Dr Davis' Back & Wrist Pain Blog

Good Posture=A Healthy Back

San Francisco Chiropractor Comments:

There is a lot of debate over whether someones posture can be controlled at a conscience level, or if posture is actually the end result of all your habits and actions over your lifetime. Some say your psychological profile contributes to your posture as well. Some say it's mostly hereditary.

I think it's a little of all the above. Your posture is also "a window to your spine". A trained eye can actually visualize the position the spine is in by looking at posture. And there are many ways to improve posture...including chiropractic.

Anyway, I found some real interesting links with some different viewpoints on posture, along with some exercises and ergonomics tips. Here they are:

Posture For A Healthy Back

Posture-What About It?

Chiropractic Biophysics

I trained at the clinic where the Biophysics technique was invented. So, we incorporate this method into our treatment protocols.

If you would like to find out if you are a candidate for care at our San Francisco Back & Wrist Pain Center...please call 415-392-2225 and ask for a complimentary consultation.   

Migraine Headaches and Chiropractic

San Francisco Chiropractor Comments:

I first saw a chiropractor when I was about 10 years old because I was having really bad headaches. The chiropractor fixed my problem in a few visits...and that was that.

Children respond very favorable to chiropractic adjustments...and usually they only require a few visits...it just depends on the problem.

Then, later on in my life...when I was about 23, I started getting the headaches again. This time they were really bad. So bad that my medical doctors prescribed Percodan for the pain. I even had a brain scan to see if I had a brain tumor. Nothing worked, the drugs made me sick, and it turned into a mess.

Then I went back to see a chiropractor...well, it worked again. This time it took a little longer because the vertebral subluxations in my neck were pretty bad. But I could not believe it. They would come back a little every now and then...but then the migraines disappeared...forever.

Lumbar Decompression Therapy for Pinched Nerves

San Francisco Chiropractor and Herniated Disc Doctor Comments:

Pinched nerves in the low back are usually caused by bulging or herniated lumbar discs. One of the primary symptoms from a pinched lumbar nerve is sciatica...or pain down the leg. If you've ever experienced sciatica you know first hand how painful it can be.

If you have low back pain but have never had leg pain...just be thankful. 

Typically, sciatica comes on after a lumbar disc bulge or lumbar disc herniation has been around a while (watch this excellent herniated disc video on www.spine-health.com).

If a lumbar nerve is really pinched good by a herniated disc, you can get weakness in the leg along with the pain. In fact, the leg can actually start to lose size over time. This is what we call atrophy...typically found in advanced cases of nerve compromise from degenerative (bony) spinal stenosis.

Bony spinal stenosis occurs when calcium deposits build-up in the spinal canal or vertebral foramina where the nerves branch off the spine (you want these passage ways clear). Not much fun. Stenosis can also be caused by bulging or herniated discs (non-bony stenosis).

But here's the good news...Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression for the lumbar spine can often times help patients with pinched nerves. At my San Francisco Chronic Back Pain Center, I have witnessed Lumbar Decompression Therapy achieve favorable outcomes with some of the worst looking spines I have ever seen. And...it's very safe.

The only side effect we have witnessed at our clinic is soreness sometimes...kind of like the soreness some patients occasionally get from physical therapy or chiropractic. I classify the treatment as gentle...but it can make you sore.   

Taking Responsibility For Your Own Health

San Francisco Vegan Chiropractor Comments:

It's not uncommon for people to blame somebody else when they get sick, say with the flu. They will say something like...Oh, Mary came to the office with the flu bug and gave it to me. Or, with symptoms like back pain, you will hear... it's my chair at work. Or... I just don't have time to exercise. Or my favorite...I cant lose weight because of my metabolism. And on and on...   

Sure there are some things that you have no control over...like someone rear-ending you at a traffic light, or a tree randomly falling on you. But, for the most part, you are the one that adjust the knobs that control your health. And you adjust them in the direction of health or in the direction of illness based on your lifestyle choices and the decisions you make about your healthcare (drugs vs. natural). And, whether or not you take responsibility for your health...or not.

Do you run to the doctor everytime you get sick with the flu? Or do you consider the factors that help prevent someone from getting the flu...like rest, a healthy nervous system (chiropractic), proper diet, exercise, low amounts of stress...and a positive attitude. These are what I refer to as adjustable lifestyle knobs...adjustable by YOU.

A Great Vegan Recipe

San Francisco Vegan Chiropractor Comments:

I'm always asked...What do you eat? Don't you starve? How do you stay on a vegan diet. Well, for one thing...I cheat a little here and there. I figure if I can be consistently 80% clean...I will stay lean and mean...and healthy.

Anyway...here is a great recipe I found on the excellent www.vegweb.com for Spaghetti Pie. Check it out...it's sure beats McDonald's.

Another good source of vegan recipes is http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/.

The best resource for vegan nutrition and recipes are Dr. John & Mary McDougall at www.drmcdougall.com.

Chronic Back and Neck Pain: Sometimes Nothing Seems To Help

San Francisco Chiropractor and Chronic Back and Neck Pain Doctor Comments:

I have been practicing chiropractic for 17 years now in the Financial District, and there is one thing I have learned that is hard to accept. Chiropractic care will not help everyone that does it...nothing will. In fact, there are times that a patient just does not seem to respond to anything.

I have had back and neck pain patients that have tried acupuncture, physical therapy, pain medications, chiropractic, spinal decompression, and goose grease...and none of it helped...talk about frustrating.   

Fortunately...this is rare.  And, sometimes it looks like the back pain is just there to stay, and all of the sudden it starts to respond to the chiropractic or spinal decompression, or combination of both. So, it can be a little tricky knowing when to stop...or continue.

When a patient with chronic low back pain, or chronic, severe neck pain does not respond, we start to take a serious look at the patients lifestyle factors that are adjustable...such as diet, mental stress, posture, ergonomics, and anything else that could be adjusted in the direction of health...even the shoes they wear, or the pillow they sleep with.

Sometimes we can control the symptoms just a little..enough to make make a difference. One thing for sure...Unless YOU have adjusted all the knobs in the direction of health...you will never know what it would be like if you had.

If you are suffering with chronic neck pain, or chronic low back pain, and would like to  find out if you are a candidate for care at our San Francisco Back, Neck, and Wrist Pain Center...please call 415-392-2225 and ask for a complimentary consultation.

Chiropractic Care & Plant Based Nutrition

San Francisco Vegan Chiropractor Comments:

Chiropractic Philosophy is based on the premise that "What's natural is perfect". It is impossible to improve upon what is natural. Health is our natural state. In order to be healthy we must maintain a healthy, natural internal and external environment. If we become sick, it is because our natural state has been compromised, usually because of lifestyle factors...including what we eat.

In fact...molecule for molecule, food is our primary interaction with our external environment. You've heard the old saying for computers...Garbage In...Garbage Out. Well, so it goes with the body. You can't expect to eat garbage that masquerades as food and be healthy.

By design, we were built to consume plant foods (my opinion backed by science). Plant foods give us the best chance to express our health potential. Plant foods help protect us from illness and weight gain...unless you add a bunch of sauces, butter, cheese and other fat foods to them.

Plant foods make you feel good...unless you do it wrong and try to eat only lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers...which will make you hungry all day. You must center your diet around starches. I wrote about this the other day...check out Losing Weight and Keeping it Off With a Plant Based Diet.

Chiropractic care which helps restore bodily function, and plant based nutrition. which is the food we were designed and built to eat...can be a potent combination if done consistently over an extended period of time. They are not quick fixes...but rather lifestyle choices...good ones.

If you would like to find out if you are a candidate for chiropractic care at our San Francisco Back & Wrist Pain Center...simply call 415-392-2225 and ask for a complimentary consultation. Chances are...you will be glad you did :)

 

Dr Davis' Back & Wrist Pain Blog Voted Top Chiropractic Blog In America

San Francisco Chiropractor Comments:

Well, I just received an award for having the top chiropractic blog in America from Kahuna Content, a social media and marketing research company in New Jersey. So I guess someone is reading this stuff. Actually, Googles complicated algorithm, gives us a very high ranking via the Page Rank system that matches Google searches with relevant information.

I do try and write frequently, and stick close to the subject matter...which is non-surgical spinal decompression with the DRX9000, chiropractic, back and wrist pain, and vegan nutrition.

Thanks for reading and voting if you did. 

For a complimentary consultation at my San Francisco Chiropractic Clinic...please call 415-392-2225.

For a Free Report on the DRX9000, go to www.SanFranciscoSpinalDecompression.com.

Read some Bay Area Spinal Decompression Success Stories

Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD): What Is It?

San Francisco Chiropractor and Chronic Back Pain Doctor Comments:

There is a lot of confusion about what degenerative disc disease (DDD) actually means. Here is an excerpt from an excellent article I found on the always informative www.spine-health.com website. The article is entitled What is Degenerative Disc Disease?:

Finally, many patients are confused about degenerative disc disease because many medical professionals don’t agree on what the phrase describes. In practical terms, this means that few practitioners agree on what does and does not constitute a diagnosis of degenerative disc disease. Even medical textbooks don’t usually attempt to give an accurate description. Therefore, while many practitioners believe that degenerative disc disease is a common cause of low back pain in young adults, very few agree on the implications.

This article really gets down and dirty as far as the what behind  DDD, and I agree with just about all of it. However, I believe many people have discs that age prematurely because of lifestyle factors...the same factors that contribute to other chronic disease processes. Things like poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, and drinking and smoking. So, along with everything mentioned in the article...my two cents would be that poor lifestyle choices can accelerate the degenerative process of a spinal disc, just like it can a heart or a lung.

So...if we are to try and slow down the disease process we need to address lifestyle and patient education, along with the more conventional therapies such as physical therapy, chiropractic, and modern medicine.  After all, Thomas Edison said the following:

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and the cause and prevention of disease" 

If you would like to find out if you are a candidate for care at our San Francisco Chiropractic Center...please call 415-392-2225 abd ask for a complimentary consultation.

Losing Weight and Keeping It Off With A Plant Based Diet

San Francisco Vegan Chiropractor Comments:

Often times, a patient expresses to me that they want to lose weight, and they know that it's a big part of their low back pain. But when I suggest a vegetarian diet they roll their eyes back. Oh, I tried that...I can't do that I starved to death for 3 days one time. Or...I did that and I gained weight.

Oh...I need meat...my body craves it.

Lots of people try to lose weight by starving themselves and only eating salads and fruits. That's not the way to do it. You will never win the battle with the hunger drive. Your appetite must be satisfied or you will not be able to stay on the program.

This is where a starch based diet comes in. A diet centered about starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, whole wheat pasta, yams, and whole grains is very satisfying. Heck, a couple of baked potatoes which is only 300 calories fills the entire stomach. When the stomach is full you are not hungry.

Then, you add all the fruits and vegetables you want. But, what happens is people eat salads and dump a bunch of dressing on it. Or eat white rice or pasta (all the nutrients and fiber are removed) with junk sauce and cheese. Or load their baked potato with butter and sour cream. It's all the junk that's added on to these good foods that makes them fattening.

There are tasty low calorie alternatives to all of these problem add-on foods (butter, cheese, rich sauces). And whole grains taste much better (than beached rice or pasta) any way. You just need to learn how to shop. It's also very cheap to eat this way. So it's cheaper, you lose weight, you look better, all your organs function better, your immune system is turbo-charged...and you resist all the chronic diseases at a higher level. A plant based diet just makes sense.

The best source of plant-based nutrition and recipes I know of is Dr. John and Mary McDougall. You can visit them at www.drmcdougall.com.

Do a little homework. Don't do it on your own or listen to uninformed sources. You can eat as much as you want and lose weight at the same time if you do it right.  And...keep it off.