According to a growing body of evidence featured in a recent article in the NY Times, acetaminophen may greatly increase the risk of getting asthma.

For instance, a study published in The Lancet in 2008 examined information collected on more than 205,000 children from 31 countries as part of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, known as the Isaac study. The 2008 analysis found that children who had taken acetaminophen for a fever during the first year of life had a 50 percent greater risk of developing asthma symptoms, compared with children who had not taken the drug. The risk rose with increasing use — children who had taken acetaminophen at least once a month had a threefold increase in the risk of asthma symptoms.

A study published by British researchers in 2000 using data from the Isaac study found that the prevalence of asthma increased in lock step with sales of acetaminophen in the 36 countries examined. The more acetaminophen used in a country, the greater that country’s prevalence of asthma.

The causal link hasn’t yet been firmly established, according to the article, but randomized trials are under way to see just how safe acetaminophen really is.

Says one doctor quoted in the article when talking about how to use acetaminophen responsibly:  “We should be reserving paracetamol for very high fevers or for major pain relief,” he said.

If you or someone you know is  using acetaminophen for “major pain relief” to handle a chronic pain issue, you may want to weigh the benefits of short term relief against the possibility of long term breathing issues.

The arrow points to Maryann's left hip where damage was being done to the cartilage. The top line provides reference so you can see how far off her hips were misaligned.

In May of 2006, I had a breast augmentation procedure done. I was 25 at the time, and I had long been self-conscious about my breast size.  The surgery went off without a hitch, and I was happy with this “better” version of myself. I have always been active and athletic, so I went right back into my exercise routine as soon as I could.

In July, only two months later, I sprained my foot jumping rope. A few months later, in November, I started to get pain in my knee, and at the base of my spine at the sacroiliac joint.  At the time, I didn’t see the pattern to what was happening. I just thought I was getting old.  I was getting lots of injuries that weren’t going away, so I just took it easy, hoping rest would make the pain go away. Eventually, in the winter of 2007, I went to try this thing called Posture Alignment Therapy to try to help get rid of the pain. The process was eye-opening. My attention was drawn to the imbalances in my body that hadn’t been there before (a hunched back, uneven shoulders, and a severe twist to the left through my whole body). I learned exercises that helped me stand up straighter and seemed to relieve some of my back and sacroiliac pain, but the relief never lasted very long. The pain started building up, and I had to take long breaks from surfing and running.

Then, in November of 2008 when I was on one of my usual runs, I was about six blocks from my house when my pelvis suddenly felt like it had slipped or dislocated. Thinking it was just a minor muscle pull, I stretched it out and pushed on with my run. After that run, my hip did not get better.

In January of 2009, I tried Egoscue again. Over the next several months, despite the postural exercises I was doing and the total break I was taking from all the running and surfing that I loved, my hip got worse.
By August of 2009, I was 27 years old, and I was in a wheel chair.

The next eight months of my life were filled with visits to every doctor and health practitioner imaginable.  I consulted with over 30 healthcare professionals including medical doctors, surgeons around the country, chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and spiritual healers.  I had multiple X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and bone scans performed on my hip as well as other parts of my body.  In a desperate attempt to treat the pain I underwent injections and tried many different combinations of pain killers and drugs. All to no avail.

In January of 2010, I finally got a diagnosis: Femoral Acetabular Impingement with a labral tear. The bones of my hip were rubbing against each other, tearing the cartilage. This was not what I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear was why my hip joint was grinding itself away, but the doctors weren’t interested in answering that question. They recommended I try surgery, though there were no guarantees that it would work.

Desperate for an end to the pain, I went in for hip arthroscopy in Los Angeles with one of only a few specialists in the country who could perform the procedure.

The surgeon repaired the cartilage and reshaped the hip socket and femur so that they would not rub anymore. Within a month, however, I was back in a wheelchair.

This was the lowest point I had ever been in. The doctors were completely unable to help me, even with this surgery.

At this point I started thinking seriously again about what I’d seen happen to my body since the implants. My body had started to rotate. My upper back had gone into an extreme hunch. My left hip had elevated. In my gut, I knew that these things had all started after the breast augmentation. The doctors I consulted weren’t on board with my theory, but I pressed ahead with what my gut told me was wrong and had my breast implants removed in April of 2010.

I continued to do my postural exercises, and within 2 months, my hip pain was gone and I was back to enjoying my life.

I battled chronic pain, and rapidly deteriorating posture and physical health, and I came out on top.  As a result, I have a unique insight and understanding of what it is like to deal with pain, physical limitations, and the devastating mental and emotional impact it can have on a person’s life.  I have dedicated my professional career to helping people who want to be proactive about addressing the underlying cause of their pain or physical limitations.   After recovering fully, and getting certified through Egoscue University as a Posture Alignment Specialist, today I am able to help people get out of pain using this unique form of exercise therapy.

Hi Matt,

Just got back from England last night. Two trans-atlantic flights, miles and miles and miles of walking, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, away from my tower (a therapy device she now owns): I did absolutely fantastic!!

I only had 2 minor episodes of achey back. The first one was our second day in Paris. Our tour to Versailles was canceled due to a strike, so we found ourselves alone in Paris for 12 hours on foot. My back was a little achey, so we stopped along the Seine and I did air bench (an exercise she learned while coming to Upright Health) against a building. The street was deserted due to it being Bastille Day. Feet slipped out from under me and I was on my butt! Tried an area where there was more traction, and my back was fine in under 2 minutes. Another day I had some minor discomfort but again, the air bench worked in just a couple of minutes. Thanks for teaching me how to take care of myself! I hope all is well with you!

~Syl

Stories like this make my day!

If you feel pinching pain at any point during this test, it means you’ve got misalignment and muscular imbalances in your shoulder blades and shoulder joints that will affect your neck, mid-back, lower back, and hips via direct muscular and connective tissue connections. Not a good thing to have, but it’s a great thing to know so you can get started fixing it.

This short video demonstrates how to do the self-test:

The great thing about this test is that it can also help you start restoring shoulder health if you do it gently and with proper technique (and assuming your muscular imbalances don’t stem from somewhere other than your shoulders and mid and upper back). If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the comment section below!

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

~Dr. Benjamin Spock, M.D.

That internal sense that something is going wrong in your body? Don’t ignore it. Address it.

But this line of thinking, while occasionally successful (and then only partially), misses this point: chronic and recurrent back pain is the result of a chain of events. 

Imagine we have a row of 10 domino tiles lined up.  With the flick of a finger, we knock the first tile over, which proceeds to knock over the rest, one by one until they all fall down.

We could say that the second to last domino caused the very last domino to fall, couldn’t we?

“If not for that second to last domino, that last domino wouldn’t have fallen!” we could comfortably and factually exclaim.

But, while true, that statement does not address the reality of the situation.  The first domino, the second domino, and the third domino (and so on) were all part of a chain of events — started by the flick of a finger — that led to the falling of the last domino.

This is the same situation with back pain.  A process takes place that starts domino tiles falling.  By the time the pain is debilitating, you’ve allowed many tiles to fall.  Interventions focused on herniations, disc bulges, etc. are often focusing on the second to last domino.  It’s the clearest, closest cause of the problem.

But discs do not suddenly decide to go bad, nor do vertebrae one day resolve to crush discs for no good reason. There are no viruses or bacteria that cause these things to happen. There is a process in play.

Patterns in our daily lives set us up for pain.  Injuries that we have never fully acknowledged and allowed to heal properly hamper healthy movement patterns that put painful processes in place.  Sitting for 18 hours a day weakens certain muscles and forces others to do double duty.

When we recognize these kinds of patterns and make efforts to change them, we can really make progress in getting all the pieces back in place, rather than fighting with the second to last domino and wondering why, despite our best efforts, everything is still out of whack.