Gulledge Chiropractic Wellness Blog

                In a small island in Lake Superior, Moose are showing arthritis linked to their nutrition during their development.  Scientists are observing that not only does what the animals ate during their growth and development effect rates of arthritis, but also what their mothers ate during their gestation. This is a surprising finding for scientists, many of whom consider arthritis to be a disease based on obesity and genetics.

GCA’s Take- Arthritis, like so many other degenerative diseases is hugely influenced by your diet. This influential time is not only when you are a child but throughout your life. The idea that science is wowed by the effects of pre-natal and neo-natal nutrition is interesting. When does your brain grow? When is your central nervous system formed? These incredibly important organs/systems are formed when we are still in the womb. We are building our bodies when we are young and also re-building our bodies all the time.

Arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, etc. these degenerative diseases are not caught, they are made. Their instruments are the knife and fork – the remote and the sofa. Genetics can play a role in degenerative diseases, but the hands down majority of cases, genetics are expressed based on how we live our lives.

 Bottom line- Genetics are dictated by diet and lifestyle, not the other way around. Modern medicine has done a beautiful job of eradicating most infectious disease that plagued mankind for thousands of years. Now it is on our own shoulders to determine if our lifestyles will lead us toward degenerative disease or healthy aging.

GCA

Is there a link between chiropractic care and athletic performance?

For those of us who have not only treated competing athletes but have also competed while under care I can say absolutely yes. Imagine if you are a swimmer and one Lat muscle was firing at 95%. Or if you are a cyclist and one quad was firing at 90%. These symptoms are usually below a perceptible range and as such we may not be aware of them, but by experience and observation, they will change performance.

Muscles contract based on signals received from nerves. If these nerve fibers are slightly pinched or “facilitated” there can be sub-clinical muscle weaknesses. These weaknesses will alter the firing patterns of skeletal muscle and in turn can and will hinder performance. At our office we see many different kinds of athletes. One case that comes to mind was a weightlifter who was having arm pain when he was bench pressing. During an assessment it was discovered that after a car accident the nerves controlling his Latissimus were not performing adequately. This was hindering his ability to stabilize on the bench press and causing pain. After we corrected the nerve disturbance and helped the muscle to fire at 100% he was breaking records on the bench press quickly.

Many people think of chiropractic care when their back hurts but look to it for little else. Athletes will spend hundreds of dollars on new shoes or “sport gear” to optimize their performance but will overlook the role of balancing their own body. It only makes sense that if you are asking your body to perform, you should make sure that it is tuned. We take our cars in for tune-ups, but may go years without doing much to tune up our own body. If you are going to ask the body to perform at a high level then we encourage you to give back to it and get it balanced.

At our office we utilize a surface Electro Myo Gram or EMG to identify these muscle imbalances. Using this technology we are able to fine tune our treatments and discover, where the key weaknesses and overcompensations are. Here is an example of a graph produced by our exam. As you can see there is significantly more muscle tension on the left side of the neck than the right. Interestingly this patients symptoms were primarily on the right side. With out this data management of the case would be quite difficult. This technology enables us to help athletes perform at their best in and out of season.

GCA

Chronic pain and inflammation are far too common today. People will live with pain for years or decades and manage it with anti-inflammatory drugs. Inflammation in the form of breathing difficulties, joint aches, muscle pain, allergies, fatigue and more are usually managed with various different pharmaceuticals. In these cases it is important to understand what could be causing this inflammation. Often there is an irritant that is chronically stressing the system, this needs to be discovered and fixed for any real long term solution.

When we think of stress we think of the externals, job, finances, family, etc. In actuality our body is under far more stress internally than externally. This internal stress often comes from many different factors, food allergies, GI infections, and in the chiropractic realm, pinched nerves. When we think of pinched nerves, we think of pain and numbness. While this is partly true, often pinched nerves don’t cause pain.

How is this possible, because nerves carry far more information than just pain. Nerves connect your brain to your body; they carry FAR more information to and from your body than just pain. Proper organ function, proprioception, balance, pH balance, vasoconstriction vs. dilation, the list is endless. Only one function of nerves is pain monitoring. If these nerves are being slightly pinched or not able to communicate effectively because of misalignments in the skeleton and in the soft tissue this will cause a stress response in the brain. This stress is then relayed throughout the whole system contributing to the symptoms mentioned earlier.

The role of chiropractic is chronic pain and inflammation is to reduce stress signals to the brain. Chiropractic is great at removing stress from the nerves that control pain, that has been proven over and over. The often unseen role of chiropractic is the reduction of stress signals to the brain thereby reducing overall inflammation and internal stress.

Basically- chiropractic treatment = Good

Thanks to everyone who attended our lecture on Female hormone balancing. It was a good turnout with great participation from those who were there.

We discussed things like common symptoms, reasons for imbalances, types of testing and management techniques.

Here is a re-print of the handout we gave that discussed personal strategies for balancing hormones. While not a totally exhaustive list, these are great tips to start with if you have hormonal symptoms, regardless of age.

Simple tips for healthy hormones and a healthy life

1. Stabilize blood sugar with a low glycemic diet (Mediterranean type diet)
   1. Limited processed carbs and sugars
   2. Adequate protein intake (approx. 1 gram per pound of body weight)
   3. Eat 4-6 times per day
2. Exercise regularly
   1. Doing both aerobic and anaerobic exercise at high intensity
3. Have a positive mental attitude
   1. Less worry and more happiness, enjoy the simple things, sunrise etc.
   2. Consider meditation daily
4. Decrease estrogen exposure in your diet
   1. Estrogen like compounds can accumulate in tap water, food cooked or stored in plastics
   2. Lower your estrogen load with purified water and avoid microwaving food in plastic
5. Several times a month eat organic Edamame (soy beans) 
   1. Healthy sources of soy will help to keep our estrogen receptors healthy
6. Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night
   1. Sleep is when our bodies repair and recover
7. Make yourself a priority in your schedule
   1. Taking time for yourself is not selfish, it is healthy

The application of these simple seven tips will be a great start to hormonal management.

GCA

Men’s health issues.  Other than heart attack and cancer, you do not hear much about it.  Accept for the commercials running on television that is. 

There is one running on TV about a medical condition known as “low T.”  They never say exactly what this is, but its symptoms are lower energy, decreased sex drive and overall not feeling like the man you once were.  If this description sounds like you, you are supposed to ask your doctor about the condition “low T.” 

Low T refers to low levels of the hormone testosterone.  Testosterone is present in both males and females, but in much larger amounts in men.  Testosterone gives rise to masculine characteristics such as larger muscle mass, deeper voice, more body hair, greater strength, etc, and plays a large role in body repair and regeneration, healthy mood and cognition as well as energy production and stress handling.   As this hormone declines with age there can is the associated decrease in muscle mass, energy and even libido.  

On top of this new ad, everyone has seen countless ads for erectile dysfunction drugs.  These drugs sell in huge amounts, so one could be left wondering…

What’s going on with men these days?

Are these medical conditions that all men are destined for and will need a pharmaceutical drug to fix? 

Whether you are in you are in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or even much younger, even as young as in your 20’s and these symptoms sound like you, the doctors at GCA want you to know there are natural ways to re align your hormones, increase your health and vitality and will not make you dependant on a lifelong prescription. 

Many don’t know how powerful hormones actually are.  Hormones are measured in nanograms, or parts per billion.  One part per billion is like putting a pinch of salt on 10 tons of chips.  Others are measured in picograms, which is like putting one drop of water into a six mile long train with 660 tank cars.  A little bit goes a long way, so obviously, you don’t want these hormones out of whack. 

As we have stated in past articles, hormones are more powerful than diet.  If your hormones are out of balance, you may find it impossible to lose weight, and if your hormones are working properly, you can get away with much more and maintain a lean build so many people are after.

So what’s going on to cause men to need to go to their doctors for “low T” and erectile dysfunction drugs.  What causes male hormones to get out of balance?  

A huge culprit is insulin resistance.   As a man becomes more and more insulin resistant, the activity of an enzyme called aromatase is increased.  Aromatase causes testosterone to be converted into estrogen, a hormone that gives rise to feminine traits.  This is obviously not what a man is looking for if he wants more muscle, less fat, more energy and increased sex drive.   You become insulin resistant by surging insulin throughout the day, for years, as is done with the average America diet.  See recent article “Americas #1 source of calories”. 

Another cause of the decline in testosterone is chronic stress.  With chronic stress, the body tends to make more cortisol than then testosterone.  Cortisol has some great functions, you just don’t want it high more often than it should be, as it not only decreases testosterone, it decreases immune system function and overall body regeneration as well. 

Another factor causing estrogen production to increase is a higher level of body fat.  As a person has more body fat, these fat cell actually can produce estrogen which then can make the problem worse. 

On top of this, if your diet is lacking certain minerals, hormone production can slow down.

If you are a man that no longer feels like yourself and is considering the medical, hormonal approach to treatment, you should know, the treatment will elevate testosterone levels, but it will further decrease your body’s production, thus making you dependent on that treatment.  Should you want to stop treatment, it will be much harder to get your own natural hormone production back to a healthy normal. 

And if you are dependant on cialis/viagra, there may be underlying physiological problems that this drug is masking.

So, what is a man to do if he wants to get his testosterone levels back up to where he feels like his younger, healthier self?

Step 1 Normalize insulin levels and sensitivity.

Do this through eating every three hours.  Have protein at every meal.  Do not eat carbohydrates alone.  Eliminate sugary drinks such as soda and fruit juices entirely.  Your carbs should be coming from vegetables and some whole grains.    Get plenty of healthy fats.  Olive oil, fish oil and organic butter are great.  At our office we advocate a Mediterranean type diet.  There is plenty of info on line and in books stores regarding this.  Stick to this eating style 90% of the time and you’re doing great.

Step 2 Regular exercise. 

Lifting weights two to three times a week along with two days of moderate cardiovascular exercise will increase testosterone levels.  There is no secret exercise plan.  Do three, full body weight lifting sessions a week that last 30-40 minutes, focusing on multi-joint movements.  Go on two to three nice walks a week and enjoy the flowers, tree, birds and squirrels.  You can bike, jog or swim instead if you like.     

Step 3 Deal with emotional stress.

As we said earlier, chronic stress will rob you of testosterone and elevate cortisol.  Meditation is an excellent way to cultivate an attitude that will allow you to handle stress more effectively.  See our recent article “Happines 101” for tips on starting a meditation practice. A note on meditation, everyone can benefit from this.  Even if you think you’re a manly-man, meditation has the potential to improve your mental state of mind and enhance the quality of your life.   On top of this, don’t watch too much depressing news or listen to music about low functioning behavior, that seems to be so popular these days.  Try some classical music as it has been shown to have a calming effect on the brain and endocrine system.    

Step 4  Avoid environmental estrogens. 

There are high levels of birth control (synthetic female hormones) in our water supply these days, hormones in our milk and meat and estrogen like compounds in plastics that leach into our food and water.  To avoid these, drink filtered water, get local organic milk and meat, avoid drinking large amounts of water from plastic bottles. 

Step 5 Consider holistic, hormonal testing. 

If the above is not effective, or you just simply don’t have the get up and go to even attempt changing your lifestyle, you may need a stronger approach.  

If this is you, you need a saliva test that is comprehensive in nature and measures the following, DHEA, androstenedione, testosterone, DHT, progesterone and estrogen and well as pituitary hormones.  On top of this you may to have your cortisol levels measured throughout the day and night to assess how your body is handling stress.  

We order these tests in our office, and if they are far from normal, we often recommend a natural approach before getting in to a life time prescription of synthetic testosterone or a reliance on cialis or viagra. 

Once we know exactly what is going on with the patients’ hormones, we are able to tailor a plan of specific herbs, minerals, homeopathics and or nutrients.  With this approach, the body is often capable of correcting even long standing imbalances.    

The results are greater vitality and sense of well being, more energy and a healthier body and mind.

If you are a man and feel you need any help restoring your vitality, don’t hesitate to call the doctors at GCA.