Stop Stretching!

 - or at Least Stop Stretching the Lower Back Into Flexion and Rotation!

The evidence about stretching is a bit hazy, but certainly points in a particular direction. Stretching does not do what we used to think it does. I'll refer you to the Save Yourself blog by a skeptical PT, Paul Ingraham.

He is sometimes a bit over the top and may throw out the baby with the bathwater, but I basically agree with what he is saying about stretching.¹ To quote: "In a nutshell: Stretching just doesn't have the effects that most people hope it does. Plentiful recent stretching research has shown that it doesn't warm you up, prevent soreness or injury, enhance performance, or physically change muscles. Although it can increase flexibility, the value of this is unclear, and no other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has ever been proven."

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Hubble Deep Field

If you've ever wondered about the actual size of our universe, this video will help put things in perspective:



Wow! I feel like my problems are so insignificant now..............

Dr. A

Frozen Shoulder

Even after graduating from chiro. school, and seeing hundreds of patients over ten years, frozen shoulder still mystifies me as far as the best treatment options. It seems to be an inflammation of the entire capsule of the shoulder joint complex, rather than a specific muscle/tendon/joint/ligament.

The usual approach, stretching, anti-inflammation procedures, exercise, and trigger point therapy, are often totally ineffective.

Relevant links:

Orthopedic Connection

Mayo Clinic

About.com

Happy New Year.

Kurt Anderson, DC

On Migraines

There has been encouraging news lately on the migraine headache front, which holds a special interest for me because of my life long migraine affliction. It can be a perfect day, and "Bang!", here comes a migraine. Kiss your perfect day goodbye.

You migraine sufferers know exactly what I'm talking about. A lot of people think they have migraines, but more often than not, they just have headaches, but call them migraines. The migraines I'm referring to start with a visual disturbance known as an "aura". This can best be described as seeing "spots" in your vision, like after having a camera flash bulb go off in your face in a dark room.

Usually, the visual problems last for 10 to 20 minutes, followed by a deep, often throbbing headache in one part of your head, many times lasting for longer than a day or two, or three. No fun.

Amazingly little has been known about the cause of migraines, but a study is going on right now at Rush University in Chicago that is trying to show a correlation between Patent Foramen Ovale - an opening between the upper chambers of the heart that is supposed to close in our infant stage of development - and migraine headaches. This theory proposes that the de-oxygenated blood that gets mixed in with the oxygenated blood on the left side of the heart, from the right side through this opening, subsequently gets pumped into the brain, causing the migraine headache reaction.

These doctors have a new type of very effective but simple surgical procedure, which closes the opening in the heart, curing, or mostly curing the migraines. Exciting huh? At least I know it is for me, after suffering these bad boys for years. I will be the first in line if the study proves positive. Read more about that here.

See ya!

Dr. A.