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Heavy Metal Band Metallica Gets Chiropractic Care

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METALLICAI have come across a very interesting article in “The American Chiropractor” written by Dr. Don Oyao, who is a chiropractor from Australia.  He is a six –time Official Olympic Team Doctor in Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Lillihammer 1994, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008. He now works as Metallica’s touring band chiropractor and one of their biggest fans.

Dr. Oyao compares Rock Stars to Athletes. He stated that both Rock Stars and Athletes require tremendous amount of energy in a short period of time. In order to achieve this amount of energy, an uninterrupted flow of nervous system and balanced musculoskeletal system is required. He has been providing chiropractic care to four members of Metallica’s band for the past nine years, which equals to more than one thousands tour concerts. James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammet are all get deep tissue work done, chiropractic adjustments and simple rub downs between the songs. Their aging bodies require constant care for a demanding performance on a stage in front of many thousand of fans. By the way I am one of them and my favorite is “Master of Puppets” – still get an adrenaline rush when I listen to it.

It is amazing to see that Metallica’s members places priority on their healthy habits. Each band member must individually maintain cardio-vascular endurance, and exercise and stretching regime as well as balanced diet and nutrition. Players must be at peak performance physically and mentally at all times, due to intense tour schedule and high energy performance on the stage. Robert Trujillo requires attention to his guitar-strumming arm and its speed-demon finger, even between songs backstage.

Dr. Oyao says that Metallica brings a harmony to their fans as the band roams the jungle of a world filled with chaos and insanity. Helping Metallica bring their music to the world has been his own rock and roll dream come true. For him it has been a privilege to work and tour around the world living in the mad, mad world of Metallica.

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Plantar Fasciitis and Chiropractic Care

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PLANTAR FASCIITISPlantar fasciitis is a condition that refers to a lingering pain on the bottom of the foot. It is a condition that normally does not respond well to traditional methods of treatment. This condition causes muscular dysfunction and pain that can cause serious drop in a patient’s movement especially with their physical activities.

There are many ways for a person to suffer from plantar fasciitis such as over pronation, walking with a flat foot, developing tight Achilles tendon, sudden increase in mileage when running and a high arched foot all adding for to a cause this condition. A patient who suffers from plantar fasciitis normally complains about experiencing pain localized at the bottom of their foot deploying to the inside of the heel. In a typical injury a pain from plantar fasciitis will make for a patient very difficult to place the weight on the foot due to the intense throbbing pain. Walking a few steps in the morning proves to be painful as well as doing other physical activities like running and jumping.

What Causes Plantar Fasciitis?

  1. Too much standing
  2. Unpadded shoes on hard ground
  3. Poor shoes
  4. Repetitive stress
  5. Diets low in vitamin C
  6. A change or increase in activities
  7. Being overweight
  8. An injury.

Affected Muscles

The plantar fascia is a band of fibers which runs from the heel bone to the base of the toes. Plantar Fascitis occurs when these tissues are irritated and inflamed. Bone spurs often form on the heel if this condition is not correctly treated.

Biomechanical or training flaws such as over-pronation, flat feet, a tight Achilles tendon, a high-arched foot, or a sudden increase in training mileage often cause plantar fascitis.

The actual plantar fascia is not the common cause of pain on the bottom of the foot. The Plantar Aponeurosis, a long tendon in the bottom of your foot, is often involved. Two muscles, the Quadratus plantae and the Flexor digitorum brevis, frequently contribute to the problem.

Long distance walking, running cycling, or just standing can overwork these muscles. As they are chronically over-worked, they start to shorten. When a muscle shortens, it is less resilient and is more easily damaged. As the Plantar aponeurosis and the muscles shorten, they produce pain in the bottom of the foot.

With the lack of success in traditional healing, chiropractic care has become one of the leading choice of treatment for patients suffering from this condition. Plantar fasciitis and chiropractic care go hand in hand with the administering of Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.), this method of chiropractic allows therapy to target the soft tissues in the feet. Its aim is to make the different parts of the foot and ankle to move through a typical full range and keep the stress located on the plantar fascia to a minimum.

Chiropractic care treatment done by a chiropractic practitioner often gets the job done in limiting the pain caused by plantar fasciitis. It helps bring the treatment into the root of the problem by getting rid of restrictions along the joints, muscles and other parts of the foot. The chiropractor will also help increase the work and movement range flexibility of the calf muscles by using special treatment protocols that help correct other functional risk factors such as tightness and weakening of the intrinsic muscles of the foot.

If a patient sees a chiropractor earlier than most, the more chances they will have in preventing further injury and the higher chances they will have at a full recovery. A successful chiropractic treatment will also avoid any further reoccurrences of plantar fasciitis.

Chiropractic helps in treating individuals with plantar fasciitis and coupled with the right kind of lifestyle that involves exercising regularly and a proper diet and nutrition it is not fat fetched that the therapy and chiropractic healing methods will do the trick. Manipulation, stretching, soft tissue work, ultrasound and home exercises are just some of the chiropractic therapies administered for patients suffering with this condition.

Do not risk your feet and your ability to gain strength and perform physical activities. Consult a doctor of chiropractic at the onset of feeling pain under your feet, as it might be the initial stage of a plantar fasciitis and let the wonders of chiropractic treatment help you achieve great health and body condition that is always in tip top shape.

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Fibromyalgia and Chiropractic Care

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FIBROMYALGIAFibromyalgia is a disabling and epidemic myofascial condition. The patient afflicted with this normally complains about feeling pain all over his/her body, feels tired all the time, depressed and sleeps poorly.  People suffering from this condition often find it difficult to achiev a lasting cure from medical doctors and have tried different kinds of therapy with a few success stories.

Researches have shown that Fibromyalgia affects the central nervous system causing abnormalities in the chemical compounds of people that are needed to transmit nerve impulses. FM wasn’t recognized by the American Medical Association until they started to diagnose it officially in 1987, although healers have been reporting it and treating its symptoms as early as 16th century. Today, because there are not specific treatment procedures and tests to determine if an individual has contracted fibromyalgia, conventional medical doctors are still denying its existence and are merely attributing its symptoms as a result of psychological and emotional causes.

However, Chiropractic care has been proven the past few years to have played a significant role in treating people with this condition. Fibromyalgia patients respond better to chiropractic therapy via spinal adjustments and nutritional support. Fibromyalgia and chiropractic care has gone hand in hand in the treatment of individuals for more than a decade now.

Chiropractic, since its main purpose is to prove the theory of how the central nervous system balances and controls the over-all health of an individual serves as an ideal treatment method for those suffering from this debilitating condition.

Fibromyalgia often goes unnoticed and undiagnosed by medical doctors and sometimes it takes as long as five years before an individual suffering from it becomes aware of the fact of the existence of this condition. A good chiropractic will diagnose this condition through good communication with the patient. The holistic approach of a chiropractic helps greatly in easing the way for the diagnosis this painful disease.

After diagnosis, the chiropractor will then make the necessary adjustments to the entire spine. Spinal manipulations are also done using the hands, which consists of sharp, short thrusts that always produces a popping sound, which is caused by nitrogen gas release from a vertebral joint capsule. The aim for these adjustments to the spine is to correct a subluxation that has occurred in the spine. Once the patient’s spine is properly aligned, the pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia will be greatly reduced together with the other difficulties such as fatigue, weakness and difficulty in sleeping.

Herbal and homeopathic treatments are also encouraged by the chiropractors to their patients, coupled with a change in lifestyle, sleep habits and engaging in a healthy diet. Individuals afflicted with fibromyalgia will feel better in no time.

In reality, there is still no definite cure for those suffering from this painful condition, but with the help of chiropractics, patients suffering from it have reported a sharp decrease in symptoms and have improved their quality of life. Chiropractic is definitely helping people with fibromyalgia enjoy life to the fullest by almost eradicating its numerous symptoms.

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High Blood Pressure and Chiropractic Care

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High Blood Pressure and Chiropractic CareI recently had a new patient referral to my San Leandro Chiropractic Clinic from my old patient. This particular case is worth sharing with the world. It proves in theory and in practice one more time that chiropractic care is beneficial for patients who have unstable blood pressure. I believe that this patient is also suffering from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo as well.  Symptoms include extreme dizziness when bringing the head forward or laying face down.

This patient is a fifty years plus young female who had worked for a software company for about nine years. Her daily job duties required prolonged sitting hours in front of the computer, sometimes between ten to twelve hours a day. It is a scientific fact that the worse position for a spine is in a sitting position. There is an increased load on a supporting soft tissue of the lumbar spine. As a result the entire spine is being affected by this biomechanical imbalance, which leads to many physiological changes in the way body is being controlled and regulated by our nervous system.

This patient has been treated by workers compensation insurance for her wrist injuries for a very prolonged period of time. That is also a very common problem for people who have to use excessive keyboard entry every day. Our hands just not design to do this type of work.  Perhaps thousand years from now our wrists will be able to adopt and people will have less wrist injuries. It appears that computers do not go anywhere any time soon.

During examination I found out that this lady has seen five different specialists who were not able to resolve her problem. Medical Doctor prescribed blood pressure pills, neurologist prescribed vertigo pills and referred patient to an ENT (Ear Nose Throat) specialist, acupuncture had no benefit at all for this particular case, and several sessions of physical therapy were unsuccessful. Her X-RAY report revealed severe osteoarthritis in C5-C6 vertebral levels. MRI of the blood vessels and brain was negative for  any pathology whatsoever. That MRI report was a big help as it ruled out the cardiovascular involvement as a cause of high blood pressure. During farther examination of the spine I have found out that her C1 vertebral level on a right side was tenders to palpation and was subluxated or misaligned. Many would wonder what does a misaligned vertebral bone have to do with a blood pressure ?  To your surprise the answer is very simple. Vagus nerve which is a cranial nerve X continues its path from a brainstem down to a spianal cord and all the way to a sacral plexus via Atlas or C1 vertebral foramena (opening).  When C1 or Atlas vertebral body is subluxated or misaligned it might compress the Vagus nerve which will be the cause of unstable Blood Pressure and many other symptoms if not taken care on time.

The vagus nerve and the heart from Wikipedia:

Fibres of the vagus nerve (right/bottom of image) innervate the sinoatrial node tissue (central and left of image). H&E stain.

Parasympathetic innervation of the heart is controlled by the vagus nerve. Specifically, the vagus nerve acts to lower the heart rate. The right vagus innervates the sinoatrial node. Parasympathetic hyperstimulation predisposes those affected to bradyarrhythmias. The left vagus when hyperstimulated predisposes the heart to atrioventricular (AV) blocks.

At this location neuroscientist Otto Loewi first proved that nerves secrete substances called neurotransmitters which have effects on receptors in target tissues. Loewi described the substance released by the vagus nerve as vagusstoff, which was later found to be acetylcholine. Drugs that inhibit the muscarinic cholinergic receptor (anticholinergics) such as atropine and scopolamine are called vagolytic because they inhibit the action of the vagus nerve on the heart, gastrointestinal tract and other organs. Anticholinergic drugs increase heart rate and are used to treat bradycardia (slow heart rate) and asystole, which is when the heart has no electrical activity.

That day I have adjusted patient’s C1 vertebrae on a right side, thoracic and lumbar vertebral levels. She also received some physicals  therapy modalities as well as light massage therapy from my CMT. I have informed the patient that it might take several hours for the therapy to take effect. This session was on Friday and I have asked  the patient to email me over the weekend regarding the results. On Sunday this lady stated in her email that her blood pressure has normalized and was very stable after Friday’s session. This particular case of high blood pressure was caused by neurological imbalance and had great result with chiropractic care.  There many other causes of high blood pressure: genetic predisposition, lack of exercises, overweight, poor diet. and stress. If you would like to know how to lower your blood pressure naturally without drugs please read this “The High Blood Pressure Remedy Report.”  (affiliate link)

My patient has also mentioned that her Vertigo has improved a little but it is still there. In my opinion the cause of the vertigo is in her middle ear and Cranial Nerve VIII.  Also the entire right side of her skull around cranial sutures is very painful to touch. I will do farther investigation and will provide the results in one of my blog posts.

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