If it's good for my business it is bad for your health. The word doctor means teacher and it is a part of my job as your doctor to educate you about good health. Fall brings some unique challenges to our bodies and lots of fallen leaves. To prevent injuries to your spine, it is important to learn proper body mechanics while doing yard work. The rake is a wonderful tool but if used improperly you can hurt your lower back badly. The key to raking leaves is to move your feet. Standing in one spot, bending at your waist and pulling the rake into your body is a recipe for pain. Instead, walk several feet from your pile of leaves and pull the leaves with your rake by moving your feet. If you use a leaf blower follow the same principle of walking back and forth behind the line of leaves you are blowing, do not stand in one position and twist side to side. If you have a big pile of leaves to move, rake or blow them onto a tarp and drag the tarp to your disposal site. The same principle holds for vacuuming. Don't stand in the center of the room with your feet fixed in one position, always step forward and back.

The lower back has two structures that are damaged when you do repetitive bending and twisting at the waist. The first is the muscles; the second is the intervertebral disk. The muscles are injured when you use the small muscles of your back to straighten up after you have used the abdominal muscles to bend forward. If you keep your feet moving, then you don't use your abdominals or erector spinae group but instead you use the bigger muscles in your legs and hips. They are designed for this type of repetitive motion. The disks consist of two parts, the inner layer called the nucleus pulposus and the outer layer called the annulus fibrosis. A disc herniation occurs when the outer layer of the disk tears and the inner layer leaks out and pinches a nerve. The disk undergoes wear and tear by being compressed when we bend at the waist. The worst damage occurs to the lumbar disk when we twist at the waist because the outer layer of the disk in the lumbar spine has a predisposition to tearing from repetitious twisting. Chiropractic care has been proven to be an effective treatment for patient's suffering from a herniated disk. Our office uses Cox flexion distraction technique, trigger point therapy, exercise, stretching and the use of the vitamin supplement, glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate. The Cox technique helps restore normal disk mechanics. The stretching, exercise and trigger point therapy helps support and heal the muscles that have had to overwork because of the changes in normal disk mechanics. The vitamins give the body the proper nutrients to rebuild the damaged tissue(s).

Newly released practice guidelines published in the Annals of Internal Medicine stress a conservative approach to treating low-back pain and recommend spinal manipulation as one treatment with proven benefits. In light of these new guidelines, doctors and patients should strongly consider chiropractic care for the treatment of acute and chronic back pain, says the American Chiropractic Association (ACA). In the guidelines proposed by Chou et. al., researchers recommended that patients whose low-back pain-a pervasive condition affecting millions of Americans each year- does not improve with self-care "should consider the addition of nonpharmacological therapies with proven benefits" - including chiropractic spinal manipulation. This information is quoted from the ACA website.

Quiz of the month: The minimum RDA for vitamin C is set to prevent which disease A.) Typhoid B.) Osteoarthritis C.) Scurvy D.) Tooth Decay E.) Baldness

REMEMBER

If you suffer a disk injury at work, your chiropractic care is covered 100% by Worker's Compensation. Inform your employer immediately and file an accident report. You do not have to be off from your job to qualify for Workers' Compensation (i.e. be on disability). You can work and still receive medical or chiropractic care. Be sure to inform your health care provider that your injury is work related. Chiropractors can only treat injuries related to the spine, so it is necessary to indicate an area of the spine if you are seeking chiropractor care. Some people do not realize the lower neck is covered by the trap muscle and is sometimes referred to as the posterior shoulder, but in actuality it is the neck. Insurance companies are sticklers and proper documentation is essential. Some patients have numbness in the arm and think they have an arm injury when in actuality it is a pinched nerve in the neck causing the numbness, not an injury to the arm or sometimes it's both, which is called double crush syndrome. Believe it or not, sometimes the shoulder, thoracic outlet, scalene muscles or an elbow injury can impinge the nerve going from the neck to your hand.

William L. Krieger DC

5225 Sheridan Dr.

Williamsville, NY 14221

Website: Kriegerchiropracticofwny.topchiro.com