Top Chiropractor in San Leandro, CA

San Leandro Chiropractor

Backpacks, Children, Nook, Kindle and Bad Posture

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BACKPACKI wrote a post in September of 2010 – “Backpack Safety – Back To School and 14 Helpful Tips.” Millions of kids wear heavy backpacks that affect their posture, which results in interfering with a proper functioning of nervous system and thus leads to sick days and unnecessary pain. A post about “Relationship of Nervous System and Spine to Organs”, will provide you a better understanding of what I am talking about. A developing young organism must be free of any obstacles for proper development. It is even more true for young girls. These individuals are the future of this society. With advancing technology our future generation can save their posture by carrying all of their heavy load of books on an electronic book reader. I am talking about iPad, Kindle, Nook and probably some other electronic gadgets that are available on the market today.

These devices are not as expensive as they used to be. It is a very minor investment in the future of your kids. My boy is turning four next month and pretty soon he is going to go to school. Currently he is practicing on my iPhone to play with different apps.  Some of my patients are principles at schools and I have talked to them  about this issue. With budget cuts in every State in the United States and over 26 billion dollars deficit for 2011 in a State of California alone it is not an easy task to accomplish. Education budget cuts are growing every year and with bureaucratic system that the State make the transfer to electronic book reader is a distant possibility.

What is the solution to this problem? I think parents must take action in their own hands and provide their kids with these light readers that weight less than a pound versus full back pack of books which can weight up to 15 pounds and sometimes even more. The solution is easy the implementation is not. Below are comparison videos of the Nook from Barnes & Nobles and Kindle from Amazon that your child can use in school.

Getting the books you buy onto as many readers as possible is a matter of great interest to educators. Right now, there are basically three ways to leverage e-books to increase distribution of titles in schools.

When Amazon came out with the Kindle, the company realized that book-buyers would want to be able to load their purchases onto more than one reading device. So the company made it possible for customers to load their purchases onto as many as six devices, in most case, if the devices were registered to the same account. As schools began to implement ereader programs, educators saw the benefit of this policy: if a school purchases six or more Kindle, every book they buy can be distributed to six devices, effectively cutting the cost of an already lower-priced e-book by a factor of six. It is like buying six copies for the price of one. And with a little extra management, this “sharing” of books among devices registered to the same account has worked well. Here is how it works for two major booksellers:

Amazon Kindle: You can download up to six copies of each book to different platforms.

Nook/Nook Color: You can download each book within devices on an account, limit six.

I think parents should take advantage of this program and send their kids to school with Kindle or Nook, pen and notepad. Make a change now before it is too late. Currently there several models available on the market: Kindle 3, Kindle DX,  Nook Black & White, and Nook Color.

Posture Correction and Chiropractic Care – Video Testimonial

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POSTURE CORRECTION

This is a story about twenty eight year young gentleman who found me via my blog post “96 Tips for a Perfect Posture.” His search terms on Google were something like correcting posture with surgical procedure. I do not know how but my post showed up in search results. Sean called me the same day and had a long conversation with me on the phone. He was not sure what Chiropractic care could do for him. All he was telling me that he was really concerned about his posture and it was really affecting his life. I offered Sean to stop by my clinic and perform a complete examination and postural evaluation.

This young man was really taking his postural disturbances very seriously. He was ready to have a surgery so he could have a better stance. He mentioned to me during the exam that he was very conscious this problem. He mentioned that when he was walking on the street many people would make fun of him. We are talking about six foot three inches athlete looking individual who was about to go under the knife. I had a very long talk with Sean and I was trying to assure him that with Chiropractic Care he would have a better and faster chance of changing his posture and lifestyle. Sean is self employed and works from home on his computer. This job requires many hours of prolonged sitting which is not so good for the spine. This gentleman is also very athletic. He goes to the GYM 4 times a week. During examination I have noticed that his upper back was over built, meaning that Sean was exercising that part of the body the most. His lower back and abdominal musculature were not developed at all comparing to the rest of the body. Those two major musculature groups were causing some serious postural problems.  I have advised Sean to stop exercising upper back muscles and concentrate on lower back and abdominal musculature instead at this point and time. His neck had a forward tilt which caused him a lot of pain and discomfort.

We have set out our goal for six sessions of electrical stimulation, heat and cold laser, followed up with full spine chiropractic adjustment and massage therapy. Sean had agreed to photo shoot his torso after each session, which you will be able to see at the end of the video provided below. It was very kind of him – Thank you Sean. Each Chiropractic Session we have noticed a minor improvement. When we were done with session number six I have noticed that Sean was smiling and he informed me that he was not conscious about his posture anymore. His neck pain has disappeared and he was able to sleep much better at night. Overall both of us were happy with an outcome of his care. Below is his video testimonial.

Sean’s Testimonial

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Healthy Neck and Ergonomic Office Chair for a Professional

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bad postureMillions of people all over the word wonder how to eliminate their neck problems. Many people ignore the basic principle of a good posture, thus inviting stiff cervical spine pain which slows down productivity and degrades the quality of life. Individual won’t even realize how often he or she will be slouching during a day or sitting wrong. For those of you where living depends on sitting for prolonged hours in front of the computer, chronic neck pain due to strain and overuse of  muscles is inevitable. It is important to catch yourself slouching and prevent doing it in the future. If you find yourself in the situation where pain during working hours in front of the computer becomes a daily occurrence, stretches and exercises for your neck is a must. Additional exercises such as Isometric Neck Exercise would be a great addition to keep your spine healthy.

Another great way to keep your neck healthy is by using an ergonomic desk chair. An ergonomic desk chair should help increase back and neck support to help improve posture and prevent slouching. Employees frequently experience back pain because they sit in their chairs for long periods of time. This increases stress in the spine, neck, arms, shoulders, and legs as well as in various muscles. A chair that isn’t ergonomically friendly can also aggravate existing conditions. READ MORE…

If you get to the point that exercises and stretches do not help to coop with pain and work productivity it is time to visit a health care professional who specializes in soft tissue rehabilitation. Local Chiropractor, Acupuncturist, Physical Therapy and CMT comes to mind.

Pain is a warning sign that there is something wrong with your neck or other body part that is hurting. Ignoring the warning signs can be the cause of the osteoarthritis in your vertebral joints. Osteoarthritis is irreversible condition that will only get worse when a person ages. Overuse of neck muscles can aggravate neck arthritis, take ample rest. Check these simple but a very helpful charts – Helpful Hints For a Healthy Neck and Exercises For Cervical Strain.

Question: if you have any additional tips and advices please feel free to leave them in our comment section.

The First Scoliosis Coil in the Country – East Bay Upright MRI

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The First Scolisos Coil - East Bay MRI
East Bay MRI - Hayward, CA

East Bay Upright MRI has acquired a coil that take a full image of the entire upright spine – it takes only eight minutes to complete this process. This radiation free evaluation can also monitor the success of treatment provided by a Doctor. The only way that evaluation of scoliosis can be accurate is when the patient is in upright position. Conventional, recumbent MRI machines can not deliver necessary results. This radiation-free application can be performed in the same amount of time and at the same cost as diagnosis and monitoring by X-RAY. Coil MRI sees curvature of  the vertebrae and the soft tissue as well. There are sagital and axial views of the entire spine – with no radiation exposure whatsoever. The 3 plane visualizations are achieved by 3D acquisition with curved multi planar reconstruction. Both Cobb angles and angular rotation of the vertebrae are measured, including the spinal cord, intervertebral discs, nerve roots and spinal ligaments. The National Cancer Institute reported a study in 2000 of 5466 women that demonstrated with scoliosis experienced a 70% greater risk of developing breast cancer that resulted from their protracted exposure to diagnostic X-RAY.

This is what a practicing neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph Afertzon, M.D. has to say about this technology: “This technology offers unique advantages in scoliosis imaging. It can show dynamic properties of the scoliotic curve in lateral bending. It is also becoming a unique tool in screening and following pediatric patients with scoliosis. It offers precise three dimensional data preferable to regular x-ray and saves our young patients from significant radiation exposure caused by numerous follow-up X-RAYS.”

Multi positional Technology MRI benefits

  1. Patients are scanned upright in weight-bearing positions, in positions of pain or other symptom, and positions of flexion, extension, lateral bending and rotation. This is made possible by the upright MRU’s unique configuration that includes a spacious vertical gap.
  2. A seat can be attached to the bed so patients can be scanned in an upright seated position.
  3. The bed rotates from upright to horizontal so patients can also be scanned recumbent.
  4. Recumbent-only MRI can underestimate the maximum degree of the pathology and miss its dynamics nature
  5. Large patients can be scanned. The is rated for up to 500 pounds
  6. Patients that can not lie down can be scanned, such a patient wit severe kyphosis.
  7. There is unparallel patient comfort because there is nothing in front of the patient’s face except for a 42-inch flat-screen television

Question: What is your opinion about Upright MRI? Please leave your feedback in a comment section.