Picture
Neck pain is like an angry elephant. One person is getting stomped on, another smacked by the tail, another stabbed by a tusk, and yet another whipped by the trunk. Each of these people experience a different sort of pain, but the underlying cause is the angry elephant. There’s only one cure for this situation: calm down the elephant! Similarly, a painful neck can have many different symptoms. Some people feel the effects of a herniated disc, others get muscle spasms, others get pinching and grinding from the joints, while others get shooting headaches. Each of these various pains have one underlying cause: dysfunctional movement that is placing excessive force into the neck and irritating the tissues. The cure for each is the same: improve the dysfunctional movement which is causing excessive force on the neck tissues.

(read more)
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
Most aches and pains are not just physical pain, but in some way are connected to emotional pain too. As a physical therapist, I see a lot of physical pain each and every day. But I always try to be aware of the emotional components to the pain.

This is not to say that the pain is "all in your head." Far from it! What usually happens is that emotional pain connects itself to an actual physical pain. Both pains are very real. And both pains need to be addressed.

Luckily, over the last decade there has been some wonderful research on emotional pain. There is a simple, highly effective tool we can all use to help heal from emotional pain. (read more).
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
What do neck pain, shoulder pain, and low back pain all have in common? Believe it or not, the root cause for all three of these pains is often the same. And that root cause is a tight mid-back and rib cage. The mid-back and rib cage is a forgotten region of the body. Most of us never think about it. But tightness in the mid-back is the culprit in almost all cases of neck pain, shoulder pain, and low back pain. And there's a simple exercise you can do to help loosen it. (Click below to read more).
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
When your skin is hit by the mid-day sun your body creates vitamin D.

Vitamin D has many wonderful actions in the body: among them are burning fat, muscle and nerve function, and bone health. Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium from your food. If you don't get enough vitamin D, you won't get enough calcium (no matter how many glasses of milk or calcium supplements you take). In fact, many people who think they aren't getting enough calcium are really just not getting enough vitamin D.

How much sun should you get? A good rule of thumb is to be out in the mid-day sun for half as much time as it would take to turn your skin mildly pink.

Worried about sun damage to your skin? (click below for more)
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
In Part 1 and 2 of this article, we discussed how the saying, “you are what you eat,” is incredibly accurate. Your body is made up of the food you put in it. If you don’t get all the nutrients your body needs, then you cannot be healthy, and you certainly cannot heal from injuries and pains.
Many injuries are the result of poor nutrition. If your body doesn’t get all the nutrients it needs then it cannot build strong and healthy ligaments, tendons, and bones, and your connective tissues will be loose and fragile. Your entire body will be begging for an injury, and your weakest link will crumble. You could go to the top physicians and therapists in the world and do all your exercises faithfully and still not see the results you’d like to see because you wont have the nutrients necessary to properly rebuild your body.

Now, in Part 3 of this article, we conclude with a discussion of the importance of nutrition for sleep and recovery and how you can follow the Healing Diet to maximize your recovery.
3 Comments
 
 
Picture
Besides the obvious fact that you’ll die if you stop breathing, why else is it so important? To begin with, breathing gets you your most essential nutrient: oxygen. You cannot live without it. Any nutrition plan needs to start with oxygen. Breathing is the way you eat your oxygen. Breathing is also the way we get rid of waste. We inhale oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide. We have to get the stagnant, used up air out of our lungs so that oxygen-rich air can come in. If you don’t get it out, you can’t get it in. Most people walk around with large pockets of used-up, stagnant air taking up their lung space and limiting their supply of oxygen. The ability to fully exhale and empty our lungs is absolutely essential and is something most of us lack. Many people only exhale about 50% of the way. Optimizing your breathing optimizes this whole process and gets the poisonous old air out so that the healthy good air can come in.


There's a lot of important reasons for breathing: nutrition, digestion, emotional health, healing, posture, mobility, and the health of your neck, shoulders, and low back are just a few. In this article we'll discuss each of these reasons for healthy breathing.
1 Comment
 
 
Picture
In Part 1 of this article, we discussed how the saying, “you are what you eat,” is incredibly accurate. Your body is made up of the food you put in it. If you don’t get all the nutrients your body needs, then you cannot be healthy, and you certainly cannot heal from injuries and pains.
Many injuries are the result of poor nutrition. If your body doesn’t get all the nutrients it needs then it cannot build strong and healthy ligaments, tendons, and bones, and your connective tissues will be loose and fragile. Your entire body will be begging for an injury, and your weakest link will crumble. You could go to the top physicians and therapists in the world and do all your exercises faithfully and still not see the results you’d like to see because you wont have the nutrients necessary to properly rebuild your body.

Now, in Part 2 of this article, we continue with a discussion of other important nutrients for healing and recovery.
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
The saying, “you are what you eat,” is incredibly accurate. Your body is made up of the food you put in it. If you don’t get all the nutrients your body needs, then you cannot be healthy, and you certainly cannot heal from injuries and pains.

Many injuries are the result of poor nutrition. If your body doesn’t get all the nutrients it needs then it cannot build strong and healthy ligaments, tendons, and bones, and your connective tissues will be loose and fragile. Your entire body will be begging for an injury, and your weakest link will crumble. You could go to the top physicians and therapists in the world and do all your exercises faithfully and still not see the results you’d like to see because you wont have the nutrients necessary to properly rebuild your body.
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
Every time you eat your body releases a hormone into your blood stream called insulin. This hormone signals your body to take in the energy from your food and store it as glycogen and fat.

If you snack all day, then your body is constantly dumping insulin into your blood stream and you are constantly storing your food energy as fat.

What does this mean? It means you gain fat! But there's another way.
Add Comment
 
 
Picture
For years I've been a big fan of drinking lots of water. I've pounded a gallon a day for almost decade. At first this was a blessing. Lots of aches and pains went away and I felt healthier.

But there were subtle problems beginning to arise from my new drinking habit.

I noticed that I wasn't digesting food as well as I used to. I was burping more and feeling bloated after many meals.

And I was running off to the bathroom at an alarming rate. Every hour I had to find a bathroom! This wasn't a big deal when I was at home, but if I was working with patients at work, out for a jog, or going out to the movies, this really started to interfere with my life. And then there was the trip to Europe! There wasn't a bathroom in sight!

Drinking lots of water can be very healthful. But how you drink it is just as important... (read more)
Add Comment