Michael Schuneman, DC

Everyone seems to have advice for moms, particularly new moms.  A lot of it is opinion-based such as what the best brand of diapers is.  Some of it is based on experience such as how to deal with a colicky baby or the best way to get a baby on a schedule.  Some advice can be helpful while a lot just makes moms feel overwhelmed or incompetent.  However, here’s one piece of advice that moms should pay attention to because it will help them feel better.  I commonly see back pain in moms and offer some advice they probably haven’t considered:  Alternate which side you carry your baby on.

Back Pain in Moms – The Problem is Imbalance

Moms are busy people.  They have a lot of things they need to do and they quickly learn how to do things one-handed while carrying a baby around.  More likely than not, they always carry their little one on the side opposite their dominant hand so that they can still do other things.  It just works better that way.  But there are good reasons why you should alternate which hip you carry a child on.  One main reason is that it will help keep the muscles in your back even.  Always carrying the baby on the same side will cause the muscles on one side of your back to become stronger.  Muscle imbalances lead to problems like back pain in moms.  It’s hard to feel like you can do what you need to do or take care of a child if your back is hurting.  Overly tight muscles on one side can lead to spinal subluxations where spinal bones get pulled out of place affecting how well your body can function.  Plus pain makes moms grumpy.

The Solution

So what to do?  The first step is being aware of the problem.  Once you’re aware of what you’re doing, you can take steps to change it.  There are little, easy things that can be done to help keep things in balance.  For example, if you carry your baby’s car seat carrier out to the car in your left hand, carry it back into the house when you come home using your right hand.  If you carried a baby up the stairs on your left hip, when you go back down stairs carry them on your right hip.  Little things like that can make a difference.

Give it a try.  See if it makes a difference for you.  Also consider coming in and seeing us.  We work with people just like you to reduce their stress, relieve their pain, and improve their quality of life.  Don’t let back pain keep you from enjoying your family.

You may wonder; why would I take my child to a chiropractor?  Well there are many reasons that parents bring their children in to see the chiropractor.  There are cases of asthma, colic, sleeping problems, bedwetting, earaches, etc. that have been helped through chiropractic care.  But even if there isn’t a specific complaint, chiropractic is great to help your children be their best! Chiropractic and kids make a great combination for a healthy future.

Why Chiropractic and Kids

Kids are active and adventurous, and find themselves is lots of predicaments.  Falls, bumps, scrapes, and tumbles are part of growing up.  For example, think of how often a child falls down when learning to walk.  Even when they enter the world, the birth process puts a lot stress on the structures of the spine.  These bumps, tumbles, and stresses affect how the spine moves and functions and can lead to misalignments of the spine.  Misalignments of the spine affect the nerves as they pass through the space between the bones of the spine on their way to the rest of the body.  Sometimes this will result in pain but not always.  However, it does affect the body’s innate ability to heal and I believe when left uncorrected is the main underlying cause of many of the health problems we see today.

When information sent from the brain to the body through the nerves is interfered with, even slightly, it leads to problems.  Think of playing telephone as a kid – where one person whispers a message to the next person in a line and then they continue to pass the message along.  By the time it gets to the end of the line it is often unrecognizable from the starting message.  Now imagine trying to send messages to the person at the end of the line to perform a complex task and then report back to you.  How well do you think this would work?  This basically illustrates the effects of nerve interference, with the person at the beginning of the line being the brain and the person at the end of the line being a cell in the body.

How Chiropractic Helps

As a chiropractor, I identify these areas of misalignment that cause nerve interference and use adjustments to help correct the misalignment, restoring proper communication between the brain and body.  This restores the body’s innate ability to heal itself.  When there isn’t interference the brain and body work in a coordinated manner; the way they are supposed to.  Every system in the body works better when it can give and receive clear messages through the nerves.  This allows for optimal growth and development.  Children grow so quickly that uncorrected little problems can eventually turn into much larger health problems.  Having your kids see a chiropractor regularly helps to make sure that problems are caught and corrected early before they turn into something major.  Keep your kids functioning at their best by keeping their nervous system clear of interference with chiropractic care.

I focus on helping families improve the health, vitality, and well-being of their children – providing a strong foundation for their future health.   I believe that chiropractic care is so important for kids that I see children 12 years and younger for FREE if a parent/guardian is a patient.  Call today and get your whole family on the road to better health!

There is no doubt that pain can be debilitating.  Pain is big business when you consider the number of pain clinics around the country and the myriad of pain killers on the market.  But is pain really the problem?  Or is it something else?

What is Pain?

First off, we need to understand what pain is.  The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”  So pain is an experience meaning it is subjective and relative to each person (what is painful to one person may not bother someone else).  Also pain is associated with “actual or potential tissue damage” meaning it is basically a response to something that damages the body or could cause damage.

Pain really is just a symptom.  It is an indication that something is wrong.  Pain is actually quite useful because it helps to alert us to an injury or other problem and encourages us to take action.  Is it possible to have tissue damage without pain? Yes.  But is it possible to have pain without tissue damage or potential tissue damage?  In general no, but there are some conditions in which people experience pain from something that would normally be considered non-painful.  However, even in these cases, there is still some underlying problem that causes the abnormal sensation of pain.

Only Treating Pain

So what would happen if we treat pain as the only problem?  Let’s go through a possible example.  You are out running and you sprain your ankle.  Now you have some moderate pain in your ankle.  The pain is most likely from the ligaments in the ankle being stretched and possibly some tearing of the fibers.  What do most people do when they have some pain?  You pop a few pain pills and go on your way.  Now the ankle doesn’t feel so bad and you can go about your business.  Problem solved, right?

Well, unfortunately the pain killers do not do much to address the real cause of the pain – the injured ankle.  While walking around on the sprained ankle, it is very likely that you are doing more damage to it.  This is because the ankle is more unstable than it would normally be, and you have dulled your senses to the pain.  So it is likely that you may do some more damage to the area without being aware of it since the pain has been dulled.

Pain and Chiropractic

Now there is nothing wrong with trying to alleviate pain, but if nothing is done to address the actual cause of the pain, this is a problem.  Back pain, neck pain, and headaches are common types of pain that people experience, but what is the underlying cause of the pain?  The pain can be caused by many things, but one that is commonly missed is misalignments of the spine.  While often these misalignments can cause pain, a bigger issue is that they can also interfere with how well your nerves function.  Chiropractors are highly trained doctors to help correct misalignments of the spine allowing the nerves to function better and often alleviating much or all of the pain.

So the next time you experience pain, consider what is the cause of the pain and what are you going to do to address the cause rather than just the pain.  If you would like help in finding and treating the cause of your pain, contact our office today.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go camping with a group of Boy Scouts.  It was amazing to get up into the mountains and to enjoy the beauty of nature.  It was wonderful to get away from the day-to-day craziness and enjoy some peaceful surroundings.  It was relaxing, even with a bunch of Boy Scouts.  It was refreshing to my soul.  The reason I bring this up is because it is important to your health to have balance in your life.

True health is more than merely the absence of symptoms or disease.  True health is a state of optimal physical, emotional, and social well-being.  The way I view this is as a balance between the body, mind, and soul.  You cannot neglect any one part and truly be healthy.  It is true that you may feel ‘fine’ for a while, but if the neglect is not corrected poor health will follow.

The body and mind are probably thought of most when we think about health.  The body is kept healthy by doing things like eating nutritious foods and getting regular exercise.  The mind is kept healthy by learning on a regular basis and getting adequate sleep.  Though all the previously mentioned health habits actually benefit both body and mind, not just one or the other.  But how do you keep the soul healthy?

Now when I speak of the soul, I am referring to who you are deep down, why you do what you do, and what you think is right and wrong.  I see the soul as the essence of who a person is and how they relate to the world around them.  A healthy soul is maintained when a person acts according to their deep seated beliefs and is basically being ‘true’ to themself.  To keep the soul healthy you also need a healthy body and mind.  All three aspects affect the other ones.  Taking time to reflect, enjoying nature and peaceful surroundings, spending time with family and loved ones, and serving others are all ways to keep your soul healthy.

I hope this makes you think about the importance of balance between body, mind and soul, and how that relates to your health.  Maybe you had some ideas of something you could do to better balance your life.  Remember, when you are not living in a way that is in harmony with who you are it will negatively affect your health.  Find ways that you can better balance your body, mind, and soul.  If you don’t know where to start, call our office.  Using a whole body approach, I work with people to heal their body, mind, and soul through chiropractic care.

What are adverse drug events?

I recently came across some statistics that I found surprising.  I have observed through the years that drugs are overused and often come with negative side effects.  I knew it was a big problem, but the statistics I found were still surprising.  What I am talking about is adverse drug events (ADEs).  Now an ADE is basically any negative event associated with the use of a drug, which includes both a properly prescribed and used drug as well as improperly used drugs.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is supposed to “improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.”  It is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services and one of its main focuses is funding research to help improve healthcare quality.  On the AHRQ website there is an article “Reducing and Preventing Adverse Drug Events To Decrease Hospital Costs” which discusses adverse drug events and some ways to help prevent them.  This article was published in March of 2001.

How common are ADEs?

A statistic mentioned in this article is that more than 770,000 injuries and deaths occur EACH YEAR in hospitals due to ADEs.  These estimates are from the late 1990’s and really only includes ADEs in hospitals.  Without other information, it is difficult to estimate how prevalent ADEs really are in the US.  Patients who suffered an ADE had longer hospital stays that cost more.  Also it is important to note that it was suggested that 28 to 95 percent of ADEs could be prevented.  However, statistics from 2004 tell a different story.

Are most ADEs from errors?

Information from hospital stays in 2004 was analyzed to get statistics on ADEs in hospitals.  The statistical report was done by AHRQ as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.  The report noted that in 2004, 1,211,100 hospital stays had an ADE.  This was equivalent to about 3.1% of hospital stays in 2004.  What was more surprising was that 90.3 percent (1,093,600 hospital stays) of the ADEs were adverse effects of drugs.  This means that the drugs were properly prescribed and administered but there was still an adverse reaction.  These are the so called ‘non-preventable’ ADEs.

Conclusion

Looking at these numbers, we see that apparently there was a reduction in the percent of ‘preventable’ ADEs from the original estimates of 28 to 95 percent.  However, the overall number of ADEs in hospital patients went up!  And to think that over 90 percent were not preventable but a ‘side effect’ of the drug.  So over a million injuries or deaths occurred in 2004 due to the use of drugs in hospitals, even though the drugs were properly prescribed and used.  Why do we not hear about this on the news?  If you break that down it would be 2,996 cases of properly used drugs causing injuries or death per day!

If you find this shocking and think more people should know about the danger associated with using even properly prescribed drugs, please share.   Also if you are looking for a natural approach to unlocking the body’s ability to heal, try chiropractic.

References

Reducing and Preventing Adverse Drug Events To Decrease Hospital Costs: Research in Action, Issue 1. March 2001. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/factsheets/errors-safety/aderia/index.html

Elixhauser, A. and Owens, P. (AHRQ). Adverse Drug Events in U.S. Hospitals, 2004. HCUP Statistical Brief #29. April 2007. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb29.pdf

Introduction

Today we have a special guest post from my lovely wife, Brittany. I asked her if she would share her story of Raynaud’s Syndrome and chiropractic. For a little background information, Raynaud’s Syndrome (Disease) is considered a rare disorder of the blood vessels. I personally believe it has more to do with improper functioning of nervous system affecting the blood vessels than the vessels themselves. It most frequently affects the the fingers and/or toes and causes the blood vessels to constrict when a person is cold or experiencing stress. This results in less blood flowing to the fingers and toes, which often turn white or blue. It can often be painful when blood flow returns to the affected digits. You can find some more information about Raynaud’s Disease on MedlinePlus.

Raynaud’s Syndrome Experience

I started having problems with Raynaud’s when I was about fifteen. Growing up in the warm climate of California, my high school didn’t have a cafeteria that was big enough to hold the entire school body. Actually I’m not sure it could have even held one grade level. So pretty much everyone ate lunch outside. During the winter, this wasn’t much fun. My hands would get really cold and turn bluish-purple. My best friend used to say that they looked like dead people’s hands. That was the first stage. After that, the tips of one or more fingers down to either the first or second knuckle would go white and numb. My hands would curl up and straightening my fingers was difficult. I was always grateful that we had our period of silent reading right after lunch because it gave me enough time to get the blood flowing back into my fingers so I could hold a pencil. I could feel kind of a cool rush and then all of a sudden my fingers would turn pink again. I never worried about it too much. It was just this weird, annoying thing that my hands did and I learned to deal with it. Rubbing my fingers, holding them in warm places on my body like my armpits or between my legs, and running warm water over them all helped to get the blood moving again.

My mom however was worried when I was heading off to college in Utah that it was going to be a problem and took me into a specialist. The doctor listened to the description, told us that it was Raynaud’s Syndrome, gave me some pamphlets that told me all the things I had already figured out about how to deal with attacks, and said to be careful and try to avoid things that would trigger an attack. That can be kind of difficult when even doing something like carrying in a gallon of milk from the car, cutting up raw chicken, or holding a cold drink can set things off.

Go forward a few years. I was married to Dr. Schuneman, DC and we were living in Iowa. He was attending Palmer College of Chiropractic. He had finally convinced me to go in to the clinic and give chiropractic a try. One of the things on the patient history form was whether or not you had Raynaud’s. When my intern, Jeff, was looking things over, he asked about it. “You have Raynaud’s?”

“Yes,” I said.
“Were you formally diagnosed?”
“Yes. Just before I went to college.”
“When did it start?”
“When I was about fifteen.”

Jeff didn’t say anything more about it then. I think it was at the next visit when he did the report of findings that he said “I can’t promise anything, but sometimes Raynaud’s is a reaction of the sympathetic nervous system. There is a good chance that in clearing up some of the nervous interference that your Raynaud’s will either go away or at least be less frequent.” I was stunned. No one had ever said there was something that could be done for it. From what the specialist had said, it was just something I’d have to deal with all my life.

Chiropractic has done a lot for me with other problems like stiffness in my neck and shoulders and trouble sleeping. But probably one of the biggest things it has done is enable me to do more without having my fingers go numb. After starting regular chiropractic care, I don’t think I had one full-blown attack the whole time we were in Iowa. I could carry milk in from the car without my fingers going numb. Am I completely “cured”? No. I’m still more sensitive to cold and I still have to be a little careful about keeping my hands warm. Very, very occasionally I will still have an attack. But things are so much better than they used to be. I get a little emotional when I think of it because I am so very grateful. I am so grateful to have met Jeff who knew that chiropractic might help with this.

Conclusion

I want to thank Brittany for sharing her experience! Interference with the nervous system can affect any part of the body. When you remove the misalignment of the spine and restore proper function of the nervous system amazing things can happen. While there is no guarantee, chiropractic has helped millions of people function better! Come and see what chiropractic can do for you.

Chronic disease is a major health concern in the United State with nearly half of all adults having one or more chronic disease diagnoses.  In this final post of the three part series on chronic illness, we are concluding our look at “The Changing Face of Chronic Illness Management in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study of Underlying Influences and Unintended Outcomes” from the Annals of Family Medicine.   I encourage everyone to read the full article at the link.  In today’s post we will be reviewing the prescribing cascade and the influence drug company representatives have on the use of prescription drugs.

Prescribing Cascade

The prescribing cascade is a term that refers to a prescription drug causing a symptom for which additional drugs are prescribed.  This can quickly become a vicious cycle with prescription drugs being added one after the other to try and ‘control’ the symptoms caused by side effects from the other drugs.  Unfortunately this is much too common in the ‘healthcare’ system today.  Many of you probably know someone who is on multiple prescriptions for this reason.

In the study, the authors noted that 60% of the patients that participated were taking prescription drugs for conditions other than diabetes and/or hypertension.  Of those patients more than half were taking prescription drugs for respiratory or gastric symptoms.  Respiratory and gastric symptoms are well-known side effects of diabetes and hypertension drugs.  Now, this is not meant to imply that all those symptoms can be attributed to drug side effects, but it is very likely that some would be caused by drug side effects.

However, the study authors note that while over half of the clinicians interviewed said they considered adverse drug effects in selecting medications, “few expressed concern about medications causing negative health outcomes.  They would simply comment matter-of-factly, ‘You’ve got to watch their kidneys with this one,’ or ‘I have to check their liver enzymes every now and then.’”  I find the mindset of the doctors unsettling.  Why are you watching for the kidneys or liver enzymes if it is not to look for damage to those organs?  And if there is damage to them, then what, would that not lead to negative health outcomes?  This doesn’t have to be ‘the way it is;’ there are alternatives.

Drug Company Representatives

The authors of the study bring up an interesting topic about pharmaceutical company marketing.  They refer to the inverse benefit law, which basically states that the benefit-to-harm ratio for a drug is inversely proportional to how aggressively the drug is marketed.  So if the inverse benefit law holds true, the drugs most aggressively marketed by the companies would have the lowest benefit-to-harm ratios.  This unfortunately seems to make sense, that the drugs with the least benefit would need the most marketing to be used.

Of the doctors in the study that discussed the topic of pharmaceutical representatives, it is plain to see that the drug companies work hard on marketing.  Seventy-two percent of doctors that discussed the topic said they had “regular contact with pharmaceutical representatives, who provide drug information, free lunches, and free samples.” The majority saw more than 10 representatives a week.  While the doctors said they take the information the drug representatives give “with a grain of salt,” 77% did say they found the information useful.

Conclusion

My main concern is how much influence drug companies have on doctors prescribing.  The fact that pharmaceutical sales continue to grow tremendously suggests that there is some influence.  I am also concerned with how much influence those companies have on the forming of guidelines or diagnostic thresholds.  A study done in 2006 found that 56% of panel members that revised the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) had some financial association with companies in the pharmaceutical industry.  The DSM is one of the main sources for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in the US.  How a disease or disorder is diagnosed also plays a part in how it is treated.  To me, it seems unlikely that there is no influence.

If you think that prescription drugs are overused today, find out about other alternatives to drugs.  Chiropractic is one such alternative.  If you would like to know more, contact our office or visit other pages on the website.