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Newsletter Page
Spring '11
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Office News: |
Community events:
Belmont Town Day
05/21/2011 9 am - 2 p.m.
chair massages, postural evaluations, and spinal screenings
Feast of the East
06/18/2011 2 pm - 5 p.m.
chair massages, postural evaluations, and spinal screenings in front of our office
Please click on Gallery of events for more information
Office updates:
Staff: Karen Turco, one of our massage therapists, has also taken over full time coverage duties of our front desk. She can help you with appointment or insurance coverage questions.
Office: We will shortly be undergoing some minor remodeling to update the atmosphere of the office. We will aim to do so during off-business hours so there should be no interruption to services provided.
Hours: Starting the first week of May we will be open all day Thursdays and will be closed Tuesdays in the mornings. Our Tuesday hours will be 2:30 to 5:30
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Nutrition: |
The misunderstood egg |
For years we have been told that a low cholesterol diet and saturated fats are bad for your heart. The biggest culprit of all cholesterol offenders: the egg.
Research however demonstrates that eggs in one's diet are not correlated with heart attacks.
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A diet high in saturated fats - including eggs - is the Atkins diet. This diet is high in protein and fats but low in carbohydrates. Conventional wisdom assumes a heart attack waiting to happen. However, when the diet was researched in the 1990's the opposite was observed. There was greater incidence of heart disease in the low fat high carbohydrate diet.
A Japanese study in 2006 found no correlation between almost daily consumption of eggs and the incidence of heart attacks.
A 1999 study in JAMA concluded: "findings suggest that consumption of up to 1 egg per day is unlikely to have substantial overall impact on the risk of CHD or stroke among healthy men and women" .
A 2010 study in Nutrition Journal studied specific effects on blood wall cells in people with high fat (triglycerides) in their blood and the incidence of heart disease. They determined : " Egg consumption was found to be non-detrimental to endothelial function and serum lipids in hyperlipidemic adults".
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Keep in mind: The findings of this study were compared to a baseline diet with consumption of sausage and cheese. Egg substitute consumption was found to lower levels of cholesterol.
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Important precautions:
Diabetics do have to be careful: For some reason several of the above studies showed that higher cholesterol and endothelial cell (blood vessel) damage increased with egg consumption.
Conclusions: 1-2 eggs / day as part of a lower fat diet: These recommendations were made at the conclusion of most studies. None of the research panels gave a recommendation for indiscriminate amount of egg consumption. As always everything in moderation is good rule of thumb.
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Chiropractic Treatment and Pregnancy: |
More comfort less complications |
| With mother's day recently upon us pregnancy and chiropractic management seemed like a natural topic. |
The problem: According to the American Chiropractic Association, “During pregnancy, a woman's center of gravity almost immediately begins to shift forward to the front of her pelvis.As the baby grows in size, the woman's weight is projected even farther forward, and the curvature of her lower back is increased, placing extra stress on the spinal disks. In compensation, the normal curvature of the upper spine increases, as well."
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The same mechanics bring about tightness in the psoas muscle which further tips the pelvis forward. All this simply means is extra back pressure - and as many pregnant women have experienced - back pain.
Adding more joint stress is the hormone Relaxin. As the name implies it relaxes the pelvic ligaments to allow for a pelvic expansion during delivery. Unfortunately, making your ligaments looser while all the forward stress and extra weight are added is even worse for the back joints.
Some women develop too much forward pelvic tilt combined with excess tightness at the hips leading to diminished room for the baby to move. This can lead to failure of the fetus to turn, complications with delivery and increased likelihood of C-section.
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The Chiropractic Solution: The goal is to decrease the arch on the low back, loosen up the hips (psoas muscle) and provide stability to the back. Since the ligaments are loosening vigorous manipulation is not usually the best course of action. |
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Massage, stretching and muscle balancing techniques are used to relax the tight back and psoas muscles. Low force techniques are used to gently re-align the pelvis. Exercises are taught to strengthen the abdominals and core stabilizing muscles of the back.
After Delivery: The delivery process can be obviously quite traumatic to the pelvis. The ligaments have been maximally loosened and pelvis can distort in several directions as the baby is delivered. THe pelvic tissues heal after a few weeks and the ligaments tighten again eventually. It is imperative to have the pelvic joints properly re-aligned before the ligaments stabilize and the pelvis re-sets distorted. The longer it stays uncorrected the longer it will take to correct it and the greater the potential for future / chronic back problems.
In conclusion: Chiropractic makes pregnancy less stressful on a woman's spine, creates more room in the pelvis for possibly allowing for better fetal positioning - thus less delivery time complications, and prevents future back problems after delivery. |
We hope you enjoyed mother's day and as always do not forget to take care of yourself - it's easy to forget taking care of everyone else.
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Seasonal Spinal Savers |
Running Biomechanics |
It might be time to throw away your running shoes |
Spring has finally arrived and those of us hibernating can no longer use the weather as an excuse to not exercise. Running is a popular form of warm weather exercise. The Boston Marathon feels like an official kick off to the running season.
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Running a marathon has become a life achievement goal of many and a daunting task never to be attempted by others. It's hard to imagine that there's an even more daunting event that makes the marathon look like a warm-up; the Ultramarathon. Ultramarathons are a group of races that range anywhere from 60 to 100 miles. If that was not bad enough, they take course on various challenging / unpaved terrains like canyons or mountains.
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One would think it crazy to even attempt something like this, however, in some parts of the world people have adapted to their environment, and tested the limits of human endurance out of necessity. When some of these South American cultures were studied one attribute immediately stood out. They did all this running barefoot.
It is the observations and study of this running style that has lead to the latest and controversial topic of barefoot running. The subject would not even be a debate if it was not for the same population has lower injury rates compared to our high-tech running shoe wearing culture. I am not advocating you run barefoot but the below summarized advantages may persuade you to consider the running style / concept.
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More efficient: Barefoot style running makes you run on the ball of your feet as opposed to striking on the heel. It forces you to use the elastic recoil of your leg muscles and keeps a forward leaning momentum. Heel running actually acts as a braking mechanism with each step slowing you down. Running on the ball of the feet actually shifts your momentum forward requiring less effort from your muscles to keep you running forward.
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Safer: If you ever tried to run on the ball of your feet you probably realize that you need to soften up and shorten up your stride. A softer stride imparts less force on the skeleton. (note the change in running style needs to happen gradually over short distances to allow the body to adapt & avoid injury).
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Better for your posture: Less impact imparts less compression on the spine. In addition, running on the ball of the feet shifts the chest and pelvis forward. It engages your "core" muscles and requires you to stand / run more upright.
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Running Shoe Options:
Most running shoes have too much cushioning at the heel for shock absorption. Striking with the heel requires this but also takes a few milliseconds to squish down. In that time your foot looses feedback from the ground it's contacting and brings about a momentary instability. Over longer distances it adds up to less efficient running. |
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The average running shoe also is usually very rigid to control your foot - usually from turning in too much. This also restricts the natural movement of the foot and inhibits innate methods of elasticity and shock absorption resulting in more joint strain.
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Minimalist running shoes:
Many shoes manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon. The main features are:
- minimal shock absorption.
- very flexible.
- form fitting.
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They are designed to offer minimal protection while allowing maximum flexibility and significant road surface feel.
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| They all offer some protection to the ball of the foot from random objects (stones , sticks etc), but they do not interfere with natural biomechanics. |
No Running Shoes. No protection against road surface hazards relying on the skin adapting and thickening. Maximal feedback road feel from surface. Increased risk of blisters, cuts, and infection. Not recommended for urban runners (like all of us in the metropolitan Boston area).
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Conclusion: We were obviously designed to run without any shoes so the purist in you might want to consider barefoot running. Efforts to do do should be gradual and minimal ar first. A rubber track or grass would be ideal forgiving surfaces to experiment with. Due to the high risk of cuts from rough surfaces or various foreign objects in an urban environment, and the ease of bruising the bones at the ball of the foot we believe Minimalist Shoes to be the best compromise.
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Other Running Form Tips:
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Do not slouch, slump, or lean forward.
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Keep hands relaxed.
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Swing arms back and forth (do not let them swing inward - it twists your body)
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Do not over-bend the elbows - swing through with entire arm.
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Personal Care Chiropractic & Massage, P.C.
© copyright Nicholas Stamoulos, D.C. 2008. All rights reserved.
104 Massachusetts Avenue
Arlington, MA 02474
781 641 4482 fax 781 641 4483
dr.nick@mindyourspine.com
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