Plasker Family Chiropractic Blog

Backpack Safety and Children's Health

It's not just a back pack issue

Parents and educators everywhere are concerned about the burdens that children are lugging around each day in the form of poorly designed, improperly packed and inappropriately worn backpacks. This phenomenon has also become a major focus of chiropractors who have recognized that early childhood back stress is a major cause of spinal instability and nerve related health problems.

Unfortunately, these silent injuries can lay dormant for years, only to express themselves as serious spinal problems in adults.  According to a study in the April 1, 2005 issue of Spine, signs of spinal disc degeneration appeared on MRI scans of approximately one-third of the 13-year old children who were studied, even though only some of them were experiencing back pain.  In another study in the October 18, 2004 issue of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, 96% of the children examined were found to have pelvic subluxations.  The spinal degenerative arthritis that results from subluxations are one of the most common preventable diseases affecting society today, but prevention must start at an early age.

In response to parent concerns, many state lawmakers are introducing legislation to mandate maximum backpack weight, redesign text books and even purchase an extra set of books for each child to use at home.  Rather than wait for new laws to be passed, every parent and child should take the responsibility to increase their knowledge on backpack safety so they can use good lifting and body awareness techniques, and prevent unnecessary injuries. This will also ensure that children keep their spine and nerve system healthy as they grow. 

Here are some important Backpack Safety Tips that you can begin using immediately:

• If possible, use a backpack with wheels and roll it
• Otherwise use a backpack with padded shoulder straps and lumbar support, and wear both shoulder straps
• Pack only what you need and place heavy items on the bottom
• Bend at the knees when lifting the backpack
• Never lift more than 15% of your body weight:

Make backpack safety and spinal health a priority. Invest in a quality backpack, use it properly, and make an appointment for your children to receive a spinal examination today.

*Contributed by Jeffrey Slocum, D.C., Learning Curves

Are you Body Conscious or Health Conscious

We see it all the time at the gym or in my office, people that are concerned about how they look and not necessarily about their health. Perhaps you do not know the difference between being body conscious or health conscious.   See the table below to better understand the difference. 

So, which are you Body Conscious or Health Conscious?  Are there any changes you know you need to make?  We are here to support you to be the healthiest version of you possible.  Schedule a consult with Dr. Plasker and let’s figure out how we can help!

Avoiding This Dangerous Holiday Duo

Alcohol and prescription drugs are a dangerous combination. While celebrities are the most popular victims, too many people are affected by this bad combination. With the holidays coming up, this knowledge can even save the life of someone important to you.

Both prescription and non-prescription drugs do not mix with alcohol. Too many people take medications on a regular basis - daily, weekly or monthly - and are unaware of the damaging effects that can be caused by adding alcohol into the mix.

During the holidays, people tend to consume more alcohol. The combination of even small amounts of alcohol with many medications can result in adverse reactions within the body that can lead to severe health problems, and in the worst case scenario, even death. Your awareness about this issue brings responsible drinking to a whole new level.

A few examples include…

• Medications used for ADHD or sleep disorders, such as Adderall, may actually circumvent the body’s normal warning systems and can mislead the person to unknowingly drink a dangerous amount of alcohol.

• Acetaminophen is listed as a Major Drug Interaction with alcohol and can result in liver damage, even from small amounts of this combination. This is the medicine found in over the counter drugs such as Tylenol and the widely used Cold Medicine, Nyquil.

• An antibiotic like Bactrim, Flagyl, or Tindamax should not be mixed with alcohol because it can cause severe reactions such as nausea and vomiting, headache, and rapid heart rate.

With other antibiotics, the immediate effects may be less severe but your energy can be reduced and delay how quickly you recover from illness.

Even in small amounts, alcohol may intensify medication side effects such as sleepiness, drowsiness, and light-headedness. The risk of serious injury or fatality when operating a vehicle or machinery is magnified and reaction time to prevent harm may be diminished.

Medications consumed by adults over the age of 65, many of whom already have balance issues and an increased risk of falls, can raise the risk when combined with even a small serving of alcohol.

The combination of medicine and alcohol should be avoided at all costs. If you are taking medication prescribed by a doctor, do your homework to learn about the potential reactions that may occur and avoid them.

When hosting a party or meal during the holidays, offer a variety of beverages to provide non-alcoholic, healthy choices to those who may need to avoid alcohol consumption. When attending as a guest, if you know you are at risk, offer to provide a non-alcoholic beverage to share as part of your contribution to the gathering.

You may read this and at first thought presume that the alcohol is the problem. For many, however, it’s the prescription and non-prescription drug use that is the problem. Millions of people each year are discovering that drugs are not the answer for long term health. As they become aware that long term drug usage can lead to severe side effects, they are making healthier lifestyle choices, 100 Year Lifestyle choices that include good nutrition, exercise, and a healthy spine and nervous system through chiropractic Lifestyle Care.

Avoid this dangerous mix, make healthier choices, and make this the healthiest holiday season ever.

Timing is Everything

Time. We measure it, live by it, spend it, give it and sometimes waste it. Most of us wish we had more hours in day, more weeks to complete a project, more minutes before missing the flight, more time to say what we really wanted to say. Yes, timing is everything.

What if we had more time than we thought and we just haven’t discovered that yet?  Consider this as the advanced notice that like it or not, want to or not, most of us have the potential to live longer than we ever imagined. What the journey looks like getting there, is up to us. How we use the time will be our legacy.

Measure Your Time

How much time do you have left? No one knows for sure. Here’s a simple calculation to determine one part of the best guess answer:  Take the age of your oldest relative ever and subtract your current age from that number. The answer is your Minimum Potential Years Remaining or your M-PYR. Genes only factor in as a small percentage for life expectancy. The way you choose to live hour by hour, day to day, from one year to the next is your lifestyle. Lifestyle choices play a major role in life expectancy for you and your family. If the choices are sedentary, monotonous, stressful, and unhealthy, your time may be limited. If the choices are active, exhilarating, positive and vitalistic your time could be extended beyond your imagination.

Measure your time by your lifestyle choices and ask yourself if you like what you see. How you take care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally now affects the future measurement of your time, your life. Take care of your body and take special care of your spine. It protects your nervous system which is your personal IT system designed to integrate your mind and body for perfect communication between the two.

Live, Spend and Give Your Time

Lifestyle choices either free us up to spend time with and give time to others or they consume us in a crisis to crisis survival mindset. Those who live life fully have made daily choices to use their time wisely, to incorporate self-care before crisis sets in, and give out of their abundance. People who are at peace in their life are able to give back to their community. The healthy balance that comes from physical well-being, reduced stress, and habits that strengthen the individual’s passions enable them to make better choices over and over.  Develop social circles filled with the type of person who is positive, healthy and focused and be built up while you build up others.  Exercise together, serve in your community together, eat healthy foods together, attend inspiring lectures together.  If you want to do something different with your life and your time, you can. Change is easy, thinking about change is hard.

Schedule Your Time

Your schedule will dominate all of your time or you will be master over your schedule.  Set aside time to take care of yourself. If you put it off, and your health suffers, the rest of the schedule can fall apart without warning. You can’t afford to get sick. Overbooking your day, week and month only to be forced to scramble and scurry is detrimental.

Plan ahead, make appointments to get your spine and nervous system checked regularly and choose to live like time is on your side. But only if you make the choice to manage it wisely.

You cannot predict exactly how long you will live so why not live your best life every day of your life like you will live to 80, 90, 100 years or beyond?  Live your ideal 100 Year Lifestyle starting today.

                                         CALMING DIGESTIVE STRESS

Many people suffer from digestive stress during the holidays. Diets change, as do sleep and work habits. Many people will blame these lifestyle changes for the digestive stress they are experiencing, and while this can be partially true, there often is an underlying cause in the spine and nervous system.

How can this be? Simple…

The nervous system controls your digestion and every other function of your body. A vertebral subluxation or a spinal injury that interferes with the normal function of your nervous system in the area that is responsible for healthy digestion, can cause many types of digestive stress.

A case study in 2003, published in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, revealed that a 32-year old female patient had her chronic condition of colitis relieved. Another case study from the same source reported that of 17 Crohn’s disease patients who received spinal adjustments, 12 showed long-term and stable remission. The findings concluded that vertebral subluxation is a common and characteristic finding in patients with Crohn’s disease and allergies.

In another published case study, a young woman had been afflicted with Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms once or twice a week for five years.

After one adjustment, she noticed an easing of her symptoms and within a short period of time, all of her digestive problems disappeared. When the report was published two years later, she was still free of any symptoms.

Many people deal with stress through deep breathing, meditation, exercise and healthy food choices. These are all very good things to do as part of your lifestyle to counter balance stress, but if your nervous system is pre-stressed from subluxations, the slightest deviation from the perfect stress management plan can send you into a frustrating, uncomfortable, or painful digestive tailspin.

Research shows that it only takes the weight of a dime to reduce nerve transmission. Additional research has found that nerve compression can exist without pain and can cause deterioration within two weeks. In this pre-stressed condition, your body becomes more vulnerable to outside stresses while other people who are subluxation free may be much more resistant to stress.

Crisis care is one way to deal with stress, only receiving chiropractic care when you are hurt. A better option is to make the critical transition to Lifestyle Care, keeping your nerve system healthy all the time. This will help you to stress less, live more, and enjoy the quality of life you deserve for 80, 90, 100 years and beyond.