It is that time of year again – the holidays are here.

But amid all the merriment, there is a lot of stress and with it often comes back pain.  Dr. Scott Barry, a chiropractor in Tampa, discusses why neck and back pain spikes during the holiday season and what can be done to alleviate the discomfort.

1)    Stress - One of the main reasons why people develop neck or back pain during the holidays is the increased amount of stress.  People are often tense while rushing around trying to squeeze in one last task and one more party.  The emotional stress can frequently lead to real pain.  

2)    Lack of Sleep – with all the extra events and errands, it is easy to miss out on sleep at this time of year.  Lack of sleep means that the body does not have time to fully relax and recuperate from the additional pressure of trying to get everything done.  This can often translate into an aching back.

3)    Heavy Lifting – it may not seem like you are doing any heavy labor but many people can overdo it by lifting more (and lifting incorrectly) during the holidays.  Even if you live in a warm climate and are not shoveling snow, picking up a Christmas tree, placing heavy boxes in your car or even picking up heavy pans out of the oven can put extra pressure on your spine.

4)    Long Travels – visiting friends and family can be fun but it can mean a long plane or car ride.  Keeping your body in one position for hours at a time can cut off the circulation and tighten up the muscles.  Standing up quickly and grabbing the luggage can create the perfect storm for muscle pain to develop.

5)    Unusual activities – there are some things we do around the holidays that our bodies are just not accustomed to doing.  Whether stringing lights or joining in the family football game, we may push our backs beyond their limit.  

So what can you do to avoid some of these holiday pitfalls and enjoy good back health through the season?  

Try not to overdo.  It is easy to say but difficult to accomplish - but if you can organize your tasks to free up some down time for yourself, it will help alleviate the stress.  Carve out a few minutes each day for relaxation, meditation, light stretching or yoga to help get centered and in the right frame of mind to combat hectic situations.  Set a curfew up for yourself to get to bed at a reasonable hour so that you can be fresh at the next event.     

Be careful when lifting boxes and putting up decorations.  Bend at the knees to lift oversized packages and ask for assistance with the heavy stuff.  Be sure to take a few seconds to make sure the ladder or step stool is stable before climbing up to put up the lights.  Accidents are common at the holidays because people fail to pay complete attention to the task at hand.

If you are traveling a long distance, stand up and stretch as often as possible.  Pull over on that long car trip to limber up the muscles before setting off again.  It will not only help avoid back pain but help will wake you up a bit.  On a plane, get up and stretch in the aisle if possible or try “chair stretches” in your seat to get the blood flowing again.  

Last, be mindful of excess drinking.  Overindulging is easy with all the parties and visitors but drinking and driving (or drinking and climbing on the roof to hang lights) is simply not prudent.  

If you do experience neck or back pain, call your  Tampa chiropractor, Scott Barry,  to get an adjustment.  The longer you try to ignore the issue, the more likely that you will be laid up on the big day.  The best bet is to avoid getting into pain in the first place.  Enjoy the holiday season.  We wish you good health in the New Year.           

At this time of year, it is easy to get complacent about physical exercise but stretching is an easy way to work some activity into your schedule.  Stretching is a great way to loosen up your body, help relieve stress and prevent injury while lifting those heavy Christmas packages in Tampa. 

Stretching should not cause back or leg pain – while you should feel a pulling on the muscles being stretched, there should be no joint pain or sharp pain at any time.  Start slow and warm up a bit before beginning a new routine.  Once you start, move into each position slowly and hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds.   Do not bounce or move too quickly.  Over time, you will notice your range of motion improving and you will be able to move into each position with more ease.
Over the next few blogs we will share 12 great stretches to build your flexibility and help you banish stress! Today we are on legs.

Here are 6 basic leg stretches to try during the holiday season:

#1 Calf Stretch: 

• While standing, take a big step forward and stay in the position shown in the picture
• Keep the heel of your back leg on the floor and slowly move your weight over your front foot (move hips forward)
• You will feel a stretch on the back of your lower leg (calf muscles).  Stay in the stretch for 30 seconds then Repeat with the other leg

#2 Hamstring Stretch

• Lie on the floor and raise one leg towards the ceiling
• Grasp the raised leg and gently pull it towards your chest
• Try to keep your leg extended (although a slight bend is OK)
• Pull gently for 30 seconds.   You will feel a stretch in the back of your leg (Hamstrings)
• Relax and repeat with the other leg

#3 Standing Hamstring Stretch

• While standing, place one foot on a box or on a stair (start small and you can raise the height over time as you gain more range of motion)
• Gently lean forward until you feel a pull in the back of your leg (hamstring)
• Remain in the stretch position for 30 seconds.  Relax and repeat with other leg

#4 Inner Thigh Stretch

• Start standing with legs apart and toes turned outward
• Slowly move weight to one side by bending one leg
• Feel the stretch in the inner thigh
• Hold for 30 seconds, relax and then do the same to other side

#5 Standing Quad Stretch

• Start in a standing position
• Gently bend one leg at the knee and move heel towards your buttocks
• Grasp your foot and gently pull your leg upwards (hold wall for support with other hand if necessary for balance)
• Feel the stretch at the front of your thigh (quadriceps)
• Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, relax and repeat with the other leg

#6 Quad Stretch

• Lie on floor on your stomach
• Gently bend at the knee and move heel towards your buttocks
• Grasp your foot and pull your leg until you feel a stretch in the front of your thigh (Quadriceps).  Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, relax and repeat with other leg.

Go easy and just keep at it for 15 minutes each day and you will feel younger and less stressed throughout the day!

Turn Back Time with Chiropractic Care

While the benefits of chiropractic care are well known to anyone who has experienced acute back pain, there are many other benefits that can be achieved through spinal adjustments. In this article from Natural News, they discuss studies that show that chiropractic care can help the body to relieve stress and allow the body to heal as designed. Oxidative stress can lead to cellular damage which in turn causes aging. It is now a broadly accepted theory that free radicals are the primary cause of aging. This article does get technical in describing oxidative stress, free radicals and the like but the bottom line is that chiropractic adjustments have been shown to lessen free radicals in the body. Learn more about this process and how regular chiropractic care in Tampa, can help in the  article below:

Reverse Aging with Chiropractic Care

Monday, October 11, 2010 by: Dr. David Jockers

(NaturalNews) Our body is in a constant and never ending struggle for survival. Scientists estimate that each of our cells must withstand around 10,000 individual assaults from reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals. Amazingly, the body has an incredible system of self-healing that withstands the onslaught and rebuilds what has been damaged. Chiropractic care has been shown to be a powerful method of stabilizing and enhancing this self-healing ability.

The central nervous system is the primary system that controls all function and healing within the body. This flow of nerve energy from the brain to the body coordinates all 75 trillion cells to action. The brain is then fed through movement information that it receives from skin, joint, & muscle receptors. This movement information is called "proprioception." The brain depends on adequate proprioception for optimal function.

Physical nerve stress occurs when the spinal bones are twisted or thrown out of alignment. This is caused every day by macro traumas such as falls, car accidents, & sporting activities. Micro traumas such as bad posture, repetitive movements, and poor sleeping habits can damage the spine & nervous system as well. Physical nerve stress causes a deficiency in healthy brain-body signaling and an increased release of the stress hormone cortisol. This disrupts the body's ability to heal.

Chiropractic adjustments remove this built-up pressure on the nervous system allowing the body to heal as it was designed. Many studies have shown chiropractic care to be a powerful form of anti-aging.
In 2005, a landmark study published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation (JVSR) found evidence that chiropractic care can reduce oxidative stress in the body.

Oxidative stress is the damage that occurs when free radicals outnumber the body's antioxidants. Oxidative stress damages all body cell components: proteins, lipids and DNA. In fact, researchers have found that one out of every three proteins is rendered dysfunctional by unchecked free radical damage.

Thiols are sulfur containing compounds in the body that act as antioxidants. They react with free radicals to neutralize them. Serum levels of thiols reflect DNA's capacity to repair itself, report scientists of Biomedical Diagnostic Research, Inc, and can be used to measure aging and disease status. In a 2003 study published in the Journal of Anti Aging Medicine, low serum thiol levels were found in nine different categories of human sickness and disease.

The study published in JVSR consisted of 76 participants: one group received short-term chiropractic care; a second group received long-term chiropractic care; and the third group received no chiropractic care.

The study qualified participants for age, sex and the use of nutritional supplements. Healthy individuals that received chiropractic care for 2 or more years had higher serum thiol levels than those with disease. Some of the chiropractic patients had serum thiol levels higher than what is associated with normal wellness.

Chiropractor Dr. Christopher Kent explained: 'Oxidative stress, metabolically generating free radicals, is now a broadly accepted theory of how we age and develop disease.'

'Going through life,' he adds, 'we experience physical, chemical and emotional stress. These stresses affect the function of the nervous system. We hypothesized that these disturbances in nerve function could affect oxidative stress and DNA repair on a cellular level.'

'Chiropractic care appears to improve the ability of the body to adapt to stress,' concluded Kent.

The article below discusses the correlation between disk injury and pain. The New England Journal of Medicine did an MRI study of people who did not have any back pain. What they found was surprising: 64% of the non-pain reporting participants, did have some disk problems. So disk problems alone do not always cause pain. That means that even surgery may not solve back pain and that there are other factors that combine to create discomfort. The study points out that other remedies can be beneficial in solving the problem. Exercise was cited as a good way to improve back health and yoga was particularly effective. In fact, 22 of 24 test subjects that reported back pain and chose exercise over surgery had “good or excellent” outcomes. So before you consider surgery, think about your options, try exercise, stretching and perhaps even yoga!

The Truth About Back Pain—It’s Not Always What It Seems

Herniated discs are one of the most common diagnoses for back pain, and surgery is often the treatment of choice. However,  the causes of back pain are often more complex, arising from a variety of interacting tension or injury patterns in the soft tissues. For this reason, natural, holistic therapies—including yoga for back pain—can often be highly effective at resolving the issue and produce measurable, long-term results—without the physical trauma of surgery.

Back or neck pain sufferers are frequently diagnosed via MRI’s, which may show a bulging or even rupture of the intervertebral discs, i.e. the soft cushioning tissue between the vertebrae. Doctors often recommend surgery to help correct the condition and relieve the pain.  But, strangely, even though there would seem to be a one-to-one relationship between a ruptured disc and back pain, in reality it’s not that simple.

A decade ago, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine produced some very surprising results. Researchers selected ninety-eight subjects who did not have back pain or any related symptoms and sent them to have MRI scans.  Sixty-four percent of the healthy test subjects had disc problems that would have made them prime candidates for surgery—but they had no pain!

Over half of the subjects had herniated discs and a large percentage of those people—who, again, had no pain—had problems like spondylolysis (breakdown of spinal bone tissue), spondylolisthesis (slipped vertebra), and stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces in the spine. The researchers were forced to conclude that the presence of herniated discs in patients with back pain was, more often than not, coincidental. This would also explain why, in some cases, surgery for a ruptured disc fails to provide relief. Even though there is some degree of disc injury present, that is not necessarily the cause of the pain.

But while a herniated or bulging disc may not be the source of back pain, it’s still a degenerative condition that needs attention.  Luckily, healing without surgery is possible; natural remedies for back pain that stimulate soft tissue healing, including yoga, exercise or deep tissue massage may at time be sufficient to resolve the issue.  In particular, yoga for back pain (done with a professional yoga therapist) is a safe, effective treatment for both herniated discs and back pain or discomfort.

A recent study tried natural remedies for back pain with twenty-four patients with cervical disc herniations.  These patients had serious pain, as well as nerve impingement like numbness and tingling in the arms.  All of them would have been optimal candidates for surgery, but they underwent a course of exercise instead.

At the end of the study; 22 out of the 24 people in the exercise group had “good or excellent” outcomes and 19 returned to work at the same job. Keep in mind, these were people with serious pain and nerve impingement. In fact, only two subjects eventually required surgery.

While this study used a generalized exercise protocol, yoga has proven particularly useful for back pain, because of its slow, long stretches that are ideal for resolving tension patterns in the muscles and connective tissue.

In short, the causes of back pain are complex, but treating it could be just a few yoga stretches away.  While surgery may be the best option in some cases, some people might want to try out natural treatments for back pain like yoga for back pain relief before opting to go under the knife. (end)