I talk to the patients of my San Diego Chiropractic clinic about health and weight on a daily basis.  While many people don’t want to hear about how their health habits, in this case carrying too much weight, can negatively affect their joints, it is my responsibility to present them with the facts (I don’t harp on them by the way!).

The joints of your spine, hips, knees, ankles and feet are all weight bearing joints.  These joints support the weight of your body.  The more you weigh, the more weight bearing stress is directed into these joints.  With time, weight bearing stress wears the joints down resulting in a condition known as osteoarthritis.  Osteoarthritis is a “wear and tear” type of arthritis that causes inflammation, scar tissue formation and muscle spasms.  Inflammation is often responsible for the neck pain, back pain and other joint pains that we experience.

We know that weight gain causes joint pain and that joint pain can make exercise difficult however, a recent study out of England also suggested that as we gain weight we tend to lose our desire to exercise at an emotional level as well.  You can see how as we gain weight the deck becomes stacked against us as far as our ability to regain a healthy weight.

I am well aware that talking to patients about their weight issues is only effective if I can catch them during a period of time when weight loss is important to them.  That being said, I also know that none of us look forward to experiencing the downsides of growing older complicated by the negative effects of weight gain.  The bottom line is this; weight gain is bad for all of your joints and can cause pain and disability as we grow older.  Do yourself a favor and keep your weight in check – it will make you and your joints happy!

Have a Nice Day!

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

www.JonesPainRelief.com

I was at Costco the other day looking at pants when I found myself standing near a few guys in their late teens / early twenties who were also looking at pants.  I remember when I was in my twenties thinking that guys my age (45) were old as dirt and I occasionally enjoyed saying things for shock value in order to stir up the “older” folks.  That is exactly what the one younger guy did when he said “none of these sizes will fit me – it is a short fat world isn’t it?” with enough volume for me to easily hear this comment.  Quietly, I agreed with him.

As I stood there looking at pant sizes, I realized that they did not have any in my size either.  Had my waist measurement exceeded my length, Costco would have had plenty of pants to choose from.  I find it difficult to find pants at most stores that I shop at because waist sizes run so large compared to lengths  –  it is really sad that as a society we have reached this point.

Being a San Diego chiropractor, I am always concerned with the health of my patients.  In addition to neck pain, back pain, headaches and other pain related issues, my patient’s weight and fitness are equally important.  Every extra pound that we carry increases the stress on our joints.  As joint stress increases, the chances of irritation, inflammation, joint pain and eventually arthritis increase as well.

Not to imply that weight control is only important for our joints but it is one more reason to either lose the extra weight or at least keep it in check. 

I attended a seminar recently and learned that large deposits of fat can actually work like an endocrine organ that predominantly produces estrogen.  This is true in men as well.  Excess estrogen in men is associated with increased risks of heart attack, stroke, and prostate disease.

I always bring up the topic of weight loss with my patients that would benefit from losing a few pounds – but I never ride them.  Losing excess weight is necessary in order to live a healthy lifestyle, but you have to want that in order to obtain it.

Have a great day!

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

www.JonesPainRelief.com

Joint pain from either cold or rainy weather is typically due to pre-arthritis or arthritis of the joints. The reason that joints ache when the weather shifts is debatable. Many experts feel as though scar tissue is at the source of this pain.

As it turns out, scar tissue is believed to be very sensitive to the changes in barometric pressure that come with rain as well as extreme changes in temperature.

Once one of our joints has been injured in a fall, motor vehicle accident, work injury, etc., the process of joint degeneration begins. The initial injury causes irritation of the joint. The irritation leads to inflammation which later cause scar tissue formation. Scar tissue not only limits joint motion but can be a source of pain itself. This is why some long lasting chronic joint problems are associated with both pain and stiffness.

Chiropractic care helps control joint pain by stretching and breaking down the scar tissue that is limiting joint motion and causing pain.

Through chiropractic manipulations, scar tissue that is responsible for neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, etc, can be reorganized and less of a burden to normal joint motion. Like anything mechanical in this world, if the parts (in this case the parts of the joint) are moving like they are supposed to with minimal restrictions, they will last longer and provide more years of reliable use.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554
www.JonesPainRelief.com

As it turns out, inflammation plays a big role in our health following a motor vehicle accident. Inflammation causes the muscles to tighten or spasm in an effort to protect the joint. Inflammation also causes us to feel pain. If the inflammation lasts for more than a few days it will cause scar tissue to form around the joints which also causes pain and decreased range of motion.

Since chiropractic care is so effective in treating the injuries associated with car accidents, I see many of these patients in my San Diego Chiropractic Center. Many of these patients had never been to a chiropractor prior to the care that they will receive because of their accident.

Chiropractic care for auto injuries should involve three separate phases of care.

The first phase of care should be directed toward to relieving pain. Ice packs, electrical stimulation, ultrasound and spinal manipulations all help to reduce pain and tension.

The second phase of care is directed toward improving the range of motion of the injured joints. It is important to “remodel” as much as the scar tissue as possible to help you maintain your full range of motion in the future.

The third phase of care is directed towards building strength and flexibility in and around the injured joints. Strong, flexible muscles that work to move joints that have full range of motion will help you maintain your spinal health in the future.

We would be happy to consult with you regarding care for your auto accident injuries.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

(619) 280-0554

Whiplash

Nutritional concerns play a very important role in our general health. One of the common suppliments that our patients take is fish oil.

We always stress the importance of fish oil for the heart and the digestive tract, but you probably haven’t heard that people who eat the most fish have the fewest eye problems.

The impact of fish oil on vision was a topic at this week’s meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. They reviewed evidense that showed that fish oil consumption extended to two very serious eye problems.

The first of these problems helped by fish oil is age-related macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is the disruption of the center of the retina where the fine nerve complex at the back of the eye essential for all fine visual tasks rests. Macular degereration is the leading cause of age-related blindness.

Fish oil protects the eyes from age-related macular degeneration because of a component of fish oil called docosahexaenoic acid also known as DHA. DHA is one of the omega-3 fatty acids linked to other health benefits. DHA helps vision by building up in the eye near light-sensing nerve cells.

“National Eye Institute researcher John Paul SanGiovanni, ScD, and colleagues analyzed dietary data from 4,513 60- to 80-year-old participants in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Those who ate fish more than twice a week were half as likely to get macular degeneration as those who ate no fish at all. More than one weekly portion of broiled/baked fish or tuna lowered the risk by a third.

“The risk for [age-related macular degeneration] was significantly decreased for the highest versus the lowest quintiles of total [omega-3 fatty acids] intake,” SanGiovanni and colleagues write in their abstract.”

In another study, fish oil was found to protect the eyes from dry eye syndrome. Dry eye syndrome is a condition in which a person’s eyes don’t make enough tears. Dry eyes can lead to scarring of the cornea and vision loss.

A study of 32,470 female health professionals found that women whose diets had the most omega-3 fatty acids were far less likely to have dry eye syndrome.

Women who ate two to four servings of tuna a week had an 18% lower risk of dry eye syndrome than those who ate less tuna. Eating five or six four-ounce servings of tuna every week lowered this risk by 66%.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com

I have been practicing chiropractic in San Diego for the last 15 years and what I have seen in practice regarding back injuries would be surprising to most people in non-medical careers.  The average person that I speak with regarding back pain and injuries is of the mind set that low back pain is the result of jobs that require heavy lifting or contact sports, golfing or car accidents. 

In reality, it is the constant stress and strain of postural stress that is the biggest burden on our spines.  The postural stress of sitting for hours on end in a task chair in front of a computer can become overwhelming.  When our bodies are exposed to a specific stress over a long period of time, the effects that the stress places on our bodies has a cumulative effect.  Over the course of months or years that cumulative stress expresses itself as pain, stiffness, pinched nerves or more serious symptoms. 

When I am explaining the ongoing cumulative effects of postural stress to my chiropractic patients I like to use the classic example of the Chinese water torture.  Those first couple hundred drops of water on the forehead aren’t bothersome – but a few hundred drops more will make you truly miserable.  The same process happens to your low back as the minutes, hours, days, months and years pass with you sitting in a computer chair.

There is a chart floating around that I have come across in several texts that relates your bodies posture with the amount of stress that each particular posture generates on the discs in the lower back.  As the chart demonstrates, the level of stress increases as the subject transitions from a prone position to a standing position to seated position to a slumped forward seated position.  The chart shows the pressure in the discs to equal 100% of your body weight while standing, approximately 125% of your bodies weight while sitting and over 140% of your body weight when sitting in a forward slumped position.

The reason that sitting is so hard on your back from a postural standpoint is due to the anatomy of the lower back vertebra.  When we are standing, your lower back naturally has a forward sweeping curve with the concavity of that curve facing rearward.  That curve acts to efficiently divide the weight of your body between the discs that separate your vertebra and the joints that run down the back of your spine.  When you assume a seated position, that curve straightens out transferring some of your weight from the posterior joints to the discs.  Slumping forward transfers even more weight resulting in more compression of the discs and more stress on the low backs discs.

As time passes, this increase pressure causes irritation of the overloaded spinal structures eventually leading to inflammation, spasm and pain.  This is the basic process with many injuries to the body that result from ongoing exposure to some irritating or stressful activity.     

How is this postural stress negated?  Well, unfortunately, all if it can’t be.  But it can be limited by practicing good posture and the right ergonomic principals.  A brief ergonomic evaluation of your work area can give you loads of valuable information that will help minimize the effects of your work environment on your body.

Sitting is a sedentary task but like most things in life, if you don’t do it properly there will be undesirable consequences.

Work Safe!

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com

I was asked this question by a new patient the other day. The funny thing about this question was that he was a new patient for me but he had been going to different chiropractors for nearly 40 years. Neck pain, back pain and headaches that occurred after various falls, work injuries and car accidents were what created his need for a life time of chiropractic treatment.

Certain types of injuries can cause chronic symptoms. Various physical issues that never fully return to their pre-accident state cause chronic symptoms.

For instance, whiplash type injuries leave about 25% of the patients with chronic ongoing neck pain. In these cases, the muscles that move and support the neck have been stretched and sometimes torn. When muscles tear they heal with scar tissue. Scar tissue does not move, stretch or contract like healthy muscle tissue.

Because of the different properties of scar tissue that has formed within the healthy muscle, the joint that is moved by that muscle becomes dysfunctional. As the joints movement alters, it has the potential to become irritated and inflamed. These irritated and inflamed joints then become painful, restricted in their movements and the muscles that move that joint tighten and spasm as a protective mechanism.

Chiropractic care is the perfect solution for painful joints and spasmed muscles. Through manipulation or adjustments of the affected joints, the muscle spasms are calmed and the pain is relieved. For some patients, ongoing chiropractic care helps prevent the onset of pain and stiffness that is associated with chronic injuries.

This example above is just one of the reasons that some chiropractic patients come in for treatment on a regular basis.

As for the patient above, he said he has been coming in for chiropractic for neck pain and back pain for years. He receives treatment for both health maintenance reasons as well as for control of specific symptoms that come up from time to time.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com

My chiropractic practice in San Diego helps people recover from back pain, neck pain and all types of work and auto injuries. Work and auto injuries often provide a single, identifiable explanation for pain.

Many patients simply wake up with back pain that wasn’t there when they went to bed, or they throw their backs out while reaching for a cup of coffee or picking a sock up off the floor. These scenarios are typical.

The truth is that our backs are very strong. Some of the ligaments in our backs are capable of withstanding over 700 pounds of tension. That is a lot of force.

Yet somehow we manage to injure ourselves with mundane events.

The answer to many of these injuries involves postural stress. Postural stress is dangerous to the health of our spines. It can result in lost days of work, disability and worst of all – loss of recreation and fun.

Postural stress results from poor posture, awkward bending and lifting, too much sitting, poor eyesight (makes us lean forward to see what we are doing) and many other activities of daily living.

These stresses that we endure are compensated for in other areas of our spines. However, with time and enough exposure to the stress previously mentioned, the joints in our backs become irritated and inflammed leading to muscle spasms and pain.

I like to use the analogy of stacking the straws on the camels back with injuries like this. In other words, these instances of stress are nothing by themselves but the effects of the stress is cumulative. As the stresses build, the body’s’ chance of a breakdown increases. Eventually you suffer a breakdown.

Chiropractic care can help you control the effects of postural stress. When our backs hurt, that is a clear indication that inflammation is present. Inflammation always stimulates scar tissue formation which limits your spines’ flexibility and causes pinched nerves and pain. Chiropractic adjustments breakdown the inflammation caused scar tissue and improve your spines flexibility. Improved flexibility keeps your spine healthier and much less likely to be aggravated by your activities of daily living.

If your job requires sitting for more than four hours per day, monthly chiropractic adjustments are very important in controlling the accumulating stress in your back.

There are other obvious steps that you can take toward improving the health of your spine and preventing episodes of back pain. Eating a healthy diet and exercise are very important in reducing the chances of suffering a back injury.

Being careful when lifting and carrying heavy objects and making sure that you don’t sit in one position for longer than twenty minutes is also helpful.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com

A few months ago I had a young lady come to my San Diego Chiropractic office with these complaints. In addition to numbness and tingling, she had neck pain, shoulder pain, arm pain, wrist pain and hand pain. She also complained of weakness in her left hand, which was resulting in clumsiness and was affecting her work as an executive secretary.

These complaints are seen with regular frequency in my chiropractic office. The process is a familiar one and common with many musculoskeletal conditions that involve the nervous system. Usually, postural stresses such as leaning over a desk or computer will eventually irritate a specific joint in the spine. The irritation of the joint causes inflammation of the muscles and ligaments that move and support that joint. This inflammation will cause compression of the local nerves and blood vessels resulting in pain and muscle spasm. If the nerve compression persists, numbness, tingling and weakness of the related muscles will follow.

This patient was displaying signs and symptoms of long-term nerve root compression that involved her left arm and hand.

We treated her with chiropractic manipulations that were delivered with the specific goal of eliminating the nerve root compression. She was also treated with ice packs, hot packs, electrical muscle stimulation and ultrasound in order to address the soft tissue inflammation. In addition to in office care she was given a set of stretches and exercises for at home therapy and advised to use ice packs daily for twenty minutes per session.

It took approximately eight weeks of active care, which is three treatment visits per week, to relieve 90% of her pain and 90% of her left arm weakness. The rest of her symptoms will resolve with at home therapy and chiropractic care delivered on an as needed basis for flair-ups that will occur in the future.

Your’s In Good Health

Dr. Jones

http://www.jonespainrelief.com/blog1/

www.JonesPainRelief.com