Putting Your House in Order: Food Reigns Supreme

Wouldn’t it be nice if managing one’s health was like maintaining a clean home? Make the bed, empty the dishwasher, swiffer the floors, cleanse the sinks and tubs, tidy the countertops, use some floor mats and don't forget your annual window washing. Only green cleaners, right? Barring any catastrophic natural disasters, a two-minute shower while your four year-old is unsupervised, or an ant infestation (anyone else in OC relate to this?) the formula is rather simple.

On the other hand, obtaining a clean bill of health from your doctor can feel complex and downright overwhelming. Perhaps you are not feeling well, but your doctor(s) can’t seem to find anything wrong. You might be wondering if you have taken the right tests and had a thorough work-up. Conversely, maybe you are pre-diabetic, struggling with hypothyroid, joint pain, skin rashes, bouts of anxiety and depression, and migraines. You have been prescribed a host of medications and you’re expected to remain on those meds into perpetuity. You may be searching for a sustainable solution, one with fewer side effects, and one that allows your body to heal from the inside out. By and large, we underestimate the potential of food, sleep, and stress management.

Setting yourself up for a life free of disease and vigor in today’s society may feel like a pipe dream for a growing majority. I’d argue that there are a handful of reasons this is such a common dilemma.

• Mismatch between diet and activity levels.

• Change is hard, reinforced patterns are easy

• The “attention economy” does not provide valuable education

• Repetitive insults to the gut, immune system and metabolism go unchecked

• A one size fits all healthcare approach

• Conventional medicine is designed for disease management and not prevention

• Most medical paradigms do not “aim at the origin” and/or discount the body’s interconnectedness

• Lifestyle interventions are time-intensive and difficult to align with insurance- based care

• Diagnostic testing is looking downstream

• Poor diagnosis and treatment plans do not educate or empower the patient

Let’s focus on the elephant in the room: diet. It’s time for a gut check; by definition a gut check is an honest reflective appraisal of one’s true feelings regarding a matter of concern. How and what we eat is either optimizing our health or initiating new underlying pathology and eventually disease. For example, patients struggling with supporting thyroid function may need to address gut function to fully combat symptoms of hypothyroidism.

Risk factors for developing Digestive Pathology.

Chronic Stress

Sleep Deprivation

Physical inactivity

Hypothyroidism

HPA Axis dysfunction

Excess Alcohol

Environmental toxins.

Family History

Cesarean Birth

Formula fed

Standard American diet

Food poisoning

Antibiotics

Medications

The evolving role of diet has altered the way we understand disease. In fact, digestive health has a wide array of implications. Intuitively, this should not be a surprise. The gut is one of our main interfaces with our external environment, it houses trillions of bacteria, has its own nervous system and gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT).

The digestive system is both resilient and dynamic. This is a double-edged sword because it is really good at masking the effects of a poor diet. What happens in the gut is so powerful that it has long-distance effects on the brain, skin, skeleton, muscles, metabolism, cardiovascular system, endocrine system, and immune system. It’s not like the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” Take a look at figure 3. These examples of reactivity may be the result of something called molecular mimicry. Due to the similarity in molecular structure with food we eat and our own tissue, the immune system can be fooled into attacking look-a-like molecules that make up our own tissue leading to autoimmune disease.

Educational resource from Cyrex Laboratories.

Below is my own list of the top 10 effects of a poor diet:

6 Joint pains

7 Neurodegenerative syndromes

8 IBS and GERD

9 Dermatitis and eczema

10 Constipation

1 Diabetes

2 Obesity

3 Cardiovascular disease

4 Autoimmune disorders

5 Anxiety and Depression

So how do we detect, avoid these problems and remedy our diet. Some patients have symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation, abdominal pain and cramps, skin rashes, diarrheas, excess gas, brain fog, heartburn, excessive hunger, and other complaints. However, there are patients that do not have symptoms or have symptoms that seem unrelated. For example of those diagnosed with Celiac Disease, autoimmunity to gluten, only 50% have GI symptoms.

With advances in research we have a better understanding about gut pathologies such as intestinal permeability aka “leaky gut,” food intolerances (tend to be undiagnosed), celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity, hypochlorydia, gut dysbiosis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and infections.

A functional medicine approach is a great way for patients to understand what is at the root of their health challenges. What that looks like for most patients is an extensive history, some form of altered diet (in some case removing gluten, wheat and dairy) and tests or screens for:

• Wheat/Gluten reactivity

• gluten-associated cross-reactivity

• pathogen screens

• intestinal permeability

• SIBO

• and other tests depending on a working diagnosis.

Treatment protocols are designed for each patient and tend to employ a mixture of dietary restriction, antimicrobials, pro/prebiotics, and other temporary supplementation meant to heal the gut

Researchers and clinicians continue to unravel the different mechanisms behind health pathology. There is some controversy regarding food intolerances, dysbiosis, leaky gut, autoimmunity, and hormone dysfunction. However, novel screening tools and continued research help shed light on how to treat the source of the problem and return your overall health.

If you have questions please email them to nick@spineandjointoc.com

Long term activation of stress disrupts all of the body's processes

This video is Part 3 of a discussion on stress reduction. If you want additional context please follow us on Instagram @spineandjointoc.

Below I provide a summary that highlights the types of dysfunction one may experience due to overexposure to stress. If you watched the clip, I corrected a slip of the tongue. I replaced sleep deprived with sleep de-fried and I own that folly. Now for the comparison.

Overexposure to Cortisol

Normal Cortisol Release

Medically Reliant

Sleep-Deprived

Immunity Suppression (vulnerable
to disease)

Increase in sympathetic activity


Diminished Self-Regulation

Chronic Inflammation

Brain Atrophy

Physiologic Imbalance

Hormonal Imbalance (i.e. decrease in Thyroid hormone)

Weight gain/obesity

Weakened Bones

Healthy State

Rested and Recovered

Increased Immunity


Increase in Parasympathetic activity

Stress Tolerance

Acute Inflammation

Neurogenesis

Homeostasis

Hormonal/Circadian balance


Normal biostatistics

Strong Bones

My Technology Runs Well, but my Body Needs an Upgrade.

Somewhere along the line technology transformed from tool to necessity. In some cases it has climbed to the top of the food chain highjacking our reward centers and demanding outright priority. I've seen the toll that it can take on the spine when left unchecked over a continued duration.

Technology feels like an extension of one's self. I wondered "do I have a technology obsession?" I definitely have my moments, but overall I have a healthy relationship. It did get me thinking. As a society we upgrade our cameras, computers, phones and other electronics with each improvement or killer feature. We cringe and pushdown anxiety when our computer's speed wanes or wifi signals are poor. If we're not careful we'll check our social media more times than not. We've all experienced the phantom pocket vibration (right or am I alone), yet many people struggle to perform a legitimate body weight squat. Moreover, studies show that out every 100 employees:

• 29 have obesity
• 21 have hypertension
• 17 have high cholestrol
• 9 have high blood glucose (this seems low to me)

As our tech acumen rises our necks stiffen (without intervention). We rely on our laptops at the cost of our spines and hips. Some have said that technology allows us to experience a sort of increased acceleration towards certain aspects of our lives that can come easy and it becomes obsessive.

What would change if we looked at our physical and mental health with the same enthusiasm for which we regard our technology? Better technology has a way about it. It's always upending its predecessor. However, our physical body seems to be on a path of deconditioning without investing time and energy to care for it. Believe it or not, overall health can improve, if not maintain as we age.

Inherently, people understand that we need to eat less, move more, and choose a healthy lifestyle. Which brings me back to this idea of an upgrade. Perhaps if we start to think about our health differently (as a tool or an asset) we can rework the approach and redefine expectations. A healthy high functioning body may be the best upgrade of all.

An Ounce of Spinecare

An Ounce of Spinecare

From my perspective, I think it's fair to infer that the general population's understanding of chiropractic is steeped in misinformation and ludicrous youtube videos.

However the chance to better educate, improve utilization, and delivery quality care doesn’t always propel chiropractors forward.

Definition by its opposite

Chiropractic is not roller tables, tens machines, kinesio tape and 5 minutes of popping with the doctor. It's not meant exclusively for infants, kids, adults, or geriatrics. While there are treatment protocols - chiropractic is not a one-sized fits all approach. In my opinion it’s not a room with five tables where five different patients receive the same five adjustments. When performed in line with a proper assessment and true to biomechanical concepts the risks associated with chiropractic care are very small.

So what is chiropractic

It is a health platform tasked primarily with holistic spine care, but responsible for integrative or coordinated care (in-house and referring out) that includes physiotherapy, massage, nutrition, mental health and other holistic constructs. At its core chiropractic is about assessing the spine and providing adjustments to decrease pain, increase function and facilitate the body’s capacity to heal.

Chiropractic may be medically necessary for infants exposed to birth trauma. You might be surprised to learn that the force used to adjust babies is comparable to the force one would use to check the ripeness of a tomato. I once had a parent ask me if it’s too soon to treat her son as he was only 16 years old. I was not that surprised because she had no prior experience with chiropractic. Kids, especially those participating in gymnastics, dance, marital arts, and all of the traditional sports (i.e. lacrosse, football, baseball, basketball, etc.) can reap the benefits of identifying an injury prior to pain,  quicker healing and injury prevention (both acute injuries and wear and tear from repetitive stress).

Most people do not think about the mobility of their spine or joints such as the hip or ankle. Spinal degeneration has become so common (due to our lifestyles -there are outlier circumstances) that your orthopedist or radiologist will refer to it as normal aging. In many ways chiropractic care is a way to realign and remove abnormal stress placed on the joints, muscle and neural tissues.

Should everyone see a chiropractor

Chiropractic comes at a cost that is both financial and psychological. The former mainly due to poor insurance reimbursement and the latter because most outcomes require some degree of patient accountability.  The cost leads to a large majority of patients accessing chiropractic care as a means to resolve pain. Pain truly is the great motivator and presents differently for each individual.

Pain can be simple or complex. It can be multifaceted and may involve the following components:

• neurovascular
• psychological
• neurological
• muscular
• mechanical

Here are 3 different scenarios and how chiropractic care could be used to correct the problem and prevent future injury.

Hip pain

A 45 year old female patient complains of intractable hip pain for the last 5 months. She believes that it began after a session of interval training with her personal trainer. The pain is sharp and she notes that now she has some numbness along the lateral portion of her thigh.

The pain makes it difficult to sleep. A thorough exam reveals that she has a rotated sacrum on the same side that she is having hip pain. In this case the patient was adjusted, underwent soft tissue release, and was prescribed a few exercises. The pain resolved after the first visit and has not returned over the course of 4 months. 

Wondering what is a "sacrum"

Sacrum in in Red

Upper back pain

A 37 year-old mother of 2 complains of pain where her neck and shoulder meet. At times the pain radiates up into the neck and down between the shoulder blades. Picking up her 2 year old gives a burning feeling and rotating her head to the left has become painful and more difficult. During our history taking she notes that she sprained her left rotator cuff while in high school (volleyball injury). We found a misalignment in her thoracic spine (T2) and a misaligned scapula on the left side. Both areas were adjusted and the patient had immediate relief (90 %) improvement. Over the course of 2 additional treatments the patient regained full range of motion in her neck and was free of pain. 

Picture of the thoracic vertebrae.

Jaw and shoulder pain

A 14 year old male lacrosse player complains of jaw pain and associated neck and upper trapezius pain. During a game he was kneed in the jaw. He was able to turn his head to the right, but only about 60 % compared to rotation to the left. Evaluation of his neck and upper back  revealed a misalignment of the first cervical vertebra. Once this bone was adjusted the patient regained full ROM and a decrease in pain of 50-75%. Moreover, if this patient had not addressed the misalignment in his neck there is a possibility that the abnormal alignment can lead to a handful of symptoms and changes in postural control down the line.

First cervical vertebra (green) aka "atlas"

Summary

What’s the goal of chiropractic?

Zero in on the primary cause of pain and implement a treatment plan so that it does not return. This is predicated on a proper evaluation of the spine and neuromuscular system. 

Who should see a chiropractor?

All ages infants to geriatrics

Athletes across a wide spectrum

Those with pain or those looking for a holistic wellness approach

If you have a spine it can be evaluated.

Why do I have pain and what should I do?

Start with the least invasive therapy first. If you have muscle and joint pain or headaches find a well-reviewed chiropractor and have them perform an evaluation. That information will help you make an educated decision and understand your options. (Disclaimer: pain related to cardiovascular problems, stroke, cancer, etc ay require emergency medicine or the immediate attention of a medical specialist.)

What sort of commitment should I expect if I undergo care?

By and large true health is becoming increasingly collaborative. You may be asked to return for several visits, undergo additional diagnostic tests and follow a tailored treatment plan. Corrective care exercise may be prescribed and you may be asked to make specific changes in your behavior i.e. postural control, activity levels, nutritional choices, etc.

Podcast

My interview with Mikhail Alfon: Taking Ownership of Your Health

A while back one of my patients invited me to do an interview for his podcast "A Day in the Life Podcast." He is the cofounder at Blue Light Media, OC native, and a leader in brand building. You can find Mikhail on Instagram @miqk or at on LinkedIn .

If you are an OC resident and enjoy hearing interviews from other professionals in your community here is the link to A Day in the Life on Itunes (feel free to subscribe).

Link to Interview