Here are the stats and costs:

• Average price of a pack of cigarettes (2011) = $4.80
• Cost over a year smoking a pack a day = $1,747.20
  • In New York, this number can go over $3,000 annually!

If $1,747.20 were instead invested with a (small) 5% interest rate, that money would be worth over $130,000 in 30 years!

This number doesn’t even include the associated health costs that go hand in hand with smoking, which can be in the many thousands, especially if one has to get treatment for lung cancer.

Smoking is one of the fastest and quickest way to increase your health dramatically.  Studies have also shown that for chronic smokers that quit before the age of 30, if they never smoke again, the body is able to heal itself so that their lungs can get almost as healthy as one that has never smoked!  Please do yourself a favor and kick the habit.  If you don’t smoke, but know others that do, try and help them along as well.  For those that need extra help, also consider chiropractic as a way to help curb your addiction.

Related Articles:
Chiropractic and Addiction

A joint study with UCLA AND UCSD conducted in 2004 found that individuals with anterior head carriage or vulture neck, had a higher incidence of getting heart disease.  The experiment was done on elderly individuals, people more likely to have poor posture and more at risk for heart disease.  It was found that those with poor neck posture were about 3x more likely to get a heart attack.  It was also found that the more forward the individual’s head, the higher a chance that their heart would be affected.

How is the Heart Related to Poor Posture?

The method of heart disease this study specifically mentioned was atherosclerosis of the heart vessels.  Atherosclerosis is a partial blockage of the blood vessels with a build up of cholesterol, which restricts blood flow and oxygen to in this case, the heart.  The lack of oxygen causes heart tissue to die, which eventually leads to a heart attack.  The study did not explain how this happens, but the heart and its blood vessels are powered by the nerves which exit the spinal levels T1 and T2.  For a person with poor posture, the areas most affected are in that region.  If you look around you, almost everyone has poor neck posture.  Tie this to the fact that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States.   I am pretty sure that this is not purely coincidental…

This study is just another proof that poor posture greatly affects an individuals health and should not be taken for granted.

Related Articles:
What is Vulture Neck?
What is Good Posture?
How Poor Posture Affects your Health

Vulture Neck is a term that my wife invented to explain her postural problem also known as anterior head carriage or forward head carriage.  It is characterized by a person’s head being far in front of their body, just like a vulture’s.  It can also come accompanied with forward shoulders and a lump or bump on the base of the neck similar to that of a mini hunchback.  Vulture neck is at least a nation-wide problem.  To judge whether someone has anterior head carriage or not, simply look at their posture from the side.  If their ear hole is generally in front of the middle of their shoulder, then they have vulture neck!

Vulture Neck and poor posture starts early, don't let it turn into a bad habit!

Is Vulture Neck Normal?

Forward head posture is developed due to poor postural tendencies.  While many people have developed this pattern so that they do it normally while standing, it is easiest seen when people are working on their computers (especially laptops), texting, or playing hand held video games.  While it is so common that people may think this is normal, it is important to note that COMMON DOES NOT MAKE SOMETHING NORMAL. Obesity is now a common occurrence with 2 out of 3 people clinically being overweight.  This does not make being overweight normal.

Poor Posture Creates Stress on your Neck, Back, and Rest of your Body

The further forward your ear goes from the center of your shoulder, the more stress in weight your body has to withstand

Having poor posture can have detrimental affect on your body.  Your head is approximately 7-8% of your body weight or about 10.5 lbs if you weigh 150 lbs.  Since your head is on top of your head, every little bit that your head is forward of your spine is more stress that your neck muscles have to endure to keep your head from falling forward.  Since your muscles are attached to your bones, having chronic tight muscles due to poor posture greatly affects those bones, thus greatly affecting those joints causing a subluxation.  When your joints are compromised, the nerves coming out of those joints are also affected.  Since your nerves power everything in your body, including your organs, having poor posture can greatly have a negative impact on your organ and overall health, especially if kept for a long time.

Vulture neck can lead to many things.  Some of the symptoms in a progression like order include:

• Neck and or shoulder pain/discomfort
• Headaches
• Arthritis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Organ dysfunction or failure

Find out if you have Vulture Neck

Vulture neck is easiest to correct if caught early.  A chiropractor is well equipped to help any individual with postural problems included to, but not limited to vulture neck.  Our office in El Segundo does routine postural analysis on our patients and interested individuals at our office or any of our community events.  One of our goals is to address the total health and well being of the individual and we strongly believe that posture is an integral part to the entire picture.

Related Articles:
What is Good Posture?
How Poor Posture Affects your Health
What is a Subluxation?

Poor Posture and Neck, Shoulder, and Low Back Pain

Poor posture is commonly seen in the lower neck region and lower back.  In the neck region it is characterized by a forward head, aka “vulture neck”, also called forward head carriage or anterior head carriage.  In the lower back it can be characterized by a curve that goes toward your belly button too much, or too little.  Since your muscles attach to your bones, any deviation from the normal posture forces your supporting muscles to work harder to keep you from falling over.  This is why poor posture commonly results in tension or sore muscles in the neck or shoulder region and or lower back region.  Does this sound familiar to you?

Poor Posture and Headaches

Remember that muscles attach to bones?  If your poor posture is causing your neck muscles to continuously tense up, it can lead to headaches due to a reduced flow of blood to the head.

Poor Posture and Arthritis

Since poor posture is causing the increased muscle tension and since the muscles are attached to your bones, the joints of the affected muscles loose the normal flexibility since the muscles are holding them in place.  This is when a joint becomes “stuck” or subluxated as chiropractors would call it.  Loss of joint mobility begins the arthritic or joint degeneration process.  This can begin with a reduction of the natural curves of the spine.  Soon the bones will actually begin to deform due to the repeated stress of the musculature.  The bone deformation degenerates your joints and spinal discs and decreases the space where your nerves exit your spine.  The deformation of the bones and joints is exactly what arthritis is and once your bone has changed there is not getting it back to normal, even with surgery!  The most common spinal vertebrae to become degenerated or arthritic in the spine are C6 and L4, the sites most commonly associated with poor posture.

Poor Posture and Nerve Damage

Once the bones and joints become deformed, it can greatly impact the nerves that exit the spine causing them to degenerate.  Whenever there is nerve degeneration, it is always linked with joint degeneration.  What most people think of when they think of nerve damage is a pinched nerve.  While it is possible that the nerve is actually being compressed by a bone or disc, it is not usually the case.  Instead it is usually an increase in pressure that is inflaming the nerve, but it is basically the same idea.  A very common example of nerve damage due to poor posture is carpal tunnel syndrome.  Most people think of carpal tunnel syndrome as coming from the wrist, which is where it may be coming from.  What they may not realize is that the median nerve (the nerve associated with carpal tunnel syndrome) can also be injured in the elbow, shoulder, or neck, causing carpal tunnel symptoms.

Poor Posture and Organ Dysfunction

As mentioned above, nerve degeneration is linked with joint degeneration.  Joint degeneration is another word for arthritis.  A famous study done in the 20th century  followed autopsies of people that died of chronic conditions called the Windsor Autopsies.  It was found that in 97% of all people that died from a due to an organ problem (ie. heart disease or lung disease), the nerves that powered those organs were degenerated.  When the nerves were traced back to the spinal joints, the joints were arthritic.

In a more recent study done in the 21st century, it was found that individuals with forward head carriage (poor posture of the neck and upper back) were 3 times more likely to die from a heart attack due to arteriosclerosis (plaque in the arteries).  In general, the nerves that power the heart are located around T2 or the second thoracic vertebrae.  If you have forward head posture, that vertebrae is definitely affected.

Getting Better Posture

While maintaining a good posture is not the secret to a healthy lifestyle and long life, it is surely a valuable component to health and wellness in general.  There are many things you can do to resolve poor posture including yoga, massage, proper exercises, and of course chiropractic.

Related Articles:
What is Good Posture?
What is Vulture Neck?

Posture is the way your body positions yourself.  Your posture is determined by the shape and size of your bones and the give and pull of the muscles of the body.  Assuming there are no anatomical birth defects or traumatic accidents, the posture of the spine in a healthy adult has 4 distinct curves, which go forward and backwards.  You are born with 2 of these curves in your mid back and sacrum or tail bone and you develop 2 more as you mature, in the neck and lower back.  The 2 curves you’re born with are called kyphotic or primary curves.  They round out towards your backside.  The 2 curves you develop are called lordotic or secondary curves and they round out towards your front side.  The body is not supposed to have curves that round out to the sides, which is a condition called scoliosis.

What is Good Posture?

Good posture can be measured by looking at specific body landmarks in relation to others.  This can be easily done by standing next to a weighted string to see where a straight line passes through your body from the side.  Some people call this a “plumb line”.  To achieve the best posture for your body the string should pass through the following parts of your body:

• Ear lobe
• Mid point of shoulder
• Center of hip
• Center of knee
• Slightly anterior or in front of your ankle bone

If the plumb line does not pass through these body parts on you, then you do not have proper posture.  Having an altered posture creates distortions and imbalances in your muscles, movement, and stance.  Over time, it can easily lead to pain and arthritis.  Poor posture also creates subluxations in the spine, which leads to an decrease in the functioning of your body and nervous system.

Poor posture is a very common problem for many individuals, but that doesn’t mean it’s normal.  It is much easier to correct postural tendencies when you are younger.  In really chronic situations, it can be irreversible.  Having a good posture is an important aspect to having and living a healthy life.  Do yourself a favor and get your postured checked!

Posture Analysis on our receptionist Shantoi

*Our office routinely does postural workups on our patients.  We are able to track what your posture should be relatively against what you already have.  We find anterior head carriage to be the biggest problem for most people and a common cause of upper back and or neck pain.  We find it so often, we have termed the posture problem “Vulture Neck.”  If you would like to get your posture analyzed, call our office.

Thank you to all of the great and kind people I met at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix (6/26/11).  It was a great event and I had a lot of fun.  I now have a better understanding of cycling, not to mention a new found respect for what I think is now the most dangerous sport I have ever seen.  Keep up the good work and I will see you all at the Torrance Criterium on 7/31/11!

Photo taken by Chris Miller who happened to stop by our booth

Below are the top 10 riskiest foods you can buy and maybe what you can do about it.

#10)  Chicken – 42% of chickens tested had the campylobactor bacteria (stomach flu) and another 12% were infected with salmonella

*Tip* Cooking your chicken at 180 degrees or higher will pretty much wipe out the bacteria.  You are also better off buying free range chicken as tests indicated none of these bacteria in them!

#9)  Ground Beef – 53% contaminated with clostridium perfringens (similar to irritable bowel syndrome), 30% with staphylococcus (common cold), and 12% with listeria monocytogenes (listeriosis)

*Tip* – Oregano is one of the most potent anti bacterial herbs, put it on your food as a seasoning.

#8)  Ground Turkey – 25% contaminated with listeria, campylobacter, and or clostridium.

*Tip* Just like the chicken, cook at at least 180 degrees.  Also, buy organic turkey as these turkeys have not been shot up with antibiotics and thus are not exposed to super resistant bacteria.

#7)  Oysters – 100% contaminated with e coli from gulf coasts, 9% with salmonella, and many oysters contain the norovirus

*Tip* Most of these virus or bacteria are killed when cooked.  Don’t slurp an oyster raw!

#6)  Eggs – Can still be contaminated with salmonella, despite pasteurization.

*Tip* Eating an egg sunny side up increases your risk for salmonella by double (only 1 in 10,000 though)

#5)  Cantaloupe – 3.5% contained salmonella or shigella (dysentery), 7% still had bugs!

*Tip* Scrub your cantaloupes before cutting.  Just don’t forget about possible cross contamination.

#4) Peaches – The highest ranked fruit for exposure to pesticides.

*Tip* Buy organic peaches.  If not an option, peel off the skin.

#3)  Lettuce – Accounts for about 28% of food poisonings

*Tip* Hard, but true – rinse each leaf at a time.

#2)  Cold Cuts – 3% contaminated by listeria, but listeria thrives in refrigerators…

*Tip* Mustard has been shown to kill about 90% of bacteria, so feel free to put it on your sandwiches!

#1)  Scallions/Green Onions – Has been known to cause hepatitis A outbreaks

*Tip* Not much you can do, but thoroughly rinse.

• Should I eat eggs normally or just the egg whites?
• What’s the difference between cage free, grain fed, grass fed chicken eggs?
• What about grass fed beef?
• What’s better for you, butter or margarine?
• Is milk bad for you?
• Can soy cause cancer?
• What is a detox?  Do I need to do it?
• Is organic food really necessary?
• Can supplements actually be bad for me?  What are whole food supplements?
• What’s worse, not eating fish, or being exposed to mercury?
• Will artificial sweeteners allow me to lose weight?
• What is gluten?  Is whole wheat bad for me if it contains gluten?

These are some of the more difficult questions that people are asking and they don’t always get straight answers.  One of my passions is to stay current on all the nutrition news.  I believe that diet and nutrition play an extremely important role in one’s health.  Creating a diet and nutrition plan is just one of the services we have to offer at Spencare Chiropractic Health to help patients reach their personal health goals.

In life there are good stresses and there are bad stresses, but whether you think you are or not, everyone is stressed.  Stress is good for the body in that it helps you adapt to change and get stronger.  When you get more stress than it can handle however, it has negative consequences and will always lead to a decrease in health.

The 3 Stresses

There are 3 main stresses that everyone encounters, physical, chemical, and emotional stress.  When most people think of stress, they often think of emotional ones, which could include but are not limited to family, financial, and social concerns.  Physical stresses are ones that are done on the body such as falls, injuries, accidents.  Repetitive injury however, is also a physical stress such as overuse of a particular movement (computer work leading to carpal tunnel), poor posture or poor lifting habits or exercise techniques.  A sedentary lifestyle is also a stress on the body due to inactivity.  Chemical stress is the least often thought of, but consists of all the types of substances we put on our in our bodies.  The obvious negative stresses are alcohol, nicotine, drugs, junk food, and to some extent caffeine.  Lack of the right nutrients is also a chemical stress and pollution is definitely one, albeit one we can’t really control.  Finally beauty products is one that most people don’t consider, but many of the things we put on our skin is absorbed through it.  Deodorant is a very common product, but did you know that the #1 active ingredient in it is aluminum, a neurotoxin (chemical that negatively affects the brain)?

Stress and your Health

Obviously it is impossible to avoid all these stresses in your life.  The body is able to handle a certain amount of it, some people more than others.  It is the function of your nervous system to filter the stresses coming in and adapt your body to handle them.  If your nervous system can keep up with the amount of stress coming in, you should not experience any negative side effects, and you will be healthy.

Managing your stress is thus very important.  It is a good idea to look inward and identify the stresses you experience and how you can decrease or control the amount coming in.  It is also a good idea to increase your stress handling capacity, which generally can be done by living a healthy lifestyle.  Chiropractic is great for helping people handle stress and encourages patients to also live healthy lifestyles.  Take an active role in handling your stress and creating a healthier version of you!

Related Articles:
What is Health?
The Three Parts of your Nervous System
How the Nervous System Affects your Health