Could your smart phone be hurting your knees?

I love smart phones. I think they’re fantastic for making business happen, for greasing the wheels of every transaction in daily life, and for making life more productive, easier, and fun. But smart phones aren’t always the smartest choice when it comes to your posture! Continue reading →

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Free workshop coming soon!

Announcing a free workshop for those suffering from chronic pain!

Is pain sucking the life out of you — making you less efficient and more irritable? Learn how changing your diet and posture can relieve your chronic pain. Walk away knowing which foods to add and remove from your diet as well as simple and effective exercises to help address your pain.

A free talk given by Samantha Hua, Holistic Health Counselor of Happy Food Health and Matt Hsu, Posture Alignment Therapist of Upright Health.

When: February 23rd at 6:30PM

Where: Upright Health, 2801 Camino del Rio S. #311 San Diego, CA 92108 (click for directions)

RESERVE YOUR SPOT BY CALLING (619) 630-8771 or sending an email to matt@uprighthealth.com

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Want to know why your pain sticks around?

Chronic pain is frustrating precisely because it seems like you’ll never beat it. Everywhere you turn, someone is telling you that pain is just a necessary part of aging and that there’s nothing you can do about it. Doctors are telling you that some injuries just don’t heal, so tough cookies.  Have some pills.

As you’re working with your pain, remember this quote:

“People don’t fail because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.”

~Les Brown

What are your expectations for your pain?  Are you looking for 5 minutes of relief?  5 days? 5 years?

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Learn how food contributes to your pain

Are you a San Diegan suffering from chronic pain, looking for answers but finding nothing but half-truths, half-solutions, and half-baked ideas?

Come to a free workshop, hosted here at the Upright Health office! You’ll get vital information that will show you the way to get out of pain and get back to living your life!  The evening will be one hour long with two information-packed talks by Samantha Hua of Happy Food Health and Matt Hsu of Upright Health.  Click here for more information!

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ACLs don’t heal?

Based on the medical observation that torn Anterior Cruciate Ligaments (ACLs for short) often don’t heal, common wisdom is that the ACL simply cannot heal. But there is a crucial difference between “can’t” and “don’t.”

A few researchers have looked at why the ACL doesn’t often heal on its own, and the answer, according to one doctor, is as simple as this: the torn ends of the torn ligament aren’t able to get close enough to knit themselves back into one.

Looking at torn ACL tissue under the microscope, Dr. Murray discovered that the injury tries to heal on its own—cells proliferate, blood vessels grow—but the ligament ends never join. When most ligaments tear, a blood clot forms, creating a temporary scaffold for cells to migrate onto, but in ACL tears, fluid in the knee joint washes the clot away.

via Children’s Hospital Boston

This makes a lot of sense if you think about it.  If you got a paper cut, for example, the wound would eventually heal.  The skin grows back together over time.  As long as there is contact between the skin on either side of the cut, the skin will grow back together.

If you tear a ligament, as long as you can get the pieces to get close enough together, it’ll heal.  If you have a knee that’s twisted out of alignment, torquing the ACL into a compromised position, it’s only a matter of time before you blow it out completely.  Unless you fix that torqued position — even with a gel to help ACL heal — it seems like you’d just be waiting to blow it out all over again.

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Are you driving your foot wonky?

In San Diego, driving is a necessity. Natives know that the “North American Outstanding Public Transportation System of Year” award  given to the MTS is little more than a joke to anyone who needs to traverse four miles in under an hour. Well — guess what — it also  has an effect on your posture! Continue reading →

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You are the expert on your body

With every doctor, chiropractor, massage therapist, personal trainer, and acupuncturist telling you that they know best about your body, it’s important to remember that no matter how much any one alternative health practitioner knows about health in general, you still have a leg up on all of them when it comes to your body.  Continue reading →

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An e-book is on the way!

Ever wondered what pain really is? What pain really means?  Do you have friends or family who think painkillers are the best way to deal with pain and not sure how to get through to them?

I’m excited to announce I will be releasing an e-book at the beginning of 2010 entitled Beat Your Pain With Your Brain: Everything you need to know to get better.  Make sure you get your copy by signing up for the Upright Health newsletter!

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Remember to stand up!

Just a quick reminder to all you folks out there sitting in front of computers all day: stand up and stretch!

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You aren’t the only one who can’t sit up straight

This laughable article about research done in Australia makes me, well, want to laugh!  The study is called “Is ideal sitting posture real?”:

Questions are being raised about the science used to support the sitting postures recommended as being good for our backs and bodies. Continue reading →

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