Dr. Bartoszewski completes the 'Fix Your Own Back' course

This past weekend, Dr. Bartoszewski took a weekend continuing education course with Dr. Snell, regarding the evaluation and treatment of lumbar disc injuries.

If you've ever bent over to pick something up and got "stuck", have a history of sciatic pain down the back of your leg, pain rolling over in bed, getting in or out of a car or chair, or pain that's worse in the morning, you've more than likely experienced a disc injury at some point in your life.

Dr. Bartoszewski is able to evaluate your condition to determine if you are currently suffering from a lumbar disc injury.  The good news is that most disc issues do resolve with time and proper treatment.  To prevent these symptoms from coming back again and again, Dr. Bartoszewski is able to instruct you on specific movements you can do for pain relief and exercises to help strengthen your back and core, to prevent your low back pain from returning.

Dr. Bartoszewski actually experienced her own disc injury after moving to Portland.  Dr. Snell's rehab program got her moving and back to practicing and lifting in the gym after completion of the program!

Schedule your appointment at Stumptown Chiropractic today!

Gardening without back pain

Gardening, like most other forms of yard work, is exercise!  The mistake many people make is starting to do yard work and gardening without warming up first and not knowing your limits.  Have you ever heard of the term, "weekend warrior"?  These are people that do excessive amounts of work around the house/play sports sporadically, without properly warming up, stretching, cooling down, with improper ergonomics, or continue to work through the pain, and then are in a great deal of pain by the time Monday comes along.

Gardening is a fun way to get outdoors and stay active without going to the gym.  Raking and carrying leaves is a great way to build endurance and strength, while pulling weeds and other tasks can help to maintain and improve flexibility.  Gardening is not only good for the body physically, but also mentally.  Getting outside to garden is a great way to de-stress from work, technology and other things that complicate life.

Gardening/Yard Work injuries can include traumatic injuries. Commonly from improper tool use and repetitive stress injuries (RSI) from repetitive work, many times due to improper form.

Common Repetitive Stress Injuries:

• Back injuries from heavy lifting
• Hands/arms/shoulder pain
• Knee pain

ALWAYS-->

• Warm up/Stretch BEFORE
• Use a wheelbarrow/cart/friend to help carry heavy loads or make frequent trips if working alone
• Lift with your hips, not your back
• Alternate sides when raking, hoeing, etc.
• Know your limits
• Take frequent breaks
• Pace yourself
• Stay hydrated
• Don't work through pain
• Use long-handled tools to avoid kneeling, bending, or squatting
• Alternate tasks in the garden/yard (kneeling work for 20 minutes, standing work for 20, etc.)
• Cool down post gardening
• Never bend and twist; always "square up" your hips and shoulders
• Don't sit/lay down for extended periods post yard work.  Warm muscles are pliable and will mold to whatever position you cool down in; ie: a chair

To minimize injury

• Foam tubing for garden tools
• Dig weeds from a standing position (various alternatives available online)
• Use long handed tools
• Use the right size tool for you; smaller hands need smaller tools
• Choose lightweight tools whenever possible
• Stop working immediately if you think you injured yourself, don't continue to work!
• Seek chiropractic treatment to address any muscular or joint pain; the sooner after injury, the better
• A chiropractor can also suggest different ways to modify your positioning, specific to your injury and activity
• Avoid laying on the couch/bed for prolonged periods after intense work/possibly injury

Tools with foam to cover the handles for decreased grip strain

Sources: http://www.slideshare.net/ElisaMendelsohn/can-you-dig-it-the-ergonomics-of-gardening

Big Box Vitamins

Do you buy your vitamins in bulk to try to save money?  Bulk grocery stores like Costco and Sam's Club offer you huge bottles of vitamins at a great price, right!? Take a better look at the ingredients and you'll see why you could be wasting your hard earned cash!

If your goal of taking a daily vitamin is for improved health, choosing a pharmaceutical grade supplement is necessary.  If you're unknowingly ingesting food dyes, modified food starch, soy and more on a daily basis to improve your health, you must research the products that you are purchasing. Is it really worth the savings? You get what you pay for!  Maybe you're continuing to have gastrointestinal issues, breakouts, headaches, etc., and they may be from your vitamins ingredients.  If you check the labels on your food, also check the ones on your vitamins.

I'll compare popular vitamins I found at Costco this past weekend, show you the harmful ingredients, and a superior alternative that your body can actually use!  Synthetic vitamins often contain harmful chemicals and essential nutrients in inabsorbable forms.

While you can essentially get more "vitamins" for your dollar with the big box brands, that is because they are of lower quality, and use cheap preservatives, chemicals, dyes, etc., to bring the cost down.  For example, this is the same reason why real peanut/almond butters cost more than their cheaper alternatives, that have added sugars and hydrogenated oils.  Corn syrup is cheap, genetically modified, and easily added to foods, beverages and vitamins as a filler!

Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Fish Oil:

• ~$.10 cents per capsule
• Contains SOY (GMO)

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Pure Omega HP; ~$.37 per capsule

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • corn

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • preservatives

  • salt

  • soy

  • sugar

  • wheat

  • yeast

Nature Made Coenyzme Q 10:

• ~$.25 cents per capsule
• Contains artificial coloring, soy
• Synthetic, chemically made.  Contains a different chemical other than the natural form

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Vitaline CoQ10; ~$2.00 per capsule

• Contains only the NATURAL form of CoEnzyme Q10 and is identical to the form produced by the human body

• The natural form can cross the cell membrane and does increase serum CoQ10 levels

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • corn

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • ingredients of animal origin

  • preservatives

  • salt

  • soy

  • wheat

  • yeast

Centrum Silver Women's 50+

• ~$.08 cents per capsule
• Contains modified corn starch, Red 40 Lake, hydrogenated palm oil, maltodextrin

• Better option is Integrative Therapeutics Clinical Nutrients 45 Plus Women; ~$.19 per capsule

• Does not contain any of the following!

  • artificial coloring

  • artificial flavoring

  • dairy products

  • gluten

  • preservatives

  • soy

  • sugar

  • wheat

  • yeast

*Main image source: http://sincitycrossfitsouth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Health-Benefits-of-Fish-Oil-For-Kids.jpg

Pumpkin Spice

Fall is here, and people are going crazy for their yearly "pumpkin" flavored drinks and treats.  Sadly, most don't contain real pumpkin, but artificial flavoring and tons of sugar to give you that "fall in a cup" flavor you crave every autumn.

Many people aren't fond of the "Food Babe", stating she has no educational background to question and enforce what goes into our food.  But, these ingredients speak for themselves.  I even stopped going to Starbucks recently when I found out that their coconut milk contains corn dextrin, and a long list of other ingredients, besides coconut milk. [Water, coconut cream, cane sugar, tricalcium phosphate, coconut water concentrate, natural flavors, sea salt, carrageenan, gellan gum, corn dextrin, xanthan gum, guar gum, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin d2. Ingredients in most legit coconut milk: Coconut milk, water.] Read more about Starbucks "coconut milk" here

For the 2015 season, Starbucks has claimed to eliminate the caramel coloring in its' pumpkin spice drinks and use real pumpkin.

Starbucks has a "My Starbucks Idea" site, where you can submit ideas to bring back old products or create new ones.  Here you can log in and vote to bring CLEAN almond/coconut milk to their stores!

I have not had a PSL in over a year, since I went dairy free after being diagnosed with Hashimoto's.  I have however, made my own at home using some of these delicious, natural recipes!

A better alternative to commercialized pumpkin spiced drinks:

You have the option to choose your own ingredients!  Fair-trade organic coffee, organic pumpkin, non-gmo spices, etc.

• Choose your milk! (cashew, almond, coconut, hemp)
• Add your choice of coffee or espresso
• Add pumpkin puree
• Add pumpkin pie spice
• Add cinnamon
• Add vanilla
• Add maple syrup or coconut sugar to taste for added sweetness

Here are some links to recipes that I really enjoy and think you will too!

Pumpkin Spice Latte from Make It Paleo 2

Dairy Free Pumpkin Spice Latte

Dairy Free and Sugar Free Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer

Iced Pumpkin Thai Bubble Tea (With Dairy Free and Dye Free Directions)

*Main image source: http://www.pugetsound.edu/files/pages/pumpkinlatte-1.jpg

Sitting Sucks!

I'm often asked by patients about what they can do to prevent acute or chronic back pain.  Moving every day is vital! Not just rolling out of bed, sitting in your car while driving to work, sitting 8-10 hours at work, then sitting again on your commute home, and sitting on the couch to watch TV before bed.  As a nation in general, we sit too much, hence the new "sitting is the new smoking" campaign.  Sitting diseases are a real thing.  We just aren't moving enough anymore. There's even a #sittingisthenewsmoking hashtag!

Sitting diseases are shown to reduce your life expectancy.

What are sitting diseases:

• Type 2 diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Breast and colon cancers

You also have an increased risk of:

• Forward head posture
• Forward rounded shoulders
• Hyperlordosis
• Thoracic hyperkyphosis
• Tight psoas = low back pain
• Deconditioned core and spinal musculature

Your chances of developing a sitting disease increases the more sedentary you are.

For more information, check out this article I wrote titled, 'Standing up for your Health' in 2012.

<div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://www.juststand.org/tabid/674/default.aspx"><span property="dct:title">Sitting Disease Infographic 1</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://www.ergotron.com">Ergotron</a>) / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">CC BY 3.0</a></div>

What Can You Do?

1. Change your desk!

Alternatives to traditional desks:

• Standing desks
• Treadmill desks
• Half kneeling at your desk

Benefits:

• Improved posture
• Improved blood flow
• Possible increase in productivity and energy levels
• Burn more calories

2. Bike/Walk to work if at all possible.  If not daily, then try a few days per week

3. Set a timer to get up every 30 minutes to stretch and move around.  Many new activity trackers will alert you when you've been inactive for a certain period of time.

4. Get up during commercials at home to do chores or perform squats, jumping jacks, etc.

Next blog topic will cover stretches and specific exercises to keep your spinal muscles and joints healthy!

*Main image source: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/sitting-standing-walking-work

October is National Chiropractic Health Month

October is known as 'National Chiropractic Health Month'.  According to Dynamic Chiropractic, One in 10 suffers from chronic musculoskeletal pain. Of these, more than half don't understand chiropractic care is an effective, non-drug choice for their pain.  Prescription pain killers mask your pain, leading to over-exertion, delayed/improper healing, and possibly a permanent injury.

This year's American Chiropractic Association's campaign is about the overuse of prescription pain killers and stressing a "pain free nation".  The number of deaths from prescription opioids (pain killers), is on the rise and considered an epidemic by the CDC.  Having a conservative care first approach is one of the key messages from the ACA.  Not only is chiropractic care effective for pain management, but also more economical than having unnecessary imaging and surgeries.  The Joint Commission recently revised its' pain management standards to include chiropractic and acupuncture.

Chiropractors are trained to identify joint dysfunction, muscle over or under activation, faulty gait patterns and more.  A combination of these things may be contributing to your pain, something a pain killer or muscle relaxer will never fix. #painfreenation #NCHM2015

To find out more, you can see the ACA's campaign here!

To find an evidence based chiropractor in your area, click here!

Main image source: http://www.premierptsolutions.com/pages/integrative_physical_therapy.aspx