When do I need treatment?
I am out of pain should I be done with treatment?
Well maybe but why did I get sore in the first place. If I slipped, tripped or fell there is a simple beginning, middle and end to treatment.
But what if the problem gradually came on. Maybe it comes and goes. Finding the beginning, middle and end is a bit more complicated in that scenario.
Is the problem gone when the pain is gone?
Has the movement been normalized, strength and mobility back to optimal levels?
Are these factors more important than pain. I would contend that they are more important because movement patterns, strength imbalance and limited mobility are the reasons why most problems began in the first place. The pain was just the fire that brought our attention to the area.
So how can we objectively determine when we are needing treatment or done with treatment?
Movement is key answer to this question and thanks to tools like the Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA) and the Functional Movement Screen (FMS), we can now objectively answer them with more confidence than ever before.
These tools, one for the health care provider to assess the patient with pain and help decide what needs to be treated (SFMA), and one to determine readiness for exercise and potential risk of injury (FMS), are now being used by pro football teams, military special forces and other groups to lessen the potential of losing folks to injury. We can and do the same thing with our patients.
Is your Diet Pro-Inflammatory?
Inflammation is pain its as simple as that.
Whether its a sprained ankle, a sacro-iliac joint, a lumbar disc or your digestive tract.
We usually have a idea of how to deal with inflammation when its our ankle, put ice on it! But what if our knees, shoulders, back and neck are all sore? Should we be icing them all? Well you could, hope you have a lot of ice packs, an ice machine in your kitchen or a plunge pool to submerege yourself in. Maybe you should be thinking about something ‘systemic’.
‘Systemic’? Involving multiple systems of the body, like Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, and lots of other nasties that can attack us at multiple locations at the same time.
Blood work, x-rays and a proper diagnosis are all important components of dealing with these conditions.
Another thing we could be doing is promoting inflammation by how we’re eating!
What! My food could mess me up?
You bet it can. We Historically we ate diet that was very balance Omega 3 to Omega 6, a 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 ratio. But, something happened about 10 to 25, 000 years ago, agriculture. We went from mostly Hunter-Gatherer to Farmer. Our ancestors learned to grow grains which provided easier means of a steady food supply. The cost of this big influx of grains was a shift in the 1:1 or 1:2 ratio to becoming a 1:10 or even 1:20 ratio.
So! What’s the big deal with that?
Well, Omega 6 promotes inflammation where as Omega 3 is more anti-inflammatory. Many of us need to shift that ratio back to historic ratios and the good thing is that it can be as easy as limiting the amount of grain products and adding Fish Oil high in Omega 3 to our diet. Eating foods rich in Omega 3 can also be helpful.
Why would I want to do that? Its tastes awful.
Because inflammation is involved at least at the cellular level at almost every degenerative condition from Diabetes, to Cancer to the Systemic Arthritic ones I mentioned earlier. So if we can reduce the tendency to promote inflammation we may be able to positively impact the expression of these conditions. As a minimum you can aid your recovery from exercise.
All you need to do is start to shift the ratio. And the great thing is that you can do it yourself and see what the impact is on you.
Article Links
Hip Strengthening and Flexibility
The hip is the largest and most flexible joint in the lower extremity. Without proper hip strength and flexibility knee pain, hip/buttock pain, sciatica and low back pain are often but a long drive, poor lift or slip or fall away. To improve the functioning of the hip movements as simple and basic as a squat should be part of everyone’s daily routine. The challenge is getting people to squat properly!
Fitness and Health
If we look at a contiumum from Sickness to Health and then continued it on we would eventually come to Fitness. If we are Fit we must get quite un-well before we are Healthy!
So what is Fitness? What is Health?
We all know what Sickness looks like!
Is Health a Blood Pressure of 120/80, a resting pulse rate of 65, or a good Blood Lipid Profile and Glucose Tolerance?
What about Fitness?
Pushing these measures towards continual improvement can protect us from Dis-ease.
