How Does a Tens Unit Work on Muscle Spasm- Pain comes from electroechemical impulses relaying the pain message. A TENS unit interrupts this pathway. T.E.N.S stands for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It is often used to treat low back pain and neck pain. Tens units use a low voltage electrical current to induce pain relief. Continue Reading Article
Neck Exercises- Learn effective neck stretches and strengthening exercises for the cervical spine
End Neck Pain by Improving Posture- How Proper Posture Improves Your Spine Relieving Nerve Pressure- How does posture have anything to do with neck pain?--Neck pain comes from pressure on the nerves. How does this happen?--Usually pressure from a misaligned neck spine. When your spine is misaligned (some call that subluxated) it does not move like it should and in turn creates inflammation in that area. Either out-of-alignment spinal vertebrae (spinal bones) put direst pressure on nerves or the inflammation, or built up degeneration causes the pressure. Continue Reading Article
How to Reduce the Chances of Getting A Stiff Neck- A Stiff Neck.... Horrible especially when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is going to be one painful day. You are stiff, your neck hurts, you cannot turn your head, even brushing your teeth hurts. We get questions about how to treat a stiff neck all the time. Continue Reading Article
How To Avoid Neck Pain While Doing Abs- If you do your Abdominal crunches correctly with proper form, there is no reason to suffer from neck pain or sore neck. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is that involve there neck muscles while doing these exercises- that is a NO-NO. Bringing your head and neck forward puts unnecessary pressure on the neck and it is not healthy. So when you do your abdominal crunch look at the ceiling.Continue Reading Article
Happy New Year readers !!! I cannot believe we are starting a new decade.
Well its that time of the year here in Florida. December to Spring: There are times that are cold. Coming from the northeast I am very very familiar with snow, blizzards, black ice, and low temperatures. In fact I still have my boots, hats, jackets, and gloves....and in fact we use them in Florida from time to time. The vast changes in temperature can also bring on colds and sickness. You can also catch a cold from people that you near, things that you touch etc.
This was our View from the BackYard When we lived in New England.... I sure Don't MISS THIS.....
Here is a great video going over natural tips to help you in the cold season:
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Dr. Mike suggests doing everything you can to boost your immune system. That is what is really comes down to:
Eating a spoonful of honey
Taking less supplements
Decrease stress
Increase exercise
Drink less alcohol
Disinfect your spaces and digital devices
Drink a lot of water and stay hydrated
Increase your sleep and improve the quality of your sleep. Sleep on a contoured neck pillow.
Somehow the summer goes by in the blink of an eye. One minute you are running after your kids, and in the next minute you are lining up your kids at the bus stop.
This year as I pack my kids backpacks I am being cognizant as possible with regards to the weight. You have to pack lunches, book and clothes and suddenly even for me carrying that back pack becomes heavy.
Here are some great tips to keep in mind when buying your kids backpacks and what to look for:
The backpack should weigh no more than 5% to 10% of your childs weight. For example, if you child weighs 40 lbs - then the back pack should weigh no more than 2 lbs to 4 bls. Do what you can to lighten the load. Talk to your child's teacher and see if certain things can be left at school.
Make sure the backpack is not too big. The backpack should not be wider than your child's torso or hang more than 4" below the waist
Padded and adjustable shoulder straps can help to distribute the weight of the backpack better
Waist and chest straps can also help to distribute the weight
Having multiple compartments helps to keep the backpack balanced
Having reflective material on the backpack itself keeps your child visible when going to and from school.
Today I want to share a technique for weight loss that I have been doing personally for the last few months. It works and you can do easily everyday. Here is a powerful strategy called intermittent fasting -
it fuels fat loss especial visceral fat around the organs
improves mental clarity
increases human growth hormone
cleans the cells- athogy
lowers insulin levels
improves cholesterol
reduce your risk for developing cancer and Alzheimers
protects our brains
It costs nothing, flexible and FREE !!! Its the absence of food during a prescribed time period: 16 hours of fasting, and 8 hours of eating. Don't have the Dr write a prescription to help you lose weight everyday. Do this yourself - for better health overall. Check it out the ins and outs.
You can vary the time period for intermittent fasting and do what works for your schedule. For me personally, I stop eating at 6 pm every night. I start eating at 10 am the next morning.
Check out this awesome video that gives you effective eye exercises to maintain healthy eyes. If you are on the computer everyday or using your phone a lot , then try to do these exercises everyday:
These exercises are easy to do no matter where you are:
The best pillow on the market to relieve neck pain is the arc4life traction pillow. This pillow does two things - it stretches your neck and and it support your cervical spine curve. This guy does a good job of walking you through what the pillow feels like:
This is a great pillow for sleeping on your side and on your back. It is a specialty pillow, so it is not for everyone. There is also an adjustment period for some people who use it.
This pillow has been on the market since 2003 - and it has definitely helped a lot of people:
"I had 3 weeks of neck pain from traveling and using my computer with horrible posture while doing so. I went to a massage therapist and the guy said, "you did some serious damage to your neck." It hurt so much that when I awoke in bed, even without moving, I was in pain.
My fiance gave me her pillow and told me to try it because it "helps bring the spine into alignment." She knows a lot about this stuff, so I trusted her. After 1 night, 70% of the pain was gone. It was insane. I looked at the label and turns out it was the arc4life pillow (she bought it 2014).
I immediately ordered this pillow and have been using it since. It took about a night to break-in, but after that it's been amazing. I told my mom about this pillow as she was in a car accident and sleeps with just a towel roll. I spoke to an arc4life rep on the phone and she told me they had other customers with similar issues.
My mom said the pillow was much more comfortable than the towel and that she had a good night's sleep and liked the pillow as well. She said this is the first time she's been able to use a pillow in years." - RP Singh
"I was in such pain my neck my shoulder an arm an lower right back. I could hardly walk an the pain made me so sick i could not move, sit or anything. The first night i used it I thought this is weird humm not sure , anyway well i will just use it for an hour or so but, i fell asleep on it an woke up pain free. All my pain was nearly gone. just a bit of neck an shoulder pain. The other thing i had was a numb thigh on the left leg , never expecting that to dissapear I was shocked. I could finally feel my leg before an now I have feeling back, I had that for nearly 12 years. A burning numb pain that would come an go. Well needless to say it was gone. I slept better too. I used to be all over the place when I slept an now I sleep in one spot all through the night. I got rid of the tem-perpeic pillow I spent a small fortune on an it did nothing. I love this pillow. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone , but I have to say I don't want to go anywhere without this pillow. It works an I could not be happier. My daughter bought one an it helped her an she told me about it. I bought it right away hoping it would help an it did more then I expected it would. I love it ! Hope when I need a new one they are still selling them. Or maybe I should just stock up now. Buy two you won't be sorry!" - AC
"I have had severe, unbearable and usually once a week debilitating cervical neck pain for 4 months now precipitating migraines. Just referred to PT and got muscle relaxers (yet to take- probably won’t have to now). Have read all the books. Nothing was working. Tylenol and Advil didn’t touch the pain. Usually I just had to do nothing for the whole weekend, put heatpak a on my neck every day, and hope for the best. I bought those stick on heat packs in bulk. This worked, overnight. I barely believe it. I thought I’d need surgery. I’ve been sleeping on it a week now and I am not sure about LT performance but this is the first pain free week I have had in months. I wake up with full range of motion (even if I lose it throughout the day). It’s amazing. It’s bizarre, like how could a pillow fix such a serious issue? I felt stupid paying so much for a pillow. But now I’d definitely buy it again. I was on a tempedic pillow before, so medium feels soft to me but works. I mean, give it a try. It has basically changed my life it is crazy."- Pat
This is a very simple comfortable way to sleep if you experience low back pain. It works if you are experiencing back pain. Simple place a flat pillow under your knees when you are sleeping on your back. If you are side sleeping, sleep with the pillow in between your knees.
You can get more fancy and use a wedge made our of memory foam. For me personally, I sleep on a very soft flat pillow. This makes a big difference in how well I sleep. This position literally takes the pressure off of your lower back.
Using a towel roll is actually a great idea for a pillow. Especially when you experiencing neck pain and your current pillow is not working.
Making a towel roll at home is very easy:
You can change the thickness of the towel by just using a thin towel or a thick towel. Also, you want to make sure the towel fits YOUR neck. Alternate and change the thickness so that your head is not being pushed forward. You want to keep a neutral neck position.
This towel roll can be used two ways:
For sleeping
for neck traction and stretching
A towel roll can help you with many neck issues that one is dealing with such as:
I think that the young people are spending inordinate amounts of time on their digital devices: cell phones, ipads, laptops… it never ends. The devices are just everywhere. If you go to a restaurant you will see parents just hand their young children a cell phone to keep them from interrupting others. I am guilty of this myself actually.
Young Children Will always Gravitate towards the Digital Devices
It's no wonder that kids will develop bad posture such as forward head posture . Neck pain, shoulder pain, upper back pain, and headaches soon follow from this kind of posture. The human head weighs about 8 lbs. When your head and neck are forward and out of alignment, it puts extra pressure and force on your head, neck and shoulder areas. Like an additional 60 lbs of pressure. Poor posture leads to extra stress on the body, more wear and tear on your joints.
Need some action here with the access to devices. There are young kids in grade 4 glued to their cell phones/ ear plugs getting off the bus everyday. I see them in broad daylight. They would totally miss another car of biker coming at them. On top of all they that, they have really bad posture. Rounded shoulders, forward head posture, and its not natural for them to stand up straight even.
I know it is really tough for parents especially when they go out. Even for me, as the mother of a 6 year old and 2 year old. Things get super crazy. This is just something we have been more cognizant of, so that our kids will stand up straighter later in life.
I recently learned of an app on the apple iphone that will tell you how much time you spent on your cell phone in the week. Wonder why on earth this app was created.....
I recently experienced the worst right sided shoulder pain ever. It literrally stopped my life for two days. They call it frozen shoulder syndrome. There is major pain and loss of range of motion in the shoulder. I could not move my arm, up or down and abduct my arm and shoulder (move it away from my body side to side). Even my right arm was aching.
I was in a lot of agony. I don’t take pain well at all, so for me this was excruciating. This happened on Friday night. Friday night: lots of pain, Saturday: Lots of Pain Sunday - Pain was gone, I was able to move my right shoulder - my shoulder was back.
I normally never take pain medication, but I had to Friday and Saturday. It sufficiently numbed the pain and helped me do my activities of daily living. But I had to stay in the house. No relaxing, no going out. Driving and even using the computer was too difficult and painful.
So what did I do at home? Here are 3 things that I concentrated on:
1. Muscle Work
2. Hot and Cold Treatment
3. Exercise and Movement of the Shoulder
The key to combating a frozen shoulder is movement. You must move. Slowly at first. You must push yourself a little. Start slow and keep building up.
The location of the major pain was at the right deltoid muscle. Specifically the tuberosity of the deltoid muscle. This is a muscle insertion point and this point felt like it was on fire.
Here are the muscles that are often involved in a frozen shoulder (#1-4 make up the rotator cuff muscles).
Subscapularis
Teres Minor
Supraspinatus
Infraspinatus
Deltoid
Latissimus Dorsi
Rhomboid Minor and Major
Muscles of the Back and Shoulder involved in Frozen Shoulder Syndrome
My husband had to help me with the muscle work. He used a pain relief cream on my entire shoulder and upper arm area. He also did muscle work (stripped the muscles), massage, and trigger point therapy. By that I mean, he dug into the muscle and made me scream with pain. Literally. My 2 year old and 6 year old thought that this was the funniest thing ever. He did this muscle work once on Friday night, two times on Saturday (am and pm). After each muscle work session, I did use a cold therapy pack on top of the my shoulder and I walked around around with that ice pack. When I was able to relax and sit down I used a heating pack.
On Saturday, starting at 4 am (The pain did not allow me to sleep well or get into a comfortable position), I started exercising. Exercising, moving, putting movement into the shoulder joint, stretching - whatever I could do, I did it and it was so painful. Words cannot describe the pain. The key with frozen shoulder or adhesive capsulitis as they also call it, is that you have keep putting motion into the area. I made an observation that every time I would rest, the shoulder stiffened up.
Check out this video below for effective exercises for frozen shoulder. You must do everything gently and don't go over your pain threshold. As you keep doing these exercises you will start to notice (ever so slowly) that your range of motion is starting to increase. It will help to break up scar tissue and break up the adhesions in your shoulder. Do all exercises for 30 seconds to 1 minute and move on to the next exercise:
As you go throughout the day, engage your shoulder muscles. For example, even lifting up my elbow was difficult. As I was sitting watching tv, I used my other hand to help to lift my right arm up onto the sofa arm rest. I let it sit there for a few minutes, then brought it down and did it again.
With the combination of hot and cold therapy, muscle work and exercising my shoulder, I woke up on Sunday doing better than I was on Friday and Saturday. I did my exercises again early Sunday morning. Literally, I was 95% back- I was able to do all of my activities of daily living and the best thing of all, my pain was minimal. At 10 am I even swam laps in the pool.
As a result of this incident, I really realized how we take our posture for granted. Forward head posture can really contribute to putting stress on your shoulder and back muscles. I am on the computer constantly - on my laptop, ipads and iphones. Regular stretching, exercising and watching my posture are key things I have to do going forward to prevent this from happening again.
I would strongly recommend seeing a chiropractor when you have a shoulder condition like this. You can get over the pain faster, and the Dr can pinpoint where your problem area is. They can also help you go through the shoulder range of motion and do trigger point therapy which helps tremendously.
