Yard-work & Bending Techniques

It’s that time of year again and you may have added leaf cleanup to your list of chores to do. Also, snow will be visiting us again soon, and you will have to be ready. Maybe you dread these chores because of your recurring back pain. Maybe in past years you’ve hurt your back doing leaf cleanup or snow shoveling and ended up with recurring pains. Or maybe you’ve had no problem with either of these chores in the past, but you want to avoid a possible injury to your back. Either way, in this post you will learn how to perform these activities while avoiding an injury or aggravation.

Both leaf cleanup and snow removal tend to be repetitive tasks involving frequent bending, twisting, and lifting. The difficulty of the lifting can vary drastically. Often the lifting involved is light, however a big bag full of leaves or a shovel full of wet snow can pose a greater lifting challenge. All of these activities provide equal opportunity to injure your back if you don’t carefully maintain proper posture and form throughout.

Helpful Tips To Avoid Injury When Doing Leaf Cleanup or Snow Removal

1-Warm up – Consider
leaf cleanup exercise. As with any exercise, you want to warm up for about 10 minutes first before moving forward into full activity. You can simply start with a walk before you begin. Another option is to start your cleanup slowly allowing your body to warm
up before picking up the pace.

2-Maintain good posture
– Whether you use a rake, a leaf blower, a mower, or other tool, you must maintain good posture to protect your spine. Head up and shoulders back. Avoid prolonged postures (such as looking down) without returning to your good, normal and balanced posture again.

Use your legs to perform a “mini-squat” when shoveling or bending to pick up leaves.

AVOID bending over using primarily your back. IMPROPER form demonstrated here:

3-Take breaks – Take a short break at least one or two times per hour. Consider some simple stretches or range-of motion exercises for your low back.

Back Extensions

Lateral Bends

Full Back Release – Seated Flexion

4-Bend correctly – When bending over to use a wheelbarrow, to pick up leaves, or to lift a bag, perform a correct squat.

5- Use the right tools- Leaf claws can help reduce bending. To completely avoid the repetitive task of raking and picking up leaves by hand, you may want to consider using a leaf blower and a mulching lawn mower. Using these two tools in combination allows you to clear your lawn and then easily mulch up and easily bag the leaves. Use of a sling to help bear the weight of a tool like a leaf blower can help greatly.

One Point Sling Used With Leaf Blower

When performing any physical task it is ideal to have your spine free of spinal misalignment’s. Taking great care of your spine and nervous system should be a top priority.

If you are currently suffering from back or neck pain or have a history of recurring pain, here are two things you can do right now to help:

#1. Get your spine checked for subluxations. Only chiropractors are highly trained to detect and correct spinal subluxations – spinal misalignment’s that interfere with the nervous system.

#2. Learn how to incorporate spinal stabilization exercises to your routine at least three times per week. The health of your spinal muscles will determine your ability to perform tasks like leaf cleanup properly. See this post for basic spinal stabilization exercises:

Core exercises to avoid recurring back pain

If you’d like to schedule a chiropractic examination or have any questions about good posture, how to bend correctly, back pain, adjustments, or spinal exercises, feel free to drop by the office or call us any time. We are here to serve and would be honored to speak with you and be a part of your ongoing journey to better natural health.

-Dr Ken Goldman

3 Exercises To Avoid A Humpback

When it comes to looking good and moving freely, we think of someone with good posture that is moving well and staying well. On the contrary when someone looks ill or in pain one may associate some postural issue, like a large upper back hump.
Medically, this rounding is known as a Dowager’s hump. It is defined as a forward curvature or kyphosis of the spine resulting in a stoop, which is more prevalent in women.
We can all admit this is not the most aesthetically desirable condition to have. This forward hump is very visible and can lead to a fat pad that forms on the upper back. The forward weight load distribution can accelerate arthritic degeneration patterns. It can also lead to other issues such as; breathing issues, digestive problems, back pain, numbness/tingling, balance issues and more.
We think of the little old lady that is in line in the supermarket, hunched over with shaky hands. However, that lady wasn’t always old.
If she could go back in time, what is it that she could have done to prevent that hump from forming and some of the health problems that developed with that hump?

Here are 3 simple exercises, if done weekly can minimize the chance of forming a hump, as well as possibly reverse the hump that has formed (This is ideally used in conjunction with spinal adjustments).
They include strengthening the upper back on three planes of movement. Pulling down, pulling back and pulling up.

Exercise 1-Pulling Down
There are various exercises to achieve this movement that will strengthen the lattisimus dorsi muscles. This is the muscle that creates a bit of the V shape in your back and helps pull down your shoulder blades from elevating too high. It can vary from a light cable pull down or bands, to a well held pull up.

Exercise 2-Pulling Back
There are various exercises to achieve this movement that will strengthen the rhomboid muscles. This motion is one of retracting the shoulder blades while pulling backwards. If your pecs are too tight, it can help to stretch them as well.

Exercise 3-Pulling Up
There are various exercises to achieve this movement that will strengthen the trapezius muscles. This motion is one of elevating the shoulders while pulling upwards.

Technique advice: Most importantly, utilize good form and control as you increase weight and time under tension on all exercises, as everyone is starting at different fitness levels.

If your spinal hump lingers, pain persists or you’ve noticed reduced mobility, you will need a spinal evaluation. Call us at our Chiropractic Clinic to schedule a more detailed assessment. Sometimes we can observe posture and range of motion, yet other times we may need to perform more detailed orthopedic testing and take digital x-rays.

Sincerely,

Dr. David Tucker, DC

Sciatica Symptoms

I was pulled over and given a ticket for the first time in my life recently. I was pulled over for going 30 mph in a school zone (regular speed limit is 25). When the officer asked me if I knew what I did wrong, I was sincerely clueless. I fumbled out the words, “No, I honestly don’t!” She told me my violation, and took my information. As I waited, sweating to death from anxiety and the 95 degree heat, I thought to myself “Where was the school zone?!”
When the officer returned my information I kept saying “I didn’t see the flashing lights!! I’m so sorry!”Her response, “You just have to be more observant.” Her response made me think. How often do you go through the day ignoring your internal flashing lights?

Pain. Indigestion. Headaches. Constipation. Diarrhea. Limited Motion.
Sciatica is a condition that most people have heard of, or experienced. Sciatica happens when there is pressure on the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve contains bundles of nerves from different levels in your lumbar spine, or lower back area. These nerve bundles allow the muscles in your leg to contract/relax so you can run, walk, stand, etc. They also contain sensory components to tell your brain if something warm, wet, cold, etc is touching your leg. When there is pressure on this HUGE nerve, people will experience numbness, tingling, burning, pain, muscle tightness, and sometimes an inability to move their leg/foot.

Sciatica is a condition of a nerve being “pinched,” or more accurately, compressed. All of your nerves start in your brain and they bundle together to create the spinal cord, which runs down through your spine. Your spine is designed to flex, extend, and create movement in your trunk area of course, BUT it’s main purpose is to protect the spinal cord. It is the house for the nervous system, the home of your Mini You. If there is a shift in position of a vertebrae, a bone in the spine, a nerve in that area can become compressed. This is known as a subluxation, or misalignment of the spine. A subluxation can be as small as millimeters to trigger a response from the nervous system!

What happens if a nerve supplying your lower intestines is being compressed? Constipation. Diarrhea. Pain in your low back.

What happens if the nerve supplying the upper part of your stomach is compressed? Indigestion. Stomach ulcers. Acid re-flux. Pain in your mid back.

What happens if the nerve supplying sensory to your head is compressed? Migraines/Headaches. Ocular (eye) pain. Muscular tension under your skull.

I could go on and on… My point is, is that these conditions that I’ve listed, among many others, have become “normal,” in our society. Diabetes affects 30.3 million Americans and rising, yet we don’t call it normal (1). Normalizing conditions is a way to tell ourselves that it’s “okay.” What’s worse is that we routinely take medications that essentially puts our blinders on to the flashing lights!

The best part about my job as a chiropractor is that a patient will come in for an issue that they are familiar with chiropractors helping, like neck pain, and a few visits later they are telling me their sleep has improved, their headaches are gone, and they are off of their acid re-flux medication.

Chiropractic is more than pain relief, and infinitely more than a “crack.” In fact, there are dozens of techniques within the chiropractic world that you may not even hear the audible of the adjustment! Chiropractic was designed to take pressure off of the nervous system, by specifically adjusting areas of the spine that are compressing nerves.

Listen to your Mini You, get your spine checked. Remove you’re blinders. Ignoring your inner flashing lights, may cost you more than a ticket.

Sara Trefnoff, DC

• Start with the abdominal hallowing position (engage your deep spinal muscles)
• Alternate extending opposite arm and leg
• Hold
• Repeat with other arm and leg
• Hold

The Bridge

• Engage your deep spinal muscles first
• Lying on belly and contacting the floor with your forearms and feet (or knees for an easier version)
• Rise up to a flat-back position
• Avoid arching your back
• Hold

Ringing in your ears

A ringing  in your ears that just won’t quit, that pesky mosquito that constantly swarms, but never bites. Tinnitus, the high frequency annoyance that 32% of the US population deals with on a day to day basis. The worst part about tinnitus, according to Healthline, is that it is viewed as incurable. Traditional recommendations include “managing the perception of the sound in your head.” Such treatments include, but are not limited to hearing aids, sound masking devices, behavioral therapy, and some would go as far to take drugs such as antidepressants, but what if there was something different? Something more natural that not only decreases the episodes, but stabilizes the condition. Something more than just masking the symptoms of ringing. 

Something like…. Chiropractic?

To understand how chiropractic can help with tinnitus, let’s discover a cause of  tinnitus. Tinnitus is a symptom of compression on the vestibulocochlear nerve or simply the Auditory nerve. Auditory is derived from the Latine word audire meaning “hear.” The auditory nerve is 1 of 12 nerves that travel outside of the spinal column and are referred to as cranial nerves. This particular nerve exits the skull and runs into the ear to pick up on sounds as a special sensory nerve.

 If there is compression in the region around the nerve as it exits the skull, it can cause malfunction between the brain and the inner ear resulting in a high pitched ringing or buzzing. Just like if you have compression on the sciatic nerve in your lower back, you can have pain in the leg. As a chiropractor our goal is to remove any interference or compression on the nervous system, cranial nerves included. A result of chiropractic care, is a decrease in symptoms associated with that nerve.

Let’s take this recent in office case study as an example of how chiropractic can help with tinnitus. This is the case of a 25 year old female who presented to our office with tinnitus. The ringing in her left and right ear began after a dental procedure. Ringing was more prominent in the left ear than the right. Over the course of a year, the patient had been to two Primary Care Physicians and three Ear, Nose, & Throat specialists previous to presenting to our office. After multiple diagnostic testing, she was told “there was nothing wrong” with her and that it was, “something she would have to deal with.” This patient decided to try an alternative method, chiropractic, even though she had never been to a chiropractor before. Our office gathered a detailed history, performed an examination, and recommended x-ray analysis of the cervical  spine (the neck). The x-ray analysis revealed a neck curve reversal, early signs of degenerative joint disease, and an anterolisthesis (forward slippage) of the second cervical (neck) vertebrae on the third cervical vertebrae. Her neck was in serious distress and putting extra tension on her skull. The patient committed to a 3 month care plan, which included gentle spinal manipulation of the cranial sutures (the skull), internally inside the jaw and externally along the base of the skull, and of the cervical spine. During the course of her care plan, patient was only using chiropractic care. By visit 14 the patient had a significant drop in tinnitus pitch and frequency of episodes, and for the first time in a year had no ringing at all in the ear for a night. Patient finished her care plan and continues at maintenance with little to no ringing in her everyday.

Of course, tinnitus could be caused from trauma on the nerve where someone has damaged the inner ear, but with a thorough history and examination we would be able to see if chiropractic can help with your tinnitus! Call or email the office for more information.

Sara Trefnoff, DC

There tends to be many misunderstandings when it relates to Chiropractic Care.

3 common Misconceptions about Chiropractic are addressed here:

Does chiropractic hurt?
1) Chiropractic is one of the safest health care professions out there, PERIOD! Ask the malpractice insurance carriers, what’s the cost relative to other fields. The best metric to observe, is that Chiropractic premiums are so low, and this is due to the fact that occurrence of incidence is so low with Chiropractic. Chiropractors treat a spectrum of patients from newborns to geriatrics, safely.

Why should you go if you are feeling well?
2) You choose your goals and how to use Chiropractic. If pain relief is it, then when you achieve that goal you are discharged from care and return someday when things flare up again, simply treating when there is pain.  Otherwise, some people opt to maintain their spine and stay functioning well, to prevent pain.  This is similar to what one might do with their teeth at a dentist, or their muscles at a gym. The patient must determine their own goals!

What if my MD says not to go to a Chiropractor?
3) MDs are integrating more with Chiropractors then ever before, although more co-management is definitely needed in health care. It’s shocking when patients present to us after they have tried everything else as a last resort, when conservative Chiropractic should have been their first option. But ultimately, Chiropractors are portal of entry physicians that do not need “permission” to be seen. Asking your general physician to see if you should go to a Chiropractor for your spine, is like asking a Chiropractor if you should have your primary doctor listen to your lungs during an exam. We each have our own specialty.  Chiropractors specialize in the spine and nervous system.

Reference our 3 doctors discuss this topic in a video link below:
https://www.facebook.com/TuckerChiropractic/videos/vb.130082833677492/1500161770002918/?type=2&theater&notif_t=like&notif_id=1493060247557291

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tucker Chiropractic Center Receives 2017 Best of Langhorne Award

Langhorne Award Program Honors the Achievement

LANGHORNE March 24, 2017 — Tucker Chiropractic Center has been selected for the 2017 Best of Langhorne Award in the Chiropractors category by the Langhorne Award Program.

Each year, the Langhorne Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Langhorne area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2017 Langhorne Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Langhorne Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Langhorne Award Program

The Langhorne Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Langhorne area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Langhorne Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

Chiropractic and Infertility

Many couples deal with the emotional torment of infertility. The number of women who have an impaired ability to get pregnant, seems to increase every year. According to the CDC, there are over 7 million women aged 15-44 with the inability to get pregnant. Forbes reports the national average for IVF, (in vitro fertilization) is around $15,000. Many people are also seeking safe options outside of conventional medicine, not just due to the cost, but for the desire of a less chemical approach. One of the reasons for this, is that the medications prescribed can have detrimental long term side effects, including hormonal imbalances. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health reported in several publications (Anderson et al., 2003; Shumaker et al., 2003; Rapp et al., 2003;Wassertheilsmoller et al., 2003) found that for the 16,608 women in the study who took a combination of estrogen and progesterone, the risk of breast cancer increased by 26%, heart attack by 24% and stroke by 41%.

Chiropractic care is often sought out for various health problems as a natural alternative. Since the spine houses the nervous system, which controls and coordinates all function, its is imperative to have proper spinal alignment. The lumbar spine nerve roots actually innervate the reproductive organs. In a case report in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, ‘Healthy Pregnancy In a Previously Infertile Patient’- Dr Shelley states, “Spinal movement contributes to the proper flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Restrictions of spinal movement alter the flow of CSF and may impact the hypothalamus and/or pituitary gland. These glands are responsible for reproducing hormones such as follicle-stimulating hormone and lutenizing hormone which are vital to reproductive function.”

Although there are many variables for infertility, from toxins, to stress and many that are still unknown, Chiropractic can be a safe treatment consideration to help increase neurological function. Chiropractic care is not a direct cure for infertility, but there have been many case studies, where women with low back dysfunction report not just improvement after a course of care with their back, but incidentally report also being pregnant. Consider having a Chiropractic check up to see if you qualify for care. The worst thing that could happen is that you may have a healthier spine.

PAIN KILLER EPIDEMIC

Running a Chiropractic & Wellness center, we get to see a lot of patients presenting with back pain, in conjunction with addiction issues. Many of these patients were not treating the root cause of the structural issues to start with, rather masking them with pain killers. They are getting these drugs too easily from their physicians. In turn when the doctor stops prescribing them, the damage is done. The patient may be hooked, yet still has the same underlying cause of their pain present. On top of that, they often move on to heroin, as it is usually easier to get and cheaper to buy. Four out of five new heroin users started with prescription painkillers. It’s frustrating as a natural health care provider that many of the times, safer options were not recommended, such as Chiropractic, Massage, Home Exercises and so on.
America is less than 5% of the worlds population, however consumes around 80% of the entire worlds supply of painkillers. Drug overdose deaths and opioid-involved deaths continue to increase in the United States. The majority of drug overdose deaths (over six out of ten) involve an opioid. The CDC reports; since 1999, the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. nearly quadrupled, yet there has not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans report. Deaths from prescription opioids have more than quadrupled since 1999.
Employers also are losing production. In 2011, more than 25% of workers compensation prescription drug claim costs were for opioids. Even when driving today, its not just drunk drivers to look out for, in 2014, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed 10 million people reported driving while on drugs.

A CNBC reports showed, “Almost half of all Americans personally know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers.” Perhaps even more concerning is that most people who have abused prescription painkillers reported getting them from friends or relatives. Many don’t know that sharing opioids is a felony.

Chiropractic philosophy has advocated for improving function, not solely masking pain signals. This concept of wellness, not sickness care is greatly overlooked in health care, which has led to an epidemic!