Columbia Advanced Chiropractic, LLC

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The Oura Ring and Why You Should Have One

The Oura Ring and Why You Should Have One

I rarely do product reviews or ‘pump’ a product but this particular one deserves some serious attention.

If you are active, wanting to become more active, or just have an interest in your health, the Oura ring is a must for you.  The engineers from Oura have brought to the market their second rendition of a ring that maps your sleeping patterns, activities, and heart metrics and puts them together in a simple and easy package.

Using the data from the ring and linking to your iphone or Android, you are given a TON of information about how  your body is functioning.  And yes, it’s highly accurate.

An example is HRV, or Heart Rate Variability.  HRV is probably the most scientifically validated way to assess the health of your autonomic nervous system (ANS).  The ANS is made up of your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  The sympathetic is your ‘flight or fight’ part and the parasympathetic is the ‘rest and digest’ side.

Most of us have stress in our lives and this makes our bodies more sympathetic dominant.  When this occurs, the parasympathetic portion of the ANS does not function as it should.  Due to this, the sympathetic ‘runs wild’ and we can end up with serious health issues.  Those who monitor their HRV can determine what changes will upregulate, or increase parasympathetic tone.

For many, it’s getting more sleep or partaking in exercise.  For others, it’s adding CBD (truthfully, a must).  No matter what you do, you want to maximize your HRV as it tells you that there is a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

If you are unfamiliar, HRV is a measure of the difference between each heart beat.  We might think that a consistent heart beat is healthy, but in actuality, that is incorrect.  With each beat, there should be a slightly different time between each beat.  This indicates that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are playing off one another.  When we lack parasympathetic tone, then the sympathetic controls everything and the heart beat remains very constant with the gap time between beats.

Athletes use HRV as an indication of recovery from sport.  They know that a great HRV means that their bodies are preparing for more activity and that they will compete better.  Athletes need to have a large amount of HRV.

For all of us, we can use HRV for determining the health of our neurological system.  The data the Oura provides helps to establish goals to achieve  and teaches us ways to recover better.  It gives us data we cannot otherwise obtain.  The HRV is only one health index the Oura provides but oh, what an important one it is.

I have spoken with Oura because we are seeing amazing changes in HRV with our patients who are using CBD and are making lifestyle changes (several of our athletes already have the Oura ring).  It’s great to be able to objectively track the changes using the Oura ring.

I wear mine as my wedding band now because it looks professional, is light, and feels great on the finger.  It only needs to be charged once every 6 days and this makes it almost hassle free.  You can, of course, wear it on any finger (they send you a sizing kit to be sure you order the correct size).  I awaken every morning and the first thing I do is check my phone for my sleep data.  The ring has made going to bed earlier, easier, as you feel better when the sleep score is higher (it is based on far more than just the HRV).

Sure, the Oura does a lot more and I’ll be documenting that soon.  The Oura ring in one piece of technology you should not be without if you are interested in tracking your health metrics and sleep patterns.

 

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Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and Some Ideas About How To Deal With It

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) and Some Ideas About How To Deal With It

So you have had an active and/or stressful day and you lay down to go to bed.  Your leg or legs feel a bit twitchy and they won’t relax.  Finally, you get to sleep and you are awakened by a really uncomfortable pain in your legs.  This happens night after night and finally you cannot deal with it anymore.  What is wrong and what can be done?

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is considered by many to be a neurological problem but there are many causes of the condition. So many, in fact, that it’s really tough to categorize the condition into one simple issue.  What we need to do is consider any and all factors that could influence the condition and help minimize/eliminate it.  The medical approach is to turn to medications to help with the condition, but those have side effects.  There are natural ways to address RLS, and to many, it makes sense to start with these before going the medication route. Continue Reading →

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The Truth About Plantar Fasciitis and How To Treat It

The Truth About Plantar Fasciitis and How To Treat It

Plantar Fasciitis (PF) can be a rather debilitating condition.  It doesn’t matter if you have flat feet (pes planus) or high arches (pes cavus).  If there is added stress to the bottom of the foot that occurs quickly, it can result in plantar fascial pain.

What exactly is the plantar fascia?  Consider the plantar fascia to be similar to a ligament.  It runs from the heel (the medial calcaneal tubercle) to the heads of your metatarsals (point at about where you see the webbing of your toes).  Despite what you might have been told, its function is NOT to hold the arch of the foot. Rather, the PF more-so holds the muscles under it together so that they can suspend your arch. Continue Reading →

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The Dreaded DCO and What It Means To You and Your Shoulder!

The Dreaded DCO and What It Means To You and Your Shoulder!

DCO, or Distal Clavicular Osteolysis, is a rather bad shoulder condition that all too many athletes suffer from.

DCO occurs when we have damage to our AC (acromioclavicular) joint and it goes unattended to for a period of time.  More-so than that, additional damage is done with further activity and the bones that make up the joint get significant damage.

The AC joint is made up of where the distal clavicle bone meets the acromion process of the scapula (see photo below).  A sprain of the AC joint tends to involve a macrotrauma (one significant injury) such as a bad fall or other form of side shoulder impact.  The AC joint tends to get hypermobile (or move too much) easily as it is not a very stable joint to begin with.  When the joint is injured, or sprained, care is needed to stabilize the joint and allow for it to heal.  In-office treatments can significantly reduce recovery time and this is important as a healing AC joint sprain is susceptible to further injury.   Continue Reading →

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The Major Reason Why Your Knee Hurts and What You Can Do About It

The Major Reason Why Your Knee Hurts and What You Can Do About It

As a sports rehabilitation doctor, I get the benefit of seeing all types of sports injuries.  One of more common injuries I see is a ‘knee tracking’ issue.  I’ll go as far as saying about 75% of all people presenting with knee pain have this condition as either a primary issue or issue that is causing a more serious situation.  So, what exactly is this funny sounding condition?

As humans, we are the ONLY animal to be upright and on two legs as a primary means of ambulation.  Although our evolution has allowed us to do this, it is not without issues.  It just so happens that the muscles on the outside of the thigh tend to get stronger/tighter than the muscles on the inside.  Now, it’s a bit more complex than this but this should help give us a general idea of what is occurring. Continue Reading →

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Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 2

Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 2

Part 2 of the discussion on the InBody 570 covers two of five important studies (and there are more) that help to validate the accuracy and legitimacy of the InBody 570.  This technical and may I say, ahem, somewhat boring information is important to discuss as your healthcare providers like to see objective health data. It’s time for the entire healthcare industry to understand and embrace what improvements in body composition can do not only for the individual patient, but also for the healthcare system as a whole.  Figure it this way: the more healthy we are, the less disease we will have.  This translates to less healthcare costs and this is good for everyone!  This blog and the next one serve to help educate not only our patients and those who will want to come to our office to get assessed, but also their healthcare providers who will be viewing these results.  Body composition is SO important.

Whether you are on our body modification program (caloric restriction and intermittent fasting…and most all of you should be interested in this to optimize your health) or are an athlete looking to improve your performance and recovery in your respective sport, the 570 is unmatched on the market, it is FDA approved, and it provides data that is vital to your health.  This is about your health.  It’s time to think of your future and what you should be doing to live longer and healthier!

The first study of interest is from 2004 and the lead author is Shinichi Demura.  The study was published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology and Applied Human Science.  The name of this study is Percentage of Total Body Fat as Estimated by Three Automatic Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzers. Continue Reading →

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Introducing The InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 1

Introducing The InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 1

We are excited to be introducing our patients to the FDA approved  InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer.

So, what does this incredible machine do?  Well, it does a LOT.  Simply put, it provides information about what you are made up of…do you have enough muscle, too much fat, are you more likely to have serious health issues due to too much visceral fat, too much systemic inflammation, etc…?  Did I mention this unit has cleared FDA testing?

It is now considered to be one of the gold standards for body composition assessment.  This might seem like an odd piece of equipment for a sports medicine chiropractic office, but in reality, all sports chiropractors should all have one.  It is vital to have a quality body composition analyzer as so many patients need to improve their muscle:fat ratio as an imbalance in this plays a direct role in a patient’s ability to recover.   In addition, we can determine the intracellular water weight vs. the extracellular water weight in the body.  This helps us in a unique and validated fashion to determine whether a patient has systemic inflammation. This is very important to be able to assess.  On the topic of visceral fat, the major contributor to vascular health and an indicator that most have probably never had checked, yes, the 570 has you covered (it’s validity has been compared to abdominal CT scans). Continue Reading →

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Do You Want Your Brain To Function Better?

Do You Want Your Brain To Function Better?

As a sports chiropractor, my training involves learning how to best treat the body to effect changes in many ways for dysfunctional joints, muscles, ligaments, cartilage, fascia, and more. We know that chiropractic adjustments alter neurological pathways that change joint mechanics and alter muscle tone and tension, allowing for a change in biomechanics at local and more global regions.  This is great and it works well, but what about all the ‘holistic’ training we receive? Chiropractors are supposed to take care of the whole body, inside and out, but most of us do not do that when we only treat the body from the outside.  This approach is not complete and it does not allow us to fully help our patients. Continue Reading →

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Slouching Population Part 2 of 3: Good Posture and Children

Slouching Population Part 2 of 3: Good Posture and Children

Have you recently witnessed a child sitting hunched over with their head down staring at a smartphone, ipad, or tablet on a table or on their lap? I would venture to guess that you see this picture multiple times per day if you have, or are around, children.  I would also go as far as to assume that most, if not all, children have been told multiple times to “sit up straight” by teachers, parents, and/or grandparents. However, even with the constant reminders, it seems that kids have been slumping more and more with the passing of each decade. One of the worst postures I have seen to date is a preteen who developed a point in his mid-back where there should be a smooth curve.

What is causing our youth to have worsening poor posture? Are they having an undeclared slouching contest with the previous generation, are they trying to be cool, or are they just a product of their environment with the vast surge in the use of technology? I get it. Even we adults need to be told to sit-up properly, especially when we are working at a computer, texting, or using a tablet. And you know what? Children hate being corrected as much as we do. With that said, it is hard enough to get adults to follow instructions, so how do we get children to change their habits, and understand the lifelong repercussions of sitting and standing in bad posture? Continue Reading →

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How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

Whenever we engage in any type of weight loss/body modification plan, we have to be realistic with our goals.  The trendy ‘lose 30 in 30’ programs rarely yield results that last because the programs are quite abusive to your body and not many people have the will to continue on such a tough voyage.

Before I go any further, I will touch on the difference between weight loss and body modification.  Weight loss is just that: losing weight.  You will lose fat and muscle weight.  This is not a good thing.  We want to be lean and muscular, not lean and soft.  Most all programs on the market can only address total weight loss and this is not what you want.  Body modification is achieved through losing fat weight while maintaining or gaining muscle percentage/weight.  This should be the goal of all diet programs but virtually none on the market can achieve this goal because they do not employ the proper system.  Dieting is not about cutting calories.  It’s about working with your body to get it leaner and stronger and using validated science to achieve this.  Going forward, I will only refer to dieting programs as body modification as this is really the goal of anyone who is trying to get leaner and healthier.

The key to any successful body modification program is sustainability.  In other words, can you continue this program into the future or will you eventually fall off the tracks and go back to your old ways?  In the overwhelming number of cases, people try a program for a while and then back off of it as it is too hard to maintain.  They end up where they were before they started.  This time, though, they tend to be more frustrated and their bodies are more resistant to future change.  We should not have to endure these failures. Continue Reading →

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