, ,

My Journey into IMS/Dry Needling | Part III

I index2recently completed my series of IMS/Dry Needling treatments and am moving forward in my life; now being a true “believer” of this therapy.

What I take away from my journey into IMS/Dry Needling is that this procedure is not for everyone.  I would absolutely encourage any one to come in shortly after an injury or accident.  If your injury or pain is of recent origin, one treatment may be all that is necessary. The average person responds very well within 3 to 5 treatments.

For patients like me, having a life time of unhealthy habits…. this is a process that is more mental than physical.

IMS/Dry needling therapy has been very successful for me with chronic low back pain and sciatica symptoms.  Needles were used to target specific muscles that had contracted and become shortened over years of a sedentary life style. These shortened muscles compress and irritate the nerves, and cause at times debilitating pain.  My IMS/Dry Needling treatments greatly reduce tightness and pain, while increasing my flexibility and range of motion.  The speed at which you regain movement and eliminate the pain is nothing short of a miracle.

An important note is needling on a normal muscle is painless. In contrast a shortened, muscle will ‘grasp’ the needle and produces a  cramping sensation, and in some instances pain; although this sensation lasts only a few seconds.  Intramuscular dry needling can reduce pain and soften these trigger points, while increasing flexibility and range of motion.

Myofascial pain is a chronic musculoskeletal pain disorder that can involve either a single muscle or a muscle group. It refers to pain and inflammation the body’s soft tissues.  The pain associated with this condition can range from burning, stabbing, or an aching sensations.   With myofascial pain , excessive strain on a particular muscle, muscle group, ligament or tendon can prompt the development of a “trigger point” and that, in turn, causes pain.

The Pros for considering IMS/dry needling:  No down time  |  No side affects  | Immediate results

The Cons for considering IMS/dry needling:  This treatment can be painful   |  “Mentally” tiring if ongoing treatment is required

My official opinion on IMS/dry needling is that it works; and this procedure has helped me regain my mobility and eliminate my pain.  It is a powerful therapy and the number of treatments required depends on 5 factors:

  1. your general health
  2. the duration and extent of your condition
  3. how much scar tissue you have
  4. how quickly your body can heal
  5. how much your body can take before you get tired

For more information about IMS/dry needling please contact Diversified Health Clinic.

*My Journey into IMS/Dry Needling | Part I

*My Journey into IMS/Dry Needling | Part II

 

/by

How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?

How Much Alcohol Is Too Much?Drinking too much alcohol increases the risk of health related problems including injuries and liver disease.  As alcohol consumption goes up, so does the risk of cancer of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, liver and breast, according to the National Cancer Institute.  When it comes to alcohol and health, less really is more to stay healthy.

Recent studies show that moderate use of alcohol may have a beneficial effect by raising the good cholesterol and blood protein levels, thus lowering the risk of coronary heart disease. In general, for healthy people, one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men is considered the maximum amount of alcohol consumption to be considered “health safe”.

Always be aware of the alcohol content of your drinks.  A “drink” is considered to be four or five ounces of wine, or twelve ounces of beer, or one and a quarter ounces of distilled liquor, such as vodka, scotch, or rum.

“According to the guidelines developed by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and endorsed by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, you can minimize your risk by having no more than two drinks a day with a weekly maximum of nine drinks for women or fourteen for men.”

Alcohol consumption tips:

Before taking your first sip, make sure that you have eaten, and that you are not drinking on an empty stomach.  A healthy meal before you go out, and snacks between drinks can help to slow down the absorption of alcohol and will reduce high alcohol levels and the sensation of intoxication.

If you decide to drink more than the recommended amount, try sipping water or a non-alcoholic beverage, which will keep you hydrated, give your liver a chance to process the alcohol and will ensure that you drink less alcohol. With moderate drinking, the liver can process alcohol fairly safely, however, heavy drinking overtaxes the liver resulting in serious consequences.

Whether you abstain from alcohol , or sip your glass of wine with dinner, be aware of the risk and benefits alcohol has on your health.

/1 Comment/by

Finally! Relief for Facial Pain

Finally! Relief for Facial Pain (Trigeminal Neuralgia)
By Rebecca Hanson

trigeminal_neuralgia.11114821_stdSusan was lying on the sofa with an ice pack against her cheek. Months of excruciating pain from ear to nose, hairline to chin delivered in sudden and often-continuous electric-shock-like jolts had defeated her. None of the medications her doctor had prescribed had helped her pain and surgery was too expensive and risky.

After talking with her chiropractor, she learned about a new pain treatment: Cold-laser for facial nerve pain (trigeminal neuralgia). From her first treatment Susan felt relief and within a dozen treatments she had complete relief.  Susan had her life back.

The trigeminal nerve originates at the base of the brain and has three branches that spread across the face. One branch of the nerve runs along the jaw line and is often affected by infected teeth. However, the infected culprit may not show up on dental imaging until months after the onset of pain. Migraine-like pain around the eye can be produced by the nerve-branch that runs from behind the ear up the temple, over the eyebrow to the mid-section of the forehead. And the third branch of this tree of pain creates a blaze of pain across the cheekbone. Sometimes only one branch will be affected and at other times all three.

Before considering brain surgery, most trigeminal pain patients go through the gamut of medications that are supposed to stop the pain. The common theory is that too much electrical stimulation or seizure-like activity is the cause of trigeminal pain. Most physicians offer the usual anti-seizure medications: carbamazepine (Tegretol) and pregabalin(Lyrica). These drugs often come with crippling side effects such as, blurred vision, loss of coordination, dizziness, drowsiness, severe memory loss, feeling like a “zombie”, etc. and in most cases are still not effective in relieving the pain.

There is hope

But there is one treatment that seems to have escaped the notice of mainstream medicine, a treatment that has brought relief to thousands of individuals if they find out about it. Cold-laser treatment—also known as low-level laser treatment—has been used since the 1970’s. It has no side effects. The laser beam only penetrates the first few millimeters of your skin to stimulate the nerves. Cold-laser reduces inflammation, increases circulation, and stimulates the production of stem cells resulting in regeneration of the myelin sheath around that nerve.[1]

Dr. Krisjan Gustavson, a long-time chiropractor at Diversified Health Clinic in Victoria, BC, Canada, has used cold-laser to treat between 600-700 patients with facial pain including trigeminal nerve pain. He estimates that at least 70% were helped and the average number of treatments was eight. (These are typical results, however, a patient may require more treatments to be pain-free). He has found that some patients remain pain-free for the rest of their lives and only 15-20% will suffer from reoccurring episodes of pain. Rarely, someone suffers chronically from trigeminal nerve pain, and those patients will require ongoing treatments as needed.

Cold-laser has proven to be more effective than the anti-convulsion drugs, is completely non-invasive as opposed to brain surgery and has no unhappy side effects.

If you or a loved one has trigeminal neuralgia then know that there is relief. Consider cold-laser treatment—it could change your life.

[1]  http://www.lasermedcenter.com/treatment-of-trigeminal-neuralgia.php

About the author:  Rebecca Hanson is a content writer, ghostwriter and co-author living in Victoria, BC, Canada.  Her website is ghostwriteratthesea.com

/1 Comment/by
,

How To Decide Whether To Buy a Supplement

Written By: Joe Pawlikowski

Mixed messages run amok in the fitness world. Some experts say one thing, while others flatly say the opposite. Oftentimes experts argue directly with one another, yet rarely do they come to a definitive conclusion. Making matters more complicated, it’s easy for both sides to find evidence for their claims. Typically you can find a study that argues from nearly every angle.

(Seriously, just go to PubMed and dig around a little bit. You’ll find a study supporting nearly anything you want to say.)

Perhaps no aspect of fitness involves as much contentiousness as supplements. If you pick up a typical fitness magazine, you might think them essential to training. If you read a natural training forum, you might think them poisons at best, immoral implements at worst. There are arguments from one extreme to the other, but as in most cases the truth lies in the middle.

People constantly ask me whether they should try this supplement or that. Here is the advice I dispense to them.Some experts say one thing, while others flatly say the opposite.

Can you afford it?

The No. 1, unbreakable rule with supplements is that you must not break the bank to buy them. Going into debt just to purchase a fitness supplement is the height of absurdity. It might indeed enhance your workout and bring you closer to your goals more rapidly, but is that really worth the agony of debt?

Remember, when you go into debt you pay far more for the items you purchase. Perhaps you’re buying a $40 bottle of creatine, but if you buy it on credit and don’t pay it off immediately, that $40 turns into $45, turns into $50, and so on. Going into debt is generally a bad idea, but when it comes to supplements — and that is a loaded, heavy word for a reason — going into debt makes less than zero sense.

Going even further, I’d submit that unless you are completely flush with disposable income, you should eschew supplements. There are just better ways to spend your money. Don’t know if you’re totally flush? Start using an accounting program such as QuickBooks from Intuit. For starters, it’s a far better investment than supplements. It will also let you know when you have sufficient disposable income to start spending on supplements.

If you don’t have sufficient disposable income, you can stop reading right now. The answer is no, you almost certainly should not buy supplements other than maybe protein powder.

Is the brand reputable?

The first criteria is quite easy. As explained, it’s rather easy to determine whether you can afford to start purchasing workout supplements. If you’re unsure, chances are the answer is no. But once you determine that you can afford then, you start to get into some murky waters. The first pond you’ll encounter is that of brand. Is the brand of supplement you want to try reputable?

There are many ways to determine this, though it requires thorough research. You’ll need to start reading up on the supplement maker, both through user reviews of the supplement and through third-party, non-sponsored forums. I’m a big fan of using Bodybuilding.com for this purpose, since it has user reviews (hosted not on BB’s main site) and forums. They’re not the only one I check, but it’s a good starting point.

Beware, though: there are forums that deal with some shady supplements. Some of them sell their own lines of supplements, going so far as to commission studies that demonstrate their effectiveness. Of course, when you commission a study chances are it will turn out in your favor. It can be difficult to cut through this gray area, but the more vigilant you are in your research the more clearly you will understand which brands are reputable and which brands are selling you snake oil.

Prepare to waste money

Even reputable brands put out ineffective products from time to time. Sometimes that’s because they cut corners. Other times it means that while the supplement might work for some people, it is ineffective for others. The net result is that you are bound to buy a supplement at some point or another that does nothing for you. It is, unfortunately, the cost of doing business.

This is another reason why having sufficient disposable income is absolutely necessary if you want to start buying supplements. Some day, perhaps the very first time you experiment, you will buy a tub of something that has absolutely no effect on you. It will cause massive frustration, to have flushed $50 down the drain. But you’ll never know until you try.

Experiment in moderation

To repeat the point above, buying supplements is all about experimentation. You have to try many different things to see what works for you. The key to success is moderation. If you go all out and try six different supplements at once, you might not know which ones are taking effect. You won’t know what is interacting with what. Worst of all, you don’t know what ill effects you’re creating within your body.

The best way to approach supplementation is to go one supplement at a time. Try one thing. If it works, add another to see if they work together. If they don’t, try using the second without the first. What changed? If you want to add a third, try it in conjunction with the most effective of the first two (A, B, or A+B). This is the only way you can gauge with any accuracy what works for you and what does not.

Also understand that many supplements have adverse short-term effects that wear off after time. This is both in the positive and negative category. One supplement might give you a great after-workout pump for a few weeks, but the effect could wear off. In the same way, a supplement might force you to sit on the toilet for much of the day, with that effect going away with regular use.

All across the internet you’ll see articles asking if supplements work or are a bunch of hooey. Each article will come up with a different answer, as though we can lump all supplements in the same bin and either embrace or dismiss them wholesale. The truth is that supplementation can enhance your workouts and help you reach your goals more rapidly and efficiently. The specific supplements you use will depend on your personal situation, from finances through body tolerance. Find the right balance, and you should go ahead and experiment — so long as you do so in moderation.

/by