But, as with most “good news,” it is accompanied by “bad news.” Why? Well, longevity is only a good thing if we take care of our health along the way, wouldn’t you say? Life, it would seem to me at least, is more about quality than quantity. And, just from a musculoskeletal point of view, there are changes that individuals need to make early on to avoid age-related problems such as arthritis.

Arthritic changes happen as the body ages. Living longer means that, over time, wear of certain joints as the result of misalignment, repetitive stresses, poor gait, bad posture, and lack of healthy activity can add up to a future that feels painfully long.  Along with causing arthritic changes in the spine and escalating pain, misaligned vertebra can also weaken the body’s resistance and immunity.

So, if you’re an Australian, it’s all the more important for you to get regular chiropractic care early in life since you’re likely to live to a ripe old age. And, the good news (with no apparent bad news) is that if you’ve waited until your senior years to seek chiropractic care, recent studies done on older individuals confirmed that those who received regular chiropractic care stayed healthier.

So, good on you, Australia! Here’s to your health…and your pain-free longevity!

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Measurements taken at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science on the harbor’s north shore show a tripling of microscopic plant life, or phytoplankton. The scientists measure the presence of phytoplankton using remote sensing technology that can detect chlorophyll in the plants, which form the base of the ocean food chain. Microscopic plant life needs nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphate to grow. These nutrients have become scarce over the years in our ocean water, but apparently they were abundant in the topsoil that blew across our country.

This is not only “miraculous” news for our country, but according to Ian Jones, director of the Ocean Technology Group at University of Sydney, the dust storm was a natural experiment that supports their work in fertilizing the ocean by adding nitrogen-rich urea to the sea. This promotes the growth of phytoplankton near the surface of the ocean, which then leads to an increase in fish numbers.

“More phytoplankton growth means more stocks of fish. I see much promise in ocean nourishment being able to provide economical protein for vast numbers of malnourished people,” said Jones. Plus, enriching oceans with nitrogen will also aid in the fight against climate change.

So, I leave you with this thought for today: When a seemingly catastrophic and meaningless event occurs in our lives, until the dust clears we can’t be sure that we haven’t witnessed a miracle in the making.

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Of course, those changes won’t last without an effective program of rehabilitation because the problem most horses experience is that their used to their joints and muscles being out of the alignment. The chiropractor may put the joint back into proper place, but the memory of the muscles and the habits your horse has developed to compensate will probably result in the joint returning to what it considers a ‘normal’ state. An effective program of rehabilitation will help your horse to maintain the new and proper alignment through a progressive exercise program that allows the changed muscle positions and correct movements to become habit.

The chiropractor can give you a proper plan of rehabilitation exercises and, it’ll come as no surprise that the longer your horse has been out of correct alignment, the longer the rehab period will be. Just like your own muscles, your horse’s muscles need time to develop strength, mass and flexibility. If you have ever had a broken leg or arm, then you know that the muscles of that limb atrophied and didn’t return to normal as soon as the cast was removed. In fact, it required an extended period of carefully planned physical therapy. Remember this when you plan the recovery of your horse after chiropractic treatment.

Here’s to happy, healthy trails…for you and your horse!

Technorati Tags: chiropractic adjustments, chiropractors, equine chiropractors, horse health

Even though hip pain and related problems are often signs of age-related degenerative conditions, especially osteoarthritis of the hip joint, osteoarthritis isn’t always the “bad guy”. In fact, instead of causing the original problem, osteoarthritis of the hip joint can be the ultimate result of damage to your hips at a previous time.

Gait changes caused by biomechanical problems such as an ankle sprain or knee strain, can produce hip pain. Also, if you change jobs, alter the way you sit, take on a new sport or activity, or start driving for long periods of a regular basis, your gait may alter to compensate for these new changes.

In addition, gait asymmetries can occur from carrying a baby or small child on your hip, leg length dissimilarities, or foot pronation problems. The point is, anything that produces an asymmetry or imbalance when you are in motion can bring about painful hip problems.

Along with your adjustments, as part of the chiropractic management of your hip problem your chiropractor may determine that you require orthotics. Your chiropractor will also offer applicable progressive rehabilitative exercises that include muscle stretching and strengthening.

Hip pain won’t diminish on its own. Hip pain is an indication that something needs to be corrected. Your chiropractor can help to get you out of pain, get back into balance, and get your life back!

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Sciatic pain generally travels from your low back, through the buttock(s), and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of your leg(s). Many times, the pain may even radiate into your knee. Sitting, as well as motion, can be painful. Occasionally lying down will lessen, or perhaps temporarily get rid of the pain. Nonetheless, sciatica cannot be corrected without proper treatment.

“Radiculopathy,” the medical term for the clinical diagnosis of sciatica, means simply that a disc has protruded from its normal position in the vertebral column and is placing pressure on the radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve. This type of pressure is extremely painful.

Increased pressure on the intervertebral discs, as well as imbalances in the muscles encompassing the spine, can happen as a consequence of prolonged sitting, specifically in a awkward position. Usually, an explicit event or exact injury doesn’t create sciatica, but, on the contrary, it tends to develop over time as a consequence of average wear and tear on the structures of the lower spine. Over time the lower spine loses its ability to function in a healthy way during everyday stresses.

Finally, the intervertebral disc develops small fissures, or cracks, which then lets the soft nucleus protrude the disc outward. If the disc puts pressure on sensitive tissues, it causes the pain that is frequently called a ruptured disc. If the disc pushes on the spinal nerve, then sciatica can develop.

With chiropractic adjustments and care, which commonly includes postural exercises, most disc problems, including sciatica, can be eliminated. If you are experiencing sciatic pain, it is important for you to seek help from your chiropractor.

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Hey, I thought it was about time to talk about social media. It is the main buzzword these days. Perhaps you have heard the expression web 2.0. Well, basically that is the web coming to you instead of you having to go surfing to find things. There are rss feeds that allow you to get the information you want right into your email without ever having to go to the site. And with the new browsers like flock you can follow your friends on twitter, facebook and youtube right on your screen all the time. Now if this sounds like a bunch of gibberish, relax, my team and I have put together a free course to explain it all.

As chiropractors there are basically three main social media sites that are somewhat important for us. And let me be the first to say that none of them are going to make you rich! Anyone that promises 20-30 new patients from twitter or facebook or YouTube for that matter is shining you on!

Now, lets talk about why I think you should join these three sites. It is all about communication. We all know, that is, any of us that have been in practice for a while, that the doctor that keep in frequent contact with their patients,has much better retention then the docs that don’t.

The sweet thing about these sites is it allows you to keep up a relationship with your patients. You know how patients always want that personal relationship? And we don’t have time to develop those relationships with each patient, at least not until now! You see, with these types of sites you can keep patients informed about you and your life and practice, without actually having to individually spend the time. It’s Beautiful! So get cracking on setting up your social media sites.

And if you don’t know how to start, sign up for our free 10 part course right here at Chiropractic Masters.

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As a Santa Barbara Chiropractor I wonder how the chiropractors in Australia are taking the news that they may be included in these government imposed outcome measures?

Patients’ health a new test for GPs

GPs are likely to face a raft of performance targets that for the first time measure how well their patients do, rather than simply whether their fridge is keeping vaccines cold or if the practice has procedures to inform patients of test results.

The proposals mean general practices could be expected to show that patients on their books who have various chronic diseases are demonstrably healthier. One example would be to require that practices ensure blood sugar is kept at an acceptably low level in a set percentage of their diabetes patients. Another would be to ensure a set percentage of patients with heart disease have their blood pressure below a certain threshold, and are taking anti-clotting drugs that are shown to reduce heart attack risk. The plan has been devised by the not-for-profit company Australian General Practice Accreditation Ltd, one of the two agencies that send inspectors to GP surgeries to see if they meet the standards devised by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. The 34-page document outlining the idea says the impetus for the plan is “frustration with the current slow adoption of quality improvement in primary care”. It suggests extending accreditation requirements not simply to GP patient outcomes, but also to other health professions in primary care, such as nurses, physiotherapists, chiropractors and skin cancer clinics. However, the document also acknowledges the plan, which has been submitted to the federal Government’s primary healthcare reform body, is likely to prove “threatening to some professional associations and colleges”. The existing incarnation of GP accreditation was fiercely criticised by some doctors for undermining their autonomy after it was first introduced in 1997. While accreditation is voluntary, the take-up rate is now more than 90 per cent because becoming accredited makes practices eligible to apply for further federal government incentive payments, typically worth up to $45,000 a year. John Aloizos, chairman of the AGPAL subsidiary Quality in Practice, said GPs should back the plan as the alternative was likely to be a less palatable modelimposed by the federal Government. “The thing we have never measured before is (patient) outcomes, and this is the opportunity,” Dr Aloizos said. “Where it’s been tested — if you look at the results from programs in Australia, and in the UK, they have shown there have been improvements in … diabetes, cardiovascular disease and patient waiting times.” After a successful introduction, further targets could be introduced to extend the concept to most chronic conditions, including asthma, osteoporosis, cancers and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Last month’s interim report by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission recommended introducing payments for GPs and other primary healthcare workers to reward those whose patients recovered better, although the report did not spell out how outcomes should be measured. George Quittner, a GP from the Sydney suburb of Mosman, said the proposal was another example of “tick-box medicine”. “Whenever I go to a hospital now, nurses are never with the patients; they are at the nursing station filling in forms,” Dr Quittner said. “If you ask the patients, ‘when did the nurse last see you?’, they say they are all too busy. “I think a similar phenomenon will happen in medicine: doctors will get busier and busier filling in forms, but that won’t necessarily translate into better care,” he said.

Technorati Tags: Australian chiropractors, outcome measures

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