Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States yet many of our patients don't know what steps they can take to decrease their risk for heart or vascular problems. 

Steps - 10,000 steps per day is a great way to be getting cardiovascular training throughout the day and consistently hitting your activity goals. While this number may seem arbitrary it actually carries quite a bit of weight in terms of benefits. A study published in JAMA Neurology found that 10,000 steps per day decreased cardiovascular disease, heart disease, stroke and heart failure along with 13 types of cancer. The 10,000 steps per day also lowered dementia risk by about 50%

Rx: Get a step tracker and some paper and track your steps for the next week!

Sauna - 
A study performed on about 2,300 men found that regular sauna use provided a significant decrease in cardiovascular events and death. People who get their sweat on 2x/week decreased their risk by about 27% while people who did 4x/week decreased cardiovascular death and events by over 50%! 
The same study found that the regular sauna users decreased risk of Alzheimer's by 66%. 

Rx: Start getting at least 2 sauna sessions per week (the study participants did about 170 degrees for 20 minutes) 

NAD+ 
NAD+ or Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide is a molecule that your body uses to improve DNA Repair, Mitochondrial Function, and Cell Health. For these reasons it has been very closely linked to anti-aging, brain and nerve function AND cardiovascular health. In a 2021 NAD+ review researcher Quizhen Lin explained how NAD+ participates in several key process in cardiovascular disease. It protects against metabolic syndrome, heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury, arrhythmia and hypertension. "Accordingly, the loss of NAD+ in aging or during stress altered metabolic status and increased disease susceptibility. It is essential to maintain NAD+ levels to reduce loos in heart function."

Rx: Add an oral NAD+ precursor daily and if you have a history of heart disease take 1-2 concentrated NAD+ suppositories each week to truly boost levels quickly.  

Regenerative Peptides
Many peptides have begun to show promise with tissue healing and regeneration. One such peptide that appears to help with vascular health is BPC-157. This orally absorbed peptide helps with vasodilation or vascular tone by working on the nitric oxide function inside our bodies. It is also associated with tissue repair and angiogenesis checking a number of heart health necessities.
BPC-157 has a great safety profile in humans and though we need more human studies on its beneficial, healing, regenerative and blood vessel effects the current data says that it is safe to try as part of a heart health program. 

Rx: Take 500 mcg of BPC-157 daily for two months as part of a full cardiovascular health program.  

PEMF Vascular Therapy 
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy or PEMF has been shown to improve vascular tone, blood flow, red blood cell mobility, cell communication and overall recovery. This breakthrough technology can improve deep blood flow to tissues for accelerating the healing process as well as taking pressure off the heart and blood vessels. 

Researcher Cornacchione et al found that such PEMF therapy reduces cardiac β-adrenergic response at molecular, functional and adaptative levels​. In a cell and animal models, PEMF has been found to stimulate processes critical for angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. 

In the office we see many patients who use PEMF regularly improve blood pressure, vascular health, ultrasound evidence of blockages and overall wellbeing.

Rx: Do 2 PEMF sessions/week while tracking blood pressure and cardiovascular exercise performance​

TOTAL HEART HEALTH PROGRAM
Improving heart health is not insurmountable task. We have the research and the data to show that we can change heart health, risk factors and function to a very high degree by: 
1. Getting 10,000 steps of walking each day
2. Schedule two combo Sauna + PEMF sessions per week
3. Add NAD+ therapy to your health regimen
4. If vascular damage is possible, take 2 months of the regenerative therapy peptide BPC-157

Inflammation should always be cleaned up as it is the primary driver of many of our aging, pain and healing issues. The best way to address inflammation is from a multi-modal approach. 

1. Clear current Inflammation with Fasting Mimicking Diet. Fasting causes your body to turn on its internal survival mechanism where it seeks out damaged or unhealthy cells to "eat" for fuel. Some of these cells are inflammatory or dysfunctional cells. Research shows that doing consistent 5-day FMD improved inflammatory markers by 50%. 
2. Supplement: Adding a good Fish Oil, Turmeric and Glutathione supplement to your health regimen will improve your body's ability to process inflammation in a healthy way instead of blocking it. 
3. Cryotherapy - whole body cryotherapy where you reduce your core temperature to stimulate the release of hormones and survival mechanisms in your body causes a reduction in overall systemic inflammation while improving immune function. 

Commit to improving one aspect of your inflammation this spring!
​

Which one do you think will go down first, INFLATION or your INFLAMMATION?
What can you do to combat INFLATION? While I'm certainly no economist or political pundit I can offer two bits of advice:

1. Stay aware of your financial situation. Things that are on auto pay or routines purchases, like a certain brand of item at the grocery store, etc. can have unknowingly become more expensive and slowly deplete your bank account. How many of us have that $9.99 subscription that we've forgotten about? Without maintaining this awareness, you may one day be surprised to realize that you can no longer do (afford) the things that you would really like to do.
2. Invest. Lots of financial gurus are now front and center talking all about what to invest in to avoid inflation; Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate and on and on. The best investment that you can ever make is to invest in yourself. Diversify yourself. Learn something new so you can be prepared to rebound if something goes wrong. This will also give you confidence to not only meet challenges but see opportunities that those who just sit, listen to all of the news and follow along will not see.

What can you do to combat INFLAMMATION? Luckily, unlike INFLATION, I'm an EXPERT in managing INFLAMMATION. Actually though, the advice is very similar.

1. Stay aware of how you really feel: I can absolutely guarantee that you are going through each day with little aches or nagging pains that you've passed off as normal. Although they are not limiting you now, letting them progress too long will ultimately stop you from doing the things you really like to do. What's more, the problems that often arise will not be a worsening of this little ache, they will be a new problem somewhere else that has been overused by compensating for the little ache, which unfortunately will also remain. It's just like finances with things compounding, but in the wrong direction.
2. Invest: So much time and energy spent on investing in material things, but the only thing that you will have for the rest of your life is your body. Health IS our most important asset! Without HEALTH you cannot capitalize on money, time, family, travels etc. Investing in yourself will not only help you feel better now, but will help you better rebound if something does go wrong. It will also help you take advantage of opportunities that life has to offer in the future. And of course, INVESTING IN YOUR HEALTH WILL SAVE YOU MONEY!!

Some of the best things you can do for inflammation are cumulative just like investing. The more you:

• Eat clean (Avoiding sugar, alcohols, refined carbohydrates and processed oils that are high in PUFA's)
• Hydrate - Dehydration can be a significant driver of inflammation. Shoot for half your body weight in ounces (150lbs drink 75 ounces/day)
• Stress - Stress causes a hormone response that can cause an inflammatory response in many people. Having a good stress management system is vital to all health. Walking, meditation, time outdoors, exercise, proper supplementation can all help along with working with a profession.
• Systemic Treatments -
  • ​Cryotherapy - has been shown to change inflammation, stress, pain and other blood levels
  • Sauna - Heat and cold seem like opposites to a lot of people but for your body they are similar. They both take your body out of its temperature comfort zone and force it to respond. This causes numerous mechanisms to turn on that lead to improvements in inflammation, blood flow and immune function. 

We integrate contrast therapy using whole body cryotherapy, sauna and infrared therapy to create the best healing and anti-inflammatory program possible. We also integrate the best, safest and most effective supplements into your program. If you are interested in this elite Anti-Inflammatory program contact us at 337-504-5144 or email info@acadianapain.com 

In the last two years the effects of COVID-19 have been widespread causing millions of hospitalizations, infections and prolonged symptoms. Certain populations appear to be more susceptible to negative outcomes, severe sickness and prolonged symptoms. As research becomes more prevalent, we can improve our prevention and recovery. 

In a recent study Kumar et al in Antioxidants 2022 11, 50 glutathione levels of uninfected individuals were compared to levels in their age matched hospitalized COVID-19 infected patients.

Glutathione is your body's master antioxidant. It is the primary intracellular antioxidant that prevents and addresses oxidative stress in your body. Oxidative stress is a harmful condition caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Accumulation of these ROS is linked to lung disease, heart disease, inflammation, neurological disorders, diabetic complications, kidney disease and advanced aging processes. 

It appears that the infection from COVID-19, by causing a severe cytokine inflammatory response, increases oxidative stress by 654%, 1007% and 70.6% in the age groups studied. This heavily challenges your body's ability to prevent and repair oxidative stress. 

Dr. Kumar's study showed that patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had Glutathione levels that were 60% lower than the control groups. 

With the damage associated with oxidative stress these findings are important. Many of the negative health outcomes, severity of sickness and particularly the post-infection symptoms are associated with this cellular damage. 

As Dr. Kumar explains, "we speculate that if boosting GSH can inhibit replication of the SARS-Cov-2 virus which causes COVID-19, this could be a gamechanger in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic." 

This particularly study was limited by measuring Glutathione levels in infected, hospitalized COVID-19 patients vs their healthy counterpart. We do have studies currently ongoing to look at the protective nature of glutathione in patients with adequate levels who get infected by COVID-19 vs those who have suboptimal levels. 

As is the answer in much of science and research the answer is...it depends. 

Having adequate levels of glutathione is a good indicator of overall health and immunity. It is one of the compounds that improves health, disease and aging for a large portion of the population. There is a blood test that you can perform to find out your total glutathione levels and your reduced glutathione levels. 

Taking the precursor compounds that are able to be absorbed by the cells has been shown to increase glutathione levels by up to 300%. If you fall into that category, then this data would suggest that improving that level could be very beneficial. 

COVID-19 significantly increases oxidative stress due to the inflammatory nature of the infection. Your body's best way to prevent and recover from oxidative stress is with protective levels of intracellular Glutathione. 

This research shows that hospitalized patients with COVID-19 have significantly reduced levels of Glutathione vs their age matched controls. 

In Dr. Kumar's words, "Because Glutathione supplementation has been shown to be highly effective in correcting glutathione deficiency, lowering oxidative stress and oxidant damage in diverse populations including older adults, HIV patients and diabetic patients, it could also improve these defects in patients with COVID-19, and needs to be evaluated in future trials."

Find our favorite Glutathione Supplement below.

This is the question that I ponder often when it comes to our patients who are fighting cancer. 

HOW CAN WE CHANGE THE INTERNAL ENVIORNMENT OF OUR BODY TO MAKE IT HARDER FOR CANCER CELLS TO LIVE AND SURVIVE? 

Studies on this are of course difficult and varied but in general we do know a few environments inside the body that affect cancer cells. In his manuscript: Immunity, Inflammation, and Cancer, Dr. Sergei I. Grivennikov, explains: Inflammatory responses play decisive roles at different stages of tumor development, including initiation, promotion, malignant conversion, invasion, and metastasis. 

This would stand to reason that if we improve our natural inflammatory response and immune function that we could decrease our risk for certain types of cancer. How do we do that? I like to think about this in a few areas: 

1. Activity
2. Nutrition
3. Chemistry - Medication, Supplementation and Compounding

 
For number 1. What activities could you do that would improve your immune system and inflammatory systems? 

• Exercise - Exercise promotes significant improvements in clinical, functional, and in some populations, survival outcomes and can be recommended regardless of the type of cancer - Stout NL, Baima J, Swisher AK, Winters-Stone KM, Welsh J. A Systematic Review of Exercise Systematic Reviews in the Cancer Literature 
• ​Cyclical Prolonged Fasting - Prolonged fasting (>3 days) and Fasting Mimicking Diet programs have been shown to be effective at improving inflammatory markers such as IGF-1 and C-Reactive Protein. They also show benefits with total body fat, glucose and cholesterol. These and other markers affected by fasting or fasting mimicking diets, have been strongly implicated in age-related diseases such as cancer. 
• Whole Body Cryotherapy - Studies done on athletes, atherosclerotic risk patients and inflammatory disease patients have shown that consistent exposure to whole body cryotherapy can alter the expression of inflammatory markers. This is similar to the effects of fasting above where if we can perform activities that mitigate risk factors we achieve some level of impact on our overall risk and recovery from diseases such as cancer. 
• PEMF Therapy - Pulsed Electromagentic Field Therapy has been studied in a variety of cancer types. It has been shown to improve cytotoxicity of breast cancer cells when combined with other therapies and decreases the stability of tumor cells allowing easier treatment. PEMF Therapy increase oxygen delivery to the cells in our body improving cell health and potentially decrease abnormal cell growth in the process. 

Nutrition in cancer could be a book in itself but quite a bit of research has been done on types of diets and cancer: 

• The Ketogenic diet, a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with adequate amounts of protein, appears to sensitize most cancers to standard treatment by exploiting the reprogramed metabolism of cancer cells, making the diet a promising candidate as an adjuvant cancer therapy.
• Plant Based Diets or vegetarian diets may also confer some improved risk of cancer.  In the study: Tantamango-Bartley Y, Jaceldo-Siegl K, Fan J, Fraser G. Vegetarian diets and the incidence of cancer in a low-risk population. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013, researchers found statistically significant benefits to cancer risk in vegetarians and the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets seem to confer protection from cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Adding Protective Foods to your healthy diet can also help improve your risk profile. Foods such as broccoli sprouts and other crucifer sprouts contain high amounts of sulforaphane which has the potential to improve the liver’s ability to detoxify environmental pollutants, carcinogens and other toxins.  Increase your consumption of sprouts in addition things like:
  • Carotenoids, or carotenes, found in red, orange, yellow, and some dark-green vegetables
  • Polyphenols, found in herbs, spices, vegetables, tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts, apples, onions, berries, and other plants
  • Allium compounds, found in chives, garlic, leeks, and onions
  • Antioxidants. Examples include beta carotene, selenium, and vitamins C and E. Antioxidants protect against oxidants, which are substances that can lead to cell damage.

Lastly chemical change with medications, compounds and supplements is vital to our prevention and treatment of cancer. 
“For a century we’ve been looking for magic bullets, but maybe all we need is a series of pretty good bullets. So that’s a different sort of thinking process.” – Bob Gatenby

• Dr. Gatenby explains this phenomenon using a drug called Abiraterone, the idea is to use drugs that already exist, but use them better
  • ​Without taking this completely deep I'd just like to say that great advances have been made in neoadjuvant therapies, immunotherapies and other medical treatments. These can make the internal environment around the cells much more advantageous for us to fight and kill the cells. 

Other supplements and compounds that could help with cancer prevention are:

• Vitamin D3. Research continues to demonstrate that vitamin D deficiency not only directly increases risk of some cancers, but it can also lead to other risk factors
• Omega-3s. Found in fatty fish and some nuts and seeds, these essential fatty acids have been shown to help reduce cancer risk and improve recovery from cancer treatment.
• Bitter melon. Extracts derived from this small fruit with bumpy green skin show great promise against pancreatic and breast cancers in particular.
• Medicinal Mushrooms. Including (but not limited to) turkey tail (Trametes versicolor), maitake (Grifola frondosa), and reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) provide anti-carcinogenic effects.
• Curcumin. This is the biologically active polyphenolic compound found in the spice turmeric is a great systemic anti-inflammatory. 
• Folate, biotin, choline and inositol, niacin and vitamin B12 are all B vitamins that help in the cancer fight. Niacin has been shown to kill cancer cells. Egg yolk, greens and whole grains are the best sources.​

I hope that like me, if you hear some of the research on cancer prevention and treatment it gives you some sense of direction and control with the genetic cards you are given when it comes to something like cancer. I truly believe that the more research we put into all of these areas the better our prevention, treatment and survival of something like cancer can be. 

I hope you'll join in this fight to continue raising money for more and better research for cancer. 

Derrick Hines, DPT, MS OMT

Sources: 
Immunity, Inflammation, and Cancer (nih.gov)
​Science Journals — AAAS (prolon.it)
A Systematic Review of Exercise Systematic Reviews in the Cancer Literature (2005-2017) - PubMed (nih.gov)
Physical Activity and the Risk of Liver Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies and a Bias Analysis - PubMed (nih.gov)
Microbiome in cancer progression and therapy - PubMed (nih.gov)
Possible role of diet in cancer: systematic review and multiple meta-analyses of dietary patterns, lifestyle factors, and cancer risk - PubMed (nih.gov)
Whole-Body Cryotherapy Decreases the Levels of Inflammatory, Oxidative Stress, and Atherosclerosis Plaque Markers in Male Patients with Active-Phase Ankylosing Spondylitis in the Absence of Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors - PubMed (nih.gov)
Whole-Body Cryostimulation Improves Inflammatory Endothelium Parameters and Decreases Oxidative Stress in Healthy Subjects - PubMed (nih.gov)
The effect of prolonged whole-body cryostimulation treatment with different amounts of sessions on chosen pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines levels in healthy men - PubMed (nih.gov)
PEMF Fights Cancerous Tumors - PEMF-TECH
PEMF and Breast Cancer - PEMF-TECH
Vegetarian diets and the incidence of cancer in a low-risk population - PubMed (nih.gov)
Ketogenic diet in the treatment of cancer - Where do we stand? - PubMed (nih.gov)

We've talked about what you need to STOP doing to get better sleep but lets look at a few things you can START doing improve your sleep.

1. Morning Sunlight - getting sun exposure 1st thing in the morning sets your circadian rhythm so that your internal clock knows when to release waking and sleeping hormones correctly. Spend your first 15-20 minutes of the day in the sun.
2. Meditation - I’ve seen few things change sleep quality like 20 minutes of daily meditation. I’ve seen this one activity DOUBLE people’s deep sleep numbers as measured on their Oura ring. Add a meditation session to your daily routine and your brain, health and sleep will thank you.
3. Night-time Tea - Part of telling your body to shut down comes from your nightly routine. The cornerstone of that routine should be a nightly tea ritual. The Tea Ritual in question is the sleep inducing combination of Chaga mushroom tea, Ashwagandha Power, a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of local honey. Drink your tea and write out your next days to-do’s and any thoughts and you’ll soon drift into never-never land. Watch It here 
4. Restorative Sleep Supplements - While there are many sleep supplements on the market the one I find most beneficial for sleep quality is glutathione. This is your body’s master antioxidant and when taken right before bed it gives your night repair and restoration a good boost. My sleep tracking shows about a 20-40% improvements in deep sleep when I take half of my daily glutathione supplement before bed. (For those who asked this is the one I take) Magnesium is another amazing sleep aid. Try 200-400 mg of Magnesium Glycinate for the best sleep improvement benefits. Apigenin is also great to help people sleep all the way through the night.
5. Blue-blockers - I tend to write or edit before bed so I am looking at a screen at some point in the last hour of my day. I’ve cheated the system by using blue-blocking glasses to block out the blue light and maintain proper melatonin production. Ra Optics makes an extremely high quality blue-blocker for higher end option but I’ve found this $20 amazon purchase to serve me wonderfully.
6. Track - for something so important to our health and wellness few people actually have a good idea of how they are sleeping. Start tracking your sleep and adjusting your routine to maximize results. I use the Oura ring to track mine but their are many different sleep trackers on the market but I’d definitely recommend something that has an airplane type mode where you can shut off the Bluetooth signal when you go to sleep and allow the sync to happen later. There is some data to suggest that WiFi and Bluetooth signals can disrupt quality sleep and cell recovery.

Lets put this all together - if you can wake up walk outside and do a 20 minute meditation while you sit in direct sunlight you are off to a great circadian start. Once your (consistent) bedtime comes you fix your Cha-gandha tea concoction and throw on your blue-blockers to jot down tomorrows todo list. Then preparing for bed pop your glutathione and magnesium supplements. Lastly put on your favorite sleep tracking device and let your body have 7-8 hours of uninterrupted recovery, rejuvenation and recharging.

While this is certainly not an exhaustive guide it does give you a lot to do. I'd recommend that you just add one activity to your daily/nightly routine. Pick the one thing you think you can be consistent for at least 30 days. As you start sleeping better you may feel the need to add or subtract a few others to be a real overachiever. The important thing is you start.

If you have any questions or would like to hear a bit more of the trouble shooting side of sleep let me know. Sweet dreams!

Nerve Pain is a very common cause of medical visits affecting 10-25% of the entire population. In the course of treating nerve pain we need to treat in Three stages:
1. The neuroinflammation causing the nerve to react with a pain signal
2. The cause of the nerve injury or irritation
3. The muscles and joints that can keep the pain from coming back 

To start the healing process we must address the inflammatory response around nerve. Here is the key point: we want to improve the response not block it. Many of the medications that are used during this stage block the nerve signal or inflammatory response all together slowing the healing process. 

This leads to the question:
Is there something that can improve inflammation and speed healing?

In researching this question there appears to be a common answer. 
Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is a compound naturally produced by your body in response to pain and inflammation. It specifically targets nerve inflammation and offers a nerve protection response. It has been said to help nerve pain patients heal much faster but what does it do?

Research shows improved pain and healing times for Sciatic nerve damage, carpal tunnel and thoracic outlet syndrome. 300-1200 mg/day Speeds pain relief and healing by over 50%.

Research Review CONCLUSION: (For those of you who wanted to skip through the studies anyway)
PEA is effective at treating nerve injury, pain and repair by changing the growth factors, cell function and inflammatory reaction at the cell level. PEA is specifically helpful for nerve compression such as sciatica, carpal tunnel and thoracic outlet syndrome as well as signs of fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain.

STUDIES:

Palmitoylethanolamide, a neutraceutical, in nerve compression syndromes: efficacy and safety in sciatic pain and carpal tunnel syndrome - PubMed (nih.gov)
In this research review on PEA of over 6,000 patients PEA was shown to be effective and safe to treat nerve compression syndromes of sciatic pain and carpal tunnel pain. In one double blind placebo control trial it reduced pain over 50% in sciatic patients in only 3 weeks. 

Palmitoylethanolamide in Fibromyalgia: Results from Prospective and Retrospective Observational Studies - PubMed (nih.gov)
In this study patients taking PEA to address pain with fibromyalgia found improvements at 3 months and even greater at 6 months. They had less pain, tenderness and trigger points. 

It works by addressing nerve inflammation and protection at the microglial cells. Microglial cells lead to peripheral and central sensitization and inflammatory and neuropathic pain because of the over-release of TNF-alpha and IL-1Beta. These neuromodulators are produced after injury or infection of peripheral and central nerves. This means that chronic pain is actually a result of imbalance in the immune system.
The immune system is activated to aid the nervous system when the microglial cells ask for help. The microglial cells are always surveying at the cellular level. When pathogens or injury are discovered, cytokines are released that call in the immune cells to clean up and fight off the pathogenic insult. This promotes an inflammatory response which creates neurotoxins. The neurotoxins in turn induce more inflammation. Without a good system to control the toxins produced during the treatment of the pathogen or injury to the nervous system, neuroinflammation will occur.  

Efficacy of a fixed combination of palmitoylethanolamide and acetyl-l-carnitine (PEA+ALC FC) in the treatment of neuropathies secondary to rheumatic diseases - PubMed (nih.gov)
This study shows that in combination with Acetyl L-Carnitine, PEA was significant in improve pain and healing in sciatic and carpal tunnel syndrome. This shows that it may have a synergistic effect when combined with other nerve healing or analgesic compounds. Patients took 600 mg 2x/day for the first 2 weeks and then 1x/day for the remaining 6 months. Perhaps leading to and indication of doing a loading phase to further reduce pain. 

Palmitoylethanolamide, a naturally occurring disease-modifying agent in neuropathic pain - PubMed (nih.gov)
PEA a member of the N-acylethanolamine family which is produced from the lipid bilayer on-demand, is capable of exerting anti-allodynic and anti-hyperalgesic effects by down-modulating both microglial and mast cell activity has led to the application of this fatty acid amide in several clinical studies of neuropathic pain, with beneficial outcome and no indication of adverse effects at pharmacological doses.

Non-neuronal cell modulation relieves neuropathic pain: efficacy of the endogenous lipid palmitoylethanolamide - PubMed (nih.gov)
PEA delayed mast cell recruitment, protected mast cells against degranulation and abolished the nerve growth factor increase in sciatic nerve concomitantly preserving the nerve from degeneration, while reducing microglia activation in the spinal cord. These findings support the idea that non-neuronal cells may be a valuable pharmacological target to treat neuropathic pain since the current neuronal-direct drugs are still unsatisfactory. In this context PEA could represent an innovative molecule, combining a dual analgesic activity, both on neurons and on nonneuronal cells.

Back Pain is one of the most common problems we see...
When someone begins to experience back pain the number one question I get is, "should I rest until it feels better?
​
The short answer is “no.”

This can often be difficult to accept. It can be scary to move, or know what activities are best when your back hurts. Many people suffering with back pain have been told they should rest, ice, lie down, and use their back muscles as little as possible until they recover. They’ve been told they should limit their movement and activity until their pain goes away...
Well what if I told you that for 80% of all back problems – movement is actually the BEST medicine.
- Got Back Pain Questions? Text them to: (801) 691-7582

The Research:

Most back pain falls into the category of what we call “mechanical low back pain” – the type of back pain that responds best to movement over anything else. One note: although movement is good when your back hurts, you want to pick the right type of movement.

Generally speaking, early movement like walking is considered one of the best things you can do for your back, along with very specific mobility exercises in a direction designed to relieve your pain quickly. But you’ll want to avoid things like lifting heavy weights at first, or bending/stretching excessively.

So what’s the big deal? Why is it so bad to rest until your back pain goes away?

Although most back pain will go away on its own with time, the problem with resting instead of moving is that it can prolong the time it takes to truly heal. In some cases, rest can make your back problem worse. Too much rest leads to deconditioning of your muscles and leave you much stiffer and weaker.

One of the biggest problems I see with back injuries is a lack of mobility, sometimes due to weakness and sometimes due to joint, muscle, or fascia restriction. A flexible spine is a healthy spine. That’s why choosing activities like walking and corrective stretching exercises over rest will not only relieve your back pain, but will give you a better chance at keeping the pain gone over time.

Remember that the absence of back pain does not mean the absence of a back problem.

Back problems can be complicated and they love to linger under the surface until one day, a certain movement causes your back to "go out." The best way to get ahead of a back problem – and heal a back problem quickly – is with movement.

As tempting as it is, don’t just rest to get rid of your back pain. Try walking, and even some easy stretching, and take note of what happens. You’ll either start to feel better the more you move or worse. If your pain is easing up with the movement you’ve chosen – you’re on the right track! If your pain is not responding or getting worse, then it’s a clue you need to see a professional.

Either way, movement is your friend, because it’s going to get you to a healthy back faster. Rest won’t do that for you and if anything, potentially prolong the issue when you could have been doing something about it.

    ​Cryotherapy is something that has come on very strongly in the past 5 or 6 years. And whole body cryotherapy in particular has been such a big change because before what we had was like taking an ice bath. What we find in those things is the amount of time you need to actually change the cells and the immune system is longer than what a lot of people were doing. A lot of people were doing these ice baths and they were actually getting in there and spending 2 or 3 minutes and then get out. When we started looking at the research that’s needed to change the aging process, it would have been upwards to 10 or 15 minutes in an ice bath.
Whole body cryotherapy is when the air actually drops down to -350 degrees. This much decrease in temperature stimulates a deeper change to the body. The body is going through a big shock and trying to survive. One thing we realize when we are talking about the age related process is if we stress the body a little bit it works much better in the long run. If we control these stress releases, it’s little things that are hard right now. Looking at working out, doing a cold plunge, or sauna. These small stressors actually make our body function and get stronger after. The process is called homeostasis, which is when the body changes, and detects the signal to function positively. Cryotherapy kicks in a bunch of norepinephrines, lots of hormonal changes, anti inflammatory changes, and reduces all of the blood flow just for a minute. Everything squeezes down and the body thinks I need to do some work to survive. When we come out and it opens all that blood flow, now we get fresh oxygen, reduced inflammation, decreased cell stress, and more. One of the things most people don’t realize is that with this your body produces stem cells in response to this. Your body goes through this process and says we might have damaged some cells but I need to replace them. Then placing these cells to take the place of the damaged cells that the cryotherapy produced.

    After doing cryotherapy the body is trying to open up blood cells to all of those vessels, we started doing after that session, we have our patients come do pemf therapy and infrared therapy. What pemf is a mat with coils throughout the mats that send a pulse electromagnetic signal into your cells that dialate all of the blood vessels to restore oxygen to all of your tissue and cells, all of those cells need blood flow and oxygen to get to them function and operate correctly. The other part is we have got to get all that blood flow and damage away from the cells. We need to clear all of that out. If we are dehydrated, compressed cells, or resilient blood vessels it’s really tough to clear it out. We just accumulate all of that damage, those senescent cells that we were talking about. The more research that comes out on this the more we start to realize how deeply it affects the body. Stimulating mitochondria which provides oxygen to those cells so that they function better.
When you do a pemf session you may feel relaxed or a sense of tingling. Those feelings are caused from the oxygen being released to the body.
To produce more assistance to those cells along with that oxygen is when Infrared therapy comes into play. 
What infrared does is it will stimulate the mitochondria to produce more ATP. Combining all these services creates that perfect healing environment.

​   When we are trying to focus on the brain, we use floatation therapy. It’s like a little cheat for meditation and mindfulness. Floatation therapy otherwise called sensory deprivation, helps with sorting through all thr emotional stress, thoughts, experiences, etc. When you get into the float pod, you float effortlessly and your body is suspended in water that warms up to the same temperature as your skin. Combination in all of this shuts off all of the signals to the brain. Your brain is completely at rest from having to process all of those signals. They say our brain has to process 2 and 10 billion pieces of information per second. We get into this environment to shut all of that down. Your brain has time to catch up and process these things that I haven’t had time for. Float also provides improved memory, learning, mental health, the list goes on and on. For example when a student comes in and does a 1 hour session, while listening to language learning tracks for a period of time, they have shown improvement on their scores. These results can help us to cover all of our basis to function optimally later in life. Floating keeps all of the chemical environment in the brain healthy. People always say they want to stay physically healthy but I really want to stay mentally healthy.