Look at this terrible spin I found on Google:
and so I then searched for the ‘incredibly brilliant’ DXR9000 and found this:
Hmm, what are we to conclude?
Axiom are lieing? NASA never happened? No, really tell me this isn’t true.
DXR 9000 – sounds like Axiom snake oil to me
October 1st, 2010Can laptops damage your spine – we think so
September 28th, 2010According to researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, the high use of laptops among college students can lead to a new ailment they’re calling “laptopitis” — neck, back and arm issues that can develop from the use of portable computers.
“The main things we see associated with using a laptop are headaches, neck pain and back pain” said Rupert Clements one of the chiropractors at C1 “and it’s starting to become an epidemic.”
Rupert adds: “most people have vague notion that that their computer is the cause of their ailments – but once diagnosed and fully explained they really get the problem. Unfortunately they are often unable to do much about it – if you have to use a laptop for work, you have to use a laptop.”
There are some troubling trends with school kids and students using them to do online home work often sitting in bed, way before they hit the workplace so many of our patients have years of postural abuse to deal with and no wonder its hurting.
“At the conventional computer, you sit at a desk and everything is as good, ergonomically as possible” said Leni Rautenbach who works at C1 “But with a laptop it’s all in one.” Because of their combined structure, Leni said that the problem with laptops comes from people’s extended use with their bodies in a scrunched position. Prolonged use of a laptop with bad posture can lead to issues such as headaches, neckaches, carpal tunnel, tendonitis and back pain.
Some tips to prevent “laptopitis,” or neck and back pain from working on a laptop:
1. Take a break about every 20 minutes, stand up, walk around, maybe even stretch a little.
2. If you’re going to use a laptop, try to sit at a desk or table.
3. If you can, use a desktop computer for those long, gruelling assignments or papers.
4. Switch out your laptop for a desktop. This may seem crazy, but it may prevent long-term damage.
5. If you have pain, see your chiropractor and get some help.
Paracetamol for low-back pain – well, yes but….
September 24th, 2010Look at this drug-centric view of back pain. It’s crazy stuff from Pharmacy News but it is a great example of how we now think.
“Paracetamol leads way in back pain relief: study
Pharmacists are ideally placed to provide advice to people with lower back pain, researchers at The George Institute of Global Health in Sydney believe.
Following a study showing less than half of people suffering with the condition were taking paracetamol, as recommended in evidence-based guidelines, researchers have commenced recruiting patients through pharmacy for a three month study.”
Now, if you have an inflammatory issue going on in your low-back then paracetamol will help to reduce that and the pain but you’d struggle to argue that it is doing anything to address the cause. You are in effect removing the warning bulb form the dash board.
They go on to say:
“If you look at the current evidence that’s available, the first option of care for non-specific lower back pain [which encompasses 95 per cent of back pain] is to advise the patient to remain active, reassure them that they’ve got a favourable outcome, advise them against bed-rest and advise them about simple pain relief medication.”
Which is reasonable but missing one key recommendation, the spinal manipulation bit.
“The first line of care should be paracetamol, so pharmacists, we think, are ideally placed to do that,” oh, come on what tosh, a pharmacist would never suggest you go and see your osteopath or suggest you consider Pilates.
The Paracetamol for Lower Back Pain (PACE) study (sounds biased to me but…) has already started recruiting subjects. The research outline has said the study will be a double blind placebo controlled trial with patients split into three groups to compare regular paracetamol use to paracetamol as required, and a placebo.
The bottom line is that you do not have back pain because you have a lack of paracetamol in your blood stream – it’ll be for another reason and that’s what you should be looking to treat.
How massage can aid blood circulation
September 8th, 2010Ben Tolson, one of our massge therapists writes:
How efficient do you think your blood circulation is and why does it matter?
Blood carries material from the digestive system for body maintenance and repair. Blood also carries away the waste products from your muscle activity. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are taken to and from the lungs and water from the digestive system which is vital in nearly all body processes.
Even now when you are not active your muscles are involuntary activly squeezing the blood slowly back to the heart. When you exercise this process is increased so that blood and lymph flow is increased to cope with the raised demand for oxygen and assocaited heart and breathing rate.
This is great when muscles are relaxed and everything works as it should. However, if muscles are tight then the blood flow is interrupted and the muscle won’t receive a full supply of nutrients and waste products build up. As the waste products build up the blood supply is disrupted further and this causes a viscious cycle causing the muscle to tense up more. This in turn causes the muscle fibres to harden with a reduction in function accompanied by pain and stiffness. The muscle is now extremely inefficient and when used for any activity will tend to tire quickly.
If the body senses any pain (in this example from general tension) then the surrounding tissue will tense up in order to protect the perceived damaged area.
Massage can break down the acquired tension in a muscle and mechanically pump the blood through the muscles. Once the tension has been broken down the waste products will be carried away and stretching and deep massage of the muscle will help restore it to its normal functioning. Massage will need to carried out around the whole area of tension of there will have been a chain reaction of muscle shortening taking place.
Stretching, kneading, gliding strokes amongst others will all aid this process. Also as we get older muscles tend to dry out so having regular massage helps to keep them supple and making you look and feel great. Having a massage can be a very relaxing experience which in itself will promote relaxation and reduce the heartbeat.
Can Chiropractic help with your headache? This study suggests so.
August 27th, 2010Rupert Clements, one of the chiros at C1, writes:
A recent study snappily called:
Dose response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for chronic cervicogenic headache: a pilot randomized controlled trial
By Haas and co-workers was published in the uber serious Spine (The Spine Journal 2010; 10:117-128) which said that chiropractic was good at sorting out headaches.
As we all know, headaches are very common (with up to 16% of the population having one at any one time) and can very disabling (leading to work-days-lost, absenteeism costs and increased medical benefits spend).
Headaches are broken down into primary and secondary. The primary group is made up of:
• migraine,
• tension-type
and
• cervicogenic headache (CGH).
This last lot, CGH, account for a significant proportion of the 16% point estimate of those suffering primary headaches (but Nilson and Sjaastad have estimated the point to range from 0.4%-4.6%). Whatever. They are linked to neck pain and mechanical dysfunction and so, it is theorized, treating neck pain and mechanical dysfunction through manual therapies will help reduce headache symptoms.
Systematic reviews have been conducted on the usefulness of spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) in the treatment of CGH, however the treatment plans offer great variability: from once per week for three weeks to twice per week for 8 weeks. This, clearly, demonstrates a lack of clinical understanding and consensus in the research. This prevents us from being able to confidently set out the prognosis and expectations with respect to SMT.
The purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy of spinal manipulation in CGH and compare a high-dose and low-dose SMT application to a light massage.
One group received low-dose SMT (8 treatments), high-dose SMT (16 treatments), low-dose light massage (8 treatments) and high-dose light massage (16 treatments). The study showed some interesting things:
• While treatment dose had no effect on the use of medication, those receiving SMT used 1/3 less medication at 24 weeks.
• With respect to the number of cervicogenic headaches experienced, those receiving SMT experienced 2.6 fewer headaches per week compared to those receiving light massage.
• At the end of 24 weeks, those receiving SMT experienced 2.1 fewer ‘other’ headaches per week compared to those receiving light massage.
• While dose effects were small, those who received high-dose SMT experienced a greater improvement in neck pain (-5.9 at 12 wks; -10.6 at 24 wks)
• CGH pain, the number of headaches experienced per week and the amount of medication intake all reduced, with sustained reductions, favouring the SMT group.
• Lastly, by eight weeks, the number of weekly headaches was reduced 50% in those patients receiving SMT and on secondary analysis, a 50% reduction in symptoms (obtained via the outcome measures) was achieved in 80% of those receiving SMT.
The authors point out several key limitations to this study:
• The study design was highly complex and multifactorial.
• There was a small number of patients within each subgroup.
• Multiple headache classifications were present within many patients.
Interestingly, for us as chiros, there was no difference between the two dosages of SMT (though SMT proved to be more effective than light massage, irrespective of dosage.). And, as we’d expect, the differences between the SMT and the light massage group were not only statistically significant, but clinically significant as well.
This study is highly relevant and helpful to clinical practice as it strengthens the use of cervical spine manipulation in the treatment of CGH. It is also helpful as it demonstrates that patients do not tend to be cured by this intervention alone, indicating that CGH may require a combined intervention approach which includes exercise, soft-tissue therapy, spinal manipulation and education.