Kinesiology In The Medical Profession

March 12th, 2010 by admin No comments »

Kinesiology TheropyIn general, Kinesiology is the study of human movement. It encompasses all areas of the body and interacts with other biological functions as well. Overall, Kinesiology is something that many physical therapists have some kind of knowledge and as they tried to define and diagnose what the patient’s injuries might be, and then come up with a plan to help them correct certain faults. At the same time, there are some people who view Kinesiology as a way to institute certain practices that might be considered as alternative forms of therapy.

For instance, there are some people who believe that studying a person’s body can give them insight into what types of collars a person could wear to help enhances their moods and their health. Sometimes known as Chakras, the theory behind this is that color has energy that can boost a person’s body, enhance their immune system, and make them feel good all over. There are many institutes that promote this theory, however there has been no scientific studies that prove this to be true. It has been proven that colors can alter the mine, but not there is any physical thing that connects the two.

There is also a belief that Kinesiology can help some practitioners determine the type of diet that their patients should be following to enhance their health. Once again, diet and exercise are always recommended to bring better health to the body, but studying movement to determine this has not been proven by scientific research. Having said this, there are many athletic coaches for high caliber athletes that will design both eating and exercise plans are geared to enhance the athlete’s body for what it is they do rather than for general overall health. And, since many of those athletes do end up going on to perform some amazing things, it can be understood why this kind of connection might be made.

Overall, Kinesiology is best used as a diagnostic tool to figure out why someone might be in pain and how to relieve it. By studying the body and how it’s moving, a therapist might notice imperceptible movements such as minor limps, the way a person leans, and maybe even if a leg is shorter than the other leg or the shoulders aren’t even. Therefore, Kinesiology has its place as far as a medical practice, but if used for any other reason could be questioned. However, no one will ever be harmed if they decide to try Kinesiology for any of these other reasons.

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Facts About Shea Butter

March 10th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

A bowl of Shea butterShea butter has been one of the fastest growing skin treatment products over the last few years. There’s no doubt that your skin feels pretty good after you’ve applied it. Shea butter comes in many different scents which encourages some to continue using it. But the question is, is it any healthier than any other lotions or applications?

Shea butter is an application that has multiple uses, despite  most only knowing it as a skin product. There is actually a process that can make it edible to be used in chocolate. Another process allows it to be used for soap. Shea butter can also be made to use in medications. There are 5 different grades of the product, which determines which way it will be used.

When it’s used in medications, it’s normally used to protect or heal the skin in some fashion. It’s used in a variety of products to help fight rashes and eczema, burns, wrinkles and chapped lips. It’s also used in products that help fight ultraviolet rays. One of the worries about Shea butter is that there are few scientific studies on the product other than from the industry itself, so it’s not really know if the health benefits are true or not.

Shea ButterIt is a product that has been used in Africa for hundreds of years without many negative effects. When people do have negative effects, it’s usually a mild allergic reaction, such as itchiness or skin breaking out in a rash. This is proof that it’s not for everyone, but there are people who are also allergic to both cocoa butter and aloe vera. Sometimes it depends on the grade of shea butter that’s in a product. Inexpensive products might not use grade A or B shea butter, which means it’s not the most pure or safest grades.

The best thing about shea butter is that it’s a vegetable fat from an African tree known as the “Karite”, which is the name for “Shea”, and it’s considered all natural before processing. It’s very flexible to use, which is what makes it popular. It can retain almost any scent, and you’ll find a lot of homemade products using shea butter, which means it can be purchased almost anywhere. Overall it’s pretty safe for most people to use, but don’t get caught up in believing it’s a panacea for every health issue one might have with their skin.

See More:
How to Make Shea Butter

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Better Skin Through Better Foods and Drinks

March 4th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

Nutritional Skin CareAt some point everyone has problems with their skin. Many times it’s just a natural progression of growing up and some are just genetic differences that can cause skin difficulties. There are many kinds of treatment, both traditional and alternative. Some of them involve food and drink options and here are a few of them.

  • Nutritional therapy believes that skin problems can be eradicated by changing how you eat. What happens is you get an assessment of your eating habits, medical history, blood samples and other lab tests as needed. Then you either get a computerized diet profile or additional tests as to the kinds of issues you may have with the foods you are consuming. At this point you’re then given a special diet, the combination of certain types of foods that not only help your skin, but your overall health as well. The diet will contain nutrients that are supposed to help your health such as more Vitamin C, beta carotene, and Vitamin E.
  • Water therapy believes that most people don’t drink enough water, and thus suffer problems with their skin such as it being too dry or oily, which can cause problems. The recommendation of 64 ounces of water is usually given to help with weight loss, but when it comes to skin care, some practitioners believe that you should be drinking as much water in milliliters as you are in the calories you eat each day. Therefore, if you eat 3,000 calories a day, you should be drinking 101 ounces of water a day.
  • Eating more fiber is considered crucial for maintaining good skin, with the premise being that a healthy digestive system leads to healthy skin. The recommendation is for most men to eat between 31 to 38 grams of fiber a day, and women to eat between 21 to 25 grams of fiber a day. These numbers are based on healthy weight levels of course, with the belief that most of us tend to eat less than 12 grams of fiber each day. Of course, if that is true, it will take a major change in dietary habits to reach these numbers, and there are many ways to do it, such as increasing the amount of certain fruits and nuts we eat, or whole grains such as brown rice instead of white rice.

 

Photo credit: www.healthspablog.org

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    Curves: Women Health Chain

    February 26th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    In simple terms, Curves is a health chain for women. It offers women the opportunity to work out in a safe environment since it’s a woman’s only health club. It is a place for woman to get healthy on equipment that offers ways to work out without hurting themselves.

    I have had two opportunities to walk through a Curves location; once with my mother, and once while trying to find my wife. You won’t see the kind of workout equipment you’re used to seeing in regular gyms. There are no heavy barbells; there is no heavy cardiovascular equipment. In essence, you see a bunch of smaller equipment scattered all over the floor that offers a lot of low impact training. Their slogan is that in 30 minutes, 3 times the week, you can get a complete workout to help you get more fit and live a healthier life.

    While there is no doubt that a woman will get some kind of health benefit from going to Curves, there is a lot of controversy as to whether it offers enough of an exercise for all women. It seems that if a woman doesn’t exercise often and goes to Curves it will most likely be beneficial to her. However, some doctors and therapists suggest that the kind of exercise women are getting has more to do with weight training than a cardiovascular workout, and therefore it’s not a complete workout. In other words, if a woman leads a sedentary life and decides it’s time to do something new for herself, Curves is a great place to go.

    There are a number of women who advocate for Curves in all the good it’s done for them. The response is that just like almost anything else that one might decide to try, there will always be some success stories from people who literally dedicate themselves to the process. In the case of Curves, it’s been found that those women who get the maximum benefit from the program not only go more than three times a week, but sometimes go twice a day as well. That plus maintaining a proper diet will definitely result in women losing weight and getting into better shape than others. Curves has its place as a workout option for women, even if it’s not considered the ultimate and best choice for optimum health long-term.

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    Ways to Safely Gain Weight

    February 24th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    With all the stories out there about how many of us are getting heavier, it’s interesting to know that there are actually people who have problems gaining weight.

    I myself know quite a few people who have gone through their lives being skinnier than what’s considered normal. I see them eating all sorts of things trying to gain weight, and it just doesn’t stick to them. Many of us may be envious of them, wishing we could eat anything we wanted to and not gain weight. But the truth is that people who can’t gain weight can suffer health issues of their own, which means they not only have to try to gain weight, but have to find natural, safe ways to do it; here are a few safe ways to gain weight.

    One popular way people try to gain weight is by taking a weight gain supplement. Most of the time when you hear about weight gaining supplements, they are associated with bodybuilders, but individuals looking to gain weight that don’t lift weights, often need or want a weight gainer. Most of these powders have different proteins and fibers that, when mixed with water, can provide a nutritious supplement that helps you gain weight.

    Although you often hear that eating fruit is a way to lose weight, there are some fruits that might help you gain weight. Mangoes are considered a fruit that will help you gain weight, along with raisins, dates, figs, and bananas. It’s recommended to add either milk or water when consuming them to help retain the weight.

    You might think that foods high in protein, like steak, can help you gain weight, but thats not always true. In the quantities that you would have to eat steak to gain weight, it could end up harming your body more than helping it. Therefore, it’s best to have a combination of things that go well with protein such as carbohydrate foods like potatoes and rice. Something that you can also get away with if you’re underweight is adding gravy in big doses, making sure you use something like vegetable oil in preparing it.

    What about herbs and spices, can they put on some pounds? Believe it or not there are a few that are recommended to do just that such as tarragon, dried rosemary, bay leaf, curry powder, and black pepper. Supposedly, putting these on food you eat will help you retain the weight as they make you feel fuller.

    If you’re trying to gain weight, stick with the suggestions above and stay away from foods and drinks like twinkies, donuts and soda.

    See Also:
    Healthy Ways to Gain Weight

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    Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

    February 19th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a procedure where a patient is placed into a module called a hyperbaric chamber and subjected to high pressure 100% oxygen, with the intention of stimulating healing for certain medical problems. Even though it’s considered for payment as a therapeutic procedure, there’s still a lot of controversy involved in its use.

    Using atmospheric pressure to treat patients isn’t new. The process was actually introduced in the 1600s by a British clergyman. Oxygen didn’t become the gas of choice until the 1930s, when the military got into it. It was found that oxygen saturates the hemoglobin in the blood, and can help patients with routine wounds heal faster.

    The overall issue with hyperbaric oxygen therapy is that there aren’t a lot of medical schools that actually teach physicians about it because the equipment is too expensive.  Truth be told, not many hospitals have it for the same reason, although there are some companies in major cities that have portable machines and offer them as rentals for hospitals. These reasons make it so many doctors are unfamiliar with the practice and how it works, this may be why some doctors do not trust its effectiveness all that much.

    Another issue is that it’s not 100% safe. Any time a patient is put under artificial pressure, problems can occur. Some people have suffered minor injury to their lungs, their eyes, and their nasal airways; most of the time, the injuries are temporary. On rare occasions, patients suffer temporary blindness.

    Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is not recommended to be used on patients who are suffering from things such as asthma, high fever, and seizures; pregnant women should also avoid this type of therapy. One last thing that sometimes happens is known as decompression sickness, which occurs when the pressure is being released. The symptoms seem to be similar to what someone who does underwater diving sometimes experiences after they come back to the surface.

    There are also some maladies that hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been said to help with such as autism, diabetic neuropathy, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis. None of those have been proven by significant studies, but suffice it to say that the practitioners who use this therapy are always trying to find new things that it can help with.

    What Can HBOT Treat?

    • Air or gas embolism
    • Carbon Monoxide poisoning
    • Acute traumatic ischemia
    • Exceptional blood loss
    • Cyanide poisoning
    • Decompression sickness
    • Some non-healing wounds
    • Gas gangrene
    • Necrotizing infections
    • Some cases of osteomyelitis
    • Radiation effects
    • Compromised skin flaps
    • Burns

    Source: www.CincinnatiHyperbarics.com

    See More:

    How to Get a Hemoglobin Boost
    Side Effect of Oxygen Therapy

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    Chinese Food Therapy

    February 15th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    Chinese Food Therapy is an ancient process; practitioners believe that a body can be healed by eating certain foods in certain combinations and amounts, instead of taking traditional medicine. It’s controversial because, in general, physicians don’t believe that most diseases can be cured by changing one’s diet. However, there have been several studies which have proven that eating correctly can add to the health of the body, so the basic principles behind Chinese food therapy seem to be sound.

    This practice believes that most illnesses come about due to improper eating. Practitioners believe that most people know when they are eating something that does not agree with their body, and if they continue to eat or drink that particular item, they know that they’re doing harm to themselves. That part seems to be true according to most medical studies. Where the problem comes is in the determination of which foods are recommended to treat people and the types of illnesses they’re recommended to treat.

    For instance, having someone ingest chili pepper to take care of nosebleeds or dry skin might seem a bit out of touch with what someone else might recommend. However, having someone suggest something like red wine to help stimulate blood circulation has been proven to be an effective treatment. Chinese food therapy tends to address multiple issues with the body and not just one specific issue, therefore it’s a combination of different foods and spices that are believed to help the body achieve overall health, as opposed to addressing only one issue at a time.

    It also defines foods based on their yin or yang, something most of us have heard of but don’t know much about. The basic idea behind these two words is to describe foods in terms of their temperatures or nature. For instance, yin describes things towards the cold side whereas yang describes things towards the warm side. The belief is that too much yang will over-stimulate the body, and too much yin can bring on depression and sadness. Modifying these can help bring the body into balance, but also takes into account the seasons of the year to help determine how much modification needs to take place.

    All in all, Chinese food therapy is a lot more complicated than it seems on the surface. It’s hard to say in specific terms how much it works towards healing the body if someone has a serious medical issue. However, it does seem to be a legitimate diet that can help a person’s body feel healthier.

    See More:

    Alkaline Food Therapy
    Top 12 Easy Chinese Recipes

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    Bone Health Is Important

    February 10th, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    Without healthy bones, chiropractors and other medical practitioners might not be able to help you out as much as they could if you had healthy bones. There are some things our bodies need to have strong bones, and there are some things that we can do to help our bones remain strong. Here are three things that can help improve bone health.

    1.  Calcium is the major component of bones, or at least healthy bones. When people get things such as osteoporosis, it usually means that their bones are losing calcium and therefore becoming more brittle and less strong. As we get older, we tend to eat and drink fewer things that have enough calcium in them. You can take calcium supplements to help you out, but sometimes all it takes is adding certain foods back into your diet. Seafood like salmon and shrimp can help; almonds are a good source of calcium too. Many adults can’t handle milk as easily as they could when they were younger, but if you can then milk is a good calcium source. We all just need to be cognizant of making sure that we can get enough calcium into our bodies.

    2.  Exercise is very important, although it doesn’t directly impact bones. What it does is build up the muscles around the bones to help give them support and cushion. Weight training does more to help protect the bones and cardiovascular, and the thing is that many people could actually lose weight by doing weight training, even though cardiovascular weight training gets more credit for it’s ability to shed pounds. If you gain weight from weight training don’t worry, muscle weight is definitely preferable to not having good muscular tone at all.

    3.  Vitamin D is an important element that many of us don’t get enough of. You can get vitamin D from the sun, but most of us really don’t get enough sun because of our busy lives. You can also get vitamin D from supplements and food, here are a few foods that high in vitamin D: seafood (tuna, salmon, shrimp), vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes), and dairy products like (milk, cheese). Check out this resource for Foods Highest in Vitamin D

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    What is Cryotherapy?

    February 5th, 2010 by admin No comments »

    cryotherapy using liquid nitrogenIf you’ve ever applied an ice pack to any part of your body to try to reduce swelling, you have performed a type of cryotherapy. The basic principle behind cryotherapy is to cool down either parts of the body or the entire body to achieve some kind of therapeutic response. Sometimes the response is only to try to help alleviate pain, but it can be used for things such as removing warts and addressing other skin issues, or to help induce healing in some fashion. It’s cold therapy.

    For minor procedures, using ice packs and an icing solution are safe ways to address certain issues. For instance, ice works well in removing warts because it’s a natural way of numbing that area of the body and it’s easy to go directly to a specific location. Then removing the wart is painless and quick.

    It gets more complicated when a person gets into a tub and has their entire body subjected to the cooling process. For long-term physical therapy, as in 15 minutes, a lot of ice will be poured into the water that the patient is in. The body will get used to it within a couple of minutes and will heat up, the patient will be relatively comfortable as the ice melts around them. When something else is used, such as liquid nitrogen, the patient’s body has to be covered in certain areas to protect them from frostbite, but generally they will only wear a bathing suit. The temperature is lowered to -166°F, and in this case the patient can only stay in a cryogenic chamber for a few minutes. Supposedly this releases endorphins into the body which immediately relieves pain.

    Cryotherapy can also be used as an anesthetic when other methods aren’t preferable. It is sometime used to help in the treatment of tumors in the body as it relates to kidneys, bones, lungs, and the breasts. In addition, it is sometimes used during certain cancer surgeries.

    You always need to make sure that a qualified physician or technologist is using cryotherapy on you, because it doesn’t take much to injure the body with too much cold for too long.

    See Also:
    Cryotherapy, Cold Therapy – www.jointhealing.com
    Cryotherapy: Dermatology - www.medscape.com

    Image Credit: www.FromYourDoctor.com, which is a patient education service from Vivacare Inc.

    This informational article should not be considered as advice on health, health related issues or health related procedures.

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    Kinesiology

    February 2nd, 2010 by Action Chiropractic & Rehab No comments »

    aklogoIn general, kinesiology is the study of human movement. It goes beyond that however, because it also looks at the different things that are behind human movements and offers the opportunity for practitioners to come up with multiple ways to try to affect people’s mental and physical health.

    For instance, a practitioner named Kathryn Pape sees kinesiology as registering energy flow throughout the body, and believes that by looking for energy imbalances that one can create customized diets and behaviors to improve their personal awareness and perception of things. Some people might find that kind of thinking has been on the fringe, but there are organizations such as Sanctus Wellness that pretty much agree on the same thing.

    For others, the thought about what’s conventional and what’s not is pretty much a hotly debated topic. Some practitioners come at it like a physical therapist, while others come at it from more of a metaphysical approach. There are debates around the question of voluntary versus involuntary movements, and whether movements can be regulated by mental processes as opposed to teaching different physical processes. It’s an interesting field mainly because of these discrepancies.

    Study of Body Movement & Structure

    Study of Body Movement & Structure

    The American Kinesiology Association pretty much takes the position that it’s all about physical activity and nothing else. They believed that one needs to look at the daily movements of a person to determine how they fare in their daily lives. They’re geared more towards the educational aspects of kinesiology, which means they mainly work with colleges and universities, but they also support therapists who lean towards using kinesiology in their practices.

    There’s also something called applied kinesiology which is also somewhat controversial. It is a mixture of both physical and metaphysical principles, as it employs some of the processes used in chiropractic medicine with touches of acupuncture and Chinese medicine thrown in. It professes that understanding the movements of the body and applying the principles of “chi”, or natural energy, is the best way to balance a person’s entire body and mind. Some people have said they have been helped by this, while many professionals believe this is only pseudoscience, and since there have been no studies based on scientific principle that have been performed, at this point both sides are only speculating as to whether this is a legitimate practice or not.

    See More:
    Natural Energy & Metabolism Boosters
    Test-retest-reliability and validity of the Kinesiology muscle test
    Alternative Medicines for Bursitis

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