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BACK IN THE SWING
Simple adjustments can lead to
an injury-free spring
by Leah Hughes Spring is here. As warmer weather lures us out of hibernation, yard work beckons and plush golf course greens tempt us to pick up shovels and golf clubs. |
But not too fast. Area spinal health specialists see an increase in back injuries in the spring as people rush outside after being less active during winter months.
“You definitely don’t want to start back to doing things too fast too soon,” says Chris Billiar, supervisor of outpatient rehabilitation at WakeMed’s Clayton Medical Park. “Try to slowly increase your intensity.”
People often experience problems when attempting to resume a certain activity at the same high level of intensity they used at the end of the summer. They often fail to realize that inactivity during the winter weakens both muscle strength and endurance.
“Spinal misalignment comes from people hibernating all winter, and when spring comes they get those muscles reactivated again and wind up hurting themselves,” says William Jackson DC, owner of Community Chiropractic in Garner.
Here’s a primer on how to carefully get back into the swing of things just in time for spring. A good stretch
Robert Isaacs, director of spinal surgery at Duke Medicine in Durham, recommends a retraining period. People should not refrain from physical activity, but they should suppress the desire to overdo it. The body is not ready to jog five or 10 miles after five months of inactivity, he says.
According to Billiar, improper stretching before the first few golf games of the season often causes players to tweak back muscles. But stretching is not specific to golfers or other athletes. Everyone should incorporate stretches into their daily routines to maintain prime back health.
“In the morning when you yawn, stretch out the arms and legs too,” says Cheryl Hamburger, owner of Great Blue Heron Massage in Cary.
Daily stretches should be simple, not strenuous.
“Every day, find some time to stretch,” Jackson adds. “Just like brushing your teeth, practice a little spinal hygiene.”
Just as everyone uses a different type of toothbrush and toothpaste, individuals must find which stretches best suit their bodies. Exercise professionals, personal trainers, and physical therapists help tailor stretches to each body type and physical ability.
“To say that everybody needs to do the same exercises for back pain would be like a doctor saying, ‘I’ll just give you this pill without taking a history or examining you,’ ” says Meryl Freeman, manager of outpatient rehabilitation at Rex Healthcare in Raleigh.
She recommends adding some type of muscle-strengthening exercises to any stretching routine.
“The big buzz word is core,” she says, adding that stronger core muscles better support the spine and can help prevent many types of injuries.
“Stretching and core-strengthening programs are just good ideas to avoid those same problems that build up over time,” Isaacs adds. Preventing injury
Some accidents resulting in back injury are not preventable, but maintaining overall health can help lessen an injury’s severity and can shorten recovery time. Making adjustments to everyday habits also can contribute to optimal back health.
“Activities of daily living that you don’t realize — silly little things like bending over and tying your shoes and holding that position — can put a strain on your back,” Freeman says.
Bending with the knees rather than at the waist can alleviate stress on the back.
“Everything we do is in front of us,” Billiar says.
“If you bend forward and don’t have good body mechanics, then even picking up a pencil can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
Reaching beyond the normal range of motion also puts stress on the back.
“One of the biggest things I see in young mothers is reaching into the back seat,” Hamburger says.
Even lifting light objects, such as toys or bottles, can be dangerous while stretching or twisting.
Another daily threat to the back involves lack of activity. Many desk-job employees sit in the same position for hours with improper posture.
“Sitting all day can tend to cause muscle tightness, weakness and imbalance, and can put a strain on all structures in the back,” Freeman says.
“The more time you spend in postures that put stress on your spine, the more chance you have to get some sort of injury.”
To do this, it’s important to sit straight up with shoulders back and use a chair with lumbar support. Also, computers should sit at or slightly below eye level to avoid craning or bending the neck.
Jackson recommends obeying the rule of 20. Office employees who are chained to their desks should take 20 seconds after every 20 minutes to stretch and roll back their shoulders. These small changes don’t take a lot of time but can offer significant reward in preventing back injury.
Hamburger also suggests making massage part of a regular back-health routine. She often works out patients’ problem areas early before they reach a more serious stage.
“Massage can be a great maintenance for health and for someone to find issues before they’re a problem,” she says.
It’s time to see a specialist such as a primary care doctor or chiropractor when back pain lasts longer than a few days.
“A lot of it is back pain that people don’t remember from a specific injury; it just kind of creeps up on them,” Billiar says.
“The sooner we can start trying to help somebody, the better their recovery,” he adds. “The biggest thing is to make sure people don’t hesitate to get help for back pain, because it’s easily treated.” Leah Hughes is a senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
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A cutting-edge MRI
For those times when simple stretching and strengthening don’t seem to help and traditional methods haven’t pinpointed the source of your pain, a new type of MRI offered at Triangle Orthopaedic Associates might be just what the doctor ordered.
Upright, a multi-position MRI that scans patients while they’re sitting, standing or bending, is now available at the medical facility, which has locations throughout the Triangle. Unlike traditional MRI scans, where patients are forced to lie down while a large, tunnel-like tube encircles them, Upright allows them to be comfortable and even watch television while getting scanned. The new technology – which can scan for herniated and bulging discs, among other spinal ailments – not only benefits patients but offers a more in-depth analysis for doctors to better help determine the source of pain.
“With Upright, we are able to see extremely detailed and revealing images not available using traditional MRI,” says Dr. Thomas Dimmig.
“Superior images give us the ability to make a more accurate diagnosis and see problems that often are not visible using a recumbent-only MRI.”
To learn more about the technology, call (919) 220-5255 or visit
www.triangleortho.com. |
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MAKING A CHANGE
Gradual is best for the most success
by Betsy Collie
How do our bodies respond to change? In order to understand how change affects us, we must define the concept of the SAID principle, also known as Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands: The body always gets better at exactly what it does. While we generally talk about this idea in relation to movement and performance, the brain works the same way with respect to everything we do — or don’t do.
Habits are easy. Our morning ritual is our morning ritual because we don’t have to think about it. We frequent the same stores, take the same routes, buy the same brands and dine at the same restaurants because it’s the path of least resistance. This is precisely why habits are so difficult to break.
We are hard-wired for survival as opposed to performance, which means that we want to conserve energy as much as possible. Making any sort of change requires additional energy; our brains literally burn more glucose when we have to do something out of the ordinary.
So when you decide to go for broke and make several changes at the same time, any unplanned event can easily derail the change you want to make. Your body literally runs out of energy to manage all of these changes and falls back to what it already knows in order to make it through the day.
While it might be frustrating to make changes gradually, it’s a much more realistic approach for guaranteeing success because it requires less energy both emotionally and physically, and it won’t place unrealistic demands on the body. Remember that success breeds success, so it’s better to have several small successes that add up than to take on too much at once, fail, and have to start over.
Here are a few examples of where we often struggle to make changes, and some ways in which to ease into making positive changes.
Getting more sleep
Americans are notoriously sleep-deprived. Accidents related to sleep deprivation have been estimated to have an annual economic impact of $43 billion to $56 billion, and recent studies even indicate a link between chronic sleep deprivation and obesity.
To combat this:
• Create a nighttime ritual, and aim to unplug 30 minutes before bedtime each night.
• Work to standardize your hours of sleep to a consistent amount each night.
• Shift your schedule in 15-minute intervals to work up to between seven and eight hours of sleep per night.
Changing how we eat
Make just one change each week to your eating habits for long-lasting results:
• Cut out a snack.
• Add one vegetable.
• Throw out one trigger food.
• If weight loss is your goal, then count calories for a week. The next week, reduce caloric intake by 100 calories per day.
Getting exercise
Eighty-five to 90 percent of people who start a training program quit within the first 90 days, and 85 percent of that group quits due to injury. That’s a lot of false starts, given the amount of people who claim to have a training program in place.
Here’s how to start a training program you can stick with:
• If you simply don't feel like training, then choose something that you enjoy. Research shows that your rate of success is much higher if you choose something you like.
• If time is a problem, then it’s important to realize that you don't have to spend an hour a day in the gym to stay in shape. Look for 10, 15 or 30 minutes to exercise.
• If you’re one of the 85 percent who quits due to injury, then a mobility warm-up can help prevent future injuries. That — combined with starting the first week at no more than 50 percent of what you believe you’re capable of, and remembering to never push into pain — will go a long way toward injury-free training.
Betsy Collie is owner and head kettlebell instructor of Rapid Results Fitness in Durham. The facility, which specializes in group kettlebell training, yoga, joint mobility, ropes and personal training, recently moved into a larger studio near its former location at South Square to accommodate increasing demand.
To learn more, call (919) 403-8651 or visit www.rapidresultsfitness.net.
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HAVE A HEART TO HEART
Talk with your doctor about risk factors
by Alison Brown
February is Heart Month, an ideal time to take advantage of even easier access to heart disease prevention and treatment resources. We all know that a simple online search or some pamphlets can provide a wealth of valuable information perhaps quicker and easier than any other means, but is it the best information for you?
With a little more time and effort, you can find out everything you need to know about your personal risk and treatment options, and get answers to specific questions from the best resource out there: your doctor.
Heart healthy
Preparing for an appointment will help ensure that you make the most of your time — and your heart health. Start with a family doctor, who will refer you to a specialist if needed. Take these steps, many of which are provided by the Mayo Clinic, to help you prepare for the visit.
• Do your research. While that Web site or pamphlet might not know your health history or symptoms, it will help you define heart disease, offer a list of risk factors, and provide some steps to take to improve heart health. Just be sure that they’re reputable resources.
• Write down personal information. Don’t assume that you’ll recall everything. This includes family history of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes. Also include any recent life changes or major stresses, as well as any medications you’re taking, including vitamins and supplements.
• List symptoms. Include anything you’re experiencing, even if it seems unrelated to heart disease. Think about when symptoms occur, what makes them worse or better, and when you began experiencing them. Again, write it down.
• Prepare for an open, honest discussion. Your doctor likely will ask about your lifestyle, including diet, exercise routine and habits. Be honest, and be prepared for changes he or she might suggest. Discuss if and why any of those changes could be difficult so that he or she can help you work through them.
• Be aware of pre-appointment restrictions or preparation. When scheduling the appointment, ask if there’s anything you need to do ahead of time for certain tests, such as restricting diet for a glucose or cholesterol test.
While preparing for the appointment, keep in mind that there are things everyone can do in the meantime to improve heart health: quitting smoking, eating healthy foods and being more physically active, among others. These actions will improve your overall health, in addition to heart health.
If heart disease is found early, then treatment can be easier and more effective. Don’t let a heart attack be what gets you talking with your physician. Schedule an appointment and begin preparing today.
Alison Brown is a marketing coordinator with Rex Healthcare in Raleigh. To take your HeartAware risk assessment, visit www.rexhealth.com.
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Heart smart
Check out the following resources for more information on improving heart health:
American Heart Association
www.americanheart.org
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/
Mayo Clinic
www.mayclinic.com
Quitline N.C.
(800) QUIT-NOW
www.quitlinenc.com
Rex HealthNet Physician Referral Service
(919) 784-4490
www.rexhealth.com |
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