based training from old fighters, who in turn learned it from children. One way of seeing if a movement has its roots in the body's natural structure
is to see if kids do it spontaneously. Early childhood is the time for checking out the working parts of the human machine, and one thing kids love is elastic recoil. "Jumping, bouncing,
skipping -- it's all free energy that comes from fascia, not muscle," he says. So it's no surprise that fighters who bounce around the ring on the balls of their feet -- like kids -- spend a
lot of time skipping rope. Get that bounce right, and you can pogo-stick around while barely using any muscular force.
To bounce, though, you need balance. Schleip had demonstrated that to me back in London by holding up a long, Slinky-like spring. He clipped his keys to the bottom and set them
bouncing. As long as the keys came up and down in a straight line and a steady rhythm, they rose and fell with no effort. If the spring slanted off to one side, the balance was lost and
the easy bounce died out. So Maxwell's first job is to find that balance by equalizing strength on both sides of the body. "David Akers, the kicker for the Philadelphia Eagles, was
complaining about how sore his left hamstring gets," Maxwell says. "Since he's a lefty kicker, I just had him kick a soccer ball a few dozen times with his right leg, which never gets
any work." Once Akers regained movement on his idle side, his chronically sore hamstring was cured.
JASON ROSS, D.C., C.S. C.S., a strength coach and the official chiropractor for the U. S. bobsled team, uses a similar bit of movement magic to simultaneously treat lower-back
pain and improve a patient's vertical leap. By standing up quickly from a kneeling lunge position (see The Back-Saving Lunge) with your fists and glutes squeezed tight, Ross says,
you activate that long, spiral line of fascia and restore length in your hip flexor muscles, both of which relieve stress on your lower back. Bingo: just like that, pain relief and power in
the same move.
Back at Maxwell's gym, I'm introduced to another trick. The strength coach hands me a rubber band and has me strap it around my fingers just below my fingernails. "Strength is a
skill," he says as I open my hand against the resistance of the rubber band. "In the old days, every Celtic village used to have its 'manhood stone.' You didn't pass into adulthood until
you could move that stone. But it wasn't about brute force; strength was knowing how to use all the tools inside your body." (See The Secret to Superstrength)
I'm mystified by the rubber-band drill, until Maxwell has me drop to the floor for pushups. "It would be stupid to throw an arrow, right?" he says. "Better to use your muscles to pull back
the string and let the string do the work." Likewise, he has me reverse my normal way of doing pushups by pulling myself down toward the floor, with my fingers spread as wide as
they were with the rubber band and my palms mashed hard into the floor. I pause with my chest just over the floor, and then, startling even myself, I pop up easily.
"See?" Maxwell says. "You tightened the spring on the way down, then it popped you right up." Ancient wrestlers used this technique by creating tension in one direction and suddenly
reversing it to control their opponent. It's like a tug-of-war, he says.
The pushups are exhilarating, but my own criminal -- the piercing heel pain that started me on this quest in the first place -- is still in hiding. Despite everything I've learned about
fascia, I haven't figured out how to deal with the big fascia band under my heel. As tiny as the injury seems, it makes every workout so unpleasant that I can barely run or lift
anymore. In fact, it was the same kind of injury that made Tom Pappas, the world champion decathlete, drop out of the Beijing Olympics. I've heard all kinds of advice from therapists,
on everything from orthotics to bizarre notions like taping my shoulder to my hip for 6 weeks, but nothing has made a difference.
"Forget the tape," scoffs Lee Saxby, a trainer for U. K.-based Wildfitness. "Try this instead." He strips the plates off a 12-pound weightlifting bar and has me lift it overhead. "Now do
10 full squats," he instructs. "Slooowly."
The first few reps, I need to shoot a foot back to steady myself. But bit by bit, I get my shoulders squared and my back aligned over my butt. Once I pull off 10 clean reps in a row,
Saxby yells, "Go!"
"Go?"
"Go. Run!"
I drop the bar and take off in a sprint. Instantly, without even thinking about it, I'm up on the balls of my feet, moving lightly and springily. Amazingly, the heel pain vanishes for the first
time in months. It takes me a while to process what has happened, but once I recall the principles of fascia relationships, it also begins to make sense.
Because I was overdeveloped on one side, I wasn't swinging both legs equally. Instead, I was more like a kid on a scooter, with my left leg enjoying a long stride and a quick bounce
off the ground while my right stride was short, stiff , and lagging. That meant all my body weight was torquing back and forth over that dominant right leg.
Saxby's diagnostic eye is excellent: His prescription of deep overhead squats -- a unique exercise that challenges the flexibility of the upper back, shoulders, hips, and ankles --
serves as a total-body therapy that targets my entire muscular system instead of an individual muscle. It forces me to engage my core, divvy up the workload evenly between my two
legs, and temporarily loosen my connective tissue from head to heels. I've been told over and over in the past to stretch my calves, but my heel pain had nothing to do with those
muscles. It was caused by the shortened fascia under my heel and made worse by tightness and posture problems further up the chain. All I needed to loosen it was the one-two
punch of deep squats, and the quick, pitter-pat plyometrics of running on the balls of my feet. By staying off my heel, I'm giving my arch a good, deep bend with every step, stretching
the fascia even more.
It's amazing; I thought it would take weeks to ease my aching heel, but with proper treatment, relief is almost miraculously quick. I'm not totally cured; as Schleip warns, the Saint
Bernard stubbornness of fascia means that it will try to creep right back to its shortened state as soon as I stop running. But that's the beauty of Saxby's treatment. All I need to do is
keep loosening the fascia daily until eventually, it sticks.
Running feels so good, in fact, that for the first time in months, I don't want to stop. I never would have made the connection between deep squats and light strides, I'm thinking as I
run through the streets. On the other hand, I never knew that movement could be its own medicine.

Beware The Blackberry Syndrome
While texting, do you feel a knot in your back or a throbbing in your upper arms? The problem could lie in your thumbs. Because they're the strongest digits on your hands, your
thumbs are anchored by two major strands of fascia. This tissue extends all the way up your arm and around your pectoral minor muscle to your rib cage -- meaning you have a
formidable force pulling against your chest every time your thumbs are at work. If you always hunch over and allow that fascia to shrink and tighten, you're pitting your thumbs against
your chest in a short-rope tug-of-war. So when you text, keep your shoulders pulled back and use these two simple stretches a couple of times a day to help undo any damage.

Stretch 1
 Kneel a few inches from a wall with your body in straight line from head to knees. Slide your hands as high up the wall as possible. When you feel the strain, hold for a 10
count, and then slide your hands back down again. Repeat once.

Stretch 2 Stand tall, with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Link your fingers behind your lower back so that your palms face up. Then, keeping the natural arch
in your lower back, stretch your arms down toward your legs by pressing your shoulders toward the floor and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Repeat once.

Is Your Job Ruining Your Body?

Since most of us spend more hours a day slumped behind a steering wheel or over a keyboard than we do in motion, the way you sit has more influence on your posture than the way
you stand does. Over time, your connective tissue adapts to your slouch, making it your natural posture. Besides giving you the look of a Neanderthal, it can also lead to lower-back
and neck pain, injury-prone shoulders, and a caved-in chest. Make sure that doesn't happen to you: Try these cues for sitting up straight from trainer Rachel Cosgrove, C.S. C.S., a
co-owner of Results Fitness, in Santa Clarita, California. They're not quick fixes, but the perfect-posture rules you need to follow every single day.
Sit as tall as you can Sure, it sounds obvious, but remind yourself every few minutes, whether you're at your desk or in your car. You'll be surprised at how much you tend to slump
when you're not thinking about your posture.
Keep your chest up Pretend there's a string attached from your chest to your ceiling, pulling your chest up at all times.
Pull your shoulder down and back Imagine that you're trying to create as much space between your ears and shoulders as you can. Hold that position.
Tighten your core Brace your abs as if you're about to be punched in the gut -- but breathe normally. It'll seem hard, but keep practicing, and it'll become second nature.

The Back-Saving Lunge
This lunge is great to do any time you've been sitting for a while, or as a warmup exercise before lifting or playing hoops. Stand tall with your feet shoulder-width apart, and take a step
forward with your left leg. Keeping your torso upright, bend your left knee and lower your body until your left knee is bent 90 degrees and your right knee touches the floor. Pause and
steady yourself, and then drive your left heel into the floor and push yourself up and forward. As you're standing up, clench your fists tightly and squeeze your glutes together. Stand
tall and hold the clench for a 5 count. Then lunge forward with your right leg. Repeat with both legs.

The Secret To Superstrength
To fully grasp the catapult power of your connective tissue, think of Bruce Lee's 1-inch punch. Because he knew how to snap his entire body like a rubber band, Lee had the ability to
knock a man flying from an inch away. To learn how to combine your 600 muscles into one, Bruce Lee-style, try these variations of classic exercises, courtesy of strength coach
Steve Maxwell.

Goblet Squat Use both hands to hold a dumbbell vertically under your chin. (Cup it as you would a heavy goblet.) With your feet shoulder-width apart and your body weight back on
your heels, forcefully pull yourself down with your hip flexors into a full squat. Without pausing or releasing tension, explode straight up. "The beauty of the goblet squat is the way it
corrects every bad habit you pick up from sitting in a chair," says Maxwell. "Most men lean forward when they sit, and that movement shows up in their squats. The goblet teaches
balance and clean biomechanics."

Push-Down Pullup "It's amazing how many men can't fully straighten or lock their arms over their heads," Maxwell says. "They've lost all that great power from their fascia by never
completely extending." Grab a pullup bar with a shoulder-width, overhand, thumbless grip. (Wrap your thumbs on the same side of the bar as your fingers.) Hanging with your arms
completely straight, lats tight, and shoulders in their sockets, pull yourself up while exhaling sharply with a hiss. Pull your throat forward next to the bar. When you lower yourself,
imagine you're pushing yourself down instead of letting gravity pull you.

Backward Rope Skips Mastering the rope means learning how to "jump without jumping" -- in other words, drawing on the springiness of your rubbery calves, feet, and ankles to
turn yourself into a human pogo stick. By reversing the rope and spinning it backward, you have the added benefit of balancing your shoulders, opening your chest, and extending
your spine, all of which helps loosen your fascia. "Everything you do in life tempts you to hunch forward," Maxwell says. "So seize those opportunities to pull back and straighten up."

Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
facebook: facebook link
twitter:  @DrTriMyers
Link to Blog: Blog Link
 
 


What is Chiropractic?

The most frequent response to my answer of what I do for a living is after I respond, "I am a chiropractor!" that person then grabs his or her neck or back and says, "Oh Doc, I need ya!" If I have your permission I would like to tell you about the truth of chiropractic and how as a society we have not understood what a true gift it is.

There was a great philosopher named Hippocrates who once stated, "We are either growing or dying." Not to be outdone Confucius stated, "Our lives are like that of an egg, we are either growing or decaying." See, everyday we are exposed to chemical, physical and mental stressors in our environment that continually bombard our system. It is the job of our nerve system to detect these stressors, interpret them, and either adapt to them and continue our growth or shrink from them and stop growing while in a survival or protective mode.
See, in essence we are both growing and dying each day and it is simply that one will predominate over the other. One is an upward spiral of growth leading to fulfillment and ease; the other is a downward spiral of decay leading to death.
Our Bodies' Innate Intelligence
Our bodies have an inborn intelligence that is called innate intelligence. This intelligence runs, regulates, heals and grows the body to our fullest potential, allowing us to reach our god-given purpose in life. There are many things you must have to accept in understanding the full breadth of chiropractic: either we are on this earth from the grace of a higher consciousness, or we are simply the random assimilation of organic substance that has evolved over many years making us nothing more than a higher order of mud.

If you have a live person and a dead person side by side, what is the difference? They both have all the same stuff, the same potential for life, however in chiropractic understanding it is the live one that possesses an innate intelligence or life force. See, most people look at the body as being run and regulated by the brain, but let me ask you, "What runs the brain?" There are those who think genes dictate life, but we know that they turn off and on regularly even mutating and adapting, so I ask, "What turns genes on or off?"
For a hundred years chiropractors have been saying that there is an inborn intelligence that is perfect inside of us that continually gives 100 percent of the information we need to run, regulate, grow, heal and flourish. They have been saying that ill health, disease, and lack of potential does not arise from any other cause than that of a lack of expression of this intelligence.
The Expression of Light or Darkness
This lack of expression leads to dis-coordination of the body or a lack of a body's ability to comprehend itself in its own environment. That leads to a lack of the body being able to adapt to outside stressors and this causes a loss of function, breakdown of tissue and is a downward spiral of decay and ultimately death.
If we look at the full expression of this inborn innate intelligence being the fullest expression of life as light we can look at the lack of this expression of intelligence as decay or disease and as darkness. So, how do you remedy darkness? You can study darkness, examine it, qualify it, be aware of it and focus on it, but the only solution to removal of it is to add light.
Chiropractic understands this premise and does not look to cure disease, address disease or diagnose disease. We understand disease for what it truly is, a lack state, one that arises only in the absence of the fullest expression of life.
The Subluxation Process
Chiropractic is the detection and correction of interference with the expression of this intelligence in relation to the spine called the subluxation process. The primary system for the expression of this innate intelligence is over our nerve system, and being that our spinal cord is surrounded and protected by spinal bones called vertebrae, this important relationship is how chiropractors became synonymous with backs.

However, in truth chiropractic deals with the innate intelligence and the nerve system, and a chiropractor is not a doctor of the spine, especially not spinal disorders, decay nor disease.
As a chiropractor the only conclusion that I can with any degree of certainty make is that your body is better off with a clear nerve system than one with interference. Chiropractors are trained and are the only practitioners who have the philosophy and the technique to find that interference and to assist in correcting it.
Anything that is beyond the detection and correction of the subluxation process is usually regarded by the allopathic or medical mindset that we are not whole and need something outside ourselves to help us to heal or grow. It is assumed that the first thing we need is an outside intelligence that looks at us to tell us what we need, be it ultrasound, electrical stim, pharmaceuticals, supplements, etc.
See, we need to go back to our original thought process and question, "If there is a practitioner who directs the energy where they think it needs to go, how does that honor an individual's inborn innate intelligence?" Doesn't innate intelligence know what is needed, where and how much? How does an application of ultrasound to a mid-back honor that process?
It is that in our society where sitting for five minutes in a drive-through seems like an eternity. It's a society where commercials bombard you five to seven times in three minutes and that problems are resolved in three eight-minute segments on a television program. To then have someone shift and comprehend that all of life, including healing, is a process and that being under care is also a lifetime process can be a challenge.
You might want to ask yourself, if you start to exercise because it is good for you, when do you get to a point when you can stop? How about brushing your teeth? Eating vegetables and other healthy foods? You can always choose to stop doing those things and that is not a bad thing, it is just not congruent with the fullest expression of your life's potential.
The Effects of Nerve System Interference
So chiropractic care is a process that gives its greatest rewards over a lifetime and starts with your getting checked to see how much the subluxation process is interfering with your nerve system and your life. We automatically say, "Yeah, but I feel fine," however, symptoms are the last thing to show up in a process and therefore the worst possible way to judge your life's expression.
We all know or have heard of someone who has dropped dead from a heart attack and never showed the smallest sign of that process, yet we know that cardiovascular disease is a process that occurs over decades. Diabetes is said to be at epidemic proportions mostly due to there being no obvious signs until the process has gone rampant for years.
Or look at tooth decay, a process that occurs for years by the time you feel any pain or sensitivity. And haven't you heard of someone getting checked out and to their surprise they had a 99 percent blockage in their coronary arteries only to get immediate and drastic open heart surgery with basically no sign or symptoms before that?
Please understand that these things are just an example of processes that are a function of our fundamental disconnection with the understanding of life, health and being out of touch with our self. These disease processes are all low end on the spectrum and in reality are not what I am talking about when I speak of possibility. It is not enough to live just not to die, to be alive with no symptoms or to never need a surgery. I do not believe that is why god put us here on this planet.
We Are All Meant to Flourish and Grow
I believe we all have a purpose, and we are all meant to flourish, grow and reach our optimum potentials. You see, you cannot be in fear and love at the same time; you cannot be in survival mode and growth at the same time. I know we are meant to live in love and growth and honor the gift of grace always, all of the time.
To me, it is impossible to accomplish this with a nerve system that is compromised--one that disconnects the creator from the creation and allows a little less life in us each and every day that it remains. So, from a person who has searched as a chiropractor for the meaning of our profession for the last 10 years, a person who has seen thousands of patients, read hundreds of books, listened to dozens of tapes and lecturers, please get checked.
Get checked for the subluxation process; get your families checked, your friends, your loved ones or anyone you care about. Even the people you don't care about, mention it to them, as maybe it is the subluxation process that is preventing them from their fullest expression of love and happiness. You never know, with a clear nerve system anything becomes possible.
This is an article from Dr. Llyod Fielder. It gives you the whole philosophy of what chiropractic does and IS. This is the foundation of how I practice, but as you know, I love to do muscle work and rehabilitation. From my experience those two additions complement the adjustment and allow for faster and longer lasting results. I will give you some more info about myofascial release and rehab exercises in the future articles. 
If you have anyone who you know could benefit from chiropractic care. Please have them call 919-462-0016 to make an appointment.
Keep hungry for knowledge. 

 Dr. Tri Myers
Omega Chiropractic Center
107 Edinburgh South Drive, Suite 141
Cary, NC  27511
919-462-0016
facebook: facebook link
twitter:  @DrTriMyers
Link to Blog: Blog Link