Are You Sitting Properly?

If you are an office worker you probably spend at least six or seven hours a day sitting on the job. Add more time sitting in the car, at dinner and lounging with some late night TV and the total hours of sitting rockets up to somewhere around ten hours.

When is the last time you thought about how you sit?

Probably never or a long, long time ago.

Promise yourself that you’ll take a critical look at how you sit after you read this article. If you are sitting and reading this online, go ahead and freeze right now and really think about how you are sitting. Compare your sitting position to this checklist:

Proper Sitting Posture Checklist
• Sit with your legs uncrossed with ankles in front of the knees.
• Place both feet firmly on the floor. Get yourself a footrest if your feet don’t reach.
• Your knees should be lower than your hips and the back of your knees should not touch the seat.
• If your chair has an adjustable backrest, move it to support the arch in your low back. If you don’t have a backrest, ask your employer about getting one or invest in it yourself.
• Get up and move around every hour. Take a break from sitting even if you cannot stop working. Make a phone call standing up or close your office door and lie down for a few minutes on your stomach. At the very least, shift your sitting position occasionally.

Why Sitting Posture is Important
Good posture is important for long term health and disease prevention just like daily tooth brushing. And, similar to tooth brushing, habits are formed early and can be hard to break later in life.
Good sitting posture reduces the stress and strain on ligaments. Ligaments are responsible for holding the joints together, so ligament stresses can make you prone to joint injuries. Proper posture also reduces muscle fatigue. When muscles are able to work efficiently they use less energy and don’t get tired as easily. Abnormal motions or positions that are repeated over and over again on a daily basis are contributors to degenerative arthritis and joint pain.

Most adults would readily agree that posture is important. Most of that group would also admit that they don’t actively think about posture…it just happens.

For the next 30 days, make an effort to really think about your posture and pause a couple times per day to compare your current position to the checklist provided above. It takes about 30 days of focus to break an old habit or develop a new one, so if you concentrate on your sitting posture for 30 days, you’ll be well on your way to a lifetime of better musculoskeletal health.

As always, if you are concerned with your or a family member's posture, ask Dr. Dana or Dr. Mike about it on your next visit to our clinic.

COLD OR FLU? WHICH IS IT?

During the fall and winter months, we hear constantly with our patients who have “the flu”. Except…they don’t. Do you know the difference between having a cold and having the flu?

The common cold (and boy is it common) develops gradually over several days and can start with a scratchy throat, sneezing and sniffles leading to congestion. Any fever present is mild (in adults). Coughing is generally hacking and can be moist due to congestion.

On the other hand, influenza often starts rather suddenly with fever (usually greater than 101 degrees F and lasting 3-4 days), headache and all over body aches (myalgia).  People with the flu are often exhausted or fatigued. Coughing is usually dry and hacking and can last days or weeks after all other flu symptoms have passed.

Influenza or “the flu” is more of a systemic illness, meaning it affects your entire body, whereas a cold generally just affects the upper body. You can sometimes get a stuffy nose, sneezing and sore throat with the flu, but it’s much more common with colds. The flu is more serious because it can lead to other problems, like pneumonia in susceptible adults and young children.

Influenza is caused by a virus. In general, viral illnesses will run their course without a trip to the doctor. Antibiotics don't work against viruses, so all your doctor can recommend to help you are pain medications, cough suppressants or an anti-pyretic (fever reducers). All of these are available without a prescription from your local drug store to help you deal with flu symptoms.

The latest research is also showing how important it is do have normal vitamin D levels to help boost your immune system.  During the summer, sun exposure is the main way to regulate your vitamin D levels, but as we get into the cooler and darker months of the year it is paramount to take a vitamin D3 supplement.  It is recommended that adults take 5000 units/day, children over 5 take 2500 units per day, and children under 5 can take 35 units per pound per day.

If you are suffering from cold or flu symptoms, it is also still good to get adjusted. Chiropractic care doesn’t treat the virus directly, but rather can stimulate the nervous system which can boost your body’s ability to fight the invaders. Anything that you can do to help strengthen your immune system is important. When your body’s immune system is in peak condition, it can fight off minor intruders with ease.

Take Control of Chronic Childhood Ear Infections

It’s 2 am and the crying has only gotten progressively worse across the past hour. You are pacing the downstairs hallway trying anything to soothe your inconsolable 10-month old so that your 5 and 8 year old kids can get some sleep upstairs. Your plan is to call the doctor’s office the moment they open – seven hours from now!

Although your infant cannot tell you what is wrong, your intuition says it is another middle ear infection. The statistics would suggest that your hunch is probably right. Earaches are the #1 reason for visits to the pediatrician’s office. As a parent, that probably comes as no surprise. But, you may be surprised to learn that both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academy of Family Physicians recommend a “watchful waiting” or “wait and see” approach to acute ear infections. Research published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association  demonstrated that there was no difference in fever, otalgia (pain) or number of future visits between kids that were given an antibiotic prescription and those that were not. As it turns out, antibiotics only outperform the body’s own immune system in a handful of cases.
At the same time, numerous studies of manipulative therapies including chiropractic care have shown remarkable results without the side effects of antibiotics. A groundbreaking 1997 study of 332 kids ages 27 days to 5 years indicted a strong correlation between chiropractic adjustment and the resolution of otitis media (the technical term for a middle ear ache). Just to highlight one finding – there were 104 kids in the group classified as having ‘chronic’ otitis media. This group of kids got 5 chiropractic adjustments each. Across the next six months the recurrence rate among this group was only 16%!

Let’s put that data into more human terms. That means that 84% of these kids classified as having chronic ear infections went six months without having another one after just 5 adjustments. A full half year devoid of screaming in the middle of the night, lost sleep and anguish of watching your child suffer for 84% of the parents.

The prior study published in a chiropractic journal spurred further research into the uses of chiropractic care for acute and chronic ear infections. The critical questions was - how would chiropractic fare head-to-head with standard pediatric care? A 2003 study  published in a pediatric medicine journal comparing children receiving manipulative therapy and those receiving standard pediatric care, found that those who received manipulative therapy had fewer episodes of Acute Otitis Media (AOM), fewer surgical procedures and had higher rates of normal tympanograms.

This amazing news for parents has been validated and confirmed numerous times since then. The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) even maintains a webpage of all the published research studies done on children’s ear infections and the role of chiropractic care in treatment and prevention. The last time I looked there where 25 separate studies listed. You can view the full list at: http://icpa4kids.org/Chiropractic-Research/Ear-Infection-Otitis-Media/

All this data and research is great, but at the end of the day what matters to parents is getting their own child out of pain and on a path to a success in school, sports and life without the constant interruption of ear infections. Don’t spend another sleepless night pacing the halls with a screaming toddler in your arms. Call us now and make an appointment for a consultation.

Don’t wait until another ear infection strikes. Prevention is always the better option. Besides, when your child is in pain, your anxiety level as a parent goes way up. We want you to be able to ask all your questions and get all the facts at your own pace and not feel pressured to make a decision or start treatment because your child is screaming. Of course, if your child does have current symptoms, we want to see both of you as soon as possible. 

Dr. Dana Celar is a certified pediatric chiropractor and specializes in treating children. Please call 708-449-5900 if you would like to set up a consultation.

1. Spiro DM, Tay K, Arnold DH, et al. Wait-and-see prescription for the treatment of acute otitis media: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association 2006; 296(10): 1235-1241.

2. Fallon, JM.   Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics Vol 2, No. 2 1997 p.167-183.

3. Mills MV, Henley CE, Barnes LLB, Carreiro JE, Degenhardt BF. The use of osteopathic manipulative treatment as adjuvant therapy in children with recurrent acute otitis media. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2003; 157(9): 861-866.

Some Surprising Statistics About Back Pain

Back pain relief is just one component of chiropractic care, but it is often a patient’s first introduction. Back pain is horribly debilitating affecting all aspects of work and personal life. If you are suffering from back pain, you are not alone. Here are a few facts about back pain that may (or may not) surprise you.

• Back pain is the number one disability for those under age 45.
• In the United States of America alone, there is an expected 31 million people with lower back pain at any given time.
• Back pain runs second, after only the common cold, as the top reason for visiting a healthcare provider in the United States.
• Experts place the likelihood of any person to experience some type of back problem in their lifetime at about 80%. That’s four out of every five people!
• Over 50 billion dollars are spent per year in the pursuit of clearing up cases of back pain.
• Around 30 to 40 percent of all workplace absences are due to back pain.
• Approximately one quarter of U.S. adults reported having low back pain lasting at least one whole day in the past three months, and 7.6 percent reported at least one episode of severe acute low back pain within a one-year period.
• One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.
• Approximately 2 percent of the U.S. work force is compensated for back injuries each year
• Lower back pain accounts for two thirds of all back pain-related cases.
• More than two-thirds of back strains are caused by lifting and other exertions like pulling and pushing.
• Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.

The key to proper treatment of back pain is to understand the cause. Remember, pain is always a sign that something else is wrong and if continually ignored may lead to more serious harm. Chiropractors are experts in assessing the root cause of your back pain and putting you on the right course to recovery.

If you know somebody in the Chicago area who is suffering from low back pain, please have them call us at 708-449-5900 to set up a complementary consultation to see if we can help.