San Diego Chiropractor

Archive for August, 2009

Recently I have had an awakening regarding the importance of a healthy diet. I have always exercised and always watched my diet. That being said I would occasionally give in to cravings and didn’t always watch the sodium and preservative content of the foods I was consuming.

Until about two years ago I used to run three or four times a week and lift weights three times a week all while being “pretty good” with my diet. Despite all of this exercise, my body didn’t make any substantial changes. Sure, exercise kept my cardiovascular system in good shape and I was toned – to a point – but my abs continued hide under a thin layer of “stuff”.

I always suspected that the flaws in my diet, regardless of how insignificant that they seemed were what was holding me back from making the changes that I desired. Mind you, I am not a superficial person but I was aware that the same dietary faults that were preventing me from seeing my abs were also contributing to the stuffed, tired and bloated feeling that I was experiencing after most of my meals. I guess that when I see a fit person with defined abs I assume that they feel good versus feeling the way I did.

Aside from these personal revelations, Sandra Blackie, fitness guru and friend of my office once told me that the way we appear physically is about 75% diet and 25% exercise. Over the last few months I have made the effort to implement this idea.

I began a purification diet that involved Standard Process Supplements combined with a complete cleaning of my diet. I eliminated all foods that contained preservatives, dairy (which I knew for years made me ill), processed sugars and starches. What a dramatic change! I have leaned out considerably, I don’t get sick after meals anymore and I have more energy to do my exercise.

I look at all those years of running and lifting weights and think how most of that effort was wasted by my poor diet. I guess I learned that I should listen to authority figures regarding my conditioning much like I expect my chiropractic patients to listen to my recommendations regarding my treatment for their neck pain, back pain, headaches, etc.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554
www.JonesPainRelief.com

Turning forty-five has been a wake up call for this chiropractor. While I don’t think that I have let my health slide, I spend most of my energy trying to relieve my patients neck pain, back pain and headaches. With the hours of my day spent on others health care, I was not exactly setting the example that I wanted my patients to see.

A few months ago I changed my life with healthy eating and whole food supplements. I also began looking for more information on direct results that arise from bad diet choices. I found the following article on Yahoo’s health page and found it interesting.

If you think that the only consequence of eating fatty foods is weight gain in the long run, read on – you will be surprised!

Fatty foods have an almost immediate negative effect on short-term memory and exercise performance, British researchers say.

The study included rats that were fed a low-fat diet and trained to complete a challenging maze and to run on a treadmill. Half the rats were then switched to a high-fat diet. In subsequent maze and treadmill tests, the rats on the high-fat diet had poorer memory and muscle performance than the rats that kept eating a low-fat diet, The New York Times reported.

“We expected to see changes, but maybe not so dramatic and not in such a short space of time,” study lead author Andrew Murray, a lecturer in physiology at Cambridge University, told the Times. “It was really striking how quickly these effects happened.”

The findings appear in The Faseb Journal, published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.                                                                                                             
Murray and his colleagues found that high-fat diets had similar effects in humans, but those findings haven’t yet been published.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554
www.JonesPainRelief.com

Nutrition is vital to the health and function of our bodies. Many of my San Diego Chiropractic patients don’t fully understand the need for sound nutrition or why we stress the importance of nutrition. Poor nutrition can cause or contribute to fatigue, anxiety, aches and pains.

What is at the root of our poor nutrition?

1) High carbohydrate, low protein diets.

2) Poor quality synthetic vitamins taken as supplements.

3) Poor food quality. Soil mineral depletion and demineralization combined with excessive use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides as well as over-processed food that have been enriched with synthetics and preservatives has led to foods that are far less nutritious than in the past.

Proper nutrition begins with cleaning poor quality, over processed foods out of your diet and replacing them with organically grown fresh vegetables and fruits. You also have to select high quality animal proteins or whey protein supplements since many animal proteins contain synthetic steroids and other injected hormones to promote rapid growth.

Finally, a good nutrition program requires high quality whole food supplements. Since even organically grown foods are lacking in vitamin and mineral content, a modern nutrition plan should be fortified with whole food supplements.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554
www.JonesPainRelief.com

In my last post regarding ergonomics, I reviewed five of the ten principles of ergonomics.
In this post I will review the rest of the ten principles of ergonomics. Remember that it is easy to think of ergonomic principles only being applied to your work duties but it is just as important to apply them to your at home and recreational activities as well.

Ergonomics should be taken into consideration when driving or working on cars, while playing musical instruments, during your workouts / exercise, walking the dog, etc.

So, picking up where I left off…

Principle 6 – Design workstations to allow for change of posture if at all possible. Sit / stand work stations with a higher seating surface allows you to significantly reduce postural stress by giving you the option to change positions and keep movement.

Principle 7 – Work stations should be spacious. Work should not be confined by cramped environments. The area should be large enough to allow for adequate room to complete the task yet contained enough to allow easy access to tools or other items necessary to complete the task.

Principle 8 – Make sure that your work is located at the proper height. You should be able to reach your work without overextending your arms and without straining your back or neck. In general, work should be done at elbow height. Heavy work should be done lower than elbow height and very light delicate work can be done at a level higher than elbow height to allow for better visual reference.

Principle 9 – Try to avoid fatigue – especially static loads. Static load on a muscle group is a continuous contraction over a long period of time. When static loads are combined with awkward postures or excessive force injuries are sure to follow.

Principle 10 – Minimize contact stress / pressure. Contact stress such as leaning on an elbow or having to apply sustained pressure on a lever, switch or tool can inhibit blood flow and interfere with nerve function.

These are the ten basic principles of ergonomics. Look for violations of these principles in your work / home and you will be serving yourself well!  Identifying and eliminating a few ergonomic stressors can help you prevent or decrease neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain and so on.  It is definitely worth your effort.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554
www.JonesPainRelief.com