Lifting the Head Off the Spine

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neck_alignmentYears ago my (Carol) first qigong teacher made the provocative statement that the world would be a different place if everyone’s heads were correctly held, in the proper position.

What did he mean by this? Most of us have the bad habit of letting our heads fall back, with the chin lifted, or forward, in a slouched position. First of all, the average human head is 8 to 12 pounds! That’s a lot of weight to carry around, and we’re too distracted, between work and other stressors, to notice.

This mal-positioning creates a constant blockage, leading to headaches, neck strain, shoulder strain, and worse, nerve impingement leading to numbness and tingling down the arms, to the fingers.

Ready to give it a try? Lift your sternum (the bony area at the center of your chest), tuck your chin in slightly, and lift the crown of the head center skywards, giving a slight tug to the muscles at the back of the neck. At the same time, let your shoulders drop. You are now lifting your head off the spine! Practice: hold it for several seconds at a time, any time, and soon your body will crave the correct position. Some examples of practice are when waiting (for a red light to turn green, for the water to boil, when listening to someone speak, or when you’re on hold), meditating, or during your daily peregrinations when you are called upon to be still for a moment.

soft_palateA related area to this is inside the mouth, where there are a number of muscles no one ever thinks of. These are: Tensor veli palatini, Levator veli palatini, Palato glossus, Palato pharyngeus, and Musculus uvulae. When you practice lifting your head off the spine, think of softening the muscles of the soft palate. This will create more space to free up the components of the jaw and neck.

Lifting the head off the spine is really a qi gong practice in that the focus is on the bones, allowing the surrounding tissue to lengthen, become stronger, and relax all at once. When you hit the “sweet spot,” you’ll know it, and with practice, will be able to hold the position for longer moments, then periods, of time.

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/lifting-the-head-off-the-spine

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: All Things Exercise, Health Tips, Philosophy, Stress Busters, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Neck Stiffness is No Joke!

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neck_muscles_tsThe neck is dense with anatomical structures. Bone, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and lymph nodes compact into a contained space that connects the brain and sensory organs with the rest of the body.

When you have a stiff neck, the muscles contract and press against the many structures in this tunnel-like space, which may be the culprit behind your headaches, sinus congestion, ear pain, eye pain, TMJ, or numbness and tingling of the arms, hands, and fingers.

Just to give you a sense of just how much stuff is squeezed into your neck, we are listing its major anatomical components, with a bit of physiology to make some sense of it all. Keep in mind this is a partial list, with none of the ligaments or tendons listed. It’s hard to fathom, but there’s so much more than you see, below:

Bony Structure
In the sub-occipital region of the neck, directly adjacent to the skull, there is a pivot joint that enables the ability to rotate the head freely, made up of the atlas (C1) and the axis (C2). There are 5 additional cervical vertebrae, with the same structure as the upper and lower back. Other significant bony structures in the neck are the hyoid bone and cricoid cartilage.

Muscles at Back of Neck
Cervical multifidi, Levator scapulae, Longissimus capitis, Longus capitis, Longus colli, Obliquus capitus superior, Obliquus capitus inferior, Rectus capitis posterior minor, Rectus capitis posterior major, Rectus capitis posterior minor, Rectus capitis posterior major, Rotators, Spinalis capitis, Semispinalis capitis, Splenius capitis, Splenius cervicis, Sternocleidomastoid, Trapezius.

Muscles at Front of Neck
Digastric, Laryngeal, Myohyoid, Omohyoid, Platysma, Scalenes: anterior, middle, and posterior, Sternothyroid, Thyroidhyoid.

Nerves
The major nerves of the neck are the Greater Auricular, Greater Occipital, Lesser Occipital, the Cervical nerves of which there are 8 pairs, Transverse Cervical, Accessory, Brachial Plexus, Vagus, Phrenic, and the Laryngeal.

Arteries and Veins
The major blood vessels of the neck are the Brachiocephalic trunk artery, External and Internal Jugular veins, Internal Carotid and External arteries, Internal and External Carotid arteries, Right Common Carotid artery, Subclavian artery, Suprascapular artery, the Vertebral artery.

Physiological Structures are divided by function. 1. Alimentary: esophagus and pharynx. 2. Respiratory: larynx and trachea. 3. Endocrine: thyroid and parathyroid glands. 4. Lymph Nodes which run throughout the neck, jaw, and upper shoulder.

What to Do For a Stiff Neck
We commonly see stiff necks and shoulders in our practice. Add to the equation the repetitive physical strain of poor posture, daily work and personal stress, and the problem is compounded.

Acupuncture and exercises are the shortest distance between the two points between pain and relief: you have to take care of neck and shoulder pain and stiffness by being proactive. If you haven’t yet experienced acupuncture, it feels like a subtle massage to the inside of the muscles.

Acupuncture has over one hundred named acupuncture points in the head and neck. Balanced with body points, acupuncture treatment will bring relief for longer and longer periods of time with each subsequent session, until the “muscle memory” is knocked out. Exercises that stretch and strengthen the deep muscles of the neck reinforce the acupuncture treatment.

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/neck-stiffness-is-no-joke

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Conditions Treated, Stress Busters Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Finding Quality Research for Medical Conditions, in a Nutshell

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path_1Have you had this experience? You go to the doctor, get a diagnosis, and then try to figure out what your doctor said, and what you’re going to do to get better.

This post is a nutshell guide to orienting yourself when the need arises. At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we’re big believers in being proactive. We find when we do a little responsible research, we’re able to make clearer decisions about our health.

Getting information on a condition helps us understand how the problem may have arisen, understand what the tests and treatment options are, and communicate to find the best ways to get better.

We recommend the following sites, because they provide information that is based on quality scientific research.

  • Basic Level

Medline Plus: overview of common symptoms, treatment options, management strategies of many medical conditions.

Mayo Clinic: a little more detail, stated differently, which allows you to compare and contrast the basic information, helping you orient yourself and deepen your understanding.

  • Intermediate Level

Cochrane Reviews: meta-analyses of published studies.

British Medical Journal: published studies.

  • Complex Level

PubMed: abstracts of published studies.

Minimizing Bias

Research studies of the highest quality are based on standards that seek to minimize bias when collecting data and analyzing it. Quality studies are the polar opposite of “he said, she said.”

Studies must meet the following criteria in order for money and time to be invested:

  • Outline the objective, method, and design of the study, with a complete review of related literature published to date.
  • Be affiliated with institutions that provide the ethical and scientific checks and balances, to ensure minimum bias and error.

There are many types of studies:

  • Randomly Controlled Trial is the research study gold standard in medicine. The RCT gathers information through a rigorous process that mathematically must have minimum bias and error built into its design. The RCT uses human subjects to find out the usefulness of healthcare practices. Built into it is the idea of chance: do some people get better because of other factors, or is the drug/device/protocol/healthcare practice of significant benefit?
  • The Large Prospective Study is also highly regarded, because it measures outcomes in the same participants, over a long period of time. Large Prospective Studies provide an opportunity to collect and analyze related data, often resulting in unexpected, useful findings. An example of this is the Women’s Health Initiative, which collected data for 12 years, from 1992-2004, from a large sampling of women. One arm of the study followed breast cancer incidence and hormone replacement therapy, ultimately leading the scientific community to agree to change methodologies in treatment of menopausal women.
  • The Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses look at all the studies that have been done on a given subject, to verify the findings of current research, including acknowledgement of weaknesses or shortfalls in the conclusions.

Not all studies are equal, so when you find a favorable study on your subject of interest, it is important to assess several factors: the who, what, where, and why of it. For example, how many participants are in the study, what methodology and design was used, the authors, the institution involved, the publishing journal. In future posts, we will cite some studies and point out some of these legitimizing details.

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/researching-medical-conditions-on-the-internet

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have a combined 34 years of experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Keep Moving!

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millet_the_gleanersWhen I (Carol) took the Memorial Sloan Kettering online oncology course for acupuncturists, the recommendation for healthy people to exercise 30-60 minutes a day was the standout detail from the entire, 30+ hours of lectures.

That’s 30-60 minutes, seven days a week of formal exercise, not including the time you may spend traveling, changing, or cleaning up. And movement for our daily peregrinations, though better than nothing, doesn’t count.

Why, I wondered, did they advocate 30-60 minutes a day, and then it hit me: our DNA is programmed to move a lot more than we do in the 21st Century. It’s only been about 250 years since the Industrial Revolution, and many conveniences we take for granted didn’t exist before then. For our ancestors, chores and travel demanded constant physical effort; physiological evolution doesn’t change as quickly as our world has, so we have to accommodate our body’s needs by moving more.

Moving is one of the main ways to reduce your risk of getting cancer, because where there is blood flow, free radicals cannot pile up. When you regularly engage in steady, sustained movement, blood perfuses throughout your body.

Once I grasped this fact, I took up the challenge, and found it easy to justify the time spent, because being cancer-free is a compelling motivator. Viewed in this light, choosing to move is as simple as standing on one side of a line and stepping over it to the other side.

Regular exercise has many benefits, including leveling out the stresses encountered in a day.

If you are new to exercise, begin slowly and build up to it. You will find the body grows stronger exponentially, for it’s designed to do this. Expect some aches and pains as you make progress, but pay attention to the quality of pain to avoid injury (so you can continue working out!). If you overdo it, don’t give up, just take a break and get some acupuncture or a massage to speed the healing.

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/keep-moving

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: All Things Exercise, Health Tips, Stress Busters, Theory, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Cytochrome P450: One Tablet or Two?

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cyp450_imageJust as we all don’t wear the same sized sweater, so too are medication dosages not meant to be one-size-fits-all proposition. Physiologically, a 100-pound woman and a 200-pound man process the same dosage differently, so it’s important to follow medication directions, for both over-the-counter and prescription drugs.

The liver takes in raw materials and produces all sorts of products we need to live. It is also a purification plant that takes in toxic waste for elimination while cleaning some substances and sending them out for further use. This article is about the medications we take and the toxic components built into them by science, knowing that a particular enzyme system in the liver, cytochrome P450 (CYP450), will clear them in the liver.

Pharmacology is the study of the actions of drugs on biological systems. These drugs either activate (agonists) or inhibit (antagonists) normal physiological processes. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s), one kind of anti-depressant drugs, are designed to affect biological activity through inhibition.

When developing a drug, scientists ascertain its therapeutic use measuring pharmacokinetics-dosage and the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion in and through the body, and pharmacodynamics- how the drug acts on the body.

By the time a drug makes it to the market, it has been well-tested to make it safe for public consumption. Very basically, the measure known as the Area Under the Curve (AUC), measures the movement of a substance into and through the body, depicting the time of its greatest concentration.

This copious testing takes into account how long it takes for the body to eliminate one-half life of the drug from the body and then how much is left in the body after five half-lives. For example, if 100 mg has a half-life of 50 mg, then its subsequent half-lives will be 25 mg, 12.5 mg, 6.25 mg, and 3.125 mg, respectively. This is why some drugs you may take require several weeks of regular dosage before achieving correct concentration in the blood, body fluids, or tissue for a therapeutic effect, and others go directly to the targeted area and have an immediate effect.

Cytochrome P450 is the generic name for a group of enzymes clustered in the liver and small intestines that breaks down anything the body doesn’t want hanging around in active form, including things eaten such as food and herbs. Two major points to remember regarding the CYP450 enzyme system are:

1) More is NOT better- CYP450 can process only so much at a time, and
2) Herbs and prescription drug should be taken two hours apart to minimize interaction

Here’s why:
As mentioned above, certain drugs are designed to increase the activity of CYP450 and others inhibit it so that the drug can stay in the body longer.
1) Some chemical reactions in the body are additive: for example, substance A combines with substance B, or 2 + 2 = 4.
2) Some chemical reactions in the body are synergistic: for example, substance A combines with substance B to produce a stronger effect by staying in the body longer, so that 2 + 2 = 10.
3) And, some chemical reactions in the body inhibit each other or cancel each other out: for example, substance A combines with substance B, or 2 + 2 = .05 or 2 + 2 =. These include certain foods and herbs, which can interact with certain drugs and get in the way of CYP450 either additively, synergistically, or by inhibiting ts functions.

Therefore, it is important to take follow dosage recommendations, and to not overtax the liver by asking it to process too many medically-intended substances at once: think twice next time you reach for something, asking yourself if you really need it. If you say “yes,” remember what else you ate or  in the past hour, and maybe wait a bit, or take a lesser dosage and see how that works.

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/cytochrome-p450-one-tablet-or-two

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Integrative Medicine, Stress Busters, You Are What You Eat Tagged With: , ,
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