Archive for December 2017
A New Way of Thinking About Back Pain
The majority of back pain is preventable
This statement is at odds with the standard medical narrative for back pain. So much of western medicine focuses on treating injury and illness reactively- that is treating a problem symptomatically. But this relies on the logic that a problem need occur in the first place- why have we accepted this hook, line and sinker? A more logical way of treating pain is to prevent it in the first place. And while many types of back pain, the kinds that result from traumatic injury, genetic predisposition, or tumors, are unavoidable, the vast majority of back pain is preventable.
Envisioning a New Year with Less Headaches
Chronic headache sufferers have little cause for cheer during the holidays
If you suffer from regular headaches, it can be hard to know when one will strike. This can be particularly prominent during the holiday season when you are surrounded by holiday cheer one minute, then stricken by a headache the next. Headaches menace people of all ages and health profiles, and our medical community is still at an early level of understanding the causes which contribute to this menace of society. If you suffer from headaches we are willing to wager that you are interested in prevention. At our office in Fremont, we realize that banishing headaches forever may not be realistic. However, we can strive to reduce the intensity, duration and frequency of your headaches to help you live a better life despite your condition
Common Sense Saves You a lot of Back Pain
Listening to your body goes a long way
Too many people live their life at a pace too busy to consider their body’s internal signals. Technology is making it easier than ever to delegate the responsibility of listening to your body to your phone. There are apps that will ping reminding you to drink water, stretch, or take a break from the computer screeen. And while smart apps are designed to optimize our lives, we often find that all the optimization distracts us from what really matters: being in touch with our bodies. Besides, if you are too busy to remind yourself to stretch, you can just as easily ignore an app that tries to perform the same function. Now consider that instead of ignoring signals of muscle tension, you constantly ignore signals of pain. Human bodies are infinitely more powerful than we give them credit for: our capacity to perform everyday functions despite serious pain signals has the potential to cause a lot of problems in our lives.
Headstart 2018: A New Year Full of Health
After the dust of Christmas settles…
…and the confetti of New Year has been swept from the streets, you may be feeling slightly burnt out. The holiday season, for all its fun, is a hectic time of the year. As we are uprooted from our normal routine, stress tends to accumulate in the body and mind. This stress manifests itself physically; mental stress is directly linked to muscle tension, which can pull the spine out of alignment. What’s more, higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol contribute to inflammation. This is hardly a good recipe for the start of 2018.
A Holiday Full of Natural Pain Relief
This holiday season, focus on natural pain relief
You are halfway through a marathon day of cooking with family that will culminate in the first of three consecutive nights of holiday dinner parties. You haven’t been able to exercise or stretch and now your back is throwing you a curve ball. The last thing you need is a stiff, sore back as you try to enjoy dinner with family and friends. So you do what anyone in your position would: reach for the ibuprofen or aspirin. The problem in this scenario is that you are only treating the surface symptom- which is the pain, and waylaying it til a later time. In this scenario, you will have to keep taking painkillers to fend off the pain.
When Holidays Spells Back Pain: Don’t let your Spine Jeopardize your Holiday Travel Plans
Sitting in ill-designed chairs for hours on end is a nightmare for people with back pain.
The holidays offer many of us the chance to take off from home, whether in car, plane or train, to visit family and friends in far flung places. But for people with chronic back pain, the thought of hours spent in the car or stuck on a plane causes trepidation. When it comes to the cheer of Christmas, the last thing we want our patients to be thinking about is the pain in their back.