Yes, I tend to talk a lot about posture, but this time around I don’t mean that question in the postural sense. I am asking about your attitude toward challenges in life. Thomas Jefferson once said: Continue reading →
ACL surgery efficacy questioned again
A study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine questions the effectiveness of ACL surgery in restoring health to injured knees. Here’s a brief summary from the New York Times:
Over two years, the injured knees were assessed using a comprehensive numerical score that rated pain, function during activity and other measures. At the time of the original injury, the knee also had been scored.
At the end of the two years, both groups showed considerable improvement. The scores for the surgically repaired knees had risen by 39.2 points. The scores for the more conservatively treated knees also had risen, by 39.4 points.
In other words, the outcomes were virtually identical. Despite a widespread belief that surgery leads to a stronger knee, the results showed that surgically reconstructing the A.C.L. as soon as possible after the tear “was not superior” to more conservative treatment, the study’s authors wrote.
To read the rest of the article, click here to head over to the New York Times.
Make your sleep more restful
Sleep should be a restful period, but for a lot of people with chronic pain, it’s not. For some reason, sleeping actually seems to make pain and fatigue worse. Frustrating? Yes. Incomprehensible? No.
When pain is a result of poor posture, sleeping can often exacerbate the pain. Beds often tweak the body in ways that aggravate bad postural habits. Continue reading →
Why is it so hard to make a fake knee?
My brother has been in the medical engineering field for the last several years and has worked on things like DNA sequencing machines, surgical saws, and artificial lower legs for amputees (I’m told he’s actually quite competent too!). The project most interesting to me, though, was the fake the knee that he worked on a few years back.
The knee was designed to be a “smart” knee — meaning it would have software built in that would make it function like a real knee. It would be able to sense and react to movements so that it would move the way a regular (organically grown) knee does.
But there was a major problem when trying to program the software for the knees.
They had to try to get the knee to learn how the individual wearer walked so it could accurately predict when the person was going to, say, go up some stairs or step off a curb so that it could react accordingly. But here was the problem.
The person wearing the knee never moved exactly the same way.
Once the knee had “learned” how the person moved, the person was already moving a different way. The position they slept in at night would change the way they walked. Sitting for a while changed the way they walked. There was nothing that DIDN’T affect the way the person walked.
So the end result was that the smart knee’s software would get consistently confused and gradually lock up into the flexed position until it could be reset.
Not ideal.
The moral of the story is that it makes more sense to do as much as you can to keep the biological knee you’ve got before having it replaced with a smart knee or a dumb knee because no matter how good technology is, it’s extraordinarily hard to replicate the intricate system of coordination going in on your organically grown body!
Get your body working right. Keep your joints feeling right. Keep your OEM parts!
Pictures from the party are up!
Silly pictures from the opening of Upright Health’s new location in San Diego are up! You can head to Lumiere Imagery’s facebook page and check out the Silly Photos album to see them all! Sadly, there aren’t any pictures of Sebastian‘s magic show…
Again, special thanks go to the raffle prize sponsors:
Icetown La Jolla (family 4-pack of skating passes): Summer’s hot. The ice rink is not. Plus, you have a high probability of seeing me there!
Paul Mitchell Salon ($40 gift certificate for men’s and women’s services): Incredible haircuts at truly incredible prices.
Addie’s Personal Training Studio (Assessment and two personal training sessions): Say goodbye to your flabby butt.
Lumiere Imagery (Family portrait and an 8X10): Your family will never look so good.
Maplets iPhone and iPad app (Free download coupons): In case you ever find yourself in Thumb Butte Recreation Area (yes, that’s the actual name of an actual place), you’ll want to have this app with you to navigate yourself to the more scenic parts of the area.
Future events coming
Keep your eyes peeled for word on the next party at Upright Health. It won’t be a grand opening, but it will be fun, and it will be grander than grand.
If all that hyperbole is not exciting enough, let me add that it will involve the opportunity for you to shoot hockey pucks at my groin.
Yes, you read that correctly. You. Pucks. Shoot. My groin.
Make sure you’re on the email list (you can sign up by downloading my e-book)!
Thanks for making it a great party!
To the multitude of you who showed up for Upright Health’s new office opening extravaganza, thanks for coming out and making it a great event! I hope your jaws have recovered from the sudden drops they suffered while witnessing the impossible feats of Sebastian! Once the professionally silly photos from Sheryl at Lumiere Imagery are all set to go, you’ll be the first to know.
Special thanks go to the raffle prize sponsors:
Icetown La Jolla (family 4-pack of skating passes): Summer’s hot. The ice rink is not. Plus, you have a high probability of seeing me there!
Paul Mitchell Salon ($40 gift certificate for men’s and women’s services): Incredible haircuts at truly incredible prices.
Addie’s Personal Training Studio (Assessment and two personal training sessions): Say goodbye to your flabby butt.
Lumiere Imagery (Family portrait and an 8X10): Your family will never look so good.
Maplets iPhone and iPad app (Free download coupons): In case you ever find yourself in Thumb Butte Recreation Area (yes, that’s the actual name of an actual place), you’ll want to have this app with you to navigate yourself to the more scenic parts of the area.
Future events coming
Keep your eyes peeled for word on the next party at Upright Health. It won’t be a grand opening, but it will be fun, and it will be grander than grand.
If all that hyperbole is not exciting enough, let me add that it will involve the opportunity for you to shoot hockey pucks at my groin.
Yes, you read that correctly. You. Pucks. Shoot. My groin.
Make sure you’re on the email list (you can sign up by downloading my e-book)!
Wrist pain taught me to stand up straight
The veins in my right arm in this picture show you what good circulation looks like for me.
I was a student at UCLA. I worked in an on-campus computer lab. One winter, I injured my right shoulder in mid-air while snowboarding. I struggled to figure out how to help my shoulder heal, but nothing was helping. Physical therapy wasn’t helping. Sitting on my butt, chatting online, and updating my friendster profile while eating ibuprofen wasn’t helping.
And then the pain in my wrists set in. At first it wasn’t bad, but it got progressively worse. My elbows started to get tender. I could feel tendons snapping and popping every time I straightened my arm coupled with a squelching sensation. My forearms felt sore — glowing with inflammation. My fingers began to curl up. My palms discolored to a sickly purple. The veins that had once bulged on my forearms — a sign of fantastic circulation — disappeared and were replaced with a cold numbness from just above my elbow all the way down to my finger tips.
So began the struggle. I started taking supplements. Vitamins B6 and B12 helped for while. I don’t know how they helped, but they took the pain down as if by magic. And then, as suddenly as I’d found that they helped, they stopped helping.
So I tried acupuncture. I tried electro-acupuncture. I tried chiropractic. I tried Chinese medical massage, I tried herbal remedies. I tried acupressure. I tried shiatsu. I tried eating a Chinese beef tendon dish (that my mother can cook quite well, thank you). I tried eating more meat. I tried eating less meat.
I sought help from my doctor who told me my problem was overuse and repetitive motion.
So I cut back on the computer. I cut back on any attempts to do exercise. I upped the ibuprofen dosage.
And nothing got better unless I kept myself off the computer as much as possible. Five minutes was all it took to set my hands off into their cold, numb state. My doctor assured me that it wasn’t carpal tunnel syndrome (the wrong fingers were going numb, after all!), so that all I had to do was wear a brace and rest until the inflammation magically disappeared.
As long as I didn’t need to do anything, this strategy worked quite well. No computer, no pain. No exercise, no problem. Until my knee started pinching, my feet started aching and going numb, my hips started popping, my neck started hurting, and my back got stiff…
Which is all to say that resting wasn’t the solution. Fixing the posture was. As far as the wrists and forearms were concerned, the problems started clearing up as my shoulders found the right position to be in and learned to maintain that position (with the help of my hips, legs, and back). As many of my clients will tell you (and my friends and family as well), I now spend a good deal of time typing away on this machine called a computer.
And you know what? As long as I do the work away from the computer to maintain good posture, my forearm veins stay full of blood, and I survive and thrive in the 21st century!
New location celebration!
Upright Health has moved, and you’re invited to come warm up the new home!
SEE THE NEW PLACE!
It’s bigger and better! There’s fresh air, good light, and room for you to do your posturally aligned modelling!
SERIOUSLY, DO SOME MODELING — IN A CRAZY HAT!
Professional photographer Sheryl of Lumiere Imagery will be on hand to snap a few flattering photos of you in the new space. Bring your wildest hat, funkiest tie, rattiest t-shirt, or use the toys in Sheryl’s trunk of goodies to make your photographs shine with silliness! Have your photos tagged on Facebook (so all your friends can see) or emailed to you (so you can forward it on to your mother — who wants to know why you haven’t called recently, by the way)!
BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOR A LITTLE MAGIC!
Who doesn’t like magic? Okay, yes, there are some people who don’t like magic, but those are exactly the people you should bring to watch the magic of Sebastian! He’s got a wry sense of humor, hands that can make anything vanish, and a bag of tricks that will make even the most cynical of magic-haters crack a stupid grin!
Sebastian will have two 30 minute shows to entertain and bedazzle! The first one starts at 3:00 and the second one starts at 4:00! He will also be mingling with us common folk to wow us with his prowess!
WIN SOMETHING GREAT!
I know, you’re thinking it’s crazy that the fun has not yet stopped. But it hasn’t. Everyone who shows up will be entered to win some cool prizes. I can’t tell you exactly what they will be, because that would very much ruin the surprise, but the prizes will not be mediocre. I can guarantee that they will be at least two ticks above average.
Hope to see you there!
To RSVP, please send me an email!
New location is at 3443 Camino del Rio S. #211 San Diego, CA 92108
Heel pain? What are your shoulders doing?
Everything is connected — in your personal life, in business, in your body. I have a client who can tell you personally just how much those connections matter. We’ll call him “Mr. Twister.” Mr. Twister had pain in his feet that wasn’t caused by anything going on anywhere near his feet. Take a look at his pictures and read his own words about how he came to realize how important the connection between all his body’s parts really is.
After two weeks of doing his exercises, Mr. Twister's pictures showed a noticeable reduction in the twist in his torso that was making his left shoulder hang behind while walking and running. You can see the twist by looking at the severity of the shoulder slant and how long his left arm looks relative to the right.
“I’ve been working as a dentist for nine years. As a dentist, I’ve been suffering from poor posture and twisting of my body as a result of long hours of work. Not only was I discouraged about how my posture was getting worse, but I also noticed pain in my upper back and the heels of my feet. I am an avid runner and had been dealing with plantar fascitis for a few years. I tried going to chiropractors and kinesiologists with no results except a lighter wallet. I was referred to Matt and skeptically gave him a try. He offered me a few stretching exercises to do every day.
After doing the stretches, I can now run longer and faster. I discovered that the foot pain was due to the twisting in my body and that it was (for years) misdiagnosed as plantar fasciitis. I am still doing the exercises and have noticed the forward head posture also decreasing. I’ve finally found someone who can help with the aches and pains that come from my posture problems!”
The diction of doom
The way the medical world views pain dooms its victims to failure. What’s shocking is that it stems from a lack of linguistic precision.
Think about this example. Your friend is lying in bed, sweating and coughing and complaining of congestion. His temperature is 103 degrees. He feels dizzy and weak and occasionally cold.
You would say he has a fever, right? Continue reading →
