Superbowl Chiropractors

Click link to watch video on the Superbowl Team Chiropractors

Is your posture causing your back pain?  Bloomington, Illinois, is home to one of the largest insurance companies in the country. Being a chiropractor in Bloomington, I see a lot of patients that sit all day long. Yes! posture can cause back pain and especially neck pain. The muscles, joints and bones work together as a mechanical structure. If the mechanics are not correct strain will occur and pain will soon follow. The human body is made to move and be active not sit in a chair all day. Proper posture while sitting will help to relieve stress on the muscles and joints in your spine. Lets review the correct posture while sitting.

1. Video monitors should be eye level and 18 to 25 inches away.

2. A lumbar support should be on the chair in the lower back region.

3. Elbows, hips and knees should be at a 90 degree angle.

4. The wrists should be in a neutral position.

5. Sit Tall. Pretend someone has tied a string onto the top of your head and is pulling you tall.

6. Feet flat on the floor .

7. Review the picture below for more details. 

If you have questions about posture or back pain feel free to contact our office.

Hermann Wellness

 309 663-2423

NSAIDs For Back and Neck Pain?

Are you taking NSAIDs for your back and neck pain? NSAIDs are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Aspirin, ibuprophen and naproxen are NSAIDs.Research has shown that NSAIDs can actually inhibit the healing process.

NSAIDs prevent healing by decreasing collagen content of tissue. (American Journal of Sports Medicine 2008)

NSAIDs may decrease pain but might interfere with the healing process by blocking stress chemicals called prostaglandins, which are critical for generating muscle stem cells called satellite cells. NSAIDs interfere with muscle cell repair- so use them sparingly. (Journal Applied Physiology 103:415 - 416, 2007)

Study: NSAIDs wiped out an entire acute phase of healing (0 to 4 days). At day 4 - very little muscle regeneration compared to normal healing process. (Archives of Internal Medicine 1995, 23: 119 - 123)

Researchers had 54  ultramarathoners take either ibuprophen or a placebo the day before and day of a race. Samples of runners blood and urine were collected before the race and immediately afterward to measure indices of oxidative stress. Racers who took ibuprophen were found to have significantly higher oxidative stress levels. ( Muscle and Fitness May 2008)

Men who take aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol) and/or NSAIDs (Advil, Motrin, etc.) at least twice a week increase their risk of experiencing hearing loss. (Analgesics use and the risk of hearing loss in men. American Journal of Medicine, March 2010: 123(3):231-7)

Aspirin or Ibuprophen (Advil, Nuprin) side effects - ulcer

Acetominophen (Tylenol)  side effects - liver toxicity

Risk of high blood pressure:

- Went up 38% in men who took NSAIDs 6 or 7 days/week

- Went up 34% in men who took acetominophen 6 or 7 days/week

- Went up 26% in men who took aspirin 6 or 7 days/week

Archives of Internal Medicine., Feb 26, 2007; vol 167: pp 394-399

So if you are experiencing back pain and would like a drug free alternative, call our office to make an appointment or call to talk to Dr Hermann about your case.

 HERMANN WELLNESS

309 663-2423

Reoccurring Back Pain and the Multifidus Muscle

Chiropractic treatment has been shown again and again to be the most effective treatment for back pain. Oftentimes back pain will reoccur again and again. Studies show that approximately 34% of people who experience acute low back pain will suffer recurrent episodes. Why does this back pain return? Recent studies suggest that the multifidus muscle may be to blame. These studies show the multifidus muscle is smaller or atrophied on one side of patients with chronic reoccurring

low back pain. Fortunately there are exercises you can do to increase the strength of the multifidus muscle. These exercises include the plank, the bird dog, back extension, back bridge, curl up and side bridge. If you have back pain that is reoccurring contact our office for an examination to determine if chiropractic treatment will help you. Part of your treatment program may include exercises to strengthen the multifidus muscle. Please feel free to comment on this blog post.

Hermann Wellness

309 663-2423

Fibromyalgia and Tai Chi

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that tai chi improves fibromyalgia.  Participants in the study who learned Yang style tai chi had an improvements in pain physical functioning, fatigue sleeplessness and depression. Join us at Illinois Wesleyan for tai chi class every Saturday at 9 a.m. If you are suffering from the pain of fibromyalgia, take control and call our office for an appointment.  Join us at tai chi class to start improving your pain. Feel free to comment on this blog or sign-up for an RSS feed.  This allows you to be notified when there is a new blog post.

Click here to view article

Hermann Wellness

663-2423

TAI CHI

BREATH AND CHI

According to Chinese acupuncture theory, energy (chi) comes into the body from the air we breathe, the food and water we drink. It is stored in the dan tien (3 inches below the belly button) and distributed through the bladder meridian, (2 inches either side of the spine). You can increase your chi by improving your diet and your breath capacity.

The autonomic nervous system is the part of your nervous system that controls functions that happen automatically, I.E. heart rate, digestion, and breathing. But breathing is also under voluntary control. You can consciously control your breath. So breathing can be a link between your autonomic and voluntary nervous systems. This is important because by controlling (slowing down) your breath you will also gain control of heart rate, emotions, consciousness etc. We have all heard the saying, “ When you are angry take a few deep breathes.” Meditation teachers will use breath to slow down thought processes. You can control your breath, it just takes practice!

In our beginning exercises, (chi kung) you should breathe in and out through your nose. Concentrate on your breath sinking to your dan tien (3 inches below your belly button) as if you are blowing up a balloon. Breathe all the way in, and all the way out. Make the breath gentle and relaxed. When going away from your body, exhale. When coming towards your body, inhale.

A good exercise is to lie flat on your back with your hands on your dan tien. As you practice your deep breathing, you should feel your hands raise and lower with each breath. With practice, your breath should go down, towards your bladder, and backward, toward your kidneys, rather than out. This will make the chi stronger.

Good stances will facilitate good energy transfer up the bladder meridian. Be sure to keep your head erect, as if you have a string tied on to the top of your head, pulling you up. I welcome your comment on this article, good or bad, pro or con, let me know what you think.

 Dr Hermann

Is My Disc Herniation The Cause Of My Pain?

I am often asked the question ,"Is my disc herniation the cause of my back pain?" Although this can be difficult to determine, it is possible to put all the information together and make an educated guess on whether your disk herniation is the cause of your back pain. First of all let's talk about a study that was done in 1984. This study examined 100 adults with no history of back pain.  An MRI was performed on their lower back.  About 40% of these adults had a disc herniation in their lower back. Some of these herniations showed direct pressure on the nerve root. None of these subjects had any history of low back pain. So how could these patients who have disc herniations with pressure on the nerve root not have any back pain? The reason is these disk herniations and the pressure on the nerve root happened gradually over a period of time. Therefore there was no, or very little inflammation, bleeding or swelling. Have you ever seen an older person with a ring on their finger for decades.  It is obvious that the ring is too small for their finger.  But they have no pain from the small ring.  This is because the pressure has happened slowly and gradually over a long period of time.

But suppose you bend over the wrong way and put some pressure on your back that it's not used to and cause some pinching or pressure.  This may cause some bleeding and tissue damage in that area.  This will cause an inflammatory response.  What is an inflammatory response?  When you bent over and damaged some tissue, your body has to clean that mess up.  It has to clean up dead tissue and it has to rebuild new tissue. Your body does this with a whole series of chemical events. This series of chemical processes is called the inflammatory process.  Some of these chemicals helped to rebuild tissue.  Some of these chemicals helped to get rid of dead tissue.  Some of these chemicals are irritants to nerve endings and will generate pain.

So back to the question, "Is my disk herniation causing my pain?" Well I would like to answer that question with the question.  Do your symptoms makes sense compared with where your disc herniation is? For instance, if your disc herniation is on the left side of your spine and your symptoms are on the right side, the disc herniation is probably not the cause of your symptoms. Is your disc herniation at L5-S1 and your symptoms are higher up in your back? If you answered yes, then your herniation is probably not the cause of your symptoms.

Fortunately, a good orthopedic and neurologic exam combined with x-rays and an MRI can usually determine the cause of the pain.  If you're having back pain or neck pain that has been difficult to treat call our office to make an appointment.  You can also call 663-2423 and we will be glad to talk to you personally on the phone at no cost to you to see if we can shed some light on getting rid of your pain.

Dr Robert Hermann

Hermann Wellness

Often especially when patients are in pain they will ask whether they should put ice on their back. When you have acute low back or neck pain, in many ways it is similar to when you get your finger stuck in the car door. When you get your finger stuck in the car door, it will become red,  swollen and inflamed.  You have damaged cells in your finger, the cell wall has broken and the contents of the cell has gone into the space between the cells. Your body has to clean this mess up. It does this with a whole series of chemical events.  These chemical events are called the inflammatory process. These chemicals are irritants to the nerves in your finger.  This is what generates pain. These chemicals may generate pain but they also allow your body to get rid of the dead tissue and rebuild new cells.

So what happens when you put ice on your finger.  The ice will take blood away from the area.  When the blood leaves it will carry dead tissue away so your body can metabolize it.  Along with the blood, excess fluid or swelling will be reduced as it too is flushed back into the bloodstream. When you remove the ice an increase in blood flow will occur as your body wants to warm that area up.  This increase in blood flow will bring nutrients to help rebuild  new tissue.

So what happens when you put heat on your finger.  When you put heat on your finger you will have an increase in blood flow to the area.  However you will not have a reduction in swelling, you may even increase swelling.  So with ice you will have the advantages of heat without the disadvantages.

If you're having pain you're having inflammation. Most patients will benefit from ice more than heat.  So try ice first before trying heat.

Whatever you do don't live in pain. If you're having pain call us at Hermann Wellness. 

Dr Hermann

New Spine Magazine Study

A new study in Spine magazine, (October 2010), the most prominent medical journal for spinal studies, stated that chiropractic manipulation was superior to medical treatment for acute low back pain. This study is the first to compare chiropractic treatment with standard medical treatment that you would receive from your general practitioner. Although this is the first study to compare manipulation to general practitioner treatment, there are dozens of studies supporting manipulation as being the best treatment for acute low back pain. Last year there was another study in Spine magazine touting the superiority of chiropractic manipulation for chronic low back pain. Chiropractic treatment is the safest and most effective treatment for low back pain. If you are experiencing low back pain don't live in pain. Call our office at 309-663-2423 and we can discuss your back pain over the phone.

Dr Hermann