Archive for weight loss
San Diego Chiropractor Advises: Don’t Let Excess Weight Put Your Joints on Overload
Posted by: | CommentsAs a San Diego Chiropractor, I counsel many individuals who come to my clinic who want to lose weight. I know how hard it can be, and I also know how important it is to lose those extra pounds. What’s the harm in being just a few pounds overweight? Over the years, extra weight can add up to a large number of health challenges from heart and pulmonary diseases and diabetes to back challenges and joint degeneration. Extra pounds put undue stress on organs, like the heart, as well as on joints in the low back, hips, and knees. Regrettably,more than half (62%) of men and women in the U.S. are overweight or obese, according to recent studies. That is a very significant percentage and a sizable problem (no pun intended).
Though it is able to compensate to some degree the human body has not evolved to transport surplus poundage in the form of body fat. Just an additional 20 or 30 pounds can literally overload and overburden the joints and muscles of the body. Added weight in the belly, for instance, requires that the body compensate (counterbalance the weight) by tilting the pelvis forward. The tilt puts pressure on the joints of the low back. Joint compression impedes nerve activity and causes painful inflammation. Most men and women who have a heavy midsectionfeel substantial pain in their low back generated by a pinched sciatic nerve or spinal misalignments that restrict nerves as a result of weight-bearing stresses. If left untreated, misaligned vertebra not only continue to irritate the degenerative changes that have taken place already, but can create new arthritic changes in the spine in the future.
How can chiropractic help? To begin with the obvious, a healthy body weight is necessary in order for the musculoskeletal system to function in the way it is built to. That said, in addition, chiropractic adjustments relieve nerve compression in the spine and help to get motion back into the joints of the musculoskeletal system, particularly in the low back, hips, and knees. And, naturally exercise and physical activity are a lot easier, and more beneficial for the body, when the the joints have good movement and the spine is aligned. Not only will exercise help with weight reduction, but it can actually inhibit degenerative changes as the body ages.
Healthcare professionals, like your chiropractor, can talk to you about your diet and exercise choices. In addition to helping people suffering from back pain and joint inflammation, chiropractors offer proficient advice on the kinds of lifestyle modifications that can help an individual to stay healthier, more vigorous, and more active through the years. Arthritis and immobility due to aging don’t have to be unavoidable. The structure of the human body is intended to carry a person through an entire lifetime of pain-free movement.
So, if those extra pounds have been sneaking up on you, and they’ve turned into a surprising load of pain, as your San Diego chiropractor and someone who understands, I can help. Make an appointment today!
Getting Rid of Excess Pounds Can Help Your Arthritis Pain
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San Diego Chiropractor: Chiropractic and Arthritis
Do you suffer from painful arthritis? Do you also have a problem with your weight? If you do, you are probably having back pain not only as the result of arthritis, but also as the eventuality of the strain your weight is putting on your spine. The body was not constructed to carry around extraneous weight in the form of body fat. If you are carrying around only an additional 20 or 30 pounds of extra weight, your spine, which supports the body, is being put under a great deal of strain. This kind of stress can cause irregularities of the vertebral column. These misaligned vertebra can generate arthritic changes in the spine and persist in aggravating the degenerative changes that are present already. Furthermore, your body may counteract in other ways, for instance your hips moving forward or tilting to support the extra poundage. This can pinch the sciatic nerve, which is extremely painful.
A current survey by the NPD Group, a leading market research company based in Rosemont, Ill., indicates that approximately 62% of adults and 34% of adolescents are overweight or obese. The ubiquitousness of arthritis escalates with accumulating weight. Research suggests that cultivating a healthy weight reduces the risk of developing arthritis in the first place and may decelerate degenerative progression. A weight decrease of just 11 pounds can decrease the occurrence (incidence) of new knee osteoarthritis and would do a great deal to reduce back pain as well.
A good diet and appropriate exercise is mandatory for an individual who is sincere about overcoming their back pain, knee pain, and joint pain in other regions of the body. Even though it’s an unmistakable solution, it genuinely is the only action for you to take in order to get out of pain and get your life back.
First of all, let’s discuss the topic of dieting. Most diets (and there are a large number to choose from) can be temporarily helpful. Obviously, if you were to lose weight for keeps, the diet industry would lose a regular customer! In order for you to lose weight efficiently, you must eat a healthy diet and also to cut your calories so that you use more calories than you take in. Losing a lot of pounds too fast is not only unhealthy, but perilous. A healthy weight loss rate is about 2 pounds every week in order for it to work well.
Research has proved that exercise and physical activity not only decreases pain and improves function, but actually delays disability. No less than 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, a minimum of 3 days a week, has been shown to be effective. Even at 10-minute intervals such movement is beneficial.
Chiropractic adjustments are a highly beneficial way to get mobility back in the joints of your spine and other areas of, and can be a good first step before starting an exercise program. A well-aligned spine makes exercise and physical activity a lot easier and will slow down arthritic degenerative changes. The Annals of Internal Medicine reported the results of a survey of 232 people who had arthritis and were under a rheumatologist’s care. Of those people, 63% responded to the survey by saying they were taking advantage of some kind of “complementary care” as named by the study. Of those individuals, 31% were trying chiropractic. Possibly the most impressive statistic was that 73% of those utilizing chiropractic found it effective. Answering why they’d tried the non-medical chiropractic care, those surveyed offered a number of reasons: 1) to curb pain, 2) they’d been told that it helps, 3) they felt certain that it is safe, 4) it had aided someone they knew, and 5) because their prescription medication wasn’t stopping the pain.
Chiropractors, also called doctors of chiropractic, have been helping individuals suffering from back pain due to arthritis and other arthritic conditions for over a hundred years. Your San Diego chiropractor treats misaligned vertebra that, in addition to creating arthritic pain and degenerative changes in the spine, can decrease resistance and immunity, thus causing new health challenges.
It is always smart to consult a health care professional to get information about diet and exercise. Your chiropractor is a knowledgeable resource for education about the type of lifestyle changes that you will find necessary to help you to manage your arthritis. By the same token, in addition to getting your spine in alignment through gentle adjustments, your chiropractor will analyze any faulty gait patterns or posture irregularities that may be contributing to your arthritic pain.