“Be Better” Tip for Corvallis – Avoiding Back and Neck Injuries

Posted on April 23, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Almost all of us will suffer from back or neck pain at some point in our lives. The spine has an enormous job in providing movement and we often abuse this part of our body more than any other. As your Corvallis, OR chiropractor, I’m going to share some of the simplest things you can do to avoid back and/or neck injury.

Weight Loss

Here’s yet another reason to lose a little weight. Excessive abdominal weight can cause many low back injuries due to excessive wear and tear and stress. In fact, many people find that much of their chronic back problems are greatly minimized when they lose weight.

As well, most of the time when a person is overweight or obese, their diets are loaded with foods that contain a lot of sugar and bad fats, but very little nutrition. Spinal health, just like the health of your entire body, relies on nutrients and fuel from the foods we consume.

Switching to a healthy weight loss diet will not only help you move properly and avoid strain on your lower back, but it will also boost your body’s ability to stay strong and heal more quickly in the event an injury occurs.

Core Strength

Improving core strength can greatly reduce the potential for back or neck injuries. When we lift and move about, we tend to rely on our back strength to compensate for poor core strength. This can lead to a muscle strain or other soft tissue injury in your back or neck.

Improving core strength can be a bit tricky because we tend to think abdominal crunches and such are the solution for nice, flat, strong abs. This type of exercise is brutal on your lower back region as well as your neck. There are better exercises such as pelvic tilts and side leg lifts or knee raises that are easier on your back and even more effective. Ball crunches as well are excellent as long as you have the balance to manage the exercise.

Ergonomics

Whether your job demands you sit or stand for long periods, it’s important that your work area is set up so you are not weakening your spinal health due to poor posture, reaching excessively or holding anything, really, in an awkward position.

Your body will often tell you if you are doing something you ought not to do. If you find you feel stiff or achy, you are probably stressing those areas and may need to adjust your workspace. Remember also to move around. Get the blood moving a bit by doing a few jumping jacks or jumping an imaginary rope. Stretch your body to work out any kinks you may feel from being static.

Your downtown Corvallis, OR chiropractor can evaluate your back and neck and through gentle spinal manipulation, restore spinal alignment and help you avoid any injuries that are just waiting to happen. Too often, a disc injury or other spinal injury could have been avoided through suggestions such as the above as well as restoring spinal alignment.

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Be Better Corvallis – Disease prevention

Posted on March 30, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

First, Do Harm?

Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, has created a stir with his new book “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks about Being Sick in America.” Dr. Brawley’s book promises an in depth look at the tremendous flaws in our current healthcare system.

An oncologist, Dr. Brawley gives us his views through patient stories and his frustrations with controversial cancer treatment as well as political and financial motivations that seem to be driving the healthcare system these days. His main issue seems to be with over-testing and using poorly studied treatments that end up doing more harm than good when treating patients. All of which, of course, costs us a great deal of money.

I bring up Dr. Brawley’s book in my blog today because we all need to be concerned about the state of our healthcare system. It’s costing all of us both in dollars and health. Our country spends more money on healthcare than any other country, yet we rank somewhere in the middle in terms of lifespan. In other words, we spend a lot of money, but don’t seem to make anyone well. Why?

If you look at the top killers in the United States, you’ll see diseases and health conditions such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, stroke, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Though we have advanced in the treatment of these diseases, we haven’t done much to prevent them, which means more and more people are getting sick and more and more people are in need of advanced and expensive treatments that quite frankly, do not always work!

As a chiropractor in Corvallis, OR I feel one of the biggest problems with healthcare today is the focus on illness rather than wellness. The concept of chiropractic wellness is to treat each patient as a whole rather than as a set of symptoms. Chiropractic maintenance plans help keep a person well by ensuring proper spinal alignment as well as continued education and advice on correcting lifestyle factors that may be harming your musculoskeletal health as well as your overall health.

I have had so many people tell me, “I will come in when I need to.”  That short sighted mentality leads to a constant cycle of break and patch, break and patch, which ultimately drives up costs and keeps patients down.  Would you tell your auto mechanic who suggests an oil change “I will bring it in when it needs it.”  No, you don’t wait for the engine to start smoking or seize.  You take it in before there is problem and do routine maintenance.  Why not take care of yourself just as well or better?  You only get one chance to take care of your body.

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Be Better tip for Corvallis – Back Pain Care both In and Out of the Chiropractic Office!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Most adults are affected by back pain at one point in their lives or another. You may experience a minor strain or sprain after an activity that was hard on your back such as lifting something a little too heavy or participating in an activity that required you to bend or reach (gardening, yard work).

For many back pain sufferers, the back pain sort of snuck up on them. You may have experienced a twinge on occasion or some diffuse pain for half a day and then something as innocent as a sneeze may have triggered an excruciating and debilitating pain.

Whether your back pain is acute or chronic, your downtown Corvallis, OR chiropractor has some solutions both in and out of the office.

Spinal Manipulation

Your injury may be a disc injury or it may involve a strain or sprain of the ligaments and muscles. The spinal column can become misaligned over time just be daily activity, so it’s no wonder that it would be out of line after an injury. Gentle spinal adjustments can restore alignment and prevent further damage to the spinal column. Left alone, the misalignment can worsen and cause early degeneration of the spinal column.

Exercises

Exercises, including passive and active stretching, can improve the condition, strength and flexibility of your back. During the healing process, passive stretching can reduce inflammation and potential scar tissue. After an appropriate healing time, your back and spinal column will benefit from a customized exercise plan taught in our office and performed at home.

Continued Care

We seldom question the need for regular dental cleanings, as much as we may wish that our teeth stayed nice and clean after one dental visit. A chiropractic maintenance plan needs to be viewed in a similar light. The fact is your spine takes quite the beating just from regular activity. Your downtown Corvallis, OR chiropractor can develop a maintenance plan to correct problems that occur from daily activity and wear and tear.

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Be Better tip for Corvallis – Is Low Fiber Intake Affecting Your Back Problems?

Posted on March 6, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

How can low fiber intake affect back problems? Adequate fiber intake is important in preventing heart disease as well as colon cancer, but what does it have to do with chronic back pain?

Quite a bit. Fiber is found in plants and although we do not digest fiber, it’s imperative for cleansing the digestive tract. It has a brush like action as it goes through your digestive tract. Fibrous foods also offer a sense of fullness, so you are likely to feel full, faster, which will help you avoid overeating.

Fiber is also important for helping the liver get rid of toxins such as excess bile and cholesterol. Fiber binds with toxins from our foods, so unless you are eating a purely organic diet, fiber is imperative for ridding your body of chemicals.

When your diet is low in fiber, you miss out on this cleansing action. Waste becomes difficult to remove because fiber is important for bulking the stool, which gives the walls of the digestive tract something to push on as the waste moves through the colon. The result can be uncomfortable constipation.

As digestion is slowed down, nutrients are not absorbed properly and toxins begin to build up in the colon. These toxins can eventually spread throughout the body creating a chronic inflammatory state. You may experience weight gain, fatigue, acne, skin infections, poor skin quality and poor hair quality. Mentally and emotionally, this state of poor health can also lead to a lack of concentration, irritability and depression.

Weight gain alone is a problem for people who suffer from chronic back pain as the excessive weight places undo pressure and wear and tear on the lower back. The chronic inflammatory state of your body can lead to an increase in pain sensitivity and a decrease in your body’s ability to heal. Poor nutrient absorption also hampers healing and can lead to early degeneration of spinal components.

Chronic back pain must be addressed from a whole patient perspective. As your downtown, Corvallis, OR chiropractor, Vertebrata Chiropractic and Dr. O’Donnell can assess your current back pain issues and design a customized treatment plan that includes addressing all areas of health, including diet.  So make and appointment, ask the doc if dietary recommendations or supplementation are right for you, and “be better.”

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Be Better tip for Corvallis – How to walk!

Posted on February 16, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Are You Walking Correctly?

You learned how to walk quite some time ago and probably do not put much thought into this daily movement. There are people who take very few steps per day and some who may take more than 5000 steps per day (per foot, so 10,000). Of course, I encourage all of you to take as many steps as possible, but first, let’s make sure you are doing it correctly. Why?

An incorrect gait or walking pattern can actually lead to repetitive strain injuries. Your unique walking style is called your Primary Movement Pattern (PMP) and it involves many body parts working together. It’s interesting to sit back and casually watch people as they walk. Each person’s PMP dictates how they hold their head and shoulders. PMP will vary how a person swings their arms as they walk as well as how they move their hips and knees and plant each foot as they take another step.

There are three pairs of weight-bearing joints involved in walking: ankles, knees and hips. Minor structural issues in any of these joints can lead to injuries, excess wear and tear and eventually, pain and inflammation. Each abnormal step you take due to the slight anomaly in one or more of these joints can damage muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and bone.

On the other hand, if your gait is either normal or corrected, each step you take will begin to strengthen all the components of the lower extremities. This is important for everyone to prevent early degeneration and it’s extremely important for those who push their bodies further through sports or other athletic type hobbies and activities.

Many of our patients have dealt with foot problems and pain in the past, being told that they need injections and surgery or to “just live with it.”  Ailments such as plantar fasciitis, bunions, and other foot or ankle pains are often easily dealt with through conservative care.

Located in downtown Corvallis and utilizing the technology of the Foot Levelers Associate Platinum V7 foot scanner along with a chiropractic evaluation, we can determine whether you are at risk for repetitive strain injuries due to an abnormal gait. We can help you correct your Primary Movement Pattern through the use of orthotics as well as exercises to improve joint strength and core strength. By doing so, you can correct balance and posture issues that are putting you at risk of structural changes and eventually pain.  So whether a runner, walker, hiker, or just someone who wants to take care of their body and understands that “it is all connected,” come down and get an evaluation so you can “be better!”

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Corvallis Chiropractor to Las Vegas Training Camp

Posted on February 16, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Coach Peter Cummings has once again invited Vertebrata Chiropractic to be a part of their elite athlete training Camp in Las Vegas.  Looking forward to participating in the camp and teaching the athletes about how Metagenics supplements can help them perform better.  Check it out at www.Plan2Peak.com

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Valentine’s Day Massage Contest

Posted on February 8, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Go to our Facebook page and “like” our contest!  Every “like” will be entered to win a free half hour massage!

In addition, tell us why a full hour massage would make your Valentine’s day extra special this year!  The best entry (creative, funny, serious, heartbreaking, number of post likes, whatever criteria we decide, etc) will win a full hour massage for both themselves and their partner (or if you are greedy, single or otherwise unlikely to pass it along, keep two hours for yourself!)!!

Good Luck.  Contest ends on Monday the 13th at midnight.

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Be Better Corvallis – Fitness Resolutions? Start Preparing Now to Avoid Common Athletic Injuries!

Posted on January 16, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Resolving to get fit beginning at the New Year is an excellent resolution, but there are some things you should start doing now to stave off injury. As well, you want to make sure you come up with a realistic and effective plan to truly maximize your efforts at getting fit in 2012!

Common athletic or exercise injuries often result from lack of physical preparation: lack of strength and flexibility! Endurance is another important aspect of physical fitness, but not necessarily a risk factor for a musculoskeletal injury. Let me guide you through some fundamentals in optimizing these key areas before you begin a full-fledged exercise program

Strength

Most people think about weight lifting when the term “strength-training” is used, and one of two ‘things’ often happen when people start off on a strength-training mission via weight machines or free weights such as dumbbells. ‘Thing’ number one is a less than desirable workout because the machines are confusing or dumbbells are improperly used. ‘Thing’ number two is a common sports injury such as a strain, sprain or tear of a muscle, ligament or tendon. Joint injuries due to improper weight lifting are also common.

Rather than dive into strength-training via weights, try using your own body weight for awhile. There are some tried but true exercises that are excellent for building strength, and they don’t take nearly the same amount of time as weight-training. In fact, in minutes a day, you can begin seeing results in a short time. Push-ups are an excellent exercise for upper body and core strength as are chin-ups. If all you can do is one, than do one, but do one several times per day. This way, you’ll avoid muscle strains and still be working towards building upper body strength.

Flexibility

To be flexible can mean avoiding many, many common strain injuries. When your muscles, tendons and ligaments are tight, any quick movement beyond their range can lead to a strain or sprain. Let’s say you decide to try a new cardio routine to burn fat after the holidays. Perhaps you choose Zumba or another popular dance or martial arts based cardio routine. If you have retrained your muscles, tendons and ligaments to stretch with these fast-paced motions, you probably won’t feel as many aches and you will reduce the chances of a strain or sprain injury.

Stretch a bit throughout the day to increase flexibility. You don’t have to be an expert, but know that while you should “feel” the stretch, it shouldn’t be a sharp pain. A great way to get into a deeper stretch is to try partner stretches. As you stretch, have another person push you, gently, into a deeper stretch. Make sure the movement is slow and gentle.

Evaluation of your current health status is also important in kicking off a great fitness plan. You’ll want to know that your heart is in good shape for endurance and cardio, but make sure your musculoskeletal and spinal health are also in good working condition. Slight spinal misalignments can become worse if not corrected and can lead to knee injuries and other sporting injuries due to overcompensation.

As your downtown Corvallis, OR chiropractor, Vertebrata Chiropractic can offer you evaluation and a customized chiropractic maintenance plan to ensure great performance and maximum results in the gym so you can meet all of your fitness goals, and, of course, be better!

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Corvallis “Be Better” Tip – What is Chiropractic Maintenance?

Posted on January 10, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Chiropractic care focuses on the restoration of the neuromusculoskeletal system. The system is compromised of soft tissue such as muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia as well as joints and the nervous system. The system is in constant use. Daily motion, activities, exercise and other factors such as the aging process can easily compromise the system. Chiropractic maintenance can correct current problems and help keep this system functioning well and in doing so, improve overall health.

Think about dental care. When you visit a dentist regularly for cleanings, you are less likely to develop cavities and gum disease that can lead to toothaches, loss of teeth or expensive procedures such as root canals to save a tooth. You cannot have your teeth cleaned once and expect them to stay clean and healthy, right? Unfortunately, we just don’t have a built-in cleaning system that can keep up with the daily exposure to sugar and bacteria that leads to the build-up of tartar. There are ways you can reduce this build-up (i.e. brushing regularly, avoiding too much sugar), but you can’t stop it all together.

In the same light, you cannot avoid wear and tear on your neuromusculoskeletal system and regular chiropractic maintenance can help you avoid chronic conditions such as disc degeneration, tendonitis, and repetitive strain injuries as well as acute injuries such as strains and sprains. And by keeping up with the health of your neuromusculoskeletal system, you can improve your overall health as well!

Remember that the spine has a very important job of housing and protecting the spinal cord. The spinal cord is essential for communication between the brain and the rest of the body through a complicated and intricate system of nerves and neurons that fire signals to ensure proper function of bodily components such as organs. Spinal misalignment from everyday wear and tear can set off a series of events which interfere with and can compress the nerves extending from the spinal cord and compromise their function, which in turn can affect the overall health and function of the rest of your body.

As your downtown Corvallis, OR chiropractor, I will never tell a person that they HAVE to undergo ‘maintenance,’ but like eating healthily and exercising regularly, chiropractic keeps things working better.  I have no pain, but will always keep my spine maintained, not because I feel pain, but because I never want to get so bad that I do.

So consider chiropractic maintenance plans in the same way you consider healthy eating, getting good sleep, exercise, dental check ups or oil changes for your car.  Doing things to keep everything functioning at its best only makes sense.  Get chiropractic care that will realign your spine and correct and improve posture, gait and balance and in doing so, improve the overall health and function of your body.  If you have questions, give us a call, and as always, ‘Be Better.’

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Corvallis “be better” tip – Avoiding Common Exercise Injuries

Posted on January 3, 2012 by DrWJODonnell

Exercise is crucial to better health and preventing musculoskeletal injuries, but whatever your intentions, exercise can also lead to injuries if you’re not prepared. Whether you are embarking on a new weight loss regime or training for a new sport, you should know about some common athletic injuries and how to prevent them.

Common Athletic or Exercise Injuries:

Knee – The knee is a complicated joint and any number of soft tissue injuries such as strains, sprains and tears of the tendons and ligaments can occur, most often due to overcompensation of the knee joint to accommodate a lack of muscle strength in other parts of the leg. Improper shoes and spinal misalignment can also lead to knee injuries.  In practice, Dr. O’Donnell has seen over 7,000 knee patients!

Lower back – The lower back is highly susceptible to injury, especially when core strength is lacking. Common lower back injuries due to sport or exercise are muscle tears, sprains, stains, ruptured discs and even stress fractures.  The number one reason a person seeks chiropractic care is for low back complaints.

Shoulder – Shoulder injuries occur frequently due to over-lifting and repetitive strain injury. Tears and swelling of shoulder tendons and the bursa (fluid-filled cushions) can lead to chronic tendonitis or painful bursitis.  Most people don’t immediately relate chiropractic care and shoulder injuries, but it is the number 4 most commonly treated item in the adult patient of a chiropractor.

Hamstring or Calf Muscle Pulls – The hamstring and calf muscles can be strained or sprained, especially when these soft tissues are “tight” prior to exercise.

Prevention of Athletic or Exercise Injuries:

Proper warm up – One key I always share with my patients when counseling them on proper exercise or athletic training is to warm-up appropriately prior to exercise or sport. Cold muscles are stiff and highly prone to injury, whereas muscles that have been warmed up by blood flow are more lucid and less likely to sustain injury. A brisk walk, jogging, spin or jumping jacks for about 5-10 minutes should do the trick depending on the sport

Stretch – After warm-up, you should stretch to loosen up tendons, muscles and ligaments. You want to make sure you don’t overstretch. I advise patients that you should “feel” the stretch, but it shouldn’t make you wince in pain. Stretch from head to toe prior to and following exercise. Stretching improves flexibility and range of joint motion, which can help prevent injuries.

Chiropractic Evaluation and Maintenance – Chiropractic maintenance is much like regular dental visits and cleanings and just as important to maintain or improve overall health and prevent musculoskeletal injuries from sport, exercise and daily wear and tear.

A chiropractic evaluation can determine whether spinal misalignment or problems with gait or balance may be hampering proper motion during exercise or day to day movements. Gentle spinal adjustments and correction of gait or balance problems through the use of orthotics can improve your performance during exercise as well as on and off the field.

The slightest spinal misalignment can change the fluidity of motion during exercise and daily tasks and leave you vulnerable to soft tissue injury and eventually, early degeneration of bone and cartilage.

Exercise and especially, cycling is a passion of mine and I’d love to help you improve your performance and optimize your musculoskeletal health. Please call my chiropractic office in downtown Corvallis, OR to schedule an evaluation and we’ll find a customized maintenance plan to fit your FIT lifestyle.  As always, ‘Be Better.’

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