The Healthy Pumpkin

A Pumpkin isn’t just for decorating your front porch. Pumpkins are a low-calorie food packed with nutrients. In addition to being a rich source of vitamins and minerals, pumpkin may be beneficial for prostate health and improving HDL, the “good” cholesterol. Both canned and fresh pumpkins are healthy options, as are the seeds. Just steer clear of canned pumpkin with added ingredients, such as salt or sugar.

Health Benefits:

• Reduction of arthritis inflammation and heart disease
• Prevention of osteoporosis in men due to the high zinc content – 71% RDA – in pumpkin seeds
• Stress and irritability reduction because the amino acid tryptophan in pumpkin seeds gets converts to an anti-stress chemical in the brain
• Inhibition of benign prostatic hyperplasia in men or BPH
• Anti-oxidant protection from free radicals due to the beta-carotene conversion into vitamin A
• Support of good vision, eye and skin health, and a strong immune system due to the 246% Vitamin A in one serving
• Improvement in postmenopausal women’s issues taking pumpkin seed oil
• Increase in HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and decrease in blood pressure, hot flashes headaches and joint pain

Beta-Carotene

Pumpkins are orange in color because of the antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene may help reduce cell damage in the body and improve immune function. It is also thought to reduce your chances of developing heart disease, cataracts and macular degeneration. This antioxidant is converted to vitamin A in the body, an important nutrient for eye health.

Try the Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are a good source of health unsaturated fats. The seeds contain alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid. Eating a diet rich in omega-3 may help prevent cardiovascular disease and its risk factors including hypertension and high cholesterol.  The seeds are a good source of fiber and contain the mineral zinc.

Pumpkin Seed Oil

Some new research suggests this oil may have some significant health benefits. One recent study found that postmenopausal women who took 2 g of pumpkin seed oil daily for 12 weeks had reduced diastolic blood pressure and less menopausal symptoms and increased HDL cholesterol levels. It has also shown some positive results with the treatment of benign prostate hypertrophy, BPH.

Pumpkin Seed Recipe

Here is a simple pumpkin seed recipe.  So next time you are carving your Jack-o-Lanterns don’t throw out the seeds.  Save them for a simple tasty, and nutritious snack.

 

Pregnancy Headaches and Chiropractic Care

What Causes Pregnancy Headaches?

There are multiple reasons for increased headaches during pregnancy.  There are many body changes including spinal alignment, posture and muscle alignment.  There are also hormonal, sleep and stress changes that affect the frequency of headaches.  Many women experience headaches during pregnancy, especially in the first and third trimesters.  Some women will experience their first migraine while pregnant, while others who are chronic migraine sufferers will experience fewer or none at all.

Causes of more frequent headaches during pregnancy include:

• Misalignments of the upper back and neck joints causing irritated muscles
• Fatigue
• Stress
• Low blood sugar
• Dehydration
• Sleep disturbances
• Sinus congestion
• Withdrawal from caffeine or other foods

It’s extremely important to keep to a regular eating schedule and to drink plenty of water when you’re pregnant to keep blood sugar stable.

Treating Headaches During Pregnancy

Most pharmacutical preventive migraine headache medications will be on the “banned substances” list.  However, t here are a few things you can do to help relieve headaches during your pregnancy:

• Have regular chiropractic adjustments.
• Get a massage to ease sore muscles in the neck and upper spine.
• Identify areas of stress and attempt to avoid or change them.
• Drink a few glasses of water next time you feel a headache coming on. Slight dehydration may be the cause. Drink 2-3 glasses of water to see if symptoms subside.
• Apply a cool compress to your neck area for a tension headache and a warm compress to your face for a sinus headache.
• Lie down in a dark room and rest for a bit.
• Try to eat nutritious foods, maintain a regular sleep schedule, get some exercise, and drink plenty of fluids.

Do not take any type of headache pain reliever, over the counter or herbal remedies, without first consulting a health care professional.

Chiropractic Care During Pregnancy

Chiropractic care is a safe and all-natural headache treatment because it looks to eliminate the cause of headaches and not just mask symptoms.  Chiropractic care is not only is it safe for pregnancy headache relief it is one of the top reasons people seek out chiropractic care is for headache relief. Chiropractors are experts in all different kinds of  headache treatment.

During pregnancy, the spine can become misaligned due to an increase in weight, posture changes, center of gravity changes, hormonal changes and pelvic changes. A misaligned spine is one of the most common causes of headaches.

Check out the pregancy posture diagram below.  It is easy to see how your posture can change easily while pregnant.

Spinal Degeneration

 

 

School is starting and college football starts this weekend.  It’s a great time to reflect upon yourself and see what you can do to improve your body.  Everyone is growing older and with time and improper spinal mechanics comes degeneration.  Excessive wear can be decreased through proper nutrition, stretching/exercise, and, most importantly, proper spinal alignment. 

Spinal degeneration occurs when damage is done to the spine. The damage can come instantly from trauma like an auto accident or slowly from long term wear like poor posture or misalignments. Spinal degeneration is a process, it takes time to develop.  Over time, the discs become smaller, scar tissue forms, and the joints move incorrectly.  If left untreated, bone growth will increase and sections of the spinal column can naturally fuse together.  This results in pain, nerve irritation, discomfort, and limited mobility.

 Fortunately, early detection of spinal degeneration can stop its progression. In many cases, when caught early enough, it can be reversed.  As chiropractors, we want everyone to have a healthy spine.  Every chiropractic adjustment works to keep your joints moving better and keeps degeneration out of your spine.  That means more overall mobility, better communication through your nerves. The chiropractic goal is for healthier spine that will let you move and feel better.

Groin Injury

Location of Groin muscle

The Common Groin Injury

Groin sprain/strain or injury is a very common muscle strain injury in sports like soccer, basketball, football, hockey, track & field and racquet sports.

The groin is the area or junction between the lower limbs and torso.  This spot is vulnerable to many different injuries like sprains, hernias, stress fractures, and avulsion fractures.

What is a Groin Injury? 

A groin pull can range from an over-stretch, to a complete tear of the muscles.  A groin pull or strain specifically affects the “Adductor” muscles.  These muscles are located on the inside of the thigh, and help to bring the legs together.  The adductor muscles consist of “Adductor Brevis”, “Adductor Magnus” and “Adductor Longus.”

The Adductor Longus is the most susceptible to injury of the three muscles, and the most common site of injury is the point at which the muscle and tendon attach to the femur (thigh) bone.

What Causes a Groin Pull?

A healthy muscle can be injured, but most likely, there were some preexisting conditions.  Some conditions that influence muscle injury are flexibility, muscle balance, pelvic alignment, and overall body mechanics.  If any of these are not what they should be then an injury is more likely.  Then when paired with any activity that requires a lot of running or rapid change in direction the muscle is more susceptible to injuries.

How to Prevent a Groin Injury

The basis of prevention comes down to a few simple factors:  thorough warm-up and physical conditioning, and body mechanics.

During your exercise activities, make sure to thoroughly and correctly warm up before you start.  This will help to prepare the muscles and tendons for any activity to come.

Secondly, the muscles need to be flexible enough to perform the activity you are asking them to do.  New research is showing that stretching before an activity is not as beneficial as stretching after your activity.  This means you can add a stretching routine at the end as part of your “cool down.”

Last, but probably the most important for injury prevention are your body mechanics.  It is important to look at your spinal and pelvic alignment.  For example, if you are someone that sits on a wallet in your back right pocket, then you are constantly pushing that hip out of alignment.  Over time, your hip adapts to stay in that position.  This now means your hip is out of alignment and your mechanics are not what they should be.  This causes the Adductor muscles to do more work than they are made to do.  This leads to a groin strain.  The solution is to get adjusted, remove anything like the wallet, and work on muscle balance through specific stretches and exercises.  Luckily, this is what we do as Chiropractors.

Coconut Water vs Actual Water

Surely you have noticed that coconut water is now all the rage.  Some advertisements call it “Nature’s perfect hydrator!”  However, you have probably asked yourself “which is better water or coconut water?”

Coconut water is the clear liquid found in young coconuts.  It naturally contains some electrolytes like potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium.  All of which you lose through sweat when you exercise.  It is closer the pH of your blood than sodas and sports drinks.  This is a good thing, because most drinks are very acidic.  Exercise also makes you more acidic.  Therefore, it is not beneficial to drink something to make you more acidic than you already are.  It was actually used in IVs during WWII.

So when should you drink coconut water?  Drink it when you want a healthy alternative to water.  Water is still Nature’s “perfect hydrator.”  “To hydrate”, actually means to add water.  Water however does not contain the minerals that you lose through sweat.  If you exercise for more than hour or so, it is important to replace those electrolytes.

Not all coconut waters are the same.  Some add extra sugar and other ingredients that make them less healthy and add empty calories.  Below are some popular brands in alphabetical order.  All are standardized to a serving size of 8 ounces to make it easier to compare.

Blue Monkey:  76 calories, 42 mg sodium, 19 grams carbohydrate, 10 grams sugar, 290 mg potassium and 6 % of your daily iron.

CocoZona:  37 calories, 121 mg sodium, 10 grams carbohydrate, 9 grams sugar, 408 mg potassium.  It contains the most sodium in the list.  Per bottle, it contains 4% of your daily-recommended calcium and 10% magnesium.

C20:  50 calories, 66 mg sodium, 13 grams carbohydrate, 11 grams sugar, 293 mg potassium

CocoWater:  90 calories, 45 mg sodium, 13 grams carbohydrate, 13 grams sugar, 475 mg potassium.  Per container, it contains the most calories than any other brands compared here.  There are 2 ingredients in CocoWater: the first is coconut water and the second is vitamin C, which explains why the bottle delivers 150% of your daily recommendation for C.

Naked  43 calories, 14 mg sodium, 10 grams carbohydrate, 8 grams sugar, 462 mg potassium.  In addition, it contains 6 % of your daily calcium recommendation, and the least amount of sodium.

O.N.E.: 43 calories, 43 mg sodium, 11 grams carbohydrate, 10 grams sugar, 0 grams protein, 476 mg potassium.  Per bottle, you get about 4% of your daily-recommended calcium and 6% magnesium.

Sobe Lifewater:  35 calories, 45 mg sodium, 8 grams carbohydrate, 8 grams sugar, 65 mg potassium.  The first ingredient is water, the second is sugar and the third is coconut water.  This means there is more sugar than coconut water.  This is the only one in the list with added sugar and the lowest in potassium.  This makes this product, the one I recommend the least.

Taste Nirvana:  42 calories, 35 mg sodium, 8 grams carbohydrate, 8 grams sugar, 504 mg potassium, and the most per serving.  Per bottle, you get about 4% of your daily-recommended calcium and 9% magnesium.

Vita Coco: 45 calories, 30 mg sodium, 11 grams carbohydrate, 11 grams sugar, 470 mg potassium, 100% vitamin C.  One bottle gives you 10% of your magnesium.

Zico Natural:  34 calories, 91 mg sodium, 7 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams sugar, 324 mg potassium.  Per serving, Zico Natural is the lowest in terms of calories, carbohydrates and sugar, which makes more like water.  One bottle gives you 9% of your daily magnesium.

You Are a Human Machine

Your body is a complex machine with hundreds of muscles and nearly 200 joints.  It is important to maintain good tone, flexibility and balance.  What are you doing to keep your body running smoothly?  As a chiropractor, I want your body to run like race car.  How do we do that?

First, we need to look at your joints.  Are they moving the way they should.  Joints can move too much, too little, incorrectly or perfectly.  Each joint has multiple factors that affect the way it moves:  muscles, tendons, ligaments, other joints, bursa and so on.  One of the very best ways to improve joint mechanics is through a chiropractic adjustment.

Next, we need to look at your muscles.  Do they have good tone, flexibility, and balance?  It is important that every muscle be balanced to its opposites:  Right vs Left, Front vs Back, Inside vs Outside, Flexor vs Extensor.  Any of these pairings that is unequal causes bad joint mechanics.  This leads to injuries and bad posture down the road.  The way to correct the imbalances is with specific stretches and exercises.

Finally, we need to find what is causing your human machine to be less than perfect.  If we can figure out the cause then we can prevent future problems.  Maybe the cause is your 40 hour work environment.  Then a regular “tune-up” adjustment along with your maintenance stretches and exercises should keep you healthy and prevent future injuries.

Pregnancy Posture

Posture is important all the time.  However, it very crucial to maintain proper posture while pregnant. Good posture will decrease backaches, indigestion, and pressure on the bladder.  We at Inwood Chiropractic Center enjoy working with pregnant women.  They get great results and it is a joy to help a pregnant woman.  Check out this little diagram to see how posture affects your pregnancy.

 

 

Cat Cow Exercises

A) Cow Pose 

• Begin with your hands directly under your shoulders, and your knees directly under your hips.  Engage your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine and keep it there.
• Move your tailbone move up and your chest forward and up.  Try not to let your head fall back, extend it, to further stretch your spine.  Imagine that your head and tail are moving so far away from each other that all they can do is start to curve up.  
• Remember this is a lengthening move for the spine; make sure not to collapse like an old horse! 

B)  Moving into Cat Pose

• Begin with your hands directly under your shoulders, and your knees directly under your hips.  Engage your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine and keep it there.
• Inhale.  Then exhale while keeping your core activated as you arch your back way up like a stretching cat.  At the same time, let your head and tailbone drop down toward the floor.
• Take the stretch further by imagining that you are bringing your head and tailbone together, as if you were going to make a big circle of your body.

C)  Repeat the exercise – going from cat to cow and back – slowly.  The whole time make sure your belly button is as far in as it can be.

Green Tea

Green tea is one of those things that is hard to not talk about.  There are so many health benifits to it.  Most of the health benefits come from green tea’s antioxidants. The main type are called catechins.  These antioxidants scavenge for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis.

Green tea has more antioxidants than other teas because it is minimally processed.  The leaves are withered and steamed, not fermented like black and oolong teas.  Green tea’s unique catechins, especially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), are more concentrated than other forms of tea.

Green Tea and Cancer

There are many studies showing how the tea can those with cancer.  Here are three different studies that have shown great results.

•  In Japan that involved nearly 500 Japanese women with Stage I and Stage II breast cancer, found that increased green tea consumption before and after surgery was associated with lower recurrence of the cancers.
• Studies in China have shown that the more green tea that participants drank, the less the risk of developing stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer.
• Finally, a recent analysis of 22 studies that probed the correlation between high tea consumption and reduced risk for lung cancer concluded that by increasing your daily intake of green tea by two cups may reduce the risk of developing lung cancer by 18%.

There are many other health benefits to the powerful antioxidants in green tea.  But this is only a blog, not a novel.  Now that you know that green tea is good for you grab a cup and enjoy a healthier life.