Poor posture can lead to poor health

Poor posture can lead to poor health
Prevention and awareness is the best care for health-related problems. One of the easiest and most logical ways to prevent bad posture habits is to think about the consequences.

1. Tension Headaches: Sitting hunched over at your job, most commonly caused by your hands reaching for the keyboard when typing on your computer leads to your shoulders and head slumping forward. This posture tightens the muscles in your neck, upper back and shoulders. After awhile, the tightness causes nerve irritations and muscle spasms which restrict proper flow of blood to the back of your head. This leads to tension headaches.

2. Diminished Breathing: Poor posture can lead to severe kyphosis (hunched back) causing the torso collapse leading to breathing difficulties. Rounded shoulders and overly bent or imbalanced spine restrict the expansion of the rib cage, which restricts the rise and fall of the breathing diaphragm. Reduced rib and spinal mobility will affect the normal breathing movement. If the diaphragm can't rise, it won't be able to draw in as much oxygen during inhalation.

3. Fatigue: Fatigue is one of the most common causes of bad posture. Tired and tight muscles cannot support the skeleton as they are designed to do. Your muscles have to work extra hard just to hold you up if you have poor posture, leaving you without energy. Lack of adequate muscle flexibility and strength, abnormal joint motion in the spine and other body regions will lead to overall muscle fatigue.

4. Make you look older: Never underestimate the beauty and health benefits of good posture. Often poor posture is just a bad habit that is easily corrected. Poor posture not only makes you look older, but could be the first step toward dowager’s hump, double chin, potbelly, and swayback as well as some internal problems too. When a person is hunched over or not standing straight that person may be perceived as older than they actually are. Good posture is not only beneficial to your body; it also makes you look taller and slimmer. What's more, good posture can convey self-confidence, which may just be the best accessory you can have.

5. Back pain: Most common consequence of poor posture, due to muscle strain, especially lower back pain. The back muscles, ligaments, and discs are under extra stress when the spine is not in proper alignment. Strong muscles help keep the spine in proper alignment and prevent back pain. Strong muscles also prevent the spine from extending beyond its normal range of motion, which is essential to protecting the ligaments and disks from injury.

Source: T. Moses Public Relations and Consulting, http://tmosespublicrelations.com

Spinal Decompression Therapy, Fairfax VA

Spinal Decompression Therapy, Fairfax VA

Spinal Decompression Therapy is a safe, effective, revolutional non-surgical treatment for a variety of low back and neck conditions. This therapy's primary benefit works by restoring proper function to an injured disc. It is done by producing a controlled, mechanical traction on the spine using our Triton DTS Decompression Table. During the pull phase, injured discs are gently stretched apart, producing a suction force inside the disc. This draws disc bulges and herniations back into the center of the disc along with oxygen, water, nutrients, and other healing substances. The end result is a strong, healthy, properly functioning disc in a high percentage of patients.

Comfort is Our Top Priority
We want patient visits to be enjoyable and successful! Treatments are short in duration and administered while the patient is fully clothed. Most patients undergoing this treatment report improvements and a reduction in their pain after only a few sessions. DTS Therapy gently stretches the spine, relieving pressure from the discs, joints and muscular tissues.

Patient comfort and safety are of primary importance during DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy. There are several positioning options, so you will be able to rehabilitate the discs and spine while remaining comfortable. During DTS Therapy, you'll experience several cycles of stretch and relaxation, which gently graduate to a peak over a period of several minutes.

Therapy sessions typically last less than 20 minutes and most patients feel pain relief with as few as 6-10 treatments. It is important to remember, however, that pain reduction does not necessarily mean that your discs and spine are healed, so it is critical that patients stick with the treatment protocol prescribed by their practitioners in order to achieve the full value of DTS Therapy.

DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy is a pain-free alternative that has shown a very high rate of success at reducing or even eliminating back and neck pain.. Our office is dedicated to offering the latest, state-of-the-art therapies for lower back pain, sciatica pain relief, pinched nerve, neck pain relief, and bulging or degenerative disc diseases. We believe DTS Spinal Decompression Therapy is one of the most advanced, non-surgical and pain-free alternative.

Spinal Decompression Therapy is an Effective Treatment for:
Herniated Disc
Degenerative Disc
Facet Syndrome
Sciatica
Post-Surgical Patients
Spinal Stenosis

For more information, please visit www.dtstherapy.com or consult with one of our health care professionals!


Chiropractor
Fairfax, VA 22031

Bike Fit using Video Motion Analysis Dartfish

Bike Fit using Video Motion Analysis Dartfish

Many injuries that occur as a result of ridding a bike can be traced back to poor bike positioning.
The first step to correcting a problem or gaining some watts on the bike is with a proper bike fit. There are many schools of thought and methods but I feel that SICI ( Serotta International Cycling Institute) has the best methods, training staff and the ability to know its reproducible. Using Video to analyze motion has been around for years the first exposure I had was working with Dr. Robert Roe a chiropractor that had worked at the Olympic training center in Colorado in the early 90 using a much more cumbersome and primitive form of analysis. At that time we were using it to evaluate work loads on patients. Now I have been using Dart fish to analyze bio-mechanics of all types of athletes. At SICI we trained using there fitting principles and High Def cameras to evaluate motion down to the smallest detail. It is a more dynamic fitting process that can breakdown movement to a much higher degree. When you add power and HR data things get even more interesting. The amount of information and precision is really remarkable. I have added a video of a fit I did in Northern Virginia of a Pro cyclist that is having a few problems even after several Bike fits by other professionals.




This is an example of a marker that was placed on his right leg that is short when compared to the left and is not tracking properly. The patient feels like his right leg is wobbly and dives in medialy on the power stoke. He notes hitting the top tube. I will also let you know that after the exam I also found very specific weak core strength that needed to be address. Using this software and combining that my physical exam finding I am able to find a new starting point to make small adjustments until the correct fit is obtained.

Dr. Rick Rosa
Fairfax & Alexandria VA
703-876-5600

Study shows that Cold Laser Therapy helps Chronic Neck Pain Sufferers

Study shows that Cold Laser Therapy helps Chronic Neck Pain Sufferers

A new Australian study appeared in the journal Lancet shows that using cold laser therapy to treat chronic neck pain can be very effective.

Low-level laser therapy, also known as LLLT involves using a laser's light to stimulate tissue repair and ease pain. Lead researcher Roberta Chow of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at Australia's University of Sydney carried out an overview of 16 randomized trials that put this increasingly popular procedure to the test. 820patients were enrolled in the trials and divided into two groups: one that received either the therapy or other one that received a dummy treatment.

In five trials, the researchers found that patients given LLLT were around four times more likely to have reduced pain compared with a placebo. In the 11 other trials, for which there was a detailed analysis of pain symptoms, LLLT patients reported reductions of chronic pain by around 20 points on a scale of 100 points. The pain reduction continued for up to 22 weeks.

LLLT compares favorably with other drugs and remedies for effectiveness and its side-effects are mild, says the study. The researchers further suggested that low level laser therapy be used in combination with an exercise program for neck pain as well.

Original article: Chow RT, Johnson MI, Lopes-Martins RA, Bjordal JM. “Efficacy of low-level laser therapy in the management of neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo or active-treatment controlled trials.” Lancet. 2009 Dec 5;374(9705):1897-908.

Rick Rosa,D.C.,D.A.A.P.M
2750 Prosperity Ave, Suite #550, Fairfax VA
www.rosachiropracticfairfax.com/