health, wellness, and meditiation
More and more research is showing that fasting in Ramadan is very beneficial to overall health. It is now official that fasting in Ramadan does help protect against diabetes and bad cholesterol.
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As crazy as it sounds, freezing the knees could be the answer to overcoming knee pain. There are over 10 million Americans who suffer from knee pain alone and that number isn’t set to decrease anytime soon. While conventional medicine has worked, there’s a new quick fix in town and that is to freeze the knee to stop the pain.
Vernon Williams, MD, Director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Ladera Ranch, California has come up with a new therapy called cold therapy to relieve knee pain. Dr. Wlliams states that focuses cold therapy helps reduce the temperature of a peripheral nerve to a very precise zone.
Since most knee pain is related to nerves sending shock signals up our knees how this treatment works is that Doctors locate the nerve that’s responsible for the pain. They then numb the area and insert a cold probe with liquid nitric oxide to freeze the nerve.
Since there’s nothing wrong with lower temperatures on the internal body the treatment does not cause any damage internally. The cold therapy reaches negative 120 degrees. It doesn’t damage surrounding tissues and doesn’t kill the nerve. The relief lasts a few months.
Dr. Williams has also stated that cold therapy doesn’t just apply to knee pain but can actually be used for any issues related to pain that originates from peripheral nerves which includes headaches too.
Back pain is probably the most common chronic pain for adults, with an increasing amount of patients everyday and more than a hundred different solutions to it, have we never discovered the true source of it?
Researchers might have found the root cause of the back pain that most of us face and it might be related to the SI joint, which is the joint that connects the pelvis to the spine. It is estimated that SI joint is responsible for at least 30% of all back pain cases. While the joint itself is the most durable part of the body but day-to-day wear and tear are the reasons why it later becomes dysfunctional. Activities like heavy lifting, constant bending over and crouching can have an adverse affect on the SI joint.
While SI joint dysfunction is hard to spot, it’s harder to treat. Doctors sometimes think there are issues with the spinal discs—herniated or degenerative—or the sciatic nerve when it’s actually the SI joint. Often the pain the patient describes leads them to those conclusions.
So if you suffer from chronic back pain and still haven’t figured out the root cause of it, this might be it. Consult your doctor on tests for the SI joint pain, which will help identify the severity of the problem, if you do suffer from it the treatment for it is fairly painless and does not require surgery.
New research has found that mental health could have a major affect on physical health too. Doctors have found that depression may increase the risk of back pain over time, the more severe the depression the higher the risk.
A meta analysis has indicated that depression is related to lower back pain. The analysis of 19 studies has clearly shown that symptoms of depression are directly related to lower back pain. Those with depression are 60% more likely to suffer from some sort of lower back pain, as opposed to those with no depression.
Those who suffer from severe depression had increased risk, with almost 2.5 times that of those with just minor depression symptoms. It was also found that depression coupled with old age did factor into this Meta analysis and that older men or women were likelier to develop back pain from depression.
Marina Pinheiro from the researcher from University of Sydney who carried out the meta analysis said that depression and lower back pain share common biological pathways and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine and a deficiency of these neurotransmitters [could be] expected to affect both mood and pain thresholds, possibly explaining the relationship between [the two].
Some of the added reasons that depressed people are likely to suffer from back pain is due to the fact that they become less physically and socially active and suffer from sleep disturbances that add to the stress on the spine. Therefore its now important to be able to identify depression especially with older patients in order to mitigate any lower back pain that may develop over time.
Let’s face it, there’s no excuse to not be in shape nowadays. With all the synthetic food and obesity already plaguing our body, fitness has to be if not the number one priority at least a thought at the back of your head. There are many ways to not exercise and make excuses to not hit the gym but we’re here to give the 5 easiest ways to incorporate fitness no matter what and where you are.
1. Don’t work out alone
Sometimes all you need is a little support from family and friends. If you’re scared of hitting the gym alone then we suggest you take your spouse or best friend with you. Not only are you working out and improving your health but also having the same impact on family and friends
2. Cut down on energy drinks and supplements
There’s nothing wrong with vitamin supplements but steer clear of energy supplements and drinks. Make water your number one choice for a drink. Always carry a small bottle of water with you at all times and remember to drink half your body weight in ounces of water everyday.
3. Inspire yourself
There’s nothing better than self motivation. People will always try to drag you down by complaining how tough working out and eating healthy is but once you have the will power to set your own short term daily goals and long term monthly goals, you will be unstoppable.
4. Make every task a fitness one
Complain all you want about how you don’t have a gym or jogging track in your area but there are several ways to incorporate fitness right into your daily schedule. For example parking at the extreme end of a parking lot and walking to the store. Carrying your groceries to the car rather than in a shopping cart. Taking the up to the office or home instead of the elevator, these are some of the easiest ways to get fit fast and easy.
5. Make the right food choices
We can’t put more emphasis on this than we always do. If you’re not eating right you’re not doing it right. Every time you’re getting a take out meal or dinning in at a restaurant make sure you go for the healthier meal choices. Most restaurants serve lean meat and vegetables which are great for your body, in most cases even if you can’t find that healthy meal in the menu always ask for it to be prepared specially if possible.
There are a lot of myths about knee pain, one of those being that exercise makes knee pain worse. While its somewhat true that exercise can cause further strain to joints but that only happens if the exercise you are doing is not moderate. Most obese people tend to complain that exercise adds more pressure to their knee and therefore causes more pain and tears over time that though is untrue.
A new study that was carried out by Boston University put this relation between knee pain and exercise to the test. The study was done across a mix of 1200 men and women who had knee problems. They divided participants into three groups: sedentary, those who walked six or more miles weekly, and those who walked less than six miles a week for exercise.
Among those who did no exercise, 7.5% got knee arthritis, 4.9% of those who walked less than 6 miles a week also got knee arthritis with symptoms, along with 6.4% of those who walked 6 or more miles a week, but what was interesting was that these numbers were so small that they were insignificant to say that exercise was the primary cause.
In most cases physiologists recommend that those who suffer from knee problems go out and exercise. To minimize the risk of problems, however, exercisers should increase their exercise distance very gradually, then increase speed, rather than both at once. In addition good workout shoes matched to your activity — walking, jogging, aerobics, or hiking — are crucial and should be replaced every 3-6 months if you are exercising regularly, he says.
Overall exercise in moderation is the right way to go about knee pain for even those who overweight or obese. Too much of anything is adverse for the human body and that’s why most who suffer from knee pain usually start off with walks and progress to light jogging.
Being obese and overweight is not the only problem that for those who face chronic neck and back pain. Text neck is increasingly becoming the second largest cause of neck pain. Think of it this way, our heads are not light parts of our bodies. Our heads weigh around a few KGs and the neck bends forward down.
The 15 degree incline when texting increasing the weight pressure on the spine, at 15 degree the weight is 10 KGs, at 30 degrees its 20 KGs and at 45 degrees its 25 KGs. The more we bend our neck the fore weight the spine has to endure.
Smart phone users typically spend 2-4 hours a day hunched over watching videos, reading emails or texting. If you feel like that weight is not a big number, just imagine you walking 4 hours a day with a child resting on your neck. While it’s perfectly OK to use a smart phone, excessive use is the biggest problem.
In this day and age both young and old people are addicted to their smart phones and this in turn over time is bringing forth more and more patients who are suffering from neck pain.
Tom DiAngelis, president of the American Physical Therapy Association‘s says, “effect is similar to bending a finger all the way back and holding it there for about an hour.” He also added “As you stretch the tissue for a long period of time, it gets sore, it gets inflamed,” he said. It can also cause muscle strain, pinched nerves, herniated disks and, over time, it can even remove the neck’s natural curve.
The pains of using technology and its adverse effects over time are definitely ones to be wary off. As technology becomes more and more accessible we as humans have to learn to use it in moderation so that it doesn’t harm our bodies in the long run.
Image Credits: (Courtesy of Dr. Ken Hansraj M.D & Washington Post)