Julstro Muscular Therapy

Today I received a call from a woman who had found my website by doing an extensive internet search about serious vertigo that her ultracyclist husband was experiencing.  It turned out that she had just found out that I live near Raleigh, NC, where she and her husband live, and she wanted to know if I actually see clients, or do I only have an internet business that sells books and DVDs.  The timing was perfect and so an hour later we were meeting each other.

Cyclists spend hours leaning all the way forward in what is called the aerodynamic position.  If you cycle, you can feel how your body is pulled all the way down by the handlebars, and your head is pulled all the way back so you can see where you’re going.  The repetitive strain on your neck muscles  is complicated by the fact that your head weighs about 8-10 lbs, and you’re wearing a helmet that adds even more weight onto your curled cervical bones and tight muscles.

As you bring your head back, the muscles that go from your mid-upper back to your skull have to contract, and then as you hold your head that way for hours, the muscles actually shorten. Finally you stop riding, you try to stand up straight, and you can’t.  You walk around  bent-over for awhile, and your head and neck just ache, in fact, you may not be able to turn your head because the muscles are just too short to enable you to move.

You can read about the bent over problem on my website (we’ll talk about it another time), but getting back to Jim, the ultracyclist who met with me today.  His neck felt like a tube filled with big round rocks and tight ropes, and just touching it made him wince.  But endurance athletes are able to handle pain better than most people, so while his leg was tapping fast on the floor, and his face was all squinched up, he still did his very best to relax.    It took over an hour to press out the lactic acid from each of the muscles and then teach him how to continue the treatments at home. The good news is that Jim was able to turn his head, even fast back and forth, and he was fine.  He was one happy man!

A few posts ago I wrote about tinnitus. Vertigo is caused by the same muscle, the sternocleidomastoid (SCM for short).  If you have vertigo, I suggest you look for the tinnitus post and read it, you’ll definitely benefit reading it.

If you’re a cyclist, and if you have neck pain, press on each of the muscles of your neck, all the way from the base of your skull and down to the middle of your back, and then from behind your ear to the top of your shoulder blade (move if you feel a pulse under your fingertips).  Hold the pressure for at least a minute, maybe even two minutes, and you’ll start to feel the tension in your muscle release.

BTW, after working with Jim and his wife Sally, we decided that I should teach a Pain Free Athlete clinic in Raleigh.  I’ll let you know when it’s together, but we’re looking at October. If  you’re in the area I hope you’ll come.

Wishing you well,

Julie

Are you afraid you have carpal tunnel syndrome? Do you suffer from burning wrists? Tingling fingers? Are you losing strength, maybe even dropping glasses because you can’t feel them in your hand? Do you wake up during the night with your hands numb? Are you afraid of the surgery that can potentially make the problem worse as scar tissue grows around the nerves to your hand? Would you like to know about a non-surgical carpal tunnel treatment?

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that is caused by pressure on the nerves to your hand. There are three nerves that begin at your neck, go across your shoulder, down your arm, and into your wrist (radial nerve), ring and pinky fingers (ulnar nerve) and to your thumb and first two fingers (median nerve). Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on your median nerve, while a condition called ulnar neuropathy is caused by pressure on your ulnar nerve. When either a bone, tendon, or muscles are pressing into your median nerve anywhere from your neck to your hand, you will experience the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in your hand and wrist.

Which muscles cause the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?

The problem begins all the way up at your neck where your scalenes cross over the bundle of nerves that ultimately become your median, ulnar, and radial nerves. Then the nerves pass under a bone at your shoulder, where a chest muscle inserts into the bone and will pull the bone down onto the nerves. Next your median nerve goes underneath your biceps muscle, and your ulnar nerve goes underneath your triceps. Spasms in these muscles will cause either the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome or ulnar neuropathy.

The nerves then move into your forearm. When your forearm muscles are in spasm they pull on the tendons and will trap your median nerve within the carpal tunnel. Also, there is a ligament called the flexor retinaculum that forms the bridge to the carpal tunnel. When your thumb muscle is in spasm it will pull on the bridge and cause it to press down onto your median nerve as it passes through your carpal tunnel.

The best carpal tunnel treatment involves finding all of the spasms, and then applying direct pressure onto each of the muscles that cross over the median nerve. The pressure forces out toxins that are causing the muscles to shorten and put pressure on the nerves, plus the shortened muscles are also putting a strain on your wrist and hands.

As you do the carpal tunnel treatments that release the tension in the muscles, you’ll find pain ease quickly, numbness fade away, and strength return to your hands.

I just had a wonderful, albeit short, visit with my family in Upstate NY — Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  It was so special, especially watching my angel, Kate, play at the beach.  Imagination is a magic thing!

Driving the 11 hours to Cooperstown on Wednesday, and then 11 hours back to Chapel Hill, NC on Friday, put a serious strain on the muscles of my forearm and I was really happy that I know how to do a quick carpal tunnel treatment.

As I was driving, and my arms, wrists, and hands were hurting, I was thinking of all the other people on the road who drive for hours and hours and don’t know how to release the tension in their muscles. I was especially thinking about cross-country truck drivers who are also holding wheels that may be vibrating (making the problem worse) and who are doing so many other hand-intensive actions in the course of their work.

Carpal tunnel treatments aren’t taught by most medical professionals, and most people don’t realize that the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome (wrist pain, numb fingers, tingling, lost of strength and hand dexterity) are actually caused by spasms in their muscles.  I’ve also come to realize that it’s become a mission for me to share this information with as many people as I can. Too many people are losing their jobs, or being prevented from doing the things they enjoy because of the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Trigger finger, where your finger/s either can’t bend, or get locked in the bent position, are caused by the same forearm muscles that are involved in the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.  The good news is that you can learn how to treat each of these muscles successfully.

If you know anyone who is concerned about pain/numbness in their hands, or who has trigger finger or is becoming weak in his/her arms and hands, please share this information. There is a non-surgical carpal tunnel treatment, and it’s easy to do and has excellent results.

Thanks for letting me rant for a few minutes     This can make such a difference to so many people.

Have a great weekend,

Julie

I’m visiting with my son Michael, his wife Colleen,  and my two grandchildren, Jack and Kate.  Being around them makes me appreciate how much children (the younger the better for this topic) appreciate even the smallest of things, and how we sometimes we get so mired down in “reality” that we forget to even look at little things.

Kate chatters on and on about all types of joys she experiences during the day, and she’s fascinated by everything.  We went to the beach and she spent an hour building a sand castle, with a moat that floated (for a short time, until the water absorbed into the sand) a little boat she found in the pile of beach toys that are left for all the kids to share.  She made up a wonderful little story about a princess, who lived in the castle but wanted to see the world,  and how the prince (who sounded so much like her dad) came to save her.   Imagination is a wonderful thing!

For me, I just loved watching her fill the moat endlessly, building earnestly, and thinking through her story.

Perhaps it would help us all to use our imagination more often. I believe that we create what we focus on…so our imagination could change our world — in fact, maybe it could change the whole world!

That’s it for today… I’m off to imagine the life I want to live, the fun I want to have, and the people I want to interact with ever day.

Have a fun and imaginative day!

Julie

As some of you know, I’ve been using Shaklee Food Supplements for many years. In my family we’ve had some truly amazing experiences because of Shaklee, and I’ll go into them one time because I love to share them.  I receive a newsletter from Dr. Stephen Chaney and it always has some interesting information.  Today I want to share this with you because it does a good job of sorting out the question of whether natural supplements are useless and drugs are dangerous when it comes to heart conditions.

The following is only for your information and isn’t medical advice from Dr. Chaney — and certainly not medical advice from me (since I’m not a doctor and don’t want that responsibility anyway).

Dr. Chaney’s discussion is in italics:

Some of you may remember Joe Friday’s famous quote from the old Dragnet TV series – “Just the facts, mam”. (OK.
I realize that I just lost 90% of you under age 65 with that one, but bear with me).

My point is that the facts are a constant, but our interpretation of the facts is influenced by our perspective.

Many physicians tend to have the perspective that drugs are validated by strong science and natural approaches mostly consist of unproven remedies. I, and many of you – my faithful readers, tend to prefer natural approaches and view drugs as a last resort.

For examples, most doctors believe that almost everyone with elevated cholesterol (and some people whose cholesterol isn’t elevated) would benefit from statin drugs (Some of my cardiologist colleagues have gone as far as to joke that statins should just be added to the drinking water).

On the other hand, they tend to think of vitamin E as snake oil and omega-3 fatty acids as something that might provide a small benefit – but only to those people who have already had a heart attack.

So, what are the facts?

Let me start by saying that statin drugs clearly reduce the risk of a second heart attack in people who have already had a heart attack, and there is some evidence that they may reduce the incidence of heart attacks in high risk populations. In other words, statin drugs clearly do save lives.

However, a major study published in the June 28, 2010 online issue of Archives of Internal Medicine showed that statin drugs do not significantly reduce the risk of heart attack in populations of people who have not yet had a heart attack – even if they have elevated cholesterol.

In other words, if you have already had a heart attack or are at high risk of having a heart attack statin drugs reduce heart attack risk, but there is no evidence that they provide any benefit to low to moderate risk populations with elevated cholesterol.

How, you might ask, does that compare with vitamin E?

You may remember the famous Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study (Lancet, 347: 781-786, 1996). That study focused on patients who had already been diagnosed with advanced atherosclerosis and showed that vitamin E supplementation significantly decreased heart attack risk.

Several major clinical trials have focused on the effect of vitamin E supplementation on heart attack risk in the general population since then and have found no significant decrease in heart attack risk.

However, when those studies are stratified to look at high risk sub-populations, the beneficial effects of vitamin E often reappears.

For example, in the Women’s =Health Study (JAMA, 294:
56-65, 2005) vitamin E supplementation had no effect on heart attacks, cardiovascular death or stroke in the whole population.

However, when the authors looked at the subgroup of women who were over 65 and, therefore, at high risk of a heart attack, vitamin E supplementation significantly reduced the risk of heart attack, cardiovascular death.

In other words, if you are at high risk of having a heart attack vitamin E supplementation can reduce your risk, but there is no evidence that vitamin E supplementation provides any benefit for low to moderate risk populations.

In other words, the “facts” with respect to vitamin E supplementation and heart attack risk are actually fairly similar to the “facts’ with respect to statin drugs and heart attack risk – but the perspectives through which people view those facts are vastly different.

An even more compelling case can be made for omega-3 fatty acids.

Once again, it is difficult to show any significant effect of omega-3 fatty acids on heart attack incidence in low to moderate risk populations.

However, omega-3 fatty acids from either fish or fish oil supplements have been shown to significantly reduce heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths for people who have already suffered a heart attack (Lancet, 354:
447-455, 1999), and more recent studies suggest that they reduce the risk of heart attack in other high risk populations (Current Atherosclerosis Reports, 12:
66-72, 2010).

Please don’t misinterpret what I am saying. I am only commenting on how our perspectives, and those of our physicians, can influence how we interpret the scientific studies relating to our health.

I’m not touting vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids as THE solution to heart disease risk. They are only part of a holistic approach to reducing heart disease risk – including healthy diet, weight control, exercise and a balanced supplement program.

I’m also not suggest that you throw out the statins or other drugs prescribed by your physician in favor of natural supplement.

What I am suggesting is that you may want to start a dialog with your physician about your desire to pursue a holistic approach to better health.

For example, my physician and I have come to an understanding over the years that I want to take as much personal responsibility for my health as possible.
On my annual visits he often comments: “I could prescribe this drug, but let me tell you what you can do about it”.

Of course, this only works if your physician knows that you will actually do what he or she suggests. If they suspect that you will just continue eating fast food and updating your Face book page rather than exercising.
he or she is likely to insist that you take the drug.

To Your Health!
Dr. Stephen G Chaney

P. S. One exception to the dichotomy between medications and natural approaches that I discussed above are the plant stanols and sterols. Plant stanols and sterols are natural. However, the clinical evidence for their effectiveness in lowering serum LDL cholesterol is so solid that the National Institutes of Health recommends that everyone with elevated cholesterol consume 2,000 mg of plant stanols and sterols every day!

This is one case in which the medical community is firmly behind a natural approach. The facts are so overwhelming that they could not possibly be interpreted any other way.

As I said, I’ve been using Shaklee for many years. One thing I’ve learned that may be helpful for you is that lecithin will soften the plaque that builds up on our arteries, and then it flushes away.  Also, I learned that lecithin is a very sensitive substance and if it is exposed to air it will break down and not be effective. Shaklee produces their lecithin in a vacuum-sealed area and it is then put into gel capsules (similar to vitamin E capsules) so it never is touched by air.

As a side benefit, and I don’t know how true this is but I like to think that it is, lecithin is also beneficial when a person is trying to control their weight because it breaks down fat molecules.

Hope this helps you give some thought to preventing heart attacks, and also some thoughts about how to care for yourself if you have already had a heart attack.

Wishing you well (really!)

Julie