San Leandro Chiropractor

Chiropractic Care, Rib Pain and Proper Breathing

February 17, 2016 by drburt

Chiropractic Care, Rib Pain and Proper Breathing

Don’t forget to breathe people!
I know you probably like “what is he on about? I breathe, I’m walking and I’m alive” that’s not the point. The point is that everyone forgets to actively breathe more oxygen into their lungs. This is because in this day and age everyone is busier and our sedative lifestyles are becoming more prominent so we forget to breathe or we hold our breaths without noticing. So how can we achieve greater vitality?
Simple just breathe more, breathe deeply and focus on where it is going in your body.
Oxygen is vital for all the nutrients in our bodies. It is essential for the functioning and alertness of our brains, ever wonder why you’re yawning or tired? Not enough OXYGEN!
It’s also important for our nerves, glands and internal organs- these are all connected. If one fails the other will too and then a domino effect arises.
So it’s simple “BREATHE” and let it the oxygen consume you !

Anatomy of a rib cage

Care of the thorax in the chiropractic setting is adapted to the beautiful design of the chest. We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

It was designed to give protection to the vital organs, in particular the heart and lungs. However, compromise was needed to enable us to breathe.

So these organs are surrounded by a cage of bone, interspaced with small gaps filled with muscles, and some other structures, nerves and an artery. They have to rise, increasing the space in the chest, drawing fresh air into the lungs, and then drop again as we exhale.

The ribs have a bucket handle configuration, with one joint in the front, with the breastbone, and three joints at the back, with the spine, allowing the ribs to rise and fall rhythmically with breathing.

The ribcage

Rib pain treatment by chiropractors was designed around this beautiful structure. Like anything mechanical, the ribcage too needs maintenance. Both the joints at the front, the costo sternal joints, and the joints at the back, the costo spinal joints, can be injured by freak movements.

An unexpected sneeze, a bout of bronchitis and trauma such as the injury from a seatbelt in an motor vehicle accidents, or a fall on the fist as in skating; all of these can and do injure the ribcage.

Rib subluxations can be exquisitely painful. Every breath may be a nightmare. However, the treatment, correctly done is not usually particularly painful.

Breathing is an automatic bodily function. Every day we do it up to 20,000 times without a thought, but most of us don’t use the full potential of our breathing to feel energised and to keep in good health.

Poor Breathing – Poor Posture

Poor breathing is usually connected with poor posture, physical stiffness, tense shoulders, a curved spine and a rigid pelvis, all of which disturb the natural balance of the body.

Therefore, when your breathing is out of balance the diaphragm, abdomen and pelvis are also out of balance.

Poor Posture – Poor Breathing

With so many of us becoming more and more sedentary in our lifestyles, a common bad posture seen during sitting is the head forward, with rounded shoulders and a slightly caved in chest. This posture stops the rib cage opening up and makes the mid back area tight and often painful.

Important points to remember to help your breathing

• Limit the amount of time that you spend sitting
• Watch the posture of your upper back at all times
• Make sure that your abdominal muscles are fairly strong and have good tone.
• The most efficient way to breathe is by pushing through the abdomen, or the diaphragm, as gravity dictates, to encourage the air to go to the bottom of the lungs where the best blood supply is and oxygen exchange will occur most efficiently.
• Only through abdominal breathing can we access this deep breathing.

If you follow these points and breathe in this way, the diaphragm can move up and down efficiently, hence massaging the internal organs below and ensuring that there is good blood circulation.

Rib pain treatment

Rib pain treatment is usually straightforward unless associated with trauma or costochondritis.

Your chiropractor will likely use one of a number of loosening up techniques prior to manipulation. This could be massage, or a vibrator, or stretching, or a mobilising technique. D not mistake radiating rib pain for a heart attack – read more here

Nervous System, Chiropractic and Innate Intelligence

February 10, 2016 by drburt

Nervous System, Chiropractic and Innate Intelligence

This is a picture of a person’s entire nervous system (with the exception of the nerve endings in the skin). As far as I am concerned, this is what ‘someone’ looks like in their distilled essence. This mass of neurons was once sentient. It produced the mind and housed the intellect of the person it belonged to. It processed the information coming in through the senses and painted of a picture of the world the person found themselves in. It controlled various bodily processes. I steered the body through the obstacles of life. It once had dreams and ambitious. It learned how to interact with other nervous systems. It encoded the information it found relevant into long term memory. It enjoyed the pleasures of life and it had original ideas. It mourned the loss of others and experienced the sensation of physical pain. At times it became depressed/stressed/anxious/content/relaxed/afraid/empathetic/concerned. It fell in love and procreated with others. It had invested interest in the pursuit for knowledge. It knew that it would not last forever so it at one point in its life it decided to donate itself, once expired, for scientific research. This photo wouldn’t exist if the mind this nervous system once generated didn’t have a sense of intellectual altruism for everyone else it left behind. Whomever this nervous system once belonged to, you are appreciated.

Functions of the Nervous System
The nervous system has 3 main functions: sensory, integration, and motor.

Sensory. The sensory function of the nervous system involves collecting information from sensory receptors that monitor the body’s internal and external conditions. These signals are then passed on to the central nervous system (CNS) for further processing by afferent neurons (and nerves).
Integration. The process of integration is the processing of the many sensory signals that are passed into the CNS at any given time. These signals are evaluated, compared, used for decision making, discarded or committed to memory as deemed appropriate. Integration takes place in the gray matter of the brain and spinal cord and is performed by interneurons. Many interneurons work together to form complex networks that provide this processing power.
Motor. Once the networks of interneurons in the CNS evaluate sensory information and decide on an action, they stimulate efferent neurons. Efferent neurons (also called motor neurons) carry signals from the gray matter of the CNS through the nerves of the peripheral nervous system to effector cells. The effector may be smooth, cardiac, or skeletal muscle tissue or glandular tissue. The effector then releases a hormone or moves a part of the body to respond to the stimulus.

via GIPHY

Avocado Seeds and Health Benefits for a Human Body

February 3, 2016 by drburt

Avocado Seeds and Health Benefits for a Human Body

Everyone knows about Avocados and and many delicious dishes one can prepared. But did you know that Avocado Seeds are full of great health benefits. When crashed in a food processor the mixture can be added to morning smoothies as well as delicious fruit snack.

Avocado Seeds have more antioxidants than most fruits and vegetables on the market and polyphenols like green tea. They are full of more soluble fiber than just about any other food which is great for your digestive system.

In fact Avocado Seed has 70% of the antioxidants found in the whole Avocado, and Avocado Seed Oil is also full of antioxidants, lowers cholesterol, and helps fight off disease and keep cardiovascular system strong, lowers cholesterol and prevents strokes. Studies show that Avocado Seed has more soluble fiber than oatmeal and just about any other food.

Avocado Seed is a great for anti inflammatory properties of the GI tract and helps to fight diarrhea too! In fact in South America Avocado Seeds are used for dysentery and other GI tract problems. Avocado Seeds has lots of phenolic compounds that help to prevent gastric ulcers, and prevent bacterial and viral diseases.

Avocado Seed contains a flavonol that prevents tumor growth. Studies with rats with cancer given Avocado Seed powder looks promising.

Avocado Seeds boost your immune system and keep you from coming down with debilitating diseases. Keeping your immune system high, because antioxidants keep free radicals at bay… and slows the aging process. Avocado Seeds seems to have a good anti-inflammatory ability and thus helps with arthritis and other joint diseases.

Avocado Seed Oil has been shown in studies to increase collagen in your skin thus helping to keep your skin looking young and wrinkle free and will make your hair shinny and help get rid of dry dead skin.

Avocado Seed Extract studies show that it lowers blood glucose and helps you lose weight. Avocado Seed grated, roast, and made into a tea is really great for asthma.

Avocado Seed Green Goddess Smoothie

1 cup nut milk or water
1 ripe pear
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
½ Hass avocado
½ Hass avocado seed
Small piece ginger grated
½ apple

Blend well and enjoy!

So, the next time you cut in the fleshy, nutrient-packed goodness of an avocado, don’t be so quick to throw the seed away.

Pelvic Tilt, Neck Pain and Low Back Pain Symptoms

January 27, 2016 by drburt

Pelvic Tilt, Neck Pain and Low Back Pain Symptoms

Balance is the key of life the Chinese called it Yin and Yang. The human body is always seeking homeostasis and when out of balance disease and pain will consume you. It is only until balance is restored the body can heal properly. Human structure needs to be balanced from all 3 planes. In static posture and also in movement. Obviously we are asymmetrical beings and perfect alignment will never exist, but we must strive to be as close as possible or problems will exist later on down the road as we age. Also spine is a gravity depending structure. When sacrum and pelvis are off the rest of the spine will be off. Fix the foundation and the rest of the symptoms will disappear.
In the picture above we are looking at the balance of the pelvis from the front and back specifically the relationship between the quads and hams. In the first picture we have a neutral pelvis where the quads and hams are well balanced. In the second picture the pelvis is imbalanced due to the shortening of the quads which led to the lengthening of the hamstring. In technical terms the quads are concentrically loaded and the hams are eccentrically loaded causing an anterior pelvic tilt. Now that the pelvis is imbalanced symptoms of tight hamstring, lower back pain, upper back pain, tight traps, neck pain, headaches etc… will emerge. Until we balance the pelvis symptoms will continually plague the individual.

Our spine has three curves in it: One in the low back called the lumbar curve; one in the upper to mid-back called the thoracic curve; and a curve in our neck called the cervical curve. These curves influence one another. If something is off balance in one, the other two will also be out of balance.Since the spine rests on the pelvis, the curves of the spine are also influenced by the position of the pelvis.

Key to skeletal balance, a sense of orientation and muscular coordination, the balanced pelvis forms a rim-like base for the spinal vertebrae, rib cage, shoulder girdle and head.

Like the sprout growing up to form leaves and down to become roots; pelvic core integrity expresses itself in two directions simultaneously. The pelvic basin is responsible for not only being the base of support for the upper body but for transferring weight through the femur heads down through the knees, ankles and feet. How weight transfers through each leg and foot is dependent upon the positioning of the pelvic basin. Only when the pelvis is gravitationally centred can the feet receive and distribute weight evenly.

Pelvic instability shows itself as pelvic tilts, forward flexion, twists, dips or torques. Symptoms associated with instability include mid and low back pain, hip socket tension, leg length discrepancies, knee and ankle problems, TMJ and jaw pain, difficulty in breathing, groin pain, shoulder pain, difficulty in standing and walking, an inability to stand on both feet and excessive muscle tension throughout the body. Even headaches and dizziness may be traced to pelvic instability.

These diverse and complex symptoms reflect the innate involvement of the pelvis with three distinct bio-rhythms. Not only does the pelvic keystone provide the foundation for muscular-skeletal support but it cradles the meningeal-cranial-sacral system (the dynamic fluid relationship between sacrum and cranium) and provides the hard drive for the proprioceptive nervous system (our energetic sense of orientation).