One of the best metaphors for the way your body works is one of the car. Let’s say your left front tire keeps going bald. Every seven months, the left front tire is run totally bald — and yet somehow all the other tires seem to be fine. Is the problem the tire, or is the problem something else? Continue reading →
Your email addiction is killing you!
I know, you have to check your email again. There might be SOMETHING really good in there, so you HAVE to stay sitting there with your neck stretched out and your shoulders rounded. If you’ve been trying to snap your addiction to email for your posture and productivity’s sake, Google’s got a fantastic tool for you.
Continue reading →
Will surgery on the wrist really fix a wrist problem?
Carpal tunnel. Scary words. Everyone knows what it means at this point. But do you know what carpal tunnel surgery means? If you think it means sure-fire relief, you’re partially right, and mostly wrong.
Check out the abstract of this study on carpal tunnel surgery in the Journal of Hand Surgery (Volume 20, Issue 4, Long Term Results of Carpal Tunnel Release, Nancollas et al. ):
…the average time to maximum improvement of symptoms was 9.8 months. However, 30% reported poor to fair strength and long-term scar discomfort, and 57% noted a return of some pre-operative symptoms, most commonly pain, beginning an average of 2 years after surgery.
So let’s flesh that out. It takes almost 10 months to feel your best after the surgery (time you’re resting, rehabbing, taking a break from work). You have a 1 in 3 chance that you’ll not ever regain full strength. And, here’s the kicker: the symptoms that cause you to get surgery have BETTER than a 1 in 2 chance of coming back in the few years following the surgery.
If you’re considering carpal tunnel surgery, those facts should give you pause. If the symptoms come back (and boy do they!), perhaps there’s something wrong with the rationale for doing the surgery in the first place?
Happy Valentine’s Day Weekend
Tell the one you love that you love them! A little love goes a long way toward keeping a lot of pain at bay!
And it’ll probably help fix your posture too. 
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 →
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
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?
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!
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.
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.
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 →
