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Research shows that 80% of the population will experience a back-related injury in their lifetime.

Back injuries, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and other repetitive stress injuries cost U.S. industry $60 billion per year. Lifestyles of millions of people are affected by the pain and discomfort of these unnecessary injuries.

The best way to treat these injuries is through prevention. Proper sitting posture is crucial in the prevention of repetitive stress disorders.

Here are a few simple steps to maintain proper sitting posture:

Your feet should be flat on the floor (or foot stool) and slightly in front of your knees. Do not cross your legs as this will compress important blood vessels and nerves. Crossing at the ankle is acceptable.

Your hips should be slightly above the level of your knees to create an open angle. This will keep your blood vessels and nerves from being pinched and your hip flexor muscles from becoming too tight.

You should always sit “deep in the seat” with your trunk 90-100 degrees to your pelvis while active on the keyboard. During meetings or long phone conversations your trunk can be slightly extended backwards.

Your head should be over your shoulders, looking straight at the monitor. Your monitor should be at eye level and never off to the side causing head rotation. Your monitor should also be within arm’s-length (finger tips should be able to touch the screen).

Your wrists should be flat and slightly below the level of your elbow. This, too, creates an open angle allowing proper blood and nerve flow. Your elbows should also be in at the sides with no winging.

The human body is not made to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours per day. Even with the best ergonomics, it is still stressful on the body. You should literally think of your job as an exercise. Just like any athlete, you must warm up before and during with stretches. Micro breaks with stretching exercises can reduce the buildup of repetitive stress and help to prevent injury.

Omega-3 fatty acids are an essential fatty acid (EFA) that your body needs to keep you alive. Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body depends on EFA. Unfortunately, the average American diet is highly lacking in this vital fatty acid. According to many research articles, this is why we are seeing a rise in cancers and cardio-vascular disease.

Some of the well-known benefits of omega-3 fatty acids include the prevention of heart disease (reduces triglycerides by up to 50%), diabetes, strokes, and cancer. It also increases male and female fertility, reduces high blood pressure, helps with depression and ADHD, decreases pain and inflammation and improves memory and intelligence.

Wild salmon is an excellent source of 0mega-3 fatty acids. (Having poor diets themselves, farmed-raised fish do not have adequate amounts of omega- 3 fatty acids.) According to this article I read on the 5 fish you should never eat, it is illegal to capture wild Atlantic salmon because the fish stocks are so low. Wild Alaskan salmon is a good alternative, but no one but Inuits eat that much wild Alaskan Salmon!

Therefore, supplementation is crucial! Nordic Naturals is a highly reputable company that provides “pharmaceutical” grade omega-3 fatty acids. They take out all the PCBs, mercury and other toxins that may be present. Nordic Naturals also combines fish oil and select nutrients to provide targeted and research-proven support for particular conditions (Omega Blood Sugar, Omega LDL, Omega CoQ10, Omega Probiotic, Omega Vision, Omega Joint Xtra, and Omega Vitamin D3).

To order omega-3 fatty acid supplements for your family (available for infants, children, pregnant/nursing mothers and pets in liquid form or gummies) and to find out how much you should be taking, call Dr. Karri Cardinal at (415) 543-3552.

I recently read an article on Metallica and chiropractic. You may be surprised, but in high school I was a metal head!

If you have ever been to a heavy metal concert you surely have seen long hair guys on stage banging their head up and down. Metallica even wrote a song about it… Whiplash!

Many of us associate whiplash with car accidents. But you don’t have to be in a car accident (or a member of a heavy metal band) to get whiplash.

Acute, traumatic causes of whiplash are also caused by contact sport injuries, blows to the head from a falling object, falling on the face, or being assaulted. Repetitive stress injuries, or chronic strain involving the neck, (such as using your neck to hold the phone) are common, non-acute causes.

These signs and symptoms may occur immediately or days to weeks after the initial injury.

neck pain and stiffness
neck swelling
tenderness along the back of your neck
muscle spasms (in the side or back of your neck)
difficulty moving your neck around
headache
pain shooting from your neck into either shoulder or arm
shoulder pain and stiffness
dizziness
fatigue
jaw pain (temporomandibular joint symptoms)
arm weakness
visual disturbances
ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
back pain

In the more severe and chronic case of "whiplash associated disorder" symptoms can include:

depression
anger
frustration
anxiety
stress
drug dependency
post-traumatic stress syndrome
sleep disturbance (insomnia)
social isolation

Any sudden stress or repetitive stress to the body needs to be evaluated by a chiropractor. The common mistakes people make when choosing to not see a chiropractor after injury is not feeling immediate pain. Often symptoms following an injury can take days to weeks to appear. Lack of pain does not equal wellness. To determine the health of your spine, have it evaluated by a chiropractor.

Absolutely! Many common edibles in the American diet can not only increase our waistline but also cause inflammation in our bodies, raising the risk of chronic pain and/or chronic disease. Toxic foods stress the body’s digestive and immune systems often resulting in fatigue and poor healing.

Whether stress is incurred physically, emotionally or chemically, all stress leads to increased inflammation. This can represent itself anywhere in the body: the neck (neck pain), low back (low back pain), digestive system (irritable bowel syndrome, colitis), lungs (asthma), sinuses (allergies), etc.

Foods high in saturated fats (fatty red meats), Trans fats (margarine, shortening, polyunsaturated vegetable oils), refined sugars (high fructose corn syrup, granulated white sugar), and refined grains (breads and pastas) will cause inflammation and may be a contributing factor to your underlying condition.

In my prior post about detoxification I outlined healthy foods to eat. In addition to being healthy and safe for your body these foods have natural anti-inflammatory properties. If you already have an underlying condition, eating a diet rich in these foods can actually help to “cure” you.

Whether watching your figure or just staying healthy, eating right will not only keep you looking good but feeling good too!