This holiday season, heat is the athlete’s best friend

When considering what to gift the serious athletes in your family, consider the gift of heat. Every athlete is pushing their body and very few of them can afford to be sidelined for days waiting for their muscles to recover. For many athletes, the holiday season is a time of slowing down and relaxing in the living room with family. What better time to turn them on to the benefits of heat for healing?

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Taking action to overcome your sciatic nerve pain

Sciatica is a blight on your everyday health. We are always surprised to find how long people let it linger before they seek help. The number one way to overcome sciatica is to address it as soon as possible; letting it linger only compounds the problem and makes the recovery process longer. Sciatica is usually an easy diagnosis; the simple leg-raise stretch can usually give us a good indicator as to the prominence and severity of your sciatica. A full physical examination will tell us exactly where the problem is originating and guide our course of action. 

Take steps to overcome sciatica today

Once we determine that sciatica is the true source of your lower back pain, we get you started on a four-step plan for overcoming it: 

1. Reducing pain. Providing chiropractic adjustments to restore spinal alignment and relieve the sciatic nerve from problematic compression.
2. Utilizing deep-tissue massage to encourage better circulation and catalyze the healing process. 
3. Using corrective exercise and stretching to further restore mobility to the region and prevent sciatica from recurring. A further focus is placed on conditioning the core stabilizing muscles to stabilize the lower spine. 
4. Teaching appropriate posture for normal and athletic activities that will further aid your lower spine in maintaining stability.

Enough is enough: calling time on sciatica in your life 

When you have decided that you’ve had enough of the sciatic nerve pain affecting your life, give our office in Milpitas a call. We are standing by to help you overcome sciatica or any other condition that is causing you back pain. 

Age-related muscle loss will affect everyone

Muscle loss due to age is known by the rather unsavory term sarcopenia. While the causes are not exactly agreed upon, we do know that age-related muscle loss contributes to:

• Less mobility
• Less ability to perform everyday tasks
• More vulnerability to injury
• Loss of independence 

Sarcopenia varies in intensity, but the most important determining factor is how much muscle you start with. If you are a relatively fit 40-something, the decline may not be as noticeable as if you have a weak musculature to begin with. As you move into your 50s and 60s the muscle loss accelerates until it supersedes the rate at which you can replace muscle; this deficit is what contributes to frailty in our elderly populations. 

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For people who sit alot, strengthening and stretching the core is imperative

Sitting puts the spine under more downward pressure than any other position, and when we pile consistently poor posture on top, we have set a course for spinal degradation that can be hard to reverse. This is because the more you sit, the weaker your core gets, and the harder it is for you to maintain good posture. Extricating yourself from this vicious cycle begins by taking breaks from sitting at least once an hour and focusing on the strength of your core stabilizing muscles. Below you will find three simple movements that can be performed from anywhere, designed to lower your risk for back pain. 

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